I was browsing the World Food Programme website today and found a link to a nice and fun way to continue making a difference. The link led me to Free Rice; all I did was play a word game and I ended up donating 1260 grains of rice and I am on Level 37 for my vocabulary!
Now 37 is not even the average score, which disappoints me, hehe. So I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back to that site, play the game, and donate more grains of rice. You should go play too.
I am skipping Thursday Thirteen this week, but you may check out my old TT’s here and here.
I can’t believe I almost missed Thursday Thirteen again this week…
In the spirit of Idol Gives Back, which was an awesome show that I almost missed too, here are 13 ways to give back – online.
1 to 6: On my sidebar I have my ‘one-click donations.’ All you got to do is go to those sites and click on the button to make a donation. It doesn’t even take 5 minutes of your time (on hi-speed Internet)
7 to 9 Care2.com is another site that offers you an opportunity to click to donate and they have quite a number of campaigns going there. Sign up to learn more of what you can do. Click on these three buttons to start your own race. 10 Save the Children UK used to have a Philippine office and I was involved with some of their projects as a teener. You can shop at their site to make a difference. Just click on the logo and it’ll take you to their page.
11 ECPAT is a global network of organizations dedicated to combat the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. I was very active in this network in my young life and was involved in many activities. Here’s a link to a page that lets you make donations to the cause through PayPal, but please explore their website for information on this issue plaguing the world’s children. Ok, I am two links short but I really got to go and get ready for work tonight. I’ll come back and add two more to these links. C’mon, let’s all give back…
Edit: Ok, here are the additional links.
12 I found this website a long time ago (I already forgot how) and was fascinated by the work they do. I even wrote to them asking for any possibility that they may feature kids from the Philippines and Asia, but they weren’t prepared for that at the time. Today I remembered how I was so interested to maybe even organize a local chapter or start something like this here. Maybe I shouldn’t give up on that. Visit their site and learn how you can Make a Child Smile by sending them and their siblings real cards. You can make a donation too, if you want.
13 This website is for a local foundation taking care of abused and abandoned girl children. I’ve never really worked directly with the organization itself but I’ve worked with some of their girls in the past, through my involvement at ECPAT and the youth organization we built – Young People against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Childern. Visit the CRIBS Foundation website and checkout their How to help link to find out how you can help a child in the Philippines.
Move along now, you got 13 sites to help you give back 🙂
I’m supposed to be at work already, but my boss let me come in half day (totally last minute) so I could go to my nephew’s Moving Up (graduation) ceremonies. He’s moving up from Pre-school to 1st grade next year. Wow!
Wow, how time really flies. Seems like just the other day I was whining about not having posted a TT, and here it is time for another one
My grandpa came home yesterday and we were all having lunch just awhile ago (my youngest cousin Jomar graduated from gradeschool this morning) and he was complaining that my cousin Ton has been regulating his food intake. He said he wanted to eat more. I just told him he can have a little snack in another few hours…
Anyhoo, I started this TT for last week’s post – All about my grandfather. [to check out my previous TTs through the Category link on the left sidebar, for older ones, go here]
Thirteen Things about my Papa
His full name is Bonifacio Somebang Sr. He is also called Mayngan.
He is 81 years old. We threw him a surprise birthday party for his 80th and there were about 200-300 people in attendance. I emceed the event. His great grandkids sang a song for him (one I picked). At home after the party, he told me it was the happiest day of his life. I love that so many people came to celebrate with us and they showed him their love and appreciation for him. The preparation which took months was kept secret – secret family meetings where someone had to distract Papa, and everyone invited was asked not to talk about it around him. The food was prepared in another relative’s house. We got him to wear a barong to mass. He was surprise to see so many of his friends and relatives attending the afternoon mass at Church.
He was the first Barangay Captain of Barangay Kalusugan and held the post for over 20 years. He was the father of the entire community.
He worked for the American Anglican priests and is part of the history of our Church – specially the history of the Seminary.
He is the patriarch not only of his immediate family but of the clan – see he’s the only one surviving among his siblings.
He mostly stays at home now except hwen he has errands for his Golden Agers Club for senior citizens or he has a doctor’s appointment. He recently went on a trip to Davao to attend a wedding and someone also hosted him at a nearby city – Cagayan de Oro – for a much needed vacation. Last year, he went to Boracay. And I’ve never been there!
He has 6 children, 14 grandkids and about 10 great grandkids.
He went on a trip around the world – twice I think, and for free.
He has written his memoirs. Part I is being edited by my Ma and Part II by my aunt. It’s very interesting. He was inspired to finish it after reading the book published by his sister. He started it a long time ago but floods and rats destroyed a chunk of it and he had to copy/rewrite chapters of it – by hand.
He has a pacemaker.
About 15 years ago, he suffered from 3rd degree burns in an accident.
He’s a boxing and basketball fan.
He used to take the whole family out to swim every summer. He loved driving us all around and teaching all his grandkids how to swim. 4 of us could hang around his shoulders at one time!
Wow, it’s been more than a year since my last T13 (my previous t13s are over here). I’ve been wondering when I’d be able to post leisurely on a Thursday so I could participate in this popular meme again. Glad am still up at 245AM this Thursday 🙂 For this week, let me showcase 13 pictures of my boyfriend, Alfred. This afternoon, my colleague Richard asked me why I always referred to Alfred as ‘boyfriend’ when I talk about him. Well, I’m not used to calling him Alfred anymore and that’s how he’s called at work. So if I’m speaking with people who call him Fred or Alfred, I refer to him as boyfriend. If I’m speaking with others who refer to him as Dodong, as I do, I call him that. Simple 🙂 I’m doing this because I appreciate what he did for me today (oh, yesterday). Actually, he does a lot of things for me and I truly appreciate all of it. I love you sweetie! 🙂
–> Okay, so this is more a picture of me with my college girlfriends, but look at Dong right there on the far right looking at us? He finds us amusing. heheh. We’ve been together almost as long as I’ve been friends with these girls. I still remember how nervous he was the first time I took him to meet them. 🙂
–> Now this second picture is one I took with mycamera phone while having lunch at Petruss, probably around Valentine season last year. That’s him pretending to be impatient.
–> This is his solo shot in the picturesque Fedilisan Rice Terraces, taken in our Sagada trip last year. We were resting because I was sooo tired with the trek back up to Bangaan so we took pictures of each other. He was so patient with me that time, which he normally isn’t when I slow him down. He says he was so proud of me because I conquered it all during that trip. 🙂
–> These next two were both taken in restaurants. On the left is the ‘before’ pic of our boodle feast at Seafood Island. On the right is his Gramm’s Diner pic while waiting for our orders.
<-- This next one is him lounging at our company employee lounge during the Family Day last year. We brought several of my nieces and nephews and we had just finished eating and were watching an animated movie. The kids were either sprawled in bean bags or slouching on the other furniture too.
–> Now, he will kill me for posting these next two! The first one was the first/last time he had a facial. He was totally complaining about the pricking! The second one was a surprise shot at Seafood Island.
<--He’ll definitely remember this, he was so happy when he finally got his iPod! Almost a year ago now 🙂 It takes a lot of convincing to get him to lend it to me.
The next three photos were significant – our first dog iPod’s birthday ‘party.’
And now for his all-time favorite picture that I took while waiting at the recruitment area of our office:
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. What do you do? Write Thirteen things about yourself, summarize your week in one entry, make it easy for other bloggers to get to know you on a weekly basis. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is not only encouraged, it is part of being a Thursday Thirteener!
Have your 13? Add your link to Mister Linky and leave me a comment so I can go check it out. 🙂
Edit: I think there was something wrong with my choice of Linky because it isn’t posting the links? I’ll change it if I can see what will work…
