The Friendship we build through DRR way

Armed with digital camera and my favorite cap I went to barangay cagsao- a coastal community in my town to join the Ugnayan Bahagihan 2014 field visit in line with the observance of the United Nation’s International Day of Disaster Reduction.

Dubbed, Ugnayan at Bahaginan (Linkaging and Sharing), it seeks to promote governance practices that integrate local disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts with climate change adaptation and ecosystems management and restoration.

It is a two day conference on Disaster Risk Reduction organized by CARE Nederland through ACCORD Inc. and this time our town is one of the hosts. According to the organizer this field visit aims to observe on how we were able to implement small-scale mitigation projects and sustained and for possible replication on how we do DRR in our own way. 

This event is supported by the Partners for Resilience alliance, the Dutch Cooperating Aid Agencies, and the European Commission’s humanitarian aid, and civil protection department. The conference hopes to help forge better-prepared communities that can face future disasters with less fear and more resilience. 

The conference, which gathers representatives from ACCORD partner municipalities across the country, provides a venue for learning how at-risk communities can start the process of doing DRR and ecosystem restoration while considering climate projections and the possibility of extreme weather events, and how these efforts can be sustained using their own resources.

Participants include representatives from towns of Leyte that are recovering from the devastation of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and urban areas that experience flooding like Malabon City. Almost same participants i saw and laugh with last year during the 7th south south in agusan but i still see new smiling faces though. 

 This event aims to show that climate-smart and ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (DRR-CCA-EMR) cannot be done by a single entity or municipality. Necessary links have to be established with other contingent municipalities who are equally at-risk.

Working in the government for the past six years i really love taking pictures no matter what the event is. I love it when i am busy and i am enjoying it. As part of the MDRRMC team in our municipality it is my task to secure that all things are properly documented for future use. Not only that it is also a good opportunity and a way to meet the old friends i love working with and meet new ones. I am a community facilitator when ACCORD help our town in doing DRR. At first i was hesitant to do it for i know that i am not into it but later did i know i was kinda loving it. And believe it or not the team help me open my mind to new perspective that not all are equal that some dont have enough food to eat and worst drink. That man in blue shirt carrying his backpack is the country's representative to CARE Nederland. We call him oslec. And everytime he is around i used to tell him i smell what oslec is cooking and believe me he is indeed cooking.

I love to take pictures even if it means i will turn dark and get bruises entire my body my legs specially for doing so but as long as i enjoyed taking it and still makes me happy the most then i will shot forever.

i love to see familiar faces and of course my lovely big sister. i do love to join her in their mission of building resilient communities. its such a rare opportunity that i get to talk to her even if she is so busy. i love pam very much. her name isnt pam but i love calling her pam.

i love to see how they enjoyed visiting the villages in our town specially the coastal area, help and feed our people and enjoy all the things our town could offer. 

and most of all i want to shot happy memories that my subject will treasure forever.

i know that my understanding to the degree in DRR is only like a point of molecules but i do promise myself to change more and be concerned more in the environment and our people. I get to learn everyday and in no time i will get there too for everyday is a continuous learning experience and doing DRR was one of the most important decisions my town has ever made.

All these years one thing i know is that building a resilient community is a long and tedious process.  We must have perseverance in doing it. It should be a shared commitment between the government and the people themselves. And realized that it is our responsibility to protect the environment and that this responsibility must extend further. 

We are long way to go in doing DRR and far more to building resilient community but i do hope that if we are going to work together with all positive thoughts that yes we can then in mo time we can achieve a safer and much better world to live in.

so the next time you are ask how can you be of help tell them that even in small things way like planting trees counts. or by having a proper waste segregation inside your home matters most.

 more of my photoshots under the heat of the sun.

 i think this guy is from maragusan but he is wearing a saint bernard shirt.

 this is athena...the precious athena!

 hello sir! i saw you in talacogon last year!

 how did you manage to walk in the slanting and not elevated terrain without the cane?

 the sun is bright with april

 i love the smile sister!

 xyla without sunblock

 uncle tanty's little hi little low

 Kuya pangit in blue.

 parade of drr champions.

today might be the first and the last time some of these people will step in the town of calabanga but i am happy that at least they made it here.

thank you for your generosity and for continuously believing in the capacities of calabanga. 

athena and kitty paw-paw smiling and saying that we dont have to be content with sharing experiences - we should actually learn from them. We need to stay committed to each other, look out for each other.

 what i love most about this day is that no matter how busy we are, pam and i get the chance to have pictures together and that really means to me. it doesnt matter if we both turn dark and sunburn as long as we are happy and enjoying our job and keeping our friendship stronger then that is the best thing no amount of euros can ever paid for.

 thank you michael for taking this for me.

 i really had fun!

i wish to have my feet wash by the salt water....only if im not wearing shoes and holding a camera.

joie noga .... I am happy to see you in real!

Ate joie is very pretty, so funny, so sweet, very kind and so generous (clapping the ears gorgeous) but no kidding I love her because of her perspective, she loves mommy and daddy and most of all because she is witty and had great sense of humor. I only met her once last year for about ten minutes or lesser than that. It was just a simple hi and hello im glad to meet you thing. It was just quick in the hotel room she booked for us. We exchange a couple of text like hi’s and hello’s and merry christmas and happy new year and take care and goodnights after that. Just recently I had too much conversation on viber with her too. Then during those times when I feel like I am mad to the world I share it with her and she always listen to me .I love it when she listen and laugh with me. I can tell her everything. I am not shy telling whats in my head. And when I tell her about it she used to give me pieces advice as what she fondly calls sign of wisdom. Funny side is I first met her car long before I met her in real. But I used to see her on facebook and if it weren’t for that social site I guess I will not even memorize her face. Dudoi my handsome big brother told me once that she is a great friend. I used to call her gorgeous although it seems that she doesn’t approve on that and had laughed too much when I told her but I won’t change it because for me she is.

Today I get the chance to meet and see her for real. Not in ten minutes but a couple of hours too and that is something to be treasure for. I went to see her with one of her friend who happened to be my neighbor and friend too. I was so excited when she told me a couple of weeks ago that she is going home and we can see each other and push through with the surprise visit to the two people we love the most. She is very refine and girly…That I think all the girls her age wanted to be.  She is so cool that she didn’t get mad on us when we told her that the bus we are riding is already in pili because her home is a bit far but to our surprise she rode the same bus with us. She treats us for lunch and shared a lot of light conversation about life.  And I learned that like me she loves to drink coffee.

If there are things like forever I will keep her with me. I really want to grow old and be friends with her forever even if we both settled on the other side of the earth. For even though our first meeting is lesser than ten minutes I feel her being sincere and she really wins my heart. Dudoi said that its ok to be friends with her since she is so kind and seems very happy about it. Lao is still shy to meet her but do promise me to meet her too.

She is currently working in one of the cellphone giant and although she is so busy she makes time to send back on my text even if I was just trying to destruct her most of the time and when I am bored to death and that makes her one of the best thing since peanut butter for me. I seldom tell that word to a friend but because I feel something in my heart about her I consider her one.  Everything about her is real. She sees things clearly than I do. Maybe because she uses an eye glasses for that (lol) or I think she uses more pixie dust and do some magic for me that makes me love her just like that. But i guess we have the same heart or maybe because i just feel her love for me. There’s no secrets no anything and I love her that way. The love I gave to ate joie is the same love I gave to lao and mom and dudoi and mommy and daddy. I love her like my own sister. And I thank god for giving me a very wonderful person to make friends with.

One of the best things she said to me is to give lot patience. That I think sometimes yes I do lack of it. Now I am still learning to give more of my time with that and I prayed that the soonest I will be able to master it. Ate joie gave me a sakroot’s planner as a birthday gift and i really love it. It’s far different and above cool than the planner I am currently using.  I told her that I will write anything on it and I do start to write one tonight. Maybe she is thinking when she bought it that I am a quick temper and had not look clearly on the other side of things so I can write down all that happened to me everyday even if it’s good or not pretty good for me to reflect and learn from it.

I wish to see her again pretty soon and she promised to visit us too. And I prayed that the love she gave me and to daddy and to mommy and to dudoi won’t fade even a little or vanished for no reason because we love her very much. I wish that the next time she went home I will have the chance to drink coffee and laugh with her. Take care of yourself ate joie and always live a great life. Thank you for all the love. I love you very much.(i do hope that you wont squeeze me to death until my eyes pop out for posting this)

my 30 years of stint in this universe!

Happy of living 29 years to the fullest and enjoying every little thing each day life could offer, today with so much thanksgiving i turn 30! i am very happy that i have reach this age. i am halfway then.  funny it may seem that the more you ask your fb friends for candy crush extra life, i, too was there begging god for my extra life. you never know how much i pray to god to give me more strength each day. i really wanted grow old and live more. i was afraid that like my older sister i cant make it on my 30. but today marks another milestone of my existence, im happy that i was able to make it .  i am happy i was born in with loving family and met friends who supported me all the way. I am so proud for as you read this I am now a 3 decade baby.

the only pictures i have from my childhood. 

29 years passed by too much quickly! half of me reminds me that i am now 30 and half of me said i wasnt aware of that. Roll out loud but that is what i feel right now. And as of this moment it doesnt come to any of my senses that i am this age. Literally, i grew up but i never grow old. it was just yesterday! i am always a kid my father love me about.

 but even so i have to accept that fact, after all who wouldnt want to turn 30 when 30 feels this good :)

I am 30 as the song goes i, too is young, wild and free!  I am not Perfect. I have learned that pretending to be perfect doesn't make us perfect. I am not perfect, and I never will be. I make mistakes and bad decisions, and I fail at times. I stumble, fall. I am human as you are. 

With whatever reasons, with whatever purpose why i am now 30 i will surely enjoy every aspect of it. 

For these milestone nor did i ask myself if am i already old for this carefree life of mine? I am viewing age as a positive simply because I have learned a ton of lessons that not only help define me, but will make future years enormously successful - emotionally, professionally, and socially.

As I look back at my last 29 years of life, there were so many special moments that came and went. I wish I would sit back and enjoyed the moments more. Absorb the good times because they are the first things you forget my mom often told me. Oftentimes you don’t realize how powerful your lives can be until you reflect and share your experiences. that's why i created this post. Opps did i say create? yah! create and not write...i find it hard to write with pen and paper. my writings goes bad. I want to reflect on my life and be sure to enjoy the lessons learned instead of regretting whatever outcomes I didn't like at the time. should i say that? anyways, here how it goes.

From where i am today is the product of all the things i have learned from my 29 years of stint. A great part was the things i have learned from my constantly reading wide range of books over the years and continues schooling, not to mention of course are the things i learned in the four corners of our office whom i consider as my second home, things i learned inside our home with my family and understanding relatives and the real life lessons i get from the people who are much wiser and older than me that i encountered everyday. 

as i wake up today i say a little prayer to god. thanking him for all the wonderful blessings he gave me and my family. waking up healthy today makes me reminisce all the things that i had endure. and as i account everything, i am happy to know that all were that positive and i was enjoying the most. although there are some major circumstances of which i had to experience i am happy to know that i had make it through. That's what i assured my aboeji in his grave, that whatever things life would bring me i will make it through!

Every little scars i have on my feet and legs reminds me of how happy my childhood was. Contractubex doesn't disappear the scars completely for it stays within. It reminds me how many times i fall from the skateboard and bike. on how much i tried to fly a kite. on how long my hair is now today tells me of how much hair i cut because i dont like the hairstyle the hairstylist done. They said that the dove soap can make you flawless and white but the soap failed me to be one believe me i have used tons of that. 

My university diploma and the amount of money mom had to spent reminds me of how much i really wanted to escape school, run, ride my bike and discover the world. I skip school and boring classes. i got A+ i got D too. I wasnt that typical college student who used to excel in class. I was never be befriended with algebra. believe me in my school days nor did those x and y axises intersect! As when im about to finish my first two years at the university I suddenly realized that I needed a college education to be taken seriously and given respect in society. Going to college provided me with the setting to meet people from all walks of life, travel to and study in far-away locales, learn about myself and the world, and ultimately, to cultivate my goals in life and figure out what is important to me.  I was on my second year when i first taste and smell the beer! The compilation of photos and the pile of albums reminds me of the bus rides, ship rides and plane rides and the long hours of travel to get to my father’s place. the endless questions of why i have to do it all mom when i was asked to clean the house, sweep the floor and be friend with the dust and the ultimate tiresome task of washing the dishes and my own clothes. and why on earth i have to please everybody. why i need to be kind and responsible all the time and why on earth i have to kiss the oldies hands on family gatherings when some smells like a donkey and cigarettes. endless questions like why cant i live my own life and let me live the way i wanted it to live it. Remembering all those things makes me laugh out loud. Not to mention how much I try to kill the cockroach but I just cant kill them.

she's the woman who brought me into the world

The countless toys and robots on our shelf accounts of how much money I have wasted to spend for the stuff I believed had bring me too much happiness even its inappropriate for me. I have always love cartoon network, tom and jerry and ang of the avatar but killua of the hunterxhunter has been my all time favorite. I take everything on their lighter side. I had always been a positive thinker. and sometimes you don’t have to tell me what to do. I am a WWE addict. i love john cena! The running shoeses reminds me of how much hatred I had to kept within me because I was known to be patient and kind that I don’t like to get mad to anybody and rather run and shout on the seashore until I run out of breathe so I could digest all things I am mad about. 

this is my grandmere and i love her so much.

It was dawn of September 14 when I was born and on that day proves of how much love god had showered me that he really wanted me to experience the beauty of the earth. i was born dead...my mom had a hard labor and loses hope but after an hour i cried out loud! i think that day will always remind mom and all those who were present of how much i really wanted to live. They said that i was that big and squishy and absolutely perfect and as i grew older they  often tell me I used to speak to my warders freely, friendly and clearly.

i grew up knowing only whats left and right. That's my mom's rule or maybe the rules my aboeji inherited from his forefathers. i dont have a lot of choices. there's no in between but even so i was so happy i live that way. way back if i dont like to then i dont have to and today every decisions i make i dont have to ask someone to fix things for me or to help me decide. it is always my instinct that favors me. therefore, i dont have to step behind. i always go to the right side. The side that fits me. The side i enjoy creating of which nobody ever tried to cross in it. Somehow my parents employ other people to mind over me and I seldom see them attend PTA meetings before. But that is ok because growing up with that situation ables me to survive and live the slanting world. Later did i know that in order to have all our needs sometimes everybody has to sacrifice. 

I grew up knowing tinkerbell and I wish to have a tons of pixie dust, i do believe in fairies! much as I love ariel (the part of the world thing yah!) taz, mr. bean and the old time favorite tom and jerry and mr. bean!  Dr. Seuss yah dr seuss i love green eggs and ham and lucky to find out how the grinch stole christmas! You see in my mind I live in wonderland and my mind is only for lighter side. Not too boring not too complicated just me. i know its crazy but i have always love the way i live. i love to play in the streets with my cousins who loves to play peter pan. i have always had a great time! i was known as "ada" by my friends and classmates but seldom knows my real name. my aboeji calls me vicoy and that's the name i am missing the most.

I was 9 when we've meet an accident along marcos highway but an angel save me and my father. the investigator told them that its impossible to survive that accident for our car was ruined siting on top of the other car. For whatever reason on how we were able to survive such thing then I don’t need and I don’t feel like knowing. What matters to me now is that i know that I’m a very blessed human. I didn’t wake up this morning in my crap and forgot my name. I have a great family, a job enough to feed me, and I’m able to do the things I love. When I find myself complaining, I just have to stop and realize how fortunate I really am compared to many in the world.

i was a middle child for 25 years until my big sister went home to heaven. The characteristics of being one remains and will always be in me. I am happy that when i was a kid i wasn’t bullied that much. Nor did my family expect a lot from me. i was love by my older sister and that of my older cousins too. In their eyes i know they still see me as young kid but even so i am happy that they love me and that what matters. 

Growing up made me pay a visit to the orthodontist quarterly i have a very bad set of teeth.I suffered a lot of pain to have this beautiful teeth. and right now i have my last set of wisdom teeth to grow sometimes it kills me but unlike before i can bear the pain and endure it too. 

I got my university degree when i was 19 and had my very first job too.  I learned how to make money and i found out that earning some is wasnt that easy. That in times when you dont feel like waking up because the weather is killing you, you have to. So did i learn how to save and look after my finances. my brother told me i will be the most thrifty person on earth if i will not change my style. hearing so make me laugh because i know when he reach my age he will do the same after all i just learned it from my kins. i have a glorious wallet i got as a gift from my aunt but honestly speaking i dont usually put any amount in their its just that everytime i put my cash in that wallet it easily runs out. so i prefer not to put them there i just used an old coin purse.   i lost my father when i was 25. i cried too much that mom told me not to cry anymore for i dont know how to stop. i find it hard to speak and understand my native language fluently but i did tried my best to comprehend it. its the environment that hinders me. in our home bicol is seldom use.

I am a church goer that never ever escape church on sundays. I have attended mass in any point of the country. i have traveled a lot from luzon to mindanao but never ever reached the municipality of tinambac which is just an adjacent town in our place.

in my 29 years of stint i have gained a lot of beautiful friends. I trusted and love them very much and they love me more too. I was blessed to have them in my life. I have said I love you the nth times and when I say it I mean it.

i only have a small circle of friends whom i trusted more than anybody else. i dont choose people. but i prefer friends who are crazy like me!

Beside games, photography, computer, english and robots i love my mom more than anybody else. my mom is my world. six years ago i have given up an international scholarship for her. for me she's the best thing since peanut butter! i am thankful for the things mom had provided me and for loving me unconditionally. In 29 years my only brother who loves choclates and who is 6 years younger than me has always been my bestfriend and no matter how bad it is to reveal the truth we never know how to cook food and dont eat the food we dont feel like eating. if it wasnt for the microwave and easy to cook food i dont know how are we going to survive the day.

in my 29 years i have always been dependent to alarm clock. i find it hard to wake up. i can sing but i cant dance...really! i only learn to play the flute. i have tried to play guitar but the guitar doesnt like me. brownout has always been my problem i cant sleep without light and that makes my life miserable. when brownout strike and i cant sleep that's my big problem comes.

i dont have any plans in my life for the next 30 years. I will let the universe mold me of what will I become and I am sure it will be absolutely perfect! If i have to plan ahead of me, my life will be definitively boring. But i am excited to know what will i be and how will i look like! Rest assured that i will take care of my finances and health and love all the people around me. And continuously grow as an individual and contribute to other people in a meaningful way. 30 years is a long time, until you live it. Thirty years may be more than you have. Thirty years may be a small fraction of your life. Thirty years though, may be all you have. I thank you for being part of my 30 years of stint in this universe and i hope and pray that on my next thirty  you will always be there for me.

I love you very much :) 
thank you for finding time to read.