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)

proud to be thirty and one!

Before the sun sets down today let me tell you the things I’ve been through for the last 365 days because tomorrow im gonna start a new chapter in my life i will be thirty and one!

On the day I turned 30 I was busy with school life and numerous trainings the government obliged me to be. I didn’t even got the chance to celebrate it with my family and friends for I have to be in the school before the sun shines or else I will be out and im afraid I might not get all my boss wanted me. I spend almost four months going to school and finish all my modules for free. Sometimes I had a conflict of schedules from the other training school and to think I am enjoying it because i get to  learn more and grow but it isn't for doing so exerts a lot of concentrations one after the other that I almost forgot to visit even my friends and go out with them. 

I also had a lot of air trips and land trips going to the south then north that sometimes I feel like im still floating in the sky. I was more terrified when my boss sends me to Mindanao to attend an international event that took place during my brother’s birthday.  Up in the cloudy sky for almost three hours because our plane had zero visibility I never thought that we could still land safe that day. I have prayed a lot and beg for more extra life then. 

Sundays or half of sundays now are spent to church and moms day too. Doing all the laundries and chores for our maid never come back had drained all our energy during friday nights. Mom doesnt want them washed in laundry shop because all of my white t-shirts had turned yellow pants shrink of over heated dryer. Saturdays are spent shopping and groceries and cctv backups. Starbucks days had to be move from Friday to Saturdays or Sundays or sometimes forgot that I still have starbucks day and all. I didn't get to update my blog regularly for I lack time and energy to do so. 

Aside from saving more none of my wish list had been accomplish for I haven’t got a new bike yet although I still have 4 months more before I hit the deadlines. All of my savings had been diverted to other essentials we needed to live and what had drained me the most is the continuous and never ending constructions and reconstructions of our house good thing we live in a decent and beautiful place now.

January was never good to me the high fever and headache attacks me and had almost collapsed because of fatigue and dehydration. Injections had almost killed me I am afraid of needle and seeing the doctor. I was diagnosed with acute pharyngitis and my wisdom tooth in the upper part started to grow. 

February I feel better but spend more of our time doing geomaps and gps. Going to and back to the 48 barangays in our municipality. Measuring, reading until we get the right coordinates and most of the time went home late tattered jeans, muddy feet, tired, hungry and bruises everywhere. March had been pretty cool for all of my cousins get backs home. Some had just graduated with flying colors and had the chance to go out with them and have some break at the office and school.

Rewarding myself a bit is quite good among these is the new windows 8.1 HP envy core i7 touch laptop, a 48 inches LED tv, a new camera lens, galaxy s4 from mom and tab and most of all a fast internet connection which I needed most in my life. The salary and extra income i hardly earned are spent on foods, savings and necessities. I don’t have time to visit my old grandmother no matter how much I wanted to visit her.  I spent the whole summer in trainings and I haven’t got the chance to swim in salt water no matter how much I wanted too. We never know which way is to the beach and which way is to the training school. I will admit that I envy most of my relatives and friends who took their pictures while swimming and sand bathing and I have to endure the summer heat in the hot crowded training school. I almost cry when I learned that my brother is off the north and explore my father’s hidden place. I have encountered a lot of difficult people whom I never wanted to meet in my life again. Good thing my patience had grown more and more as I get older or maybe I just mastered it and meeting one have gain me too much respect for myself and after meeting those horrible people I get to meet more and more kind hearted souls. 

As the school year start for normal people so as my busy office life started and gets busier everyday. We did have a new boss and he is all smart and kind. Beating all the deadlines from the different national agencies and international partners and too much research and reading books had drained my energy. That sometimes i feel it boring and boring when there's nothing new to look at. scattered papers, printer printing and files of initial draft. To make myself better i took all the vitamins the doctor said will boast my energy. After all I learned too much that I thank everyone starting off from my boss for giving me such opportunities and a chance to step ahead of the others but I always wear a smile and keep my feet in the ground most of the time.

July was never a good month for me and mom for she has to stay in the hospital for six nights and five days because of her fluctuated blood sugar level and asthma. Other than that a raging july typhoon hit our place that most of our relatives source of income has blown off good that all of our houses and lives are safe. August has been a starting month for all of us. Recovering from the typhoon aftermath and income losses here we are standing and fighting as we move on with our lives. We spent the whole month of August changing and doing proposals with an interrupting power supply.

And now it’s September and I am hitting another year to start a new chapter. Fervently i live life according to what i like, according to what i understand, according to me. I am thankful for all the blessing god showered me no matter how small it was i am forever grateful. Most of all to all the people i dealt with everyday whether they are making my heart leap and head spin i thank them for giving me the challenge and fight what i believe for.  I pray that i may never forget to pray and believe. That i stay this way honest, polite, sweet the way my aboeji raise me. That I will be forever good and kind to all that I don’t change even a little but if i does ensure it for much good. That I stay calm and always smart. That as long as I can I will. To stay humble and enjoy everything that is with me. To strive hard to achieve everything I wanted to myself and for my family without cursing and troubled anyone. That I’ll be responsible in everything I do and stay positive no matter what. That all the friendship i started with will grow more and more until our lasts breathe. 

I thank mom and aboeji for bringing me to the world. Aboeji I am now of age how about that! Dudoi....Pambihira!

INA and our twisted traslacion

Today we joined the traslacion together with thousands of pilgrims from all over the world and gathered around the Penafrancia shrine to witness the annual traslacion of the Our Lady of Penafrancia, Patroness of Bicolandia. 

INA as what every bicolanos calls her is known to be miraculous and thousands of devotees pay their homage every year for each favor they received.  Traslacion, is the transferring of the miraculous Image of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia and of the Divino Rostro to the Metropolitan Cathedral. This happens every third week of September. This also signifies the start of Peñafrancia in the whole of Bicolandia.

For every bicolano, the traslacion isn't just a tradition it is also the time to reflect and be thankful for all the blessings we received. As a practice each time her holy image passes by the street it is being showered with flowers and confetti. Some business establishment fly balloons and spray water for the voyadores. 

The busy streets of Naga are being filled with good old friends from all walks of life. It is the time for every bicolano to go home and reunite again. The traslacion is an opportunity to meet with the old friends and get along with them during the procession and an avenue to make new friends.

As one of her devotee and growing up with the strong catholic faith and as a witness for her miraculous deeds for my mom, I came along with my brother every year to witness and join the celebration. No matter where we are we make sure to go home for her feast. Not because we were obliged by our parents to do so but because we want too and you can’t explain the mix emotions you get when her holy image passes by. 

We can’t afford to be a voyadores since I am a girl and my brother, I don’t know if he has the guts to be tough and all but together with our friends we make good pictures and share it to the world. That way we can contribute to spread the devotion and give a glimpse of the traslacion to all our fellow bicolanos around the globe who can’t make it home. 

The weather, the smell, the environment you have to endure it along with other devotees men and women young and old alike. 

This year traslacion is a new journey for us, we add some twist, its not only me and my brother this time, we were joined by xi. Xian Kiezzer or simply xi joined us. Without knowing that it would be tough bringing him because his mom is with him we met them at the cathedral. good enough we still manage to finish church when he start to roam around running and eating and shouting and crying and all. 

i never thought that bringing him will cause us trouble he was never like that at home. maybe the environment is quite new to him. Xi never tried to shout and talk too much but i dont know maybe because we dont see him the whole day but today was his shining moment. good that we have with us everything we needed from diappers to clothes to milk and thanks heaven for 711.

xi love chicken and yes we bought him chicken. xi loves taho or soya in the morning and we bought him taho in the afternoon because he kept on shouting taho! we have to keep an eye of him because he doesnt wanna be carried and all he just want to run. but considering the batch of people that keep coming through we are afraid we might lose him. good thing all of us had master the art of patience and patience and too much love for xi! he wants everything as far as his two little japanese eyes could see. 

you might wonder why on earth we have to bring him along with us and why the complain in here its because xi is INA's gift for lala and her family. And every time xi got sick all of us kept on praying to INA and soon after that he is back to normal and ok. Two days ago xi had a high fever and lala prayed hard to INA and promise that if Xi got better we will take him to traslacion and that's explain why we have him and will have him with us every traslacion as long as we can carry him. Xi's father is in Malta as a seafarer and since lala is our cousin. xi used to stay with us most of the time. Xi loves mom very much and mom loves him too. And lala's family are all in japan and that made her mom child too.

as what i have told you that the traslacion is also an opportune time to get along with old friends today is just another lucky day for of all people who might have thought that we could see itay dudoi and bump along with him. 

you may never know the chances your lens could capture and surprises INA could give you. She never fails to answer all our prayers for her.

we are thankful for all the granted wishes she had given me and my family and our fervent hope that we may continue to have strong faith and believe in her miracles.

i wonder how long will that yellow green orange chicken live and i cant wait to know what color is its peak will be. i cant even get a perfect shot with my lens this time but i love this day. 

until the next traslacion. 

viva la virgen!

on the addyr's perspective

I know I didn’t get any updates lately. It has been three months since my last post. I just don’t feel writing lately. I don’t have much time to write and read. I was busy with office works and endless deadlines. And with all the household chores and cctv backups we got on weekend might be the reasons why you don’t see any updates.

I love to write and update this blog regularly as much as possible as what I have written in my new year’s resolution and hoping that I could still write anything I wanted too. but to think that writing will costs me too much time without anything inside my brain and I get to watch more tv lately and play in the tablet.

Things aren’t much different lately. I still go to church with mom every Sunday and first Friday. We haven’t skipped any Sunday without church. Plans and budget and design for the construction of our house I mean additional repairs will be done next month. I was happy that mommy and daddy got their 10 years multiple entry visas to the United States this time. I’ve been helping them to fix it for the last six months since October and happy to know that on Friday they are off to California and Texas and Arizona. I got to spend more time with them. Mommy fixes her eyes and blood pressures too. I go with them every check up to make sure they are both ok and I love having them around. She had her eye surgery last February and right now she sees things clearly. Daddy is pretty cool too. He never had any dull moments. We used to laugh and I don’t seem to miss so much aboeji this time. Daddy looks exactly as my aboeji even his pomade and type of polo shirt.

I got to spend more time with mom and lao too. We also changed our eating habits. Before I have to buy stuff and have our lunch inside her office but now it’s different we go out and have our lunch at the eatery.  I love to stay more inside our house during weekends and holiday. I take time to sleep and rest well. My blood pressure seems ok. And mom and lao too. We take a lot of vitamin c and less sugar and eat vegetables too. I now learned to cook and eat a lot of vegetables but we still ate chicken most of the time.

We got a happy home as we always do. We got a lot of food too that sometimes got spoiled on the fridge. I still suffer from asthma and headache. I suffered more of my migraine and wisdom tooth that I think it’s killing me. I wasn’t even sad nor alone lately. I am always with my mom and lao and the kids in our neighborhood.

I got sick twice this first quarter. I got fever, chilling and throat infection. But the antibiotic works really well for me that I don’t seem to be sick. 

I was saddened by the truth that undertaker lost his battle with brack lesner making him dead in wrestlemania xxx but I was happy seeing Daniel Bryan on his heights and mighty defeating “the rock” for the very first time and his transformation was awesome and with john cena’s winning over the wyatt makes me and all my kin half to nearly full crazy!

Lao is enjoying his tour up in the north. He went to baguio and laoag and vigan together with his boss and fellow school workers. The way I see it he is absolutely happy. 

We don’t have much any problem in our home and I thank god for giving us great life. Sometimes our budget cut short but most of the time the amount of money we got from our work is far enough for our family to enjoy life. We didn’t ask for more. What matter to us is that we are happy and we somehow have helped those who are in needs. 

Mom is getting better everyday. Now she used all the rubbershoes to get to the office. From the last checkup we got as of last week all of her tests are ok and she is in great shape. Although still she can’t walk that fast but at least she can walk and smile to the world. Mom is retiring soon from work and that’s what I have long waited for. I will only be at ease seeing her inside our home and no burden for work and happy. All of our debts had long been paid off so we don’t worry anymore. 

I attended so many trainings lately. I find it cool because I get to travel for free less is the workload I have with me after the trainings but luckily I was able to finish all of my requirements and sometimes I got a lot of compliments too. Our website is up too. It’s one of my former boss ever dream of. It’s been six months since she left us and tito ramon is our new boss. Karen is back in the office but roxy is now in her board review.  Ate lala is really funny most of the time. Im still happy in our office but I don’t know if I am still happy with my job.

We got a lot of deadlines to beat and comply lately. Basically we do all the requirements to access grants from the national government to alleviate poverty in our town. I also do a lot of presentation design that was asked of me. Sometimes I wish I didn’t know about computer or internet or animation. Sometimes doing such drained my brain and even my wallet too. Sometimes I wanted to quit and leave this job I have right now. I often tell mom that I think im not growing anymore. I ask her to send me to normal school again and she said ok as soon as she retires from the office because sending me to school will mean shutdown from work and move to the prime city. 

In the last four months sometimes I feel that I am so useless. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I don’t know what I want to do. I’m not into any relationship but I am still confused on what to do. Sometimes I rather sleep and stay in bed the whole day. Sometimes I spend my time in the movie house or starbucks and do shopping but still at the end of the day I cant find the word contentment, that I don’t know what I want, having all the gadgets and the money I needed to support myself but in my heart, things, aren’t always the way I wanted them to be, maybe I will follow mommy and daddy in LA when they leave but im afraid nobody will take care of mom and lao.

I know there is something wrong with me and my perspective but rest assured I’m still doing the best I could for this job for I may never know when I will be leaving this.