Midnight Musings

What to do on a sleepless midnight? Write down your thoughts...

2010 is going to end very soon, as each day passes very quickly. I have been preparing for the trip to Pagadian City this coming Monday and I am so preoccupied and excited about this new place to visit. I’m going to Mindanao, a beautiful place masked by a dark facade of religious controversy and civil strife, where the family of my Father came from – Sultan Kudarat – his stories revolves around images of poverty, conflict with Muslim people, land grabbing, and militarism. That is why in the later part of his youth, they transferred here to Luzon, despite meagre income opportunities, and they survived, that is why I’m here.

The training in Pagadian City is Community Based Disaster Management Training. I guess it should have been easier have I not watched 11th Hour nor The Inconvenient Truth. Watching these films gave me the burden of always linking DM with Climate Change – which should always be the case, actually. I remember JP during the last time we met (on his birthday), he mentioned that their organization is dealing with Climate Change politics, not really Disaster Management, and I was then asking ‘Why not?’ – his organization saw the links, have weighed, and lead them to deal with CC politics – which I think in ‘our’ organization, what can we actually do, or what have we been doing so far? In the local arena, how are our chapters capacitated to deal with Climate Change issue, or shall we deal with this issue knowing that no matter how we change our lifestyle into loving Mother Earth, we still cannot do so much unless the US signs and ratifies the agreements?

With all these questions, looking back at the last 10 months of experience with the organization, I’m thrilled that at last, at least, I will have the chance to share the lessons I have learned and practised – in Pangasinan, Benguet and most especially, in Zambales.

Danny Cabalyero will be my best friend in Pagadian. It’s going to be one week of stay, and I guess I’m ready for it.

Christmas is near, and still, we haven’t put up some decorations. Things are going smoothly in the house, and I’m looking forward to go home by Christmas in Aurora, hope there’s no disaster at that time, so we’ll all have a disaster-free Xmas. I really wanted to go home, and just relax, my Mom said the cat – Sascha is big already – that’s one of the things to motivate me to go home.