Daghang Salamat Pagadian!

Nov. 22 – 28, 2010: They say Pagadian is the Little Hong Kong of the South, for me, it’s a place which smells of watermelon, grass and the sea. I was greeted with rain when I arrived on the 22nd – Monday and my memories of Pagadian revolved around circling the city on board Sir Danny and Nat’s motorcycle, of course with Fred and Hicut’s motorcycles as well, with the beautiful volunteers of Pagadian City chapter, it really made me wonder, there seems to be a lot of beautiful girls in this city. :-)

And there’s also the weird tricycle, where its sidecar is tilted for about 30-45 degrees, it’s a bit hard to board it, but they say, that’s how they cope with the slopes of the city – it reminds me of Benguet actually. I had the chance to roam around the city on Friday, after a few days of helping Danny during the training, and with Nat’s help, we circled 3 municipalities of Zamboanga Sur, and then on Sunday, had a feastful breakfast at Kumalarang – another municipality.

Thanks to everyone – the participants who were able to bear with me despite the language differences, the staffs of PRC Pagadian, the beautiful and handsome volunteers of PRC, and the rest of the madlang tao who have given their kindness in any form. Daghang Salamat, hope to see you again!

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.