Sina-Unang Artikulo sa Tagalog: Ang Pagmulat ng Pagmamahal sa Bansa sa Pamamagitan ng Pagiging Bahagi ng URI

Ito ang sina-unang artikulo ko sa wikang Pilipino.  Ginagawa ko ito upang mapatunayan sa sarili ko na kaya ko at hindi ako isa sa libo-libo sa atin na nawawalan na ng damdaming makabansa.  Ipinagmamalaki ko ang ka-ugatan ng aking mga ninuno at ang Wikang Pambansa.


Nakikiusap ako sa mga mambabasa nito na huwag akong pintasan!  Nahihirapan ako ng kaunti dahil bawat salitang minamakinilya ko ay pumupula.  Hindi ito kinikilala ng diksiyonaryong Ingles sa kompyuter ko.


Maitatanong mo sa akin kung bakit pumasok ito sa isipan ko.  Ang sagot ay hindi dahil kasali ako sa mga pangyayari no’ng ika-16 at 17 ng Disyembre.  Hindi ‘yon ang nakamulat sa mas-malalim na pagmamahal ko sa aking pagiging Pilipino, kun’di ang muling pagiging aktibo ko sa gawaing hangad sa kapayapaan kasama ang Inisyatibo ng mga Nagkakaisang Pananampalataya (URI o United Religions Initiative sa Ingles).


Mahigit tatlong taon na ako sa organisasyong ito.  Pumasok ako noong 2007 nang ma-ingganyo matapos sumali sa isa sa kanilang mga panayam na tinawag na Adhikain ng Kapayapaan sa Pagitan ng Nagkakaibang Pananampalataya (VPAR o Visions of Peace Among Religions sa Ingles).  Tatlo sa amin do’n ay tumungong makapagtayo ng isang samahan ng mga kabataang Boholano mula sa iba’t ibang mga relihiyon.  Di nagtagal ay itinayo ang tinawag naming TULAY kasama ang iilang nadagdag na mga kasapi.  Ang ibig sabihin nito kung isalin sa wika natin ay mangangahulugang “Pagtitiwala, Pag-uunawaan, at Pagkakatuto sa Pagitan ng mga Kabataan” (Trust, Understanding, and Learning Among Youth sa Ingles).  Nagsimula kami na labindalawa lamang sa grupo at ang pangunahing layunin namin bukod sa pagpapalaganap ng iminumungkahi ng pangalan ng organisasyon ay ang pagligtas ng kaligiran.

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Dalawang taon ang lupimas nang humiwalay ako sa ama ko.  Bunga nito ay natuklap din ako mula sa URI.  Naging tahimik ako at nabuhay na may pagsasarili sa Cebu.  No’ng mga taong ‘yon, pinanatiling Buhay ang TULAY sa pamamagitan ng pagsisikap ng pinsan kong si Kristine.  Pinanguluhan n’ya ang kanilang mga gawain at sinigurong maapoy ang kaluluwa ng adhikain.


Noong Oktubre, bumalik ang alibughang anak sa kanyang ama.  Hangarin ko sa oras ng pagbalik ay maging aktibo muli sa URI at buhayin muli ang organisasyon ng aking ama na tawagi’y Mga Boluntaryo ng Kagandahang-Loob sa Bohol (BGV o Bohol Goodwill Volunteers sa Ingles).


Ang mga detalye ng kung bakit inilipat ko ang atensyon ko mula sa TULAY patungong BGV ay mahaba at ipapaliwanag ko sa ibang artikulo na.


Ilang linggo ang nakalipas at pinadala ako sa Quezon City para sumali sa ika-anim na panrehiyong kapulungan sa URI sa Timog-Silangang Asya at sa Pasipiko kung saan ay nakilala ko ang ibat ibang mga pinuno ng mga magkahambing na mga organisasyon.  Iyon ang tiyak na simula ng pagmumulat ng malalim na pagmamahal ko ng kulturang Pilipino.  Bawat isa sa mga kasabwat mula sa ibang mga bansa ay duminig sa bawat araw ng pulong suot ang kanilang mga pambansang pananamit.  Namasdan ko rin na ang aking mga damit ay may mabibigat na katangìáng pang-kanluran at walang tanda ng aking pagiging Pilipino.  Ikinalungkot ko na ang mga hinirang kong damit para sa okasyong ‘yon ay hindi gawang Pinoy at hindi kumatawan sa lahi ko.


Nagkaroon ako ng malaking katuwiran para baguhin ang ilan sa mga paningin at ugali ko sa buhay.


Simula no’n, bukod sa pagpapalaganap ng kapayapaan, naidagdag sa mga hangarin ko ang pagpapalaganap ng Pilipinong pagkakakilanlan sa mga kabataan sa halip na pumanig sa banyagang mga kaugalian at kabihasnán, kaya noong ika-16 at 17 ng Disyembre, sumuporta ang BGV bilang isa sa mga tagapanagot sa sina-unang Pambansang Kapulungan Ng Mga Kinatawang Kabataan Hinggil Sa Mabuting Pagkamámamayan (National Youth Congress on Good Citizenship sa Ingles).


Sumali din ako bilang isang kasabwat at kinagitlan ko ang galing ng ilan sa kanila sa pagsasalita ng wikang Pilipino nang walang pagkakautal ni isang beses.  Sabi ko sa sarili ko, “kung magagawa ko ang magsalita gamit ang wikang Ingles sa ganyang klaseng antas ng pagbatid at isinaalang-alang na ito ay dayuhang wika, dapat magagawa ko rin ‘yon gamit ang Tagalog at Bisaya.”


Nagsimula ako sa Tagalog at susunod nito ay Bisaya naman.

Giving Up On Wordpress

A couple of weeks ago, I created two Wordpress.com-hosted blogs--one for TULAY CC and one for Bohol Goodwill Volunteers CC.  I wanted both CCs to maintain websites about organizational on-goings and what not.  It was sort of my last fatherly deed for TULAY CC before I officially turned the keys over to Kristine.

Just an hour or so ago, I tinkered with the BGV CC blog because I wanted to add a heading image to the main page.  I tried and tried and tried, but there was always a limitation that kept me from doing what I wanted to do.  I tweaked this; I tweaked that, but all to no avail.

I finally decided to give up and resort to the more familiar and more convenient Blogger.com.  Good old Blogspot!  Yeah!  I didn't want to give myself a reason for my head to start aching.  I was willing to learn, but then I realized that Blogger is way better, anyway.

So, yes, the new blog for us is now boholgoodwill.blogspot.com!  I was finally able to use the heading I wanted.  Go check it out!  I haven't posted any articles yet.  I'm too tired to even fill out the blanks there.

Sleep is imperative!

zzzzzZZZZZZZ!

Bonding with Dad

I spent Christmas and New Year with my maternal family.  Deal with it!  Does that mean I regard my father any less?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  Dad and I have had our bonding days before each celebration.  For example: shortly before the day of the Winter Solstice, dad and I went to Dimiao (my dad's municipality of origin) to visit my 90-year-old grandmother.  Another example?  Well, nearly every night before Christmas eve and New Year's Eve, dad and I had dinner together.  Happy?

Does it matter that our days of "quality time" didn't fall on the holidays?  The important thing is the awareness, acceptance, and openness about the love present in day-to-day living.

Then, again, of course, we did have our New Year bonding today.  Imagine: the last time I met my dad was last year?  [LOL]  It wasn't any kind of bonding that involved expensive stuff or elaborate festive excursions.  No!  It was just food and road trip outside the city.

Apparently, he sent me a message at around 9:00AM asking me to come over to my uncle's place for lunch.  Unfortunately, however, it was not until 30 minutes past 12:00PM that I got to read the message.  I messaged to apologize and, thankfully, it was all good to him.  I took a quick shower and had myself driven over to my uncle's, where he still was.  There, I had a late lunch and a couple of hours of watching boxing on the television.  I didn't really care whose matches those were--not even the fact that it was boxing.  What mattered to me was that I was sitting there with my family.  I was also glad to be there since I got to see my cousin Kristine.  I had missed her birthday on the 26th because I had another engagement, so to have bonded and spoken with her was really nice.

After all that couch-potatoing, dad and I went to a restaurant called Garden Cafe for some snacks.  We had vanilla ice cream-topped mango pie.  It was awesome!  We stayed there for about an hour and a half--way after we'd finished everything on our boats--before deciding to go out and drive around the city for a while.  Awesome, wasn't it?

We didn't get hungry, but we developed a craving for pizza after seeing a mental billboard of Alberto's Pizzeria somewhere along the highway.  So, being the pigs that we were, we decided to order a couple of pizzas and we ate them in the car.  Of course, we didn't finish them.  I gave up after my 5th slice.  Afterwards, as a random thing, we went on a road trip to Panglao to see the lighted park.

You see:  A couple of weeks ago, when dad went all praises about the lights in our city's public park, someone brushed his remarks away saying they were nothing compared to Panglao's park's lights.  So, on this last day before work resumes for him, he decided to take a drive there.

When we did get there, I noticed that some of the lighted structures standing on the lawn had already been removed.  The scenario still retained its beauty, though.  It was probably better than our city's, but I don't think it was appropriate to say that ours was nothing compared to it.

Anyway, that was the final part of our father-son bonding day.  He drove me home afterwards and here I am blogging about it.

Toodles now!

BLAST OFF!!!

Nope, no rockets here!  But of course, I did fly!  Hahaha!  Never mind how; never mind why; never mind when!  All I can say about it is I loved it!  I loved every single moment of it--fright and all!

I spent a huge part of New Year's Eve sleeping since I knew I'd be awake the entire night.  Ate Lorz, my mom's best friend, woke me up and I, in turn, woke my mom up, too.  It turned out my mom had planned to go to the beach, but was wary about making such decision because she had so much to do.  Imagine that!  New Year's Eve and she was working.  To make matters more churny, she nearly fell into a state of anger for being uncontrollably busy even on the last day of the year.  She finally decided to drop everything and let loose after a few minutes of non-stop blabbering by me and Grandma.  [L!O!L!]

It was already 6:00PM and quite dark when we headed to the beach.  We brought Inu and Bro-Nu (Inu's brother) so they could have fun, too.  And boy, did they!  The tossed, turned, ran around, play-fought, swam, dove!  They did it all!  The great thing about it was we were able to remove Bro-Nu's ticks and fleas.  Yep, he had some.  We don't know where he contracted them, but he had a lot.

We decided to head home at about 8:30PM when I complained to mom that I was really hungry already.  We didn't bring any food and Ate Nining, the rest house manager told us that there wasn't any ready-to-serve food around, so we had to leave.  My tummy was starting to make funny noises.

Right after dinner, I blasted off the ground on my own for the first time!  Oops!  Not a a good topic to elaborate on.  Just so you know.  It's up to you to figure out what I mean.

Come 10:30PM and we were in our festive moods.  Ate Lorz had returned from changing clothes in her house, and we shot off for Alona Beach to see the fireworks!  It was one heck of a party there!  We sat at a section whose name I forgot, had a couple of beers, pizza, and had fun until the countdown, which we gleefully joined!  10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  We greeted 2011 with screeches and jumps like little children once more!  The fireworks display was beautiful!  15 minutes of awesome sky lights...  thousands of dollars burning in the sky, so to speak.  [More LOL]

Before leaving, we stuck around for a while and joined the hundreds of others celebrating 2011's arrival!  We drank some more, and allowed Janggo to run and jump around, too.  He was a crowd favorite!  On more than three occasions did a foreign man/woman call on him to feed him and carry him and pet him.  In his own little way, he was able to put smiles on people's faces, too.

We waited until he finally gave up and retired to sleep.  Cute little Janggo!

Year-End Interfaith Session with Bohol Goodwill Volunteers Cooperation Circle Leaders and the Bohol Lodge of the Theosophical Society

It wasn't exactly the year-end party that I wanted to happen, but it did the job anyway.

I kind of had an upbeat celebration in mind where there would be dancing and people would be eating and standing up for most of the time, but that's just not how things went.  I was very busy with my own life's happenings for the last how many weeks that I didn't have the time to organize a plenary session for a party--let alone have the party itself materialize.  It's not like I could just announce to the world and my interfaith community that a party is happening and that they're all invited and that they should abandon prior commitments.  That's just wrong!

Anyhow, I figured something out.  Since all but one of the leaders of the Bohol Goodwill Volunteers CC are members of the TS, I just did the convenient thing and turned the year's final TS Thursday meeting into an interfaith celebration as well.  I invited Adrienne, who was already a TS enthusiast anyway, to join and everyone was happy.  There was food, which I wasn't able to take photos of; there was laughter; and best of all, there was a harmonious conversation between people of different faiths.  They all learned something new from me last night.  We were few, so we occupied the usual conference table.  It served us well.  Everyone spoke and everyone listen to whomever was speaking.

I, however, declare that last night's session would be the last joined session.  The Theosophical Society, being a secret/esoteric society, does have its secrets and not everyone's ears may be readily open to receiving them.  Willingness to join both sessions held on separate days of the week is an option offered every Goodwill Volunteer starting 2011.

Check these out, anyway:

Mark opening the session

Salve Regina (in white) and I (in green V-neck)

Candles are relaxing, aren't they?

Dad

Manong Gil and Mark

Ate Cora, Adrienne, and Marjorie

Sleep and Shower and Inu and Children and Babies and Christmas

Well, right now it's 2:42AM and I don't feel like sleeping yet.  [LOL]  I chose to doze off after my previous post when the apparent right thing to do was take a quick hot steamy shower, grab a grande of (home-maid-made) cappuccino and attend my meeting at Gerry's.  Of course, I knew the moment I dove into the rumpled sheets of my bed that none of that had a chance of happening anymore.  Three hours isn't even realistic!  Not even for just 15 hours or awake time.  I'm a real sucker for sleep.  Believe me!

I woke up at 10:00PM!  Go figure!  [More LOL]  I, in turn, woke the maid up for some dinner and a bottle of frozen chocolate milk.  I took the entire thing up here afterwards.  It's seriously addictive!  Not a problem, though, 'cause there's plenty more in the fridge to go around.

Anyway, I just finished writing a page-long letter to distribute to the captains of every single Barangay in the vicinity of Loay Interior Highway all the way though Candelaria, Dagohoy.

Check this out!

We've mass produced this and we're going to start distributing copies all over the north tomorrow.

Anyway, so much about those sad things.  You may be wondering why my title says what it says.  Well, the reason why is this:  I decided to scan blogs on Blogger by clicking the next blog button on the heads up section of the page.  The first two pages I got to were of a couple and their children.  I was, like, "okay, coincidence, maybe."  I moved on by clicking on next again.  I wanted to land on a food blog or something like that, but no matter how many times I clicked, I would always land on something about children and babies and how happy a certain Christian family is with their Christmas celebration.

What ever gave blogger.com the idea that I wanted to read about an American family's holiday celebration?  Well, I kind of actually read them anyway--enjoyably at that--so Blogger probably tapped into my subconscious.  It was way different from how my family celebrated Christmas, but very similar in emotional aspects.  Of course, the American families didn't have fire rituals on the night of the Winter Solstice, but they had good food on Christmas eve just like we did.  They had their Christmas ham while we had our Christmas roast pig. They had presents and we had ours to.  The most poignant part of my readings was sharing the family's joy even in this small way.  It was like I transported myself back in time and I joined their celebration like I was a member of the family myself.

Anyway, I need to end this here.  I've got loads to do.

EMI, Not A Single Minute of Sleep and Mom's Lost Puppy

No, not those tiny little matches that easily ignite.  I mean Electro-magnetic Interference.  It turns out the extra monitor I have for my notebook is one.  It's such a bummer.  Its presence, whether functional or otherwise, causes my notebook's wi-fi signal reception to crawl from four bars to a staggering two.  Gahd!  The killer part is it's gonna slow me down even if it's not turned on.  Its mere presence hinders my ability to connect to the world.  Isn't that such a bummer?  Sure, it enables me to see more of my work, but it comes at a great cost.

Okay, you're probably thinking right now, "Can this guy get any stupider?"  Of course I can.  Like duh!  I yelled around Facebook last night about this in, like, two sentences and I told the world I'd head straight to the hardware store to get an Ethernet cable right when I wake up.  Well, I didn't exactly violate that 'cause I never actually got any sleep.  Yes, you got that.  Literally, not a single minute of sleep since getting up at 1:00PM yesterday afternoon.

Hmmm...  I wonder why.  Maybe it's because of that black peppermint Americano coffee I had last night at Bo's.  Do you think so, too?  Well, of course.  No other explanation.  I burned my tongue with that heat last night and it still stings up to now.  My taste buds aren't functioning very well, so I didn't enjoy my lunch.

I'm supposed to take a quick shower after writing this entry and head straight to Gerry's Grill for a meeting, but it's raining and I feel like taking a nap.  Rain, oh, rain, why do you torment me so?

Hey, we've strayed so far from Ethernet cables now.  So, anyway, I'm going to get a couple of yards of that thick wire so I can get going.  I cannot wait for the carpenter to nail this thing in place!  I'll just grab my tacker and let it crawl like a wild vine until I'm successfully able to get the other end where I need it to be--my room. What am I saying?  My grandmother's going to murder me if I ever do anything like that!

Of course, I'm not serious!  Duh!

Oh my!  I just noticed me causing myself annoyance.  Wow!  Am I amazing or what?

Oh, yeah, Inu, my mom's Akita Inu, disappeared.  I won't tell you how and why because people are going to get hurt.  All I'm going to say about it is the fact that it wasn't my fault at all.  I was in Cebu when it happened.  Mom already ran a radio broadcast message all over the province of Bohol and now we're printing flyers.  Go figure!  I'm going to have a specialized collar made for Janggo so he won't get ever lost.



My world is spinning!  Should I gulp down another grande of concentrated Americano and force myself to stay up or should I be an opportunist and gamble on three hours of sleep?  I don't know.