ANTICIPATION: EXCITEMENT: TEAMWORK: JOY: SATISFACTION

                                                                                                                                 …are the words I would choose.

This morning, the arrival of a new day came with the anticipation of what lay ahead. For some, Worm Day would be the day where all of our hard work and dedication would finally be put to the test. For others, it would be a day filled with a roller-coaster of emotions and of personal growth. However, at the end of the day each of us went to bed with a sense of fulfillment or satisfaction =).   

Rough outline of today’s activities:

ê      Bright and early wake-up call followed by knocking at our doors (we didn’t want anyone to sleep in and miss the big day!!).

ê      Loading of the bus, roll call, picking-up high school students, and breakfast on the go- McDonalds (Thank you Noelle and Christian).

ê      Arrival at Alaska Elementary School and scrambling to get everything set up before the students descended upon us (ex. we had to move chairs, hang posters, figure out how the booths were going to be run and by who…) .

ê      The first of at least 3 waves of students makes an entrance (chaos LOL)!!!

ê      Somewhere in between the waves of students we managed to take a break for lunch (we had an assortment of sandwiches in the preschooler’s classroom).

ê      As a grand finale, our fabulous MCs came up with a worm day dance to which all the students and Mentors could join in on.  

ê      Once worm day was officially over, we all pitched in and cleaned up the aftermath.

ê      When arriving back to the hotel we all HEADED STRAIGHT TO THE SHOWERS to scrub off all the, dirt, sweat, and grime that we accumulated throughout the day!!!!

ê      For dinner we went out to a Chinese restaurant with Christian’s family (yummy to my tummy).

ê      After dinner we headed back to the hotel and those who wanted to go clubbing got ready for that while the others retired early.

ê      Those that decided to go clubbing also had the opportunity to meet Ryan who was one of last year’s project Philippines leaders.

Calling it a night!!!!!

We followed the format of previous days: working on our projects in the morning and meeting up with students in the afternoon. Our Children-Centered team started on storyboarding the comic, which looks like its going great.

With the students, we started with them presenting about something important to them. It was really interesting to see so many of them present Catholic relics as objects of sentimental value.

During the leadership workshop, we asked the students to think on service leadership. The answers that we got were surprising in their maturity level. I don’t think I could have answered at 14 years, in a language that was not my first language, that service leadership was like being a shepherd. That the shepherd was nothing without the sheep he serves.

Finally, we hung around after the project to watch the students prepare for a school celebration. Our “kids”, because I’m already feeling very big sisterly towards them, were involved in a sort of cultural festival. This was my first exposure to Filipino culture not on MTV, and its interesting how there were so many similarities with Malaysian culture and yet I could pick out so many differences.

I’ve been having a great time learning Cebuano which is so similar to Malay, even more so than Tagalog. Anam is enam in Malay, which means 6. Cool, no?

Pictures coming soon.

Although the schedule was the same as yesterday, today had a totally different feel.

Meals (these are really important to me, so I’m writing about it): Noelle and Christian brought back Dunkin Donuts and muffins for breakfast. After a request for “lighter” foods for meals, Christian announced he was putting all of us on a diet. Thus for lunch, we had a picnic in the UP Cebu courtyard with chicken or tuna sandwiches and Chippy chips that Diana really likes. Mmm-mm good. We ate dinner at the hotel like yesterday while finishing up our materials.

Work Session: Today, the other half of students came to meet us (yesterday they were test taking). These students work so well with each other and thrive off of one another. We can’t wait for Saturday to have the whole group of students together so we can better see the dynamics of their group, get to know them better, and provide opportunities for them to develop their individual weaker areas. During the session, we talked about service leadership and personal development in one on one mentoring groups, worked diligently on our materials, and generally had a great day. We picked a title for the comic book too … The Adventures of Worminator and Friends: Volume Juan. Also, we learned a very important thing from Ms. Belle: 3 girls have a crush on Keito! What a heartthrob!

The team: We seemed even more energetic today even though some are sick, sleep deprived, and generally loopy. We’re pretty tight-knit at this point. Crossing these crazy dangerous streets, working late at night, and poking fun at each other about everything has made us a close 18 member family. The Andrew Plan was the lone man in charge since Lorra had to take care of more things today. I have to say, Dad did pretty well all by his lonesome.

In closing, Chinh declares sweatin’ up a storm and spraying bug spray all up in there not classy.

(Violetta)

The first surprise came this morning when we first boarded our bus, a blue, spray-painted affair with a rickety engine, seats that had given up all hope and had disintegrated, and a roof that leaked profusely whenever it rained. Our driver struggled to control the bus as it careered down the streets of Cebu, much like that rusty old spacecraft they find in The Clone Wars. (If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a great movie to watch.)

Today we steamed over to the University of Cebu, where we first got around to organizing the day’s events (of course, the highlight of the morning proper was Andrew’s awe-inspiring guitar performance in the hotel lounge, thanks to the bus’s delay, watched over by countless Asian tourists who stopped to admire, smile, and take pictures). At UC, we all made preparations for the afternoon welcoming of the high schoolers, getting the schedule ready and thinking of funn activities for them to do.

Then came lunch — Jollibee (fried chicken and rice or pasta). With gravy! Mmmm, yummy.

After lunch came the afternoon. The afternoon brought with it the high school students, who arrived at 2pm. (We sat around for about an hour playing games and having funn; I’m still curious about Melissa’s “German Porn Star” though…)

Then the high schoolers arrived… and our afternoon took off! We got into mentorship groups and we introduced each other, and disussed their stake in the project. The students were really enthusiastic, and very friendly. Each of them seemed to want to improve their leadership skills, not to mention to serve their community.

In the Learning Leadership team, the students came up with some interesting plans for the booths and games for the Worm Day fair and in-class visit. Each seemed to have certain expectations about the students (especially, for example, making the distinction between younger students and older students), and made plans accordingly. I was pleasantly surprised at their maturity and experience in handling such issues.

At 5pm, after we bid farewell to the high school students, we strolled over for dinner, and we tasted some delectable Filipino dishes: Sinigang, pork belly, and Adobong. Yumm. kku

Welcome to the Philippines, SEALNet PP08!

We’re off to a great start! Today was our first time with the entire team together! After Lorra and a few others finished picking up everyone from the airport and giving them a warm welcome, many of us explored the local Robinson mall for lunch. We walked around the department store looking for good shoes for project days, got lost up and down the escalators, secured some awesome nametags for the kids from stationary store, and got our share of Mang Inasal bbq.

A few more team members trickled in towards dinnertime and by the evening we were good to go. After a scrumptious Chinese dinner on the 20th floor, we convened for our first team meeting. We introduced ourselves, discussed our personal and group stakes in this project, drafted our intended impacts on the audiences we’re working with, and recorded our metrics for evaluating outcomes. Above all, we are going to strive to provide ethical, effective, sustainable, and FUNN education about worm control and prevention. It was a very uplifting meeting in which brains from around the world put their ideas, aspirations, and values out on the table towards a common purpose. We all agreed on making our team discussions a safe space for members to personally “stretch” their own boundaries and abilities.

Tomorrow should be great. We’re meeting the high schoolers and one of our sponsors for dinner! For now..yay PP08!!

Meera