LIFE OF A NATION-BUILDER: Adventures and Misadventures

Published last September 2010.

It's been 5 months and 3 days now that I left the comforts of home, of family and friends, of Cebu!!  These past 5 months have been filled with daily doses of new learnings, new sense of freedom, new inspirations, new friends, new adventures, so many "firsts", self- discovery, and small to big time surprises. God can never be outdone. And it was just yesterday that I again decided to push myself and try to set aside the laziness so I am able to write about my new GK adventures and finding a family and a home away from home. Woot! So this blog's gonna be numbered for now because I am going to compress the 5 months in one looooooong post.

1. First LRT ride. Memorable!!! On our way to Irwin Theater, Ateneo for the 2nd GK Ateneo Heroes  Academy (AHA). Commuting from one place to another is an adventure especially when it's your first time taking that route but I always make sure that I can call or text someone anytime and have enough money to take a detour, well, if ever I get lost for maybe more than an hour, then ride a cab! But so far, haven't taken a detour yet.

Speedy LRT.

2. GK Ateneo Heroes Academy. Inspiring to see the young especially those in our GK communities to be part of that musicale after a week of creative training with the best from Ateneo. Kudos to the Ateneo community who has been supportive and working with GK, all the way.

The talented SIGAs do what they do best: sing, dance, act and inspire which almost brought me to tears. Trying my best to control it though. :)

3. GK CYD Olympics. It was a rainy Saturday morning but the rain didn't stop the kids from getting all excited and ready for the day's event filled with lots of sports, games, prizes and lots of cheering. Woohoo! And there's free Chuckie and Selecta ice cream too!

These kids are just talented and amazing. The audience were just holding their breathe and watching their every stunt and praying that no one would get hurt with all the liftings that they're doing. Good job, kids!

4. GK Builder's Night. 5 Builder's Night in all. And it gets better everytime. Inspiring and mind-blowing. Hearing the respective stories of every GK champion, volunteer and resident never fails to to make me excited over and over again of what God has planned for GK and the many lives that it has touched and will continue to touch. 

5. I turned 22. Yay! Celebrate, celebrate! Special thanks to the Llabans. They wouldn't allow us to go home after the Builder's Night because it was my special day and a special day has to be celebrated. And so this wonderful couple treated us to a late night dinner at UCC Cafe. Then, honoring came after.

With the most gwapo Llaban in the world, SEV! Thanks for sharing the cake with me Sevy!

6. Spending time with my relatives in Laguna on free weekends. I love it there! I can take whatever I want from their fridge and I get to practice my Ilonggo. And spending time with them means reconnecting with my mama's Ilonggo roots which I know will mean a lot to her since we haven't been going home to Iloilo as a family for a long time now.

With my two pretty and "kulit" cousins. Their laughter and stories never fail to cheer me up!

7. Visiting GK villages, which I would like to do more often. The transformation is just captivating and truly is a work of God.

with GK volunteers from France. Even if they aren't really that fluent in English, we had fun talking and exchanging stories with them. (I was the photographer, in case you were looking for me. :)

Ate May's first turn-over ceremony here in Luzon. and we decided to join her for moral support! all the way to Pangil, Laguna. yey!

8. Trekking after the turn-over ceremony and the sumptuous lunch! Yay!

So we were trekking on water...huh? haha. Btaw, it was more of like a 600 metres trek then ride a raft then trek again, then  ride a raft, we repeated that exercise around 3 or 4 times and the end of it was the pot of gold! The short but powerful waterfalls.

9. Nonoy's Inauguration. But we weren't there. We spent that holiday in the office to keep Ate Melai company since she had office stuff to finish.

with the Green Kalusugan team since they had a meeting that day too. watching Noynoy speak, livestreaming, and everyone listening intently and clapping and cheering at the right moment.

10. Decided to tag along with the CYD team for the whole day, shooting at Bulacan then in Bagong Silang for a GK video featuring the CYD program. Inspiring stories of letting go of old ways and living a new life because of Gawad Kalinga. And the fruit that GK has bore especially hearing the stories of the kids who were in Sibol or in Sagip when GK started and are now actively part of the SIGA program at present is just moving.

Tita Tess and Tito Dale Lugue. One of the teams who started GK in Bagong SIlang with Tito Tony Meloto. I have goosebumps whenever I hear how GK started years ago. Thank you CYD team and ate Jill for allowing me to tag along that day.

talented SAGIPs who came from SIBOL.

11. PBA Live. My first. It was my first time in Araneta too. Soooo excited! Thank you GK PMG for adopting us and for the free tickets.

watching PBA live at Araneta Coliseum with the GK PG people. Thank you Rain or Shine for the free tickets! and to ate Pinky too. :)

12. Divisoria is love and the place to be for people who enjoy buying cheap stuff like me and my roommates!!

13. Paraisong Pambata. Ascott sponsored and will be sponsoring Paraisong Pambatas in around 10 GK sites. So we came to help out in the second one. Fun, fun, fun! I miss serving and spending time in a jungle of kids, their smiles, their laughters, never fails to remind me that this is one of the reasons why I will never stop working and praying for GK's grand vision of GK2024.

JOLLIBEE!!! The smiles and the excitement on their faces are priceless! Way to go, Ascott!

 14. Goodbye Gutom Day. This event was held in 4 different places simultaneous and me and my roommates went to GK Amalia Village Tarlac. A first for me to visit a GK Bayan-Anihan Farm. Another item crushed out from my GK Bucket List. Wootwoot!

GK Globe Farm.

15. SBMA training at Subic. We all got body pains after the two day training but it was really inspiring to meet another breed of heroes who dedicate their life to save other people's lives.

Proud to be able to meet another breed of heroes and proud to be part of the GK Team! Whoah! (correct spelling of the chant, according to Kuya Dan)

That's it for now. Just want to document everything I've been up to while away from the family cause I promised my younger siblings that I'll update them from time to time. And I wanted to finish this so I can start really writing about my GK adventures without compressing them this time. I'm going to CamSur tomorrow with four other GK co-workers to help prepare for the CamSur marathon. Yay! Excited!

GK EXPO 2010 is fast approaching too! Exciting days coming up!

Praise God for GK.