Llavac, Quezon

Last 2005, Joseph was Camp Director of the CISV Dap-ayan Village in Baguio City. He claimed to want to retire after that. He has been a twice JC, twice Adult Leader and to be Camp Director is the ultimate goal. Having achieved this in 2005 with a lot of intrigues and drama, he bid CISV goodbye and gave me the go-signal to continue....

Sometime in April of this year, Tito Tom Adarme of CISV Manila, who is also a member of the ODC in CISV International, sent me a text message, asking me if Joseph would be interested to be an International Camp Director for a CISV Village in Guangzhou, China..... I relayed the invitation to Joseph and he was very excited. Tito Tom informed us that he was approached by CISV China, Japan and Korea to help get international directors and staffers for their villages. Joseph was eyed for China but eventually, he was assigned to direct the village in Seoul, Korea. To finalize the assignment, we were invited to meet with Junko, IEC Vice President, together with the directors eventually chosen for China and Japan, Tito Ike and Tita Nining. The venue of the gathering cum screening (hehehe) was in the farm of Tito Tom in Llavac, Quezon.

Tito Tom is an architect by profession and his farm attests to this..... The houses are well thought of. Everything is perfect. The improvements blend with nature instead of competing with it. The farm is a haven for those who want some peace and tranquility. The food was superb.... For the adventurers, there is still an avenue for your streak because there is a 40 meter slide leading to the freshwater pool.... It was a great great weekend.....

Marj and Den's beautiful wedding in beautiful Boracay (starring Paolo Lorenzo Cabato)

Ten years ago when I was a newly married sophomore at the Ateneo Law School, I found out I was pregnant after promising my parents that we would avoid pregnancy.... To abbreviate this story which promises to be long, I had to take a year off from law school.

I was left behind by my batch.... My good friends Kat, Con and Leyton went ahead of me and I was at home taking care of newborn Nico. After a year off from school, I went back with much anxiety. Who will my friends be? Who will dictate the answers to me during class recitations? Argh!

Then I met Marj. She with the American ba or British accent and the deep vocabulary words. She hails from Cebu. She made me laugh and she was really a great find....

We would burn the telephone lines talking about anything and everything.... Back then, I thought that she would never get married.... Then I found out that I was pregnant again!!!! Wow, after finding a friend in my new batch, does that mean I'll get left behind again?

Through luck and hard work, I carried my second son (Liam) during my 4th year in law school.... In the words of Marj, kuto ako ng canteen that time.... When I finally gave birth to Liam, he was 10.2 lbs..... Marj is Liam's ninang....

Fast forward to the early 2000s, Marj told me that she was involved with Den, a fellow Atenean... From my original batch... My jaw dropped... Marj? in a relationship? Oh well, wonders never cease.... This is the reason why when she told me she was getting married in Boracay in December 2007, I booked tickets 6 months in advance... That is how much I wanted this to happen. :)

Nico and Liam were chosen by Marj to read the prayers of the faithful. Did I mention her deep vocabulary words? She made my kids read words with 15 syllables! Joke....

In church pa lang I was thinking what a wonderful beautiful wedding was unfolding before my eyes. It is just palpable in the air that the couple were so much in love and will be happy forever! After the wedding, we went to Seawind for the reception. Drinks and shisha for the cocktail hour..... Picture taking galore! Syempre we had fantabulous food...

Eto na.... Paolo, my youngest son, aka, the most eligible bachelor, was going around the party sans yaya making friends with anyone and everyone.... He was the hit of the party.... He joined tables. Danced with girls and had the bestest time.... He was such a darling... And Marj was smitten, as all the other guests were.... Paolo kissed everyone at the slightest prodding....

He made such an impression that the next morning, while we were bathing in the beach, Marj's wedding ninang approached us with this opening line: "We woke up with Paolo on our minds, can we take him to our resort?" hahahahaha....

Boracay

Last 2006, my good friend Kat initiated me to the Cebupac piso deal. When the same promo was offered in 2007, I was also informed that my law school friend and Liam's ninang was planning to get married in Boracay in December. To thicken the plot, I convinced another family to come with us and take advantage of the Piso promo. Jo Salazar is the senior partner in our law office. His wife Edith and I are gym and shopping buddies. I've watched their kids grow up......This is our Boracay adventure. It was great to be with my kids for five full days of sun and fun, plus a wedding of a dear friend in between......

We were lucky that I got to scout Boracay in July that year when I went there for my CISV post camp evaluation. We stayed then at Sur located at Station 1 and I really enjoyed the place and thought that it would be great for when my kids would be with me......

This is the best vacation ever. Sur did not disappoint. They pampered us with their gracious hospitality. It seems that there was nothing we can want that they will not oblige to give. I felt safe with the kids just running around in the beach while I lounge on the beach chairs and have a beer or a massage. We tried all the recommended "to-dos" in Boracay.... Another plus is that I got to attend the wedding of Marj to Den.... It was the funnest wedding Ive been to.... But I had to admit that I cried during the exchange of wedding vows....

I am going on and on without any direction, it seems. This happens if you tell your story three months after the fact.....All I can say is that a vacation taken with close friends, to be with close friends and family cannot be surpassed. Hoping for more piso trips.......... The memories are priceless......

The kids cannot stop talking about the trip.....

Super delayed blogging

After seminar camp in July 2007, I got so totally smitten with facebook and how easy it was to post pictures and just label them. But i do miss the magic of the written word, to actually describe what happened to your friends and everyone who cared to read. This is the reason why I am trying to recreate what happened to me and my family since I got attacked by blogging procrastination.

After I got back from camp, I tried to make up for lost time. I spent so much time with my kids and planned vacations with them.... I guess its the mother's guilt working there. Parang to justify being absent for a month, you have to bring tons of pasalubong and take them to fancy places. I just missed my family so....

The next time we had a free weekend, Jo and I took the kids swimming in Pangasinan. Syempre, we went to our favorite resort in Dagupan. This was in October. Here are some of our pictures....

Post camp

After camp ended and our boracay evaluation was finished, we all had a special birthday party for giles.... It was great fun but also sad because we knew that we had little time to be together. Its a good thing Giles and Eli agreed to come up to Baguio for a short visit.... Im so happy they got to meet my family and my kids because I wanted my kids to understand why I went away for a month and I think hearing all of our camp stories made them appreciate why I love cisv....

Big CISV Love! Seminar Camp at the Beach, Philippines 2007

This is a long overdue blog. I posted the pictures right after my camp and failed to write anything about it. After a month of being away, I was overtaken by events.... By work, by my kids and so many other things....

Last July 2007, I was lucky enough to be assigned as homestaff for a CISV Seminar Camp in Matuod, Batangas. CISV is the acronym for Children's International Summer Villages, an organization, Joseph and I have been involved in for years. I went to India 4 years ago as a leader and after training for Seminar Camp, I applied for this post.

Seminar Camp is for participants from 17-18 years old. For our seminar camp, we had Maggs (Phils), Tanya (Phils), Giles (Australia), Tom (Great Britain), and Eli (Germany) as STAFF. We had participants from Italy (Marcelo and Fede), Philippines (Marianna), Czech Republic (Matej and Zuzana), Israel (Noam, Amit, Tomer and Rona), Sweden (Calle and Linnea), Germany (Dominick and Marie), Finland (Salla), Thailand (Ping and Ploy), Netherlands (Lizzy), Brazil (Camila), Norway (Hanne), France (Louis), Portugal (Murta and Margarida).

The pictures would show that we had a beautiful campsite with amazing and breathtaking sunsets everyday. Almost a year from camp, I still look back with fondness. I still marvel at the ideas and fresh insight of the participants. I still reminisce about all the times we spent just hanging out and exchanging stories and experiences about our respective countries. I still remember the many things I learned from everyone.

It is difficult to explain what CISV is and what the seminar camp is all about. Let's just say that from the moment I started doing CISV work, I got totally hooked.... I miss the staff.... Jun jun, Boyet and Eli. Mostly I miss Tanya, my fellow pinay in the staff. I gave up one month of family and work time to do CISV work because I believe in its goals.....


HIGHLIGHTS: I had my birthday in camp.....

Its my first time to be away from my family and I really thought I would be sad and lonely for my kids. On the day itself, we had our LMO activity. Our LMO was the Matuod Free School. There is this lovely woman named Marlyn who runs a day care cum pre school in Matuod for free. The school is right on the beach and most of the kids are children of the fishermen in the locality whose ages are between 5 to 12 years old. We planned games and activities we could play with the kids, we brought food to share and the participants brought books from their respective countries to donate and share with kids. It was a very different but fulfilling birthday for me. When we arrived back at the campsite, we started preparing for dinner which was just
what we usually have then Amit cut his finger and had to be brought to the hospital... I thought that was it. But when they came back, the staff presented a beautiful song they composed for me.... It was very nice and sweet..... I must say, to have a song sung about you is the greatest pleasure ever. Para kang superstar!

After camp, we decided to have our post camp evaluation in Boracay. This is really just for staff but we invited the participants to come along. We braved the habagat. While we were working, the kids (they're just 18 so they're kids to me!) were having the time of their lives....

Pero we also tried to have a few drinks and also to enjoy ourselves. We deserved it!

Here's another look at the Matuod skyline.... i miss everyone....

But this July, Im off to another seminar camp as international staff.... I cant wait....

Sea of Dreams