Dance of Life

and so I would like to make an entry about a great friend I missed for 2 years. 2 years na ba?

Welcome Back Ana! Although, she will be in Davao for a few weeks… at least I would get to see her.

and whenever somebody arrives..someone leaves..

Jona went to Cebu. I sure would miss you Jo! (She went after Giovanne, who went to Manila 2 months ago).

Recently, we’ve been doing early morning practices for our dance presentation this June.

I so much wanted to post about a lot of things… but I still can’t find time to finish it.. or in the mood to write about it. Some other time..

I’m back home! Before I share to you my experiences during the trip.. I would like to tell you the highlight of our latest Salumay Expedition (this post was in my drafts before I left).

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It seems like during summers we are making a habit of going to Salumay. Is it really becoming one of the summer spots here in Davao? Oh and everyone says it’s going to be Davao’s Summer Capital one of these days. It’s actually in a place called “Little Baguio District” or something. It’s cold and it is just an hour or so away from Davao City itself. It’s a very convenient vacation spot and not crowded.

We went there twice last year and we stayed over at the “Salumay Busay Resort“. This time, we were invited to a place owned by a family friend. It has a potato farm which runs on a program called hydrophonics or something. I’m not sure. On the way up to her place we passed by two private resorts named: “Garden of Gethsemane” and “D’ Captain’s Haven”.

But, before Gethsemane and D Captain’s Haven you have to go through a rough ride.

If you plan to go way beyond Salumay Busay Resort you must have a 4×4 ride. Cars are a no no - it would be pure torture. And as if to make it a bit worse, which is actually exciting to us young uns and a horror to the fathers who are driving their ride and own the car - it was raining.

Rain + Cold + Mud + Cliff ( barbwires acting like a fence, as if it makes a difference when you fall but of course you just have to thank their presence since you would know there’s a cliff) + Trees = Rough, Exciting Ride.

One thing we learned when we were there: is that, THERE IS NO TURNING BACK. Once you are there you are bound to finish the ride and make it to the end. There are roadblocks along the way that would make you want to quit and stop. Deciding to quit and stop and say you want OUT is easy, but you see the road is ONE-WAY {Check picture below:with the lush green scenery}.

There is no way you can make your car turn the other way around. Unless, of course there are well-able bodies that can carry your car and have it turn around which I think the chance of that happening would come off as 50/50 or even 30/70. Or if you are good at driving the car backwards with all it’s twists and turns.

But, of course.. all it needs is just a DECISION.

A Decision to move on whether we like it or not. And the chances of getting stuck in a mud is a RISK we have to take because there’s no way OUT.

And off we go. After a few cheers of passin the hardest part of the ride, we got off and voila! we arrived.

The Prayer we had when we were there:

Although there were roadblocks and we had to stop to contemplate whether to go or not to go and avoid getting stuck and once we all decided to just go on and take the challenge, you made us through. Lord, please help us get back home.

The kids went off and hiked down the hill, relieved to be out from the car.

It was foggy and drizzling that time and the ladies followed suit.

We had our lunch over there.

We also hiked up a hill and the scene was a WOW. A bit sunny but the wind was comforting. The place is vast and a great place to dream and imagine the future.

We went back around 3 in the afternoon. And thank God we were able to pass through the hardest part. It was a rough, bumpy ride. It wasn’t raining anymore, so we were at the back. I actually went home with muscle pains.

The kids were wearing “long faces” because they wanted to dive in the cold spring. They say it’s not “Salumay” if they don’t dive in… and so we gave them an hour to enjoy the spring.

The Fathers wanted the “Firstborns” to create a youth group and so while the kids were swimming we were divided into three groups. Each group has 8 members and the whole year round we will have tasks and projects to complete. Sounds fun!

The trip to Salumay is best enjoyed with friends and family.

As the saying goes, the more the merrier! Enjoy the remaining days of SUMMER! =)

I may not visit your blogs for the next few weeks because I’m once again out with my mom for trainings.

I’ll try to whenever I get the chance.

I’m supposed to post something about our recent trip to Salumay but then I don’t have the time to finish it maybe when I get back.

Till here.

See you and have a great day! *Do feel free to check my unfinished pages. Hehe.*

Welcome home Sis Ychel and Ate Ann.

My close girl friends whom I refer to as “sisters” (because our families are into a covenant relationship) were here last April 3. They arrived 8 in the evening. We dined and talked about movies (which I can’t relate to because I haven’t seen much movies like they do nowadays. But, it’s fun to hear them talk about it and it’s mostly Koreanovelas.) We were all laughing (specially Yhe) like there’s no tomorrow, getting a few updates from each other.

We started watching the movie Juno, like 10 in the evening and then proceeded to watch The Eye Infinity, which I watched 3 times to date. It still cracks me up until now, while munching on chips and drinking coffee and a bottle of Kalamansi Soda to boot. My sister, Darlene was not able to join us in watching because she slept early for her Eco-Camp the next day.

We slept around 3 in the morning, laughing and scaring ourselves on the way to the guest room. A few giggles and laughs can still come from our room from a dozen of bloopers. By then, almost everyone is tired, save for two (ate Jill and ate Kai) who prolly slept past 4 in the morning (I know this because I still hear them talking whenever I wake up).

Yhe was the first one to wake up and as an exercise we played the dance pad. After a few while like 10 in the morning almost everyone’s awake and were fixing coffee. There were cornflakes available for us but it’s quite late in the morning and everyone’s stomach was growling. We ate longganisa and sunny side up eggs as our brunch. By the time we were finished it was already 11 in the morning. Some played the piano and others played the sungka (a Pinoy game). While waiting for 3 in the afternoon because we planned to visit MTS for the popular “paintball” game everyone’s been talking about, we watched Tokyo Drift. The movie ended exactly 3 in the afternoon and we all got ready to pack up and leave.

Quarter to 4 we arrived at the vacant lot.

*take a look at the transformation

plain clothes *taken at our street*

to

the gear

Since, it was my first time it’s kind of awkward for me to don on the gear. I couldn’t even imagine myself playing and shooting. Wahaha. Of course, it won’t be fun to play with just the 5(five) of us pitting against each other. We invited our brothers to join us. All in all 7 of our brothers arrived (most of them were kids ages 10-15). We got V.G. to join our team. The kids exclaimed “Kids versus Teenagers”. They said they won’t have us (girls) in their time. Yes, kind of unfair. But, you see kids would shoot without mercy and us girls would definitely hesitate, specially if our brothers are there (at least that was the case for some of us).

The teenagers won two games. It’s always the kids who gets shot because in fairness to them they were the ones who charges and move while us (the girls except for V.G.) just stayed put and shoot them. Hehe. Well, not bad for a first timer, although I spent more time hiding than shooting. Haha. I still need to get used into using the gun and getting a hang out of shooting people.

I feel something is wrong. Now, I don’t want to be too cryptic here or anything but there’s definitely something wrong with how I “feel” with some people in our house. I know it is not them, but it’s me.

I usually get along with other people just right. But, when this one person came along, I don’t think I can interact with the person quite well. I tried, maybe not too hard because I still don’t know what to say or do when the person is around. And to think the person is a relative. I get annoyed or get uhm offended whenever the person starts to talk or give out a one-liner. I can’t even stand to be in one place with the person. I am in fact avoiding the person in any way I can. Although, there are a “few, teeny, weeny” times when we talk pleasantly to each other. But, then sometimes she gives out some lines that offends me. I know, I know nothing could offend me - unless I let it happen, but I don’t know why. And, that rarely happens! What happened to the live and let live person that is moi?

Are there really some people whom you can’t get along with ? If there is love at first sight could - “dislike during the first encounter” be possible too? And if love at first sight fails there is a chance for the dislike to fade…. and I’m waiting for that time. As of now, I don’t feel the person.

And that person triggers a chain reaction to the rest of the “people” in the home. The person is “loud” and the tendency is the rest of the people would tend to be loud and sarcastic at times. *sigh*

Sorry, if I keep referring to the person as “the person”, I just don’t want to reveal his/her identity. And just to be clear, I have nothing against the person… it’s just that I’m trying to decipher why I am reacting this way.

Updates:

• just had a slumber party with a few close friends I refer to as sisters.
• just went and played “paint ball” with them too along with our brothers.
•  finally got a copy of The Only Thing Between Us by Pamela Santos.

As stated on my previous post below, I will recount the surprise party we had for my mom(although, not in detail).

It was not exactly a “birthday” party, it was more of an “honoring”/”tribute” thing.

Where you give honor, to where honor is worth due.

Mom is kind of a hard person to surprise because she can pick up on what’s cooking so easily. So, it was quite a task to go and arrange for a surprise that won’t make her panic. Yes, she panics. She actually does not like surprises and the thought of having people spend for her makes her edgy. She’s used to giving but never really got the hand out of “receiving”. And, everyone close to her, knows that. And, just to let her know that she is pretty much cared about, we spent what we could for her special day and made it extra sweet and spicy *very, Indian huh?*

Anyway, we succeeded in surprising her.

Although, she admitted that she had an inkling because during the day we had this conversation:

Mom: Hey, we have a dinner date later in the night right?

Me: Huh? Oh yeah right the dinner…. yup.

Mom: Just us, right?

Me: *why does she have to ask that question?* Err uhm *grins*

and successfully changed the subject(or so I thought).

Mom was genuinely happy with the surprise. Everyone was very happy to give thanks to a person who made a difference in our lives. Who showed us a lot of things about life.

She said: “It’s the best!”.

We sang her favorite songs.

We played her favorite poem/song = Desiderata.

We gave her flowers she likes - roses in pink, yellow and white and also a carnation.

Shout outs to everyone who graced the event: Tay Ernie and Nay Joy, Nay Melma and Kuya Ding, Tay Jon and Nay Daisy, Nay Marilyn, the Heart Circle (Ate Disay, Ate Grace, Ate May, Kuya Lauro, Kuya Marlon, Kuya Denz, Ate Janz, Ate Maricel, kuya Jimuel, Kuya Ial, Ate Gere, Kuya Boyet, Kuya Welhem, and Kuya Rey), Aunt Emi and Kuya Alex.

Thanks to Gerry’s Grill for the great service and great food!

This month sure had a lot of surprises in stored for us. It’s more like egg-hunting and then finding one cute painted egg or something.

March 22, 2008

It’s Tay Ernie’s birthday and everyone’s planning to surprise him. We prepared a dance number from an instrumental music called “Roses of the South” { I think }. I’d prolly post the video in YouTube. Haha. Mind you, none of us are ballet dancers, save for one 6th grader over there. But, for the love of Tatay we would gladly dance… even if it means having ballet dancers laughing at our wrong posture and execution.

We celebrated it at Marco Polo…. and the Father’s sang some of Tatay’s favorite songs from the Beatles.

It was a fun night where everybody was dressed up which we rarely do.

March 23, 2008

Happy Easter! Tatay Ernie told us this is a much better cause for celebrating compared to Christmas. This is when Jesus proved that He was the King.

We presented our “Cantata” called “Then Came Sunday”. It’s a nice piece. And once again, my brother took the video. But, the memory on my digicam was limited and he wasn’t able to take the whole presentation. Huuu. T_T. But, the memory of being in SPS during 6p.m for (2) two weeks and getting a scratchy throat because of singing would live with me.

What’s the surprise this time?

Well, it’s this:

We had a backdrop which you can see at a picture below:

It’s actually a SUN rising up… and one amusing part was about the moon behind the backdrop which was positioned just the same while we were singing and a few minutes after we sang { that’s why I got to see it, in case you are wondering why I know}.

There’s another set of surprise, which I will reveal in a few days because it deserves to be stated on another post and it involves my mom.

Updates:

I’m so slow on updates. I’m so busy. But, people don’t get me wrong here I do get to stop and smell the roses (or the sweet aroma of my coffee and milk). I’m not the busy type who never got around to remember all the sweet things in life.

Have a sweet weekend.

P.S. Oh and I joined the Candy Blog Awards for 2008. I might as well join while I’m still qualified (my age). Will nominate a few bloggers within the age range in a few while.

I just got hooked to one blog yesterday that’s been making quite a Netwide scandal ever since March 4. I found out about it in a blog while “blog hopping” { blog hopping sure does one wonders, and you’d get informed by what’s happening lately }. This blog, which got lost while I was hopping from one blog to another because I wasn’t really planning to post something about it but there’s just too much I can relate to the one who is behind the blog.

Anyway, the blog that I stumbled upon was talking about it and that blog did not mention “the blog” {man, it sounds like some tongue twister} and just told the readers that it pretty much talked about Manila’s Young Elite. I was curious. Not that I care much about high society or anything classy because that’s pretty much out of my league - in fact I am uncomfy when it comes to meeting people with class and all. But, of course my curiosity got me. There’s always something about “elites” partying and having their pictures on society pages.

The stats of the blog is a wonder and a blogger’s dream. Comments ranges from100 - 300 per post - and yes the post were all sensational and mentioned some of the guys in the society league.

Anyway, this blog would just have been - “another blog for gossip and something to talk about”. In fact, that was my first impression. But, as I read on I felt compassionate about the one behind the blog and a pity to the “young elites”.

I found quite a few relevant issues that happened to us - but on entirely different circumstances, and that’s because “the one behind the blog” talked about people known in the Manila Society and ours were just people in our “circle” or our “company”. Few relevant issues would be the “Betrayal of trust” - specially when it comes and involves MONEY. How, I’ve come to learn about it in just 4 short years and with so many people “close to us” involved and relationships were marred and because of that I wanted so much to study human psychology.

But oh well, things like that really happens. Some people would do just about everything to get their hands on money.

They say “money is the root of all evil“. No. That’s not true. In my experience, it’s the “Love of money that is the root of all evil“. Money can make us comfortable and that’s just part of abundance not the whole of it. Napoleon Hill says there are 12 great riches of Life and guess what? The only tangible of the12 is Money(12th), the rest are intangible.

Oh and if you want to know about the blog…. you can ask our Google friend about it. It works wonders.

Image Credit: Newsweek

After more years of being in school, we figured how to add 1 + 1, we know who was the first President of the Philippines, we memorized different countries with their corresponding capitals, but some pressing questions of asking ourselves “Who Am I?” is still a mystery to all. If not, to 95% of the population in the world.

We know what direction the earth rotates and where migrating birds fly in the autumn but we don’t know where or which way to go.

We know who wrote “To be or not to be”, but we don’t know the answer.

We know the role of a hyena and a gazelle but we don’t know what ours could be.

We know how to spell and how to make sentences and essays but we don’t know how to love and forgive ourselves.

But that’s life. The many secrets of life and the essentials such as knowing who we are, are not taught in school because it prolly takes valor and perseverance that can be found only in a self-inspired pursuit and not to be imposed to just about anyone.

Updates:

I’m joining a Cantata. I’m not much of a singer but if you are in a choir and your voice would just blend in with the rest of the group, I guess it would be alright. I just joined for experience and they were really needing more people to join the choir for our Special Easter Celebration this 23. I’ll have someone take a video of it when we present it, for remembrance.

I enjoyed our Cantata practice done every night 6pm @ the SPS canteen. { before I joined I had a bit of an argument with Mom because she wants me to be with the Soprano 2 group and not the Alto. Nyahaha. But, in the end I had to be in the Soprano 2. My sister’s on Soprano 1, she has an amazing, cool voice, by the way. } Basically, there weren’t any people my age. Although, Abigail’s there and Kuya Jason too. Also the young-uns, Darlene, Jethro and Joseph, but the rest are older than us. Everyone’s a family member and the Cantata was supposed to be with lots of kids and teenies but most of them are busy with “school” and “exams”. Our fathers loves to kid around and it sure makes the practice fun.

and I heard the ladies are to waltz or whatever dance they can think of this 22 for a birthday celebration in Marco Polo… and we will start to practice this Monday.

Sing and dance this March? Now, that’s cool.

The Villains of my stage play.

So, let me introduce to you to a couple of people who knows nothing in life except waiting to pounce over some issues “about us” they can manipulate and spread around the whole network. But, I pretty much understand why they are around to antagonize us all throughout our lifetime.

A little bit of history.

They used to be my parent’s friends. They go out together, network together. They celebrate fun times together here and there. Whenever someone from out-of-town visits our place, the four couples (that includes my mom) would jump in and pay for whatever expenses and usually it’s done with “Hating Kapatid“.

It was a nice friendship, one we thought would never end.

But, sometimes when their wavelength falls short from yours, the tendency is they will try to break away. Because the “attraction” that bonds you from the beginning would begin to fade away. Remember: Like attracts Like.

Those three couples loves the sound of “EXCLUSIVITY”. They love to keep knowledge within their group and very adamant not to share it to anybody. Their usual come-on would be this: “Hey, may sekreto ako sa pagpapayaman. Wag mo sabihin sa iba. Sa grupo lang natin to. Training tayo, pero walang outsiders o cross lines ha?”

Not the exact same lines but basically the same idea. And they do sometimes train in our Service Center and somehow the Network knows their group loves exclusivity and so they just shrug and prolly say “what can we do anyway?”.

My parents on the other hand do not believe in exclusivity. They love to share whatever it is that would help people get what they want in life. Cross Lines or not. It doesn’t matter. What matters is, you are a person who wants to help yourself.

So, I guess that’s one of those clashing factors that made the attraction fade.

When Mom left for India year 2005, their friendship by then was strained. You can find story HERE.

There are three couples right? So, let’s hide them from codenames na lang, to protect their identity.

1 stands for the husband and 2 would stand for the wife ok?

We have Couple #1 with code names O1 and O2, Couple #2 with code names S1 and S2 and Couple #3 with code names G1 and G2.

These three couples tried every nifty thing to get us out of the company. They’ve mailed the owner of the company to get my parents terminated. They mailed the Head Office and made “7 accusations” with “Exhibits” (a word for evidence used on Courts).We got a copy of the 7 accusations and by the looks of it and after reading it, I know they did not get any legal advice. They perceive us as the “Evil that must be Stopped” and that they are the “Good people who must do something about the Evil”.

One good thing is that in every accusation we have legal documents, evidences and letters that would prove that their “accusations” are all hearsay.

And when I say, they tried every “nifty” thing, everything unimaginable happens. Super. They even tried to humiliate us in front of other Network Leaders which was sooo painful that time but now it’s just some bad experience that I choose to remember because of our response to those kind of situations. You see they have a knack to humiliate people. They don’t care specially 02. Decency, is the least of their worries. Almost every people in the network knows their true colors already.

We were not the only people they have “tortured” and spread rumors about. We are JUST ONE OF THEM.

and so whenever I hear stories about friends betraying them,I know how you feel because we’ve had the worst. and even family members, which would be another story.

You tried so hard to help them achieve what they want and then in the end when they earn big moolahs and they got what they want materially, they go around “blasting other people out of the way”.

and you know what ? when I was younger I also did something to a friend, which I coined “wrong”. She did something so off, but my reaction to the situation was not good, and that’s something I am trying to correct and undo. The next thing on my mind is to make amends to that friend of ours, and I mean it.

I’m sharing you this story not because I want the bad light to go to them but just to show you that even though they do bad things you can still thank them for what they are doing.

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen. I THANK THEM. I am grateful because they made us a better person. You wouldn’t know you are someone better unless some situation of the same effect happens once again. And, I guess this is somewhat re-inventing the past in a much bigger scale and with very strong opponents. I learned so much from them. They are perfect examples of people I don’t want to be when I’m older.

We did not take any legal action against them which we have every right to. We did not take a hand against them. No. Never. Nu-uh. Zilch. Nada. Wala talaga.

There is no call to hit the dog, you never hit someone beneath you. Revenge wouldn’t take us anywhere it produces nothing in the end. Revenge only risks yourself becoming the person you hate and hurting yourself along the way.

Mom: Dogs bark, but the caravan must move on.

and dogs don’t stop barking, that’s proven.

But of course, they all have a chance to change whenever they realize they are stepping on other people and pulling people down. They have every right to rise above who they are right now - if they want to. And, that’s entirely their own choice. Meanwhile, they are enjoying what they are doing and so be it.

All I know, is that we are still here and open to reconciliations. Not closing any doors to friendship. Because, that’s how it is. Love your enemy. And, I finally understand how it’s done. Ordinarily, people would have every right to fight back and be mad but that’s not our case.