haircut to clean up the oil spill

Who hasn't heard about this? Who wants to help out? For my part... I'm spreading the word for other people to get hair cuts at Ricky Reyes and other salons that have committed to donate the hair to create oil-absorbing brooms/sacks.

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Dear Friends,

With 2 million liters of oil spillage each day leaking out to destroy what is left of our natural resources along in Guimaras, recent reports say it is the worst natural disaster our country is facing. As i type, the oil spillage slowly encompasses the areas around Guimaras Island and is now moving up towards the north through Guimaras Strait, damaging Panay and Negros in its wake. Families dependent on their fishing livelihood are robbed of their means of living. Our rich seafood is contaminated, and we are slowly but surely killed with health problems resulting from this terrible environmental disaster.

The Visayan Sea Squadron have started volunteer work to help out fishermen, residents and fellow ilonggos who have been badly affected. With heavy hearts and tearful eyes, they watch helplessly as oil slick and sludge slowly ate up what was left of the rich marine life that was carefully proected by Guimaras. A few more days and it will reach Eastancia and the northern area of Iloilo, where Panay's fishing port is located.

We encourage fellow filipinos to help out in the cause of preventing its spillage to reach further waters, and as much as possible, clean up the damage done. We appeal to all filipinos to help out and be more aware of the situation. We appeal to members of Congress, the Senate and other government officials to help us by thoroughly investigating this matter and TAKE ACTION.

It is for this cause that i am coordinating with them to create this donation drive. In lieu of cash, we are readily accepting donations of fishing rubber boots, rubber gloves and masks for the volunteers and fisherfolk who are, as i type, working to clean up the damage, with no thought of their health. They go through the muck in sandals and slippers, with not even a mask to protect their lungs. We also accept donations of hair and chicken feathers to create brooms needed to mop up the oil.

Our first shipment of donations will be on the 30th of August, 2006. Due to those who were unable to send us donations during the week, we have extended our initial deadline to that date. For those in the QC area, please send over donations to 12 Highland drive Blueridge A, Katipunan Q.C. Please contact the number below if you want to have your donations picked up instead. :-)

Cash is also a good alternative, for those who shall donate this, we will be buying the much needed materials for you, and put the donation under your name. Please contact the individuals below on where to channel the cash donations if ever, since we don't have an account up yet. You can also send it in through the address given.We thank all those who have readily sent cash and the abovementioned donations, your efforts and willingness to help have given much needed hope to us and families affected by this disaster. Our next shipment shall be on the Sept. 5, 2006.

Please attach with your donations your name and contact number so we can update you on the progress .You can also contact these numbers for more info and volunteer help:
Archie (0919 2253262)
Haydee (0928 2313193)
Lette (0915.7854035)
You can also email us at cleanupoilspill@....
You can also drop off donations (cash or kind) at the following:*
College of Fine Arts in UP-Diliman, Q.C. -please look for Jen Alfon (faculty)

For more information and updates, please check greenpeace.org, and projectsunrise.org .

kapihan with korong tres

thank you myls for giving me the easiest deed request: make time for coffee with the choir (though konting hiya factor for the fact that she had to ask this to make sure i'd come.. sigh so sorry for the busy-busyhan).

i've been with the zone 3 choir of project 4 for 15 years now (whoa). And through the years, i've seen all sorts of talented people pass through... or stay. and what i love the most about the choir is that they are the most "totoong tao" that i have ever come across. and boy, do they help me laugh at life.

every 'despedida' gathering forces me to contemplate on my ties with the people around me... and the history that comes along with it. the choir has been years of sunday masses, weekly makulit practices, nervous concerts, triumphant performances, crazy outings... and friendships...

haay. thank you for the coffee, the music and everything else in between.

the invitation

I have had girlfriends all my life. And by girlfriends I mean gal pals. We have been sharing our joys and woes at our various relationships... stories of parents, siblings, workers, other friends, and most especially, stories of lovers. And just as relationships rise and fall, we find ourselves running to our girlfriends, seeking solace, finding comfort, gaining strength and growing in wisdom.

One such gal pal is in need of this kind of sheltering sanctuary... but she's miles and miles away from all that is familiar and comforting. So, via cyberspace, I now do what i usually do for girlfriends in need of wisdom... I give them the words of someone else.

"The Invitation" is a poem which captures my own view of a lifetime commitment. If we choose someone, and they choose us, we should be aware of what it really means to invite them into our lives and vice versa. Because we all deserve nothing less than what is wonderful.

"Life is hard. And life is wonderful. “The Invitation” is about finding what we need-the inspiration, the intimacy, the courage and the commitment to live fully, every day." - oriah mountain dreamer

photo taken in germany... there's a couple somewhere in the back of this courtyard resto... 2005

THE INVITATION

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
copyright © 1999 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

dreams come true! (an update)

okay, so roughly 8 weeks ago, i made a call out to the world,... asking for pledges to help me reach my dream... and amazingly, miraculously, touchingly so... with the help of so many people, my dream has come (and is continually coming) true!!

SALAMAT!!

i had basically just hoped to reach 100 people for P300 pledges by August 15,... and due to some over pledging from some excessively generous people, i have now reached (drumrolls please) P37,000. And the pledges are still coming.

PLANE TICKET BOUGHT!!

SALAMAT!!

fulfillment of more good deed requests to come.

mga ngiti para kay caring & james

"Higit sa paglipad ng guni-guni ay pagpagaspas ng pakpak ng utak
Higit sa pangarap ay pagpunla, pag-ani at paglingap
Higit sa Alay kay Aloy ay Alay ni Aloy!

Bumabati sa iyong napipintong paglalakbay, James & Caring"

Caring is a poet and an artist. And even in her deed request, she touches on the beauty of the simplest of things.

Connecticut is 12 hours away from us. For a week, when I wake up, she requests for a smile that will carry over to her and greet her "magandang gabi"... and in my night, another smile to greet her mornings.

Hindi man ito ngiti.. pero patawa na lang...

Book Bigayan for dicky

Roderick "dicky" Manalo has given me the freedom to choose a good deed for him. Well, I dedicate something that I'm working on for RockEd Philippines (www.rockedphilippines.org). Check out this group, they're revolutionizing the pinoy youth, one young mind at a time.

In answer to the dishearteningly sad lack of books in public schools, RockEd has launched a Book Bigayan Drive. People are invited to donate old textbooks, encyclopedias, fiction books, novels, etc, which you think can contribute to the learnings of grade schools and highschools across the country. Some of the drop-off points are Mag-Net, conspiracy bar cafe and saguijo. I offer my home as a Book Bigayan drop-off point to all those who would like to donate (um, yes, I'll explain to my mom eventually why people are dropping off stuff when she's desperately trying to purge the house of extra thingies)

cross-stitching for a friend

the longest-running deed so far. hermrei asked me to cross-stitch a design for his sister (hmm.. sister ba talaga?). and i did this deed/favor with much gusto because, mostly, hermrei is one of my favorite people in the people in the world, he makes me laugh all the time (mostly because his own laugh is hilarious), and i do in fact love cross-stitching. special mention to ate janice for helping me out as well when i got too busy.

plugging western union from Malaysia

Childhood friend Ato has helped in making my dream come true as well... all the way from Malaysia.

He sent his pledge via Western Union. And although he said it wasn't necessary for me to do a good deed for him, he did go to great lengths in describing to me the beauty of the Western Union service.

1. It's real time. The moment someone from one end of the world (e.g. Malaysia) makes a deposit, the other person from the semi-other end (e.g. Philippines) can get it already.

2. There's a western union in almost every corner of the Philippines. In fact, our country may have the most number of outlets in the world.

3. It's well-established and is one of the oldest remittance institutions. Does anyone else seem to remember western union in the "Back to the Future" series... how michael j fox of the cowboy past sent himself a telegram??

4. In some countries, where IDs are non-existent, the sender can just give a question, and the receiver can pick it up by answering the question. O da va, customized to the culture.

Hmm. I should mention that Ato works in the IT firm that developed the Western Union technology, to explain the commercial nature of this post.

OFWs around the world use the remittance system all the time. And i've never really appreciated the importance of this process until i was at the receiving end... holding the cash in my hand and murmuring 'wow, the money reached me, that's a relief'. Multiply it by the need of a family who has a whole list of expenses: enrollments, hospitalizations and maybe just basic food & house expenses. Wow. That's really a relief then.

sorry for the silence

I apologize for whoever has been passing by to check updates... all, what? five of us? (day, aimee, astrid, te...who else? hahaha). Just came back from a davao trip with college friends. We bought our tickets last March when Cebu pacific came out with a P10 promo fare. Round trip that cost about P2,000 each. Not bad, except for the fact that they won't serve food and most of their flights were delayed. But i will not bitch about them because, after all, if not for them, we wouldn't have been able to get together and do davao. Besides, i also enjoy their in-flight games. Promos are still ongoing www.cebupacificair.com.


More posts about the trip to come as some of the things we did there were deed-related.

prayers for UPSCALadies

Awww... I heart you guys!

These 4 lovely ladies are longtime friends from UPSCA. Three of them head the UPSCA Scholarship Fund--- which is currently supporting a scholar in taking his UP Fine Arts degree.

Not all of them have given their deed requests. But for Analy and Laarni, my prayers that both your loved-ones pass the bar (for Analy's James and Laarni's sister Balot).

Do good. Live simply. Pray.