Blogs from Philippines, Asia - page 326

Talcum-fine white sands, crystal-clear calm waters, the culture, the people - these are just few reasons why I can't get enough of this paradise called Boracay. Enthralled by my first Boracay getaway same time last year, I told myself that I would definitely go back. Since, it’s another long vacation with the proclamation of Oct31-Nov01 as Non-working holidays, we decided to experience the Boracay-fun again. This time, since I, like most of the people here in the country, am experiencing some cash problems, thought of some ways, so as not to deprive myself of my passion for traveling, and still enjoy Boracay, even if I’m on a budget. Thanks to the Strong Republic Nautical Highway, better known as RORO (roll-on roll-off), since this enhances travelers to go to tourist spots on an alternate route. Traveli... read more

Welcome home Ety! As a welcome gift to Ety Bea who was coming back from US, we went to Badian island, Cebu. Our first choice was Plantation Bay but it was fully booked and we ended going to Badian Island - we never regretted. Good thing I was able to accumulate enough PAL miles to bring us to and from Cebu at Mabuhay class. From the airport, we were picked up by a van included in the package we availed from a Travel agency we got via Internet - it was a 3 hours drive down south Mactan, Cebu airport. Badian Island just opened their doors to locals last year - we were the only Filipino family spending vacation this time. Badian Island is different. You won't see the crew going around much. It was ... read more

I’m in the office eating my lunch when my celphone rang; it’s my cousin, inviting us to join them to Boracay with my balikbayan auntie. I was quite exited because this is my first time to go to Boracay but I’m also hesitant because we just been to Singapore and Malaysia four months ago and I don’t have enough money for another trip. But thanks to my parents and sister the money problem was settled. We booked on a 3 days 2 nights package tour for Php 6,200. Included in the package were hotel accommodation, plane tickets and free breakfast meal. Our flight to Boracay was 5:00 in the morning, we were the first among the group came to the domestic airport. Luckily after a few minutes of waiting my cousins finally came. We immediately checked ... read more

Now that I have had the pleasure of helping to establish a new center in Iloilo City, I have moved on to another aspect of the Scala program. I recently spent a few days in Batangas City, Batangas with Sarah and the DSWD monitoring one of the Scala centers. This particular center began in 2004, has trained 7 batches of out of school youth (OSY) so far, and has just started on its eighth batch. This center is also interesting because it is run by the PSWDO (the provincial social welfare and development office), as opposed to the CSWDO (the city). This means that instead of being responsible for training the OSY in one city alone, they are involved with training all of the OSY from the local municipalities, 33 of them in this case. Of ... read more

Having finished my placement in Iloilo City and started work with Sarah at the national office, I have had a chance to reflect on my experiences (and mistakes) from the past several months. Overall, I believe that the main thing I have learned thus far is what makes a good leader. In my opinion, this is particularly important for development work, especially since capacity building depends to a great extent on how good a leader you are. So I have revised my original idea of what a leader is. Some of it is still classically what I consider a good leader, but I also procured some of the most important traits from people that I know are good leaders. So the following is my list of what I think makes an effective leader:  Someone who ... read more