The Epic Summit in Yogyakarta

It's been more than a month since I've had the chance to blog. I've been extremely busy since I went back to work and I must say that I've had to carefully manage my energy so I could complete my tasks everyday. It's not been easy since I'm still not a hundred percent back to normal. I don't really know what normal for me would be, but I'm just taking each day as it comes.

I spent a whole week last week in Yogyakarta, Indonesia where we held the first ever community summit of the GBGs, GDGs, GSAs and mappers. It was truly an ambitious event, moreso since I'm still recuperating but with careful planning (5 Ps!) we managed to come out with an epic event!

Two Days Before

I arrived in Yogya from Singapore. What I didn't know was I managed to escape the haze that plagued Singapore. No wonder I had a hard time breathing when I arrived late Sunday evening. When I arrived in Yogyakarta, Hadi whisked me away to UGM for Pepi's project launch. I hope my Bahasa wasn't so bad!

One Day Before

Just stayed in the hotel preparing my presos, having meetings and running around to check preps. During dinner some of the delegates started to arrive! Van said that he had adopted the Vietnamese GSAs during their flight to Yogya. =)

(Photos)

Day Zero

I'm glad I "saved energy" because I felt like I had adopted more than a hundred kids! Really happy that they were so participative and excited.

(Photos)

Day One

I was so nervous before I got onstage but I realized this was a dream come true for me to bring together all the communities in one event. I just hope that they will all share the same passion I have to get more people to do projects that will make an impact in their own countries.

There was one thing I forgot to mention during my opening and it was about my outfit. I wore a Tboli dress because I wanted to show that even in our own little way we can make an impact. Last year GDG Philippines ran a Map Your Town competition and the winner, Nanardzx, chose Lake Sebu Central Elementary School as his beneficiary. The school caters mostly to Tboli children and in the last few weeks utilized the donation to reconstruct the perimeter walls in their school. Warm, fuzzy feeling <3

(Photos)

Day Two

We had sessions for most of day 2 but what was inspiring was the performances made by the communities, led by the GSAs. My colleague, Andrew, said that the kids were truly sincere in sharing their own culture. Unscripted, full of heart... love.

(Photos)

Day Three

Saddest day ever when almost everyone headed home. I shed some tears when the GSAs started to bid goodbye to me.

(Photos)


The SEA Outreach Summit was truly an epic event for me. I am looking forward to next year's summit where I should be back to normal (and maybe next year I'm going to jump in the pool too!).

Thank you to everybody who took time and effort to travel all the way to beautiful Yogyakarta. Hadi and Nee Khern for being strong and keeping calm! My bosses, Nelson and William for the all-out support! My brother-colleagues, Sebastian, Sunil, Monirul, Rohan, Phillip and Badar, for help and moral support and helping us keep calm. Ola, Chelle, Andrew, Noha and Miriam who we kept bugging for content! My extended Google family, Sam, Pepi, Janet and Wendy! My lovely friends and kids from Southeast Asia and South Asia! Yansen and Putri and the rest of the gang, yes, I love you! And special thanks to my Pinoy friends for constantly checking on me and reminding me to rest and eat.

Vote 2013

When I was a kid my Dad stressed out that we had to vote. I became a registered voter when I was just 15 years old so I could participate in the Sangguniang Kabataan elections. I wasn't able to vote though in the 1992 elections because I was still underage. Even so my Dad encouraged me to be a participative citizen. Before I became a full-fledged voter I had already experienced being a PPCRV volunteer and a pollwatcher.

In the last few years though my health hasn't allowed me to volunteer to help out with the elections so I had to find new ways of being participative. In 2010, me and Google-engineer friend, Dan Delima, came up with the app Find Your Precinct. I thought that the clustering of 280,000 precincts to just 80,000 was going to create confusion among voters. And this held true as I saw a lot of disgruntled voters in 2010 who didn't know that their precinct location changed.

I pushed to get out of medical leave so I could help run the project again and I'm really happy that we had 30 precinct mapUps across the country in the last 3 weeks. This also allowed citizens to participate in the elections and potentially help millions of voters who need help to locate their precincts. [To all those who volunteered thank you for the bottom of my newly repaired heart!] Google Philippines also came out with an elections page which helped me check the list of candidates in the national and local elections (I didn't like the thought of scouting for flyers or going to the barangay hall to check the list).

My precinct a day before.

It's still early, please go out and vote! If you aren't registered then maybe you can help map more precincts by going to http://www.findyourprecinct.ph!

[BTW, thank you to the DepEd teachers, our community doctor (Dr. Guzman), and neighbors for assisting me so I didn't have to line up to vote. The heat was really awful and could've spelled disaster for me.]

Precinct Mapping

Getting people to map has been my passion in the last few years and I'm glad I found a buddy who can translate my idea into something useful for a lot of people. Couple that with a company and friends and community who supports crazy ideas equals a useful app for voters and those who want to volunteer.

I really pushed hard to get back to work in order to run this project again for this year's election and I was deliriously happy when it was featured on Jessica Soho's State of the Nation and ANC Alerts.




Weee! Thanks a heap Dan, Gail, Ryan, Vince, Reymart, Juned, Chelle, Allan, Vanj, JR, Theo, Bernie, Yen, Anne, Richard, Noel, Avel, Doc Remo, Andrew, Clint, Ryann, Ruben, Bino, AJ, Fatz, Yunel and the many, many people who contributed to make this project successful (hope I didn't forget anyone!).

*This post was blogged on a Chromebook! (A borrowed one hehe). 

Third Life: the GenSan and Lake Sebu Adventure

I finally went home exactly a month ago and promptly lost any free time to blog. It's amazing though how being closer to family and friends contribute to faster recovery. When I went home a month ago I was huffing and puffing all over the place (getting off the plane and walking to the baggage area was like running a marathon for me) and the heat was just terrible. Eventually though with a lot of encouragement from Sweetie, Mom and Miguel, I slowly adjusted back to my regular routine -- work and domestic chores.

Getting up and down a flight of stairs was a huge achievement for me. I had to re-learn quickly since I went to GenSan on the third week of April and local airports usually don't have passenger tubes to walk on. I was just really happy to see my friends and the communities I work with. They took care of me really well (thanks Avel and Chelle!) and it was a relief to have Doc Remo around all the time (in case of emergency!).

Aside from visiting GenSan for some events we also went to Lake Sebu to visit the school Nanardzx chose as his beneficiary when he won the GDG Map Your Town competition last year. Lake Sebu Central Elementary School is located high up in the mountains in Lake Sebu, about 2 hours away from GenSan. The people were so warm and lovely (thank you Mrs. Manalac!) and I just wish we can do more to help.

It's always been my dream to try on the T'boli traditional attire (this is because my best friend stayed there for about a month when we were teenagers) and so I did! They fixed me up like a princess! (I loved the outfit so much I bought it hehe).

My doctor said during my check up last weekend that my heart is finally clear of unnecessary fluids, but I need to work on my stamina. So I'm doing well but need to listen to my body. I still feel the some odd pain at times (especially when it's hot) but I'm happy I don't need to drink any painkiller or maintenance medicine. My concentration has been a lot better and I think my family and team is benefiting from this (I hope!). Hopefully by end of May my stamina will be back so I could travel on my own and visit my many friends across Southeast Asia!

(Oh, do notice that G+ commenting has been enabled on my blog!). 

Grounded No More

My Mom left this note for Sweetie when she left for Manila last January after my surgery. My eyes welled up when I read the note since my Mom is quite reserved, so this note spoke volumes.

I just came back from a check-up. Both my cardio and surgeon have finally allowed me to go home to Manila (yay!) but cautioned I shouldn't go back yet to my rigorous travel schedule. My surgeon declared that the ordeal is finally over after seeing that there was no more water in my heart sac. Both my doctors said they were really worried about me and were both very happy about my recovery.

Dr. Shankar, my surgeon said that I'm where I am now because sheer willpower, my positive disposition and my beautiful family. I said that it was the only way to go and I'm lucky to have such a loving and caring family.

The secret sauce though is faith. The best decision I made in my life was to turn over the navigation and purpose to God. When I did that my life got so much better and any challenges did not seem so overwhelming. Aside from love my faith was the only thing I held on to during my surgery. I told myself that I would survive it if it was God's Will and if I didn't then I thought my mission has been completed and it was time to be reunited with my Dad.

I did survive, so I'm now praying for my new mission. It hasn't come to me yet probably because I should focus on fully recovering first. It will come in good time.

A blessed Holy Week to everyone!

A Review

I stopped listing down resolutions at the beginning of the year. The last one I made was in 2011 and I even made a disclaimer that it's not just for the year, but for a decade. I'm happy to say that I've completed about half of it. Most of the things I've completed are the big ticket items:

- do something about my leaky heart (check!)
- buy a car (Minnie! check!)
- do the writing project (started!)
- travel (too much last year! check!)
- time with family (last year was bad, so started rectifying things this year)
- work on investments (moved into new home! check!)
- work on service (finished Parish website! choir duties every time I'm home. check!)
- cooking (not much last year, diet has changed this year)

2 things I'm not able to complete:
- grow an organic garden (all the plants died, I have a brown thumb, cry)
- work on crafts (I've lost interest and gave all my stuff to my Mom)

With my leaky heart behind me I've been thinking about what to do in the next few years. I'm still trying to figure it out and hopefully I'd be able to come out with a plan in the next few weeks. 

Things I'm Going to Do When I'm Back Home

If you follow me on my G+, Twitter or Plurk you'd know I can't wait to go home. I've been grounded for a few months now in Singapore because my doctor wants to make sure I'm okay before I leave. My doctor did say though that I could probably go home by April! Hooray!

I think I look much better now and my colleagues can attest that I don't look greenish anymore. Some have said I don't look like I went through heart surgery. I still hug a pillow though when I walk around so that's my dead giveaway. In any case I realized after spending two half-days at the office this week that I still need to take it slowly and conscientiously do my exercises (like malling!).

Here's my progress in the last 10 weeks.

There's a lot to do when I'm back home so I thought I'd make a list:

(1) Do groceries so I can cook (with assistance from Miguel who now knows how to cook adobo).

(2) Buy a couch. We have a long way to go before we complete the furniture needed at home. One missing item is a couch. I need a couch because I'm a full time couch potato!

(3) Visit the nail salon. I can't reach my toes yet. I need to get rid of my monster toe nails.

(4) Visit the salon. The weeks spent in the hospital has damaged my hair and I badly need a trim. Mom says my hair has reached mermaid length.

(5) Thank God by hearing mass on Easter at our church.

Of course I can't wait to see the rest of my family and friends ;)