An Amazing Milestone, Congratulations GEG Philippines!

Congratulations are in order for GEG Philippines! DepEd has recognized the community as a professional learning community! This is a huge milestone for the community that started 7 years ago. My heart is bursting with so much pride and happiness.

The first GEG APAC Leaders Summit was hosted in Manila (2015). 

The teacher community was piloted in the Philippines. The first one was founded in Baguio City and launched in January 2014. Teachers from both the public and private sector came together for the first meet-up. It was a fun day of sharing ideas and challenges on what to do with the community. What was great about it was getting the support also of the business community. 

GEG Baguio launch (January 2014).

Many people ask me why people volunteer to join and lead communities. It stems from the passion to learn, share and help others do the same. I always believed that many people want to help, they just need to be empowered to do great things. I have seen this also in the other communities I have incubated - the GDG, GBG, the mappers and those who volunteered when I did crisis response. 

I've been on medical leave twice now (second one still ongoing). When I had heart surgery I was gone for four months. My colleagues asked me how come my communities were still active even though I wasn't around. I told them it was never about me. It's about the people behind the community. They are spurred by their passion to help others. And that's why I know they will continue to flourish even without me. 

The journey to what GEG Philippines has achieved wasn't an easy one. Teachers are very busy people, but when the pandemic started they all jumped at the chance to help others learn how to use online tools. I have lost count on how many webinars they have hosted. And there's a lot to learn from them, I always pick up something new when I watch their sessions. 

Congratulations GEG Philippines! I won't mention any names here because I might not be able to list everyone (brain fog is real guyz), but always know that all of you are always in my heart and I am grateful for all you do. Give yourselves a pat in the back for all the help you have provided for other teachers. I hope something I could see all of you in person again! 

*I wanted to share more photos, but I have a gazillion! Ping me if you're looking for any photos. 

 CB///*Yr2/149 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/172 #NewG298 #Home56 #Xmas109 #StayHome #BeKind 

Comfort Food

One of the things I had a hard time adjusting to here in Singapore is the food. It was always difficult to choose what to eat because I'm so used to eating Filipino food. Well, I've also been pihikan with food since I was a child. Well it spurred me to learn to cook more Filipino dishes. I also always brought back longganisa, tocino, hotdog and Purefoods corned beef whenever I had the chance.

In the past few years more and more consumables from home has been imported here in Singapore. I used to have to go to Lucky Plaza or specialty shops to buy what I needed. They slowly added more products in supermarkets and eventually in online supermarkets. Items were easily snapped up and there was a time I panicked when I ran out of suka and toyo. Haha! 

So today I cooked some Mama Sita champorado. It certainly brought back happy childhood memories. We always had this at home for merienda. Daddy always paired it with tuyo. I still remember the aroma of chocolate plus tuyo and suka. It was the good old days. 

I look forward to going home. I've been praying for a smooth transition back home (no untoward incidents please!). A few months ago I ordered a specialty recipe book on traditional food from Quezon (I'm also looking for a Bicol one). One of the things I want to do is learn how to cook Daddy's favorites from Lucban (his hometown). I wish I had him teach me more dishes when he was still around. It was hard though because he never measured anything. So I only learned to make his mustasa and beef dish (recipe here).

It's raining hard outside, bagyo levels with howling winds. We don't have typhoons here in Singapore, but we've been getting heavy rain lately. It's strangely comforting and I guess a way for me to be prepared for home. 

What's your comfort food?

 CB///*Yr2/148 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/171 #NewG299 #Home57 #Xmas110 #StayHome #BeKind

Indestructible

"There's nothing you cannot do," is a lesson my parents taught me growing up. They impressed this on me whenever I would share my fears (like recitation!). They also told me how Ate topped the chemical engineering board exam. She set aside her nervousness while taking the exam. I learned to take a deep breath and pray to calm myself before I do anything that makes me nervous. 

Abating fears is not easy especially if you have anxiety. It's often hard to quiet down the voices in your head. I've recently had to deal with being medically ineligible to get vaccinated. At the prodding of my respiratory doctor I rechecked with my vascular doctor if I could get vaccinated. He said yes. I also checked with my cardiovascular surgeon and he said yes too. I trust my doctors, but of course I'm still scared because of the previous risks that were raised to me. 

So I prayed and asked God to remove my fears. My doctor gave instructions on how I should go about it. I then did some research and slowly started to understand why I should not be scared to get vaccinated. The NUH website gave advise for those medically ineligible. There were two important points that struck me:

(1) If medically ineligible check back with your specialist every few months because more data may be available (I was told no in June and by end August there was more information available for my doctor), (2) You are ineligible if you have low platelet count. [Source: NUH Infographic]

It was a blessing in disguise my other doctor ordered for a blood test. It included my blood count and I'm in the normal range (in fact it increased the past few months). Whew! What also helped me was Dr. Mike Hansen's video explaining the death of a doctor (video here). All of these just unfolded a few days after I prayed for help. I really want to do this for my family. 

I wasn't sure about writing about this today. I read first today's Kerygma reflection and was surprised to see the headline, "Do not fear, God is here". So I went ahead and wrote about how my parents taught me how to be resilient -- just have faith and trust in God! <3

"Say to the fearful of heart: Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. – Isaiah 35:4"

CB///*Yr2/147 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/170 #NewG300 #Home58 #Xmas111 #StayHome #BeKind

The Secret to Being Happy

Whew! Things are going back to normal. The past few days have been a bit hairy when I had to stop taking blood thinners for the test that was postponed. I'm not sure why I felt unwell. I even had a fever. It must have been caused by stress. I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to be poked for another test. I had prayed really hard that it wouldn't have to be done again. Well it wasn't, but it's going to be rescheduled haha. I think I need to make my prayer request clearer! 

My doctor sent me a nice video this morning. It's the speech of Gaur Gopal about how to increase happiness. To sum it up he said you cannot get away from problems, but you can make your life happier by living a life of thankfulness.

Being grateful is key to being happy. I shared to a friend something I learned from Chade Meng Tan on how you can immediately bring joy back. In the class I attended he shared you can simply be grateful for others. It goes this way... Yesterday, I saw a friend post about a nurse who took care of her family when they got infected by the coronavirus. It was a post to show her appreciation and gratefulness for the help. I immediately felt grateful for the help her family got from the nurse. God really sends guardian angels to help us. 

And that sustained me yesterday through my hospital stay. I was still feeling unwell last night, so I did a gratefulness exercise to feel better. I started by feeling grateful for the nurse who inserted the plot on my hand. When I ripped off the bandage I saw just a small dot from the needle, no bruising (that's rare!). Then I was grateful for the grumpy Gojek drive who still picked us up (he was insisting we put the wrong point lol). And best of all, I was grateful for Sweetie for staying with me the whole day. Sitting on a chair just waiting must've been very painful for him. My feet were still icy cold, but I felt much better when we went to sleep.

I realized that a lot of the life coaches are saying the same thing - be grateful to be happy. 

CB///*Yr2/146 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/169 #NewG301 #Home59 #Xmas112 #StayHome #BeKind

When You Can't Perform...

"When you can't perform...

Japorms!"

This is a quotable quote from my friend Marc Macalua. He said this over ten years ago when we used to play badminton. So basically, if you can't be productive or give your best, just dress up for the occasion. LOL.

And that's what happened to me today. I woke up early for my appointment at the hospital. Sweetie accompanied me and we arrived at the center ahead of schedule. I was promptly checked in and the nurse called me to get my vitals. I had a slight fever. I was ushered to my room and started the long wait.

After two hours one of the doctors came to my room and said I was required to be swabbed. It was my second time to be swabbed so I wasn't freaked out about it anymore. Lucky me, the doctor conducted the swab. It wasn't so bad.

I fell asleep after that and a nurse came in a few hours later to let me know that the swab results was going to take longer than expected. Yikes! By this time I was quite hungry and thirsty already because I was asked to fast after eating breakfast. 

We thought things were going to proceed already because I was asked to change. They also installed the plot on my hand and got some blood. An hour later I was told that they would have to reschedule the test.

And that's how I ended up dressing for the part today. I told Sweetie I want to have a nice sumptuous dinner. Hrhrhr.

CB///*Yr2/145 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/168 #NewG302 #Home60 #Xmas113 #StayHome #BeKind  

Managing Triggers

I haven't been sleeping well again the past few days. I'm scheduled for a test again tomorrow and I'm a bit anxious about it. My doctors have poked me so many times this year, but I never get used to it (and you shouldn't!). Aside from that I've had to deal with other things that set off my PTSD. 

The past year has been a test of patience and resilience. It's something a lot of pulmonary embolism survivors go through. In our patient group there's always someone who asks for help to deal with anxiety. This stems from the feat that you can clot again and you can die from it. I've had two clotting episodes and the second one has been really hard to recover from because the first one is still around! 

To recover from an illness you have to be strong mentally. I only started getting better when I got help. My doctor advised that you need to understand your triggers. You also need to be able to arrest the trigger and purposely pull yourself to another direction. It's not easy to do. I cried the other day because my doctor scolded me for asking too many questions. He apologized after a few minutes, but it already made me feel so bad. 

When the tears started to fall Sweetie asked what was wrong. I told him I got super stressed. In between hiccups I told him I needed milk tea haha. The tears immediately stopped. To be honest I had a hard time sleeping that night because of the incident. I felt better yesterday, but was once again triggered when a friend said I was fat. It took me hours to fall asleep again. I finally did when I thought about my dog Jolly. 

Yesterday's Didache reflection by Bo Sanchez was helpful of putting things in proper perspective. He said instead of battling "demons" think of the incident as God's way. You can think of the triggers as a way to deal with issues or as a way of learning. Now I will always ask myself, "What is God trying to teach me?". This will help me stay away from feeling bad and getting emotional. 

Please pray for me tomorrow as I undergo another test. May God bless the hands of the experts who will poke me again. 

CB///*Yr2/144 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/167 #NewG303 #Home61 #Xmas114 #StayHome #BeKind  

Hello Ber Months, Day 1 of the Christmas Season!

Oh wow it's already the ber months! Today marks the first day of the Christmas season in the Philippines. I wonder if they've started to play holiday songs on the radio and in malls. It wasn't always like this. We used to start celebrating only in November. My Mom would normally set November 30 as the day we set-up the tree since it's a holiday. I don't know when  it was declared that the Christmas season starts when the ber months come. 

I think celebrating Christmas for 100 days is a good idea. It always feels like your daily grind changes, since there's something to look forward to. I remember in my previous jobs we'd start preparing for the Christmas party towards the end of November. I was also usually part of the holiday party committee. It was always a busy time where you try to see all of your friends before the deluge of family reunions. 

I must admit in the past few years I've been so busy. We didn't even set-up a tree in 2019. I made up for it last year and set-up our decorations early. It was a good thing I did because my health went downhill by mid-December. It was really hard for our family to be miles part last year, but we managed. We're all looking forward to be complete this Christmas. Family is everything. 

I haven't really planned what we'll do for Christmas. I expect movement would still be very restricted. We also have to continue following all measures to keep safe. We'll probably just have a nice family meal at home, exchange gifts and I hope I'd be able to send some personally baked cupcakes to family and friends. Let's all hope for a happier and safer Christmas this year!

Merry Christmas!

CB///*Yr2/143 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/166 #NewG304 #Home62 #StayHome #BeKind