Community

My parents were very active in our parish when I was growing up. Most of the visitors at home were our neighbors. They'd have meetings and parties often. It was the community I grew up in and that's where I learned that you can do a lot of good when you volunteer. 

The biggest project my parents were involved in was helping build our parish church. A lot of the meetings happened at home and I remember the huge fundraising activity they organized. I was always in tow since I think I was one of the youngest children in the group. 

I posted the photo above on my page and Tito Henry commented on it. He said that my Dad made them proud to be part of the community. Yes, my parents always welcomed people to help in any way they can. I saw my Mom's multitude of lists for ticket selling, donations, and lists of groups. 

As much as I'm an introvert, I also joined some groups in our parish and they are still my friends until today. As introverted as I am, I actually built communities as part of my job. The communities were volunteer groups to help others learn and most are still around even though I retired. The secret was growing up within a tight community. 

I tried doing some volunteer work a few months ago, but alas, my body is just too messed up and I'm unable to commit. Stress always brings me down, so I apologized and pulled out. I tend to do things whole-heartedly, but I need to focus on my health. Maybe someday I can be more productive and helpful. 

Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

How Volunteerism Works

In my previous job I built several communities. The first one started because I saw people were eager to learn. I wasn't the best person to teach so I got help from those who could. I saw it as a natural step because I learned about volunteerism from my parents. 

I was just a toddler when they volunteered to help build our parish church. It took years and I saw first hand how different people contributed to reach their goal. They even hosted a fund-raising activity where they were able to get famous stars to entertain. Through that they were able to raise enough funds to build our beautiful parish church. 

GTUG before it became GDG. Brian Tan Seng was one of those kind hearted people who volunteered to help teach other developers. Also thanks to O&B for supporting the first few meetups!

The community I started didn't even have a proper name. Together with some volunteers, we started by organizing learning sessions. We were luckily supported by startup companies. They provided the venue and some snacks. Eventually the efforts grew and a proper program was created. That took years to hone. Eventually, the program was expanded and we built other communities. 

Building things from scratch was hard. Getting the support for it even harder. I shed a lot of blood and tears to get support. The most difficult task I encountered was convincing my VP. A common question I always got was, "Why would these people volunteer to teach others?" "Do we need to pay them?" "Why would they want to map?" 

GenSan mapUp.

I fiercely fought for my communities when I ended up reporting directly to the VP. I convinced him to come to the Philippines and brought all the community leaders to my event. Brought them together in a session and had the leaders speak their minds. I wanted my VP to understand that when you work with like-minded people -- those who wanted to help teach others -- the movement will grow. I did that because I knew I couldn't do everything by myself. These volunteers taught others, mapped the country, helped during crisis, mapped all precincts among others. Your child's teacher? Probably learned the ropes of online learning through volunteers.

The celebratory dinner after the "aha!" moment.

And I found a lot of selfless people who wanted to help others. It started with developers, then entrepreneurs, then teachers. I did the same for students (now I have 400 kids calling me Mommy across the region haha). It eventually didn't matter whether I could speak their language, they shared the same passion and saw what others were doing. The communities eventually taught the rest of the world how they could help in their own way. 

It was sheer willpower to organize a mapUp in a country where very few people spoke English.

Volunteerism works when you have the same goals and the right purpose. That's what we're seeing now across the country as people come together to support a candidate that's been working with volunteers throughout her life. :)

Note to self: I can go on and on about this and leadership. I can probably write a book about it haha. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Reconnecting 10 Years

I always knew that I would eventually go back home. That made it really hard for me to adjust to life in Singapore. It did not help that I had to travel a lot. It was impossible to put down any roots or establish deeper relationships. I did make some friends, but between traveling and being sick half the time it did not really leave me enough time to socialize. I'm grateful for the friends who have been patiently been there for me the past ten years. 

Two years ago I realized I needed to make a better effort at keeping in touch with my friends back home. It's not really enough to let your presence felt by liking their posts or leaving comments. I missed a lot of important occasions already and I felt I needed to be physically present for get togethers. So in 2019 I organized a get-together and then I went home again to surprise someone for a birthday. It made me really happy and it helped my healing journey. 

I'm so blessed to have friends who are always just there for me. It's really important to have a solid support group. Last night we had a farewell video call for one of our friends who's moving to the US. We ended up looking at our old photos and it felt like no time was lost. The funny thing is when we're together we don't feel we've all aged. I really look forward to going home and being able to send them stuff from my kitchen. And hopefully have those get-togethers again (eventually). 

Day 22 Minimalism Challenge, Evaluate your storage. I have been doing this by part in the past week. I started with my fabric stash since I realized I just kept ordering fabric without checking my stash haha (#fabricaddict). I made a list of projects and then a list of fabric I need to complete those projects. Now I just need to make sure I stick to those projects haha. We're also evaluating our freezer today since we need to start emptying it before we go home. I'll be making a list also of things to cook for the next few weeks and won't be doing groceries anymore. 

CB///*Yr2/133 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/156 #NewG313 #Home71 #StayHome #BeKind