Merry Christmas!

Shaine’s GK experience

Together with SMARTees Cabanatuan, Michael Shaine visited the Gawad Kalinga (GK) community in Bakod Bayan, in the same city to share some goods and inspiration to 57 families.

There she witnessed how SMARTees and volunteers from CFC Singles worked together to bring some joy to the children and hope for the older members of the community.

Aside from gift-giving, which was made possible by the donations personally given by the local telecoms employees, there were games for the young and old as well as grooming activities like bath-taking, tooth brushing and nail cutting, facilitated by the CFC members.

Brushing time

Ligaya, one of the children who received a free manicure and pedicure from Dade Dave

Shaine while she's lending a hand during the gift-giving

Joy is multiplied a thousand times during a children's game at GK Bakodbayan

The volunteers

Do dreams come true?

There are things that I’ve always wanted to do, but never had either the capability, opportunity, guts or time to accomplish. A few of these are big things like seeing my dad fulfill his dream of governing the Philippines and turning it into a graft-free country, finding myself as a published novelist, or having all the members of my family, including my grandparents (supposing that they’re still alive) go somewhere together and simply enjoy life for a week or so without having to think about work deadlines or any other things.

On the other hand, there are these small dreams like having my photo taken while I’m in a middle of wild, colorful flowers, a really childish dream which sprung from a poster my aunt Lyn gave me when I was around 4 or 5; or for me to skate on ice the way Tomas and Sara did in Serendipity – a romantic dream which almost came true if only Dade Dave had time to skate with me and the experience didn’t end with my hip hitting the hard cold ice!

Well, at least I learnt!  Here I am with Arthur’s kids on ice:

All smiles despite the tension

Charles, looking like a pro

Christian with Sophia, his new-found friend and volunteer coach

Paul's not looking for fish guys...she's skating!

Arvid’s online videos are stolen?

I used to encode my name on the search box of Yahoo or Google to find out whether I could find any entry about me. I got this “own name seacrhing” idea from my very good friend, Ate Gladys, whose name appears 190 times on different websites.

Just a few minutes ago, I tried searching for entries about my name “Arlene Munsayac” and I found out that my short story is now included in Philippine eLibrary. That surprised and made me happy, of course.

However, my excitement became a shock when I found this site Learn Home Business.com which includes two of Arvid Matthew’s videos I uploaded in Youtube!

I still couldn’t figure out how the site owners took Arvid’s videos, but one thing is sure, they didn’t ask for my permission. That made me furious. As it seemed, somebody is illegally using my baby’s videos to sell his online products!

Help!  What should I do?

On a lighter note

One afternoon right after school, Antoinette Paul, my 7-year old niece asked me to help her list down all the possible types of “helpers” or “professionals” found in a community.

Since the author of the book seemed to have listed all the possible answers, I had a difficult time thinking for something to add. While I was trying to come up with a fabulous addition, Paul suddenly blurted “Aha, Tita Arlene, I know what to include in the list!” “Oh, yeah?” I answered with awe. “Yes. We can write down farmers and vendors,” she said beaming. “Oh, okay!” I replied.

Happy that she was the one who came up with the answers and seemed satisfied, I just sat down. Just when a smile was about to grace my lips Antoinette Paul exclaimed, “Tita, don’t you think I am more intelligent than you?”