3 DAYS WORTH OF KWENTO.

FRIDAY.
 
Mixed feelings
 
 I don’t know how to describe last Friday. 
 
On one hand, I felt lousy that day.  Supposedly, I was going to discuss with my boss about the things I found out in the course of writing the specifications mentioned for another project, but I hesitated since I don’t know how to bring it up.  So, seeing that I wasn’t doing anything. I was given another work by my boss on another project.  Sigh..what happened was, I did some booboos over another set of plans I was commenting on, the photocopying machine got jammed a couple of times while I was using it, and I spilled my mug of coffee on the floor. 
 
On the other hand, I was amused that day…over my boss.  That day, the library requested the return of all the books we borrowed from them.  (Our setup in the office lib: we can borrow books and keep them in our desk as long as we don’t bring them home.)  So while I was photocopying these thick set of plans (photocopying machine was located in our department), my boss was on his knees searching under the desks, cabinets, piles of brochures, trash etc. for the books that he borrowed.  Two words: BOOK HOARDER!  Promise.  Haha.:D  I even got the two copies of Architectural Graphic Standards he borrowed from the library from two people who got the books from his desk.  When I got down to return a book I had borrowed for myself, I found Sir Jun laughing his head off upon looking at the list of books my boss borrowed.  The list was REALLY long – some of the books on the list have been out around a year or so.
 
And upon leaving the office, my boss sweeped his desk clean of papers and junk.  Haha.:D
 
The Residences at Greenbelt
 
Going home from work, Marvin, Christian and I passed by the model unit of the Residences at Greenbelt. I was curious because it was a G.F. project, and also because I’ve never seen an actual model of a project before.  Christian has already seen it and encouraged me and Marvin to go look for ourselves. 
 
I was surprised to learn that the Residences at Greenbelt is designed to be a 48-storey building.  I really thought that it was just a couple of condo units right above those restaurants in Greenbelt.    Hindi pala.  By the time the building would be completed, it would totally dwarf G3 and New World.
 
Anyway I liked the interiors of the condo unit. It’s a lot similar to the other high rise project the firm is currently working on.  It’s very tasteful, classy…pang high-end talaga.  But I really thought that the two towers just look like your typical, run-of-the-mill skyscraper.  Actually, the towers look more like office buildings rather than residential buildings.  And climatic-responsive architects would have a lot to frown upon. 
 
SATURDAY.
 
Errand day
 
Saturdays are usually my errand days.  Sigh.  I wish I could do something about this and enjoy the day for a change, but some things couldn’t be helped.  Oh well.
 
Anyway, last Saturday was different from the usual.  My trip to Rounce, our official yearbook printer, was cancelled because the film copy of the yearbook for approval wasn’t ready yet.  As a consequence, I wasn’t able to visit Janrey, Joyce and Mikey since what I was supposed to give to them depended on that visit to Rounce.  And I didn’t feel like wasting my energy in trickles, so I just told them I’d meet them all at the same time next Saturday.  I’m sad not to see them though, although it would be a lot nicer to see them sans “official” errands.
 
I still had other stuff to do though.  One was meeting a friend in Rockwell.  Another was meeting a friend in Paranaque – I asked this friend to help me in Flash. 
 
SUNDAY.
 
Outreach activity
 
I gamely went on another journey with Celine today.  This time, it was an outreach project by some of Celine’s girl friends, Sydney and Melissa.  There were around six of us: the three I mentioned, Grace Edralin, Con con (didn’t get her last name) and myself.  We went to Maragondon in Cavite.  Sydney, the leader for this project, had a contact in Bgy. Pinagkaisahan in Maragondon.  This contact of hers mentioned some projects that could be pursued in the community, like tutorials for kids and promotion of livelihood projects.  And like most projects, ours started with doing a feasibility study – our main agenda for today was to survey some of the residents in the neighborhood.
 
So I found myself tagging along to probably my first outreach activity (pwede na ring site visit) outside school.  It was rather fulfilling – I mean, I just felt I was really volunteering.  Although I must admit it was quite disconcerting because I went with them thinking that we were to help out in a project similar to Habitat.  And of course, I felt that the whole idea was an ‘ambush’ type of volunteering – um, we just went there on our own, without representing any form of organization.  Hehe.  Siguro nasanay lang ako na I’d help people out through the things I’m familiar with.
 
Since we spent practically the entire morning just going to the site, we only had an hour before lunch.  My companions originally planned surveying only for half a day, so that left us with just one hour to survey.  What we did: we interviewed the barangay captain to get a general gist of what the people need in the community.  Sigh.  I think we need to go back again…
 
Anyway, we left the site with a lot of ideas in mind, mainly divided into two – SHORT TERM and LONG TERM.
 
SHORT TERM:  We could help out the community by giving tutorials to the kids in the neighborhood.  This project is more realizable – maybe we could go twice a month for this.  At present Melissa is going to make up a lesson plan (she was a former teacher) for us to use.  Giving tutorials means also gathering materials like old books and school supplies.  So to the readers: if you have materials to donate, if you want to volunteer as a teacher, or if you any other bright suggestions for this endeavor, please don’t hesitate to send me an email at mush1124@yahoo.com.
 
LONG TERM:  One of the community’s main source of income is harvesting bamboo and creating stuff like barbecue sticks out of it.  It remains to be a backyard industry though, and creating barbecue sticks out of bamboo is NOT a lucrative business.  Plus, they don’t have a cooperative where everything is more organized and regulated.  But since they’re doing stuff with bamboo…we were thinking a bamboo-based livelihood for the residents of the community, and there are just a lot of possibilities – but A LOT of people to approach to.  Using bamboo for architectural and structural purposes requires the expertise of bamboo scientists and specialists….  not to mention LGUs, potential sponsors, TLRC and other NGOs, researchers who are willing to study about bamboo, people willing to train the residents on doing export-quality products made out of bamboo.
 
In short, this project requires an EXTENSIVE FEASIBILITY STUDY.  Not to mention FUNDS. POLITICAL WILL. That sort of thing.
 
Yeah, I know that what I’ve just written spells skepticism all over it, but it’s still okay to consider all these possibilities, right?  I’m still figuring out where we as volunteers would place ourselves and how much effort we would commit to the project.
 
BAG OF BEANS
 
We vowed to go back two to three weeks from now.  We left Maragondon at past 2 p.m. and headed for Tagaytay. 
 
We wished for rain.  We got it.  And lightning too.  Yikes.:(
 
Anyway, we headed for Bag of Beans in Tagaytay since Sydney was craving for freshly baked English bread.  Celine also got curious because I have been raving about the place, the beautiful garden, and the yummy pies they have.
 
Oh well.  Sulit naman punta namin.  Super sarap nung bread!  We tried out two different loaves, and had coffee and milkshakes to go with it.  Again – super sulit ng coffee.  And ah, yummy.  Imagine foamy iced coffee at only 40 bucks!   It’s around the mid-size cup of frappe in Starbucks.
 
So there we were, sipping coffee, eating bread, and enjoying the outdoors while engaging in talk that’s more than mere gossip.:)  
 

From L to R: Melissa, Grace, Celine, myself, and Concon.