New Island, New City, New People, and New Hope: Welcome to Cebu!

Friday, July 31^st 2009

After an emotional farewell at Silsala last night, this day was expected to be a down-er.  However, the excitement of seeing a different city was hard to contain.  In the morning, I hesitantly said goodbye to Kenny.  It’s weird to know that he won’t be joining me in my morning jogs and my exploration.  Parting with good friends is always more difficult than anything.

A view from above

The flight to Cebu was only an hour and 15 minutes.  From what I was told, it would’ve taken us days by sea or land to complete this journey.  Thank God for modern advances in transportation technology!  It seems like the more places I visit in the Philippines, the more beauty I see and, according to Dr. Russell, I have yet to see the most beautiful parts of the Islands.  Oh boy, I need to definitely return.  Cebu is a beautiful city and has a very “laid-back” feel to it.  It is highly advanced, developed and industrialized especially in relation to Zamboanga City.  Additionally, it is unique in having both beautiful beaches and awe-inspiring mountainous regions.  The neglect that exists in Mindanao is absent in Cebu, which allows it to boast itself as the country’s breadwinner.  We arrived at yet another top-notch hotel.  Taking a 21-year old to 5-star hotels and popular restaurants is only spoiling him!  Nonetheless, I am thankful for having been extended the opportunity to represent CAIR-Chicago, MYLS, and the US.  At the hotel, Merrilyn was already present with a few other people that needed to be evaluated for another one of Dr. Russell’s projects.  This one, called NSD (North South Dialogue), identifies emerging leaders and trains them for a few weeks in the US.  We all had lunch at the hotel’s Asian buffet.  Oh man, I could not help but dab and douse a little here and a little there as I tried everything.  My taste buds were craving for some variety and some glamour as I had grown a bit tired of the steamed rice and fried chicken that I was getting at Silsala everyday.  Needless to say, my taste buds were reinvigorated.  :)

Landed in Cebu

At lunch, I met Joyce Robin.  Joyce is an elected counselor for her Barangay (smallest unit of government) and is one of the youngest to get elected.  One of her duties include being in charge of Public Health in her community and at the instant of hearing of my career plans and current course of study, she offered for me to come and work with her community.  Wow!  I was really excited to learn more about her community and if Cebu is a place where I would want to stay.  After lunch, Joyce volunteered to show me around.  She took me on a tour of the city including Magellan’s Cross (commemorating Magellan’s landing in Cebu where he was killed by Chief Lapu Lapu.  He actually didn’t circumnavigate the world as he was killed in Cebu by the locals).   She also passed along bits of knowledge about eveyrhting from the origin for the name of the city to the history of the roads and streets.  Her description of life in Cebu sounded pretty enticing.  To add to that, she was so encouraged about her particular community as well.

At Magellan's Cross with Joyce

We arrived in Joyce’s Barangay to find their local gym packed for a festival of sorts.  Apparently, the elementary school was electing PTA officers so a whole celebratory event was organized including a dance competition and food of course—delicious food!  I was asked to be seated amongst the notable elected officials and personalities on the stage.  My presence was announced and cheered and I was also slated to judge the dance competition that was supposed to follow the PTA pledges.  The dance competition involved the elected PTA officers for each grade.  In all, there were 9 different groups who danced creatively and skillfully.  Man, Filipinos can dance!  I better shape up if I have plans of staying here for a year.  I successfully judged the dance competition and awarded the first place prize.  I can’t believe the notoriety I was afforded as a guest of the community.  Plates of food, barrage of smiles and a multitude of handshakes just kept on coming.  Filipino hospitality is truly something to appreciate and admire.  All you need is a smile and a “hello” to get them to open their hearts and homes to you.  :) After the program concluded, Joyce showed me the community garden and the recycling competition they had engaged in to improve the health of the community.  The community is a very highly engaged and active one but lacks some critical resources.  They have trained health workers available on a limited basis and a physician who can only devote a few days of the month to community due to his busy schedule.

Awarding 1st place for the dance competition

Joyce then took me to Ayala Mall where I did a bit of my shopping for gifts and presents.  The mall was extraordinary in design, variety of stores, and sheer size.  Cebu is a true international city as I saw many different nationalities roaming around at the many sumptuous eateries and abundantly supplied department stores.  There, at the mall, Joyce and I joined Dr. Russell and the others for dinner.  Dinner was delicious once more and very fancy!  All for free—being a hot shot Prof is a cool gig to have.  Go Dr. Russell!  After dinner, Joyce and I skipped out to join the basketball championships for the mini and midget, yes midget not medium, division championship for the boys.  I was the honored guest once again who was supposed to present the awards at the end.  I can’t believe I got to do all these things!  In addition to that, I served as the play-by-play announcer for both games.  To say the least, the locals weren’t quite used to my verbose and excited style.  It was soo much fun!  Joyce assured me that I would be asked to emcee at every opportunity if I decided to live in their community.  I am flattered!  After the basketball games concluded, I got a chance to play with the local kids as well.  It was a lot of fun and I got a good workout in.  I hit a few jumpers, few layups, and played pretty good defense.  The skill of the players here is a bit better than our NU Feinberg folks.  No offense! After basketball, Joyce dropped me off at the hotel and promised me that she would do everything in her power to support me in my year off.  I am sooo pumped about my potential work here.  Now, I must contain this excitement and head to bed as I have an early flight to Manila tomorrow morning.

Watch out Marv Albert!

Maiyon Dabee,

Mokaram

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