Things I Miss About Manila

not in particular order

#1 - Libertad LRT Station
since all my nine Welcome Centers is along the LRT way, so LRT became the one and the only train transportation i used since past two months. from our secretariat in Don Bosco, Makati, Libertad LRT station is my starting point to visit all my Welcome Centers. it's a very interesting station, apparently. come back from the meetings and if i haven't take my supper yet, i have many option; Chow King, Inasal, and McDonalds! but usually i take McDonalds, until one of the employee know my name already. haha!

from our secretariat, i have to ride a jeepney going to Libertad, but i will alight 300 meters away from the station so i have to walk. but i always enjoy this walk because i always passed the stores that sells almost everything; shirts, wallets, necklace, bracelets, cellphone cases, DVDs, electronics, etc...

my favorite moment is when i come home from meetings, and usually it's already late in the evening, i walk from the station to the jeepney terminal near Jolibee. this walk, accompanied with Coldplay or Keane, beneath the dark of the night, passing through the closed stores on my right side and try to avoid the tricycle which want to park on my left side. until i find the Pasay Road jeepney in the opposite of Jolibee.

#2 - Jeepney
seems to be, this lengthened car from an American Jeep, became the main transportation mode in this country. and it's true, we can't avoid jeepney if we want to go to some place. and i like it very much.

being in a jeepney, we have to bow down if we want to know where we are, also if we want to get in or get out. but my favorite moment is the passing coins. since it's a long car so it will be not possible for those who sit in the back have to pay to the driver by themselves. so what to do? we pass the money through another people until it get to the driver's hand safely. it's some kind of sign of trust, isn't?

another thing is, i always admire the jeepney driver, because of their multi-tasking. it's true! they have to look out the road, change the gear, operating the wheel, looking for passengers, hit the brake, receive the money, count the change, give the change, hit the gas. it's always amazing when i observate a jeepney driver doing all those things without getting any accident ;p

#3 - McDonald's
yes i know this fast food restaurant is exist in any country in the world. but i have to admit, if i have to eat outside, most of the time i go to McD ;p not only because to save money, but also for the sake of time efficiency. sometimes if i don't have enough time, i just take away and eat the cheeseburger or Burger McDo along the way.
but still, eating burgers without Indonesian chili sauce is like dancing without music ;p so thanks to my friend for their effort to send some Indonesian chili sauce to Manila during my staying there.

#4 - Riding an LRT/MRT
well MRT also exist in some country in the world, such as in Japan or Singapore. but somehow i miss the moment when i ride this LRT or MRT in Manila especially during the evening after i finish my meeting.
exhausted, tired, so i just plug my ear and listen to Coldplay or Keane, completing the situation when i sit or stand in the LRT or MRT and seeing the entire city with its lights through the window. my favorite scene from the window is when the train pass Quiapo, i can see the bridge with its beautiful and colorful lights accompanying the cars and the jeepney down there.

#5 - Getting Lost
no one like to get lost, especially in the foreign country or in the city which they never been before. but somehow i enjoy my getting-lost-experience.

in the first two months, each volunteer task' is to locate and make a contact with the parishes which we assigned to. for me, i have around 40 parishes which i have to visit and make a contact. some of them i can locate quite easily because their parish is quite near with the LRT/MRT station. but most of the parishes, i have to do more effort to locate them. and most of the time it took time to locate it. each volunteers have a City Map which is really helpful during this moment. but sometimes there are some small streets which is not exist in the map. and even some of my parishes is not exist in the map because the map is not updated yet!
asking the local people sometimes can help me, but it means i have to ask more than two people to confirm their guide. because sometimes their information is not quite accurate ;p

Reflection #1

one of my friend in the preparation team of the Pilgrimage of Trust, Florian, told me this thing. one priest from one of his Welcome Centers told him something like this:

thank you for everything that you've done. it's amazing how you left your life; your home, your family, your friends, your school/work, to serve our church which is not even yours.

and it made me reflect a lot.

i mean, i'm nearly never think in that way. in the beginning why i decided to join the preparation team is only because i like Taize prayer and to live in the community. so i think it will be a good idea to join the preparation team then i can enjoy the prayer three times a day for everyday.

but to serve the church which is not belong to me, in a country which is not my country?? well, i never thought about that before. and i think, even before we realize it, we already done that.

so i think it's like living the Gospel; starts from five breads and two fish but afterward can feed up to five thousands people.

wanna join? ;p

The Beautiful Things of the Pilgrimage of Trust

the five days meeting of the Pilgrimage of Trust is already over. it's wonderful how Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati full of around four thousands young people came from fifty different countries and also different provinces in Philippines.

but for us, the volunteer who work in the parishes, seeing this is like seeing the result of our three months work. our sweat, our patience, our sacrifice, etc. those five days is like a releasing moment for us. after three months visiting them in their parishes, now it's time to see them gather together in one place.

and yes during the morning we still manage to visit at least two parishes to join the morning prayer and morning program in our own Welcome Centers. but the beautiful thing is on the evening since the volunteer and the coordinator of each Welcome Centers have a 6pm meeting every day during the five days meeting. with our own classroom for each volunteer, i met most of all the Welcome Centers' coordinators and hear their story about their morning activity. and i'm glad to see that finally they get to know each other and can hear how's going in another Welcome Centers. as you know, for me i'm very happy to connect every friend that i have so all my friends can know each other ;p

the other beautiful things is finally i can met most of the friends which i met two years ago in Taize. i'm so glad about it! and for me it's a sign of hope that wherever we are, we still can meet each other someday and somewhere. and it's encourage me to still keep saying "see you later!" instead of "goodbye!".

the common prayers also very beautiful. exactly before the prayer, as the other Pilgrimage of Trust, they played the bell sound in Taize, to remind the people that it's the time to pray together. most of the songs we sing it in Tagalog, and it's very beautiful. for me to sing a Taize song in another language it's like a sign of humbleness. on my first weeks in Manila, i'm not quite comfortable to sing it in Tagalog. but later i learn that the important thing is not the which language we used but the deepness of our heart to sing and pray it.

another beautiful thing is, suddenly Don Bosco Technical Institute transform into Taize village ;p because there's so many people and most of them are really kind. we can smile and greet to each other even we never met before! from that smile and greet, i get a lot of new friends!

but actually the pilgrimage of trust is not over until February 7th, 2010. the pilgrimage of trust is still continues in our own life. how we can keep in trust with ourselves, with the others, even in the most difficult situation. and yes i've experience all these things in these three months here. and all of it it's fruitful.

and for me, i'm really looking forward what will happens with my pilgrimage of trust after i go back in Jakarta.

The Most Important Thing

on Tuesday, i should have two meetings in a day. one meeting with the doctor for follow-up check up and one prayer in the evening in one of my parish.

but both of them are canceled. hmph!

before i get bored, Jeff asked me to attend one of his three meetings in that day. so i went to one of his parish which is quite far from Manila and i only use bus and tricycle instead of MRT.

in the meeting, we had a song practice and a short meeting to discuss about the preparation. but the most interesting part is happens after the meeting is over.

one of the youth leaders approached me and we had a very nice conversation. from some kind of cultural exchange and until getting know each other.


then suddenly she said,

"i always admire the people like you, a volunteer who do things for others without thinking about themselves. you know these days, many people working to earn money for themselves. but you, the volunteers, didn't think only about yourself but most of the time you do things for others. like you, after you finish your study, instead of working to earn some money for yourself, you do this volunteering, to help people in a country which is not yours."

and then i struck. don't know what to say, so i just said, "yeah you're right."

after that, during my way back home, i reflect a lot. i mean, wowh, what she's said is absolutely true and for these two months being in Philippines, i never think about that. and it's true, just compare how many people who work for themselves and how many people who work for the others, especially on these days.

well, working for ourselves isn't so that bad because of course we have to think about ourself. but i'm thinking, which one is the most important for me; take care for my self or take care for the others?

The Other Side of the Preparation

now it's two weeks away from the meeting. and everything gets crazy.

there's a registration for those parish youth that want to join the five days meeting. but i don't know it's quite difficult to collect these registration form from them, with various reasons. and actually the "deadline" is on Jan 8th but still until now there's some parishes which didn't submit the form yet. as a volunteer, i understand their reasons why they can't submit the form yet because they find some difficulties to spread the word to all the youth. but in the other hand, the brothers want the number of the local pilgrims because they need to submit the number to those who provide meals and merienda. and also we need the number to make the ID and booklets.

the other thing is we have to make sure that every welcome centers can do the morning activity (morning prayer + morning program) by themselves because on the five days meeting, we will not visit them again because we have around 100 welcome centers and it's quite impossible to be in those places in one time. but still there's some welcome centers didn't experience Taize prayer yet, and it's quite worried because if they never experience a Taize prayer before, how they will manage to conduct a Taize prayer for the five days meeting in their own parish? but it's okay, we still have these two weeks. but how about there's welcome centers that didn't do anything yet to prepare themselves?? the core group didn't exist yet, they still don't have an idea, and so on.

i mean, for these things, i'm the one who worried so much instead of them.

we have a team meeting every monday and bible sharing every thursday. for these kind of meeting, i know that i'm not the only one who worried about these kind of stuffs. the other volunteers also experience the same things and some of them are more stressed than me. hm, but at least these kind of sharing encourage each other.