I usually count to 10 when I restart my internet modem, or whenever I feel like lighting a cigarette or when I feel like making an emotional decision. It has become a habit that I have recently acquired during my international volunteering stint in India. Patience is a virtue I do not have if one would ask my friends. What it really means to me is that my attention span is very narrow. But my attitude is a work in progress and with the kind of work that I do in my community, patience is not too far behind.
10 months ago, I found myself at a crossroad again when I returned home from my international volunteering. Questions like What to do next? Where do I go from here? cropped up every time and sleep almost became an enemy.
Sometime in October last year, I got an email from my mentor in community development, a professor and environmental scientist, asking me if I were interested in doing a consultancy work for a project he was about to initiate in my hometown in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi. This time, it was something to do with the conservation efforts for Bud Bongao (Bongao Peak or Mount Bongao) and its flora and fauna. I thought it was different from the Coastal Resources and Fisheries Conservation Project we did before and I was having second thoughts because of my inexperience but upon my mentor's persuasion, I said yes. Sometimes all a person needs to boost confidence is a little encouragement, a short note saying, "you can do it" is all it takes to take that unfamiliar path. So I flew in and started my work in the communities at the foot of the mountain, interviewing people and reestablishing my roots again. I had a good time and forgot about my worries on my career path. It was an adventure I enjoyed while making contributions to my community.
Around about the same month, my childhood friend sent me an email about Community Solutions Program, he thought it might keep my hands full and divert my attention to something equally fruitful. It surely did. That very night I wrote my essays for my application and that was the beginning of my participation in this year's Community Solutions Program under the United States Education and Cultural Affairs implemented by the International Research and Exchanges or IREX.
10 days from today, I will embark on a new adventure in Reno, Nevada to learn the tools and methodologies of Resource Management Plans being implemented by my US host organization, the Great Basin Resource Watch and to be mentored by an American professor and environmentalist in community participation and resource management is something that I am truly looking forward to experiencing. I hope to be able to learn and understand the cultural, social and spiritual values and aspects of the Native Americans' environmental conservation efforts in the Great Basin regions of the State of Nevada and be able to share to them my experiences in the Coastal communities of my island province in Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. In return, I shall be able to pay it forward by sharing what I have learned at improving what I, and my colleagues and friends can do in our community in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines, to promote ecotourism and sustainable resource management through volunteerism. That against the odds that I have faced in the past in my efforts as a volunteer, I am grateful for this opportunity to make a difference.
I have never set my foot in American soil before and everything I know about America is based on the movies and television series I follow. It is going to be an exciting (and hopefully) a fruitful journey ahead.
#special thanks to FILEMON G. ROMERO, Ph.D, WWF-Philippines
10 months ago, I found myself at a crossroad again when I returned home from my international volunteering. Questions like What to do next? Where do I go from here? cropped up every time and sleep almost became an enemy.
Sometime in October last year, I got an email from my mentor in community development, a professor and environmental scientist, asking me if I were interested in doing a consultancy work for a project he was about to initiate in my hometown in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi. This time, it was something to do with the conservation efforts for Bud Bongao (Bongao Peak or Mount Bongao) and its flora and fauna. I thought it was different from the Coastal Resources and Fisheries Conservation Project we did before and I was having second thoughts because of my inexperience but upon my mentor's persuasion, I said yes. Sometimes all a person needs to boost confidence is a little encouragement, a short note saying, "you can do it" is all it takes to take that unfamiliar path. So I flew in and started my work in the communities at the foot of the mountain, interviewing people and reestablishing my roots again. I had a good time and forgot about my worries on my career path. It was an adventure I enjoyed while making contributions to my community.
Around about the same month, my childhood friend sent me an email about Community Solutions Program, he thought it might keep my hands full and divert my attention to something equally fruitful. It surely did. That very night I wrote my essays for my application and that was the beginning of my participation in this year's Community Solutions Program under the United States Education and Cultural Affairs implemented by the International Research and Exchanges or IREX.
10 days from today, I will embark on a new adventure in Reno, Nevada to learn the tools and methodologies of Resource Management Plans being implemented by my US host organization, the Great Basin Resource Watch and to be mentored by an American professor and environmentalist in community participation and resource management is something that I am truly looking forward to experiencing. I hope to be able to learn and understand the cultural, social and spiritual values and aspects of the Native Americans' environmental conservation efforts in the Great Basin regions of the State of Nevada and be able to share to them my experiences in the Coastal communities of my island province in Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. In return, I shall be able to pay it forward by sharing what I have learned at improving what I, and my colleagues and friends can do in our community in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines, to promote ecotourism and sustainable resource management through volunteerism. That against the odds that I have faced in the past in my efforts as a volunteer, I am grateful for this opportunity to make a difference.
I have never set my foot in American soil before and everything I know about America is based on the movies and television series I follow. It is going to be an exciting (and hopefully) a fruitful journey ahead.
#special thanks to FILEMON G. ROMERO, Ph.D, WWF-Philippines
