Lucky

Being that I am typing (typed) this alone, in the deathly silence of my second practicum here in the office of the Foundation for Philippine Environment, and doing nothing but breathe and listen to the clock count the seconds till the end of the day 5 and a half hours away, I guess now is the best time to reminisce about my amazing adventure in my first practicum.

What did we do? We created a survey for the UNDP under the Ateneo School of Government to find out people’s perception and awareness level concerning climate change, the output of which will be the Philippines‘ official communication to the UN. Using that we blitzed through north Luzon, tested the survey first in Pampanga before we headed to Cagayan and then worked our way down through Isabela, Ifugao and Benguet. We didn’t stay in one place too long; we came, we interviewed, then we left for the next place, at most staying only 2 nights. A day after this grueling weeklong trip of 6 - 12 hour bus rides every other day some of us left immediately south to do the same thing over again, hitting Visayas at Bohol and Leyte and then Surigao Del Norte in Mindanao, crossing seas when summer storms were hitting the Philippines left and right.

You see I’ve always wanted to travel. My mom is a traveler and I guess I got that itch to see new places from her. However, we don’t. We don’t have the luxury to go to tourist spots on a whim, and we don’t even bother thinking about going abroad for vacations. Where my cousins half my age and close friends are already seasoned international travelers, I’ve yet to even leave Luzon island, not even had the chance to step foot on another island like Corregidor (and don’t give me that ‘but Corregidor is part of Luzon’. I said Luzon island, not the Luzon political boundary). For the longest time my world was just home and school, and the trips to certain of metro manila I had to go to out of necessity were already a treat of a new adventure. Even going to the province only happened every 2 or more years. That’s why when I hit college I started taking every opportunity to go out there, joining ESS and volunteering for orgs like GK and ISO. I wanted to go as far away as I can.

The opportunity arose when sir Leland recommended ISO and CCEFI as a practicum. Both are supposedly 1 month immersions. I’ve already experienced working with ISO, and the CCEFI thing was exciting - be based in Cebu for a month to work in community-based coastal resource management. I wanted to go, but like I said to sir; I want to travel, the question is if I’ll be allowed to. Being an only child requires a lot of negotiating with the parents especially when it comes to traveling and being away from home for long periods of time. Not only are they apprehensive concerning the duration and distance, being fieldwork is tiring and me showing that I’m vulnerable to asthma attacks during my trips already, they are also concerned with the finances. Enrolling in 2 subjects in summer was bad enough ( library fee being so high when we’re not gonna use it because we’ll be working), they cringe at the idea of the living expenses being posted that long that far. I wasn’t too bummed when they advised against taking either practicum; I already thought it was unlikely anyway, but here was another opportunity to leave Luzon island, which is my present goal contentment-for-the-moment-when-achieved, slipping by.

This became a topic between me and my mom one lunch. I told her of my imperative to leave Luzon as soon as possible. She tried to reassure me with the talk of being able to see the world in due time, that I shouldn’t rush it, and be patient and just wait till it comes - which had the opposite effect to what she intended. I became riled up; patience?! I say life is short and we don’t know what will happen tomorrow; I won’t wait for something to come when I can seize its. Now see this kind of straight talk about the fickleness of fate makes my mom terribly uncomfortable, but I’ve this impatience for life since being on the brink when I caught dengue (and several other instances between then and now which only, shall we say, reinforced that notion), and having gone through philo class and Heidegger I can now openly talk about it and just blame it on what I learn in school.

Then an alternative came when sir Leland recommended that I join a project an alumni approached him about. We’ve seen the email calling for volunteers, and I would have joined in a heartbeat if we didn’t have practicum. It never occurred to any of us that it could be a one, until sir Leland recommended it. It promised expense-paid fieldwork, but no exact details, and it was environmental. I took it, or rather sir Leland threw me there and all I had to do was say yes.

I started even before the sem officially ended. After the stress we went through Research Methods class, it was kinda annoying to find ourselves in the same kind of work. We talked about developing research instruments and properly made surveys and methodologies and tabulating and analyzing SPSS results, but since we were also talking about sampling in the provinces we were looking forward to fieldwork. The project had 18 target provinces, and as I was telling this to my parents while pointing out the possibilities over a large Philippine map, my mom was getting excited. And in a sort of half-gloating, half-consoling way, and in an all too Filipino manner of murdering English sayings she said ‘see, when one door closes, a window opens’. And like a good son who corrects his parents out of love while dismissing a wise counsel at the same time I said ‘mom, you mean another door opens’. While this was true I was still hung up on the opportunity to go leave Luzon passing me by. My mom said ‘you’ll get that opportunity again. For now you get to explore Luzon before you explore the rest of the Philippines and then the world. Baby steps.’

Talk about baby steps! In the space of 3 weeks I’ve managed to visit 8 provinces plus 2 more by virtue of being there to get to another province (bus stopovers not counted), 9 of which for the first time. I got to see the Banaue Rice Terraces which was spectacular, and even if I didn’t get to see the Chocolate Hills or a single tarsier in Bohol I don’t really mind because I got my first plane ride (at business class at that) and that alone is enough for me. Now I can say that I’ve finally left Luzon now that I’ve gone to both Visayas and Mindanao in a week. Then it was also my first time to visit provincial capitols, to spend the night in a government office; first time to interview Filipinos speaking another dialect; first time on an inter-island boat, on a RoRo, and in an ambulance (and thank God it wasn’t for real). We spent more than 30 hours stiff and unmoving in buses. We ran through heavy rains in Baguio without umbrellas. I slipped somewhere and got laughed at by a friend. We crashed a political family’s party. We got to cruise on a river and jump in another one that was getting higher by the second because of the rains. It was an extreme road trip/tour of the Philippines where I got to see what our country looks like away from the modernity of Manila, and what an amazing point of view and insights it gives. We got a glimpse of how most Filipinos live. And it was with awesome company, which made it an ultimate barkada outing (UBO). And all this basically for the price of one summer class.

I told someone once that I had a plan to get an all-expense paid trip to Europe by junior year. Well, I didn’t quite make it to Europe. But this was the same person who jokingly said that while she was touring the Europe, I was touring the Philippines. I’m sure it became truer than both of us thought it can be. At least this time, I’m proud of that comparison.

I’ve been lucky. Lucky to have been where I have been. And recalling the shenanigans and the extreme weather, lucky to be home again. I’m not jealous of those who will hit the other 10 provinces and repeat what we did while we spent day in and day out in the same office - well, I might be a little bit. But I’m already content with what I’ve got to experience so far. And if staying in this freezing office whose only sound is the aircon running and fingers typing is the balance for that awesome adventure then, I’ll serve my time here with a smile.

I just have to say, FPE has some excellent coffee.