some citrus burst when needed

see? i love big bags, it allows me to carry a lot of things (papers, pens, laptop and more). it even allows me to carry to-go personals like two of my favorites - wet tissues and hand spray... yes, now i'm finding time to share a bit of my 'human nature' story... :)

i usually have hand sanitizer in my bag, but I don't like using it so much until my friend kate gifted me with Human Nature's All Natural Spray Sanitizer... that was the first first Human Nature product I owned. then i started reading about it and 'human nature' (gandang kalikasan)  and its advocacy: pro-Philippines, pro-poor, and pro-environment. like the local version of The Body Shop but with the price and direct selling strategy of saralee.  

 

another friend, dyali brought me to visit their posh-lookin' outlet in Commonwealth. i signed up...fastforward to now, even as i am staying in general santos city, i get my monthly human nature products from davao city via the bus (very minimal fee)... and yes, i carry the hand spray all the time (there's 2 variants and another 2 variants for kids). got me among others some citrus burst within reach when needed :)

mosquito-reality bites

i don't know how and why but there are some mosquitoes that can bring in fatal illness such as dengue hemorrhagic fever. it takes 3 to 15 days incubation and the bitten person will feel all the symptoms the illness holds. we had our battle with such illness when such infected our beautiful young man (7-year old wowa) in 2009.

the sad thing about this is that dengue doesn't have any cure, what you have is the treatment of its symptoms which are usually high fever, coughing, stomach and muscle pains. since bleeding is existent, the possibility of a 'shock' is also high. this is where management and prompt caring action of the doctor is needed. bloodcount has to be monitored and so is the condition of the patient. since dehydration is a killer, fluids must be taken every now and then (intravenous when needed).

we were blessed to have a huge number of prayer warriors, heavens may have been noisy then with cries and prayers from our friends, relatives and colleagues. we were blessed too to have a son who was somewhat-too-mature-for-his-age  trying his best to take his oral dextrose, camote tops-soup, bananas, apple juice and medicine (for fever, for coughs and the zinc supplement) every now and then. he even read his laboratory results and tried 'hypnotizing' the world that he will soon be fine. with those, with his 24/7-kind doctor (god bless you doc sheena) and our 100%-almost-paranoid-looking-after---he was fine and he recovered. now he's 11 and we're still watchful. we always remind him to retouch on 'bugshield' when he's in school and drink lotsa water... we don't want to have that episode again...

one shouldn't be too complacent. everyone should try to boost his/her immunity and drink lots of water, for many reasons other than this. and yes, one should avoid (or limit) exposure to mosquitoes, use mosquito repellant as needed. use long pants (pajamas) or long sleeves if possible. and most of all, rest ---we can only do so much as human beings. nothing beats taking good care of our bodies, the temple of our souls.

dream or warning?

i am fond of dreams... but lately, they're disturbing me... and i so wish i could just go back to being a child again... those days when dreaming is just dreaming and not being disturbed by it when i woke... but then again, there's no turning back... these dreams, it seems to me, are here to stay... which reminds of one day in 2010...

yesterday, i just found myself talking with filbert, i can say i wasn't listening intently coz i can read from the way i look that i have been thinking of something else. i can see tita fidela's face light up too, as if happy to see me again, as if happy to see filbert and i chatting the way we used to. she's preparing a meal when i said i needed to catch a plane. in my mind i know i have to say goodbye to wowa and jovit first. but at that moment, the need to catch the plane is greater. maybe i thought i'd be back in no time so 'goodbyes' won't be needed.

so filbert took me in a bike with a sidecar and did the best he could to bring me to the airport (i wondered why it seemed too near), he even helped me beg (to the staff/airport personnel) to let me in even without my ticket ( i assumed i left it at home or somewhere but their database will surely tell that i'm on the list). the plane was for take-off, i did my best to be on it, even if it meant running to catch it, opening its door and throwing myself in (like a cartoon character). yes, i thanked heavens i got in.

after a while i noticed the earth so muddy, and i asked myself why the plane has to go through muddy earth when it can lift itself up soonest. i noticed too, that passengers weren't on seatbelts and they're all looking at me (one familiar face, was it matet? blurted out, "i think i know her" referring to me). they were all trying to be at the far end of the plane as if for fear of something. i went past them and tried to stay in front. i was annoyed to see a cockroach and a black cat just roaming in the plane floors. i tried asking the man beside me but i was shocked to see kuya richard. i thought he would be happy to see me but oh, it seems i was wrong (in my mind i was terrified coz i know kuya has been dead for almost a month). he shouted at me, "alfie, bakit andito ka? hindi ka pa dapat nandito ah. bakit ka kasi nagmamadali? dapat hindi ka nagmadali! (alfie, why are you here? you are not supposed to be here yet. why are you in a hurry? you shouldn't have hurried!).

that's it! i woke up. then...i realized everything's a dream. or...
was it a warning?

farewell

Wounds of the spirit... 

are most gently soothed and made whole by the passing years. 

Under the old scars flows again the calm,  healthful tide of life.... 

Under a great loss the heart impetuously cries that it can never be happy again, 

and perhaps in its desperation says that it wishes never to be comforted. 

But though angels do not fly down to open the grave and restore the lost, 

the days and months come as angels with healing in their wings. 

Under their touch aching regret passes into tender memory; 

into hands that were empty new joys are softly pressed; 

and the heart that was like the trees stripped of its leaves and 

beaten by winter's tempests is clothed again with the green of spring. 

~George S. Merriam

FARE THEE WELL ROMEL...

work integrated learning exposure

Teaching 

is the only major occupation of man 

for which we have not yet developed tools 

that make an average person 

capable of competence and performance.  

In teaching we rely on the "naturals," 

the ones who somehow know how to teach.  

~Peter Drucker

EXPERIENCE: BEST TEACHER

summer days with fellow learners

Don't try to fix the students, 

fix ourselves first.  

The good teacher 

makes the poor student good 

and the good student superior.  

When our students fail, 

we, as teachers, too, have failed.  

~Marva Collins

series of extended power outages - why?

The recent 'brownouts' due to reduction of power supply in Mindanao has been affecting the residents, the small manufacturers and other business establishments.  In  Gen. Santos City (Gensan), this translated to 'rotational brownouts' to the dismay of the many if not all. The outages last from 2 to 7 hours in a day. As expected, it is not a welcome news, even so for the southern Philippines region. 

But even before these series of extended power outages (sometimes scheduled and announced),  Zamboanga and other cities have already experienced 'brownouts' due to the decision of state-run National PowerCorporation (NAPOCOR) to reduce power supply in the city by several megawatts (MW). It is in this event that Gensan suffers the same fate as power supply in the region was cut by hundreds of MW (coupled with the steadily increasing demand) according to the National Grid of Corporation of the Philippines.

Here's how 'The Grid' thing works: A power grid consists of a set of large power plants (hydropower plants, nuclear power plants, etc.) all connected together by wires. It also works as a power-distribution system because it allows sharing. If a power company needs to take a power plant or a transmission tower off line for maintenance, the other parts of the grid can pick up the slack.

For instance, you have tens of thousands of power consumers using megawatts of power, at that exact moment, you have several power plants producing exactly the right amount of power to satisfy all of that demand. And you have all the transmission and distribution lines sending the power from the power plants to the households, offices and/or businesses.
The system, even as it works on an efficient level, is not perfect. There can be situations too (say when there is high demand) that the interconnected nature of the grid makes the system may fail (hence a sudden power outage/interruption). Sometimes, to avoid that (or to secure some level of supply in the coming weeks), the power distributor opts to 'ration' the power supply, hence scheduled 'brownouts'.

Gensan Mayor Darlene Custodio openly presented in her latest State of the City Address (SOCA) the fear that the power situation in the city could get worse and somehow implied that her hands are tied regarding this matter. She tried suggesting several moves which revolved around consumers, offices and businesses to minimize power demand in their own end.

Yes, this is basic supply and demand material. The higher the population (both residence and industry players), the higher the demand for energy. When demand is higher than supply, adjustments may be either [1.] to increase the price (for such good/service) or [2.] to lower the quantity (which may have been their preference) or [c.] both. As consumers, we can only accept this event if it doesn't result to inconvenience and a lot of unwanted changes in our routines among others, but it does...

As to the problem of supply, one solution is to build significant amounts of excess capacity (for example extra power plants, extra transmission lines). With extra capacity, it would be able to pick up the load the moment something else failed.  Here, economics principle #1 would of course come in: with increased capacity is an increasing power charge (bill). So for now, as I assume we make the choice as a group to save some money, we try live with the risk of losing power every now and then :(

But then again, if this route (having electricity from source to our homes/businesses) is that established for many years, how come that we are now suffering the failure of the power distributors (or perhaps the local government) to act on the power crisis which (I believe) was foreseen years ago? Das ist die Frage!