the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

December 25 (home at Malvar and lolo's house in Obrero) and 26 (church at Centerpoint), 2004. All taken using my brother's instamatic camera. In the background you can see the Christmas tree we bought on December 24, just as the store closed....

Description: Here's another unwanted spam but helpful to everyone especially this season. It started through the obsessive texting of Gerry Chua, Mr. Ube Hopia himself of Eng Bee Tin fame, who is also the communications head of the Association of Philippine Volunteer Fire Brigades, the dependable Filipino Chinese volunteer fire brigade group who almost always get to the fire first. And this is no joke, what with all the disasters we have experienced lately. It's called the TXT FIRE. Now if you want to be really serious about it, why not join the group and become a volunteer? We all know, most of us can never be fire brigade volunteers, but we can be atleast TEXT FIRE VOLUNTEERS. This will save you from getting into those horrendous traffic jams caused by fires, and may even save lives and properties including your own. At present there are 2700+ volunteers all over the Philippines helping the fire brigade volunteers respond even faster to fires. The system works, you can try...

Start:      Dec 18, '04 End:      Jan 4, '05 time for a long vacation.... if you want to get together and i love you, you know how to reach me ;-)

Start:      Dec 26, '04 2:00p Location:      Pisay Gym grand alumni homecoming of all Pisay Davao batches since its founding in 1988. P100 entrance fee for fundraising purposes

unpublished (coming out THIS thursday -dec. 23- in Sun.Star Cebu), photos here The sky was heavy with ominous clouds, and it had been drizzling for most of the afternoon. It was getting late. I had been standing on the bridge in Antequera for about two hours now, staring at the clear blue river a hundred feet below. Finally, it was my turn to rappel. I hurriedly put on my harness, gloves and helmet before I could change my mind. By my calculations, it would be pitch dark by the time I’d reach the river, and the thought of hanging in midair in the darkness scared me. It was my first time to rappel, after all, and in an unfamiliar environment. Even our guides had never tried it there before. But about 10 people had already gone down before me. Still, that was earlier, when the sun was out. I stood at the railing, ready to climb over. Suddenly, the rain fell. “The river is rising,” our guide signaled from below, “No more rappelling.” There were about 40 of us on that trip to...

unpublished Photo of falcattas taken in a reforestation project in Cebu Although the Clean Air Act has made most forms of incineration illegal, the smell of burning leaves will always remind me of childhood, and the mango tree in the middle of our garden. It was too tall for me to climb, but there was a hammock tied to its branches. My friend and I would sit there and tell stories in between games of piko . I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a house surrounded by trees, a star apple tree right outside my room to shade me from the heat. After college, I swore I would never work or live in a place without trees. Outside my office window now, an avocado tree keeps me from burning in the morning sun, and even yields enough fruit for a salad on occasion. But not till later did science teach me just how important trees are. Aside from their commercial value as a source of lumber, food, clothing and medicine for humans, they also provide shelter to the thousands of organisms that keep...

Start:      Dec 16, '04 Location:      ? because we couldn't (some of us, anyway) imagine having a christmas party with all those people suffering in luzon, but because some of us couldn't imagine NOT having a xmas party either, we decided on a counterparting system: we raise funds for the flood victims and the the office will counterpart the amount as the budget for the party. so the more fundse donate, the bigger the budget for the party. bring on the spirit of giving!