This is ME.

If you’ve been a follower of my blog for a while now, you will know that I have a special place in my heart for the children at the Tacloban Women’s Shelter. Last week, my boss and I dropped by to have lunch with them. As always, it is both heartbreaking and heart warming.

Here’s Wilmer looking super excited at the bowl of chocolate candies! He didn’t smile much when he saw the vegetables. Lol.The baby I’m carrying is baby Willyboy. He’s 6 months old. He arrived in the shelter with his mother, the next night, she left. She abandoned him. How could she do that? Leave an innocent child on his own? :(After lunch, I decided to stay longer to jam with the kids. Good thing they had a guitar so I was like, I want to pretend I’m singing in my concert. My audience. Hahaha.Spending time with them is good for my soul. They make me realize that my problems are petty and that I have a lot to be thankful for. I love the positivity they make me feel. That despite everything, we can always choose to look at the silver lining.They got a hold of my tab and took lots of photos! More photos after the jump!

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A few days ago, when I was on my way home, I happened to ride an unusual pedicab. They usually have like names of the person who painted it and stuff like, “Feet Off Please”. The pedicab I rode was different. It said:

“Festival of Love Foundation, November 10, 2012”

Highly unusual. And my curiosity got the best of me, so I asked the driver (yes I like talking to PUV drivers, I learn a lot from them :p), 

Me: Kuya, ano yung festival of love? (What’s the festival of love?)

Kuya: Foundation po yan Maam na nagpa raffle dun sa barangay namin tapos namigay ng mga gamit. (It’s this foundation who conducted a raffle in our community and gave away free stuff.)

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My addiction to running is a given. But when the run is for a great cause, it makes it 5x better. Together with the Dalagan Tacloban event solutions, the City Government of Tacloban through its youth arm, organized LingkuRUN 2012 which aims to buy chairs for students in different public schools in Tacloban City. This was held last October 13, 2012 at the Magsaysay Grounds with 2 distances, 5k and 10k.

Of course I had to bring in my cousins who are getting as addicted as I am to running! :) Here we are patiently waiting for the run to start. It was held at night, a first for all of us!

They distributed glow sticks to all the runners to help identify everyone. Mind you, Taclobanons are not used to fun runs yet so we had to have something visible to be recognized by the race enforcers.

A few minutes to go and the race will start! :) I am so happy that I finally convinced my cousins to run with me here. It would have been really sad if I ran all my races alone. :( Chos!! Drama!!! Lol

And off we go!! My aunt took these photos while we were in the U-turn area and also patiently waited for each one of us at the finish line. Thank you Auntie Nini for the unwavering support! :) 

From L-R: Me, Yves & Jarenz, and Jiokee who ran 5km

It was also Yves and Jarenz’s first time to run 10km, and I have to admit they were so funny talking about whether they could finish the run or not on the day itself, when during the registration they were like, “Hell yeah 10k! Piece of cake!” Lol. Love you guys! :p Good job! (They both clocked in at 1 hour 25 minutes. That’s what you call team work!)

This guy beside me is Cesar, I don’t actually know his last name but I met him halfway through the run, actually at the U-turn area in Coca-Cola, and he told me that he would pace me. At first I was hesitant. I mean, hello, stranger danger! But then I realized that he was an angel in disguise because without him, I wouldn’t have clocked in a better time (my shortest so far at 1 hour 4 minutes), and would have gone lazy and started walking. So Sir Cesar, thank you! :)

I was a bit surprised to receive this! Yey! 2nd place 10k, Women’s division!! The 1st placer and I were actually less than a minute apart but I feel that I don’t deserve a top place yet since I still have to quit smoking. Hmm. Maybe next time. And hell, I look crazy funny in all my awarding ceremony photos anyway! Hahaha.

My super supportive house helper who guarded all our bags while we ran, and my Aunt, the official photographer. Thank you! :*

And of course my cousins, Alba Team Tacloban for being AWESOME. Congrats everyone! We did good!! :D

And Jiokee and Yves are looking into this for the future:

Hahaha! Go Jiokee! With more training and hard work, you can do it!

For more photos, you can watch the photo/video collection here. 

When I heard that an arm of my office will be spearheading a garage sale where the proceeds would go to a community project for malnourished children, I was immediately on board!

Although I was a bit late, (the event started at 3pm, I was there to set up by 6) I was happy that there were still a lot of people who came, different organizations like JCI Tacloban, Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity & Sorority, LifeBox, and other private individuals were in attendance to support the cause.

All items were priced really cheap. Php5.00 for shirts and Php20.00 for shoes that were pre-loved, and a couple hundred for brand new stuff. I’ve always found it easy to let my things go. It’s an unnatural trait but I was happy that my clothes/bags/toys would go to another home where they could still be used and loved. :)

Here’s my stall flocked by people. Yey! I was lucky enough to have two angels help me out. Jeremy and Mark who acted as my salesmen (and they were good at it too!) Selling can be a fun experience especially if you know that the profits will be for a good cause. The little amount you give or the time you spend for charity, will always go a long way.

They capped off the night with fireworks, which in my opinion, was the perfect way to end the opening day. People coming together for a good cause always amaze me.

Congratulations to the I Love Tacloban Foundation for making this possible, and also for letting me participate. :) It was so much fun! I hope that we get to help more children fight hunger and malnutrition. Keep the flame of volunteerism going!