HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS MOVING FORWARD FOR CHRIST

To all our dear graduates, students, faculty and administrators, friends and families, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant day to everyone!

We are all joined together in this special occasion to celebrate a memorable day, which is the day of graduation for the nursing assistant students. To some students who are second coursers, this graduation may be the second time, but as they say, “Second time is far sweeter than the first time around.”

It is my great privilege to be chosen as the inspirational speaker, and as a professional and a previous student of San Pedro College I will share some vital points in terms of being firm in your commitment in your chosen careers and to help you surpass future challenges that you will face as you begin to enter the real word of health care.

Let me first define what commitment is. Commitment is being sold out for a cause. It is all about giving of oneself unconditionally to the calling that he or she had received without doubt. Being committed requires that a person knows the purpose of his/her life. Let me ask then a question my dear graduates, and I do hope you will find time to answer these questions. Have you found yourself willing to give yourself in becoming a nursing assistant? Have you ever really loved or learned to love the path you have taken as a health care professional? The moment that you graduate, you must be 100% sure that you are ready to take care of the sick and give yourself for other people; otherwise, you can choose to compromise and endanger the lives of your patients. Moreover, the calling to be a nurse assistant will only be truly appealing to those who find themselves meaningful in living a life of a nursing aide.

Like nurses, being a nursing assistant is special and wonderful because of all jobs in the world we share the privilege to experience almost every phase of human life; that we are there from the time of birth in the delivery room to the last breath of a dying person in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). We are there to provide holistic care, prolong life and maintain the dignity of the client even in the face of death. No other professions, not even doctors, have this very close contact with human lives. Taking vital signs for instance is an opportunity to develop a therapeutic intimacy between the health care provider and our clients. It is our chance to show that we care. Our approach is more than medical, it’s holistic - it is all encompassing, from flesh to bones down to the deepest soul of every person.

When I was a student like you, my clinical instructor in the name of Maam Jenny Guanzon once quoted, “kaya nga ang mga nurses may kasabihan, tayo ay nandyan - from womb to tomb”. And I think this also applies to nursing aids. To rephrase, “kaya nga ang mga nursing aid, katulad ng nurses, may kasabihan, tayo ay nandyan, sa simula at katapusan ng buhay.” Kahit sa paghatid na lang ng bangkay sa morgue sa atin mga kamay nakasalalay. Tama ba?

With this let me say that our work is a privilege, not a mere passport to US or other countries. We deal with lives, not only with papers in the chart. Best care must be given. A life lost is a life gone forever, and we never turn back time. As nursing aids we are held accountable not only to people, but most importantly to God. Time will come that when we die God will question us, how well did you take care of my beloved sick children in your lifetime? I do hope that when you answer God, He can say “Very well done my faithful servant, your prize in heaven awaits you!” It is my dream that someday these very words I am saying will become a reality to the nursing aids coming from San Pedro College.

Commitment to our jobs is directly proportional to quality health care. If we are committed to our work, we will always do our best. Moreover, if we commit ourselves to God, we will even receive more than what we can do, just like Florence Nightingale who happens to be the founder of Nursing. In fact, if we are commited to God, we will receive the Spirit of Excellence from God in ALL that we do, not just in nursing the sick.

Florence Nightingale founded nursing, and I believe that without her the profession of nursing aides will be nonexistent. For those who do not know, one of the key person who influenced Florence Nightingale is John Wesley, one of the greatest Christian evangelist of the past. Florence Nightingale, being a Christian, was inspired by the lives of many saints, but most importantly, Jesus Christ who modelled how to be a perfect healer and servant leader, which in turn gave her compassion for the sick and for the lost, just like what is stated in the vision and mission of San Pedro College. Florence Nightingale found her identity in Christ, and by that has found her purpose in her calling to be the first nurse. Her undying commitment to serve people rooted from her complete submission to her calling from God. Therefore, quality health care and services is just by all means a natural by-product of a person whose commitment is full to his/her calling.

How about us? How about the modern generation of nursing aides? Have we maintained the zeal and passion of taking care for the sick, for the lost, and for the improvement of humanity? Have we really viewed our patients as men with feelings, with real fears of dying, with worries for their families, with shaking faiths that needs assurance in their salvations? Even though we also have our own problems, but I say let God problem our problems, and let us problem our patient’s problems. I believe that this speech may sound challenging, a bite from reality, but let us move forward by making even better commitments than our forefathers and mothers in the field of caring for the sick. If we do not do these, quality health care will be endangered. Let me say that it’s time to rise up above normal service. Let us move forward with the spirit of excellence for the sake of the future generations to come. Who knows, the beneficiaries in the end might be our own selves and our own families.

Finally, I urge you that if you haven’t committed yourselves yet to this calling, or most importantly if you haven’t committed yourselves to God through Jesus Christ, then this is the time. It has been said in the Bible, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything shall be added unto you” Mathew 6:33. Learn to prioritize God. Those who seek first the kingdom of God and become His delight has a promise that He will give more than the desires of your hearts, may it be love life, wealth, or any ambitions that is in line with His will.

To end, let me say that if we want to do better, we must start changing ourselves first. Say this with me, “If I change, everything changes.” “Ako ang simula”.

Going straight. Living clean. Leading now. To God be the glory. In Jesus name. Amen!

A pleasant day to everyone! More power and God bless!

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CORE VALUES WE NEED TO DEVELOP IN THE PHILIPPINES

Hi friends!

I recently received an article in my email from my cousin and thought it is worth sharing. In the end I have also put my conclusions, so read it.

Why Is The Philippines Poor?

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School of Hope

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Womb to Tomb

Life is a matter of fulfillment…

It was just an ordinary lazy summer afternoon of mid-May and as usual I was looking forward for my afternoon nap. Lying in the bed I reminisced about school when I remembered the words of my clinical instructor who accompanied me during my first duty days as intern student nurse. Maam Guanzon as what we call her, once said that being a nurse is special and wonderful because of all jobs in the world nurses have the privilege to experience almost every phase of human life; that nurses are there from the time of birth in the delivery room to the last breath of a dying person in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). She taught her students which includes me that nurses are there to provide holistic care, prolong life and maintain the dignity of the client even in the face of death. As far as I can remember her very words, she quoted “kaya nga ang mga nurses may kasabihan, tayo ay nandyan - from womb to tomb” (That’s why nurses have this saying, we are always there, from womb to tomb). As for me those words dug deep into my being and slapped me into reality for at last I began to understand the real essence of Nursing. A thought echoed in my mind saying, “Nursing is a privilege, not a mere passport to US or other countries”. I then began to dream that someday I would be able to fulfill her words.

Going back last October of 2003 from the start of my first duty as a student nurse in San Pedro Hospital, my hands were sweating and heart pounding. Pushing through the emergency entrance door; it was almost 6:30 in the morning. Climbing several flights of stairs to fourth floor; walking past numbered doors; then I stopped. Suddenly, I found myself standing in front of a Nurse Station with staffs preparing for the morning’s endorsement. At least I was not alone in this rather amusing experience for I am with my fellow student nurses and our dear Clinical Instructor. At first I had some difficulty adjusting to the work; maybe because that was my first time but somehow with my friends’ support and a guiding C.I., I was able to made it on the first day. The second day was moving for I was assigned to the cancer room with four beds. Reverse isolation was implemented. A sorrowful bliss enveloped me to see children as young as 10 months old suffering leukemia and so I did my best to take care of them — it was the least that I could do. I really wish that I could do more to help them and hoped that I could be a real “angel”, the one with wings and a halo on top of my head, comforting the patients in the sick room. Finally, third day came and we had our morning’s endorsement when room 425 was assigned to me. Inside the room was a dying man 68 years of age and suffering from liver cirrhosis. I’m a new intern and really don’t know what to do in such critical situations, my knowledge and skills were still limited. At 8:30 in the morning the doctor pronounced my client dead and I was ordered to take care of him. I can’t believe it in my ears as I heard the order - I will be the first student nurse in my batch to have my client dead! As I was preparing myself to perform post-mortem care, I uttered a prayer in front of my client’s body to release my tension and then started on my work. My hands were cold, knees trembling and mixed emotions were felt. I told myself that this is the real thing, not a mere return demonstration on a dummy so I must do all my best to maintain the person’s dignity. Thanks to my C.I. who was with me all the time, I was able to finish the job. I really felt sorry for my client and to his family crying at his side. It made me think that death can also happen to me knowing that it is sure though the timing is unpredictable. Experiencing the final phase of life in the eyes of another person made me value life better. I then expressed all my condolence to the family after turning-over the body to the morgue.

Several weeks passed by and now I had found myself sent by the school in the delivery room of Davao Regional Hospital at Tagum City. Now its time to apply all those knowledge in Maternity Nursing. The first challenge for me was to locate and hear the fetal heart tone of an unborn child. I had a difficulty at first but with practice I got used to it. It was really amazing to hear the beating heart of a fetus and I felt so much love knowing that sooner or later an angel would emerge. In there I saw how babies are born and how they come to life. Babies come out with closed eyes; some are a little bluish and seems so lifeless but in just a fraction of a second after birth, a magical event happens. Instantly they turn pink, eyes start to open, limbs wiggles and then they shouted their first cries. Mothers after seeing their babies turned their agony of labor to smiles and laughter. Some of the mothers were primas (first timers) as young as 16 years old while most of them were multis as old as 49 years old. I was there to handle and assist their deliveries. I was there to clean their newborn angels. Thinking all those experiences in the delivery room made me love and value my mother more for I finally understood her sacrifices in giving birth to me. Yes, work in the delivery room was not that easy but always the same, my clinical instructor was there to guide, this time it’s Maam Perez. It made me so proud to really do something that helps other people without expecting anything in return. I promised myself that I’ll be back again.

But as for now, I am still lying on the bed, finished of reminiscing. Now its time to do some work putting those thoughts into words. Hours had passed and it was already 11:20 in the evening and I’m done typing. “Haaaay… inaantok na ako (”Haaay, I’m sleepy”). I better go to bed.” As I was brushing my teeth, I realized something. “Hey! Wait a minute… I think I’ve done it! I lived my dream! I was there - from womb to tomb.”

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SCARS….

Some years ago, on a hot summer day in South Florida , a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house. In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore. His father, working in the yard, saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, he ran toward the water, yelling to his son as loudly as he could. Hearing his voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his father. It was too late. Just as he reached his father, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the father grabbed his little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the father, but the father was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard his screams,raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator.

Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital,the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep scratches where his father’s fingernails dug into his flesh in his effort to hang on to the son he loved. The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, ‘But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Dad wouldn’t let go.’

You and I can identify with that little boy. We have scars, too. No, not from an alligator, but the scars of a painful past. Some of those scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But, some wounds, my friend, are because God has refused to let go. In the midst of your struggle, He’s been there holding on to you. The Scripture teaches that God loves you. You are a child of God. He wants to protect you and provide for you in every way. But sometimes we foolishly wade into dangerous situations, not knowing what lies ahead. The swimming hole of life is filled with peril - and we forget that the enemy is waiting to attack. That’s when the tug-of-war begins - and if you have the scars of His love on your arms, be very, very grateful. He did not and will not ever let you go.

Please pass this on to those you love. God has blessed you, so that you can be a blessing to others. You just never know where a person is in his/her life and what they are going through. Never judge another person’s scars, because you don’t know how they got them. Also,it is so important that we are not selfish, to receive the blessings of these messages, without forwarding them to someone else. Right now, someone needs to know that God loves them, and you love them, too - enough to not let them go .

Always Tell Your Family And Friends How Much You Love Them!!!

Posted into the bulletin by my good friend JP_RN

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BOOK REVIEW: THE SECRET

A Review of The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

by Donald S. Whitney

Rhonda Byrne, The Secret (New York: Atria Books, 2006) 198 pages. A video by the same title was released earlier in 2006.

I had never watched an entire episode of Oprah until her program on The Secret. In the promo for the show, Oprah announced that the program would present “the secret” to making more money, losing weight, finding the love of your life, and achieving job success. Who could resist hearing more about such a claim, especially when it is made by the most influential woman in America and touted as the key to all her success? Apparently I wasn’t alone. After the show, Oprah’s website was overwhelmed, emails poured in, and within hours The Secret had become the best-selling book in the nation.

A week later, while unpacking in a hotel room, I powered up the TV. Oprah and two guests from the week before appeared on the screen, effusive about the transforming power of The Secret. Her website called the episode, “A follow-up to the show everybody is talking about!”

People are not only talking about The Secret, they are buying it. I am writing this review in a Barnes & Noble bookstore, and this particular branch has completely sold out of the book—again. Only two days ago—so I am told—a storewide announcement assured a horde of anxious shoppers that another large shipment of the book had arrived and would be brought to the sales floor momentarily. Readers quickly grabbed every copy. Almost impossibly, The Secret is even outselling (at this writing) the final Harry Potter book. And if that weren’t enough, the audio edition of the book follows these two as the nation’s number-three seller.

The Australian author of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne, introduces the book by admitting, “A year ago, my life had collapsed around me” (p. ix). Through searching for answers in a variety of books new and old, she began to trace what she believed was a common thread in them all. She dubbed it the “Great Secret—The Secret to Life” (p. ix).

Byrne became convinced that this was the key to explaining the success of “the greatest people in history” (p. ix). As she started practicing this secret, Byrne says that her life immediately began to change in ways nothing short of miraculous. She decided to make a video called The Secret to share her discoveries with others. In March of 2006 it was released on the Internet, but soon went to DVD. By late autumn, the phenomenal success of the video placed it on two episodes of Larry King Live. Shortly after, two of the teachers featured on The Secret were guests on Ellen Degeneres’ daily TV show. Before Christmas, The Secret DVD had spun off a book by the same title which Oprah Winfrey catapulted to the top of the charts in February of 2007.

The essence of The Secret is “the law of attraction.” According to Byrne and the twenty-nine co-contributors whom she quotes extensively, everything in the Universe (which is always capitalized and usually synonymous for “God”) vibrates on a particular frequency. When you think in harmony with the frequency of something, you attract it to you. If you think about wealth, you will receive wealth. If you think instead about your debt, you will receive more debt. You attract what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny.

Byrne restates the law of attraction in various ways: “Nothing [good or bad] can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts” (p. 28). “Your thoughts are the primary cause of everything” (p. 33). “Your current reality or your current life is a result of the thoughts you have been thinking” (p. 71). According to the product description on the DVD, “This is The Secret to everything—the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted.

Byrne promises with ironclad certainty: “There isn’t a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. . . . The Secret can give you whatever you want” (p. xi). By it “you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want” (p. xii).

In the final analysis, The Secret is nothing more than Name It-Claim It, Positive-Confession, Prosperity Theology (without God and the Bible), built on a foundation of New Age self-deification. In other words, the book is just another version of what some TV preachers have taught for decades, namely, if you will sustain the right thoughts, words, and feelings, you will receive whatever you want. But The Secret adds this important twist: your thoughts can bring anything into your life because you are god.

Books that promise health and wealth for their practitioners are published every day. But few associate such promises with Byrne’s breathtaking audacity. She proclaims to her readers,

You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet (p. 164).

If that weren’t blasphemous enough, realize that the book your neighbors and coworkers are reading more than any other also tells them,

The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret (p. 183).

This would be beautiful if it were addressed to the God of Heaven. But as Byrne thinks this is what we should say to the person in the mirror, it is the heresy of heresies. Her “Secret” is nothing less than Satan’s original lie in the Garden of Eden, “You will be like God” (Gen. 3:5).

It is no exaggeration to say that this book implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) denies virtually every major doctrine in the Bible. For starters, the authority of Scripture is undermined in The Secret, because the Bible apparently has value only insofar as it (according to Byrne) teaches The Secret.

Moreover, the Bible is neither unique nor supremely authoritative, for Byrne maintains that the holy book of every religious tradition contains The Secret. Thus Byrne’s teaching is eclectic, that is, she believes that all religions and their scriptures are equally valid in their authority and basically teach the same thing.

Without mentioning Jesus, she quotes Him in Matthew 21:22 and Mark 11:24, claiming that the teaching to ask, believe, and receive in prayer is the way to “create what you want in three simple steps” (p. 47). And of course, it is not God we’re to ask, but “the Universe.” Thus The Secret is pantheistic, that is, it teaches that God is not a Person; rather He is to be equated with the totality of everything.

Despite this brief nod to the Bible, Byrne’s book is marketed upon the implication that readers probably would never discover The Secret on their own. “It has been passed down through the ages, highly-coveted, hidden, lost, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. . . . Now The Secret is being revealed to the world” (from the back cover). Thus the book is Gnostic, that is, it makes you dependent upon a small, elite group (namely, Rhonda Byrne and her panel of enlightened experts, “avatars,” and relatively obscure historical sources) to tell you what you need to know. In fact, in true Gnostic style, Byrne and her illuminati expressly refer to what we need to know as a secret—”the Great Secret.” And of course, you must pay—in this case, the price of the book or the DVD—to learn The Secret.

There’s no mention of sin in The Secret. The cause of all the problems in the world and in our individual lives is merely bad thinking, specifically the failure to recognize and appropriately use the law of attraction. Therefore the solution to everything lies within us. And that, of course, eliminates the need for a Savior, a Substitute, or a Sacrifice. The cross and resurrection of Jesus become irrelevant.

Curiously, there’s not a single reference to death or the afterlife in the book. Apparently this is a non-issue for contributors to The Secret, for one of them assures us, “no one will stand in judgment of [your life], now or ever” (p. 177). Another, when questioned about this on Oprah’s second show on the book, suggested that Heaven and Hell were present experiences, not future destinations.

So as with nearly all false teaching, the flaws of The Secret are most visible when you examine what it has to say about the Bible and Jesus.

If I had to commend something about The Secret, I would mention its emphasis on gratitude and the importance of the thought life. Byrne devotes several pages to “The Powerful Process of Gratitude” (pp. 74-80). Though she does not base it on the Bible, Byrne nevertheless encourages just what the Bible teaches in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “in everything give thanks.” She says that regardless of the situations awaiting her, “By the time I am ready for the day, I have said ‘Thank you’ hundreds of times” (p. 76). Remarkably, she never says to whom thanks should be given. Nor is her motivation kindred to the one stated in the verse above: “this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Regarding the thought life, The Secret reminds us that there is a powerful connection between our thoughts and our actions. While the thoughts Byrne wants us to repeat are typically contrary to Scripture, she rightly observes that the thoughts we constantly affirm influence our feelings and our behavior. This conforms to the declaration of Scripture that Christians are “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). For us to live for the glory of God and in increasing conformity to Christ requires not only that we grow in our knowledge of God’s Word, but also that we constantly reaffirm specific truths of Scripture, despite feelings or circumstances that contradict them.

The problem with The Secret is that it focuses our hope selfward and not Godward. It is all about self-empowerment, self-fulfillment, and getting whatever we want. But Jesus warned, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The Secret disregards the fact that God has a Law and we have broken it (James 2:10). What Byrne fails to realize about her law of attraction is that our sinful hearts deceive us (Jeremiah 17:9) and attract not only more sin and guilt, but ultimately, the wrath of God.

However, God in His mercy sent His Son to receive this wrath as a Substitute for all who will repent of their selfishness and believe in Him. And “through the true knowledge of Him”—not Rhonda Byrne’s book—”His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

“The Secret to everything” (to use Byrne’s term) is God Himself. And God, the “Great Secret,” has been revealed in Jesus Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). God has freely told us in the Bible everything we need to know about discovering the unlimited “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” found in Christ. And He remains an unknown Secret only to those who will not look for Him there.

Copyright © 2007 Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved.
For more short, reproducible pieces like this, see
WWW.BIBLICALSPIRITUALITY.ORG

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TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN…

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1950’s, 60′ s,  70’s  and early 80’s !!

First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, ate isaw,and didn’t worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads , sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats(yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na)

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711( minsan straight from the faucet or poso)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contacted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank sofdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren’t sick or overweight kasi nga……

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on.Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso , habulan at taguan.

No one was able to reach us all day ( di uso ang cellphone , walang beepers ). And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our woodentrolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slidesout of scraps and then ride down the street , only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (seweage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD’s, no cellphones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters. …… …WE HADREAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents.The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo,,,,ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. we were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns ” gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan.. .pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks(syato), and cans ( tumbang preso )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay.paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO’s, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility.. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who’ve had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn’t it?!

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Matter of Taste (Filipinos Read) by Matthew Sutherland

I have
now been in this country for over six years, and consider myself in most
respects well assimilated.  However, there is one key step on
the road
to full assimilation, which I have yet to take, and that’s
to eat
BALUT.

The day
any of you sees me eating balut, please call immigration and ask them to issue
me a Filipino passport. Because at that point there will be no turning back.
BALUT,
for those still blissfully ignorant non-Pinoys out there, is a
fertilized
duck egg. It is commonly sold with salt in a piece of newspaper, much like
English fish and chips, by street vendors usually after dark, presumably so you
can’t see how gross it is.

It’s
meant to be an aphrodisiac, although I can’t imagine anything more likely to
dispel sexual desire than crunching on a partially formed baby duck swimming in
noxious fluid. The embryo in the egg comes in varying stages of development,
but basically it is not considered macho to eat one without fully discernable
feathers,
beak, and
claws.  Some say these crunchy bits are the best. Others prefer just to
drink the so-called ’soup’, the vile, pungent liquid that surrounds the
aforementioned feathery fetus…excuse me; I have to go and throw up
now.   I’ll be back in a minute.

Food
dominates the life of the Filipino. People here just love to eat.
They eat
at least eight times a day. These eight official meals are called, in order:
breakfast, snacks, lunch, merienda, merienda ceyna,
dinner,
bedtime snacks and no-one-saw-me- take-that- cookie-from- the-fridge-so- it-
doesn’t-count.

The short
gaps in between these mealtimes are spent eating Sky Flakes from the open
packet that sits on every desktop. You’re never far from food in the
Philippines . If you doubt this, next time you’re driving home from work, try
this game. See how long you can drive without seeing food and I don’t mean a
distant restaurant, or a picture of food. I mean a man on the sidewalk frying
fish balls, or a man
walking
through the traffic selling nuts or candy. I bet it’s less than one minute.

Here are
some other things I’ve noticed about food in the Philippines :

Firstly,
a meal is not a meal without rice - even breakfast. In the UK ,
I could
go a whole year without eating rice.  Second, it’s impossible
to drink
without eating. A bottle of San Miguel just isn’t the same
without
gambas or beef tapa. Third, no one ventures more than two paces from their
house without baon (food in small container) and a container of something cold
to drink. You might as well ask a Filipino to leave home without his pants on.
And lastly, where I come from, you eat with a knife and fork. Here, you eat
with a spoon and fork. You try eating rice swimming in fish sauce with a knife.

One
really nice thing about Filipino food culture is that people always ask you to
SHARE their food. In my office, if you catch anyone attacking their baon, they
will always go, "Sir! KAIN TAYO!" ("Let’s eat!"). This
confused me, until I realized that they didn’t actually expect me to sit down
and start munching on their boneless bangus. In fact, the polite response is
something like, "No thanks, I just ate." But the principle is sound -
if you have food on your plate, you are expected to share it, however hungry
you are, with those who may be even hungrier. I think that’s great!

In fact,
this is frequently even taken one step further. Many Filipinos use "Have
you eaten yet?" ("KUMAIN KA NA?") as a general greeting,
irrespective of time of day or location.

Some
foreigners think Filipino food is fairly dull compared to other Asian cuisines.
Actually lots of it is very good: Spicy dishes like Bicol Express (strange, a
dish named after a train); anything cooked with coconut milk; anything KINILAW;
and anything ADOBO.  And it’s hard to beat the sheer wanton, cholesterolic
frenzy of a good old-fashioned LECHON de leche (roast pig) feast.  Dig a
pit, light a fire, add 50 pounds of animal fat on a stick,  and cook until
crisp. Mmm, mmm…
you can
actually feel your arteries constricting with each successive
mouthful.

I also
share one key Pinoy trait —a sweet tooth. I am thus the only
foreigner
I know who does not complain about sweet bread, sweet burgers, sweet spaghetti,
sweet banana ketchup, and so on. I am a man who likes to put jam on his pizza.
Try it! It’s the weird food you want to avoid.  In addition to duck
fetus in the half-shell, items to
avoid in
the Philippines include pig’s blood soup (DINUGUAN); bull’s
testicle
soup, the strangely-named "SOUP NUMBER FIVE" (I dread to think what
numbers one through four are); and the ubiquitous, stinky shrimp paste,
BAGOONG, and it’s equally stinky sister, PATIS.
Filipinos
are so addicted to these latter items that they will even risk
arrest or
deportation trying to smuggle them into countries like Australia and the USA ,
which wisely ban the importation of items you can smell from more than 100
paces.

Then
there’s the small matter of the purple ice cream. I have never been
able to
get my brain around eating purple food; the ubiquitous UBE leaves me cold.

And lastly
on the subject of weird food, beware: that KALDERETANG KAMBING
(goat)
could well be KALDERETANG ASO (dog)…

The
Filipino, of course, has a well-developed sense of food.  Here’s a
typical
Pinoy food joke:  "I’m on a seafood diet. "What’s a seafood diet?"
"When I see food, I eat it!"

Filipinos
also eat strange bits of animals — the feet, the head, the guts, etc.,
usually barbecued on a stick. These have been given witty names, like
DIDAS" (chicken’s feet); "KURBATA" (either just chicken’s neck,
or "neck and thigh" as in "neck-tie"); "WALKMAN"
(pigs ears); "PAL" (chicken wings); HELMET" (chicken head);
"IUD" (chicken intestines), and BETAMAX" (video-cassette- like
blocks of animal blood).  Yum, yum. Bon appetit.

"A
good name is rather to be chosen than great riches"– (Proverbs 22:1)

WHEN I
arrived in the Philippines from the UK six years ago, one of the
first
cultural differences to strike me was names. The subject has provided a
continuing source of amazement and amusement ever since. The first unusual
thing, from an English perspective, is that everyone here has a nickname. In
the staid and boring United Kingdom , we have nicknames in kindergarten, but
when we move into adulthood we tend, I am glad to say, to lose them.

The
second thing that struck me is that Philippine names for both girls and boys
tend to be what we in the UK would regard as overbearingly cutesy for anyone
over about five. Fifty-five-year- olds colleague put it. Where I come from, a
boy with a nickname like Boy Blue or Honey Boy would be beaten to death at
school by pre-adolescent bullies, and never make it to adulthood. So, probably,
would girls with names like Babes, Lovely, Precious, Peachy or
Apples.   Yuk, ech ech.
Here,
however, no one bats an eyelid.

Then I
noticed how many people have what I have come to call "door-bell
names". These are nicknames that sound like -well, doorbells. There are
millions of them. Bing, Bong, Ding, and Dong are some of the more common. They
can be, and frequently are, used in even more door-bell-like combinations such
as
Bing-Bong,
Ding-Dong, Ting-Ting, and so on.  Even our newly appointed chief of police
has a doorbell name Ping .  None of these doorbell names exist where I
come from, and hence sound unusually amusing to my untutored foreign ear.

Someone
once told me that one of the Bings, when asked why he was called Bing, replied,
"because my brother is called Bong". Faultless logic. Dong, of
course, is a particularly funny one for me, as where I come from
"dong"

is a
slang word for well; perhaps "talong" is the best Tagalog equivalent.

Repeating
names was another novelty to me, having never before encountered people with
names like Len-Len, Let-Let, Mai-Mai, or Ning-Ning. The secretary I inherited
on my arrival had an unusual one: Leck-Leck. Such names are then frequently
further refined by using the "squared" symbol, as in Len2 or Mai2.
This had me very confused for a while.

Then
there is the trend for parents to stick to a theme when naming their children.
This can be as simple as making them all begin with the same letter, as in Jun,
Jimmy, Janice, and Joy.

More
imaginative parents shoot for more sophisticated forms of assonance
or rhyme,
as in Biboy, Boboy, Buboy, Baboy (notice the names get worse the
more kids
there are-best to be born early or you could end up being a Baboy).

Even
better, parents can create whole families of, say, desserts (Apple Pie, Cherry
Pie, Honey Pie) or flowers (Rose, Daffodil, Tulip). The main advantage of such
combinations is that they look great painted across your trunk if you’re a cab
driver.

That’s
another thing I’d never seen before coming to Manila — taxis with the driver’s
kids’ names on the trunk.

Another
whole eye-opening field for the foreign visitor is the phenomenon of the
"composite" name. This includes names like Jejomar (for Jesus, Joseph
and Mary), and the remarkable Luzviminda (for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao ,
believe it or not). That’s a bit like me being called something like
Engscowani" (for England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ).
Between you and me, I’m glad I’m not.

And how
could I forget to mention the fabulous concept of the randomly inserted letter
‘h’. Quite what this device is supposed to achieve, I have not yet figured out,
but I think it is designed to give a touch of class to an otherwise only
averagely weird name. It results in creations like Jhun, Lhenn, Ghemma, and
Jhimmy. Or how about Jhun-Jhun (Jhun2)?

How
boring to come from a country like the UK full of people with names like John Smith.
How wonderful to come from a country where imagination and exoticism rule the
world of names.

Even the
towns here have weird names; my favorite is the unbelievably named town of
Sexmoan (ironically close to Olongapo and Angeles).  Where else in the
world could that really be true?

Where
else in the world could the head of the Church really be called Cardinal Sin?

Where
else but the Philippines !

Note:
Philippines has a senator named Joker, and it is his legal name.

 

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Possible Impossible

"Do first what is possible and God will do the impossible." - Pastor Joel (Youth Reload May 16, 2008)

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IELTS Tips: “Euro-English”

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

In the first year, ’s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. 

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as
replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vordskontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Disclaimer: This is not official and was sent to me as an email to make me smile. Hope you enjoyed it too.

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