Diaries
It is amazing the role Social Media plays in business growth. During the Re-housing project in Cebu, fellows were introduced to Dekeyser and Friends Media World - developing diaries, photos and videos for the outside world to see. At the beginning, i did not really understand the need for it. But at a stage in the project, I started appreciating the role Social media plays in our daily activities.
On Tuesday April 29th 2011, I was at the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan African University in Lagos Nigeria to share my experience in the use of Social Media. The students are managers of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises. The coordinator had to ask the students to leave because they did not want to go home.
I must say a very big 'THANK YOU' to Dekeyser and Friends Foundation for offering me the opportunity to be a blessing to myself and other people. INSPIRATION is the word! And this is a clarion call to every young person out there – Follow Your Dreams!!!
I am now back home trying to get back to 'reality' and as I look back on the last weeks on the Cebu project a whole bunch of emotions overcome me - happiness, joy, sadness, satisfaction you name it whether negative or positive I've been there these past few weeks.
The community centre is absolutely beautiful. Its amazing how most of the times we forget our reason for being or doing something when you hit a rough spot (and we hit a lot in this project) but when I stood in front of that community centre and saw the Umapad community appreciating the building and all the invited guests looking at the building in awe I felt immense pride and joy in their appreciation and was so happy that I took part in this project.
This community centre will be there for all time - although they might decide to modify it and change it when the time passes one thing will remain as it is and that is that 17 Fellows from 14 different countries dug that centres foundation with their own bare hands with nothing but shovels and picks.
It was wonderful having Bobby, Caroline, Oya, Richard and Bjorn fly out to listen to our DreamPlan presentations and I will be really excited to see all Fellows implement them. Sometimes it really only takes someone to show interest in your work to get you seriously going on your 'dream' and I really loved the feeling and encouragement I received from the guests who were present but also from my Fellows.
The closing ceremonies were happy and sad moments for me as they marked the end of the project and so yay going home but - OMG im going to miss my friends who I have lived with for 6 months 24 hours a day so much!
Thank you Dekeyser and Friends Foundation for giving me the opportunity to relive the teenage years I missed out on and reminding me that it's ok to be a dreamer, thank you Fellows for being my geography lessons that I absolutely loved :) But also for the warm, fun, crazy, hard, fun, crazy... moments, thank you to the host family for introducing karaoke to me, to the Umapad community members who made me feel so alive.
This project ranks in my top 10 experiences of my whole life. And my I take the opportunity with this final diary for my Cebu project to celebrate the life of Ann-Katherin Dekeyser. May you rest in eternal peace.
It’s hard to believe but my 6-month Fellowship in the Philippines is already over. We wrapped up with a busy final month finishing construction on the community centre in Compostela including weaving walls and windows at the Dedon furniture factory in Cebu and visiting villages where we volunteered over the past months to say a last goodbye. One day, I visited friendly faces at the Umapad dumpsite while filming the families’ daily life. You can watch my video here.
One of my most memorable experiences over the past month was shadowing Father Heinz on his weekly rounds to visit the street children who live by SM mall in Cebu City. He said we’d see the “other side of SM” and was he ever right. Directly beside the flashy expensive shopping centre is a slum where young boys learn to survive by stealing from people riding by in jeepney buses. To slow down the vehicles, the kids send out a small child to walk across the street, then they run up and grab necklaces, purses and whatever they can get their hands on.
The worst is the drug addiction I saw there among boys as young as eight. All around, the boys were holding plastic bags filled with glue that they huff repeatedly to get high and escape the feeling of hunger. Father Heinz visits every week to take all the kids, most of whom are orphans, to eat at a local shop. I asked him whether the kids stay addicted long-term to sniffing glue and he said that, no, most often they “graduate” to shooting up. Then he pointed out a boy who had recently made this switch. But as always with Father Heinz, he remains completely calm and non-judgmental. I was having a hard time not vomiting.
Around the corner, I met a very sweet 72-year-old woman named Julieta who had lost all her teeth, but spoke fluent English. The woman was the tiniest figure I’d ever seen, just skin and bones, but so full of energy and life. She told me a sad story of being abandoned by her children who are all married and living on other islands, but have never come for her. I took a photograph of her and promised I’d be back.
Several days later, I printed the photo at SM mall and then wandered over to the “other side” to give it to her. She invited me inside her one-room shack and I really felt like I’d been transported to another world. In 30 seconds, I went from inside this shiny plastic mall to a tiny room with a tiny woman who has no one to care for her. I left feeling very strange knowing I would be leaving so soon to go back to my own “other side,” to my somewhat plastic lifestyle back home that sometimes feels like the inside of that mall. Although these problems exist all around, it can be so easy to look the other way.
Days later, we officially opened the community centre in Compostela in front of a crowd of villagers from the Umapad dumpsite who will eventually build their own houses and move there. Seeing the husbands, wives and children was an emotional experience when I realized just how excited they all were that the village is started, meaning a new start for them is on the way. I was filled with hope for the future of those 50 families.
The next few weeks will be interesting as I begin to unravel all the experiences I’ve had, all the things I’ve learned, and all the ways I’ve changed. I’ve had an incredible, eye-opening experience and I will truly miss all those who touched my life in the Philippines.
A few of the things I’ll miss most:
- The sky: pure beauty and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before
- Some of the kindest people I’ve ever met who opened their homes and hearts
- Smiling children who always remember my name
- Babies everywhere to hold
- Gorgeous ocean views
- Bright flowers, palm-treed mountains, white-sand beaches for miles
- Tropical fruits everyday
- My fellows: this has been a wild ride and it wouldn’t have been the same without my 16 friends from around the world. They will stay in my heart forever.
Last Thursday Gamze and I took two habal-habals and a taxi to meet Father Heinz at the University of San Carlos. He had agreed to take two of us on his daily rounds to visit the people who live at the dumpsite, the street children, and one of the rehousing projects in the area.
Father Heinz left Germany almost 30 years ago. He's a tall thin man, still remarkably white for living in a country where the sun shines hot every day. He wears clean blue jeans and a t-shirt, white sneakers or sometimes Birkenstocks with gray socks. He's a Catholic priest by coincidence, he says. Had he be been born and raised in India, he would have been a Buddhist.
Heinz took us to the Cebu City dumpsite in his clean white jeep, loaded with medicine and snacks in the back cab. More than 200 families live on the dumpsite and at least 100 people, most of them children, were lined up waiting for the white jeep when we got there. Heinz gives out small packs of cookies when he comes. Each month, his organization, JPIC-IDC, spends more than 40,000 PHP, or 1000 USD on snacks for children and adults living on the dumpsite. The cookies are bribe - I'll help you if you respect me. It makes the people loyal to Heinz, and they know they can count on him. For many of the children, those cookies are the only food they'll eat all day. They also listen to him when he says he's done for the day, that he can't give out any more medicine, that he'll be back next week.
Heinz coordinates with a group of German doctors who also help in dumpsite and street communities around Cebu. Each week, a team of German doctors comes to the dumpsite and doles out aspirin, antibiotics, and advice. It's all for free, and there's never enough to go around. One woman with a fever will report that her three children are also back at home with the same symptoms. The numbers only multiply as the line in front of the truck gets longer. The people rely on the German doctors' weekly visit, as much as they rely on Heinz's visits in between. Heinz knows that some people can't, or shouldn't wait seven days for the next visit from the German doctors. Because of this, he also visits once a week, a few days after the German doctors come, to treat infections in between.
Heinz isn't a doctor, but with a stethoscope around his neck, he looks like one. He probes at glands and looks down throats and speaks in hushed Cebuano to the patients standing in front of him. Most are in respiratory distress from the constant fires and fumes on the dumpsite. Some have cysts or growths on their bodies, others have open wounds, turned black from being untreated. He hands out small plastic bags filled with 10 or 20 pills of various colors and sizes, calculating the dosage based on the patient's estimated body weight and age.
When he finally shuts the door to the jeep, people are still pulling at the sleeve of his t-shirt. Wait until Saturday, says Heinz, when the German doctors come. He has to draw the line somewhere, he is only one man.
After he locks the truck, we take a quick walk through the dumpsite so Heinz can check on families he hasn't seen, or babies who have just been born. There are puppies and chickens and children swarming his feet and he walks on broken glass, sewage, and decomposing plastic. We are standing on more than 10 meters of garbage. We find a baby born four days before, surprisingly pink and clean in her mother's arms. A shack nearby has collapsed like a house of cards, all walls leaning to one side. The family crawls in and out of what's left of the house through a window. Despite the obvious difficulties that come with living in a house which has collapsed, the family refuses to leave although Heinz has tried to persuade them to move to a nearby rehousing project. They want to be the first ones to the dump truck when it comes daily. It is the only livelihood they know.
We leave the dumpsite as it's getting dark, and Heinz drives us a few kilometers down the road to a nearby rehousing project for some of the families from the Cebu City dumspite.
The air here is considerably cleaner - there's no smoke from fires and the stench of garbage is absent. Only 40 families have decided to come and live in this rehousing project. It's incredibly difficult to convince scavengers to leave their livelihood. They're convinced that if they leave the dumpsite, they won't be able to feed their families and in many cases, this is true. Without the proper training or livelihood options, families are destined to struggle if they leave the dump. However, as the sun sets quickly behind the rehousing project, Heinz points out 9 huge mango trees which provide more than 20,000 PHP of income each per year. These fruit trees belong to the housing project and everyone who lives there helps to take care of them and reaps the benefits from the work. Each family gets around 80 USD a year from the trees, not a lot, but enough to significantly supplement their other income.
We don't stay long at the rehousing project, it's peaceful here and Heinz has just stopped by to check in. The mosquitoes have come out and we rub rubbing alcohol on our skin before last stop is Carbon market, the biggest market in Cebu. All the produce and supplies in the city are delivered here and smaller markets their get stock from this market. It smells of fish and raw meat, barbecue smoke and sewage. It's dark as we park the jeep on a narrow crowded street. We hide our valuables under the seat and Heinz locks the door.
We're hear to find a group of street children who live in the market. We find them in a narrow corridor flanked by small eat shops and fish stalls. Rats as big as kittens run in the shadows of the walls and hands grope at my pockets and pant legs. They are mostly boys with thick muscular arms and wiry, styled hair. They greet Heinz with enthusiasm, shaking his hand, hugging his waist, pressing the back of his hand to their foreheads in a gesture of respect. He messed up their hair and jokes around with them in Cebuano.
Most of these boys under 18 have been in prison. Almost all of them are addicted to sniffing rugby glue. None of them have parents and they all live together on the streets of this market, stealing from the pockets of foreigners, the stalls of eateries, and each other.
Heinz has come tonight to buy them a meal, something he does three or four times a week as part of another program JPIC-IDC runs. He takes attendance on a pad of paper in shaky handwriting, scrawling down the names of the boys who are there, turning away some who he knows have parents. He hands the list to a woman in a nearby food stall who starts to dole out small portions of food to the crowd of kids. Each kid is given 25 pesos for a meal, about 50 cents, plenty when it comes to street food here. As they eat, more arrive and Heinz adds them to the list, handing over more pesos to the hand of the woman doing the cooking.
Heinz has made an agreement with some of the food vendors in the Carbon market. When he comes, they must provide the boys with food, and not refund the money. For the vendors, it's guaranteed income. For the children, it's a meal and not drugs.
Father Heinz sneaks away as the kids are eating, he says he'll come back later in the week when there's less chaos and we're not there to distract the boys. As we approach the van to head home, there's already a crowd of people waiting at the door, hoping for medicine. Heinz indulges the most serious cases - a woman who's tooth is infected, a man with a serious fever. He turns the rest away - the German doctors also visit Carbon market once a week and their visit is only a few days away.
It's 8:30 PM as we pull back into San Carlos university. Heinz has been up since 5 AM and the weariness shows on his face. We wash our hands with soap and water in the kitchen on the eighth floor - an incredible luxury after seeing such poverty. Heinz lives here with a number of other clergymen and dinner is still set out on the table.
After we have a small meal, Heinz takes us to a final destination - the rooftop of San Carlos. The moon is full and the sky is clear. We stay long enough only to take a few pictures. We're all exhausted - especially Heinz - and unlike us, he has to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
The power of purpose.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
How many of us live truly purposeful lives and how many just drift along, always trying to fit in with the trends, living life on others terms?
True power comes with purpose. It brings an inner awareness, an inner state of being in control, knowing that we can achieve our goals. It brings a calm conviction about our true identity. It makes us believe that we can achieve all that we set out to achieve in life. It gives us quiet confidence in our abilities. It helps us set a direction for our life. It makes us distinguish among circumstances over those we have some control and over those we have no control. This power makes us define ourselves from inside out. It makes us always moving towards self-confidence. We constantly keep affirming, I am a capable person. I can handle all life challenges. I am creative. I learn from all my mistakes. etc the power which can move mountains and achieve miracles.
How can we cultivate this power in our lives? This comes with a vision for our future. It comes when we open up to new possibilities. It comes when we nurture our inherent strengths. Yes, each one of us has been granted numerous gifts by nature/ God / the universe/ spirit/ energy/ intelligence; whatever name you may call it. Ask yourself, what are the blessing/ gifts/ powers that I have been blessed with so far? Make a list of these blessings. Your list could include a safe and secure home, a loving family, fresh drinking water, plenty of food, good health, a sound mind, education, employment, friends, freedom from life threats, talents, abilities etc.
Once you have made this list, you are ready to ask the next question: Why have I been given all these gifts? What is the purpose ? This is a very important question, so let the answer come from deep inside of yourself. For some, the purpose could be to experience love, beauty, and aliveness. For some others, it could be sharing the gifts and supporting others in living joyful, authentic lives. Some may be inclined to create conditions where everyone can live with inner security and peace. Some may wish to understand more about the human nature and human experience. There can be as many purposes as people existing, since each one of us is unique of gifts and talents.
Once you have identified your most compelling purpose you are ready for the final question. Ask yourself, What actions do I need to take today in the direction of my life purpose? How can I align my gifts with the purpose I have identified? Whichever way you frame this question, the answer to this question will give you the power of purpose. This answer will make you look at each moment as an opportunity to march forward on your chosen path.
So, ask these questions, honesty answer them and your power of purpose. This power will propel you towards success in any chosen field because this will be aligned with who you are.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Recently I was taking a walk when suddenly my eyes focused on a woman standing on the top of a fence. Before I figured out what she was trying to do I was fascinated at what I saw next. This lady jumped over a wall of two meters high. I buried my check in my palm as I watched in both shock and admiration-admiring her courage, but shocked by her decision until I discovered the reason why she had taken the risk. Someone was after her life, so she had to creatively devise means of escape without hurting herself. This incident made me realized that God deposited in to each of us the power of creativity. Only that most times we are unaware of it until problems show up. This is the power that helps us find to our daily problems. People will always find a way of creativity solving their problems. If they locked you in a house for a day, you'd generate ideas of how to break out. Power. During school days, I used to enter the exam room wondering whether I knew anything only to get surprised by how the mind would retrieve whatever I had read just at the sight of the questions! The thought process was always boosted by the problem (exam). But do you have to first wait for problems before you can tap in to your creativity? For a moment forget about the problems and look at positive motivators. Focus on your life-long dreams. If there was a $100m prize for walking from one end of the country to another end (east to west, north to south), many of us would mobilize energy and walk. On one reality local fm radio program in my country, a man died in the studio for drinking too much hot water during a computation in which they wanted to see who would drink the highest amount of hot water. If you take steps to discover the hidden power of creativity in you and use it, you can be sure you are on your way to a place called success.
This past Saturday, I had the chance to witness the infamous “Dancing Inmates” at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre for a live performance.
The prisoners in this maximum security jail located way up in the mountains became well-known around the world following the 2007 release of a YouTube video of the inmates performing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.
Since then, they’ve been making public performances once a month, coming out with new dance routines regularly, and were even taught material from ‘This is It’ by Michael Jackson’s choreographer, Travis Payne, when he visited Cebu.
The dance “rehabilitation” program was spearheaded by Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, whose photo was paraded out on a giant posterboard during the performance finale. It seems to be a successful tourism ploy – the bus ride and entrance were free, but I suppose the idea is once the tourists are in Cebu, they will spend money elsewhere.
The famous dance troupe has had its share of controversy. Some say glorifying the work of prisoners – many of them violent criminals and murderers – is not a proper form of punishment. I imagine a victim or victim’s family member might not appreciate tourists flocking to see the inmates dance and then praising their work when they greet them after the show.
There have also been reports of abuse when inmates say they don’t want to participate, and that the best dancers are given special privileges within the jail. Upon entering, a large table was laden with dancing inmates souvenirs, some of which were made by the inmates themselves. When you get up to the viewing area, other inmates can be seen in a row of jail cells stringing beads to make souvenirs while the dancers put on their show.
But other than that, my experience was quite positive. The women next to me knew a couple of the prisoners and told me their friends love the dance program. Seeing the enthusiasm of the prisoners and speaking to them after, I really got the impression they wanted to participate.
As for punishment, it seems the isolation of being behind bars is the real punishment for someone in jail. Dancing four hours a day is certainly an incredible workout for the inmates and likely an effective channel for aggression and anger. Not to mention they will leave jail with a new talent and hopefully a sense of worth in society.
One of my biggest qualms was the lack of security at this “maximum security” jail. They didn’t bother to take our names, check IDs, or even look in our bags. There was so much commotion at the end with visitors moving in and out to meet the dancers, it seems all too possible that someone could escape. Not to mention, I could have brought anything in my bag.
It’s definitely a grey area, and I still have mixed feelings about the whole concept, but one thing is for certain: those inmates put on an incredible performance. It was complete with 12 numbers, including an emotional tribute to the King of Pop with a Filipino MJ dancing in his place, moonwalk and all. I was beyond impressed. In fact, I would love to go back and see the show again before I leave.
We tour, we conquer, and then return home. I am not describing the trade bazaar in campuses or the wildest ladies night in Magellan's pub. But what usually happens over the weekends, when ladies and gents take their time to hangout with the intention to relax themselves. Even if I was describing what happened in Magellan's pub I would not be far from the point.
Saturday, the 21st of September 2010 was a little bit different from other days of the week, in the morning between the hours of 10am to 11am we received a team of experts (DreamPlan) from different parts of the Cebu province, these included the DEDON team, Grace (accounting director), Rose (accounting manager), Rosemell (Cebu design library), David Overton (Glory Reborn org.) and Tony (Ashoka representative in the Philippines) from Manila. The consultation meeting was over by lunch time and at 1pm we received words of inspiration from Tony of Ashoka before he took his way back. Our faces were full of smiles, talking to each other about the DreamPlan meeting we had with the experts, every one of us had some thing interesting to share with friends. The most common and similar characteristics from these experts was that they gave constructive criticism. As soon as the evening stepped on the stairs of our the door way another common dream was calling ten Fellows, these didn't matter what name one calls God or the biological characteristic. We all took one way, one jippney and went straight to Magellan's pub, it's a popular tourist sport in Lapu-Lapu city and what makes it unique from other pubs in Cebu province is that it offers free drinks for ladies every saturday night from the hour of 9:00pm till dawn and they named it as ladies night. From inside we walked straight to the counter and looking a bit stranded because all sits were already occupied, but because we were foreigners avery big table was quickly arranged with ten chairs around it, as my co-Fellows were walking to occupy their sits, I was offered a seat right at the counter were I was surrounded by sets of video games. On my left hand side, an english premiership was going on, Tottenham Hotspur vs Stoke City, I couldn't wait to jump in and support Tottenham Hotspur simply because of Peter Crouch who transferred from Liverpool two seasons ago to my favorite club in the premier league. Their game ended 2 to 1 in favor of Tottenham, exactly following my bet. At my back from the counter a giant screen was playing rugby for which I am not a fan. As bottles were opened one after another, the ladies night tales that sounded so much fun, excitement, much like what I thought it would be started to be real. On stage a live band was performing, dancing and the moon walk was not charged (part of customer care). Besides there creativity, the music sound was very beautiful to my ears. Fashion and style, jeans ruled for both guys and ladies. The ladies. I must say, had a thing for skinny jeans. About 88% of the ladies walked in to the pub floor dressed in their skinny jeans, leaving only about 5% in dresses and 7% in mini skirts.
Almost one week since we have come back to Dedon. For some Fellows today is their first day, because last week we did things separately, some went to Compostela and the others weaved at Dedon. The circumstances are quite different when it comes working only with half of us, and when we work together in the same thing and same place. Last week we did our own panel, one person took care of one panel, let me tell you, these panels are around 2 meters high, so it’s such a huge thing to do it by yourself. Not impossible, but still tiring and kind of boring to do it alone. But it’s changing today, almost all of the Fellows do the panels in a pair. And after I tried it myself it’s nice and so much better to have someone to chat with than listening to music all the time when do weaving. So far the progress run quite smoothly, although we still have to finish a half of the total panel, but I think we still do have enough time. Personally, I really do like weaving, compared to Compostela in the last 3 weeks. Because I think I didn’t help much with carrying things or cutting the wire. Especially when I only could carry 1 and a half shovel of sand or gravels while others could carry 4 till 5 shovels in one trip. Even the Umapad people (the people that will move to the future-village and now joining us together to build their community center) could carry 10 shovels in their shoulders! For me that is really something and I believe that most of you will agree with me when you know the way that they have to pass in every trip from road to the construction site.
But here in Dedon doing the panels, I feel that I did something, I have the feeling that I really do help by making something that’s gonna be used since we are creating the real walls for the building. The feeling is way better than the past weeks. Even though sometimes it makes our shoulders and back pretty stiff after having weaved for some time in so many positions. Actually we can cope with it by stretching or laying down on the floor or take a short walk. But who’s complaining anyway?=P
It was the first time weaving panels in Dedon. WHERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY.
When a person really wants to do something, he will find a way of doing it.
A goof beginning makes a good ending.
To succeed in life one must have the courage to say what he wants
Dedon is a company which is well organized. The company was founded by the former professional Bayern munich footballer, Bobby Dekeyser . He came up with the idea of starting a company when he was still young. Dedon is a company which makes indoor and outdoor furniture. Dedon has several branches in different countries like USA, Germany, France, and China. Dedon produces a good quality of furniture and every one wants to buy the Dedon furniture because it is a durable and weather resistant fiber. All employees in Dedon work with love because they love the work they are doing . All workers in Dedon have access to the basic needs like medical care is free in Dedon to all workers, the company provides also transport to the workers.
Introduction and briefing of weaving panels for the first time in Dedon.
The topic was clearly defined and the training objectives was also clearly stated. The trainers were experts in the topic. The Fellows were generally very satisfied with all the aspects of the training. It gave the Fellows some practical information that was useful to the Fellows and right now the Fellows have started using the previous training knowledge to weave wall panels. There were sufficient opportunities to practice what was taught during the training and it helped the Fellows to identify areas that the Fellows needed to further develop. The training motivated the Fellows and every Fellow was satisfied because of the motivation during the training.
Time is money.
- 1 of 18
- ››