November is a rather gloomy month mainly because of Supertyphoon Yolanda leaving most of Visayas devastated. The deadly typhoon has now been confirmed to have taken more than 5000 lives and many are yet to be found. What's heartbreaking is that relief operations are chaotic and donations were not efficiently delivered to those in need. Many, including me, suspect that those in office are taking advantage of this tragedy to pocket money for themselves since donations by corporations and nations were not transparently announced. Nor will the public ever know if the funds will completely be used to deliver relief and aid in rebuilding houses and lives.
It just happened so soon, and barely a month after a major earthquake that destroyed most of Visayas' heritage structures in October. I could still remember the disgust I felt upon hearing someone (certainly not a friend of mine) say "This is it! It's our time to shine!" It felt so wrong, to take advantage of the situation to uplift one's self. At that moment, I was repulsed by the hypocrisy and by the shallowness of that person. How different is she from those politicians who added to the delay in relief delivery by demanding that donations go through their office first? Or how about those who, despite much criticism from the media, still resort to packing goods with their names on the bags? Printing those plastic bags means more resources spent, not just money but also time.
As an environmentalist, I cringe at how relief goods are packed using plastic bags. It's good if people reuse plastic bags or dispose of these properly. But in my observations, Filipinos are not very good at taking care of their surroundings and random disposal seems to be the norm. In soup kitchens, I wonder how many disposables are used and end up as trash afterwards? Sometimes I don't wanna think about these but they haunt my mind.
So instead of giving money as donation, I chose to give old clothes and volunteer at UP National Institute of Physics. The department initiated PROJECT LIGHTLINE, which aims to create portable cellphone chargers from old and broken ones. The concept behind this is joule thief. (I'm no scientist and I only got to work on circuits when I volunteered for this project so I'm in no position to talk about how to make a joule thief.) What I understood from my own research though is that a joule thief gets energy from seemingly drained batteries and then give energy to power something. (Just how vague was that???) Anyhow, I was glad to learn parts of a circuit--- diodes, transformers, transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc. I also learned how to solder and desolder. For a while I thought how cool it would be to take up some TESDA courses to be able to hone my skills. (But I already have my hands full with calculus alone... Poor brain of mine.)
Another highlight of my November is that I got to finally donate blood!!! I was once rejected because I was "anemic". Maybe I just lacked sleep at that time. It makes me happy to be able to pay it forward. I may not be able to pay back the person whose blood was transferred to me when I got dengue many many years back but I hope someone will benefit from my blood.
And just when I thought that Ilocos would be last of my trips this year, I found myself happily joining my two office friends and their friends to Baler. The end of the month saw me suddenly buying makeup and having the desire to learn how to properly put on makeup.
The last day of November, the 30th, and also Bonifacio Day, was spent with a very dear friend. We had a quick lunch at Sci Fi Cafe. (I was disappointed with the Aligue pasta but I LOVE their nachos!) We watched The Addams Family Musical at the Meralco Theater. Having watched the cartoon show in my childhood days, I am reminded of how both strange and adorable this eccentric family is. This time, my favorite character is Uncle Fester. I can't stop laughing at his solo number about his love for the moon! (Fellow lunatics unite!)
Hoping that in December I get to at least finish studying Calculus. Though of course it doesn't mean that learning will stop altogether since I haven't fully mastered everything. Integration and antiderivatives are driving me crazy... I wonder what I'll be studying next.
It just happened so soon, and barely a month after a major earthquake that destroyed most of Visayas' heritage structures in October. I could still remember the disgust I felt upon hearing someone (certainly not a friend of mine) say "This is it! It's our time to shine!" It felt so wrong, to take advantage of the situation to uplift one's self. At that moment, I was repulsed by the hypocrisy and by the shallowness of that person. How different is she from those politicians who added to the delay in relief delivery by demanding that donations go through their office first? Or how about those who, despite much criticism from the media, still resort to packing goods with their names on the bags? Printing those plastic bags means more resources spent, not just money but also time.
As an environmentalist, I cringe at how relief goods are packed using plastic bags. It's good if people reuse plastic bags or dispose of these properly. But in my observations, Filipinos are not very good at taking care of their surroundings and random disposal seems to be the norm. In soup kitchens, I wonder how many disposables are used and end up as trash afterwards? Sometimes I don't wanna think about these but they haunt my mind.
So instead of giving money as donation, I chose to give old clothes and volunteer at UP National Institute of Physics. The department initiated PROJECT LIGHTLINE, which aims to create portable cellphone chargers from old and broken ones. The concept behind this is joule thief. (I'm no scientist and I only got to work on circuits when I volunteered for this project so I'm in no position to talk about how to make a joule thief.) What I understood from my own research though is that a joule thief gets energy from seemingly drained batteries and then give energy to power something. (Just how vague was that???) Anyhow, I was glad to learn parts of a circuit--- diodes, transformers, transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc. I also learned how to solder and desolder. For a while I thought how cool it would be to take up some TESDA courses to be able to hone my skills. (But I already have my hands full with calculus alone... Poor brain of mine.)
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| Photo taken here Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectLightline |
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| a circuit I assembled (a masters student coached me on what to put together) |
And just when I thought that Ilocos would be last of my trips this year, I found myself happily joining my two office friends and their friends to Baler. The end of the month saw me suddenly buying makeup and having the desire to learn how to properly put on makeup.
The last day of November, the 30th, and also Bonifacio Day, was spent with a very dear friend. We had a quick lunch at Sci Fi Cafe. (I was disappointed with the Aligue pasta but I LOVE their nachos!) We watched The Addams Family Musical at the Meralco Theater. Having watched the cartoon show in my childhood days, I am reminded of how both strange and adorable this eccentric family is. This time, my favorite character is Uncle Fester. I can't stop laughing at his solo number about his love for the moon! (Fellow lunatics unite!)
Hoping that in December I get to at least finish studying Calculus. Though of course it doesn't mean that learning will stop altogether since I haven't fully mastered everything. Integration and antiderivatives are driving me crazy... I wonder what I'll be studying next.
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