When i say new, it means...

today is my third monthsary, my third month of being in a new world here in Cotabato City. Yeheey, congratz to me. i was able to get through three months of a totally new environment. When i say new, it means...

- staying in a boarding house...

(first time in my 27 years! i studied until college in my hometown so there was no chance to board and i stayed in a staffhouse during my past works, 2 - butuan city, 2 - davao city, 1 - san franz, and these were entirely for free! water, electric, gasul... ;)

- having to commute to and fro work EVERYDAY...and having to inhale all the dust and smoke from jeepneys...

(urgh. our offices in my past works were just beside our staffhouse, or sometimes we live in an office cum staffhouse, so grabeng tipid sa fare, you can save your coins in a piggybank, u can never be late pa).

- having to write in a logbook in and out of the office (8am-in, 5pm-out)...

(i think it is a government style and i never thought some NGOs also has this system - like my present office do. duh, for a takaw-tulog person like me, it is such a punishment to wake up at 6.30 am para hindi ma-late, waaah).

- having an office that has no speakers in the personal computers!!!

(waaahaha, when i first came in the project, the silence of the office was the first thing i noticed... you can only hear the rustles of the paper being printed, the footsteps of the staff scurrying around, but there was no music, hahaha.. i thought our office was so dull, there were no tv, no radio, ewan, hindi lng ako nasanay. What i did was brought my own headset, beh).

- eating alone during dinner...

- for me, this is the saddest part. since i don't cook and only eats in a carenderia, i eat alone. my housemates whom are also NGO workers sleep early or come home late so we cannot join each other for dinner. But mostly, i brought my food in the boarding house so i can chat with my landlady while eating, hehe).

- being cautious and vigilant when i am in town...

(no need for explanation. i am here in cotabato city, where street crimes are normal rampant and snatching/hold-ups happen to your immediate friends, yay, scared. So, when i have to buy groceries, i have to get out at 5pm para hindi ako magabihan sa daan... kainis tuloy, i can't stay longer at McDo and chill at their veranda dahil takot mahold-up, aysus palayo!).

- having to work with City Government partners...

(i hope they won't read this hahaha. working with personnel from the city govt is such a sakit ng ulo. it delays our work, our deliverables. You can't decide solely unless it is agreed/disagreed by them. we coordinate with them regularly because the project is a partnership - nakakalokang partnership. they are too busy with their own job description at the city government and most of the time ay nakakaligtaan nila ang responsibility nila with the project. hello? may duration po ang project at pati kami at hindi kagaya sa gobyerno that you can stay in your office forever until retirement, puhleeze).

- working in an office that has the strictest standards and systems of all...

(sometimes i can't see the logic, say in a system...but my supervisor says, of course you can't see because there is none. hahaha, that explains all).

- being far from my Best (hehe siningit...)

(uu, kc with the two previous projects/works i had, mgksama kmi ni best - mga 3 years din un when we used to see each other 24/7, so i had a hard time getting him out of my system when i got this job, whew, that's life...should work uy).

Now i wonder, will i still be here for another three months? If i would, i wonder what made me stay (hahaha) and if i don't, tsk, tsk, kawawa naman si ma'am estela, my supervisor, at maiiwan siyang nagtityaga sa project at sa mga partners... Don't get me wrong, i have a big heart for our project since i am a self-proclaimed environmentalist. and i believe na malaki ang significance ng project sa problema sa basura ng Cotabato City. Sigh, it's just that some of the brains of our stakeholders are filled with basura na rin. Nangangaamoy na sila sa baho. eeow.