Recess Time!

Everyone knows him as Daddy Rex and that is how he has been introducing himself every time. In this episode, we took time to talk about his school life back when he was young, his family, things he is passionate about, and a quick note on how he is choosing his candidate for the upcoming election in 2022. It was quick and easy conversation. Something like, we bumped into each other in a mall, took a quick coffee break to catch up and wrapped it up inspired and in a good note, knowing that when we see each other again, we will be sharing good stories about our lives and things we love to do.

Meet Chess and Gybel, two of the many coaches and supporters of Girls Got Game Ph. In this episode, they share their personal journeys on how sports and an active lifestyle honed them up to be leaders and on how they became active volunteers of GGG Ph. GGG Ph is a volunteer-powered NGO who aims to empower young women through sports. This organization is kept strong by Pinay athletes and sports enthusiasts. They organize roving sports camps, reaching out and opening opportunities to thousands of girls in underprivileged locations. They started in the Manila areas and had expanded in Visayas and Mindanao! When the pandemic hit, they got more creative on how to keep moving and GGGClub 2021 is born.  GGGClub 2021 pilot program designed to support distance learning of different types of sports. It combines different aspects such as: personal commitment, essential sports equipment, technology and digital community, modules, and parental supervision.  It is always a wonderful experience to listen to people talk about their passions and dreams, moreso if it is for greater good. The future is a bit brighter for younger girls because a lot of Ate-s got their back. From here, we dream of developing many more Pinays that will bag gold medals and spread kindness all over the world through sports. 

In this episode, I talked with Pokemon Go enthusiasts, Emil and Julio, how it all started, how they formed lifelong friendships, international goals and personal thoughts about a game that we all love since childhood. Surprised with Psyduck being Emil's favorite Pokemon and Julio's vast knowledge on the variety of Pokestops and the gifts one can send and receive, Pokemon has evolved from a "Gotta catch 'em all" goal, to an international community of people from different walks of life and interests ranging from collectors, raiders, AR photographers and many a lot more!  As always, editing had always been a challenge, as every talking point in this interview had been very meaningful to me, but crunching the entire conversation to focus on how this game helped them in getting through their days, for me, had been worth it.

Alvie is currently working as a College Instructor in a state-run university in Federated States of Micronesia and it is quite a story to hear how he kickstarted a career that combined both his passions for education and agriculture while still doing volunteer tasks on the side. The entire interview took about 51 minutes, a total travel down the memory lane as we share our experiences as first-time teachers in the public school in the Philippines. As I review and edit on this episode, I felt like there are still a lot of questions to ask to unpack why people still choose to volunteer  in so many different ways, how one can find fulfillment with being of service for others. Maybe those questions aren't for us to answer in this episode, but its for others to understand for themselves in their own context. This is Alvie's.

I have never thought I will ever experience in my lifetime and never wished for it, but here we are, the entire humanity is threading it's first year in COVID-19 Pandemic. My friends, Chess and Karis, and I, delved down into how the year had challenged, changed and continually make us move forward as individuals and advocates of education in the Philippines. From learning to embrace work from home environment, to deep-diving into hobbies for sanity and then, talking about how the teaching-learning platforms are evolving and of course, how voting in the upcoming election can make things way better and improved as we work on surviving this pandemic. This conversation is bitin as always and probably still missing a lot of thoughts, and you are encouraged to open up this type of conversations with people around you and reflect on the pandemic year it had been and still going on.