09/05/10 malipayon ko!

Malipayon ko (i’m happy)

We started this week with a visit to St. Arnold’s Village… An excellent village which is on top of the mountains with an amazing view!
The St. Arnold Janssen Community village is one of JPIC's rehousing projects funded by the Karl Kübel Foundation. The division is by areas and there are 7 areas with 224 families living there.
Fellows stayed one night with different families in the village. I stayed in Tubianosa family’s home! Tatay (father) Ronie and nanay(mother) Virginia and kayu (son) guapo Chrisgel!
That night i drew pictures and played toys with Cg,Rusin (my host brother). Then we had dinner with their neighours. İ tried divit divit fish for the first time! İt was amazing, İ love Philippines! Lapu lapu fish,mol mol! !

We took a tour round the village, enjoyıng cebu city’s amazing view. We also had various karaoke sessıonsJ all night… it’s interesting, they love slow songs! All the children can sing! J
I slept in the top floor with a fan! So i slept very well! It was like a dream

But i missed my fellows because it was my first night without them after 3 weeks!

Tubianosa family’s notes for me:
‘Gamze,thank you for being a nice person to us. We thank JPIC for selecting you of being our adopted daughter/guest for one night. We’re proud of you. Hoping that you’ll always be in our hearts! And this will be the beginning of our friendship.’
‘I miss u so much!!! I love you! Ate Gamze CG!’

‘Guapa Rona Maria (St.Arnold Village)
Maybe one day u can build ur own house here... so u can visit us always!!!’

04/05/10 JUST FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!

Mabuhay from Philippines!

Finally our real dream has started!

To be a Dekeyser and Friends fellow in the Philippines!

It Feels like i’m home in İstanbul!

Meeting with people from 14 different cultures!
How İ wish time can stop and we just continue to follow our dreams!

This is the biggest opportunity in my life; Islands, tropical fruits, 35 degrees, dumpsites, hot weather, the fellows, Dedon furnitures, coconut, lapu-lapu fish, learning cebuano, karaoke, 6 months of D&F! To put dimples on children’s faces!

A lot of activities happened in the first and second week. We did a lot of thing; shopping, city tour, workshops, dinner at siberia restaurant, introduction to D&F World and meeting with Father Heinz, Jean Maria Massued, visiting Compostela and the dumpsites, JPIC-IDC meetings, meeting the community people.

As an architecture student coming from a city like İstanbul where such challenges as traffic, electricity, architectural details which are hard to use, and so on… We try to find solution these problems. And this is also an exceptional opportunity for me to improve my design ability. I take advantage of this as it is an inspiration for me. Problems helps me to discover solutions which make life much easıer. They inspire me to do new things and help me discover new ideas.

Now, I can swim in the ocean. Just following my dreams.

İ know this will be a beautiful experience and fantastic beause we are just following, thinking, dreaming, loving, and living our dreams!

Only two weeks gone, looks like months!!!