200hrs

May 22 

I stopped going to work because my mom told me I no longer had anything tying me to the office. She said they should start paying me if they wanted me to come back. I thought this was funny and just laughed.

On this particular day, Aprille, texted me and demanded I come to work because she needed my help with the certificates. Despite the instructions I gave 2 days before when I came to drop off Sir Jeordell’s certificate.

Mainly the other reason why I had not gone to work was because I had not finished my powerpoint/my report due supposedly on the 21st but moved to the 22nd and then again moved to the 26th. I was annoyed but a bit thankful for the move because that gave me more time to work on my report.. after we went to Batangas...

LOL

and then came May 26

Despite really not wanting to push through with my report at the office, because I was technically no longer held liable under them, I went against everyone else’s judgment and showed up for my report(early).

My partner had failed to inform me that our report was scheduled after lunch and I ended wasting my time sitting at the office nervously waiting my fate. Which I had predicted. Like always. But anyway.. since that day was also my birthday I had to feed everyone there. :))) It was already a tradition to feed the staff when you report but in my case it was my birthday so it was a double whammy. Nonetheless I did shell out for 2 cokes, a platter of palabok and a long roll of chocolate cake. Oh and the plates, cups, spoons and forks.

That day went by slowly because I freaked myself out too much. It didn’t help either when the report was pushed back 2 hours. I should have taken their advice to practice my report while we were waiting. I digress. Our report came in second and compared to the earlier group I think I would have liked how they “carefreely” presented juxtaposed to my lackluster performance, I had nice slides and all but I almost put everyone to sleep. :))) At least they were nice about it. They always are. Throughout my stay I noticed that their office philosophy was to never make the OJT feel bad about himself/herself no matter what they did or in my case presented. If I had pushed myself harder I may have presented my info better. 

Whenever someone greeted me “Happy birthday” another person would overhear and ask whether it was really my birthday. :))) I thought that was pretty funny. But I also was touched to get a present on my birthday especially when I wasn’t expecting to get one.

Look at my Palabok-y smile. That‘s Sir Jeordell on the left :D

Oh I forgot to say that I was no longer the only MC student to OJT at the MCTCAO, that’s Cassy on the far left side. She’s a tourism student at MC. At least it was fitting =))

That’s us doing our report! 

I was going to post my present but I can’t find a photo and that would probably add to all my frivolous posts.

May 13

We went on a Mock Tour of Marikina, which mostly meant we toured the sites which tourists visited when they came to our city. We started from Bayan, Marikina or Sto. Niño to Parang, Marikina. I got worried over nothing..again =)) I thought they’d ask me to make a spiel for one of the sites, but thankfully no order came up from Sir Oli. We started first at the CEMO, or the City Environmental Management Office located at Gil Fernando Ave. Sto Niño, Marikina City. The CEMO is in charge of proper waste disposal and recycling waste in the Marikina area. A lot of different LGUs come to Marikina to learn about their management system. We didn’t get a photo that day because we didn’t disembark from the van. Sir Oli just had someone receive a letter from the office about an upcoming tour if I remember correctly. But here’s a photo from the internet of what it looks like:

CEMO’s plants that utilize the fertilizer composed of restaurant by-products and waste.

Marikina Sports Center (MSP - Marikina Sports Park)

Marikina City Clock Tower

Afterwards we he passed by the Sports Center, the Arch, and City Health Office. Sir Oliver, had Raffy make a spiel about the sports center and the town clock when we drove by because his report was a simulation of a tour in Marikina. Here’s photos of us in Pan de Amerikana in Concepcion Dos. We even met the owner of the restaurant on our visit. Sir Oliver told us that Pan De Amerikana and OLOPSC or Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College were owned by the same person. A lot of the art work present in the restaurant was created by the owner as well.  

OLOPSC

This all of the OJTs and the SPES students that were working at the office at the time.

We also visited the Book Museum that can be found at 127 Dao Street, Marikina Heights, Marikina City. The Book Museum was created by the REX Bookstore Owner and his wife. In the lot, there is a statue of the duo that you can vaguely see on the left side of the photo behind the gate. The tour guide who will greet you in the front will share the humble beginnings of the Atty. Dominador Buhain and his wife. We were not able to go inside ourselves as we didn’t pay for the entrance fee so we were just given a tour around the lot which showcased murals of the city of Marikina. I asked the tour guide why Dominador had named the bookstore and publishing house REX, but she said she did not know either. :)) That reminds me to research more about that. Other than the many murals and totems that were around the lot, the book museum also had a ladies dormitory and Dominador’s collection of bric-a-bracs from his many travels. We were told that the Book Museum would be relocating to another building somewhere close by. The building was still under construction as far as I recall. The books found here come from donations made to the museum. 

We finished our Mock Tour at  53 Rajah Soliman Street Parang, Marikina City. Lucban Hats Global Export cater to the fashion needs of people namely in Europe or in the West. It has been said that even the royal family order their hats from the Lucban Hats. The hats are made of different materials and one that I remembered was piña and rattan(maybe). They make use of LPG to power their molding machines and for their materials to take form of the mold. 

Kimmy one of the OJTs had said to me before we went inside the factory to visit my house before we left. He said we’d go there to drink some water or something. I laughed, then said are you sure? I thought he was just kidding but after our tour and picture taking was over we in fact found ourselves driving over to my house. Thankfully we didn’t stay there too long, they got a good look of our first living room and maybe even the second living room. :))) They said it was nice. Which of course is really polite small talk isn’t it. I said thank you, and we left after my sisters and I fussed over the water and drinking glasses that we needed to put out. :))) All in all a productive morning and tour for all 16 of us in the MCTCAO’s van. The rest of the day went by like any normal work day.

May 14

I went on my first and last tour of Marikina City guiding barangay captains and kagawads from Dumaguete City.

Lunch at Marikina Hotel :) With my fellow OJTs, April and Aprille, Ms. Mina and Sir Oliver.

Posing by some tires :) Don’t roll away now.

Can you smell the fertilizer? This is a photo of us at CEMO.

May 15

I can’t remember exactly what we did on this day but it probably had something to do with editing the certificates and office support like answering the phone and what not. The days felt like they were going by so slowly. Especially for our reports that were supposed to be presented the next week.

Later in the week, I had to work on finishing the AVP with the help of Ms. Rochelle on font color and background layout check. Ms. Grace wanted me to present it to Ma’am Tet and Sir Ponchie so that she would see the AVP before the presentation and in case she had any ideas and comments to improve it. We tested it out on the projector we borrowed from another office because ours broke, after the reporting.

As the weekend approached I became more nervous for the big day. I had multiple files saved the AVP. Here’s what was left of my files on the laptop. I originally had 5 powerpoints for the AVP. 

The others were assigned to different tasks such as talking to other offices to borrow equipment we’d use for the ceremony. Aside from my AVP, I had to make a video for Mother's day special in the program. In the link I uploaded the video that was shot of the kids greeting their moms’ Happy Mother’s Day.

http://jemapellesarah.tumblr.com/post/122660350083/summer-arts-workshop-mothers-day

On that Saturday, they had their only rehearsal. 8-12 was what the instructors and director had agreed on. I arrived at 8 am, thinking I was late because no one was at the office yet. 

Apparently aside from me, there was only one other OJT, Charlie and the theater was already filling up with the parents and their kids in the theater. The director came to me and the other OJT and started lecturing us about the others being late. By then we were 3 OJTs, one angry director and 2 instructors. In my opinion, we could have spent that time doing the preparations that were supposed to be done by 8. But you know, she wasn’t really thinking about that because she was really annoyed that the parents were already inside sitting where the kids were supposed to be. The parents also, didn’t make it any easier because they didn’t let us do what we needed to do, at most times they were stubborn and angry that we asked them to leave the theater. We tried to persuade them by telling them that the presentation the next day would no longer be a surprise but they didn’t get that.

When all the OJTs and Sir Jeordell arrived, we finally started and got the parents out of the theater. They started by each course coming up to practice the awarding. The director did not take kindly to the children being confused on stage to practice receiving certificates. To be fair, the kids only practiced then, and most of the kids were too young to follow instructions. Aside from that a lot of kids were absent and the other instructors did not follow what had been discussed at the meetings with the program director. I suppose its a Filipino habit we have to blame others instead of ourselves when something bad happens. Or is that a more of a general human behavior?

The program directors and organizers will probably have better luck next year because of the difficulties they experienced this year. They know what to expect and what to do by that time, I’m assuming.

So we were finishing up with the last of the certificates for the students. We had the instructors sign them and we were finishing the last minute edits to the videos to be presented the next day. Before everyone left at 12, we had a meeting with the venue manager of Teatro Marikina and he gave us guidelines and ideas on how to go about our tasks the following day. He advised me to edit my AVP font color so that it would be seen in the theater (the edit which would bite my butt the next day). We all agreed to come at 11 or 12pm on Sunday. The program would start at 3 and we needed to get there earlier to set up. We would have done it on Saturday as well, but every Sunday, there was a Christian association that met at the theater in the morning until lunch. Aprille and I ended up staying to finish up printing the certificates. We stayed in the office until 6pm.

May 10: Culmination Day

At 10 am, I arrived at the office, the other OJTs were there and so was Sir Jeordell and Ms. Rochelle. We hauled everything we needed to take to the theater. But before that we took our time to eat some pimiento sandwiches and drink some coke before we went over.

When we arrived at the theater there were still a lot of people from the previous event. They didn’t want to leave yet so we had to work over them, starting with the outside exhibit first. We grabbed our easels and the metal rack that our photo booth would be set on.

I helped out with the decorating committee because it was still early to set up my laptop and the projector I’d be using. When everyone seemed okay on their own, I went up to do what I had to do.

The director instructed me to flash this, flash that. And when I flashed the video for the Mothers’ Day special (like I had done the day before) she almost bit my head off because she told me it wasn’t the same as the yesterday’s video. That was because she told me to edit it and that was what I had done. It was hard trying to talk to her because she was on a microphone while I had to run down to the end of the balcony and shout from there. She called me down because she wanted to talk to me face-to-face. I think she should have decided to do that earlier on to save on time. Honestly. So she made me explain what I did and what happened to the video, I explained to her I could edit the video again to what she wanted but she said it would be too risky and she went on and on when I tried to tell her to just trust me when I said the edit would be done quickly. As we sat there talking about how it was my job to edit the video and the special message for the moms’. I told her that I just got the second part of the video that day. Ms. Joey who had a copy of the video decided to edit it aside from what I was doing because when were supposed to edit she left and we didn’t communicate from then on. I lead myself to believe that it would be fine on Sunday, let Ms. Joey and Kuya JC edit it. Their adults they probably know what they’re doing. Wrooooong. Should’ve edited the video on my own. It’s best to always communicate with whomever you are working with so you are sure you are on the same page. I am so glad I kept my calm, because I thought I’d almost cry. But if you know that the person you are going against, has a habit of not listening to what you say and going off on you because of a misunderstanding, then you should just keep your wits, bite your tongue and not take it personally. Sometimes you can’t please everyone.

When I climbed up the stairs to my laptop we were able to do start one more run for the program but half-way through we were interrupted by the parents who came filling into the theater. The volunteers that the office had hired for the event that day didn’t do their job: control the parents from coming into the theater before 3pm.

Alas, at 3pm sharp we had to start the program with little to no practice. It was a good thing that they had already connected my headset into the production crews intercom thingy. The cable I needed to easily switch my AVPs without the audience seeing the switch, was nowhere to be found(non-existent probably) so I was left with Kuya JC helping me by covering the projector each time for transitioning slides. The lights in the theater had been switched off and Ms. Joey had been called on stage by Sir Jeordell from behind the theater curtains.

Before I knew it, the director started speaking into the head set. No testing 1,2,3. I just took a deep breath and answered when Ms. director had called everyone and then finally me. She kept on referring to me as video though. :))

Oh well, everything was going smoothly from my side just following the director’s cue for the doxology number, national anthem and Marikina hymn videos I also prepared. After that, the opening remarks were to be given by Sir Ponchie Santos which was different from the program that was given to me so on the spot I had to change who I had written on my ppt. Good thing I had Kuya JC to help me cover the projector lens on and off for all the transitions.

Throughout the program I would have to wait for my cue as the director didn’t instruct me as much as she did with poor Sir Jeordell. The program in all honesty had not gone according to plan as Ms. Joey had started winging her announcements while she was emceeing. But of course, the director had hounded Sir Jeordell because it was his job to get the message to Ms. Joey and regardless of him not being responsible for how Ms. Joey would choose to act after being told what to do.

I was there for all the frantic switching of kids on stage and even there to witness the director lash out her irritation on Sir Jeordell each step of the way. I unfortunately, no matter how I would have wanted to watch the kids perform or better yet hear them (because from where I was standing you couldn’t see zilch at least I couldn’t watch the kids at the bottom of the stage) wasn’t able to. Not to forget I was also wearing a headset that prevented from me doing what I just mentioned. I could see my friends and fellow OJTs running behind the curtains down to the others on the side of the stage by the stairs guiding the kids up the stage because it was their turn.

It was hard to keep switching the slides in the beginning because I forgot that I had already arranged the slides for the kids performance. When I remembered that it became easier to transition the slides because all I had to do was click the next button. Our director still wanted me to cut off “video” transmission though to my chagrin. I did my best to obey orders and not clam up when I was being instructed on the line. It was hard trying to keep the line clear because I wasn’t sure how I should have held the walkie. Then I remembered that most people just hook it to their pants. I didn’t think of it at the time and placed it on top of the projector that I stood next to. My fumble during my video feed I think was when I forgot that the audio on my video was what had been streaming for the mothers’ day performance. The director had told me that the song cue and the pictures weren’t matching up like she wanted and she was being irate about it without thinking I skipped forward or was it backward and made the song jump. The director demanded to know what happened then all I could come up with was “Sorry I accidentally pressed it.” Well to be honest, I had accidentally pressed onto the video streaming because I wasn’t consciously thinking of what would happen. Then I played the video that Kuya JC had given me with the kids’ greeting to their moms. The director was just mad because it didn’t follow the mood of the earlier special that was solemn as Ugoy ng Duyan would be. The video was cheerful and according to her had unnecessary beginning sequence that I had forgotten to skip. Other than that I was told to just flash the opening photo A Summer to Remember.

Towards the end not only our director had walked away but also Sir Ponchie had left in a huff because Ms. Joey forgot to call Sir Ponchie for the closing remarks. Everything from then on would be according to what Ms. Joey was announcing. The awarding of certificates was more chaotic than anything I would say. It got so confusing that a friend of mine, a fellow intern, had started distributing the certificates herself while Councilor Ariel Cuaresma ended up just shaking the hands of the kids who were finished being awarded.

The group photos that were supposed to be taken after each course was called on to stage had been forgotten and well, the last dance performance had also been thwarted from being an awesome performance because the other kids were called back up to the stage to soon for photo ops.

In the end, I had done what I was supposed to, the last note of the curtain call song had rung out and the seats that were once filled beside me were long empty before the show even finished. I can’t say I expected it to be perfect but that was a hell of a time being behind the scenes of a program. Tears were shed by a lot of people that night, from anger, from despair and maybe even happiness. Anger/frustration from the director, despair from Sir Jeo, and happiness from the moms’ when they saw their kids describe what a mom was. I heard the parents had been disappointed and angry during the program but when they saw and heard their kids greetings for Mothers’ day they were appeased. Maybe that was finally the good thing we had done that day?

The program had finished before dark. It finished probably around 5pm. Instead of going directly home like we had originally planned we had to stay behind because Ms. Grace who worked from the sidelines the entire day had asked if she could talk to us. We helped arranged the chairs and remove the stage decorations. The others were too exhausted and stayed on the seats while we were cleaning up, I can’t blame them because they were ushering little kids all afternoon.

When the parents outside had all gone and the people of the tourism had been all that was left that’s when Ms. Grace had come and talked to us about a great job that we did. I smiled thinking that was probably the best thing she could have told us. I think what would have been the point of working on the weekend (even if it was counted hours) if our hard work was not going to be our very best effort? Am I making sense? I don’t know. 

Sir Jeordell had gone off somewhere crying, if I was him I probably would have as well. We never did find out why he cried but it did make sense why he took his one week leave the following week. I imagine 3 months of office work would not have prepared him for organizing an event that previously belonged to another staff member. But I regress, we will all find ourselves at a point where we have to embrace what we fear or run away from it. I hope that I encounter more experiences for me to choose embracing my fear rather than hiding from it.

We went home at 7pm that night. We all decided we didn’t want to go home just yet and hung out at the office where we had an evaluation of the event. We gave all our suggestions and Ms. Grace said that she would give them to Sir Ponchie and Ma’am Tet on Monday during their own form of program evaluation I forgot what they called it.

We spent 2 hours in between laughing and bouts of silence. It was also then when we discussed how we could have missed printing out the wrong certificate templates for the kids who attended. That would be one of the major things we had to kick start again because for the rest of the weeks parents never stopped asking when they would get the corrected certificates.

If you have reached this far into my journal entry, congratulations.

I apologize for compiling all the days into this one page. I should probably make a new post..

I didn’t know what to expect from him. I’ve heard a lot of different comments from my aunt and uncle ever since I started my OJT, but I wanted to make have my own impression of him to be fair. After attending the ceremony though, Mayor Del, I must say is not good with public speeches. We have something in common. But with the various projects he has helped implement I have to give him some chops. But anyway, back to the flag raising, I remember it was around 9am when we started heading back into the offices. Apparently Mondays at the City Hall was meant for announcements of programs and other related activities to be expected of the week or a recap of what happened the week before. Every Monday, one department from the City Hall took turn in being in charge of facilitating the Monday announcements such as the master of the ceremonies and usually they would also be promoting an event that was happening at the City Hall or somewhere in Marikina.The last sentence I heard from Mayor Del (because I unintentionally zoned him out, it was hot and he had a habit of fluctuating the volume of his voice throughout his speech), “Don’t worry this is nearly the end of my speech, I will only take 2 more minutes” He said that in Tagalog though and I think a lot of other people decided to zone back in as well because they laughed. The flag ceremony took longer than I expected but with the looks of the employees lined up at the freedom park, they were used to it already. 

On that day, the City Hall prepared an exhibit to celebrate Earth Day (That Friday, April 22). Many booths were set up inside the City Hall, I recall booths from Maynilad, and even Parang High School, the High School near my subdivision. At one of the booths, WWF, I saw ate Pfiona from MC. It was cool meeting MC alumnae outside of the campus. I always hear about successful MC graduates, someday I hope to become one too. 

When we started working, my first task of the day was to make more labels for Ms. Sallie. Then, I arranged the memos and office documents into folders and filed them into her desk. I assisted in other office support. Which only meant something along the lines of this task: “INSERT INTERN NAME HERE~ could you hand me that thing over there”. I am not complaining, because at least I wasn’t being told to buy food or anything else. Thank God for MC’s rules. :))

As I was filing office orders and memos, I came across a memo that was issued the same day regarding the Gawad Galing Marikeño to be held later that evening in the Kapitan Moy. I was not invited to come. (Not that I was a staff member...)

April 21-23

On these days, I spent most of the time between the office and the theater. I helped organize the theater for the workshop classes like make sure there were enough chairs, stands, tables that the kids would use at the workshop. I also checked attendance for the workshop. When I was at the office, I’d photocopy some more office related documents(I’m assuming they were).

Because it was still Earth Week at the City Hall, I amused myself by visiting the booths (stacking up on brochures) to increase my awareness of the eco-friendly projects that the Philippines have undertaken as well as general information about our environment. I tried to guess the right answers to the quiz (multiple occasions) about our environment at the WWF booth. I failed miserably. I don’t know enough about our environment :(( On the bright side, I got a sticker that had tips on waste management? :))

 Ms. Joey, the one who dragged me to the exhibit in the first place, suprisingly cared a lot about our environment and that made me admire her more. I wish that other people would show the same enthusiasm for our environment. Here’s Ms. Joey with one of the prizes from the WWF. (Picture grabbed from Joey Curry)

Ms. Grace, who was assisting Sir Jeordell, the person in charge of SAW, started plotting the committees needed for the culmination day. I was assigned the task of preparing the AVP. I started drafting the audio-visual presentation. I had to find the perfect summer layout, ironically without the theme of the program. The office hadn’t decided yet what they wanted. So I scoured through the internet for the photos I’d use. And the fact the internet connection went on and off in periods so I couldn’t get it done quickly.

I would have preferred to stay more at the theater because I didn’t have to stare at the computer monitor too long and also because there was more room to walk around there than in the office. It was crammed enough with just the staff with around 10-11 people working there with a ratio 11:9 (11 people to 9 desks) plus we were four OJTs that regularly went to work (Me, Erica, Raffy and JC). On Wednesday, I got assigned by Ms. Grace to work on Saturday to help take photos of the students of the SAW.

April 24

We started the day off with the photograph session for the kiddos. We took both solo photos and group photos of Ballet 1 and 2, Drawing, Drums, Guitar, Modern Dance Basic and Advanced, Painting, Piano, and Violin classes. In between snacks, I got a pep talk about the working life from Ms. Grace. She did it by telling me about what she went through after college and about her family background. She asked me, why did I choose to OJT at a government office, I said I wanted to know what it was like. She was probably trying to discourage me from working there, or testing how much I actually really wanted to work in government. Hehe. I really appreciated her opening up to me, because it showed me that she trusted me enough to share her life story with me. It’s funny how a few weeks can change how people interact with one another. And she basically told me that we won’t always be able to get a job that we spent four years preparing for in college but if you work hard and are determined you will become successful and great at whatever you end up doing. I suppose it’s all a matter of not giving up and being disappointed at what may happen.

When we came back from the snack, Ms. Joey was still taking photos of the kids. Around 12, the earlier classes started leaving and we ate lunch at the theater. Ms. Joey and the other OJTs left to eat somewhere else. After lunch though, I unexpectedly took over when Ms. Joey did not come back. I suppose she went back to the office to finish the rest of her day there. I look back now, and I think I probably looked like a weirdo sitting on the floor or kneeling in front of the kids to take their photos. Or maybe I looked like I was trying to hard. I wish I had a photo of me so I could tell.

April 25

Saturday came around and arrived extra early. The office was still locked. And I ended up being earlier than Sir Jeordell, which is funny because he is always early. I suppose it was different because it was a Saturday and well, Saturday’s weren’t official work days. We got the camera and other stuff we would need and walked over to the theater.

All the instructors for the SAW were told in advance about the shoot so we were expecting the kids to be there already. Well I think we waited a while before everyone showed up. The stereotype “Filipino time” never disappoints. The students and instructors were given a color to wear on that day. I had memorized it the day before so it would be easy to identify which classes’ photo would be taken first a lot of the kids that were supposed to be photographed earlier ended up getting photographed last. Some didn’t even bother to show up. :))) It was a problem when I started adding their photos to the AVP. Some kids weren’t flashed on screen because I didn’t have any photos of them to begin with and I didn’t know whose picture belonged to whom, that was also a problem that we faced. 

Marikina Day: 385th Founding Anniversary. NEW Information for me, honestly. I live in Marikina, I should know this.

Met Sir Ponch, the acting head of the MCTCAO while Ma’am Tet was away.

Was invited to participate in the parade by Sir Ponch

I (sadly) declined. I already participated in a (Halloween) parade before so I thought that the same thing would probably happen. In retrospect they aren’t even the same thing. It was a good thing though that I didn’t go because it rained pretty hard the whole time the parade was happening.

I went home before the parade was over because it was past 5pm and I needed to be out if I wanted a ride home from my aunt.

April 17

Guarded the Israel Exhibit because the wind was strong that day, the easels could have fallen(like the day before). 

Learned about the history of Marikina and Israel partnership.

Photocopied some more papers.

Watched a fellow OJT to know how to assist parents for summer art workshop enrollment.

Answered call regarding workshop. (Stayed away from the phone a while, traumatized by the mother on the phone)

Got a text from Mayor Del (Personnel office) inviting me to watch the Manila Orchestra (I think it was) at the Marikina Riverpark 7pm the next day (Saturday).

Wrote reservations and dates into the calendar I printed out because it was too small for anyone else to write in. hurhur. Learned my lesson.