#bayanitayo

Francisco Dagohoy

I was at Iba, Zambales for the past 2 days to attend the BayaniTAYO Formation Program at the Ramon Magsaysay Technological University - Main. 

We left at 4:30am last May 23, Friday. I was the first one at Mcdo at 3:05am (huh punctuality at its finest ahem) and I cannot tell you how energetic the vibes was at Mcdo at that time of the day: upbeat songs and loud crews (in a good way). It was cute and all that.

It took us 4-5 hours to get to the venue and I only had an hour of sleep but it was worth it.

Day 1.  We met other participants through Speed Dating and groupings where we did the activities together with our group. I was in group 10 and we called ourselves MAGI10 (Magiting). My favorite group mate is Ate Elaine Reyes from University of Assumption CSC, an incoming 4th year engineering student. The sharing part was fun – it was nice to hear my group mates’ stories and be inspired, relate to and learn from it. We had facilitators per group to further guide. I can say that the activities were thought of thoroughly. We had TAYO Night (the usual Cultural Night of seminars) where the 9 groups performed and out of all the Cultural Nights that I witnessed, this one wasn’t one of those waley and boring ones. Hahaha. And the host/chairman, Kuya Chan, totally blew us all off with his performances. Hahaha! TAYO night? More like Tony night. Lol. Super fun, really really.

Day 2. This day was more physical. Lol. The morning ritual at the field tho! Hahahaha. The next activity was Kwentuhan with Ate Helen, Kuya Gil and Kuya Jeff where they shared their experiences and gave us advices and guidance on how to become effective leaders and inspired us with their own stories. After that, we were given 5 minutes to prepare for the Bayanihan (trail/amazing race-ish). Every station, like the activities, was all sensible and thought of thoroughly. We were asked of our reflections from the challenges that we did. We started at 11:30am and ended at 2:30pm. We only finished 8 stations out of 9 because everyone was called to have our lunch – boodle fight style. After lunch, all 94 of us delegates + facilitators were called to group on the field of RMTU to have our historic batch photo and video – under the scorching heat of the sun. Hahaha. We were given an hour to clean off and pack up before going back to the hall where we had the over-all reflection of the whole formation, awarding of certificates and the champion for the Bayanihan Challenge (And guess what? Our team was held champion for the Bayanihan Challenge! Ha. We totally did not expect that one. No one even shouted our team when the MC asked us who we think won) and closing remarks. Everyone was all clingy and asked for extension because it was super fun like that. Hahaha. Lots of new friendships were made considering that all of us came from different schools and we have no idea when we will see each other again. We exchanged numbers and took lots of pictures that took an hour or two.

The formation in general is hands down one of the best that I attended so far, considering that this was just their first one. It was organized and never dull. Everyone was attentive and eager to learn. I may or may not even just have had the best 2 days so far for 2015. Kudos to the officers and ambassadors of BayaniTAYO, you have awakened us and inspired all of us to serve for a better Central Luzon. I am personally looking forward for the activities to come.