Insightful — that’s the best way to describe how my previous week went. It was stressful and eventful. I hardly had time to sleep or have some work done in the house or even blog. In the end, it’s all worth it. All the life’s lessons I learned, all the crying and empathizing… all were worth it.

All those experiences, I learned from real life’s survivors — kids behind bars (mga bata sa likod ng rehas na bakal). They’re usually referred to as “children in conflict with the law” and they were our training participants for our course on values development.

Course or module designing is among my skills as a senior trainor. This time however, it took me days to finally put together a day-session for these kids. I had to do a lot of thinking and research to come up with the right design but that’s not all, our training team had to practice every activity ourselves in order for us to understand and feel how the kids would respond. Most of the kids were in their teens but only few of them managed to get secondary education, our modules were designed to cater to their comprehension level.

Prior the actual training, we visited their penitentiary several times to acquaint ourselves with them but did it in an unobtrusive manner. We observed that the kids have the tendency to be withdrawn and aloof. We readied ourselves with this reaction by making our preliminary sessions more interactive and fun so they would warm-up to us.

Lesson One. We greeted the kids with smiles and warmth that usually come from a good friend or a close kin. We were expecting they would just look at us or ignore us but to our surprise, they smiled back and responded very lively! One of them even honestly remarked: dito lang kami nakaranas na itratong tao, hindi kriminal (it is only here that we were treated like humans, not criminals). Every person wanted to be treated as equal, even kids already condemned not by law but by unlawful judgment.

From then on, the kids were very participative, except to a few who remained distant and aloof. These were the ones we learned were almost totally neglected, no visitors from family members for a long time. Their personality were toughened by hatred.

In my previous articles, I have talked about different types of cancer that are common in the Philippines. It is alarming how a different type of this dreaded disease is uncovered every now and then.

In America, one type cancer has become popular to workers exposed to asbestos. A lot of products that we use everyday may or may not contain asbestos — roof insulation, brake linings for your automobiles, building materials and cement. I watched recently an old advertisement filmed in the 60’s on vinyl floor tiles that actually use asbestos. I was alarmed because the second room of our house is floored with vinyl tiles.

It is my pride and joy to talk about this city I love so much. I am very thankful that many people share my passion and this made Marikenya.com a well-read blog. However, I would like to impress upon that this blog is not biased and serving only the purpose of glorifying Marikina. From the very start, I have encouraged you my dear readers to send any feedback — positive or negative — you feel should be published in this site. This site’s purpose in publishing it is clear: to help Marikeños get through their messages to the city government by linking or pinging back the Marikina city government website. By doing so, this site does not promise any response or action from the Marikina City Government (MCG). Nor Marikenya personally investigates incidences or situations readers cite in messages send via email or the contact form. It is never this site’s intention also to malign any person or entity but to relate only events or issues expressed or raised by readers.

With that, let me share with you the letters of a reader from Barangay Concepcion Dos of Marikina City who named herself Marihel.

First Letter –

Please before you hold your pride loud and strong, know what you are talking about! Drive through katipunan Ave. Stop and park next to the Ka Andres Funeral Chapel and breathe the fresh smell of formaldehyde in the air, when it floods, and it will, it always does in this part of Marikina, walk in the water where if tested by any honest hospital laboratory technician will show evidence of blood borne pathogens and bacteria of those dead bodies being embalmed in the chapel. The blood directly drained in the ground and body parts are buried in the ground as well. What did these dead people die of? TB, Hepatitis, HIV, or many more infectious diseases, you just can’t tell since the funeral chapel does not have the proper license to operate and embalm dead bodies in that facility. They don’t even have any freezer in that chapel! To make matter worse, the chapel is illegally built in a residential area, RESIDENTIAL meaning people live there, they eat there, sleep there! But really, how can they? But who cares, the second highest elected official needs to make money so who cares who if anyone living around the funeral chapel gets sick and probably die, better! More dead people, more money for Ka Andres to make! What a great city official, putting his self serving interest before the health of the citizens that voted him in the office. And to top it all… the Mayor knows about this and does nothing to correct the injustice!!!!So now, really, tell me again how proud are you of your city??? Marihel

Hi Marihel… I know your steaming and I do not blame you. I would be too if I live where you are. I hope that you are not taking the situation in your area against my blog site because I have not glorified government city officials in my site personally. I am concerned about my city and Marikina is my passion, not its government officials who will just be in passing after their terms.

I love this city just as I love my country. It is my choice to promote it and to share the good news to help uplift the spirit of our fellowmen. If I am not doing so in your opinion, you’re feedback is most welcome. I am both publishing negative and positive news about Marikina in my blog to help Marikeños get through the city government. That is what I am trying to do but if the city government does not listen or take notice of these comments, I have already served my purpose.

I would be publishing your email and would link it to the city government just as I did to my previous articles about Marikeños wanting to be heard by our city government. I sincerely hope you and your neighbors would get the justice you feel you deserve. I would suggest you take one step further to make your voices heard by the officials. I hope too that you let me continue inspiring people amidst the bad news surrounding our community and our society. I believe we all need good news once in a while. I always do. God bless and good luck to your cause. Marikenya

In the last few days (or even weeks), I was having problems with sleeping. It’s so hot during the evening I only end up sleeping when my eyeballs were not able to hold on any longer. My husband would wake up wondering what was I doing sleeping below their feet or at the end of the room because of my desperation to find a comfortable place to sleep.

Would you like to be part of the Marikina City Government’s workforce? The Marikina City Cultural, Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotions Office (MCTTIPO) is looking for a talented graphic artist. For interested applicants, call 646-2360 to 70, loc. 207 and 20, or bring your resume at MCTTIPO located at the second floor of the Marikina city Hall.

Today is my appointment with my OB-Gynecologist. After ten days of taking my pills and fretting about the result of my pap smear, I am now set to confront my fears. In the last few days, added to the growing list of my worry is the possibility of my having diabetes. Knock on wood.

I have come to this thinking because of a TV commercial I watched which listed the symptoms of diabetes as follows:

When I started blogging almost a year ago, I met kind bloggers from the Wordpress Pinoys who befriended me, inspired me and helped me establish this blogsite. One of those kind souls is Ambo, the popular blogger behind PinoyAmbisyoso.com.

So here it is, I am officially nominating my good friend’s blog, http://www.pinoyambisyoso.com for the Bloggers Choice Award Category of the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards. I have always liked this blog because Ambo is a good pinoy promoting good news about the Philippines and the Filipinos. He’s a very helpful blogger who never hesitated helping fellow bloggers whenever there are technical issues in our site or whenever we wanted to know more about his articles and ideas.

When my husband fetched me from work today, we saw a groovy new car model from Suzuki, the new Swift model. We actually joked about it because we were thinking about a hotdog brand. The car was a good looking SUV that you would think it’s a luxury vehicle from Ford or BMW.

I suddenly thought of our first car we named West. It was an old car but quite dependable. When the cost of gasoline continuously increased, we decided to trade our car for a motorcycle which dramatically reduced our gas consumption. Of course, it wasn’t as comfortable as riding a car but it was helpful.

The Barangay Nangka is situated at the northernmost portion of the City of Marikina along the concrete highway leading to the towns of San Mateo and Montalban (Rizal). It is six (6) kilometers away from the city proper and used to be the most rural of the 14 barangays of this City. It was established with the settlement of two (2) families. The place has been known as Nangka from the very beginning obviously because of the abundance presence of langka trees, and this has become its official name up to the present. However, it is likewise perceived that this name was derived from the river’s name that divides Marikina and San Mateo, aptly called Nangka River, but obviously again, by reason of the abundance of langka trees which used to line up the banks of the river.

Nangka officially came into existence as a barrio pursuant to Republic Act No. 2601 (Section 2), an Act creating barrios in certain municipalities in the Province of Rizal enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress, on June 21, 1959 (whereupon sitio Nangka was converted into a barrio in the then Municipality of Marikina, Province of Rizal.

As stated, Barangay Nangka is separated from the town of San Mateo by the picturesque “Ilog Nangka” (Nangka River), a setting of many a weekend picnics in the past. Likewise in the past, the rich soil that Nangka has had, prided itself with a year-round bountiful harvests of various vegetables and root crops which were much more than what the local people need normally that most of them often found their ways to the market. Aside from these, a significant portion of the Barangay used to be planted to rice.

Historically, sometime on August 30, 1896, a fierce battle between the Katipuneros led by National Hero Gat Andres Bonifacio, and the Spaniards took place on the spot believed to be the present site of the Nangka Bridge. This fact is recorded on page 198 of the Philippine History Book authored by Teodoro A. Agoncillo. As likewise reflected in the said book, Gat Andres Bonifacio almost lost his life in the said fierce battle when a bullet of a Spanish soldier ripped the collar of his shirt while protecting his friend, Emilio Aguinaldo.

Photographed by my friend Ebet Malonzo. A beautiful shot capturing the beauty of the Marikina Riverpark.