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| International volunteers in the Philippines |
I had been away from this blog for a while; been busy testing the waters of living at home.
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| Puerto Galera, where the water is cool and calm |
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| Preparing for the trip to India, I read up on the life of Mahatma Gandhi |
During this gap period of 8 months, I embarked on major projects such as repairing, and replacing physical assets and giving away some, hopping on a plane or bus (at the slightest reason to travel), micro-managing even the most trivial things, reconnecting with friends who have different time lines, complaining about the weather and ineptness of call center agents and civil servants, getting engaged in occasional volunteerism activities, making life easy or difficult for those who are dear to me, and so on.
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| The Comboni Missionaries in Philippines - new owner of Chevrolet |
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| My colleagues from PCIBank |
If I want to live to be 85, this can't go on this way. I will run out of steam. To move on, I felt that I have to overwrite the physical clutter from my distant past and bounce back from a springboard made in Africa. Like a stage production, it's time to change the backdrop. It requires boldness to throw away boxes of paper files containing signatures of my distinguished bosses some of whom are long dead, clippings of essays published long before there were the internet, search engines, and social networking. But I got to first base.
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| My colleagues from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas |
When I went to Africa, I took the road less travelled (see http://eveavila.blogspot.com/September 8 2011). From there, I am now taking a new road populated by baby-boomers who think they still can make a lot of difference to other peoples' lives.
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| Home Owners of Ponderosa Leisure Farms - Back-to-School donation |
I have an idea of what the journey will be. Just like any travel plans, preparing the itinerary requires a lot of research. Instead of travel books from Lonely Planet, and other travel guides, I found these books very useful: The Holy Bible, Gandhi (Louis Fischer), Unto This Last (John Ruskin), Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl).
Wish me a safe, and a long joyful journey.
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| A sanctuary for soul-searching |
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| Oh there, good life |
