#PopeInPH: Farewell Pope Francis! Arrivederci!

The lucky boy He blessed on his last motorcade in his 5-day Philippine visit.

Pope Francis arrives in Villamor Air Base for his flight back to Rome.

I am typing this post as I'm watching the Philippine Airlines plane (carrying Pope Francis back to Rome) getting ready to fly. It has such been an honor to have this very loving man visit our country for 5 days. And more than that, I am so awed by the discipline that the Filipino people have shown while waiting / watching the Pope in the places he visited. Good leaders do awesome things, great leaders inspire others. Pope Francis definitely is in the latter category! Thank you for inspiring the Filipino people Lolo Kiko. The lessons you have imparted will always be in my heart.

Pope Francis going to the PAL airplane that will carry him back to Vatican.

Goodbye Pope Francis! My words aren't enough to express the gratitude and admiration I have for you. I have dreamt of you mid-October 2014 and through you, the Lord has calmed my worrying heart about our family problems. Through you, the Lord let me feel his wonderful love. In that dream I have never felt so much peace and love. Thank you Pope Francis for being God's instrument in this cruel world. Mercy and compassion. Nurture and protect the family. To think, to feel, to do. Words I will try to live by this year, and the rest of my life. Viva il Papa!

#PopeInPH ~ Pope Francis arrives in the Philippines!

Touchdown! The Papal plane has just landed in the Philippines, and Pope Francis is preparing to walk down from the plane in Villamor Airbase. Of course, the crowd couldn't help but cheer loudly "We love you!" :) President Aquino and 12 members of his cabinet are expected to greet him before his motorcade towards Taft Avenue. The official Papal residence is the Apostolic Nunciature in Taft. Here's the motorcade itinerary:

Source: http://www.gov.ph/2015/01/14/presentation-press-briefing-of-the-interior-secretary-on-the-papal-visit

You can view Pope Francis' entire 5-day itinerary here:

http://pacifictimes.org/papalvisit/the-papal-visit-itinerary/

https://ph.news.yahoo.com/papal-itinerary--where-you-can-see-pope-francis-034226609.html

http://www.rappler.com/specials/pope-francis-ph/75019-pope-francis-philippines-schedule-itinerary

My screengrab of Pope Francis' arrival in the Philippines :) That's the President of the Philippines next to him.

-------------------------------

If you have access to television, you can tune in to any local channel and you'll see the live coverage of Pope Francis' first visit to the Philippines. No TV? The Philippine government has a live feed in YouTube, yay! You can view it below:

And if you love social media, you use the following hashtags to express support of the Pope's much-awaited visit:

#PopeFrancisPH

#PopeInPH

#ShowThePope

#DearPopeFrancis

#PapalVisitPH

#PopeFrancis

That's it pansit! Enough blogging and more Pope Francis-watching, haha!

I don't have New Year resolutions..

..because I'm a rebel at heart! LOL, kidding! :p Actually, it's because I suck at keeping / doing my resolutions. So what's the point of making it when I can't follow through right? Thankfully, I found an easier "system" to make myself better at each new year. A system that has been very effective for me for the past two years. The system is called One Word. Or if you follow Ali Edwards, One Little Word. And yes, you literally only need one word to make it work. Sounds very simple right? Because it is! :) So what's my one word for 2015? It is cherish.

You can go over our Davao homeschooling blog for the full detail on why I chose this lovely word for 2015. I also discussed there my 2013 and 2014 one-words, which were simplify and commitment, respectively. The post is around 1,050 words (OA much, lol) but it's worth the read if you need a bit of inspiration on making 2015 the best year ever for you :) And before I end this post, which is my 299th by the way, I wanna greet all of you a happy and prosperous new year! Cheers everyone! Let's make 2015 awesome!

Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminar

It's also known as CLSS and last Friday, together with my husband, we attended the 3-day event. Friday was our 7th wedding monthsary and I thought it was great that we're doing something important to celebrate it rather than just eating out as per the usual when we celebrate anniversaries =) Anyway, for 3 days we stayed in St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary (REMASE), Catalunan Grande, Davao City. The area was fab! Lots of trees, very cool, very quiet. Perfect for a faith renewal activity =)

The Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminar we attended was organized by the Oasis of Love - Davao, a charismatic community where my parents have been members for several years. My mother has invited me to attend the seminar for quite some time but I always had something going on — 24 hour duties, reviewing for the medical board, stuff.. But finally, I was free. And Labsie (my husband) was in as well! Talk about “all in God’s time..”

CLSS is all about renewing your faith, healing your spirit (very helpful if you have lots of family and relationship issues) and receiving the Holy Spirit. I can't say much about it as the organizers asked us to keep the details secret so the next participants' experience won't be spoiled. Suffice to say, it was an awesome experience and the food in REMASE was home-cooked great! ^_^ I can’t believe I had 6 meals per day the entire time we were there! LOL! Anyway, if you're interested to join CLSS, there'll be another one next summer. Contact Oasis of Love for details.

the "REAL" slumdog millionaire

Have you watched the award-winning movie yet? If not, you should! It's not really of heavy material but you can take a lot of lessons from it. The lesson I took away from Slumdog Millionaire was "All you need to learn in your life, you'll learn from your EXPERIENCES" =) And lest I'll be misunderstood, I'm making it clear that learning through formal education is also essential. Your experiences in a structured school will be important when you'll work in a structured work environment later. So please, no dropping out of school kids! Hehe! =p

Anyway, if you're one of the moviegoers who saw Slumdog Millionaire and wondered how the uneducated slum kids shown there learned how to speak English, wonder not anymore! It turned out they learned from tourists and more remarkably, they also speak other languages like French, German, Arabic, Nihonggo, etc, etc. You don't believe me? Watch the two videos of a slum kid below. The first one was filmed when he was a kid and the second one was when he was already a teen (and learned newer languages!). Be prepared to be AMAZED by Ravi!

Most purists would say the multi-lingual kid is not really multi-lingual. After all, Ravi *only* knew some words of the languages he spoke -- words that he needs to sell his peacock fans to tourists of different races. But let me ask you, do you know how to introduce yourself in the languages he spoke above? Or lets try something simpler, what's "HELP" in as many languages as you can? Hmm, hard huh? That's why I say hats off to this kid (and his "colleagues") for being very resourceful despite the bad circumstances he's under. And just so you all know, Ravi is my inspiration why I'm studying Nihonggo right now ^_^ God bless India's slum kids!