Environmental Workshop @ Antipolo City, Philippines
It is almost a week that i am in Manila, it’s my last vacation before i start finding a job. Air Asia flights were too cheap, 70usd round trips and thus, here i am in Manila, with great hospitality from great friends, well! i shall reserve the travelling part for another post, but here’s something interesting happened today. I always love to travel at a minimal cost and at a great experience that beats the typical tourist agenda, so here’s part of it.
I did not expect to come to Manila and go to one of the nearby province to be a facilitator or speaker for one of the junior/highschool environmental workshop. Thanks to Cris, i met him in Germany last October as both of us are the representatives for our own countries in BYEE program. He is in the alumni of the school and certainly i believe he has made his school proud for his contribution to youths engagement. Also i met Andel, another BYEE representative from the Philippines. At first i thought that it is going to be a typical workshop which i have done previously in Shanghai or Malaysia, with the same level of materials and expectation on their understanding levels.
But the power point i prepared was more for the high school level, and it turns out that this 340+ audience are a mix target audience from junior to highs chool students. I kinda prepared on Climate Change reality check, and include the latest climate change disasters to state its urgency to tackle on the awareness part, and i moved on to the ideas part on what can they do as a youth, and also lastly, a guideline to a good environmental project. In which most of the junior students would not understand i assume.. while for Andel and Cris presented their project to showcase more ideas that can be done.
As for the activities, we ask them to create a logo and a pledge on what they will be doing. Ah come on, you don’t expect young youths to come out with a solid project like how university students do right, so we decided to hit back the very basic of arts and communications, and simple ideas. And actually more focusing on presentation fun and interactions, which i think that made the teachers very happy because the students really had fun!
Simple Smiles, Simple Courage and Simple conversations, made both me and them happy actually. At first i did not know why i may be so special there as a foreigner from Malaysia, but come on imagine when you are young and have not travel abroad, and when foreigner appear in front of you? That’s the curiosity took place i suppose, some people ask me If Malaysia has Ipad, if i am chinese educated and all, hahaha.
I just felt the happiness of facilitating events like this. Going around the discussion groups, smiling at them and ask them how are they doing and they will reply you with that shy expression. So cute! But all in all, i never thought a vacation can turn up to be something so meaningful. How i wish at times there is this job that we can just travel and educate! Haha but nevertheless i have a professional career to move on to create the change 
