my contract with them is already extended for two years (well, he said before that it’s AT LEAST 2 years). though the contract that i signed last january was for 1 year only, since i’m talking with japanese, i knew that i’d be staying longer.
last night, shacho (company president) talked to me. he just came from the philippines for a business trip, and he said that he talked with my boss in my company about my status here. he said that he wants me to stay here longer. no surprise there. i knew that was coming. but the next thing that he told me, well, surprised me a bit. he said that he’s planning to hire directly from the Philippines. i already knew that he’s planning something like that. but when he told me that i’d be “managing” them in the future, i thought, “woah! ‘managing’. that’s a pretty big word. i wonder if i could really do that.” he said that since i am the only foreigner who stayed in his company for more than 2 years, i already have a good idea about their business and how they do things around here. well.. sort of.
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Melanie invited me to attend a lenten recollection prepared by IYG (International Youth Gathering) in Osaka on February 24. It’s been a while since I last attended any kind of recollection so I said “yes”.
The speaker for that recollection was Consul Senen Mangalile of the Philippine Consulate at Osaka. And someone shared after the talk. I learned many things in the talk and sharing but there are two words that would best summarize what the lenten recollection was about. LOVE and IMMERSION. Immerse ourselves in God’s love for us so we could love ourselves and love others as well.
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I just read this news article from Inquirer.Net about public schools that may face closure if they fail to perform well in the next National Achievement Test (NAT). The complete article is here.
After reading this news article, I wondered, is this for real? I mean, the Philippine government always has a problem with the lack of classrooms and teachers, and now they’re warning government-owned schools of closure if the students don’t perform well in the exam. I know, we should try to improve the state of the educational system in our country, but isn’t this too much? They should try to assess the situation and pinpoint the primary source of the problem.
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“don’t talk to strangers.” that’s one of the first things that our parents taught us when we were young. and now, it’s my turn to tell that to my nephews and nieces whenever i see them.
when i was young, my parents never failed to tell me this – “don’t talk to strangers.” as i look back now, there were several times that i didn’t follow what they said. being a child, trusting the adults was very easy for me. and since i was raised in an environment where i could trust the adults around me, i didn’t realize the danger of talking to any stranger. i had some bad experiences talking with them, but fortunately, nothing bad happened to me.
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an old friend from osaka stayed overnight with me last friday. she was one of my “ate” when i was in college, and now she just finished her doctorate degree in osaka.
while talking with her, i realized so many things. when i was in college and i joined this christian community in school, i sort of placed the “ate” and “kuya” (older sisters and brothers) in a pedestal. yeah, i did. more…
for the last few months, i’ve been having some thoughts about my future plans. about my family, my career, my relationships with other people. and i even have a timeline for some of these plans.
one of the things that occupied my mind lately, is about my career. though i’m enjoying my work in the IT industry, part of myself wants to venture into business. and the industry that i’m thinking is unrelated to my area specialization. it’s a bit scary but exciting at the same time. and hopefully, within this year, my business plan would push through.
Life is like a cup of coffee. It’s bitter but you’ll love it ’til the last drop.
