Entry 23: My Anniversary at Basa Pilipinas

Entry 23: My Anniversary at Basa Pilipinas

364 days have passed and it’s April 16 once again: same month, same day, different year.

It’s been a year living in Ilocos Norte but it feels longer than that. I can start listing the reasons why I find being deployed here so inconvenient. Being 14 hours away from home tops the list.

Like so many people who feel caught up in the grind, I successfully fell blind of how much of a blessing the past year has been.

It’s easy to fail being optimistic.

364 nights were mostly spent with my face glued to my phone’s or laptop’s screen until I fall asleep. Not much night life, not much friends, not much energy left after a day’s work. Weekends went by working. If not at work, I sleep through Saturdays to recover from a tiring week. And of course, weekdays were consumed … at the office or on official business.

For a time, I felt stuck not being able to physically be with my loved ones. Thank God for technology.  I was a hair strand away from praying for time travel or teleportation.

It’s easier to rant; to see the uglier side of things.

Then again, like many who have come before us have upheld, “easy” is not an ingredient of fulfillment.

It’s fulfilling to see that the same kids who could not even identify syllables a few months before are now reading stories fluently. It’s heartwarming when teachers receive us warmly in their communities. It’s humbling when our office updates us of the number of schools we have reached.

None of those came easy. And when I take a step back, the truth is, none of those also felt like work. In fact, no matter how stressed or wired we all were, we’d still always tag majority of our days as fun!

Learning a new dialect, discovering less traveled roads, experiencing their food, and living their culture – I was blessed to have been deployed in the Ilocos Region. I was even more blessed to have six officemates-turned-family to share the journey with.

The perks did have their banes, though.

There are so many moments when I would also wake up praying I was in Manila, working in the morning, eating out with my boyfriend, and watching late night movies with my parents before I sleep. In fact, I already found myself one day, on the verge of resigning and moving to another organization closer to home. But the circumstances aren’t as generous. Perhaps, the time is not yet right.

In those trying times, when the stinging feeling of missing the warmth of my loved ones’ hugs or hearing their non-Virtual cackles kick in, I just remind myself what I’m here for. I guess, the time to go home has not yet come.

364 days and counting … for tonight, I rest from the day’s work and the year's musings happy and fulfilled. J