I Miss...
I made a mistake.
I believe it was two years ago that I decided to distance myself with EPAFI, my very first community involvement activity. EPAFI stands for Environmental Protection of Asia Foundation, Inc., an non-profit, non governmental organization which helps protects the environment. To make the story short, I decided to cut any involvement to the organization.
It was a decision I didn't want to do, but there were certain factors that made me decide to quit. The organization has taken a lot of my time that there were times I neglected some of my parental duties. And also, financial problems have started to give me a lot of pressures that broke my wallet, figuratively. I had a part time job during that time, and I was shuffling my schedules between the organization and my job. When my earnings was not enough for me to have allowances during my volunteer days at EPAFI, I felt the relationship with the organization was doomed. I loved working with EPAFI, but I need to seek greener pastures. It was not enough to cover the daily expenses that even going to the EPAFI office was even very hard. It was located during that time near the edge of Clark Economic Zone, almost just like going to a remote town with no way of going out after the sun sets.
Even though Bruce, our chairman, was sometimes eccentric, visionary, meticulous, very much talkative, and was always very demanding in terms of work, most of the time it did not affect me much that I admit I had enjoyed my days with them. I got McDonalds for free at breakfast every travel to Zambales, ocasionally a pound of burger steak, roasted chicken, and your typical american meal – without rice. Beach patrols at Pundakit, trips to Capones Lighthouse, dinners and sometimes breakfast at Subic Bay, and even having to drive from Dinalupihan to Angeles one moonless night without any license, hahaha.
Most important of all, I got firsthand experiences on community work, information dissemination about EPAFI and our pet project, the Turtle Conservation Program. I was one of the facilitators of the first technical seminar on turtle conservation in 2004. We spent 10 days at the beach preparing the materials, I even had participated in one of DENR's research, although I hated how ugly I looked in the video. And most of all, I had experiences with live marine turtles and even baby hatchlings.
Right now, I miss all the fun, I even misses James' red Acura Integra 91' traversing the uphill road going to Olongapo in 4th gear having a blue plate that is immune to almost every traffic violations that can be easily created on the spot by traffic enforcers. I miss Pundakit, Capones, the hatchery, the San Antonio town plaza, Times Square in Subic, Scuba Shack where you can find the best breakfast egg omelets, the bus terminal in Olongapo, Magsaysay drive, and even the Dinalupihan-Porac alternate road.
I miss the baby turtles that I used to hold during hatching season and I miss the sleep at the beach.
I miss the good old times with EPAFI.
I wish I were still with the organization, for I wouldn't have missed this:
welcome p rin naman nila cguro if ever n bumalik ka
*wink
hayuff:P hahahahahah!!!!
ang daming turtle sa Zambales
nung nagpunta kami dun 2005 ata
dun sa pinag shootingan ng GET ME by MYMP
daming turtle nasa loob ng malaking batyang plastic.
hirap yung sitwasyon mo ...may iba kang responsibilidad eh.
astig si BOSSING ha.
si Kristine okay naman sya sa kin kahit COPYMILYA sya.
mukang mabait...gago lang network nya and yung na link sa kanyang DIETHER
kung sakali nagkita sana tayo kasi kami nagbabantay nung mga baby turtles...
tsaka may sayad kasi si bruce yung amo ko... hahaha
honga sayang si kristine pumatol sa shuding... bwahahaha
yung kubo sa likod ni kristine design ko yun kaya lang medyo binago nung ginawa na... dun ako dati natutulog open kubo lang yun tapos walang kuryente...
yung watermark eh.