samba

there's a rumor going around the office that i'm iglesia ni kristo. it was fueled by the fact that (1) i wear dresses almost every single day of the week (except fridays) and (2) i make a beeline for the door on thursday evenings.

god knows i've told them often enough that i go to tuloy. but, between having to rush out for ag, tuloy, and lingkod three out of five days, i think everyone's confused. plus, i guess it's much easier to simply assume i'm something that i'm not. that's office gossip for you.

{from l to r: ralf, efren, fr. beng, hyna, theo, cathy}

in any case, these are the people who make my thursdays - no matter how tired/busy/lazy/upset/irritated/PMS-y i am - immediately better.

fr. beng, the guy holding the present, is my favorite salesian. he's just so practical, and he loves the kids immensely. i remember approaching him once so that he'd hear my confession and right there and then, he did. it was a bit awkward (i had to bare my soul to a priest i see every week!!!) but it felt good knowing that there's a man of god who's not busy to help you put things right with his big boss. he's also the coolest - he has a repertoire of magic tricks and used to create daily gospel drawings with verses for us to memorize. i'm looking forward to the day that fr. beng performs the sacrament of matrimony for me and ultimate crush, but since that might not happen anytime soon, maybe i should just look forward to him blessing a new car ... which might not happen anytime soon either, haha!

of all the volunteers, i've known kuya ef the longest. while our first tutorial session happened on separate days (i came on a tuesday and he came on a wednesday), we (and another new volunteer) met on a thursday and decided that this was something we all wanted to do on a regular basis. thus began our thursday group. a lot of faces came and went in the intervening years, but this was the group that stayed.

i've experienced highs and lows with this group, and i've visited places near and far. with them, i am nothing but honest and real -- it's so easy to be myself with them, no pretentions, no masks and i'd like to think that in spite of how upsetting my personality could be at times, they still (somehow) love me.

for the longest time we've been trying to figure out an "anniversary" date for us. yesterday, kuya ef ended up preparing a mini-feast for us, and we thought, hey, let's designate july 7 as our anniversary. and, it became even more exciting when we realized that kuya ef and i started volunteering in 2007. 07-07-07 ... it doesn't get any cooler than that.

or it could be. i mean volunteer work + amazing friends + helping kids create a brighter future for themselves ... that's way cooler, right?

so there, i'm not iglesia, i'm catholic. and on thursday, i don't make samba, i go to tuloy, tutor kids, and spend time with the most fabulous friends i know.