Breaking the Silence

Hi folks!

Our blogsite has been inactive for almost two weeks now. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to attend to its regular updating. I also failed to greet our US-based classmates a Happy Thanksgiving Day. I haven't read the answer to Ed Canela's puzzle yet (purposely) and can't figure out the golf game he posted.

Mendy texted last week that Karina (her sister) and her son were stranded in Labo because of the floods. Luckily, the waters subsided in the afternoon and their bus was able to pass through. Nangumusta din si Boboy Ong about the typhoon in Manila, but the weather was fine (at least there were no rains) last weekend. He said that Boy Rios has confirmed attendance to the Feb reunion. He was also able to locate Nestor Chavez and Rodolfo Villazar. Still on the loose are Rudy del Valle and Roberto Manly. Susan said she'll be coming to Manila first week of December. She'll give more updates about the preparations.

The past weeks have been hectic since our NGO is conducting training for barangay officials and community leaders on Participatory Local Governance in three provinces. I just arrived from Gingoog City via Cagayan de Oro last Saturday and I’m leaving again for Biliran via Tacloban City at 5:30 this morning. I promise to re-activate our blogsite by December.

In the meantime here are some photos taken during the training for 11 barangays (villages) in Gingoog. Our venue was the Sta. Rita Parish Formation Center. In Cagayan de Oro, I stayed overnight in Balay Mindanaw Peace Center owned by our partner NGO. We got perfect attendance of 11 Punong Barangays (Barangay Chairmen, formerly Kapitan del Baryo). Other participants were barangay health workers, barangay nutrition scholars, kagawads (barangay council members) and community leaders.

I read about the new feature of Blogger just a while ago. It's now possible to post slideshows in the blogsite. I'll study it as soon as I have the time so we can make slideshows of photos and post them here. I also hope to do a Christmas CD for our class, hopefully for 2007 (not 2008).

Regards to all.