There are plenty of  inspiring FaceBook videos associated with Gawad Kalinga, http://www.gk1world.com/ and I am reattaching my favorite one “I can see it now,” found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m4KpojSJwI this YouTube says it ALL .. for ALL of us, not just Filipinos. It makes me cry in a very profound way every time that I experience it because I know that it shows the true Filipino spirit and the true Filipino heart.

Here is a link to my absolute favorite Gawad Kalinga Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d62xpO1BWA it is entitled simply Cory Aquino, People Power and GK

Check out this link on google images for hundreds of related photos: each alone is worth a thousand words: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=gawad+kalinga&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g2&aql&oq&gs_rfai

Additionally, using the search term “Gawad Kalinga” on Google Videos, brings up hundreds of related videos, too: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=gawad+kalinga&gbv=2&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=vid:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=iv

Just like I am ALWAYS this day, with the message of GK in my heart and soul, so too have I been touched and inspired by the great work being done by the Civitans, both in Las Vegas and elsewhere, including in Philippines. Check out my Facebook page and related links for more information. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000501040244

I spent 2006-2008 in Palau, a Pacific island nation that is no more than a tiny dot on a world map but has left a much more significant mark on my heart and who I am.   I could not attempt to describe my experience in a simple blog, but if you do want to hear more, just let me know – I could write for hours about it.

I now work for Youth For Understanding, a nonprofit high school exchange organization.  Knowing that RPCV’s and other Peace Corps enthusiasts are excited about intercultural exchange opportunities, I am posting this as an invitation for you to consider hosting an international exchange student this coming school year. YFU hosts students from over 60 countries around the world, including from several predominantly Muslim countries as part of a specific outreach to bridge the gap between the United States and the Muslim world.  If you are interested in finding out more about welcoming an enthusiastic international teenager into your heart and home, please email me at achochrek@yfu.org.  If you know anybody who would benefit from this type of cultural exposure, please share this information with them.  It is a great way to live out the third goal of helping Americans understand the world beyond our borders.    I hope to hear from you!

www.yfu-usa.org

Also, any previous or current volunteers in the Philippines willing to share stories, experiences, advice, or packing tips.  I’ve noticed a lot of contradictions in the books from the invitation package about what to pack.

I received my invite to Kyrgyz Republic this July as a TEFL volunteer. Anyone else going?!! I am group K-15. Are there any volunteers I can talk to an ask my ( many) questions too? Thanks and write back

Here is a link to a google search about the circumstances surrounding Julia’s murder.  Here is the official Peace Corps statement.

Before reading further, you should note that this was an isolated incident and the Filipinos in the area where Julia was killed are shocked and outraged that one of their own would do something this horrible.

The article:

 Just start writing.

Put symbols through finger movements and spread an idea out for everyone to see all over the world.

The body of Julia Campbell, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and close friend, has just been found near the village of Batad in Ifugao province. As the official and unofficial media have reported, she went missing on April 8th while on vacation in the central cordillera mountains of central Luzon island, the Philipines.

But those are the facts and facts are, by their nature, devoid of emotion.

Julia was a damn good cook. I would invite myself over for dinner on a regular basis, partially because I am lazy and didn’t want to go through the motions of learning to cook, but mostly because she made a mean ginataan (A dish prepared in fresh coconut milk).

Julia and I were sitemates in Legazpi City, Albay (Bikol region) and were very close friends. In the Peace Corps time spent with other volunteers is prized; we all need support and can’t find it when we are alone and without any kind of familiarity. The bond formed between volunteers is a very deep one formed in an environment of constant traumatic stress.

The counselor from the Peace Corps head office told us that any volunteer who goes to a therapist and tells his/her story gets the same reaction. All American therapists brand Peace Corps volunteers as “Shell Shocked” (or, for the more politically correct among you, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

She had her stresses and would spout off to me at every chance she got about the trials and tribulations of work and school and her arrangements to go home. She had already been accepted to NYU and to say she was excited about going home understates it drastically. She had been planning a post-Peace Corps trip back through southeast asia. Her Peace Corps service was wrapping up and her mind had already begun to shift gears back to the NYC mindset.

Then she disappeared. Then her body reappeared.

I don’t know how I am supposed to write about something like this.

How can I do a human life justice? As my mom once said, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then an experience is worth a million pictures; I would add that to describe the complete truth of any human life is beyond pictures or experience and that only sharing the moment with that other soul can give a glimpse of an understanding.

So far I have stuck with the facts as I understand them, so I guess I will continue:

Nothing is permanent. Sorrow comes from attachment to things assumed to be permanent (people, ideas, etc). There is no why in this instance. Her life was not “good” or “bad,” “virtuous” or “evil.” She was.

You can rationalize and discuss the hows and whys and shoulds of this situation, but there are countless emotions that will boil to the surface. These emotions cannot and should not be controlled; let them come. As much as attachment hurts when it is taken away, you cannot feel alive as a human being without those harsh, visceral emotions. It is better to have an emotional rollercoaster of a life than one that remains flat and constant. Embrace impermanence in all things including emotions.

About 50 of the volunteers from Peace Corps Philippines were sitting in the same room listening to information regarding the search for her when the news came in that her body had been found in a ravine near a trail. Until that instant, we were all tortured by uncertainty and kept happy only through the hope that this was a kidnapping and that she was still alive. Now we have certainty and, although we are not happy, we can begin the healing process. I wept for her and I will certainly cry again; she had a great deal of close friends, about whom I can say the same.