Eleven Awesome Days of Learning

It is finished.

Accepting my Certificate of Completion from Dr. Fujiwara of Hiroshima University

Eleven awesome days. It started last August 6, 2012, the Summer Course 2012 Development Within a Low-Carbon World: Preparing Professionals for Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation. I can't decide if it's ironic or timely that the monsoon disaster happened right during the training. (Yes, it pushed through despite all that!) For one, it made things difficult for the organizers logistics-wise and for the participants because we couldn't gather data from the local government units or conduct interviews with busy/important people for our paper/presentation. But at the same time, the participants, especially those from other countries, got a real taste of disaster here in the Philippines.

Some lecturers had to cancel their attendance. However, I am seriously amazed by the lecturers who did not back down. One of the lecturers (who happens to be one of my favorites) from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) was warned not to board his plane anymore last August 7, 2012 (the height of the monsoon rains) but he still went! And that's not the end of it... he waded through the floods just to get to a hotel!

Anyway, I'm really glad to be part of this Summer Course. I learned so much from the lectures (especially on Climate Change Adaptation and how it is related to Disaster Risk Management). I seriously miss listening to lecturers and asking them questions. I learned many things from my classmates who come from different countries and from different fields. It's great that we learn from each other: foreign language (Tagalog, Spanish, Japanese and German), culture, food, places and even religion. It was fun teaching them Tagalog especially when they can't get the accent right. I hope that they will never forget the words "bayad po" and "salamat po" (yes they take the UP Ikot jeep!) It was also fun watching them getting all excited or curious when they see fruits!

While waiting for the Closing Dinner last Thursday, Sir Harold and I invited some of them to take photos with the Oblation.

And importantly, I have new friends from all over the world! I believe that we'll still see each other someday. Some of my classmates were actually able to meet their Filipino friends from years ago during their recent stay. I asked them how they are able to keep in touch despite all those years and one of them answered "It's easy. Facebook."

It was a great experience. I can't even say it properly in words. I wish there were more short courses of this kind.