Showing posts with label loveyourwork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label loveyourwork. Show all posts

Friday, October 14, 2011

Saysay kan Paggirumdom

Sa nanok kan banggi mapapagimata ka, magios dangan tibaad dai na mapaturog pa. Sa kauntukan kan mga bagay, marurumduman mo an mga nakaagi. Sa daing girong na palibot, mapapanumdum mo an mga dai pa nangyayari. Tibaad dai ka winarasan kaidto nin grasya na masadiri an mga yaon sa palibot mo. Bisan ngonyan mayo ka nin kapas na sadirihon an mga bagay na dai pa naarabot. Ta nganing sa mga oras na arog kaini, magrumdum ka o panumdumon mo sinda dangan ihiras sa iba. An saimong pagrumdom, ining kanigoan na makapanumdom sarong balaog saimo na mayo nin kaagid. Nadudumanan mo an mga lugar na gustong kadtohan. Nabubuweltahan mo idtong mga tiempong inirokan. Nakakaulay mo an mga tawong marayo na, naiistorya mo an mga tinugang maarabot pa sana. Masasabat mo an gabat kan dai napapamugtak na kaisipan, dangan kun kun ini malampasan, kanigoan na gian sa daghan.



Friday, September 09, 2011

In June of that year

In June of that year, you started tutoring Seth, a freshman and Zandro, a sophomore—both were newcomers in the school where you chose to teach.

Seth appeared cool and quiet, but there was much eagerness when he started talking about himself, his participation in class and school activities, and other things he does in school or at home. He was a growing young boy whose parents whom you chanced to meet desired much good for him. Composed, serene, you saw in him a promising young man who will make a name for himself.

Meanwhile, Zandro was the bubbly type, always wearing a smile, and always less serious and preferred to read ghost stories, not to mention that he was an avid online gamer himself. He wanted to be a nurse because he wanted much money—lots of it. He said he would have to work abroad so he could always provide for himself. Also, he always wanted to eat.

Every now and then you would excuse the two boys from their classes to chat with them. To you they always sounded hopeful—in anticipation of the chats with you. You would talk to them about how to help their parents do chores in the house, study harder so they would not flunk any class or be good sons to their parents. You also talked to them about how to gain friends in school. Seth said he had new friends—all of the freshmen were his friends. The playful Zandro confessed how he would participate in the sophomores’ horseplay in between class sessions or even during classes.

In your chats, you approached them like they were your younger brothers. At first you mentally prepared your questions for them. Later, you would just talk to them very casually. Through the days, they had become your friends, so to speak. The chats you had had with them had gone smooth and personal, like they were your younger brothers. Your words would usually end up as friendly pieces of advice for these young boys growing up. And how your words sounded real and convincing to them.

Every time you talked to them, you thought you saw yourself in them. You saw enthusiasm in the things they did or wanted to do. They were struggling to become themselves. Full of hope and anticipation, the boys had a lot to live and to learn. They always appeared as if they had to know a lot of things.

Continually you had told them how to be always good, and would always ask them about how they would fare up to virtues like charity and service, honesty and truthfulness, diligence and stuff. Talking about these virtues with these boys made you aware of your own shortcomings. It made you start to ask your own life question. It made you want to quantify your own sense of achievement.

Though you’d gone that far, you had not really gotten far enough to try to live sensibly—with a definite purpose. You thought you had to have a definite purpose. Just like them, then, you seemed to long to fling your arms wide open to the world and take on what life really had in store for you.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Pag-intindí


Sarong dakulaon na pabor na puwedeng itao o ipangdalók sa tawo. Gabos kita muyá kag kinahánglan et aténsyon, apwera na sana sa pirang santo (mâwot ninda an pag-intindí sang Ginóo). Kun kita binibisto, kinikilala, pinaparada, kita iniintindí nin labí-lábi. An ungâ ngani nagpaparahibi kun dai siya iniintindí. Kita gabos siring man—maski ngani an pinakamalaot na tawong inaapod nindang kriminal. Tibaad nagi siyang pusakal ta mayo saiyang nag-intindí kadtong mga oras na kinahanglan niya ‘ni. Sa Belgium, na enot na nagrumpág kan capital punishment, daí pig-iirintindí an mga príso. Nag-aabot iní sa puntong an iba saíla nagpapabirítay na sana. An pag-intindí
 iyo na gayod an pinakahalangkáw na klase kan pagrespeto sa tawo. Bako an grabeng pagkaungís kundi an dai saiya pagbúgno, an minalúgad sa puso kan tawo. Sa istorya kan satong kalibútan, an mámimidbídan tang mga tawo iyo idtong mga naghátag sang atensyon samga pangangaípo kag kamâwotan, sa mga sákit budâ kaogmahan, sa mga isip asin kanigóan kan ibá.


Mga Sinurublian

Malahalon, Hiligaynon, mamahalon
Nga, Hiligaynon, na
Ipangdalok, Hiligaynon, ipag-imot
Kinahanglan, Hiligaynon, kaipuhan
Et, Akeanon, nin
Sang, Hiligaynon, kan
Ginóo, Hiligaynon, Diyos
Unga, Hiligaynon, aki, pusngak
Pinakamalaot, Hiligaynon, pinakamaraot
Saila, Hiligaynon, sainda
Pagbugno, Hiligaynon, pag-tîno
Kalibutan, Hiligaynon, kinâban
Naghatag, Hiligaynon, nagtao


Biligaynon [Binikol sagkod Hiniligayon] kan “Attention.” Yaon sa Worldy Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes A. Gaertner, Viking Press, 1990.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Mánggad

An mánggad o kwarta bakong grasya, bako man disgrasya. Ini segun sa kun pa’no nákua sagkod kun pa’no ginagamit. Pwede nganing sabihon na mas hapós an magin matinao, kag pirming naghihirás kaini kaysa mayo kaini. An ikinaiba sana kan igwang kwarta sa mayo, iyo an gahum, o kapangyarihan. Kaya gayod an mayaman labi na sana man an pagkahambog sagkod paabaw-abaw. Alagad ngonyan, uminabót na an tiempong an kayamanan saro nang kaulangan. Ngonyan, kaipuhan kan mga mayaman bakong magasto, bakong gayong magarbo. Mas marhay saindang dai nabibisto; mas marhay ngani na dai sinda bisto. Gabos nauuri sainda. Hinaharanap sinda kan mga taga-luwas. Dinudurukot sinda kan mga bandido; tinitirira sinda kan mga terorista. Huruphurupon ta, mas mayád man giraray an palakaw kan mga matuod na manggaranon kaysa sa gobiernong puwedeng imukna kan sarong ambisyosong pigado. Pag-abot kan tiempong yaon na siya sa poder, siya maha’bon kan yaman kan banwaan, malangkaba kan kapangyarihan, dangan papatioson itong mga nagpasakit saiya.  


Susog sa “Wealth” na hale sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes A. Gaertner, Viking Press, 1990.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Pag-antós


Minapoon ini sa baskog na pagtubod na an kada kadipisilan igwang kalutasan; oras sagkod kapas sana an kaipuhan mo ta ngani na mapangyari ini. Naaagód kan ibang tawo ano man na kagabatan, an kada kadipisilan, mantang an iba nariribongan dangan naluluki-luki kan mga bagay na nungka ninda mina’wot o inasahan na mangyari. 

Ta ngani kang maka-antos, dai kaipuhan na matali ka, basta igwa kang sentido kumon sana—asin kusog na makagurapay sa mga pangyayari o bagay-bagay na saimo minaparatay. Ta ngani kang makaantós, kaipuhan maisog ka, magian an disposisyon, manginisi, nahihiling an gayon asin oportunidad sa gabos na bagay, pirming igwang diskarteng magpangyari an mga bagay na kaipuhan gibohon. Ta ngani kang makaantós, urog na kaipuhan na maisog ka.

Idtong mga tawong nagtutubód na katabang ninda an Diyos o naggigiya sainda [an ano man na dyinodiyos ninda]  mas orog na makakaantós kaysa mga tawong an pagmate ninda garo mayo nang pag-asa o naghuhuna na pinabayaan na sinda. Likayan mo an mga tawong matalaw, o matapo’ sa kasakitan—apwera na sana kun ika doktor, padi o social worker. Dai nanggad paglingawi—an pagturog, an pagdiskanso, an pagkamoot sa ibang tawo, an interes na mabuhay sa kalibutan sagkod an pangamuyo amo an saimong pansagang, iyo an mapahapos sa tiempo nin kadipisilan, sa panahon nin sakit.


Susog sa “Coping” na yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner [1912-1996], Viking Press, 1990.


Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Extension work


You have been doing extension work for quite a while. 

As time passes, you see the difficulty of researchers and extension workers in expressing themselves and taking pride in their output, which some of them even fondly call their labor of love. 

Consider the regional symposium you are now tasked to cover.  You listen to the researcher who sounds awkward presenting the project on the production of this crop. During the panel evaluation, you pity her because the evaluator loudly scores points off the study because it lacks the right methodology. The national crops expert tells in her face that the study being reported presents only commonsensical information that needs neither explanation nor further study. You realize from among the crowd she turns out to just fill in to report for the said study. She virtually “extended” her services for her absentee fellow researcher.

While the other researchers may be articulate in the technology they must have studied, er, mastered in all their 20 years or something of government service, you find it revolting that they do not sound good in their English. They sound funny speaking in their borrowed language. In the presentations conferences and contests, what you will appreciate are those who are well versed in their studies as they are fluent in speaking the technical terms in English.

You wonder whether there have been efforts through the years in the academic world to allow for researches to be written in the Filipinos’ native language, if the purpose is to advance the technologies and not how the English-speaking world understands or wants to receive them.

Why does the presenter who is fluent in English impress you more? The mussel community researcher sounds fishy to you because he has this twang, an accent probably spoken in one northern town of this province.

Sadly, because you were taught English this way and not that way, you yourself are isolated from what you see and hear. The Filipino tongue that makes the most correct English inflections sound more pleasing and seem to merit your attention. You rather notice the researcher who could not fully express his efs and vees. To you he sounds less persuasive. His wrong enunciations distract you that you don’t want to reconsider what he has to say while he is being aided by his PowerPoint slides.

Further in the presentation sessions, you notice the presenter on biogas digester did not use parallel structures in his objectives. You wonder if he cares about these at all. He even sounds like a military general who cannot distinguish his e’s from his i’s. He reminds you of the military chief over the television who munches English as if it were peanuts.

You ask when you can start to admire.

Here, you realize that everyone presenting the study for scrutiny might as well have the heart to extend to what other people have to say about their labors of love; extend further to see whether they are valid judgments so they can improve the study. Extend further to understand, if the said judgments are rather prejudiced and therefore should only be ignored.

This presenter on site-specific nutrient management very well understands her figures as she reports her rice research. Asking her questions now, the panel evaluator sounds like she speaks the same language. It seems she is going to win because they sound alike when they begin the discussion. Perhaps she will win the top prize in this summit because the presenter’s words slide into your ears and your sensibility.  Other extension workers seem to mince words. But she doesn’t. Does this study prove to have more social impact than those presented by less articulate ones? While there are criteria set for all this research business, you start to wonder who deserves the prize.



Monday, September 29, 2008

Authorized Personnel Only


Inspired by Uncle Badong, on the occasion of his retirement

 

 

For some people, retirement from a job is not a welcome change. Others who hardly plan their retirement at all are even prone to deteriorate because they might not be prepared for the day when they will have virtually nothing to do anymore.

 

People should be encouraged to remain in paid employment for as long as they want. For one, an employee can be efficient if he is driven to do something. If he still wants to work regardless of his age, the company can always bank on his efficiency because more often than not, he or she will deliver the tasks expected of them—or even go beyond it.

 

Second, employees who have reached a certain length of experience in their work most probably have acquired a distinct level of expertise as well, one that is needed in a company or organization in its fulfillment of successful operations. So instead of taking time to invest in training newcomers who will (have to) learn the needed skills, the company can always entrust its vital tasks to the veteran. The case can be compared to that of wine wherein the older the wine is stored in the barrel, the more suave its taste becomes—hence, the better quality and satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

 

Retiring from government service at 60 this year,
Uncle Badong is pictured here in his usual afternoon outfit
in our ancestral libod, perhaps after having swept the yard

of his house and finished the luon which drives away

the noknok and other pestering nocturnal insects,

along with a horde of evil spirits around the yard.

Some 20 meters away from this house is his MARO office,
the workplace where he had helped countless farmers

to properly claim their land titles, and perhaps even

saved a number of them from the paraanab [landgrabbers]

of all kinds. His has been the kind of work, or more aptly,

a sense of commitment that not just any CSSAC graduate

can read into in order to fully deliver.

 


If people are allowed to work for as long as they want, which would mean that the personnel will be filled by seasoned workers and staff, the company is sure to face challenges in the future headstrong. Its seasoned personnel and human resource will inspire everyone else with the wisdom they (must have) gained from the many years of exposure to the kind of work in the organization.

 

Indeed, if people are employed in a company so that they serve it in the best sense of the word and, in essence, help build it, keeping them for as much as they want can benefit the organization, enough to sustain itself through the years.

 

 

 

Songs of Ourselves

If music is wine for the soul, I suppose I have had my satisfying share of this liquor of life, one that has sustained me all these years. A...