Somewhere only we know

Found my way to the Philippines mountains, and am relieved to share that I am happy, well-fed (a bit too much) and getting used to cold showers.

I know i keep telling you about freezing cold showers. Not that i’m (not) complaining… It’s just the hardest thing every morning still.

For the geographically-inclined, this is where I am:

If you squint a little, you’ll find The Philippines on the right

 

For those worried about me getting caught in the cross-hairs of terrorism, thank you! but don’t you be worried:

Mindanao is South, and I’m up North

 

(Even with my travels, I try to keep safe so i can continue the travel streak – yes, #YOLO works both ways.)

I haven’t taken any pictures with my iphone because there are close to zero tourists here, and taking pictures just seems… i don’t know why i haven’t done it yet. Everytime i try to ponder on this, the cold showers freeze any brain activity i attempt here (whoopsie, now i am using cold showers as an excuse).

All pictures are taken off the internet:

there’s no evidence, but they do slaughter pigs and put the head on tables, which i am slowly getting used to

Still, the scariest thing would be the house.

in the middle of… rice fields on the side of a very, very sloped mountain

I mean, it’s definitely safe. Hundreds of thousands of people live here, but after all this time it’s still scary to wake up in the morning and be surrounded by water and soft watery mud on a mountain slope.

Internet comes from the skies through a miracle chip that I bought in the city, and it works every few days. Hence my intermittent 🙂 and lols on your Facebook walls. Please bear with me for the next few weeks.

In ending, i should add something educational – which is that ‘The Philippines’ always comes with ‘THE’, and should not be merely called ‘Philippines’. No one (whom i’ve thus far quizzed) knows why.

Moving to the Philippines

Brazil – you’re a wonder. All warmth, nature, and kindness. Thank you for everything.

 

Most of you probably already know this, but just in case I missed you in the teachers’ lounge or kitchen or coffee area (yes, i’m the reason cappuccino and luscious blueberry jam suddenly appeared everywhere), i want to give you a BIG HUG and a SOPPY KISS goodbye.

I leave Brazil in good hands – what a tenacious team! – and head off to the Philippines. I could have stayed forever in Brazil, and would have loved to, because there’s so much work to be done with good people for people who need it urgently.

But I’ve always known that I would head for the rural mountains of Philippines to see what I can do. Some people wait for chances, but from the time my uncle and my 16-year-old self offered health check-ups at a local school, I knew what I would do in the future.

Poverty reduction sounds far too intellectual and childish even to my dreamy ears – but, by God, poverty reduction is what those villages need. Destiny and Desire are things to be achieved. I don’t know what i’m doing or how anything will happen. But even if it takes me 10 years of planning and 30 years of execution, and 50 years to do it all over again, i’ll do it. Poverty sucks for everyone reduced by it, and those of us lucky not to be born into it can only ever imagine the depths of what it entails.

 

Every time I feel fear, I tell myself that to just take one step forward. I try to hold on to feelings I had during those long days hiking in the Amazon, and the courage i somehow scrounged up… then i feel okay.

 

Anyway, if any of you ever come to Southeast Asia, do pop by 😉 I’ll bring out those Amazon hammocks and we can spend all day swinging over the Philippines farms.

 

 

 

 

Can’t read Maps? What about Food Maps?

Let your stomach lead the way.

Little side note: I’m a little in shock. Can’t quite digest the fact that Jodi (of Legal Nomads fame) is on to her sixth year…

6 years ago I was still in high school, living it up with my trashy orange hair (adolescent mistake) while ridiculously underweight (playing basketball 24/7 makes one forget that boys exist and that food is a necessary complement).

 

Anyway…

My obsession with maps (hellooo, world!) & typography (thank you, ex-boyfriend, for introducing me to the world of type design) had me buying this cute tee:

Now I just want to eat my way across Vietnam. Big dreams, eh

FYI – i don’t know Jodi personally, so this isn’t a well-hidden marketing ploy… Just thought for a second that anyone who has the guts to travel the world – and the stomach to keep going for 6 years – is impressive.

Now. if you don’t like typography, and it’s just food & maps that you’re into, check this out:

http://henryhargreaves.com/#food-maps-2

You’re welcome.

 

Dreamer? Go-getter? Free-ranger? Entrepreneur?

Out of concern for my financial future (and some giggles at my expense), a couple of friends have sent me this article to read:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2321879/Consultant-Marianne-Cantwell-ditched-desk-job-fresh-new-way-working-enabled-world.html

 

Apparently, there’re more than a bunch of people now ditching the traditional 9-5 job, and it’s official, guys… this is a TREND.

There must be many horror stories just as there are successful cases of people who now lie in a hammock, coding while sipping a martini on their beachfront veranda in India (true story told to me yesterday evening). Right this very second, some people chasing their dreams, some entrepreneurs are creating real value, and maybe a handful of those companies have been built to last.

In my lifetime, i’m determined to do at least one of those three things.

And if at the same time, I get to design my new outdoor office with my Brazil/Amazon hammocks and a summer grill, then I’ll consider myself very lucky indeed 😉

Aaaand.. it’s a wrap! We have a new Brazil team!

Mission in Life

 

Is this what Seeing looks like?

Thinking About Teaching

8am Saturday morning, and I’m seeing a manager out the door after a good management case-study session. I’m repeating his homework for next week, before he turns to me and abruptly interrupts: “How did you come up way of teaching English?”

Hmmm. Mmmm. I’m confused.

 

For most of us who are in the education business without a formal college pedigree in ‘how to teach’, we fell in by accident (those honest enough to admit this, anyway!).

We discovered strategies to help ourselves learn effectively, and we simply pass it on. My family can attest to my childhood days spent walking around the house, reading aloud to myself, writing the same phrases over and over again… I have to do all three to absorb material… Plus, talking about current affairs and business comes naturally to me (thank you, mom, for being obsessed with the news when we were young!) – This background ended up being a perfect fit for a consultancy in (business or college-level) language acquisition, particularly anyone in journalism, research, business, PR, etc.

 

I only know one thing: I explicitly ask for critical thinking in every session, whether speaking with a 16 or 60 year old. After a few months or years, critical thinking becomes second nature, but instilling the habit requires constant reminders.

This is an oldie, but a goody: “Pedagogy for developing critical thinking in adolescents: Explicit instruction produces greatest gains” (Marin and Halpern, 2010).

If you have a reading to recommend, please recommend it to me via Facebook tonight! I’m amassing a list of reading this weekend, so I’ll have a better answer for my curious clients next time. 😉

 

 

 

Negativity is Universally Understood

Friday, 7:30am, and i’m on the sidewalk with a client

She turns to me, and says: “Teresa, how on earth can I describe this? My boss is always criti – criticizing? Ahhh she is saying about the traffic, the weather, her son, her car, the traffic, the weather…. what is the word in English for this?”

 

If there is something that is easily communicated, it is one’s negativity. You could speak Russia, and I Urdu, but all you have to do is frown, roll your eyes, and gesture angrily at everything around us, all day long, 7 days a week.

I would know instantly that you aren’t someone I will be happy to be with.

 

Are you the kind of person who brightens up people’s day, or are people constantly trying to avoid you and your ugly mannerisms?

 

Just a thought.

 

A good reminder for myself… 😛

 

What Do You See?