My wonderful sabbatical has come to an end....snif snif...
But all good things come to an end (that's what they say but I hope it's not true !!!) and I just came back to Brussels.
This post is from my last month in the Philippines...oh I love this country !! And I just love the people there, happy, smiling and singing no matter what :-)
I was so thrilled coming back to the Philippines, not only to travel to some beautiful places, but above all to meet again all my ex-fellow volunteers and other friends in Manila...as well as my dear "Mother & Child" staff and babies (see my 11th post)...and meet my new "god-daughter": I am sponsoring Vanes, 8 years old, from a slum in Manila and met her for the 1st time !!
With my friends we have done quite a few exciting things...like going to the Malasimbo Art & Music Festival...just amazing festival at the top of a hill overlooking jungle and beaches...
We also went to trek the famous and deadly Pinatubo volcano...what a day !! Survivor mode: caught by a storm, stuck at the top of the volcano between flooded rivers and wet to the bones...waiting for the rain to stop to get to the jeeps...ohh what a great experience ;-)
During my travelling through the lovely islands, I met a really cool group of spanish friends (I was more mexican than french to them haha), great travelling partners :-)...and we travelled together in Donsol, Malapascua and Cebu... Les mando un abrazote Judit, David x2 y Mario !!
One of the highlights of my trip was to meet...the beautiful whale sharks !!! What a wonderful creature...more whale than shark to me, but actually form the shark family... Look at the pictures and how close I was...amazing experience !! (I even have a small video on FB).
And finally some great diving in Tubbataha...meeting great group of people there: Mike, Pim, Rob and Japanese friends addicted to Sake ;-) !
End of the trip on the island of Boracay (...the Filipino Cancun).
So you can see I haven't rested for a minute...and just enjoyed all of it :-)
So now LESSONS....what can I say after 1 year like this ???
Difficult question because things need to settle down a bit before I can make some relevant comments.
But few simple and summarized things come to my mind:
- Even though we know it...we ARE really privileged to be born in Europe or in the western countries... Possessions and consumption are the Masters of our society...BUT are we really more happy ?? I doubt it... When you see the Filipino kids in the streets, singing, smiling to you, happy playing games they just invented with what they found in the street...it makes you put into perspective our lifestyle in the western countries.
- I lived 1 year with 1 backpack and the same clothes...and now I see what I have at home...ohhhh I will definitely give away many many things. We "overlive", "overconsume" and "overpossess" here, and we forgot to live in a simple manner...
- I feel more conscious about the environmental and social matters...and although I was already trying to do something for our planet...I want to do even MORE...we have only ONE planet and we need to care for it...
- I learnt patience and perseverance, I pushed my personal limits to their end to discover what I was capable of, I got to know myself deeper (?! ;-)...yes, that's what travelling by myself taught me !!
Obviously this is a very simplified summary of what comes to my mind at 1st...but it will settle down and I will be able to think about it deeper.
Thanks to God, thanks to my Parents, thanks to Life :-) for this wonderful experience...I am so grateful I got the opportunity to live it...and I will surely keep it deep in my heart and make the most of it throughout my future steps...:-)
Au revoir...
Ahh by the way...on the left side bar, at the top, the summary-video of my trip :-)
