pack this! pack everything!

on tuesday i insisted on going to ateneo for volunteer work. slept at 3am and woke up at 4, left the house at 5:30, brought my sister to work at 6, and got to ateneo at 6:30. i was mega hungry but starbucks was closed so i walked around school and took in the fresh air while waiting for 7am to come around.

at 7:15 we were given an orientation, by 7:20 we (the smurfs = ces, dindin, pauline. why the smurfs? just look at us!) loaded a truck with relief goods. it was such a huge truck, we filled it with 3000 bags of goods. then we loaded it with 3000 bags of rice. i got really stressed whenever a rice bag falls on the pavement or when the plastic has a hole. sayang all the rice that gets dropped. i swear, the truck just wasn't getting full and it took us 3 whole hours to load it. i can still remember how happy i was upon seeing it leave. one big barangay, check!

soon after, smurfs met up with oli, ryan and felix. oli and ryan were tasked for a while to help out in the department store. i didn't want to go clothes shopping because the rules were complex. seriously complex. as in, shop for a mom, dad, 2 little girls and 2 little boys. in fairness, i have to say those people in that area are doing such a great job! imagine having to sort entire outfits! considering sizes pa! i mean, if you pair huge skirt and a baby tee, good luck to whoever's going to wear that.

so we went to the grocery area (yes, i'm using my own terms) and helped pack goods. it was fun forming a line with 3 empty grocery bags then having it all filled up by the time you exit. it's like going trick or treating!! when we got tired of going around in circles, we decided to just tie the plastic bags that were filled and piled them up. we also met up with bym and iya and iya's friend karen (who reportedly hates thespians). at times we unloaded boxes from carts too! i mostly unloaded boxes of noodles, then some juice boxes. i saw boxes of canned food and attempted to unload those too, but i couldn't even lift them so i let the others do it. i'm not as strong as i thought i am. bleh.

there was a mass at lunch time, then we went to shakeys for lunch to celebrate bym's birthday :D happy birthday, bitch. geru came and we went back to ateneo.

later on in the afternoon, felix was laughing because a girl was so stressed, counting how many bags were being placed in a pile and making sure each pile only had 1000 bags. minutes later, felix became station manager (a title he refuses to accept) and counted up to 1000. counting to 1000 has never looked so hard!

more bluereppers came such as nikko and aye, then rony came! we worked again in the grocery area then took part in an assembly line and loaded a truck with food. we also loaded the truck with clothes and OMG THOSE BAGS FILLED WITH CLOTHES! some of them were super super heavy!

oh then we got deployed to san mateo. wow. had i known that's the way to san mateo, then i would have brought baby v then i'd go straight home na lang after the area visit. but i'd also miss a fun (and funny. and at times stressful and scary) car ride with geru, felix and rony. in the other car it was bibo, aye and nikko. we assembly lined again at the area and told jokes and played games while passing goods. whenever someone shouted HOLD! (to signal us to stop passing goods first) we had to do a high fashion pose with the relief goods bag. there were also minus points for dropped items. i only had minus 5 for dropping a can.

i got to ateneo at 6:30 am, left for san mateo at 7pm, and got back to ateneo at 10:30pm. worked for a total of 15 hours. not bad for a first day. it was a 15-hour arm workout for someone like me who doesn't even work out!

woke up today feeling sick and with sore muscles in the arms and legs. didn't do any volunteer work today, but i swear, i'll work even longer tomorrow/in a few hours. it's a great feeling to be able to help even in such a small way as being in a relief operations center because i get to bond with friends while making a difference. like, even while working, we can sing happy working songs and tell each other stories or play little games (such as spotting pa-cute guys who are just roaming around the area. i only had 4 points. boo me).

i find it quite comforting to see people working together and really being men and women for others. aye even told me that there were grade school kids who donated their piggy banks for the typhoon victims. i like how something good is coming from this whole tragedy. our generation is not apathetic after all! we didn't have a world war, or vietnam, or martial law, but we had ondoy and it definitely brought change.

i have less than an hour to sleep before heading off to ateneo again. i'm excited!