UPBEAT

Overview

Editorial

An UNIVersal Experience

Going Gaga Over Naga

Teaching Others to Serve with a Smile

Stay Tuned

Built In Batangas

Editorial

It’s (not) just another year

by Ditas Bermudez

UPBEAT is actually an annual report disguised as a bimonthly newsletter (ha!). You see, in an attempt to give you a comprehensive coverage of what has been happening in and around this little “boat” called Lunday, we often find ourselves considering deadlines with that dead-ma attitude until the very day before the publication is supposed to come out. Today is one such day.

Seriously now…(but hey, we were also serious when we wrote that introit!)

We have reached another anniversary. Another year full of nerve-wracking and sleep-depriving academic year has passed. And we survived it!

Let’s see…our little Payatas at the Tandang Sora entrance (or is it exit?) is still there and yet so much has changed.

Club SOS has gone to Naga and has come back. In fact, another batch of volunteers is soon to be deployed to build some footpaths in Baguio (ask Monalee for details) come semestral break. Meanwhile, those who won’t be able to join the trekkers will have to climb down the Tandang Sora hill to help paint Old Balara Elementary School (donations are welcome…volunteer “painters” are more welcome!). And catechists continue the thankless (but not necessarily rewardless) job of teaching kids the basics of the Faith…and are learning more about it themselves.

LINKS, the Media Club members have undergone some team-building exercises and are ready to flex their muscles for a yearlong strain of activities.

UNIV 2001 (the real turn-of-the-millennium we are told) has started its round of activities.

The Cuiscene Club has temporarily frozen but worry not, culinary enthusiasts, that will soon thaw out…but you have to do the defrosting yourselves.

And, not to forget, our very dear Leah has tied the knot…congratulations, misis!

We just recently commemorated, too, the silver anniversary of the death of Blessed Josemaria’s transit to heaven…and in a couple of years, the centennial of his birth. It’s amazing how his teachings seem to be getting newer each year as they become even more relevant to our times.

And through it all, we had the hostage crisis down South, the currency that refuses stability and disasters like Cherry Hills and Payatas slides to distract us from the more important things.

Then again, these distractions could precisely be the very reasons for us to take stock of our lives and try to see if we’ve accumulated as tall a mountain as that 50-meter Lupang Pangako dumpsite.

It’s the Jubilee Year, afterall, and we could all use some general cleaning before we get buried in a heap of trashslide. (To be more forthright about it, we actually wanted to ask if you have visited that little box in which an infinite amount of grace is dispensed during the year the Author of Grace gives out an avalanche of blessings…)

So it’s just another year…not just another anniversary. To cop (though not very verbatim) our delegate to the UNIV, it’s Lunday’s anniversary within the Jubilee Year.

With that, let’s pop the Champagne bottles (make that Coke in can which is the only thing we can afford).

Here’s to the patrons, the donors, the alumnae, the moving force behind the day-to-day operation of the study center (you know who you are), the staff, and to those who frequent Lunday and consider it their very own home…

Cheers!

An UNIVersal Experience

by Jackie Ponteres

Big questions call for big minds to tackle them. Young university students of over 88 nationalities tried to answer a question that most of us may also have been wondering about since the turn of the millennium: to which direction does the man go from here?

This was tackled by the UNIV 2000 Congress aptly themed Faith, Science, History, and Religion: 2000 Years On… The congress aimed to give the summary of the ending millennium in preparation for the coming one.

The introductory speech couldn’t have put it more perfectly: in order for man to know where he is going, first he has to know form where he has come.

Questions are aplenty: What is man? What is the image of man in faith, science, history, and religion ? Is he a composition of a collage outside himself? Is he a reconstruction of some social laboratories, a result of some political discourse? Is he merely a collection of who he was in the past?

From Manila to the world

The Philippine delegation stayed in Rome, Italy for 10 days but the congress itself was only for two days, days packed with discussions and presentations in video, poster, and photos slides.

The Kenyans made a study on the advantages of technology in their underdeveloped country. India presented a paper on the notion of freedom and how it could lead to so many things, both good and evil. The American delegates used some genetic language, a scientific approach to show the effect of artificial reproduction of life.

Meanwhile, most of the topics tackled by the Spanish-speaking people were cultural in nature, most interesting of which was about the evolution of music.

All these ideas and more, both splendid and profound, slowly wove the image of man before us.

Beyond sightseeing

A trip to Rome during the Holy Week is necessarily more than a tourism trip. It is a look at one’s self, a journey to the root’s of one’s faith. One couldn’t help but be pensive (and at the same time joyful) when the very ground one is walking on is sacred. As a friend had put it, “We are in the Holy Land in the Holy Week of the Holy Year with the Holy Father.”

Nevertheless, for us who were there, being reflective didn’t necessarily mean being silent and inert. Meeting people of various cultures, treading on cobbled streets with cold feet, bearing with the tiredness and seeing with our very own eyes the concrete foundations of faith…it was a profoundly moving experience.

Bonding

Among themselves, members of the Philippine delegation developed a unique friendship made stronger by common unforgettable experiences.

Outside Domus Mariae where we were billeted, we spent most of our time at Santo Pieto where we heard Mass on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday. We also went to the Musei Vaticani where we had the luxury of seeing the famous Sistine Chapel.

We also made a few visits to the prelatic church of Santa Maria de la Paz where the mortal remains of Blessed Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, and Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, the first successor of the founder, were laid.

Face to face with Peter

We also had the chance to meet the Holy Father in a get-together specially organized for the delegates of UNIV.

There the Roman Pontiff emphasized the message of the Jubilee Year, That Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and that in Him God is working the completion of salvation.

The obviously tired Pope left us teary-eyed because we felt that his mere presence poignantly touched our hearts. Everyone in he stadium was shouting, “Pope John Paul II, the whole world loves you!”

The second successor

Meeting with the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarria was another highlight of the trip, which was in fact, a pilgrimage of faith.

Some of us had the chance to ask “the Father” as he is simply called, about God, faith, prayer, vocation to Opus Dei, profession and some pressing social issues.

Though his answers were firm and direct to the point, the Father never failed to smile, eyeing everyone with affection. He asked us to be more united to the Holy Father, to pray for him more often specially during this Jubilee Year.

Around Rome

Aside form getting acquainted with the people we also had the to be acquainted with the place.

The first thing that we noticed were the cars that looked like bump cars. Then the food! The oversized pizza, carbonated water, hard bread, just about all the sorts of pasta and gelati.

We enjoyed the Metro (subway train) rides and even our encounter with the gypsies. We raided the Soprani where we bought rosaries and other souvenir items.

Lasting lessons from the Eternal City

I remember a part of that introductory speech during the congress that said man is already what he is by virtue of his nature, of creation, of his own origin. The truth is that we are actually better than what we believe we are capable of. And every person carries the truth within him. We just have to struggle to heal our lacerations…we have to enter the new millennium with a repentant heart.

But if there’s anything I’ll never forget from the whole experience is that UNIV has taught us to be universal souls, to include everyone in our prayers and concerns.

Going gaga over Naga

by Sheryl Ogoy

My exams were finally over and I was trying to console myself about my not-so-good performance. When the alarm went off, I realized I hadn’t packed for the rural service project I promised I’d help document.

The first batch of volunteers had left the previous day while five of us were to follow. Over dinner at McDo, we tried to get to know each other. All four of them have gone to at least one volunteer service project in the past so I just listened to them as they exchanged notes of experience.

It was oppressively cold in the airconditioned bus we didn’t get any sleep the whole eight hours of travel. As we alighted the bus, the panoramic view of Iriga mountain greeted us as the sun kissed the night goodbye. It was a cheery Tuesday morning—perfect for barrio work.

All too soon we were on our way to Panicuason Elementary School some 30 minutes’ ride away from Naga Centro (poblacion). As it was the month of May, blooming violets, yellow bells and other wild flowers graced what would otherwise been drab school buildings. There was also a bitter gourd garden on one side of the school lawn. It only took children playing under the share of pine and narra trees to complete the perfect idyllic rural scene.

My job basically to take photos and write about the five-day volunteer work. So while some volunteers were teaching Catechism classes and giving theater and art workshops, I was taking photos.

Second day saw us teaching kids how to mess up their shirts. I mean, how to tie-dye tees. It was as colorful as the previous day’s reverse batik art workshop during which the kids learned how to “paint” using household bleach.

The medical-dental mission was scheduled towards the end of the rurals. Close to a hundred patients were served and given free medicines.

Our “reward” for a weeklong work was an excursion to a hot spring where we took a cool dip. That sounds like a contradiction in terms but hey, had you been there with us, you would have agreed the whole experience was refreshing.

It is hard to put into writing an experience of a lifetime like Naga. Touching other people’s lives is one profound feeling I’ll probably never get to translate into a journal entry, much less a newsletter story.

After all the pili nuts and abaca and sinamay stuff have been given as pasalubong to our loved ones, I think I speak for the rest of the volunteers when I say until now I still go gaga over Naga.

Teaching Others to Serve with a Smile

by Christina Magat

We could have sent an SOS to cancel the orientation seminar due to the impending storm but then the participant’s enthusiasm seemed not to have been dampened by the heavy downpour.

The only thing we had to cancel was the night swimming and BBQ party…for obvious reasons.

Instead, the catechists enjoyed the indoor activities prepared for them.

So what did we have?

July 8 saw us having the usual (and very important) scheduling of classes and the preparation of the lesson plan. Let me just inform everybody that we were able to reach the quota of 40 catechists (yehey!!!) and we’re still hoping to convince some more.

After so much work, we all relaxed by watching Quo Vadis? (Where are you going?). The movie was really enjoyable and moving…but also very long. Then of course we had a bountiful lunch of spaghetti and burger (yum-yum).

The second day of the seminar was fun-filled, thanks to Josette’s games—Human Bingo, 2 Truths and a Lie, and Trip to Jerusalem. The seminar was concluded with a get-together about a study center in New York.

Well, well, there we have it. What’s our next gimmick? Just watch out!

Stay Tuned

by Jem Quito and Joanne Payumo

You need not shift to another channel during commercial breaks because you won’t find the flat and irksome anymore.

Emil Valencia, president of HardHat Productions and his wife, Cecile, VP for broadcast and audio-visual services of the advertsing giant Publicis-AMA shared with us their creative ideas as advertising comes to a new phase.

Technology, they said, would produce so much change in this field it will bring the artist to unimaginable creativity.

The advertising duo also presented the concept of infomercials that they have been doing for Nestle Phils. with their Buhay Milenyo series.

These infomercials are not only entertaining but informative and educational as well. Samples of such ads were shown during the get-together—Maggie, Bear Brand, and Nescafe—fruit of efforts towards originality and hard research.

The members of the Media Club who organized this get-together were in luck as they got to talk more about advertising in a more informal way over merienda with the Valencia couple. It was also encouraging to hear how these two graduates from the UP College of Mass Communications where most (if not all) of Media Club members are from, made it in the world of advertising.

So for more stories and personalities in media, stay tuned to LINKS, the media club of Lunday Study Center.

Built in Batangas

by Cecille Estoque

A good and harmonious relationship is a major ingredient for a group to work well. Awareness of each member’s working attitude and knowing how to interact with each of them are essential for the success of a group’s endeavors.

LINKS, the newly-organized media club of Lunday had its team-building seminar last April 29-30 at Belinda Atienza’s family resthouse in Batangas City, Batangas.

During the trip we were asked to fill out info sheets. Actually, except for Belinda who is a BE major, we are all from the College of Mass Communication and are mostly Communication Research majors. We’ve already worked together in previous academic papers, and we are members of the same organizations. In short, we are a bunch of friends armed with the desire to become part of an organization that will provide us a venue for awareness and knowledge of mass media realities.

By noontime, we were already at “the” place. The Atienza house reminded me of a typical house in a peaceful barrio: floors and walls made of bamboo, where the fresh air just passes through, the sofa made of rattan with foam for a relaxing seat, the rattan lampshades casting soft shades adding to the romantic aura of the place where you can rest and relax. But then, our purpose for going there was not mainly to relax but to work (well, partly, to rest from the academic burden, you know, all the mind boggling and energy-draining requirements in the university.)

Soon we had to start the seminar. First we had a “complete-the-sentence” activity facilitated by Draiye which aimed to determine the kind of persons we are. Another test facilitated by Me-ann was focused on knowing our personality styles. We found out our differing personalities: from being choleric to sanguine and melancholic or phlegmatic. We had fun discovering ourselves. It helped us realize that since we will be working as a team, it is but important for us to be aware of how to deal with our strengths and weaknesses.

After going through a series of personality and intelligence tests, we then set ourselves for the formulation of the organization’s mission, vision and objectives. Bringing along monoblock chairs, we had brainstorming and discussions outside the house. At around 6:00 p.m., we decided to rest our throbbing heads and set ourselves to prepare dinner. All of us displayed our expertise in the kitchen (owwss!). We had vegetable salad, prepared by Me-ann, wonderfully presented fried hotdogs, apples and oranges and we had a taste of the best cooked rice ever!

After dinner, we had a get-together which paved the way for us to discover what is unique in each of us. For instance, Ditas claimed she could take a shower in three minutes. Marivic said she could travel to strange places alone.

It was almost midnight when we called it a day. We woke up before 6 a.m. and went to Mass. Despite the lack of sleep we were still excited, for that day was scheduled for swimming and fruit picking.

Accompanied by Belinda’s father, we had a long travel from the house going to the mango farm. At the foot of the hill was a river that was so inviting we couldn’t resist taking a dip. While some were preparing lunch and the others were swimming, Ditas, Belinda, Sherryl, Marivic and I dared the scorching heat of the sun by going up to the hill for the fruit-picking.

Of course we got lost! But we eventually found our way and started picking mangoes and singuelas. After gathering fruits, we trekked back. We had lunch together and after that, those who went fruit picking splashed in the water for a while.

All too soon, it was over. After hurriedly packing up we were on our way back to Manila. But before everyone could doze off, Ditas conducted a brief workshop on various publicity strategies so that we will know how to market our activities to our target audiences.

Two words are enough to describe the two-day seminar: it was fun and fruitful.

Studiositas Honor Society, The Study Club of Lunday