Our Journey - A flashback!

We have come to the end of this beautiful journey. We had an amazing farewell from the Messy Bessy team - with the learners dancing on a Bollywood number , singing a Chinese song ,  doing a traditional Filipino dance along with a lots of food served with oodles of love. I was all teary-eyed and emotional and was really touched to see them put in so much effort for us. Krie and all the managers were very warm too and I will never forget this experience. We have tried to capture our journey in the above video.

Today was the closing ceremony at the SAP Manila office and this too was splendid. It was interesting to see the other teams with their clients and we all got a sense of the work the teams did. There was even a media event with local newspapers and TV channels interviewing Darren [ SAP MD, Philippines ], the social entrepreneurs [ Krie from Messy Bessy,Reese from R2R, Jim from SEF and Mark from Hapinoy ] along with Social Sabbatical speakers [ Vince, Priscilla , Kathrin and Yasar]. I felt like I was in one of those out of body experiences where you cannot believe what an incredible time you are having and you have these people in the same room - all saying and feeling similar things. It is truly incredible to witness inter-connectedness and a sense of being and feeling the same in-spite all the differences that diversity can bring.  I sometimes feel that I cannot do justice with words to express all that I am feeling! Maybe I can comprehend it all better when I return to my regular life. 

Ice skating rink, cats and the walking tree!

This was a busy week - we tried to spend as much time together as a group as well as tried to maximize the time with the client in order to give an end deliverable that is truly meaningful. Before the week started , I spent the Sunday afternoon with the girls - Michelle and Kathrin at the SM mall of Asia. Was a fun weekend - shopping, eating and generally hanging out. Was surprised to see a huge ice skating rink in the middle of the mall!

[ L to R - Clockwise ] Kathrin enjoying eating the Croissant, passion fruit tea at the mall, Band performing @ SM Mall of Asia , Real looking plastic Japanese food , Skating Rink

  

Bambi from Solar Energy Foundation organized a trip to Barbara's in Intramuros for us to experience the Philippine culture. There was good food and the dances were breathtaking. Vince managed to do the traditional Philippine bamboo dance blindfolded. We spent a nice evening pub hopping till late at night when trees on the street  started attacking DJ!That’s when we decided to call it a night and it is one of those evenings that will get talked about a lot by the group in months to come!

DJ and the attacking tree!

I found to my surprise that I have a second cousin ( who I had only met once in my life many many years ago while I was still in school ) who lives just a street away from our hotel in Makati. I visited them on Sunday night and found myself sitting in their living room for a few minutes with a black cat and small white kitten for company. I wouldn't say I love cats and being in the same room alone in a new environment with two of them was quite spooky. To add to the drama, the black one jumps on top of the dining table  and begins chasing the tiny kitten. I sat petrified while watching the cat bite and attack the little kitten. A small part of me wanted to save the kitten, but the fear of them kept me rooted to my corner on the sofa. In 5 minutes my cousin walked in and I was told  the cats were only  "playing" and that the little kitten will survive. I know for sure I am scarred and don't think I can say I am ok with having cats as pets!

Service Weekend

Tour of the Virlanie Homes
[L to R Clockwise] Najee showing us the playground, Babies and toddler home, Mobile School that goes to far flung areas and volunteers set up blackboards and teach children from that area, Bunkers for the kids, Art work by the children at the Drop in Center.

We are entitled to 2 free breakfasts at the Citadines Hotel and we decided to pack up our second breakfast everyday to give to the children of the Virlanie Foundation. This is a foundation in Manila that gives a reason for street children to smile. Andrie was kind enough to take us to this child caring institute, where we met Najee the campaign officer who took us on a tour of the place. The place that broke my heart was the toddler home where we met around 10 toddlers all longing to be hugged. As soon as we entered the room they all lifted their arms to be carried and as soon as I carried Angie - 3 yr old girl, she hugged me tight. Was really nice spending time with them , but was also hard to say goodbye. Some of them started crying when we left and it was heart wrenching to have to walk away.

Angie and I

Children at Virlanie

On Saturday morning we visited another organisation that works with children in the SOS Village. This village is nested in a typical "Village" setup in Manila i.e amidst the posh residential villa properties in Manila Alabang. We were allotted to houses and spent time with the kids from the house. The concept of SOS was unique for the fact that siblings were kept together and assigned to a house. This house is a decent property with a porch, garden and all the amenities of a normal household. The idea is to give the children a sense of belonging and normalcy so as to foster their growth and independence. We spent half a day with them and was fun to interact. Some pictures from SOS village:

Where's the imaginary line?

Our hand made "hand-sanitizers"

We worked in the production line for 2 hours making hand sanitizers - right from mixing, pouring to labeling the products. We mixed the secret ingredients - spilling some with our indextrous hands and getting jovially reprimanded by Jeff the production head. Vince was our power pourer - lifting huge containers with gallons of liquid for mixing. Was fun to stir all ingredients in and watch the chemical reactions. Felt like I was back in chemistry lab in high school! 

We moved to the labeling section and had to focus on putting the label straight and uniformly. We had a line on the bottle from which we had to start sticking the peeled labels. DJ was focusing and trying to label for a while before asking - "Where's the imaginary line?" . He wasn't able to see the tiny line even with his spectacles on. Kim, the learner overseeing our tasks, patiently smiled and helped us get the labels right.

I am pouring eucalyptus oil while Santa looks on suspiciously!

Assembly Line workers!

So much for uniformity in the labels! Guess who made this?

Juju-ing with Messy Bessy Team

How many hours have you clocked  at work today? The biometric attendance tracker for the young adults at Messy Bessy.

Do you wanna dance?

[L to R : Clockwise ] - Learner conducting the session, Paper on which the teams danced, Word Puzzle , Group huddled on the folded paper, dance in progress,team I was part of!

We did an interesting activity today at Messy Bessy's value session. Commitment is the value of the week and to show team commitment the organizers arranged for a paper dance game. Was great fun to start the day with a fun dance and a jumble word puzzle. Perfect combination for a fun filled morning!

RIPE Rules!

RIPE - House Rules!

I walked in at 7:45 am and saw the office abuzz with activity. The production room was being cleaned to accommodate 50 chairs and a make shift stage area was set up. The learners at Messy Bessy follow CLAY [CLean As You go] model and in a few mins the entire area was spruced up. The occasion was the quarterly family day celebration where the parents of the young adults are invited and the learners are awarded for their performance. It was a mix of award ceremony along with a parent teacher meeting to discuss and give feedback to the family members of the learners. Although most of the session was conducted in Tagalong, the pride in the eyes of the parents to see their children succeed was easily communicated. One of the learners brought her 1 year old daughter and it was heart warming to see her working so hard so as to ensure a more secure future for her daughter.
Award ceremony was followed by a special song rendering by the award winners and a packed snack for all present. The managers then interacted with the parents and answered any concerns they had. Was a morning very well spent!

[L to R -Clockwise] : Krie in magazine cover of Entrepreneur Nov 2014 edition, Krie addressing the families of learners on Family Day,Messy Bessy Team, Award winning learners, Messy Bessy learner with her child and her mother,Family Day gathering.

"What's your psychological income?"

Naughty Post-its at Messy Bessy!

I had a smile on my face when I heard the head of Finance at Messy Bessy say - "This is our projected income next year, but of course our psychological income is much more! " It was indeed a statement I have never heard in my corporate career and this is what is so special about social entrepreneurs who run profitable businesses to fund a social cause. Today the Messy Bessy team had an internal budget meeting - to which Krie was kind enough - to let us attend. It was interesting to see their KPI s have the learner's grades - to measure how successful they are in imparting education/values/on job training to the young adults in the program.

The value for this week was commitment and we each had to write down the answer to the below question :

What is your commitment for the week?

 Within the Messy Bessy office, I suddenly found the below poster in the "Gowning Room" [ I know strange name, but it is just the area where they don their production gowns before going into the production area ;) ]. Inspiration is never short here at the Messy Bessy campus!