Same day, different year
I'm really hopeless at keeping diaries or journals. I was never one of those girls who wrote her most intimate and private thoughts in a pink vinyl covered book that you could 'lock' with one of those dodgy secret diary padlocks. But...I am a vigilant recorder of appoinments and commitments so having had the type of day today where you think you have jumped planets I decided to take a look at the same date last year.
This time last year I arrived back in Manila having spent 9 days in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao at the National Conference for Indigenous Education. I spent time with teachers who were working with 10 and 11 year olds publishing Indigenous legends in big books amidst the violence and poverty on Tawitawi island. I went to the opening ceremony and inauguration of a new SIKAT (Schools of Indigenous Knowledges and Traditions)School and was privileged to witness my first ever sacrificial ceremony. I stayed up late drinking lambanog with Manobo men who danced for me, told me about Manobo marriage customs and contraceptive practices and then just blushed every time they saw me the next day. I even received a combined marriage proposal from four brothers who promised a myriad of livestock to my father as long as I would take all of them and not hold them to a fight to the death. This time last year I hauled my bags out of the PAL terminal, caught a cab home and then spent the rest of the day ringing friends at home and inviting people over to my apartment so I could just tell EVERYONE what an amazing week I had had. Oh, and I made myself sick on lanzones because a delegate from Camiguin sent me back with kilos of pasalubong.
Today, I worked my second shift for a skincare company on the ground floor of David Jones. I glammed myself up as per the managerial reprimand I received after my first shift and then spritzed, dabbed and pressure sold my way to what was, apparently, an impressive sales total. I felt proud, satisfied and powerful ... Coco Chanel and Estee Lauder were going to eat my dust...until I walked out of the store, hopped on my bus and reflected for a moment on the huge rerouting my life has taken. Its not just a different map, I think I've swapped atlases!!
Its temporary, I know. Even a world adventurer with great teaching credentials has to face the reality of cashflow and lack of education positions over the summer. There's also a very warped part of my personality that loves the juxtaposition. One day I want to tell a prospective employer that I returned from a volunteer development position in a developing South-East Asian country to become a Retail Beauty Consultant so that I could reconnect with my materialistic, capitalist roots! On a serious note, I gave one of the women on the floor the number of the Women's Health Centre today.I stood next to her at the sink in the loos and watched her weep as she attempted to cover a huge bruise on her chin with one of the myriad of products that we sell to make women beautiful.
Its a strange, strange world.
This time last year I arrived back in Manila having spent 9 days in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao at the National Conference for Indigenous Education. I spent time with teachers who were working with 10 and 11 year olds publishing Indigenous legends in big books amidst the violence and poverty on Tawitawi island. I went to the opening ceremony and inauguration of a new SIKAT (Schools of Indigenous Knowledges and Traditions)School and was privileged to witness my first ever sacrificial ceremony. I stayed up late drinking lambanog with Manobo men who danced for me, told me about Manobo marriage customs and contraceptive practices and then just blushed every time they saw me the next day. I even received a combined marriage proposal from four brothers who promised a myriad of livestock to my father as long as I would take all of them and not hold them to a fight to the death. This time last year I hauled my bags out of the PAL terminal, caught a cab home and then spent the rest of the day ringing friends at home and inviting people over to my apartment so I could just tell EVERYONE what an amazing week I had had. Oh, and I made myself sick on lanzones because a delegate from Camiguin sent me back with kilos of pasalubong.
Today, I worked my second shift for a skincare company on the ground floor of David Jones. I glammed myself up as per the managerial reprimand I received after my first shift and then spritzed, dabbed and pressure sold my way to what was, apparently, an impressive sales total. I felt proud, satisfied and powerful ... Coco Chanel and Estee Lauder were going to eat my dust...until I walked out of the store, hopped on my bus and reflected for a moment on the huge rerouting my life has taken. Its not just a different map, I think I've swapped atlases!!
Its temporary, I know. Even a world adventurer with great teaching credentials has to face the reality of cashflow and lack of education positions over the summer. There's also a very warped part of my personality that loves the juxtaposition. One day I want to tell a prospective employer that I returned from a volunteer development position in a developing South-East Asian country to become a Retail Beauty Consultant so that I could reconnect with my materialistic, capitalist roots! On a serious note, I gave one of the women on the floor the number of the Women's Health Centre today.I stood next to her at the sink in the loos and watched her weep as she attempted to cover a huge bruise on her chin with one of the myriad of products that we sell to make women beautiful.
Its a strange, strange world.