Everyone was pretty tired from the night before. But all in the same we did the usual office work. There wasn’t anymore SAW to worry about so we were going to be okay. The Tzuchi foundation was organizing to meet at the Sports Complex for Mothers’ day as well as to raise awareness towards to the plight of people in Nepal after the earthquake. The Tzuchi was incorporated into the morning announcements and Mayor Del even carried a wooden box throughout the crowd for donations to be sent over to Nepal.
Later that day we were all invited to attend a pro-K-12 rally that would be held at the Sports Complex. The office made us go, whether we wanted to or not because 50% of the staff were required to go, to make it look like the Marikina Government was behind the new educational program all the way. Here’s us waiting at the back entrance of the City Hall for the rest of the employees to start lining up. There was media coverage from TV 5. We didn’t stay long as soon as it hit 5, we went home and so did the people from the MCTCAO office.
May 12
We were back to the same old routine at the office: photocopying, printing, and typing. I was sent to notarize the contracts of the instructors of the SAW. Normally you would have to pay 150php for a document to be notarized at the Legal Office but because the SAW was a city event the fees were waived. (I’ll have to check back on the fee though. hehe) After that I had to bring it over to leave it at the Mayor’s Office. The most time consuming and patience building task in the City Hall was to route the documents in all the offices it needed to be filed in, such as accounting, and budgeting.. or whatever office it is. It’s good if you are able to talk to someone nice at their office, otherwise you have to smile politely while they snark at you.
May 13
We went on a Mock Tour of Marikina, which mostly meant we toured the sites which tourists visited when they came to our city. We started from Bayan, Marikina or Sto. Niño to Parang, Marikina. I got worried over nothing..again =)) I thought they’d ask me to make a spiel for one of the sites, but thankfully no order came up from Sir Oli. We started first at the CEMO, or the City Environmental Management Office located at Gil Fernando Ave. Sto Niño, Marikina City. The CEMO is in charge of proper waste disposal and recycling waste in the Marikina area. A lot of different LGUs come to Marikina to learn about their management system. We didn’t get a photo that day because we didn’t disembark from the van. Sir Oli just had someone receive a letter from the office about an upcoming tour if I remember correctly. But here’s a photo from the internet of what it looks like:
CEMO’s plants that utilize the fertilizer composed of restaurant by-products and waste.
Marikina Sports Center (MSP - Marikina Sports Park)
Marikina City Clock Tower
Afterwards we he passed by the Sports Center, the Arch, and City Health Office. Sir Oliver, had Raffy make a spiel about the sports center and the town clock when we drove by because his report was a simulation of a tour in Marikina. Here’s photos of us in Pan de Amerikana in Concepcion Dos. We even met the owner of the restaurant on our visit. Sir Oliver told us that Pan De Amerikana and OLOPSC or Our Lady of Perpetual Succor College were owned by the same person. A lot of the art work present in the restaurant was created by the owner as well.
OLOPSC
This all of the OJTs and the SPES students that were working at the office at the time.
We also visited the Book Museum that can be found at 127 Dao Street, Marikina Heights, Marikina City. The Book Museum was created by the REX Bookstore Owner and his wife. In the lot, there is a statue of the duo that you can vaguely see on the left side of the photo behind the gate. The tour guide who will greet you in the front will share the humble beginnings of the Atty. Dominador Buhain and his wife. We were not able to go inside ourselves as we didn’t pay for the entrance fee so we were just given a tour around the lot which showcased murals of the city of Marikina. I asked the tour guide why Dominador had named the bookstore and publishing house REX, but she said she did not know either. :)) That reminds me to research more about that. Other than the many murals and totems that were around the lot, the book museum also had a ladies dormitory and Dominador’s collection of bric-a-bracs from his many travels. We were told that the Book Museum would be relocating to another building somewhere close by. The building was still under construction as far as I recall. The books found here come from donations made to the museum.
We finished our Mock Tour at 53 Rajah Soliman Street Parang, Marikina City. Lucban Hats Global Export cater to the fashion needs of people namely in Europe or in the West. It has been said that even the royal family order their hats from the Lucban Hats. The hats are made of different materials and one that I remembered was piña and rattan(maybe). They make use of LPG to power their molding machines and for their materials to take form of the mold.
Kimmy one of the OJTs had said to me before we went inside the factory to visit my house before we left. He said we’d go there to drink some water or something. I laughed, then said are you sure? I thought he was just kidding but after our tour and picture taking was over we in fact found ourselves driving over to my house. Thankfully we didn’t stay there too long, they got a good look of our first living room and maybe even the second living room. :))) They said it was nice. Which of course is really polite small talk isn’t it. I said thank you, and we left after my sisters and I fussed over the water and drinking glasses that we needed to put out. :))) All in all a productive morning and tour for all 16 of us in the MCTCAO’s van. The rest of the day went by like any normal work day.
May 14
I went on my first and last tour of Marikina City guiding barangay captains and kagawads from Dumaguete City.
Lunch at Marikina Hotel :) With my fellow OJTs, April and Aprille, Ms. Mina and Sir Oliver.
Posing by some tires :) Don’t roll away now.
Can you smell the fertilizer? This is a photo of us at CEMO.
May 15
I can’t remember exactly what we did on this day but it probably had something to do with editing the certificates and office support like answering the phone and what not. The days felt like they were going by so slowly. Especially for our reports that were supposed to be presented the next week.
SN: These photos were grabbed from the Marikina Tourism facebook page and the wonderful world of Google image search.
