The greatest of all services

I just spend the last two days visiting a Bahá’i-inspired school up North in Pangasinan. I first heard about Feliz Academy one year ago, and I’ve kept in touch with the Administration (especially during the bicentenary celebrations a few months ago) but only had the chance to pay them a visit this week and boy has this short visit been worth it! 

I don’t know if it’s because Feliz literally means “happy” in Spanish which is why I’ve enjoyed my visit so much or because I’ve always just loved school. Yep, I was that student.  

Coming to Feliz Academy brought back memories of my year volunteering as a teacher at City Montessori School, Lucknow. Although you really can’t compare – Feliz has 500 students; CMS has over 50,000. Feliz is just managed by two (incredible) men; CMS has an entire head office with more than a dozen departments. But let me tell you what they have in common. These two schools, though local, have universal mission and vision statements. They inspire the students to look beyond not just their four walls but out of their countries to see “the earth as but one country and mankind its citizens”, enabling them see themselves as part of something bigger. In both schools you will hear their Principals utter “Every child is potentially the light of the world”.  

I was very humbled to be invited to give a talk to the teachers, to sort of inspire them. I say humbled because who am I? I’ve only volunteered as a teacher for one year; what can I say to these teachers who actually took up education and have been teaching for years?! But then I realized that when the owners gave me that privilege, they wanted me to share my experiences as a “travel teacher” – bits and pieces of lessons I learnt from my travels over the years and from my service activities and so I did that. 

I then started to reflect on how as a teacher you might never see the results or changes in the students with your two eyes. Transformation takes time, and most times when the students have already graduated. We are not the only ones to plant the seed or nurture the plant; we are just one of the many hands. 

For the rest of my life, I’ll never forget my English teacher in the 3rd grade – Mr Uwem. I remember during one of our Creative Writing classes, I wrote a poem about a gold fish, then he gave me back my paper with a note written “Farzaneh, stop going ahead of your class”. I didn’t really understand what this meant, until over the months he kept calling me aside telling me he sees so much potential in my creative writing. Four years later, in the 7th grade, he decided to come up with the school’s first magazine and he called me on board to be a co-editor. That whole experience – writing articles and editing all the submissions opened up a whole new world for me. Then I had to deliver a speech in front of the school when we launched the magazine, and afterwards one parent came up to me and said “Farzaneh, you should become a journalist when you grow up” and that stuck with me…even until this day. So it was Mr Uwem who saw a potential in me, encouraged me and even went ahead to give me the opportunity/the space to explore this talent he discovered in me. 

Like Bahá’u’lláh says, “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom”. 

Being a teacher is extremely challenging…but it can also be the most rewarding profession. If anyone says “being a teacher is easy”… they’re obviously not doing it right. I’m not just referring to academic teachers, but even mentors (sports, arts, business, etc). It is never enough to only prepare for your subject; you have to be prepared for questions and conversations in every other field. We need to be careful with the answers we give students because most of them will carry that answer for the rest of their lives. Whether or not we have the answers, we should always encourage students to be curious and to independently investigate the truth. Rather than asserting knowledge, we should empower students to seek and acquire knowledge. The only way around this is to remind them that they possess such capacity, because that is how bountiful God is. That's one of the reasons I really admire CMS and Feliz Academy - they stress on spiritual education (mind you, this is NOT the same as religious education) equally with the sciences. 

I salute everyone who threads this path because they’re basically carrying the weight of the future on their shoulders. 

"Among the greatest of all great services is the education of children, and promotion of the various sciences, crafts and arts. Praised be God, ye are now exerting strenuous efforts toward this end. The more ye persevere in this most important task, the more will ye witness the confirmations of God, to such a degree that ye yourselves will be astonished. This verily is a matter beyond all doubt, a pledge that shall certainly be redeemed." - Abdu'l-Bahá

Opening my 2017 Happiness Jar

Sometime in December 2016, I saw this post on Facebook that a friend shared of a Happiness Jar. The challenge was to put a penny/coin/money in a jar/piggy bank each time we felt happy, then open it at the end of the year and celebrate with however much money we've saved. 

Instead of putting in a coin, I decided to jot down happy memories on a piece of paper and fold it into the box...then read them all at the end of the year. 

I couldn't find a jar, so I got found an old box, covered it with some recycled gift wrapping paper and made an opening for my little notes. I also placed an inspiring quotation on top (it has faded though). What's written is "Let each morn be better than its eve and each morrow richer than its yesterday". -Bahá'u'lláh

These notes don't account for all the times I jubilated; I don't think we can keep track of all those moments we smiled/laughed our hearts out! I just had the box on top of my desk the entire year, and decided that whenever I experienced something really happy/wonderful and felt like I want to keep that memory forever and ever, I should just note it down. Sort of like a diary. But a happy one!

Apparently January and June had the most number of notes, and the last three months had the least! I can't share ALL the notes here because that would make this blog verrryyy long (and also some notes are extremely personal) so I've decided to just pick one note per month!
Here are my (top) monthly picks: 

January

1st - Safe/no one hurt from our car accident on the way back from Tarlac. 

Body shaming

I recently saw this post in Instagram... and while a lot of people LOLed on the comments, there were also people like me who felt bad about it. For those who don't understand, these are all Merry Christmas greetings in different languages, but the last one in Filipino translates to "hey, you've become fat!"

I never knew there was a thing called 'body shaming' until I encountered my first when I moved to the Philippines more than a year ago. Before that, I was in India where I lost so much weight because I was forced to be a vegetarian and I was sick half the time. So naturally when I left India, I got back to my normal eating routine and happily gained back my full health. For me, I felt I was just getting back to normal. I didn't feel any big change because I still fit perfectly into my old clothes. Then suddenly I came back here and all the people who hadn't seen me after a long time would say: 

Oh Farzaneh, you've added so much weight, what have you been eating?! You've become so fat! What happened to you?!

The normal reaction is to just smile, I mean what else am I supposed to say?! What do people expect back when they tell you things like that? Am I supposed to say thank you? Am I supposed to defend myself and explain? At one point when I complained about this to my Dad, he joked and said tell them "yes of course, because I've been enjoying life". That helped me smile about it... for a while.

Identity crises

Growing up, I very often got asked "what are you more like? your Filipino side or your Iranian side?" I never knew how to answer this so I always gave this joke that I look more Filipino but I behave more like an Iranian. That's probably because I was raised in a third place. Nigeria. But while in Nigeria, I spent my first ten years in an international school. Every year we'd be 12-15 in one classroom... which would have at least two Lebanese, one Italian, one Palestinian...then every year someone new would join, like once an Indian, then a Thai, then an Australian, next year an Egyptian, then a Colombian. Outside school, my brother and I would attend Children and Junior Youth classes where we were taught that "the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens". Now, when you grow up like this - how on earth can you identify yourself? Why does it even matter?

"Man's glory lieth in his knowledge, his upright conduct, his praiseworthy character,
his wisdom, and not in his nationality or rank." -Bahá'u'lláh

One identity-defining experience for me was during my year in Sheffield, England. On the first week of University, we had the chance to join student societies. First I found the Persian society and I signed up. I joined their bowling and dinner nights, which were really fun, but I never felt "Persian" enough. I was still a khareji to everyone in the group. Around that same time, I met Filipino students and we created a Filipino society (the first ever at the University of Sheffield), and yet - we all conversed in English, because every single member were Filipinos who had grown up in England. So none of us were "Filipino" enough. Then I went to a West African dinner night and all the Nigerians and Ghanaians were amused at how I was the only Asian there chopping all the jollof rice and plantain, claiming I hailed from Naija.

Zambales Getaway

One of the friends I traveled to Puerto Princesa with is leaving the Philippines very soon, so we all just wanted to spend one more weekend together. We initially thought of a quick escape to Boracay, or a little bit nearer - Baguio, or even much nearer Villa Escudero, but then he suddenly remembered he has a frisby match on his last weekend. My other friend and I saw the frisby event page on Facebook, and when we googled the location (Crystal Beach, San Narciso, Zambales), turns out it's just 4 hours away from Manila! 

So my other friend and I decided to surprise him at his frisby match. 

We invited another friend to join us, and here's how it went.

Sunday 3:30 am - we arrived at the Victory Liner bus station in Pasay and boarded the bus going to Iba - Zambales. We bought tickets to San Antonio - this is the town before San Narciso, because I found a really pretty place online which we decided to have breakfast at before going to Crystal Beach. A one-way ticket for one person costs P275. The bus was very comfortable and clean. We had a 20-minute stop at Olongapo, where we had a magical cup of taho to warm us up. 

We got down at San Antonio and got a tricycle to Ohana Art Café (look them up on facebook!). Each of us paid P30 for the ride. The road to the café is verybeautiful - you'll see mountains on one side and farm lands on the other and the compounds of the wooden houses left and right were also so clean. Half way through, we stopped at a check point and each of us had to pay P20 environmental fee! How amazing is that; no wonder the area is so well-kept and clean!

Soon we reached our destination - a very quaint and exciting little cafe on the side of the road. The café is overwhelming; it's filled with so many little things - you won't be able to see everything!
There are inspirational quotes on the wall (all about love!), shell chandeliers, curtains ad dream catchers hanging from the ceiling, beautiful little plants on the shelves, a free fish foot spa, a dog (with colored eye brows!) and lots of mini-decorations made out of recycled material. So much creative thought was put into this little hippie place. Each table has a little message, and ours said "Call someone and tell them I love you". So we dared each other, noting that family and relatives weren't allowed! For brunch, my two friends a burger and myself a pizza. The price is very good too (ranges from P100 - P300). When my friends' burgers came, I commented "those fries are so little" while the waitress was still there..and a few minutes later she came back with an extra bowl of fries! I was so surprised that she made note of my comment! I absolutely recommend this place - it's definitely the most interesting café I've ever been to! It's a truly relaxing place with so much personality (every corner is Instagrammable!).

We spent more than an hour there eating, talking, looking around and playing with their photo props. I asked the lady if there was any beach nearby and it turns out we were a few steps away from Pundaquit beach! We slowly walked towards the water, as if our souls were following a yellow lamp in the dark. I asked the boatmen if they could take us to Crystal beach by boat, but they said it's not part of their tour package.

If you have time to spent in San Antonio, then I highly suggest you take the boat tour to Anawangin  and Nagsasa coves and/or Capones and Camara islands. It typically costs P1000 - P2000 to rent a little boat for a day (this fits 4-6 people).

We didn't have time for that, so we looked for a tricycle and paid P100 each to Crystal Beach resort (San Narciso is pretty far; more than 30 minutes ride away).

When we got to Crystal Beach Resort, we had to pay an entrance fee of P500 each. This was the part I didn't expect (I didn't see this while doing my research before the trip!) Turns out it's a large private area. Apart from the P500 we each had to pay P100 security deposit fee (which was refunded upon check out). After registering, we were each given a P150 meal/drinks stub (so this was taken from our P500) which we can claim at their restaurant. When you walk in, you'll first see the different types of accommodation - big rooms, small bamboo cottages, trees where you can hang your hammocks to sleep and also the tent area (you can either bring or rent your own tents to stay in at night). See their accommodation rates on their website.

Then when we got to the beach we saw the frisby match going on. We spotted our friend and he was very surprised to see us! After we changed into our swim wear, we bought some fruit shakes from the restaurant (we didn't use our stubs for this - we each paid P100 for a fruit shake), then we found some seats under a shade and relaxed for a bit before hitting the water. The current was strong! I have never encountered such strong waves before. I've been to Baler many years ago, but I didn't go to the water. So as expected, there were lots of people surfing the waves, and very few people hanging on the shores. 

After a few hours of relaxing and talking, we got changed and went for our lunch (at 4pm). We used our food stubs and ordered pasta, pancakes and some apetizers. The prize was really good, for the serving size! The mixed basket appetizers (hot dog, squid balls, cheese sticks, etc) was P150, the baked macaroni and tuna carbonara were P152 each. Price range is generally between P100 - P200.  We used our meal stubs, and then paid the extra. This was our last supper with our dear friend! 

After checking out, we got a tricycle (P15 each) to go to the bus stop. The tricycle driver suggested we take any bus going to Olongapo then go to the Victory Liner bus station to get a ride to Manila, rather than wait for the bus from Iba that goes straight to Manila (they're very limited). A bus ride to Olongapo is P50. When we got there, we walked over to the Victory Liner station and bought a ticket back to Pasay (P223).

So I put in our expenses just so you have a rough idea on how much you need if you want to make his quick one-day escape out of Manila! Our timing was really good too, so we didn't encounter any traffic leaving or heading back to Manila.

If you know other beautiful beaches near Manila, do let me know through the message box on the left side of my page, because I'd love to do more exploring!

How to spend a Christmas stay-cation in Manila

1. Ask Facebook

Type "Who's in Manila this Christmas break?" and see how many of your friends will be sticking around, then meet up with them! If you and your friends decide to meet at each other's homes, you could arrange for a Christmas-themed potluck! Have fun being creative (take a look at these brownies) and you could do a gift-exchange. To make it more interactive, try playing games like Mafia, Connect, Charades... and even App games which can involve everyone, eg. Heads Up, Psych!, Trivia Crack, etc. This is not necessarily celebrating Christmas - I mean, 'Tis the season to be jolly! so make it fun!

2. Watch Christmas light shows

• Ayala Triangle, Makati every night until January 7th (every 30 minutes from 6pm - 10pm) I featured this in the last part of my Christmas vlog last year:

• Policarpio street, Mandaluyong - a whole street of houses covered with LED lights!
• Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas Boulevard Manila - there's a giant Christmas tree there that's lit every night from 6 -11pm
• Mall of Asia Grand Festival of Lights - it's not just about the lights, but there are also mascots, music, fireworks every Saturday of December (plus Christmas day) at 5:30pm

*There's also something going on in Quezon City, Filinvest Alabang and Greenhills (just google it!)

A little bit out of Manila:

• Cainta Christmas Home - Filinvest Homes East, Marcos Highway, Cainta Rizal. The whole house is covered with lights, and surrounded with magical. Hundreds of visitors go everyday

Halloween-themed Devotional Gathering

Devotional gatherings are one of my favorite activities!
They can be so easy to prepare for, and yet very laborious.
But it's something that anyone, anywhere can organize. Devotional gatherings are one of the core activities in the Bahá'i Faith - there are no rituals, it's simply just a gathering open for everyone (of all religious, spiritual, cultural backgrounds) to read the Sacred Texts. There is no priest or clergy to preside over the gathering (no one is above the other) so each person reads and we all listen with our own ears, and know with our own knowledge.

"...all should gather, and, harmoniously attuned one to another, should engage in prayer; with the result that out of this coming together, unity and affection shall grow and flourish in the human heart." -Abdu'l-Bahá

Since I moved to the Philippines exactly one year ago, I've been attending the regular devotional gatherings on Sundays at the Bahá'i center... sometimes there's a specific topic, sometimes one or two friends bring readings they like to share, or we study a Message from the Universal House of Justive, then other times we just have a round of prayers. Recently I decided to organize holiday-themed devotional gatherings. On the last weekend of October, in the spirit of Halloween, I organized a devotional gathering on "life after death" where I put together readings from the Bahá'i Writings about the soul, the afterlife, and other concepts. That's the night mentioned in the previous blog when my friend Mona and I prepared some halloween-inspired snacks for dinner.

typo: life *after* death

Our program started with a round of prayers - most said prayers for the dead. Quite a number of guests who came that night had lost people very close to them - two of them their mother, and one her husband. I thought about this before putting together the readings, that I wanted it to be very uplifting and positive. To be honest, sometimes I feel so unsure how to sound when I talk about death. I grew up with this notion that "death is a messenger of joy". As far as I can remember, my Dad would always talk about "what I die.." this or that, like it was nothing. Of my four grand parents, I've only lost one so far - my grand father, but two years before died,  my Dad made me visit my grand parents in Iran. I didn't want to go but my Dad said "they're already old, this might be your last time to see them", and it was the last time I saw my grandfather. Somehow, my Dad always prepares me; he has always made me realize that people can go anytime. Whenever he meets people who have lost someone, he always tells them "be happy, they are in a much better place. they are comfortable now". I grew up with this mindset, but I know it's still sad for some people... so death has always been a topic I try to avoid. And for this devotional gathering, I tried to keep the spirits up.

Three days in Palawan

It all started in my kitchen nearly two months ago. Two of my friends and I were talking about traveling around, mainly because one of them is in the Philippines for his 3-months on the job training (and wants to take advantage of his weekends to explore). The other person said her next holiday is on Thanksgiving (fourth week of November) so we looked up plane tickets and found an amazing flight promotion with AirAsia - P1,500 from Manila to Puerto Princesa and P2,000 returning. 

The first and last time I visited Palawan was exactly ten years ago with my family. I have so many happy memories from that trip, so the thought of going back made me very excited. The night that my friends and I were together planning this trip, my Dad reached out to his old friend in Puerto Princesa who recently turned her restaurant/home into a bread and breakfast. And that's where we headed straight to from the airport - Dang Maria. 

located in Manalo ext. Bancao-Bancao. 

The host Jane Timbancaya-Urbanek is one of the sweetest, most spiritual women I've ever met. She has a very soft and gentle voice that whenever I listen to her, it's as if not just my ears but even my heart and soul open up to listen. She showed us around her beautiful place - inside the building and outside in the garden are tables and chairs because her restaurant is very popular; they were the first to introduce brick-oven baked pizza to the island. She showed us around the few rooms she recently renovated (each room is named after one of her grandchildren). My friends and I ordered cordon bleu for dinner and of course tried their famous pizza and I only had one word for our first meal "divine!" 

Day 1: Honda Bay Island Hopping tour

After a good night's rest, we woke up early and had our Filipino breakfast (this is included in the room charge) and at around 7:30 our tour guide picked us up. We picked up other tourists from their hotels (we were almost 20 in our group), then drove off to Honda Bay. Along the way, we stopped at a shop where we could rent snorkels, swimming shoes and flippers (P100 - P150). We then got on our boat and zoomed off to our first island - Star fish island.

A very common price you'll find online or through travel agents for the Honda Bay island hopping tour (inclusive of land transport to and from your accommodation, buffet lunch, a tour guide and environmental fee) is P1,500 per person. But a few days before our trip, I found a promotion on travelbook.ph's Facebook page of only P800 per person (great find!) so I quickly booked it for the three of us. The service provider was Mayson's Travel and Tours.

We stayed there for about an hour and very unfortunately we didn't get to see any starfish! We were told that at times they come near the shore and other times they shy away into the water. The swimming area was shallow, and full of corals...but the water wasn't very clear. I remember ten years ago I could see those corals very clearly without goggles, because the water was crystal blue and the corals even had more colors. Could this be the effect of climate change?

Next stop was Luli island. This was my favorite - there was a diving board at the deep side which I dove from a couple of times (this was my first time diving from such height) and a floating shed where we sat on and swam around most of the time. The sand on this island was very fine and white, and we also saw a lot of fish in the water. I almost didn't want to leave!

The last island was Cowrie island - we got to spend almost three hours there and have our buffet lunch. I was personally very disappointed with the lunch... If I had known, I would have gotten something grilled at Starfish island (there's fresh fish on Starfish Island and you can have the people there grill and pack it for you, to take to Cowrie island). We didn't swim much on this island; we mostly just relaxed together under a tree and played some music.

We got back to Puerto Princesa at around 4:30pm. Overall, we really enjoyed it, but it felt so rushed! I wish we either had more time at Luli Island or visited a 4th island! Here's a quick video I put together of our first day's adventure:

To end the night, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant, Captain Ribs. We absolutely recommend it! It has a very relaxing outdoor/garden sitting area. We loved the cheese sticks so much (we had two rounds) plus vegetable quesadillas, fish & chips and a burger and their dessert of the day - chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream (Price range P150 - P400).

Day 2: Underground River (or not)

We went separate ways this day. The other two did the Underground River tour from 6:30 - 4pm. I chose not to go because of my embarrassingly serious fear of the dark! I went to the Underground River a decade back (when I was braver) and now the thought of going back in to the dark, with bats flying around (despite my obsessive love for Batman) just made me cringe. So my friends went ahead and they had a great time! Their tour package (with a different travel agent) cost P1,800 each - inclusive of pick up/drop off, environmental fee, buffet lunch and zip-lining at Ugong Rock! 

(photo from Sina)

I, on the other hand, went to the butterfly garden. Instead of hiring a tricycle to go all the way there (it's about an hour away from the city center - a tricycle ride would cost P150), I asked the locals for directions. I took a tricycle to the main road (Rizal avenue) then took the Sta Monica jeep which dropped me off exactly at the butterfly eco-garden. I paid the entrance fee of P50 which also included a few minutes at the tribal village just behind the garden! The tribal village was very interesting for me - I got to see native tribesmen who only spoke their dialect (very different from tagalog). They showed us some tools they created, they demonstrated their native hunting tools (spears and arrows), and even made fire with just one scratch of a stone. They also played three musical instruments (one guitar like, two flute-like) very unique to their tribe.

Photos from my Instagram stories

After that I went back to town and met my friend's Mom. Thereafter I went to a mall to buy groceries for our dinner/breakfast the next day. At around 5pm, my friends and I met up and headed to the bus terminal and got a ride going to Aborlan (It's an hour and a half drive away). That night we prepared dinner then had a devotional gathering with a family.

Day 3: D-I-Y

I woke up at 5 am to a text message from Air Asia saying our 7:55pm flight has been moved to 6:45am the next day! A few hours later I got up and prepared us a big breakfast (beacon, hotdogs, baked beans and french fries), then we headed back to Puerto Princesa. We went straight to the airport to check if there's an earlier flight, but there was none. The airline staff told us that they'll be putting us at a hotel this night, so that was good news (or else I was ready to fight for it). We were taken to Sunlight Hotel. It had a gorgeous view - not just outside (overlooking the sea) but also inside (the bathroom wall is made of glass!) We relaxed for a few hours, watched a movie and connected to wifi (the first time we had internet in more than 12 hours). 

Later that evening we went back to Dang Maria. The Soroptimist group held a fund-raising dinner for their cause (to help battered women). We had a very romantic dinner under a tree, got to spend more time with Jane and even hear her sing her famous Plooning! Watch:

*If our flight hadn't been postponed, our original plan was to do a city day tour. A tour package normally goes for P400-P600... the tricycle driver will take you around for 4 hours, to the butterfly garden, crocodile farm, Mitra's ranch, Baker's Hill, Cathedral, plaza ... And then have lunch at Dang Maria's before catching our evening flight. The delayed flight gave us time to unwind...so we didn't return to Manila tired.

According to Rappler, Palawan is named the world's best island. There's more to Palawan than Puerto Princesa <Palawan is made up of 1,700+ islands> Coron and El Nido, for example, are far more popular with the tourists. I personally enjoyed Puerto Princesa - I loved the water, the sun, the food, the locals! I hope you find this blog post helpful, next time you plan a trip to Palawan. If you have any questions, feel free to write to me through the message box on the left side of the page.