May 25th.

I am constantly amazed by how quickly time flies by. Christmas was 5 months ago today. How crazy is that?! Today is also the (unofficial) first day of summer. This past winter was so ridiculously long and cold that it is hard to believe we’re done with it, and also with spring. I am very happy about this – I love the summer!

It’s also Memorial Day today, and I’ve been thinking about the men and women in the US and around the world who have given their lives to defend their countries. I hope and pray that their families can heal, and I truly hope that the world will some day be at peace. I know it sounds so hokey but I really do wish for that.

It’s been a busy few weeks since my last entry. Since May 4th, m parents came to NYC for a 2-week visit, I turned 30 (thank you all for coming out to celebrate and for the birthday wishes!!), close friends Sabrina and Scott got married (hooray!), I got to visit with high school friend Brian Gould and his fiancé Andrea (congrats again!!) and Marcus and I visited dear family friends, Jack and Janet Larkin in Buffalo, New York.

In the midst of all these visits and celebrations, I’ve been doing my best to keep up with Roots of Health work. I’ve had some breakfast and lunch meetings with key people in the reproductive health world, and I’m prepping for the first official Roots of Health Board Meeting on June 10th. Susan and I are really lucky to have 7 incredibly smart, passionate, talented women on our NY-based Board of Directors. These ladies are all working so hard already and when I momentarily freak out about this huge undertaking (this has happened a few times), I calm myself down by reminding myself that there’s no way ROH can fail with the strong leadership of my Board.

When I got up this morning I typed out a to-do list and there are 76 items on the list. I’ve been working hard today and have managed to cross off 10 items, but I still have so much to do so I’m going to share some photo highlights from the last few weeks, then off I go!

My 3oth birthday:
Me with my parents, and with my super yummy Ben & Jerry's icecream cake. We went out for karaoke after dinner at Sala. If you want to see some very entertaining photos, check out my FB albums. :)



Highlights from Sabrina and Scott's wedding:
The gorgeous bride and handsome groom.

Ready to celebrate!



A few photos from Buffalo and our trip to Niagara Falls:
With Jack, Judy and Janet.

At Niagara Falls.

Marcus opted to go into the "Cave of the Wind" - which allows one to stand underneath one of the water falls. Can you find Marcus in this photo?

Apparently the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is supposed to be magnificent, but the NY side was great, too! In fact it seemed a lot less developed than the Canadian side, which we appreciated...

May!

I cannot believe that it is already early May!
I have only 3 more days left of being in my late 20s. So not ready to be 30 yet.
So let's pretend that's not happening...

Marcus and I are back in NYC after an amazing weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. We went to attend the wedding of our friends Ann and Cody. The wedding was so beautiful. Ann looked absolutely stunning and Cody looked so handsome. They really make such a beautiful pair. I feel so lucky to have been part of their special day. It was so great to be there, and to meet their families and other friends. It was also really wonderful to spend the weekend celebrating with dear friends who we don't get to see often enough: Ann, Cody, Sabrina, Scott, Lee, Michelle, Thon, Caroline and Nikola.

In addition to having a blast at all of Ann and Cody's wedding activities, we also really enjoyed being in Charleston. The city is so charming and historic and we really loved being able to walk around the downtown area and just take in all the sights. We took a carriage ride through the city and also went on a harbour tour that showcased the city's skyline and took us past Fort Sumter (the site of the start of the "Northern War of Aggression" - aka the Civil War). We also got to meet dear friends of my brother's - Tim and Judith. We so loved hanging out with them and wished we could have spent more time together. I wish the weekend could have just gone on and on and on...

But I suppose vacations and special occasions wouldn't be so special if they happened with regularity. I'm not too bleak that the weekend is over because there are many more fun events coming up to look forward to. My parents fly in tomorrow and I am so excited to see them. Then it's that event that I'd rather not really think about (although it is a good excuse to get together with everyone and party!). And then the weekend after that, Sabrina and Scott are tying the knot. Lots of fabulousness to look forward to :)

Ok, some photos.

The newlyweds:






New York ladies (even though C and N have deserted us!):


Me and my honey:


My girls and some fabulous guys, too:

Miscellany

So I clearly am not really used to having a blog yet, as evidenced by my sporadic posting. I’ve resolved to try harder to post more frequently!!

Thanks to all of you for all of the encouragement and support for Roots of Health. Even though my mom and I have been planning and talking about all this for months, it is all still daunting and it means a lot to have all your support!

Since quitting my job, I’ve had a lot more time to devote to ROH, although I still haven’t gotten as much done as I’d like. It’s amazing how busy I get! Because I’m working from home, I end up getting distracted by all the cleaning, sorting and packing I have to do, and I end up spending more time on that than on ROH. But on the plus side, I have accomplished a few things… I held an organizational meeting with the other two Directors listed on our articles of incorporation, and we approved the bylaws and our conflict of interest policy and we turned in an application to the IRS for nonprofit status. So things are moving!! I’m having our first Board meeting with our NY-based Board on June 10th, and we’ll elect our officers then and speak about and approve our program activities and a bunch of other things. I’m so excited!

Oh and I’ve already put together 4 balikbayan boxes to send off to Palawan. The majority of things in the boxes are the hundreds of books that Marcus and I have accumulated over the years. We’re not sending any of our furniture or much of our appliances but I couldn’t part with all our books!

Since I’ve been sorting through my stuff, I’ve found all these old photos from grade school, middle school, high school and college. And scarily, there are already some faces in the photos whose names I can’t remember! To be fair, they’re mostly from big group shots that include people I was probably never very close with. But it’s scary that the memory loss is already starting. Turning 30 in a couple weeks. When did I get so old?!

Anyway. Back to ROH. A few weeks ago, the Guttmacher Institute (very well respected think tank that specializes in sexual and reproductive health through research, public education and policy analysis) published a new study - "Meeting Women’s Contraceptive Needs in the Philippines". The report found that low levels of contraceptive use in the Philippines results in high rates of unintended pregnancy and numerous negative consequences for women, their families and the national health care system. From the press release highlighting the findings:

"Expanding access to contraception could result in 800,000 fewer unplanned births, 500,000 fewer induced abortions and 200,000 fewer miscarriages. What’s more, it could prevent as many as 2,100 maternal deaths each year—nearly half of all deaths from pregnancy-related causes. Better access to contraceptive services could also save 120,000 productive years of women’s lives, years that are currently lost to ill-health resulting from unintended pregnancies."

While the results are of course upsetting, they reinforce the importance of the work that Roots of Health will be doing in Palawan. By providing women and girls with information and knowledge about their bodies and their health, we’ll be empowering women to plan their pregnancies, and hopefully help reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies in the province.

What else?
It’s been a busy few weeks with friends and family in town. My ate Sara and oldest nephew, Matthew were in town and we had a fantastic time. We did lots of sight seeing and hanging out, and also had visits from Kavi (visiting from London!), cousins Mai and Rhoda and one of Sara’s oldest friends, Karen. It was a fabulous few weeks!! Next up on the horizon is a visit from one of my brother’s good friends, Gerry, then a trip to Charleston, South Carolina this weekend for the wedding of dear friends from grad school, Ann and Cody. So very excited to see them and also be reunited with other Columbia friends. And then we get back and my parents come into town for a couple weeks. Exciting and fun times! ☺

One Day More...

Only one more day and it will be my last day at work!
Time has just flown by since I gave my 4 weeks notice at AKA.
I am so excited for the time off, especially since my sister and oldest nephew are flying in from the Philippines tonight.

This morning Marcus and I were talking about my nearing last day and Marcus played "One Day More" from Les Mis. Most of you know that Les Mis is my absolute favorite musical of all time, and I know all the words to all the songs. It's been fun rocking out to Les Mis this morning. Shout out to John Pamintuan and all my Brent friends - it was so awesome to put that on in 9th grade. What an awesome musical.

Happy Thursday everyone!

New Beginnings

I've contemplated starting a blog for ages but have just never gotten around to actually doing it. Now seems like the right time -- lots of change is coming to my life in the very near future, and I think a blog will be a great way to have a record of everything, and will also be an easy way to share developments with friends and family.

Some of you may wonder about the name of this blog: Team Swangelista. This is a term for me and Marcus that my friend Ranjit coined around the time Marcus and I got married. I hadn't yet decided to take Marcus' name, and Ranjit joked that we should just create a new last name from our two names, and suggested Swangelista. It stuck, and for Valentine's Day a couple years ago I got us shirts that say "Team Swangelista". Since this blog will chronicle the goings-on in our lives, I thought it would be an appropriate name. :)

So... the changes coming up.

The biggest news is that Marcus and I will be leaving New York City this summer and will be moving to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The biggest reason behind the move is wanting to be closer to family. We'll be back in the Philippines, where all of my immediate family lives, and will be around a 5-10 minute drive from where my parents live. My siblings will be a bit further away, in Manila, but will be an easy 45 minute flight away rather than the current 20+ hour journey from NYC. Palawan is probably about as far away from Cape Town as New York is, but flights to South Africa from the Philippines cost half of what they cost from the US, so we are hoping to make it to Cape Town regularly to visit Marcus' family and friends.

The second biggest reason for the move is the amazing professional opportunity awaiting me. In September of 2008, my mom and I together started our own nonprofit organization called Roots of Health (Ugat ng Kalusugan in Tagalog). Roots of Health (ROH) is a community health organization focused on providing reproductive health care and education to disadvantaged women and girls in Puerto Princesa. My mom has always wanted to have her own organization, and my technical background (I recently completed a dual Masters degree program in international affairs and public health) is the perfect match to help my mom run this organization.

We've already identified the first community we'll be working in, and plan to really start our work this summer. We'll be providing women and girls information about their bodies and their health, with a goal of preventing unwanted pregnancies, which is a problem in the area. We will also provide prenatal care for pregnant participants in our programs in order to help women have healthy pregnancies and ultimately healthy babies. Because these women are poor, most of them don't have adequate prenatal care and have a lot of low birth weight babies. Low birth weight is known to increase the risk for major disabilities such as cerebral palsy and mental retardation and may also contribute to difficulties in motor skills and in cognitive abilities (thinking, learning and memory). So it is really important that women have good care while they're pregnant! We're also going to implement a feeding program for malnourished or underweight infants and toddlers within the community. My background is also in human rights and our outreach work will be human rights-based. A lot of women in the area are in abusive relationships so we have to figure out a way to provide them, and their spouses/partners information about basic human rights. We are going to have a lot of work to do, and I am so excited to get started!

Marcus hasn't decided yet if he wants to continue teaching in Palawan. He will definitely be working with us on ROH, and may also try to get involved in environmental conservation, which is huge in Palawan. There's a Masters program in environmental sciences at Palawan State University and Marcus may apply to that program. My mom has told a lot of her friends at the University about him and they want him to teach there as well! My mom really thinks that we're going to have way more possibilities for work and things to do than we can possibly handle. So exciting! :)

Of course it's going to be really hard to leave our friends and family in NYC and the US, but we're hoping that everyone will come and visit us. Also, this upcoming week is my last week at work, so I will have some time to pack us up and enjoy the city without the stress of working. Of course there is already a lot to do for ROH, but I'm hoping it will be pretty manageable. I'm really looking forward to the free time.

Another exciting upcoming event is a visit from my ate Sara and my oldest nephew, Matthew. They're coming to NYC this Thursday and I can't wait to see them.

I have tons to get done today and tomorrow so I think I'll end my first ever blog post here. Enjoy the weekend, everyone!