Regarding this reflection about the service trip, I will respond by answering questions from various points of the sustainability compass as in the following:

ICARE ABSCBN Day 1. Regarding nature, I will answer the question: What would you appreciate the most living in area like that? What would you find the most challenging? How would you overcome these challenges? First of all, when we first pulled into Zambales and its surrounding communities, the most engaging aspect was the beauty of nature. There weren?t any obstructions from pollution or towering architecture, but rather, just the trees and the sky and the mountains. However, this also comes with lack of access to social services and commercial areas compared to an area like BGC. This forces long, strenuous trips to be able to get the things we take for granted most. Thus, if it were me, I would do my best to set up my own sari sari style like store for all the things I need as seen in my daily trips going from place to place in the community and yes, this isn?t the easiest thing to do so overall I just admire their initiative to lead a happy life. They adapt into their environment and persist through any sort of trial. Eventually, the environment translates to other points of the sustainability compass because it influences the way people are forced to act in a given scenario, thus having one that works best for the people should be prioritized over other lets say, economy, society and wellbeing. In general, it?s a systems thinking sort of scenario with holistic ends tying into each other, but given the context of how people live in the ABSCBN villages, nature would again be the most dominant.

ICARE ABSCBN Day 2. Regarding economy, I will answer the question: As you experienced today, people in this community work hard, why do you think society does not place a hoth monetary value on those skills? To give an overview, many of the activities that we did were of manual labor, for instance, setting up a shack using mainly bamboo and concrete or getting hands on with the farming by weeding and watering plants. Given the prevailing norm of the term specialized occupations earning the highest salaries, this is due to the fact that one must actually engage in length curriculum and education to understand how to pursue a given field, however in the case of the aforementioned activities, it just ends up being the most tiring and relies on force more than critical analysis or thinking. Plus, in rural areas, this is what is most common. Large corporations would prefer the more accessible urban ones thus leading to less supply and demand of such occupations, making its monetary value not as large as it could have been. That?s why it?s so important for many of the kids at the elementary school we visited to get a good education because it can bring them beyond the boundaries of their community. In addition, I?ll answer the more personal question: What was the most difficult or surprising aspect of today? What do you do to help overcome this? For me, it was definitely the language barrier. This prevented a lot of efficiencies in conveying the lesson plan we had outlined and what I needed to do to help support the kids we were teaching. Even outside of this scenario, and during the manual labor, it was hard to get instructions of what I needed to do. Though my main method of overcoming this was using my Filipino peers as translators, I later realized that just the bonding experience is what matters most in the end.

ICARE ABSCBN Day 3. Regarding well being, I will answer the question: In what ways did our actions, positive or negative, influence the wellbeing of the community? Service is the very defining core of what ICARE is all about, especially in helping those who are less fortunate than us, and putting our maximum effort during the span of these few days equated to the more benefits the community could obtain. In general, we removed a lot of the stress these people would generally have to go through and more manpower would also lessen the amount of effort needed to get the job done. However, I think that in some aspects, we were also a hindrance to the job at hand. Since many of us aren?t necessarily experts on what to do and aren?t always the most careful in what sort of procedures to follow, they would have to accept mediocre results. This could even lead up to the extent where they would have to redo some parts that we had to spend time on, so just in general, the consequences would depend on our capabilities. Apart from this, well being could also be prevalent in happiness. I definitely feel all of us, both ISM kids and Zambales kids, learned from each other and had fun in the activities we together did. Overall, another question should be considered. When planning this trip we talked about stepping out of your comfort zone. What have you done this week that was new especially challenging or uncomfortable? What have you learned about yourself? What are you most proud of? Again, leading to what I said back earlier, working with the kids was my main factor. I?m not necessarily the best in interacting with sometimes obnoxious young kids, and even sometimes the older upperclassmen in the same school. However, knowing that this fear is just superficial and forcing myself to just try is what led me to succeed. I am most proud of learning this, that I am capable of changing what I?m used to.

ICARE ABSCBN Day 4. In regards to society, I will answer the question, what are some advantages and disadvantages in this community? The maintenance of culture is the most dominant one, in my opinion. Like the Aeta people and other indigenous people in the community, their sense of identity and who they are shapes the way the environment and norms are built. There isn?t the forced upon stigma of westernization or globalization in general and the aim of obtaining profit is overruled for happiness and choosing what they think is most important. However, this is in correlation with the negative consequences that one would face in the community. Technological advancements and materialistic quality of life desires would be lacklustre. Many things wouldn?t be obtained right away or with the highest quality of service, especially, making urban life more desirable in this concept. In general, society is what bonds people together, so the latter aspect discussed would be overweighed by the bonding the people have. For this is what leads to making life worth as much as possible.