De Leon: Week 5 at Peace Works

A. List down all the tasks that you performed during this period. Describe each in detail.

May 11, 2009
Since I failed to submit two articles last week, I have to write two articles this week. Four options were given to me. First is the Buddha Day celebration of Tzu Chi Zamboanga. The other is the opening ceremony of the Youth Peace Camp in San Ramon. Third is a feature about the veiling (turong, hijab) practices of young Muslims in Zamboanga if the story on women crisis is not possible.

What I did first is to contact DSWD once again to follow up if I can cover the story on domestic violence against mothers. However, there were no positive responses so I decided to take the other options. Luckily, when I opened my e-mail, Dr. Lim, the local coordinator of Tzu Chi Zamboanga, sent me a full archive of the Buddha Day Celebration photos. When I asked him if we could meet for some background information about the event, he willingly granted the interview on Thursday afternoon.

At around four in the afternoon, I dropped by the office of PAZ to talk Ma’am Arweda. When I arrived their, the YSP who are part of the facilitating team were having their meeting with Aldrin and so I had the chance to get an overview on how the camp will proceed. Then, I asked several questions to ma’am Arweda and Aldrin as well. That day, I already had sufficient information as background for the event. I was very glad because Ma’am Arweda offered me to go with the transportation of the participants on the way to San Ramon.

May 13, 2009
As scheduled, I went to the solidarity center before twelve noon. I met some participants and talked with some facilitators and mediators. We went at around 1:30 PM. I was very excited because it was my first time to go to San Ramon. I was brining with me a copy of the matrix of activities that Aldrin sent through my e-mail. Then, when I arrived there, he promised that he’d give me a copy of the opening program. So, I got my copy, took some photos, talked with some participants and I was jut observing. The guests arrived at past three, so the program started late.

I witnessed the entire opening ceremony and recorded Mr. Kenoh’s speech while I was also taking some pictures. Then, we went back to PAZ office down five PM, I was together with some PAZ staff members.

That evening, I organized my information and wrote the story. Afterwards, I took a look at all the pictures during the Buddha Day and thought of the questions that I’ll be asking the following day.

May 14, 2009
Dr. Lim and I agreed to have the interview at two in the afternoon at the Eye Center. So, I went there and it al ran smoothly. It was just like a casual conversation, he gave me some papers that would further explain the ceremony. Then, we watched the video of master Cheng Yen from Taiwan, which was also shown in all Buddha Bathing ceremonies held around the globe. Then, I went out and have some casual talks with other nurses and volunteers who were there and I already met in the earlier interview that I had. That night, I started to write the story.

May 15, 2009
I read the two stories that I wrote and had some revisions. Then, I sent the file to my editor. There were so many photos for both stories and I was so confused on which ones to use. So, I viewed all the photos and picked five photos for each story.

May 16, 2009
I realized that I didn’t write captions for my photos and we were supposed to send the photos with captions to our editor. So, I wrote the captions for the three final photos for each story and then sent them to my editor. Then, at three in the afternoon, we had our weekly consultation yet we had nothing much to talk about. So, we started uploading the stories and the photos and went home early.


B. Describe new skills you learned, or skills you improved upon as a result of these tasks. Be specific.
* The previous weeks, I noticed that whenever I conduct interviews, I do not immediately write the story. What I usually do is to write the information, arrange them, conceptualize the flow of the story then do the writing the following days. But this week, I was able to write the story at the same that I gathered the information that I needed. Maybe, it helped me a lot to understand the story and know immediately which information to use while doing the information selection because I felt at ease with the environment. It was my second time to talk to Dr. Lim and I was already comfortable asking him questions and talking with the people in the center as well as in the youth peace camp because I already know the people working in PAZ. Well, maybe this is one benefit of having a network of connections. You work easier when you are comfortable with what you are doing. And that is one thing that I experienced this week.

* In terms of writing, I learn a lot from how Sir Rey does the editing of our stories. The choice of words, arrangement of words and how to put emphasis on some points. Although, this cannot be learned easily because this is only learned through practice. Yet, I learn many things especially on the writing style from Sir Rey.

* Headline writing. We never learned this inside the class. Also, our editor did not teach us how to do headline writing. However, after completing seven stories and seeing thhe headlines and how our editor writes it on front of us, I somehow got an idea on how this is done. We ask him how he was able to come up with the right words and all and gave us some tips. Although, I cannot say that I am already capable of writing good headlines.



C. Other thoughts regarding the OJT experience.
I personally feel happy and contented this week for completing two stories assignments. Last week was really a bad week. And so I felt that at least I made up for my shortcomings this week.

It was actually my first time to go to San Ramon. And so the feeling of excitement was really present while the bus was heading to the campsite. There were no serious problems encountered this week. And I think that it was easier for me because the topics assigned were ones, which I am already acquainted with. Like in the Tzu Chi foundation, I have already established a good connection with people inside as well as in the PAZ office.

Basically, everything ran smoothly and right now I don’t think that doing this job is some kind of a burden, which was what I was sometimes feeling the previous weeks. Maybe, I have already adjusted little and I’m already starting to enjoy what I am doing. J