As a teacher of international tourism and hospitality, gratis travel along with work is one of my fringe benefits. Also, being in the habit of juggling work and community service as the Hope Creating President (HCP), I always clutch my free travel opportunities not just to associate with our academic and industry partners but also to come together with Rotaractors most especially my classmate HCPs around the Philippines – so as they [Rotaract District Committee] say upon their fast-paced observations, a suitable District International Service Director of the future.
I traveled last July 4th to the 8th, 2023 boarding 2Go M/V Masagana – an underrated Philippine inter-island cruise line; with a voyage MNL-BCD-ILO-CDO-ILO-MNL (Manila-Bacolod-Iloilo-Cagayan De Oro-Iloilo-Manila), and checked-in at a presidential suite adjacent to the cruise’s bridge.
At the outset, I thought the trip alone was already a complete experience, not until I set foot on the aforesaid cities and met the brilliant Hope Creating Presidents of our prospect twin clubs – HCP Ma. Lourdes Dulce, HCP Marvin Chua, and HCP Emjay Arandela from Rotaract Clubs of Marapara, Carmen Valley, and Iloilo South, respectively. This was also right on time as we are just beginning the Rotary Year 2023-2024: Create Home in the World and must benchmark from each other to guarantee efficiency and effectiveness of our leadership thus our community projects.
Of course, on the side of creating hope in the world, we [the Hope Creating Presidents] schemed that separately from our self-initiated kick-off projects for the Hope-creating Year, we meet on the Multi-district events such as the upcoming APRRC 2023 and PRoCon 2024. We also planned to partner with projects focused on Maternal and Child Health, Basic Education and Literacy, and Professional Development, to be conducted either via Zoom or face-to-face. As part of the planning results, I actually invited them to pay a visit to Quezon Province, not just for the sake of a project, but for me to give back as a wave of thanks to their hospitality and overwhelming assistance during my trip.
This proved to be a valuable trip not just for my teaching profession but as a Hope Creating President of the Rotaract Club of Lucena Circle. With all the extensive tours, culinary explorations, and catching up conversations with all of them [Rotaractors], I, beyond doubt, reconnected with our friends from RYLA Pilipinas 2.0 and met new ones who are now, should I say, part of the circle. With this, I am also thrilled to broaden our circle even more.
‘Til the next Circler’s Round Trip!
