Not
everyone gets a chance to go out of the country for a very good reason. Some
may go abroad for business or for pleasure, but only few get a chance to do
both and even deeper. Initiative For
Peace (IFP) Forum, sponsored by some students of Li Pu Chun United World
College in Hong Kong is just one very good example of that.
This forum which has been around for many years gathers many Filipino youth every last week of May to tackle issues of Peace and Conflict Management. As far as the records are concerned, they have increased the total number of delegates to 40. All three major areas of the country, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are represented. Muslim and non-Muslim student-leaders and peace advocates from various colleges in the country take some valued time to be in Hong Kong for a week to learn many things they have yet to “really” learn. Recently, the forum’s focus has been eyed on Mindanao – Philippines’ critical land.
It
was my first time to go out of the country. I’ve had many “firsts”. And these
firsts will go down my personal history. Here are some personal tips that I
want to share to those who are going to IFP. Remember, these are personal.
(*Put some disclaimer here* J)
1. Don’t panic because of late notifications.
The students who organize the Forum aren’t exactly the students whose only job
is the forum itself. Their nationalities differ and so do their other
commitments at school (You can see their affiliations in a bulletin there.).
They may have some other important things to do at the period when questions
from chosen delegates are rampant. During my time, it was almost a week or two
before the actual forum when they sent an email to all the delegates regarding
the final reminders for the forum.
2. Prepare for unexpected “expected” expenses.
I know that they have let you pay your own preliminary expenses. Passport
application, local land fare, local airfare and international airfare. They
wanted you to pay all of them because you will be refunded based on your cited
ability to pay on the forms. One expense I never expected to incur, as a
first-timer to leave the portals of the country, was the TRAVEL TAX! Man! I
never thought that my international airfare didn’t include the P1,200 travel
tax we always pay every time you go out of our motherland. And please, the P600
terminal fee if you’re in NAIA Terminal 3? It’s a crime to forget that. Don’t
worry, travel tax and terminal fees won’t be eating your packets on your way
back in the Philippines. Hong Kong doesn’t charge any of these to any traveler.
3. Pay Attention to placards. Deal with the
wonders of Hong Kong International Airport later. Setting foot in an
airport that is abnormally wide and expansive with people of different colors
and heights and with the flickering lights of different World cities and their
corresponding flight scheds on the screens is overwhelming, I know. But if you
want to be found by the IFP organizing member who is tasked to bring you to Li
Pu Chun, you may want to pay attention to the placards that wait for you. During
my time, precious, the one who met us carried a single piece of bond paper and
wrote INITIATIVE FOR PEACE thinly on it through a marker. It’s important to
notify them clearly about your flight schedules. Because if something is
mishandled, you don’t want to stay unattended and feel lost in a very large
airport, do you?
4. Love your room and your roommates. When
you arrive in Li Pu Chun United World College after experiencing the
not-existing-in-the-Philippines way of transportation through bullet trains,
you will be assigned in rooms at a dormitory where teachers of the school stay.
If you’re dreaming of a hotel-type of lodging, you may start to take those
dreams away. That is why it is called a dormitory! It is not a hotel. But as
for their standards, their dormitory could be the best dormitory you would ever
see. Their Wi-Fi in the dorm is everywhere even in the comfort rooms. It’s
typically 4 to 5 people inside the fully air-conditioned room. They may sort
you through different schools or religion, but the key to foster the forum is
to make good friends with you co-delegates. And of course, it starts with your
roommates.
5. Explore foods the Hong Kong way. You
still get to eat three times a day, don’t worry. As strong Filipinos, I know
we’re so particular with foods. But whether you like it or not, rice will not
always be around. LPC’s canteen will cater you. They usually have western and
oriental foods but during that time, most students have gone home. So they have
set some special dishes for you. They sometimes serve pork. My dear Muslim
friends, you know what I mean. But they have soups, beverages that range from
simple milk, soya to Ovaltine, bread and toasters, and of course, apples and
bananas (from del Monte last time I checked). It’s actually good to explore
their cuisine. It opens your eyes to their culture. Just don’t forget to put
the plates and glasses at the very platform of the dishwasher. She will be
instructing you to push them over the ridge if you just place them shorter than
your arm’s length. You won’t want to hear her yell at you IN CANTONESE, I tell
you.
7. Never
ever ever forget your receipts and tickets. Except if you stated that your
ability to pay is full, forgetting your receipts and tickets can give you a
hard time. Remember how stressful it was going to DFA for your passport?
Remember how you unwillingly paid the travel tax? Remember how you panicked
about the fact that you couldn’t book your fight on time so you had to hurriedly
produce money? It’s time to avenge all that and bring them back to your hands!
The reimbursement period usually is given in the second to the last day of the
Forum. They will take out your filled-up form where you cited your ability to
pay. They will ask you for all your receipts that were valid for reimbursement.
All transportation expenses, terminal fees, passport fees and the travel taxes.
And no, the food expenses are not covered, sadly. After totaling them all, the
envelope with your Hong Kong denominations will be yours. You’re gonna use that
for the trip you must have waited for so long.
8. Enjoy
the period of excursion. The organizers are cool. They give you your
reimbursements hours before you go out for a tour in Hong Kong Central and to
witness the life in Victoria Harbour. Chill. You will all go out! Yes,
including the organizers. They will give you all the afternoon to roam around
the Central, have a chance to experience street cuisine, experience the rush of
people in the metro, and of course, offer yourselves some time to buy
pasalubong to those people who want them whether they explicitly asked you or
not. We were given a specific period of time and a designated meeting time. I
and Jason Dalman, however, were too preoccupied buying some stuff for our
mothers so it took us some time to play with the vendors. Play that game of whose
price shall prevail. And so, we got an award from Collin because “almost forty
people waited and were worried” for us. Please don’t imitate this
embarrassment, I beg you! J
Still, all the stress and all your Hong Kong-related euphoria will be
culminated by the harbour’s Symphony of Lights.
9. Give
back and pay it forward. This is maybe the part that I have failed to do,
in a sense. I don’t know if it was because of my graduating student status that
hindered me to fully realize my plans and projects that are related to the
Forum. One good thing about IFP is they give you an idea of how to re-echo all
the awesome and real things you learn from the forum. They will ask you to
formulate a project with selected group-mates, from the same school perhaps. I
badly wanted to organize a good project that is peace or conflict management
related but all I did were petty versions of it. I want the next delegates to
be firm and determined enough to carry out their proposed projects because
after all, it is what Initiative For Peace Forum wants to shout out to the
world – a chance for better things.
To
the forum delegates this year, what will be your IFP story?
