Month of Hearts (part 1)

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, 

it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

~1 Corinthians 13:4-7

February, the month of hearts.

The love is overflowing around and it just makes me envy them XD hahaha.

However, I have my priorities first. So, let's move on to what happened on this month ^^

Last December, when I was about to leave for Japan, we received an email stating that our investigatory project was accepted in the 12th International Congress of Ethnopharmacology, which will be held in Kolkata, India on February 17-19, 2012.

Here comes February, and we still lack funds for our travel. We were hopeless. But still, we have that faith, and our last chance was to talk to our congressman with regards to that matter.

We texted Congressman Manny Pacquaio and told him about out financial problems, and, unexpectedly, he replied stating "Let's meet up in my house today".

We still have our classes that time, yet, we all rushed and got up to the T.Shy's car and hurriedly drove over to Pacman's place.

We had the chance to talk to our beloved Congressman Manny Pacquiao and presented our study as well as the problems that we face. In less than 5 minutes, he told us that he will sponsor our trip! Our hearts burst with overflowing gratitude and admiration to this man. He is such a great person, we truly admire Congressman Manny Pacquaio.

AlSci Research Team w/ Congressman Pacquiao and Pastor.

On the following days, we made arrangements for our flight to India as well as to Baguio City for the 9th National Science Quest.

Before we went to India to present our study, we first went to Baguio City. Representing our school, we competed as a team in the Applied Science- Cluster II Category, and once again, we have proved that we can make it to the top despite all the problems we've faced. Our team, composed of Sergia Virginia Gepitulan, myself and Angelica Francesca Tumbocon won Champion in our category. The other researchers also excelled in their categories. Jenny Joy Claridad, Garry Framer Osias and Lowell Fieldad won 1st Runner-up in Life Science Team, Daniel Delos Reyes as 3rd Runner-up in Life Science Individual and Jevin Justin Irineo, 4th Runner-up in Applied Science Individual category.

ANSHS Researchers who excelled in the 9th National ASEP.

On the next days, we stayed in Manila for preparations of our travel abroad. We had a lot of difficulties we faced through. Even though it's Valentine's day, a day which we were suppose to be with our love ones to share our appreciation and love for them, we still didn't have that free time. We worked on with our tarpaulin for the poster presentation, and later on, got it printed on our last day in Manila. Everything was a rush. And so the day comes of our flight to Singapore, then India.

Science City, Kolkata, India

ANSHS Researchers with a Hindi ethnopharmacologist

Angelica Tumbocon, Neil Jamili, T. Shy Butil, Sergia Virginia Gepitulan and Me.

The congress ended on the 19th and we won 2nd place in poster presentation at the S9 Hall. Despite all the obstacles we've been through, many difficulties we've experienced before hand, we still managed to prove that we, the students of Alabel National Science High School can compete globally.