Getting Ready For SHH…

DOH-RITM and Love Yourself Inc. came together last Sunday to finalize the plan for the second HIV mass testing activity tagged as SHH..

It was a very fun afternoon, seeing familiar faces and getting acquainted with new ones. It’s really heart-warming to see young gay people take actions for the prevention and awareness of HIV-AIDS, there are even fresh college graduates na talagang nagli-lead ng group, saludo ako sa pagiging aktibo nila.

The first part of the meeting was riotous! Speed-dating ang concept ng “introduce yourself” portion, which was hosted by one of my favorite blogger, Migs of ManilaGayGuy. Instead of speed-dating naging speed-Q&A portion ng Miss Universe ang naging peg ng mga participants… Happy lang!

The meeting continued on with the plans and processes for SHH… Bow ako sa mga leaders for this event, everything is set in place. I love how they’ve planned it from getting the participants to making sure they just don’t register but translate all of it to attendees, up to the last process of releasing the results and taking extra measures to ensure the confidentiality of the results. Bow!!

with Batch 2 guys…

This is Jay, I so admire this guy! He’s graduating on Saturday at UP Diliman after that diretso na siya sa event on Sunday. He did all of the planning and proccesses, magaling na bata… For sure, malayo mararating nito.

The meeting was held in Duque Hall right inside the DOH.  Everybody was cordial and super nice that day, bawal ang BV at Negastar sa group.

And lastly, the family photo. Nasa likod ako kasi super chika ako with the others. Ayun, too late to emote for the pic. LOL!

We’re all set for April 29. See you there!!!

Let’s Get Tested!

RITM’s Change Agents’ first ever project this year.

Free Private and Confidential Testing for Syphilis, HIV, and Hepatitis B. April 29, 2012, Sunday, 10 am to 3 pm. Pre-register at http://tinyurl.com/apr29test

2nd Phase…

The 2nd week of training for volunteers for Love Yourself Campaign was even more fun compared to the last one. Though we missed a few people from our original batch, we were then joined by another batch for the 2nd phase of training. It got a lot more interesting since more interesting and fun people were added to the group.

The 2nd phase was dedicated to Counselling Skills, our trainer, Dra. Bantigue was very effective as usual. The training was filled with funny punchlines and comebacks, what you would really expect in a room full of gay guys!

Here’s some of the guys having dinner.

on the left side is Jam, One of the few people that I got really close to instantly. Co-pasimuno ko ng Truth or Dare. Right side is Jurex, my roomie.

here’s the new batch that joined us. Got two crushes on their group. I got to kiss one on the cheek, thanks to Truth or Dare. LOL!

News about Whitney Houston’s untimely death broke out while we were inside the training room. Everyone was so devastated, like I said, it was a roomful of gay guys, Whitney being a gay icon and her loss was something personal to all of us. I promise to have a separate entry about Whitney Houston and how she touched my life soon!

The Counselling Skills training was really outrageously fun, we even had to counsel each other as an activity. Some were even tasked to do demo counseling…

Lastly, I want to give Dr. Bantigue, a loud thank you and the biggest hug for being patient and game in training such a challenging group of people hehehe! An inspiration to all us, she’s a VP in Meralco and teaches Psychology in La Salle but still finds time to do volunteer work like this. May God bless you more Doctora! Till next week!!

On Being Negative

Sometimes a NEGATIVE could be oh so positive!!

On being true to my new year’s resolution, I signed up for a volunteer post several weeks ago. I saw the ad on a gay blog and it says that they we’re looking for people who were willing to be trained as peer educators for HIV awareness. Having had the experience of attending HIV workshop when I was in college, I decided to plunge in and sign up for it, I know based on my experience how important those workshop were for MSM (Men having Sex with Men), I’m grateful for those workshop because it opened my mind to HIV/AIDS.

Training was scheduled on a Saturday afternoon, It’s being spearheaded by RITM an agency under DOH. medyo kinakabahan pa ako, cos I was going there alone. Once the training started I finally felt relaxed. The people I was training with are super nice and very intellectual, ang sarap kausap lahat.

Sabi ko nga sa new year resolution ko, I’ll be more daring… So, when the trainer asked us if we wanted to be tested for HIV, I had no choice but to say yes. A few years back, I promised myself not to be tested, wala lang, I had a philosophy before na “What you don’t know, wont hurt you” but I changed my mind, truth will eventually come out no matter how you repress it, base on experience rin yan. In short, I had my self tested.

We were tested around 7:00pm, results will be released in the morning, the training was an overnight affair. they made stay in a nearby hotel. After the blood extraction, deadma na. I never thought of the result, the group decided to stay up and bond over vodka and conversation and some of us eventually hit Malate since it was just a few blocks away.

Then the morning after came. We all had to face the fact that we are all unsure of  what the result might be. Let’s admit it, the result of that test is might be life altering. It could change everything in your life in just an instant.

Waiting was the agony, we were being called one by one. Once your result is revealed to you, you are then asked to leave the training area as soon as possible, you are not supposed to talk with your fellow trainee. Yun ang torture! One thing nice about it is that we we’re a group, all us we’re making fun of the situation… like asking Doctora to just post the result on our Facebook wall so it would be easier for her. The atmosphere instantaneously became light, I just could imagine the horror of those people who tested and waited for the results alone. Dreadful!

And as title of this post implies, I tested negative. It was such a relief to finally know your status. I was afraid that it might go the other way, knowing that the last guy I was in a relationship with was super promiscuous. Having a negative result, figuratively cleans up my slate. No baggage from the past. I should be ready for the future.

Some of the most interesting guys I met that night…

The training is still on going, it’s a 3 weekend affair. So, I’ll be seeing more of these people this coming weekend. So looking forward to it already!