Day 1: Hour 1

As a full time student athlete, my body goes through many aches and pains. After each tournament, I go to my manghihilot, "Hilot" master, for a recovery massage. On top of that, I go to him for various reasons such as cough and colds, fevers, and soreness--particularly in the back and knee area. Adriano Mata has been my father's healer since 1998, and I started going to him when I first started playing club volleyball in 2008.

The first hour counting towards my 25 hours was on January 7, 2013 from 6 P.M. to 7 P.M.

There is a bit of a language barrier because I don't completely understand Tagalog, and he speaks little English, but this is all a part of reconnecting with my culture. The first thing Mang (a respect term like "sir" in English) Adring told me was to cut my nails. This seemed a bit odd at first, considering that I had just cut my nails two days before. Mang Adring said that the smallest disturbance such as a scratch of a healer's finger can greatly disturb the body and mind, so I needed to cut my nails as short as possible.

Mang Adring proceeded with the regular body massage and followed routine by starting with my upper back. When he pressed down on the several knots in the area, he explained that the noise from pressing the knots indicates a lot of stress and this "noise" and build up causes my headaches, which actually explains a lot (I get a lot of headaches).

Throughout any massage, Mang Adring uses a homemade oil solution. He explained that the solution opens the skins pores, allowing the heat from his hands to help massage and heal the muscles while taking the cold from the muscles out. He said he'll teach me how to make it later on in our lessons.

After the massage, we talked about what our schedule looks like and his teaching methods. Mang Adring said that the best way is to bring a subject in and start by learning the hand motions and the reasons behind each motion and to just keep practicing.

I'm actually really excited about the Capstone Project! My mentor is really awesome and he is beyond experienced. When I first started going to him, my parents explained that he was a very famous healer in the Philippines, and he helped a lot of important people back in the day. I intend to interview him and learn all that I can.

The current challenges I face now is figuring out my essay topic and figuring out my position on that topic. I'm also in the middle of finding people to massage during Mang Adring's lessons.