Ze First Week

            

           My partner Lala and I were the last ones in the whole third year class to start our practicum. We were actually starting to get a bit paranoid because we were thinking that we might not be able to complete the required hours. T__T

            Anyway, enough about all this drama. Let’s get to the fun part! ^_^

            So it’s finally time for work!

        We were able to start our duty at the later part of this week. But first, we had our ID’s processed. It actually took us most of the afternoon since there were quite a lot of things to be done in the processing. But when we got our ID’s, it really hit me. WOW. We’re finally gonna start!

And so, the real work started for us. We were assigned at the international arrival area at the administrative office of the Bureau of Immigration. At first, we were really nervous since we were thinking that the people there are very strict and serious. I mean, who wouldn’t think like that? After that excruciating wait for THE acceptance letter. But we were proven wrong. The people there are very accommodating.

We were literally greeted with smiles by the people there. Even the head supervisor, Mr. Nelson Gallentes, was all smiles when he gave us a short briefing of the things to do there. We were introduced to our fellow trainees, and also to the other staff at the office. Our fellow trainees were very friendly, even teaching us what to do around the office.

Basically, what we do there is mostly of clerical nature. We do the most basic stuff like record faxed documents, photocopy/print some necessary files, answer phone calls, etc. The files that we handle are mostly the General Declaration, the Passenger Manifest, and other documents such as recommendations for blacklisting, allow departure orders, etc. What I find really fun though is the part where there are arrivals. We get to interact with the passengers by making them line-up at their respective booths for the checking of their documents. We also assist them in case they encounter problems from simple things like filling out their arrival forms or to something more complicated like paying fees for minors travelling without their parents. 

We've only worked there for a few days but I can say that we already have quite a gist of what are the things that we should do in the office. And so far we are receiving positive feedbacks on the part of the administrative staff and the immigration officers. We are looking forward to spending the rest of our summer with them. ^_^