Some Things That Are True

Filipinos celebrate Christmas in a very similar fashion to how we celebrate it in the United States. We have a Christmas tree in our house, and people here go Christmas caroling. I suppose this is not so surprising. What I do find somewhat amusing, though, is that Filipinos also enjoy singing and dancing to such songs as "Let It Snow" and "Walkin' In a Winter Wonderland." It does not snow anywhere in the Philippines, and most Filipinos I've met have never seen or touched snow, yet it is still a featured part of their Christmastime culture.

It is traditional to go to mass at four o'clock in the morning for nine days in a row from December 16th to the 25th. It is said that if you attend each of the masses in the Novena, then you will be granted a wish. I am planning to go to one of these masses, but am doubtful about being able to do much more than that.

M broke his hand in a biking accident and is in a cast for three weeks. It is a green cast. We are going to write "Maogmang Pasko!" on it in red marker, which means "Merry Christmas!" in Bicol. He is looking forward to getting even more attention from the locals when he's out on the town.

I made some macaroni and cheese out of a box a few weeks ago for my host family and it was a hit!

Altea, a soon-to-be-three-year-old who lives at our house, has a reputation for being extremely pasaway/makulit (naughty). So I have decided that I am going to give her a lot of hugs and see how she responds. Last week, she said to me: "Ate Miss France, padaba mo ako?" (am I your sweetheart?)

I have been reading the book *In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines* by Stanley Karnow. It is a 400+ page history book which details and analyzes the history of the relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines. Here are some things I have learned while reading this book:

President William McKinley hired a zoologist to advise him when formulating his initial policy for the Philippine islands. The zoologist, who had visited the Philippines several times to study various tropical birds, was one of the few Americans at the time who had actually set foot on the islands.

The Filipino-American war followed after the U.S. annexed the Philippines (after the U.S. defeated Spain in the Spanish-American war). This was the first war American soldiers fought in overseas.

American soldiers were issued heavy wool uniforms to use while fighting in this war. Not surprisingly, there were some problems with heat strokes.

Filipinos lobbied in Washington for statehood but were denied on the grounds that, essentially, their racial diversity would create problems. (Although the exact quote did not put this in such polite language.)

The Thomasites were young American schoolteachers who were assigned by the U.S. government to establish schools in various towns throughout the archipelago. They are considered the professional ancestors of us Peace Corps Volunteers here in the Philippines. During the first year the Thomasites were in place, twenty died of malaria and dysentery, six were murdered, and one committed suicide.

Stanley Karnow says that the Philippines is the most American place in the world outside of the United States.

Even though it is taking me a long time to get through this book, I am really enjoying it! I would agree with the critics who say that it is a well-written page turner.

Around Town Pictures

Christmas decoration that one of my students made for me out of candy and chip wrappers

My friend and co-worker Ate Tess, who goes for long walks with me after school sometimes

I have a bike! It's really nice, too!

My books, stationary, and magazines, all wrapped in plastic in preparation for typhoons.

Kittens that live at our house now - eating tuna under my bed! From the back, their names are: Frida, Pedro, and Ghost. However, Frida ran away. I am still sad about it - but Ghost and Pedro keep getting bigger and are learning how to fight dogs!

These are from a school activity we had a few weeks ago called "Book Parade." The kids got in costumes to represent a certain book, paraded through town, then did a stage presentation. We got third place - not bad!

Our Christmas tree

Beach Trip Pictures

These pictures are actually from two completely different trips, but I figure the details don't matter to most of you - it's just jealousy inducing eye candy. Am I right?

Little man on my shoulder - hehe.

My friend L, looking like he's in jail.

Sand castle!

Mount Mayon and sunset seen from the sea

Typhoons

We were told during training that the Philippines is hit by an average of 22 typhoons a year, and that the Bicol region is more affected than any other part of the country. A few storms have crossed through northern Luzon in the past few months, but none of this really hit home for me until last week.

Typhoon Mina was scheduled to directly hit my province last Friday, perhaps developing into a super typhoon, forecasters were saying early in the week. My co-workers and host family were understandably anxious about this, especially since over 700 people died when super typhoon Reming struck Albay almost exactly a year ago on November 30th, 2006. (Many of the deaths were due to lahar or mud flows coming from the Mount Mayon volcano.)

It had been raining hard the past few days, causing enough flooding in Legazpi City that the governor canceled all classes in the province on Tuesday. With school canceled, I spent a lot of time at home, reading and otherwise puttering around the house, watching my host family nail big pieces of plywood to our windows. The rain continued on, day and night, without stopping. I found myself getting nervous, even though we have a basement at our house and I know that my host family would do an excellent job of figuring out what to do if a disaster should occur. They survived Reming, after all.

On Thursday I learned that the storm was starting to change direction, and began to reevaluate my decision to skip out on the Thanksgiving celebrations scheduled for that weekend. It was so sad to think that I was going to miss out on pie, stuffing, wine, and turducken, so I felt really happy when it started to look like it would be safe to travel.

In the end, the storm literally came right to the doorstep of the Philippines, slowed down, and drastically changed direction. So far, 17 typhoon deaths have been counted in northern Luzon, but the damage is much less than what was expected, and for that we are all very thankful.


Then on Tuesday, we were informed that a weakened typhoon Lando re-entered the Philippines, crossing to the East in an unusual fashion. Although it was due to cross the Bicol region this morning and give us a lot of rain, I woke up to a surprisingly sunny sky. I guess our town is some sort of lucky!

On a final note, our safety and security coordinator included this in a recent update on the situation and I thought it was interesting in a physical sciences kind of way:

"PAGASA explained that Lando's movement is being affected by Mina due to the Fujiwhara effect. The Fujiwhara effect is brought about by the interaction between two tropical cyclones at an appreciable distance.

When the cyclones approach each other, their centers will begin orbiting cyclonically about a point between the two systems. The two vortices will be attracted to each other, and eventually spiral into the center point and merge. When the two vortices are of unequal size, the larger vortex (MINA) will tend to dominate the interaction, and the smaller vortex will orbit around it.

The effect is often mentioned in relation to the motion of tropical cyclones. The effect becomes pronounced in these storms when they approach within about 1450 km (900 miles) of each other and are at tropical storm strength or stronger."

Almost certainly we'll have more typhoons in the coming weeks and months, as it is rainy season, and Bicol is the most affected region, but for now everything is calm.

Pinoy-isms

This is me hanging out with some first grade performers at a Buwan na Wika (National Language Month) celebration.

So I realized that a lot of this blog is just about things that I do and see, which is all well and good, but since you're not actually here with me in the Philippines you might be a bit curious about what it's like here, no? So, here is a list of some interesting tidbits about life here in the Philippines:

*The Philippines is one of the few Asian countries which is predominantly Christian. About eighty percent of Filipinos are Catholic.
*Basketball, not soccer, is the most popular sport here.
*Jeans and a polo T-shirt is considered formal wear, suitable for weddings, baptisms, meetings, etc.
*Food is eaten with a spoon in your right hand and a fork in your left.
*Kasama is the word in many Filipino languages for companion. Most Filipinos seem to prefer to have a kasama with them to attend public events and to travel. It's generally perceived as strange to prefer to do these things alone.
*Text messaging is huge in the Philippines, since it is much cheaper than making phone calls. Many Filipinos will get out their phones and play with them if they feel shy or awkward in a social situation.
*A large number of Philippine citizens are employed overseas and send their earnings home to their families. Many Filipinos dream of being able to work in America.
*Walking around the nearest mall, or "malling," is a popular activity on weekends for those seeking the comfort of aircon. Malls get packed on weekends.
*People lift their eyebrows in greeting and point with their lips to indicate which direction something is.

News in my life? Our school just opened up a new faculty room, which is spacious and wonderful even though the ceiling is still damaged from the typhoon. So now I have my own desk! It's really nice to have a place to leave my stuff once I'm done for the day.

Also, I've just started playing the game Go, a Chinese game also called Weiqi. Some would say it's comparable to chess. It's hard and fun, but I'm still really bad at it. Practice, practice, practice.

Photos From Home and School

The junior class's mass demonstration at our high school intramurals (three days of students playing basketball, badminton, volleyball, chess, and boxing. Yes, boxing!)

Me on the bus from Legazpi to my site. I go to Legazpi a lot, so it seemed fitting to document such an important part of my life.

Isabelle and Biboy, three and six years old respectively and two of my best companions.
Haha, we had a birthday party for a one-year-old, and I was thinking it would be no big deal, but then fifty kids, their families, and a clown showed up at our door. It was a fun time!Me with some students from my high school on a field trip we took last weekend.

Photos From Peñafrancia

These are from the Peñafrancia festival in Naga City that we went to about a month ago. Peñafrancia is the Bicol region's largest and most famous festival.

Wikipedia [cringe] says:
The city celebrates the Feast of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia Our Lady of Peñafrancia, the Patroness of the Bicol Region, starting second Friday of September each year. The start of the feast, which is the largest Marian devotion in the country, is signalled by a procession (called Traslacion) which transfers the centuries-old image of the Blessed Virgin Mary from its shrine at the Peñafrancia Basilica Minore to the 400-year old Naga Metropolitan Cathedral. Coinciding with nine days of novena prayer at the cathedral, the city celebrates with parades, pageants, street parties, singing contests, exhibits, concerts, and other activities. Finally, on the third Saturday of September, the image is returned shoulder-borne by so-called voyadores to the Basilica Minore de Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia via the historic Naga River.

Myself and several other Volunteers enjoyed some fiesta food and socializing while we watched the excitement build and the statue go by on a boat at a host relative's house on the Naga river. We waited hours for the procession to go by - I can't imagine what it would be like to have to wait out on the water.

A cathedral in Naga:
I can't claim credit for the following land photo that A took, but it lets you see the statue a bit closer as well as the throngs of people doing everything they can to get close to it.

Cats!

This cat lives with me now at our house. He doesn't really have a name - we call him Ikos ("ee-koos") which means "cat" in Bicol. He keeps me good company and helps me relieve stress, unless he's trying to steal food off the table. He has half of a tail and meows a lot, all the time. My host family says that he says "ming ming ming." Isn't it great that animals say different things in different languages?



This is Bella. She is a very young kitten that some friends of mine discovered one day hanging out in their sewer. They already have two cats so they're trying to talk me into taking her sometime soon. I'm not sure if I can yet, but no doubt she and I are good friends!

I'm still trying to figure out where I can take Ikos, and maybe later Bella, to the vet. I might have to take them boxed-up on the bus with me for a long time to go to a place in Legazpi.

My host family thinks it's really funny that I want to take Ikos to the doctor - not exactly a common practice here in the Philippines. That's one thing that has jumped out at me every time I've been to Asia, that there are so many, so many, so many cats and dogs, and a lot of them in pretty sad shape. I can understand that when money is tight, providing medical care for animals doesn't rank high on one's priority list, but it still makes me sad.

Ikos and Bella are two lucky cats to have befriended the Kanos in their towns!

Photos From Snorkeling Trips In Sorsogon

Photos Of Our House