Out of the Office

A relative just sent me an e-mail commenting on how far behind I am on my posts. This was nice to receive - someone out there cares!

I sort of have a good excuse for this - I was out of town for about a month, mostly because I was on vacation with M in a couple of other Southeast Asian countries. Over the course of 24 days, we traveled from Bangkok to Saigon. Our route took us through eastern Thailand, Cambodia, and some of southern Vietnam.

Highlights included:
*Taking in the sights of Bangkok while zipping along on a Chao Phraya River Express boat
*Revisiting Wat Pho and getting an intense Thai massage
*Accidentally eating a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol at the Grand Palace in Bangkok
*Reuniting with my friend Pen and meeting her fiancée, who I met while working with Volunthai in 2006 (http://www.volunthai.com/ - a very cool NGO which provides assistance to schools in northeastern Thailand)
*Getting creeped out by a large bucket full of swimming eels that seemed to have no eyes
*Nearly running over a large lizard while exploring the beach-filled island of Koh Samet
*Navigating out of an intimidating town at the Cambodian border
*Delicious chicken curry at our guesthouse in Siem Reap
*The magnificent temples of Angkor Wat (of course!)
*Visiting the Tuol Slueng museum in Phnom Penh (definitely more of a low light)
*The sights on the Mekong River as we crossed into Vietnam
*Riding a boat named "The Super Dong" to Phu Quoc island
*Consuming pho (beef noodle soup), french bread and creamy cheese, brewed coffee, and strawberry shakes in Saigon

Unfortunately my digital camera was stolen the last time I was in Manila, so there aren't any pictures from our long trip. Sheesh, what a bummer.

At the moment, I'm back here in Bicol. Classes start again on June 10th, so I've just been getting organized for the upcoming school year, running errands and hanging out with my host family. My best friend on our compound moved away to Manila while I was on vacation. She went to go look for a job, and she won't be back until August when we'll have fiesta. I miss her a lot but we've been keeping in touch via text and the other ladies on the compound are an excellent source of company and entertainment. I can't complain too much. Life is good!

"Philippines Health Minister: Get a Tetanus Shot Before Getting Crucified"

That's the title of one of the articles on my Google News Feed today.

Here's the first paragraph of this article: "Philippines Health Minister Francisco Duque has a message for his countrymen getting crucified today: Get a tetanus shot first, and be sure to use clean nails. Oh, and for those getting whipped, 'the best penitents can do is ensure that their whips are well-maintained,' he told AFP."

You can get the full article here.
Here is another article exploring the subject from what one might call a more serious perspective.

You might notice that this happens north of Manila. That means pretty far away from me. So no, I did not see any of this sort of behavior, nor, of course, did I take part in it myself. Last night my host family and I took a tricycle into town and took part in a procession - lots of people walking through town with candles, following giant floats with larger than life-size statues depicting the events leading up to Jesus Christ's crucification and resurrection. Since it was raining, all of the statues were, of course, underneath either giant multi-colored umbrellas or wrapped in large pieces of sheet plastic. Also, the first one, with St. Peter, had a real live white rooster on it who must have been really freaked out.

All stores in our town were closed on Good Friday, and all Philippine TV channels either went off the air or were showing religious programming, but for some reason our Jollibee was still open, so Ate Helga bought us all burgers, fries, and sodas that we gulped down until she came back with a tricycle that plucked us out of a sea of humanity and whisked us home to our barangay.

Baby Butanding!

Yesterday, M and I went to the humble little town of Donsol, Sorsogon to go snorkeling with a few of the butanding (whale sharks) that congregate off the coast. Butanding live in equatorial open ocean all around the world, and tourists can also see them in places like Mexico, Tanzania, and the Maldives. However, Donsol is recognized as the best place to go whale shark spotting in the world.

(All of these pictures came from the internet - I didn't bring my camera on this trip.)

So, here's how it works: we rolled into Donsol at about 9AM and took a fifteen minute trike ride to the Butanding Interaction Center, out on the coast. The Center was a very nice little tourist spot, complete with an overpriced cafe, showering facilities, and souvenir shops. We paid the registration fee (at a discount because we're Peace Corps Volunteers - thanks!) and sat down to watch the training video produced by World Wildlife Fund Philippines.

Then we got in a bangka boat with a German family, a Japanese guy, and four Filipinos who were our guides. The boat got powered up and we started heading out to sea. It had been raining earlier that morning, and being on the boat was super cold! After awhile, the spotters started getting excited, pointing at the sea, and the boatman started circling the boat around. Our guide told us to get ready, so I ripped my windbreaker off and threw it on the floor, pulled my mask and snorkel on over my face, and sat on the edge of the bangka. He yelled "Jump!" and we all jumped in the water and started swimming after him. Then he stopped and told us to look.

The first three times that we did this, I saw the beautiful diamond pattern of the butanding's skin, eerily close to me in the water, but no real edges of anything. M teased me that I needed to get my eyes checked, and reminded me to de-fog my mask before we jumped in. (It's hard to remember to do this when you're in a hurry to jump off the boat and swim after a whale shark!)

The fourth time we did this, it was different. I guess our guide had noticed that I hadn't gotten a good view yet, so after we jumped in the ocean, he grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me along with him. Then he told me to look. I did, and was shocked to see a huge mouth and whale shark face maybe a meter or two below my feet! I was so surprised, and scared, that I screamed as loud as I could. Of course, sound doesn't travel so well under water, so I don't know if anyone actually heard it. Then the butanding dove deep into the sea, and we surfaced. It was such a rush! I started laughing hysterically and our guide did too, go figure. Then he said, "Wasn't that a cute baby?"

Whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

I was surprised that that had been a baby - I wondered what the adult butanding looked like. Well, I was about to find out. We spotted and jumped in after two more - both full grown adults. The last one we sighted freaked me out - by the time I put my face in the water to look at him, his meter long horizontal mouth was way too close to me for comfort, and he came right at us! I would've touched him if our guide hadn't once again pulled me out of harm's way.

Fortunately, butanding do not eat people - they only eat plankton. Unfortunately, people used to eat a lot of butanding, which is why their population is now vulnerable. But I had a really good time and some great adrenaline rushes splashing around in the water next to them, and ecotourism is super cool. I hope more people I know get a chance to see some butanding!

Heavy Rains!

I know that it's been ridiculously cold in Iowa lately, but man, I sure felt cold here over the past few weeks. Hope that doesn't make anyone at home angry!

It rained here for two weeks straight pretty much... maybe a stop here and there, once every other day or so. And it was really cold - all due to a big low pressure system moving through. We were all wearing sweaters and socks, and heating water on the stove for our morning bucket bath. And it zapped everyone's spirits. Fun!

School closed down on Thursday morning since a lot of our students live in barangays (neighborhoods) that had been heavily flooded. A lot of people were sad because we had to postpone our prom until next week.

Here, you can read an article about the rain:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-02-21-philippines_N.htm

Late Pictures from the Holidays

Beautiful flowers I got from my students for Teacher's Day in December ... I'm so spoiled
Biboy, CJ, Monang, Pauline, Kate Ann, and Tida caroling around our barangay
From our class Christmas party ... me, our students, and Ate Lani, my co-teacher
What beautiful smiles we have!

This was the prettiest beach I have seen in my life so far ... the sand was like powdered sugar!

We went here to celebrate New Year's

Vines on the beach that I thought were prettyWe hiked five klicks back to town from the beach ... the roads were awful messy since it was rainy season...

...but the countryside sure was beautiful. Ricefields are such an electric color of green.

M's holiday look. Maogmang Pasko! That means Merry Christmas! ... the kids loved it (as well as lots of random strangers!)

Hiking in Mt. Isarog National Park near Naga City, Camarines Sur, on our way home from the New Year's beach trip

Altea, one of my best friends, never mind that she's barely three years old and incredibly naughty sometimes

Kyut na kyut! (So cute!) ... Pedro playing in my plastic bag collection

Also kyut, but mostly crazy ... Ghost and her favorite toy

Oops

It's been quite awhile since I've updated you.
What's new?

Well, the holidays happened. If you're like me, you might not want to think about the holidays right now, but I will tell you what I did for them anyway. For Christmas, M and I celebrated at my host family's house. We had a great time! The family rented a videoke machine (karaoke plus video, in case you didn't get that) and we sang as much as we possibly could on that thing all day long on Christmas Eve day until about 3:00AM that night. There was also a lot of Matador rum and Filipino style spaghetti consumed by many people... what a dangerously awesome combination.

Then for New Year's we went up to a neat little spot in the province of Camarines Sur. Took us four hours in a minivan to get to the port we needed to get to, then two hours bangka ride around the peninsula to our destination, which was so way out there in the middle of nowhere that there's no road even though it's on the mainland, hence the bangka.

We found ourselves in a very small town (only one place to eat dinner after 6:00, which only served two different dishes and rice, but was a godsend when we were confused and hungry) a couple of miles away from a pretty beach. We visited said beach, and found out that it was possible to go island hopping, so we did that too. There I saw the prettiest beach I have seen so far in my life, with sand that was like powdered sugar. Pictures will be posted soon unless there's another oops.

Anyway, it was an awesome trip except that we got trapped in our tiny town on New Year's Day - no boats were going back around the peninsula, and our little restaurant wasn't open, since it was a holiday, of course. Poor us! We were trapped in our hotel for another day, with no food to eat except for some peanut butter and crackers we were lucky enough to remember to bring. (The fact that the hotel had HBO should not be mentioned because that ruins the survivalist quality of the story.)

We got out the next day and all was well.

Another thing that happened recently is that I helped out with this awesome workshop in Olongapo City, Zambales. (Way far away from where I live, on the coast west of Manila, where the U.S. Subic Naval base used to be.) We put on the workshop alongside members of a local organization called Buklod, which is dedicated to organizing current and former sex workers in the Olongapo area.

During our workshop we did gender sensitivity training, talked about various forms violence can take, and told the participants about various Philippine laws about trafficking and sexual violence. The Buklod members put in a lot of effort to make the sessions fun and interesting and the participants really responded - I think everyone enjoyed themselves and learned something new.

The night before the workshop, we went out to some of the bars in Olongapo that employ sex workers with a kasama (companion) from Buklod. The Buklod members regularly visit these bars to meet sex workers and encourage them to drop by the Buklod center for any information or help they might need. We went in groups of five Volunteers, and we attracted a lot of stares from the clientele, which at each place included at least a few Amerikanos (Western men). People probably thought we were dumb, lost tourists, but really, the discomfort of being stared at was nothing compared to how it made me feel to see what goes on inside those places. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we're seasoned veterans at getting unwanted attention, but visiting the bars showed me something disturbing that I hadn't ever seen before.

We all left feeling upset, but, I think everyone felt it was worth it to have had an experience that would help them connect to the women participating in our workshop. And it worked! Some of the workshop participants had seen us out the night before, and we were able to start up conversations with them that, I think, were more meaningful to both parties than they would have been if we hadn't experienced the bar scene.

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.