Philippines 2005

All kinds of new friends

2005-08-12T03:46:00.000-07:00

One thing I am still not used to here are the bugs. I’m getting better with the cockroaches; I’ve killed a couple more all by myself. But…there are other creepy-crawlies. This morning, I went to use the washroom and there was a HUGE spider. When I say huge, I mean, HUGE. It was literally the size of my palm. I had seen that type of spider before in Talisay and was told that it was a “friendly” spider, but I don’t really want it to get too friendly with me.

This is a pic of the spider that I took in Talisay. I wanted to put my hand beside it
for the size comparison, but couldn’t work up the courage to do it =P

I also seem to have a knack for killing bugs in my sleep. I don’t exactly know how but every morning when I wake up, there are all these dead bugs on my bed. It’s weird cuz when I try to kill them when I’m awake, I’m never fast enough. So, either the bugs are slower at night, or my agility increases when I’m asleep.

I have a new friend to keep me company! His name is Manman. He was given to me by Marlyn, a friend that I made here in Ormoc. Marlyn is an absolute sweetheart. She says that Manman will be with me wherever I go, so I’ll never have to be alone.

Manman. =)

Last weekend, I got to go to a local beach with two of the trainers. It was windy and the waves were pretty big so it was interesting trying to swim. We just kept getting pushed over. =P It was cloudy and a little rainy too, so we spent a lot of time just sitting and eating under a little nipa hut. Some people at the beach were cooking chicken so I got to watch them take the chicken, kill it, de-feather it and roast it. Didn't get to try any tho =P

On to the next city

2005-08-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

So, I've done a pretty bad job keeping this blog updated. When I first came to the Philippines, I wanted to go to the Internet cafes all the time, and I missed my MSN, but now, I have no desire to go at all. I actually have to force myself to go, and usually it's only to e-mail my progress reports (I haven't had to submit any for the past couple weeks...hence very little Internet for me). It's quite surprising; having had constant Internet access for the past x number of years, I didn't think I could be weened off of it so easily...but I guess I have.

So in the last month, much has happened. I have moved away from Talisay :( Although I only stayed there for 7 weeks, I really started to love it there, and it felt like home. I had great friends there, my own routine, a wonderful family...it felt like I had lived there much longer than just several weeks. Goodbyes were especially hard to say...it's so different saying goodbye to someone when you know that you will probably never see them again. Lizette once said, "A piece of my heart will always belong to Talisay" and I echo that.

Before moving on to my next placement, the Canadian SCALA volunteers, along with Lizette and Andrea, the two Filipino volunteers, spent a couple days in Bohol. Bohol is one of the tourist attractions of the Philippines. Absolutely gorgeous. We stayed by a white sand beach and I am now quite tanned. I not exactly sure how I got tanned, because I stayed in the shade as much as I could (I was sick and the sun made my head hurt more). We did our debriefing there, and of course, some rest and relaxation before going on to our next placements =)

All the volunteers at our final dinner together.

I also spent a couple days in Manila. On one of the days, there was a huge rally out on the streets. Right now in the Philippines, there has been a lot of protesting against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), the president. There is this election scandal that was uncovered, and everyone wants the GMA to resign. A brief history of the Philippines: 2 presidents have been overthrown before, and the last ousting occured under similar circumstances as what is currently happening. The rally was insane. In Manila, I was staying close to Commonwealth Avenue, a major highway, around 10 lanes across. One whole side of it was closed off and packed with protesters. Everyone had banners, people were burning homemade statues of GMA, they were blasting (and singing) songs like "Oust G-M-A" (in the tune of YMCA) on huge speakers. I have never seen anything like it before. Everyone in Canada is so apathetic about politics!

Rally against President GMA on Commonwealth Avenue
(Smoke is from the burning of GMA statues)

I am now in Ormoc and my Filipino partner is Archie. Ormoc is a smaller city, but I like the staff here at the DSWD. It's a lot different from Talisay tho. For some reason, people here seem to be less computer literate than in Talisay. The trainers that we are training have very little computer background, and one of them had never touched a computer before! Definitely a lot of work needs to get done here in the next month!

'till death do us part...maybe

2005-07-05T02:45:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe I only have one more weekend here in Talisay. During my first weekend here, I had too much time and not enough to do. Now I have too much to do and not enough time!

I have been blessed with many unforgettable experiences over these past two weeks. Two Saturdays ago, it was the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Pastor Jed’s parents (Pastor Jed is Ereza’s husband). I was invited to attend their renewal of vows ceremony and the reception. It was very touching. Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely cry, but even I started tearing up at the ceremony. I’ll never forget the expression on the groom’s face, as he was watched his bride walk into the room. As she slowly made her way toward him, tears just started streaming down his face. I can’t even imagine the emotions that he must have been feeling, all the memories acquired through 50 years of togetherness. It was the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Its so sad how many people do not value the sanctity of marriage anymore. People get married and get divorced so quickly. In Canada, the divorce rate is about 40%. But this 50-year celebration is a testament to the way marriage is supposed to be. I’m sure that they also experienced many hardships through their marriage, many sacrifices and compromises had to be made, but they endured it, and as a result they are able to share moments like this together.

The whole Azucena Family.

Through the Eyes of a Child

2005-06-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I feel like such a little kid here, seeing everything for the first time. The smallest things amuse me. The other day at breakfast, we had chicken nuggets. Only, the chicken nuggets were tiny! Mona just starting laughing when I began taking pictures of the chicken nuggets. (Mona is a housekeeper here at Ereza’s house. Most middle class families in the Philippines have housekeepers.)

Miniature chicken nuggets. So cute!

I also get surprised at so many everyday occurrences. Some things, I’ve never questioned before, like: how do they transport meat to the market? Well, I found out the answer to that question. In the early mornings, I like to walk/jog, and guess what I saw during one of my walks? I saw pigs being brought to the market on a pedicab!!! The pigs are huge. Easily 1.5 meters long and FAT. They’re already slaughtered and gutted, but they’re still transported whole, so they have a big slit down their front but they’re otherwise intact.

So here’s a pedicab. Now, imagine instead of a person sitting there, two big dead pigs propped up on the seats.
I was very surprised. I’m so used to the idea of big freezer trucks transporting our meat that I never questioned how it was done here. Now, I can’t get inside a pedicab without wondering if a dead pig was once sitting there. =P

Last weekend I got a chance to go with Mona to visit her family. Mona and her sister took me to the beach near their house, where many of the locals spend their free time. Now, when I first think of beaches, I think of beautiful resort type places. I was really shocked by how polluted this beach was. There are houses built right along the shoreline, and from the water’s edge to where these houses are, it is a carpet of garbage. In some places, you literally could not see the sand. And even in the sea, all you see are pieces of garbage floating about. Mona told me that this beach used to be very clean, but through the years, people have just kept throwing their garbage here. It made me so sad because I can just imagine how beautiful this place once was. Foreigners used to visit this beach, but since it is so dirty now, they never come. In my Canadian mindset, I could not imagine bringing kids here to play or swim either. But the locals still come. Even though I was there very early in the morning (6 am), there were many people already there. As polluted as the beach is, it is still their beach.

Cheering instead of work?

2005-06-17T03:10:00.000-07:00

I have moved to yet another place! For the next month, Lizette and me are staying in the guest room of our co-worker Ereza. It’s a pretty nice place. We get our own room and our own bathroom so we have our privacy, and it’s not as lonely as staying in the pension house, because the family is just downstairs.

Last weekend, I got to visit Lizette’s hometown Cadiz and I got to meet her family.

This is Lizette and her two kids Troy Jhon, Trixie Joy and her nephew Errol John (EJ).
We are at the beach near her house.

The kids are all adorable. Troy says he wants me to be his girlfriend! Haha. And EJ was teaching me dance moves. He’s a very talented dancer!

I also got to visit Sagay City. In Sagay City, they were celebrating their charter day. It’s pretty cool, for the whole week, the government employees are exempt from work and get to participate in events like basketball and volleyball instead. They have teams based on their departments and at the end of the week, they have a big cheering contest. I got to see the cheering contest and I have to say, it’s pretty impressive! The cheering teams have approx. 30 people each, and the cheering routines are actually really long (5-10 minutes each)! Besides cheering, they also dance, have tons of different formations, and some even have a little bit of gymnastics included in their routines. It was so impressive because these were all government employees (some of them were pretty old too) and they only practiced for a week. I can’t imagine our government employees in Canada doing that.

This was the team that won the contest. All the teams had their own uniforms too!

I think it’s interesting how the Filipinos have so many days off for the government employees. I just found out yesterday that they have Birthday leaves!!!! I was trying to get in touch with the City Administrator and I found out that he’s on his EXTENDED birthday leave. LOL. They also have Anniversary leaves for married couples, and Enrollment leaves for when they enroll their kids to school. I think they just try to find as many opportunities to take days off as possible. =P

I’m going to end off with a joke my co-worker told me about Filipinos. It actually illustrates some of the problems that I'm facing here, but I think it’s ok for me to say it because it was a Filipino that told it to me. =p Here goes:

A man dies and goes to hell. When he gets there, he finds out that every country has it’s own hell, and you get to choose which one you want to go to. He first visits the American hell. He looks in the gate and sees nobody inside. He asks the gatekeeper, “What happens in there?”

The gatekeeper replies, “First, they make you sit on an electric chair for 2 hours, then they make you lie down on a bed of nails for 3 hours, and then the supervisor comes and whips you for the rest of the day. They punishment is pretty harsh, that is why nobody comes here.”

The man thanks the gatekeeper and moves on. He finds out that the punishment is the same for the Chinese, German, and British hells. When he gets to the Filipino hell, he sees a long line up to get inside. He asks the gatekeeper, what the punishment is, and the gatekeeper tells him, “First, they make you sit on an electric chair for 2 hours, then they make you lie down on a bed of nails for 3 hours, and then the supervisor comes and whips you for the rest of the day.”

Confused, the man turns to one of the people in line. “This is the exact same punishment as all the other hells. Why are you all lining up for this one?”

He responds, “They make you sit on an electric chair for 2 hours, but there are always brownouts. They make you lay on a bed of nails, but there are no nails because they have all been stolen. And the supervisor is supposed to whip you for the rest of the day but they supervisor is a civil servant, so he just punches in his time card and goes home for the day.”

Ginny 1, Cockroaches 1

2005-06-08T06:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I killed my first cockroach!!! I was quite proud of myself, and my success greatly renewed the confidence I had in my cockroach fighting abilities.

Alas, my victory was short-lived. At the office, when I went to the washroom, I was faced with a situation in which the cockroaches brought reinforcements. There were AT LEAST 5 roaches…one-on-one I can deal with, but I just can’t hold my ground when there’s so many of them! I’m sad to say that they got the better of me and I retreated…=(

I don’t know what it is about cockroaches that terrify me. I think I can even deal with the frogs in the shower...but the roaches, definitely still having problems with them. It doesn’t make sense logically; I know I am bigger, stronger and possess the power to kill them with a single shoe strike, but the sight of even one makes me tense up with this irrational fear.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the people here love to tease and scare me with cockroach stories. Raian, one of the trainers, keeps telling me how they bite. He says that when you’re sleeping, they’ll attack your face, and will especially target your eyes. And because I’m visiting her house this coming weekend, Lizette takes every opportunity to remind me of how her house has too many roaches to count.

But I will not admit defeat! By the end of the summer, I will be the winner of this battle! Beware roaches, beware!

Miss Daycare Worker of Talisay

2005-06-04T00:03:00.000-07:00

This is Lizette, my Filipino partner in the setup of the SCALA center here in Talisay. She calls me a calendar freak :p She laughs at me all the time because I love making schedules for each day, even though I know that they will never be followed.

Yesterday, I got to see my first beauty pageant in the Philippines! Beauty pageants are very popular here. The city, the high schools, even elementary schools will have annual beauty pageants.

The one I saw yesterday was for “Miss Daycare Worker”. It wasn’t a serious event, more of a fun event to celebrate the end of Daycare Worker’s Week. Lizette and I were asked to be 2 of the judges for the event. It was really fun! I think that Filipino’s have a really good sense of humour. There were 4 contestants, and one of them was a 53-year-old women. She was hilarious! I loved how she was so willing to go out there, and dance, pose and strut her stuff, even though she was so much older and physically not the typical beauty queen. We awarded her the “Darling of the Audience” award. =)

Here’s a pic of the “Miss Daycare Worker 2005 of Talisay”. If you can believe it, she’s the mother of FIVE children!!!

PICTURES!

2005-05-31T03:28:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to downloading some pics =)
Here is a pic of my family in Cabanatuan! It's nanay, Rose, tatay and me!

And here is a picture of me and Jay Mark on his motorbike outside of the SCALA center. That was the very first motorbike I've ever been on!!!!

Here is someone climbing a coconut tree. I asked Jay Mark how they got the coconuts off the trees and he laughed at me...But then he took me to his friend's place and we got a live demonstration =) It's so weird. They just kick the coconuts off! You should have seen my face when the first coconut came crashing down. LOL.

AND we got fresh buko (unripe coconut) juice!

Finally, here's a picture of gorgeous Tacloban that I was gushing about. Looks like it's straight off a postcard non?

Beautiful Tacloban...

2005-05-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

This past week I spent some time in Tacloban undergoing the last of my training. It was absolutely gorgeous there. We stayed right beside the ocean so that was an added bonus. Scenery was postcard perfect: ocean, coconut trees, mountains over the horizon...It was amazing. Pictures to come...haven't been able to download the driver for my camera yet...)

I loved it there, but I had a hard time justifying to myself why I was there. I kept thinking about my host family in Cabanatuan and the other youths I met there. None of them have had a chance to visit such nice places before, even though they live in the country. I know that this is how the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) normally conduct their trainings because it is actually more expensive to rent out facilities in Manila, but i still couldn't shake off the guilty feeling.

Another weird feeling I have often is just a feeling of disorientation. I have such a difficult time reconciling the opposites I encounter here in the Philippines. In my mind, it's so hard to associate the poverty that I see with the beauty of the land. It feels like I'm stepping into two completely different worlds.

The day before we went to Tacloban, we went to a pretty big mall in Manila. I had the same feeling of disorientation when I was in there. Inside the mall, it was like I could have just been inside a mall in Canada. Big shops, western fast food chains, flashy electronics. It wasn't much different from Square One. But once outside, there's street children, barefoot with torn and dirty clothing, begging for money or even asking you for your empty plastic water bottles. The extremes in this country are crazy...

Back in Manila

2005-05-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

So, I am finally starting a blog. It seems like I have a million things to write down...maybe I should have started sooner...

So I've been in the Philippines for 11 days now. In some ways, it feels like it was just yesterday that I was in Toronto, but at the same time, I feel like Toronto was a lifetime away.

I came back to Manila yesterday night. So, for the past few days, I had been in Cabanatuan. I was only there for 6 days, yet, I miss it the city and the people so much! I met so many amazing people there. I know that whatever I write about them here cannot do them justice...

The family I stayed with, I will miss them the most. I never would have thought that I could become so emotionally attached after only such a short time. I surprise myself at how happy I am when I receive a text msg from Rose, the daughter of the family I stayed with. (People here in the Philippines love to text each other on their cell phones. It's odd, but it's the preferred means of communication here. EVERYONE has a cellphone...They're even more common than in Canada). And it makes me melt because the way Filipinos talk, sometimes it's like they're talking in love songs. I mean, when you receive messages like "Goodnite my sister, I give you my heart always", who wouldn't melt at that?!?!

I will also miss J Mark (I never quite figured out if J was an initial, or if it was Jay, a full name). He is one of the trainers at the SCALA center. Besides giving me my first motorbike ride ever, I was also very inspired by his maturity and his desire to learn. I wish I could have gotten to know him better but I'm very glad for the talks that we had. He also took me around the city on the weekend. I got to see some of the more rural farming areas of the city. The way of life there is so much different than in the city...The families there all had so little, but still, they would all try to offer me drinks or food...The hospitality of these people are amazing...

There was one other place that J Mark brought me to, that just seemed so out of place. It was a memorial center for heroes of WWII. It was a beautiful park, but it seemed so alien in the city. To get there, we drove past many impoverished neighboorhoods, many neighborhoods of squatters where there is garbage all along the streets, and then suddenly, there's this lush green park, with trees planted arounda large circle, and these engraved stone walls. J Mark told me that the American government helps give money to maintain this park. (the park is a memorial for Filipino and American soldiers) It looked like it was a piece of US planted into the city. I can't say I like the park...it feels like it is just a way for the US to keep a hold of the city.

So, on a completely different note, today, I tried balut (aborted duck fetus). Yes, I know that sounds so appetizing eh?! It actually tastes almost like egg to me...but it's just really gross to look at cuz you can see the features of the duckling...and I got some beginnings of feathers/bones in mine...so that was my adventure for the day! :p

And yesterday, i took the best shower EVER! Haha, back in manila, I'm staying at Sarah and Chad's place (the 2 long term volunteers here). They actually have a shower, that has a showerhead!!!! and their washroom was soooo clean!!! No bugs, spiders, geckos or FROGS sharing the washroom with me!!! Haha, I felt like such a princess taking a shower there. The simple pleasures of life =D