Mabuhay sa Pilipinas!

(Welcome to the Philippines!)

10.25.10

We had been looking forward to September 2010 since we arrived more than a year ago, because it meant our FIRST VISITORS from home! My mom, Traci, and uncle Jeff made the more than 8,000 mile/18+ hour trek to the Phils and stayed with us here for 10 amazing days.

We met them in Tacloban, our nearest city and airport. From there we traveled together to our site in Eastern Samar and spent about four days so they could meet our friends and adopted family, see our community, and get a feel for what our day to day life is like.


[We checked out the beach on Calicoan Island, staying overnight right on the Pacific and enjoying the calming vibe of the waves]



[We hiked up to the yoga camp to soak up our only cool and breezy moments, while taking in the views of the Pacific]


[It was a must that they take part in the local ritual of hanging out at the town plaza at night and sipping on a "Sparkle for take out" - a Mountain Dew-like soda sold in plastic bags]



[And they met all of our people here - first an evening with our host family and then a trip to the municipal hall to meet our coworkers and the mayor]

Then it was on to vacation! Four days on the island of Bohol and two in Tagaytay, Cavite, with lots of traveling in between. Over the course of about a week we were seemingly able to do it all...

We stayed in 3 excellent places: Alona Beach in Bohol, with its touristy yet laid back strip of resorts and restaurants; a private resort on Panglao Island, Bohol; and a small hotel with award winning restaurant along the ridge in Tagaytay, Cavite, overlooking the Taal Volcano:






*To get there, we rode in or on nearly all forms of transport possible here:






*And while there, we ate like we haven't in a looong time:






*Some days were relaxing and some were packed with activities:

[strolling along Alona Beach, with its many resorts and restaurants]

[taking a one-day interior tour of Bohol, where we visited the tarsier sanctuary. Tarsiers are one of the world's smallest primates and they're endemic to four islands in the Philippines, including our island of Samar. These little nocturnal guys are about the size of your palm and can turn their heads nearly 180 degrees and jump crazy distances using their long tails. They also kinda look like Yoda...]

[going on a tough hike up to the top of the tarsier reserve, where we had an impressive view of the chocolate hills area. definitely worth it in the end, but also our most challenging trek yet!]

[visiting a butterfly garden and sanctuary]

[finally seeing the famous "Chocolate Hills" - one of the Philippines most popular tourist destinations. the more than 1700 hills, which seems to roll on forever across central Bohol, turn a brownish shade during the dry season, giving them their name]

[crossing a hanging bridge, just for fun]

[spending an evening in a karaoke room, of course. no Philippines trip is complete without]

[lounging in THE best pool I've ever seen for the good part of two days, with an amazing view of Bohol and Cebu in the distance]

[taking in the view of Taal Volcano from the ridge of Tagaytay. We visited People's Park in the Sky, the unfinished summer home of the Marcos family as well for another view of this 'lake within a lake and volcano within a volcano.' We couldn't visit the crater because it's had some activity lately (it's last major eruption was in '77), but the view was more than enough to make us happy]

We hope they got a good taste of what life in the Phils is like. We know we saw some very diverse parts of the country and sights that we'll never forget.

We spent our last day in Manila, taking in the urban setting and crazy malls. And then it was time to say our sad farewells...

[we all dealt with this in different ways, haha]

With one year left in our PC commitment, we're increasingly looking towards what is next, which can mean HOME:) It was so nice to have a reminder, if only for ten days, of what that's like.

Maiha Na!

(It’s been a long time!)

10.10.10
So, July and August…

July was a big month of transition for several reasons – first, it marked the political transition here in the Philippines. President Noynoy Aquino took office in Manila as Filipinos around the country celebrated, much in the same way as Obama’s transition was celebrated nearly two years ago. Locally, our mayor was re-elected for her third and final term. She has accomplished a lot in six years, mainly helping our town move from third to second class and promoting it as a tourism destination. In our province, the congressman, governor, and vice governor are all new. The city council is also full of new members. As the major decision makers, this transition impacts our work and we are trying to get to know the new folks in power.

The oath taking is a big deal, so we couldn’t miss it. After a series of speeches and oaths by the mayor, vice mayor, and city council, the municipal employees performed the Rigadon – which I liken to Filipino square dancing! Decked out in their formal attire (Filipiniana gowns for the ladies and barong tagalong shirts and slacks for the gents), they marched around the plaza in pairs, doing familiar-to-us-Ohioans do si dos and grand circles.



On the work front, our counterparts had a packed education schedule for us. We did a series of community events in the evenings, once it was dark enough for our video screens to be visible to the outdoor audience. (The months of July and August are prime for these events, since rain is scarce). Our portion of the program was on coral reefs, contrasting healthy reefs with images of reefs destroyed by cyanide and dynamite fishing, both of which are common in our community. We used the “Blue Planet” video series, and the community was amazed by the images of the reefs and its inhabitants. Although they live on the coast and many of them fish for their livelihood, very few have actually seen what it looks like UNDERwater and definitely haven’t examined a reef very closely. (We now have a new appreciation for our informal environmental education as kids in the US – thank you PBS!)


At the end of the night’s activities, we would host a quiz game to review the material. With Brandon’s techno music blaring and prizes provided by our officemates, this was a huge hit. The kids loved running up to the microphone to answer questions like: What is coral?


With one of our fellow volunteers who came for a visit, we went on a hike up to the PAGASA radar station in our town, which, as one of only a handful of radar stations in the country, detects typhoons coming in off the Pacific.

[radar station]
[there's a 360 view of both the Leyte Gulf and Pacific sides of our community from the station, if you're willing to make the hike!]

Mid-July was dedicated to the TBTP women’s group development, as the Department of Trade and Industry offered workshops on skills enhancement for them. In the first workshop, the women learned the basic weaving method for a making a bayong (woven bag).




At the end of the week, we held a graduation/celebration event and all the women displayed their products.

[the TBTP women heading to their graduation event at a local resort]

[the finished products from bayong workshop]

In the second workshop in mid-August, the women learned new techniques for dyeing and how to do double-wall construction for sturdier, more professional looking bags.



After these workshops, I headed off to Manila to help train the new Peace Corps staff (which turned into a wonderful two weeks of meeting fascinating and talented Filipinos) and Brandon visited a fellow volunteer who was about to head home at the end of his service. I spent the weeks working American workdays, 6am-6pm sometimes, which I was not used to! On his end, Brandon was able to indulge his new favorite hobby, doing six scuba dives (including two wall dives) in the Camotes Sea.

Then it was back to work at site in early August. As part of an effort to organize new fisherfolk associationg, we conducted leadership and communications trainings in three villages. In each village they are creating a new organization to protect their waters and increase livelihood opportunities. Our role was to give them some background and tools on leadership, how to create a constitution for the group, and elect leaders. The meetings went well and now there are three new groups operating in our community to help with coastal resource management.




Since we’ve moved into our new house, it’s been important to maintain ties to our wonderful host family. So we had them over for a legit Filipino dinner. Carol instructed us on how to clean the fish and helped us fry it, along with preparing chicken adobo, rice, and mixed vegetables. It looks simple but took a good half day to make this happen! We had a great time and think the fam enjoyed seeing our new place.



Next was a big project for me – registering the women’s group with the Department of Labor and Employment. The paperwork and bureaucracy were staggering, but the officers were cooperative. In the end, the docs were notarized and the president went to the provincial capital to make it official on August 31 – they are now a registered Rural Workers Association!

[the TBTP group ratifies its constitution and by-laws]

We finished the month with something we’d been looking forward to all year – attending the Initial Orientation of the new Batch 269 Trainees! We applied to serve as resource volunteers, representing married couples, and were luckily selected to attend. So we spent a week sharing our experiences and insights from the past year. Definitely felt very “circle of life” and allowed us to reflect on how much we’ve learned and changed in just a year’s time.