MY TRAINING SITE

Ok so I just found out where I will be spending the next 3 months for training.  I will be going to a city called Banate, in the province of Iloiolo, and on the island of Panay.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banate,_Iloilo 
I will be learning their local language called Hiligaynon.  I am a little bummed out that I did not get placed in the Taglog speaking group, but our teacher said Hiligaynon was not that difficult of a language to learn.  We will be departing from Manila tomorrow morning at 6 A.M. to catch a flight to our city.  Our city is classified as a 4th class municipality which means it is on the poorer side.  Cities here are rated on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being the richest with the most resources and 5 having the least.  So, it will be interesting to see what awaits me when I arrive tomorrow.

Yesterday a bunch of us went to the Mall of Asia here in Manila.  It was the first time we were able to get out of the resort on our own.  A group of 4 of us (Sarah, Morgan, and Thomas) took a jeepney to the mall.  It was quite the experience hopping on the jeepney for the first time.  The round trip costed us 16 pesos which like less than a quarter, so very cheap.  Our driver was very aggressive to say the least seemed like we were always an inch away from hitting another bus or motorcycle.  Once we arrived at the mall Thomas and I immediately went to Wendys and ordered double cheeseburgers.  We got the combo meal and our fries and drink were ridiculously small.  I think I got about 12 fries accompanied with about a 6 oz. drink, however it tasted exactly the same as back home.  We stuck out like sore thumbs while walking through the mall attracting the interest of all the female workers.  I am not kidding when I say every 10 seconds someone would say to us "good afternoons sirs" with a big smile.  From what I can gather they are very happy go lucky people that don't have alot, but love life. 

A group of us will all being going out tonight because the Coastal Resource Management volunteers will be going to three different parts of the P.I.  So, we will not bea ble to see each other for a couple months.  I will continue to update as much as I can, but I do not know what my training site will be like.  Hopefully it will have some Internet access readily available, but with it being a class 4th municaplity who knows...  Well I need to run to grab some lunch so I am going to sign off. 
Until the next update..
Rob