updates

Lets see here quite a lot to update since my last post.  On Saturday my neighbor across the street who is also hosting another volunteer (Dan) had a birthday party.  It was the the third consecutive weekend that I have attended a birthday party.  I am sad to say that my streak might end this upcoming weekend, but another volunteers host brother is having a b day party.  So, I will remain optimistic to keep my streak going.  I have lots of pictures from the party, but the Internet connection is so slow here that it just takes way to long.  It took me over an hour for my last post (balut) because of all the pictures I uploaded.  We made a trip to the city (Iioilo) in the morning to attend the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center.  It was basically a place where they raised fish, sea cucumbers, seahorses, etc to either study and gather research or to release back into the wild.  It was pretty insightful, but the other trainees and I had a long night drinking so we were anxious for it to end.  After the tour we went to the mall to get some supplies.  I bought some floss, soap, deodorant, etc.  And after we all did our shopping we sat down for pizza and beer which was great although it costed an arm and an leg (400 pesos per person).  You can buy a whole chicken here in my town for 90 pesos.  We arrived back home in Banate in the late afternoon and I took a nap before the party started.  I was woken up to the videoke machine blaring out lyrics to "yeah" by little jon.  So, I quickly showered and made my way across the street.  Like always...there was a ton of food and I wasn't really hungry because I had gorged myself on pizza at the mall.  But, Filipino culture dictates you not only eat at these parties, but go back for seconds and thirds.  There was lasagna, spaghetti (always present because it dictates long life), beef ribs, fish, and some tasty desserts.  After we all finished eating the videoke started around 730 745PM.  Amie (birthday women) turned 28 and she is really cool I get along with her very well.  I had joked about her getting us a bottle of Tanduay (rum) and I guess she had one of the helpers go fetch one because there was a bottle waiting for us outside.  The men drank the rum while the women drank beer and we all sung videoke all night.  Some longer than others I think I called it quits around 1145pm, it was a blast. 
Sunday was uneventful just kind of sat around and hung out with the host family.  Went to the local resort with some other volunteers and went swimming in their pool.  Monday and Tuesday were just regular days as far as language goes.  For technical we spent Monday and Tuesday making a soci economic survey for Wednesday. 

So today is Wednesday for all of you in America....I have just returned from interviewing 5 households with Dan along with the help of our teacher for translation/facilitation purposes.  It was very interesting to see the different answers from the various people we interviewed.  We had questions such as: Do you think trash is a problem in your community?  Where do you get your drinking water?  Has the potable drinking water improved or declined in the last 10 years?  Please rate condition of your beach, reef, mangroves, seagrass...  The people who we interviewed who lived within 500 yards of the beach all had opinions on coast and the people who lived over 1000 yards from the beach (still really close) had no clue or idea what was going on with reefs or seagrass.  We will be analyzing all the data this weekend to put into our coastal environmental profile which is the culmination of all the assessments and surveys we have done.  We will leave a copy behind  for the mayor/municipal hall so they can identify their assets/resources, where they need improvement.  It is a blueprint of their city and how their citizens perceive problems and resources.  And if another volunteer is stationed here in the future it will be a valuable resource for them to consult.  I hope my final site has some sort of a coastal environmental profile  or else I will be repeating this again...not to the same degree tho.  My hands hurt now so I will be signing off.  I will try to post some pictures on my next post. 
Dason lang...
Robert