extra time

I have some extra time this week so I'm throwing up an extra blog post for all my fans out there.  Need to ask a question to everyone who reads this blog first though... If you have a skype account please leave your account name on the comments.  I just bought a webcam when I was in the city last weekend, so I would like to be able to see and talk to you all.  But back to interesting things going on here....not much as happen since my last post on Saturday/Sunday.  My cluster has a current Peace Corp Volunteer that is spending the week with us. He is stationed up in Northern Luzon (the island where Manila is) so it took him 12 hours on a bus to get to Manila.  Then he took a 1 hour flight to Iloilo for those of you who still dont understand Iloilo is the BIG city next to my site.  Then my site is about a 1 to 1.5 hour bus ride from Iloilo.  The Philippines is not that big, but if your site is rural then traveling makes for a bitch.  Anyway he is a great resource for questions because he has been here for two years already and will be extending his service for six months to see some of his projects through.  He speaks the language fluently and told us to not rush with the language, that it will come in due time.  Tips from people who have been through the "ringer" are always very welcomed.

Monday was U.N. day so our local high school put on a parade during the A.M.  Our language class went out to watch the parade, which was cool.  Every time there is a parade, party or "pisto" there is a beauty competition.  So, the end was brought up by MISS U.N. 2009 and in the car in front of her were the candidates for this year.  Filipinos love these pageants, parades, competitions and the like.  During the afternoon we of course had our tech training and Elliott presented on the Bantay Dagat (coastguard) who protect MPA's (marine protected areas) if your site has one.  Ben presented on fisheries management, both presentations will be very important in my day to day routine at my final site.  I am going to be setting up and maintaining an MPA and the Bantay Dagat is responsible for protecting it.  I also will doing alot of fisheries management, doing a fish census when I get there in November.....Comparing the results to the data that they currently have and see how the fish are trending... 
Tuesday we had GRAMMER day which is always very tiring.  We learned how to use the affix PA which designates a command.  We went through which is called "actor, object, and beneficiary" sentences all in the past, present, and future.  We were given example sentences and then we had to write our own and present them to the class.  Grammer is definitely the most challenging part of Ilonggo because the verb always is the first word in the sentence, the structure is completely different from English.  Tuesday afternoon we got more shots and had a lecture from the PCMO (peace corp medical officers) on nutrition and drinking.  Drinking here in the Philippines is a way of life.  I have walked to my language class NUMEROUS times at 745AM and there are fishermen in barkadas' (drinking circles) trying to get me to take shots of rum.  The alcohol is extremely cheap here and is quite plentiful, many volunteers develop drinking problems during their service....  The vast majority of locals do not comprehend the concept of alcoholism, so it can make for a deadly combination.  However, drinking with co workers and government officials is a great way to bond and develop personal bonds/friendships which go a long way in getting things done.  If you don't develop relationships with your co workers and other officials who are put in charge then you will never see tangible results.  The Irish think they have a legendary drinking reputation, I challenge any Irishmen to come to the Philippines...
I will be presenting to my fellow trainees on Thursday on Solid Waste Management.  So, I have been doing quite a bit of research and using our current peace corp volunteer for advice.  He spend the first year he was at his site planning and implementing SWM programs and had tremendous results.  Tomorrow we got more language training and then we will be going out to interview the local fishermen on what types of gear they use, how much their average catch is, and other fishery related questions.  I can't believe I wrote this much because nothing much as happened here in the last three days.  The heat is still completely crazy and the humidity is never under 90%, but some things never change.
Dason lang
Rob