san joaquin trip

Hello to all out there,
I have been pretty busy over here in my little corner of the world.  A lot has happened since my last post on Tuesday I think it was.  First off.. I added the address you all can send packages and mail to.  If you really feel generous and want to send me a package of some kind there are some instructions... First being, ANYTHING that gets set to me goes through Manny (the mail guy) in Manila.  He opens up everything; letters, packages, etc. So no illegal contraband of anykind please.  Second, when sending a package the sender needs to PREPAY taxes, duties, and customs and make an itemized list of the contents of package.  If not, I will be stuck with the bill and when your making 120 american dollars per month it...lets just say it will be difficult for me pay.  I also added a picture to show some sort of contrast because life here in the Philippines is not all clean beaches and sunsets.  The poverty here is very real, my Nanay(host mom) told me the Philippines ranked as the 7th poorest country in the world in a study done this month.  So, I felt like I needed to show everyone who reads this blog what a "ghetto" looks like in a 3rd world country. 

Wednesday was like any other day here, same old thing with language and tech sessions and copious amounts of sweat.  Thursday was my day to present to our tech class... Every trainee had to pick a topic back in August to research and present and I presented on Solid Waste Management.  Luckily, last week we had a "resource volunteer" come and stay with us at our training site.  He has been here in the P.I. since 2008 and has helped to implement a great Solid Waste Management program at his site in Northern Luzon.  Sidenote...for those of you who have been following the news, his site is currently getting hammered by typhoon Megi.  I'm not sure if he was evacuated or if he stayed to ride it out, but all volunteers/trainees have been receiving tons of text messages warning us about the typhoon since Friday.  But, anyway he helped me give the presentation to our tech class and we used examples of what has worked at his site. It went really well and he gave us all lots of ideas and resources we can now use when we all go to our finals sites on November 6. 

On Friday, we went to San Joaquin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Joaquin,_Iloilo  It is about a three our van ride to the south of our training site.  We were put up in a nice resort for one night too!  But, we were there to snorkel three MPA's (Marine Protected Areas) and to conduct coral and fish assessments.  We did this for extra practice because our training site only has one MPA.  Even though it was only a three hour ride on the SAME island, the people of San Joaquin speak a different dialect than the one we are learning.  It was similar to Ilonggo, but there were definitely some different nuances.  It was a great trip because we were able to get back into the water and as I said above practice identifying fish and corals.  Most of us will have to conduct these assessments when we make it to our final site.  At least for my final site...Buenavista Guimiars their last assessment was done in 1997.  So, it makes it difficult to see if your reefs and fish are in decline or improving if you don't conduct assessments for over 12 years.  We returned to Banate on Saturday evening and I spent Sunday hanging out at the "resort" in town with some other trainees.  We did some swimming and I got some reading done too.  We only have about 3 weeks left here in Banate and the rest of the time will be spent implementing our community project for our tech class.  We also have an LPI (Language proficiency interview) between November 2-5 to see what "level" our language skills are at.  Someone from Manila will be comming down to interview us for about 20 mins in Ilonggo... which is going to be very challenging.
Dason lang
Robert