MPA & TILAPIA

I have settled back in at site after some crazy traveling as I have outlined in my past blog post.  Since returning from Morgan’s camp, PDM, and VEG training a lot has progressed with my two main projects at site.  I will begin with the assessments I conducted first being, in Nueva Valencia (Jensen’s site) which is the southernmost municipality on my island.  We did assessments for 4 days at three different sites around his municipality.  We conducted coral and seagrass assessments, snorkeling.  I point this out because it seems like CRM PCV’s in other parts of the Philippines have gotten to scuba dive while doing these assessments.  However, with us being on an island that is 40 km long we don’t have access to compressors to refill tanks.  Sorry for the rant…..  Jensen lives in a small nipa hut…. Steph (PCV in Jordan) and myself were there to help with the assessments.  Needless to say trying to find a place to sleep was an adventure.  I slept on the floor which is made up of bamboo and Jensen’s “mat.”  This entails a 1 to 2 inch thick mat that you blow air into.  Steph, being the only girl got the bed and Jensen was relegated to the hammock outside.  The mosquitoes were also quite bothersome.. We all got tons of bits during the night, so Jensen had to sleep in sweatpants tucked into his socks and a long sleeve shirt.  The first day we did seagrass assessments and were all viciously attacked by tiny jellyfish.  I was in the water for about 1 hour and had to get out because my whole body was getting stings all over it.  There are tons of little jellyfish, some you can see and some you can’t all over here in the Philippines.  The silver lining…. Jensen was a great cook for us… making vegetables and rice every night, WELL DONE SIR!

The next week was assessments at Steph’s site, in Jordan.  This is the capital municipality of Guimaras and a neighboring municipality of Buenavista.  PCV’s helping with the assessment were Steph, Elliott, Laura, and myself.  We spent 4 days assessing 2 different sites for a potential MPA that Steph wants to implement, snorkeling of course.  One of the highlights of this week was the awesome lunches we got to eat on the bantay dagat (coastguard) boat everyday.  In the AM we would head to the market and get fresh fish, rice, and veggies.  The PCV’s would do assessments in the morning and the bantay dagat would have some awesome grilled fish for us right when we got back.  Additionally, we found a little cave that had two holes or passage ways under the water that we swam through.  Overall both assessments in Nueva and Joran went well and we got some really good data for Jensen and Steph to use in the future.  I also was able to meet some representatives from NGO’s in Guimaras that I can tap for future projects.

Some brain coral in Nueva

Jensen's gnarly rash from either fire coral or jellyfish

N.V. Assessment Team

I came back to site with a newfound vigor and enthusiasm to my MPA project off the ground.  The MPA will be affecting two different barangays, so my counterpart and I went off to set up meetings with the two barangay councils.  These are like city councils, the lowest level of government that exists in the Philippines.  The first week of June we went to brgy Avila and the second week we went to brgy Umilig.  I presented the data we gathered during our assessments in February and also presented on what an MPA is and why it should be implemented in their specific baranagay.  The meetings went pretty well, but you can never expect anything to run smoothly. 

Brgy Avila thought that since the MPA is contained more in their brgy that they should have more say when we form the management council.  Brgy Umilig wanted to move the entire MPA to the north, taking it completely out of Avila and into the neighboring brgy to the north.  With the help of my counterpart and supervisor we were able to convince them to leave the proposed site as is.  Next week were trying to conduct a joint meeting between Avila and Umilig to get on the same page.  With the goal being to get a management committee formed and a barangay resolution written.  The resolution will then be passed on to municipal hall to enact the MPA into law. I am about 75% done with my VEG grant in which I am requesting 3,500 dollars for a plethora of items to get the MPA up and running.  Will have the grant submitted by Friday and hope to hear back from PeaceCorps by late next week. 

Presenting to brgy council of Avila

Avila brgy council

Lecture in Umilig

Counterpart breaking it down

Brgy council of Umilig and myself

Seal of Avila.  Map of Guimaras... Buenavista is in blue, jordan red, and nueva green.

BACKFLIP off the bantay dagat boat in Jordan!

Today we conducted our tilapia in cages aquaculture training to some beneficiaries (local farmers) for alternative livelihood.  There were representatives from my office, the provincial government, and the bureau of fisheries and aquatic resources for my region of the Philippines.  If you remember this was the grant my counterpart and I wrote back in November for 50,000 pesos…. Were just starting the project now.  Even though it is taking so long to get going it is going to be really helpful to the farmers, we are projecting they will make around 6,000 pesos per month.

I am just about at 10 months in country and I cannot believe it has gone by this fast.  It seems like times goes by at a snails pace or too fast.  As I look back at almost a year in country it is really amazing the amount of new friends and relationships I have developed here in the Philippines….. both, PCV’s and my Filipino friends.  I am happy with my experience here so far, trying sometimes but very rewarding.  I know when I go back home in a little over a year I will be a completely different person from the one that came here in August.  Those are my words of wisdom/deep thoughts.  Halong mga migs!

Dason lang

Robert

Patience is a virtue

Maayong adlaw mga partes!

Its been quite a long time since I have posted a blog update, and for that I am sorry.  According to my blog its been since March, 8^th the last entry was put up, yikes.  However, I have come to work today (Monday May, 16^th) ready to redeem myself for the lack of regard for my blog and its loyal followers.  So much has happened since early March here I really do not know where to start.  I have settled into my place rather nicely and only need to purchase some curtains and some flooring to make it complete.  I have been doing some “cooking” which entails pasta, fish and rice, and lots of peanut butter and bread.  Also, summer has been here for the past 6 weeks.  This is my first summer here in the Philippines and it has been pretty treacherous.  The heat and humidity are stifling; it is really similar to Southeastern summers with the humidity.  However, the one thing most Americans take for granite is AC, which we do not have much of here in the Philippines. So, there is not much relief except for taking multiple showers.. usually one in the morning, one at lunch, and one before bed.  I have developed a few small heat rashes that I also got during training when we first arrived here in mid August.  They have not been too bad, just have to throw some ointment on them and put some baby powder to dry the area out.  So, I shall transition from my ranting about the heat to some CRM work I have accomplished in the past 2 months.

I just came back from 20 plus day trip around the Philippines for work travel that has taken me to Calatagan (Morgan’s site) for a environmental youth camp, Manila (where I missed my flight back to site), Bacolod city (5 day long Project Design Management training, and Sagay (week long Volunteers for Environmental Governance training).  Starting with Morgan’s youth camp.. I spent 3-4 days prior to going to her site preparing lectures and games for the kids.  There were 5 PCV’s that pretty much ran the entire camp from morning till evening.  I presented on some various topics which included: Materials Recovery Facilties/ Recycling, Interconnectivity of Ecosystems, Water Saftey Training, and Tropical Reef Fish.  The camp went really well except for the last day when we took the entire camp (80 kids) snorkeling at a mangrove island.  The US Ambassador to the Philippines, head of PeaceCorps Philippines, and the head our sector (Coastal Resouce Management) were there as well.  So, Morgan had to leave the boat where we were helping kids snorkel to meet everyone.  Due to lack of communication which tends to happen here every once in a while.  Me and the other 3 PCV’s were stuck on the boat for over 2 hours waiting for the rest of the kids to come snorkel.  We got on the boat around 9 AM and finished with the snorkeling at 2:30 with some gnarly sunburns to prove it.  However, we were rewarded for our hard work at a cocktail party that was put on by the Ambassador, PeaceCorps, and USAID.  The party was held at the clubhouse of a golf course in Calatagan.. I know what your thinking…. PeaceCorps Volunteers and golf courses shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence or even same paragraph.  But, Calatagan is a really nice municipality which is pretty affluent due the close proximity to Manila.  The party was awesome… free food and beer and we got to “mingle” with the Ambassador, our Country Director, and some high ranking USAID people.  Some of the kids from the camp got to come as well, which was a great experience for them.  The camp gave me some motivation to start working with kids at my site.  It was awesome to see how much the kids learned and how into the camp they were.  I have been doing all fisheries work here and I hope to start working more with kids in the future.

The 5 of us at the youth camp... Peace Corps Volunteers planting trees, shocking

Water Safety Lecture

 I departed Calatagan to go to Manila to catch my flight back to my site (for 1 day) before I had to go to Bacolod for PDM.  However, usually a 3 hour bus ride took over 6 hours and I missed my flight.  So, I just stayed in Manila for two nights and grabbed a flight straight to Bacolod instead of going back to my site.  This presented one problem…I brought enough clothes for one week.  I was planning on going back to my site to grab more clothes before PDM and VEG conferences which were back to back.  I was not going to be returning to my site until May 14^th, I left for the camp on April 21^st.  Needless to say my clothes were pretty ragged and disgusting by the time I came back to site yesterday.  I was the brunt of many dirty/vagrant jokes during PDM and VEG.  PDM was helpful… all counterparts and PCV’s came to receive training on how to properly design a project that can be implemented and become successful over the long run here.  The project that my counterpart and I worked on was the implementation of our MPA.  We came up with a pretty solid plan that we are going to try to implement throughout the next few months here.  We also received training on the various types of grants and funding opportunities we can apply for a PCV’s in the Philippines to help assist us with projects down the line.  (Best part of the training)

After Bacolod the PCV’s and counterparts took a two hour bus ride north to Sagay City for VEG training/ coral gardening.  Sagay has a giant marine reserve and three well managed MPA’s with great corals.  The first four days were lectures about how they established the reserve and other ways they manage it.  The last 3 days were the best because we were all able to get out in the water.  The first day we visited an MPA on a nearby island and had lunch and did some snorkeling.  We meet with the community members who are really environmentally conscience.  The last two days were coral gardening training.. Tyler and Elliott (two other PCV’s) put this whole thing together and therefore get a major props and a shout out on my blog.  We went around a reef and found fragments that had fallen off corals and were in the sand, but still alive.  We then cut the corals into smaller pieces and wound them into a rope about 50 ft long.  Also we put more fragments into mesh nets that were tied to pvc pipes which we then zip tied to a table underwater.  Lastly, we did coral transplantation in which we made our own epoxy and “glued” on the broken off corals to a barren rock.  Our trainers were local Filipinos that were the authority on coral gardening, not only in this country, but in SE Asia.

Our banca during coral gardening.  Looks like a postcard

Me swimming under the coral ropes, PCV's & counterparts put  together 15 ropes with coral frags attached.

Me tying the rope to metal table.  There are about 25-30 little coral fragments tied into the rope.

Now that I am back at my site.. Actually, only for today because I am going to help another PCV on Tuesday- Friday with assessments because he is also proposing to implement an MPA at his site.  So, I will be leaving this evening to make the trip to Jensen’s site.  We will be doing seagrass/coral assessments and fish identification as well.  It was nice to be able to attend these conferences with my counterpart to put us back on track again.  We were staring to fall off a bit before the conferences and I can see he is motivated again to get our MPA implemented. 

CRM plans for June: The first week of June I will start to write a VEG grant for funding for our MPA, meet with the mayor to secure 25% of the funding from the LGU (Local Government Unit in which I work in)  which is required to get VEG grants.  Set up a meeting with the Department of Education head to see if I can start to get into some high schools and set up an environmental club for high school students and out of school youth.  Lastly, we will be setting up our Tilapia hatchery here in June as well which I spoke about during my last blog post.  So, things are starting to get busy which is a great thing! 

Vacation/Social Plans: I will be heading back to my training site.. BANATE for fiesta on June 24^th.  Really looking forward to seeing my host family whom was so good to me during my first three months in the Philippines.  It seems like so long ago when we all left for our sites in mid November.  I have booked a trip for 4^th of July weekend to go SURFING in San Juan with Morgan.  It is about a 4-5 hour bus ride north of Manila.  First time I will be able to surf since I left the states, almost 10 months.  I booked a trip to Vietnam in February as well.  Hope everyone enjoyed reading about a few highlights of my life in these last two months.  I will try and be more diligent when it comes to updates. 

Dason lang-

Robert

Pictures of my house

I finally was able to get a quick enough Internet connection to be able to post of pictures of my new place.  I am sure you all had a vision of what this place should look like.  But, this is what about 40 American dollars per month gets you in this beautiful country.  I think my rent is about 1/2 or 1/4 of your IPhone bill..... It is "studio" with a bathroom and a kitchen that two people can fit into at a time.  Simple living at its finest... 

View from the front door, cement floors throughout



My bed and a few chairs for entertaining



My bathroom complete with Filipino toilet that you bucket flush and a bucket shower. PeaceCorps style



Kitchen



Aloy, fish my friends and I cooked for my first night in my new apt.



Happenings

WOOOW, this guy has been pretty busy over the past few weeks.  It is a pleasant surprise to the sometimes lethargic pace that work gets done around here.  I’ll start off this post with the CRM related activities that me and some other PCV’s have assisted me with.  My counterpart and I finally finished off our barangay fishery profile that we started in the middle of November.  For those of you who forgot or don’t have any idea what I’m talking about I shall explain again.  We have 22 coastal brgy or “neighborhoods” if you want to put it in American lingo.  So, my counterpart and I went around to the majority of them and he finished off the last few this week.  Every brgy has a captain that acts like the mayor.  We first interview the captain since they know everyone in his or her brgy and asked them about the number of bancas (boats) used and how many were either motorized or non motorized, the type of fishing gear each fisherman used, the natural resources, and the main type of seafood caught.  If the captain didn’t know all the data then we would go to the local fishermen and ask them the questions the captain couldn’t answer. This gives my municipality (brgys make up municipalities) a basic picture of fisheries in Buenavista.  I believe the last fishery profile was done in the 90’s, but I don’t really think there was one done ever.  This was a good project for me because it gave me the chance to show my face to all the captains who you need to know if you want to do any activities in their brgy.  Also, it helped me practice my language because 90% of fisherfolk speak zero to very minimal English. 

Jensen, Stephanie, Morgan, and myself conducted a coral reef and seagrass assessment last week on the 24^th (my birthday) and 25^th.  We did this to get some baseline data on the area because my counterpart and I are proposing to put an MPA (Marine Protected Area).  This would outlaw fishing in the “core zone” of about 50 hectares to allow the coral, seagrass, and fish stocks to increase.  Many of my fellow PCV’s have anywhere from 1 to 17 MPA’s at their respective sites and I am trying to get one up.  So, that tells you a little bit where Buenavista’s priorities lay when it comes to setting up MPAs.  It was mildly successful only because the visibility in the water was subpar.  However, we were able to get some basic data on the propsed MPA and the coordinates that make up the core zone.  I just finished writing a 6 page report on our findings and the implications of our data if an MPA is not set up.  The next step will to have my counterpart read it over because reports and proposals follow a specific format that I am still not used to.  After that, we will have my boss sign off on it, then present it to the mayor and if he likes what he sees he will toss some cash our way to get started.  After they mayor, its on to the provincial government for perhaps more funding.  This will give us some start up money to be able to work with until I can start writing my VEG grant (volunteers for environmental governance) in the beginning of May.  I am hoping to get around 2-3 thousand in U.S. dollars which would be enough to get the MPA up with a very good chance at it being successful for years to come.  It would be great for me to leave something tangible for the people here to build off of when I leave. 

I do have one more piece of good news.  I was at a fisheries meeting at the provincial capital last Monday and my counterpart and I found out that we got the 50,000 pesos we requested to start a tilapia in bamboo cages culture project.  A quick explanation…we will buy about 3,000 fingerlings of tilapia and culture them for about 3 months until they become fry.  Once they become fry we will then give the fish to some local farmers that have applied to our office for the fish.  It provides an alternative livelihood for farmers (upland restoration) and gives them another skill to be able to earn income.  My counterpart already trained the farmers before I arrived here, so all the ones who applied for the fish know how to do aquaculture already.  The farmers will rear the fry for around three months and then sell them to the local market at 100% profit.  We give the tilapia fry to the farmers for free, so it’s a really good source of income for the farmers who are able to participate in the culture project.  We start this project in June, so right know we are scouting out some potential sites for good water impoundment areas to rear the fingerlings to fry. 

Social activities n such.. My Filipino friends here at my site had a birthday party for me.  My boss let me use the nipa hut that I usually work in to host the party.  In Filipino culture the birthday person has to buy all the food and beer for everyone, which is definitely different from US culture.  So, I have my friends 1,500 pesos in the morning and we went out to do our assessments while my friends cooked food for my party.  The menu included kinilaw (raw fish in vinegar), baka (cow skin soup in bone marrow broth), a whole turkey, and some grilled squid.  Jensen, Steph, and Morgan paid for the beer which saved my bank account.  It was a nice night and I’m really lucky to have such good friends here at my site.

I went rock climbing for the first time with Morgan on the Saturday after our assessments.  We found this adventure tour company on our lonely plant book and made reservations.  We were picked up in Iloilo and driven out to this national park with guides.  It was pretty intimidating at first staring up at this giant vertical wall of limestone that I was expected to climb.  But, I got the hang of it after a few tries and really enjoyed it.  Morgan and our guides were making it look easy and I’m sure I looked like a complete idiot to them as I fell repeatedly. After we went to eat some dinner with what I thought was one of her teachers from training.  We got to the restaurant which strangely happens to be one of my favorite places to eat in Iloilo and all of my friends from my training group were hiding in the corner…surprise!  We had dinner and went out to some bars around the city, it was really nice to see everyone again since were all kind of spread out now.   

After lunch today I will be going to the hospital to get my eyes checked.  I am starting to think I need glasses because I have been trouble reading things from a distance.  My eyes have gotten progressively worse since I graduated from college.  So, I am gonna go see what the doctors opinion is later today.  Thats about all the updates I can think of.

Dason lang

Robert

Moving out, Manila, and such

So it is official, I am now living on my own here in Buenavista!  I moved into my apartment on Tuesday and this past week I have been really busy buying tons of stuff for my place.  It is a really simple apt. with concrete floors, a tiny kitchen, with a smaller bathroom.  I took some pictures and I will try and post them on here at a later date.  My friends had a house warming party in which we cooked fish and rice and we used a cardboard box as a table.  It reminds me of my college days thinking you have almost everything you need for your place, but reality smacking you in the face when you realize you dont even have a table to eat food on.

I have been gearing up for our assessment of our MPA this week to. My counterpart and I went to the site and I did some snorkeling to familiarize myself with it.  However, the visibility was really low and I had to swim a good 400-500 yards to get it.  We will have two boats taking us to the 6 different points of the MPA so we will be assessing those 6 areas in the "core zone" to get baseline data.  I hope the mayor will be able to throw some money at this project because it is my main goal here.  I will start writing a VEG grant starting in April after we have a training.

I was at Morgan's site a few weeks ago which was really fun.  Except for the fact I had explosive diarrhea the entire weekend we managed to have a good time.  We went to this mangrove island one day, hung out at a few resorts, and I was able to meet many of her friends.  They made burritos the last night I was there which was a great meal too.  We ended up going to Manila with this guy that lives down at Morgans municipality on the weekends.  It is about a 2 to 3 hour drive, but 1 hour into the ride his car started to overheat and we had to stop every 5 mins to put more water in the radiator until we reached a mechanic.  We finally made it to Manila and we stayed at our favorite pension house and I ran into this British guy that I had met through another PCV.  So, we all went to this reggae concert thing because apparently it was Bob Marleys birthday.  It was one of the cooler experiences that I have had here in the P.I. because usually Filipinos like 80's rock and pop music like Lady Gaga and such.  Morgan almost managed to put her cigarette out on my knee which extremely unpleasant, I still have the blister to prove it... We got our butts out of bed early the next morning to watch the Super Bowl which was a great time too, started at 730 in the morning.  Overall a good time was had by all and am looking forward to my next trip back to Manila.  Gotta cut this post short because I was only able to grab this computer for 30 mins.
Dason lang-
Robert

1st month of the new year

Hello all...
The snail paced Internet at my host family's house went down sometime about two weeks ago.  I had a blog post written out on my computer and saved on my external hard drive to post.  However, I have better luck winning the lottery than finding a wireless connection at my site.  So, since I am so dedicated to all 15 of my followers to keep you all up to date I am writing a new one at an Internet cafe by my house.  Well I think my last post was just at New Years so I will share some of the CRM stuff I have done this month of January.  Starting with submitting our final draft for 50,000 pesos for our tilapa cage project to the provincial government.  My counterpart and I started writing it the first few weeks at site and turned in our rough draft probably about 6 weeks ago.  A representative from the provincial government came into our office last week to critique it and we ended up doing a pretty good job.  The main goal is within the next year is to get both local fisherfolk and farmers to be able to rent or own a tilapa cage in which we will provide training for them so they can grow and end up selling the fish they culture as an alternative livelihood.  This is really good news because the main project that I am heading up at my site is an MPA and this will cut fisherfolks income who fish within the MPA now.  So, this will provide them with an alternate way to make some more cash to feed their families.  We should be hearing back with our funding within the next 4 weeks, then we can take the next steps like finding a few sites for clean water impoundments, getting cages, feed, etc.  Another thing I finished up here in January is a proposal to my supervisor to get 2 other PCV's up here during the last week of February (my birthday) to conduct an assessment of our proposed MPA.  I got about 3900 pesos for transportation for the other two PCV's, food, and the other necessary materials for conducting our assessment.  Once that is done I will start on a VEG grant (volunteers for environmental governance) to get money to get our MPA up and running.  If your noticing a common thread here it is that there is not much money to be had which makes doing projects extremely challenging. But, this is just another challenge that we as CRM PCV's here in the Philippines must face.  It really depends on where you were placed because some sites have more money and drive to get things done than others.  Lastly on the CRM front I hope my counterpart and I will be able to finish the surveys of the 16 costal brgys sometime soon so we can present our fisherfolk data of Buenavista to the provincial government.  We have 7 done and currently and I have complied all the data in an Excel spreadsheet...so now its just a matter of getting the last 9 done.

I sprained my thumb in the second week of January playing basketball in our league.  It was playoffs and we had won our first game and I went out in the fourth quarter because I thought I had broke it for sure.  We ended up losing that game to the PNP (police) and they ended up winning the league later on that week.  But, the story that comes with the thumb is something I need to tell.  So, I immediately left the game and told my counterpart I think its broken.. so we get into some random guys car and he starts driving to what I think is the small hospital we have here in my municipality.  But, I soon realize that is NOT the case.. we drive 20 mins to some far flung area and pull up at this guys nipa hut and he comes out and takes me off to the side.  He speaks absolutely zero English.  So I am trying to tell him that I think its broken and I need an X ray, he clearly has no idea what i am talking about because he starts yanking on my thumb trying to relocate because I guess he thinks its dislocated.  I am screaming at the top of my lungs for him to stop, but this doesn't deter him he gives it three more violent tugs and puts some weird cream on my thumb and say "ok na."  Easily on of the most painful experiences in my life.  These guys are called hilot hilots and they are basically local "doctors" in really rural areas that have no medical degree, but sure ancient remedies and such.  I ended up going to a real hospital the next day and there was no break, but I had to wear a bandage on my thumb for 3 weeks and it is better now.  I actually played for the first time this morning, so it seems to have recovered fully.

I will be headed up to Manila this weekend to grab some materials for our assessment in February and then I will off to meet up with Morgan at her site which is about a 2 hour bus ride from Manila.  We are gonna do some camping and hopefully some scuba diving since her site has lots of dive shops where I can rent some gear.  I am dying to scuba dive, but it is something I am going to have to do away from my site because we dont have the money or the dive shops here for gear.  Lastly, my regional manager from the PeaceCorps will be coming to my site on Friday...she will  be talking to my host family, supervisor, and counterpart.  Then I will be taking her to the place I am trying to live at when I can move out on Feb. 15th.  That is all for now.
Dason lang
Robert

New Years & Cultural Sounds/Faces

So I am back here in Buenavista after a great New Years extravaganza.  As I mentioned in my last post we went up to Tibiao on late Thursday evening after we all finished work.  It was about a 4 hour bus ride through some pretty big mountains for Philippine standards.  The first two hours of the bus were very windy and all the divers here drive like they are trying to outrun the police… So needless to say we all had white knuckles trying to just stay in our seats.  We arrived in Tibiao where Sam was first assigned, but was transferred to another site for various reasons.  However, her old host family has lots of family in the states which means they are pretty well off.  They let us stay in their beach house right on the water with a flat screen tv, cable, screens on the windows, pretty much everything you would see in an American house.  They had a cook prepare us an amazing dinner and we sat around playing cards and watching an NBA game on t.v.  We woke up early the next morning and Sams old host family arrange a municipal vehicle to take us to the port to get to Boracay, about 2.5 hours.  They refused to take any money from us for the food, lodging, or the ride.  I know I sound like a broken record, but the hospitality in this country is unrivaled.  There were 7 of us, including myself, so it wasn’t like there were just a few people either.  They dropped us off at the wharf and we took a quick boat over to Boracay.  We took a tricycle to our hotel and I started to experience some mild culture shock because of the vast amounts of tourists walking around.  Old guys wearing nothing but speedos, girls in bikinis, etc.  All of us are living in mostly in rural province areas where everything and everyone is extremely conservative.  Everyone wears shorts and t shirts at the beach and obviously you don’t ever see another American.  There were people from Europe, U.S., Canada, and Australia it truly seemed like we were in another country after only a 20 min boat ride.  It reminded me a mix of Cabo San Lucas and Hawaii.  The beaches were amazing…white sand and clear blue water.  We spent our days hanging out at the beach swimming and our nights roaming around from bar to bar.  On New Years Eve we watched a great firework show from the beach.  There were two bancas about 50 yards out in the ocean launching fireworks.  We were able to eat some really good food as well.  Some decent Mexican food, pizza, and American breakfast!  It was a welcome change from the fish and rice that I get fed sometimes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The bus ride home was pretty miserable.  It took me about 8.5 hours to get to Iloilo then another hour to get back to my house.  But, the weekend was well worth it.  There were about 50 PCV’s from all over the Philippines, so it was nice to see old faces and also meet other PCV’s.  This week I will be working on putting together an IEC (information education communication) presentation for some schools or whoever wants to listen.  I am trying to take some initiative because everyone seems to be in a fog from Christmas and New Years.  I have my last regular season basketball game today, with playoffs starting sometime next week. 

I was talking to my parents on Skype the other day and was explaining to them the different sounds and faces Filipinos make during regular conversation.  Here are some examples….  If someone is talking and they cannot hear what your saying they will open their mouth (very wide) and tilt their chin down into their chest instead of saying “ano” which means what.  When passing someone on the street you don’t usually say good morning, afternoon, etc, but you raise your eyebrows at the person passing by.  When I do this they get a big smile on their face because it is something one can only pick up on after living here for a long enough time.  If your trying to get someone’s attention you don’t say their name or say “hey” you make a kissing noise with your lips.  You keep repeating the sound louder and louder until they turn their head and acknowledge you.  The sound is similar to when one would call for the attention of a dog back home.  The last sound/facial expression is if you ask a Filipino the direction of something, like the bathroom, he/she wont give you verbal directions, but will just point with their lips in the general direction of the thing your asking about.  If you continue to prod and ask for more specific directions they will sometimes point with their hands and say “didto” which means there, or “dirat lang” which means just there.  That is about as specific as you’ll get…needless to say I have spent over 10 mins just looking for the restroom.  I know when I get back home after my two years I will be doing these gestures involuntarily and my friends will think I am crazy….  That is all for now.

Dason lang-

Robert