Drew and Jenny had stayed over on Thursday night…Kate on Friday…Jonathan and Charlie on Saturday and again on Monday…and Thursday…and Jonathan almost came on Friday and Drew and Jenny were set to come on Saturday but then cancelled….and until/unless they change their housing to something closer to their national office (which I live fairly close to; they’ve modified their job scope and will be spending more time in the office than they anticipated), I may be hosting some combination of them one or two nights a week. I’m glad for the extra foam pad I requested for the top bunk, for the air mattress I bought after that, for sarongs I bought in Mindoro that can double as towels, for the air conditioning and for the already-used-several-times-now no-bake cookie recipe. I do have just one room but it turns out that I can accommodate guests relatively comfortably – at least by Peace Corps standards – and I’m happy to do that. I’ve said it before – I like our little group. I think I need more seating though – we end up standing around in my room for breakfast. Yesterday they started to make a room for the new PCRV, who arrives in-country today. She’ll be working right next to the Taguig building, but Sir Tony decided she’d be happier and safer living here and not there.
Turns out that they didn’t show my (first-ever) youtube video at the Morocco COS conference – but I was told that I was talked about quite a bit. I have kept in touch with several PCVs over there and I guess I have been quite a resource on Life After Peace Corps! I sent out the link to the video to those for whom I had an email address; I’ll take it down soon, but if you want to see it later, I can email it as an attachment. And now I may help Kate with a video here (it’ll enhance my editing skills, which could use some enhancing).
And I’m reminded that my nature is my nature. So far I’ve enlisted one person as potential company for the Manila Bay cleanup – but when I sent that notice in to the Weekly Update editor I also mentioned that if any PCVs wanted to help with a Habitat for Humanity build they should let me know. So far three people have signed up, and I’m guessing the new Habitat PCRV will want to come too, and possibly the other Manila PCRVs (they can see Habitat’s materials and methods – and add some muscle!). We’re going to do a three-day build in Calauan, followed by a thank-you rafting trip, with transport, lodging and food all taken care of by Habitat – as they take care of any group of volunteers. If you want to organize a group to come over for a build, let me know! The Philippines is one of Habitat’s (and possibly the world’s) premier volunteer tourism destinations, with its beaches and other recreation options (and its lack of language barrier for English-speakers).
I was reading a New Yorker article about the UNHCR (United Nations High Committee on Refugees) workers in Chad. One person said that aid workers fall into two categories – runners and seekers. That person said that the business is full of women 35 to 45 who are strong, competent, good at what they do, and single. Another person categorized the people into three “M”s – missionaries, misfits and mercenaries. What they are doing is much more intense than Peace Corps, of course, but that article did strike a chord. I think I’m probably in some sense a runner AND a seeker - and a misfit – but that means I fit right in.
And yesterday’s news included the sinking of a Philippine ferry – 900 people were saved, a few were drowned, some are still missing. I have read about Philippine ferry sinkings in the past, but at the time I was on the other side of the world. Now it’s a little more scary. Chances are I will be flying to other islands and not taking ferries (except for going back to see Mary… and that route had a couple of sinkings in the past year or so too) – flights are not too expensive, and they save a lot of time – not to mention the safety issues. This ferry sinking had nothing to do with this weekend’s tropical storm, Labuyo – maybe more to do with boat maintenance.
Today is a holiday because of the death of someone important in the Iglesia ni Cristo, a religious group based here. But I am working because of the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum. I also worked on the holiday for Corazon Aquino’s funeral, when the international group was here. It seems unseemly to ask for comp days, but I’ll see what I can do….
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Some Pictures from Week Five
A typical pedestrian overpass:
Bagong Silang from above:
Bagong Silang streetscape:
A Peace Corps moment:
Another Peace Corps moment:
Mercedes and her sister:
The gang:
Pineapple farm:
Asian cow:
The view from the ridge:
The view from the shore:
Going up the path:
Relaxing on the top:
The lake inside the crater:
Bagong Silang from above:
Bagong Silang streetscape:
A Peace Corps moment:
Another Peace Corps moment:
Mercedes and her sister:
The gang:
Pineapple farm:
Asian cow:
The view from the ridge:
The view from the shore:
Going up the path:
Relaxing on the top:
The lake inside the crater:
Tagaytay and Taal Volcano
For the weekend, Mercedes was in Manila to celebrate her 74th birthday; on Sunday, she invited our little group to her sister’s house in Tagaytay. She had arranged for a van pickup and a home-cooked traditional Filipino Sunday lunch. Tagaytay is a resort town for Manilenos (which needs a tilde) – high on a ridge, it’s cool. People have summer homes there or just go down for the day or the weekend.
Mercedes is delightful – I’d like to have her spirit and her energy when I grow up! – and it was wonderful to see her. Her sister is also very nice, and some other family members were there, as were some of her high school friends – friends for 60 years! Mary couldn’t make it because it was a critical time for her project, but the rest of us were there. We took a walk around the subdivision, looking at the different houses and the flora – pineapple, guava, coffee growing (some fauna too, later – Asian cows).
Lunch was beef with rice, spaghetti with meat sauce, an egg dish that may not be traditional but for which I want the recipe, a potato salad and another similar salad, sweet potatoes and green beans and fried bananas – and for dessert, a cake made with sticky rice and brown sugar, a cake made with corn and coconut milk, and homemade ice cream in avocado, cheese, and ube (a kind of sweet potato) flavors (I didn’t eat everything I have listed, but am just relating what was there!). I bounced among various groups of conversation and then just relaxed while others cleaned up (something I don’t usually do – I liked relaxing!). Everyone left to go back to Manila except for the Manila PCRVs – taking advantage of the holiday weekend, we stayed over!
We took a walk – nice to be in the country – and had a drink at a place on the non-valley side of the ridge, overlooking Taal Lake and Taal Volcano. The lake is in a giant caldera, and there are over 40 cinder cones and other volcano formations that are islands in the lake. It’s a beautiful setting. We then lucked out with the first restaurant we tried – I had some fantastic pumpkin soup.
We got up early the next morning and took a tricycle down to Talisay, a lakeside resort town. From there we took a boat across the lake and hiked up the volcano; there are several hikes in the area, but we took the main route, a 45-minute easy climb. Most of the other visitors were riding horses up, but we walked. And inside the crater was another lake, and inside the lake was another little volcanic island. So there was a lake inside the crater inside the volcano inside the caldera on an island in an ocean….
When we returned to the resort of our boat hire, the proprietress (who is married to a Dutchman) had prepared lunch for us – Lake Taal tilapia, rice and vegetables. It was delicious. We got back to Manila in time for a book signing by the founder of their partner agency, and then went to another Makati watering hole. It was a great weekend!
Mercedes is delightful – I’d like to have her spirit and her energy when I grow up! – and it was wonderful to see her. Her sister is also very nice, and some other family members were there, as were some of her high school friends – friends for 60 years! Mary couldn’t make it because it was a critical time for her project, but the rest of us were there. We took a walk around the subdivision, looking at the different houses and the flora – pineapple, guava, coffee growing (some fauna too, later – Asian cows).
Lunch was beef with rice, spaghetti with meat sauce, an egg dish that may not be traditional but for which I want the recipe, a potato salad and another similar salad, sweet potatoes and green beans and fried bananas – and for dessert, a cake made with sticky rice and brown sugar, a cake made with corn and coconut milk, and homemade ice cream in avocado, cheese, and ube (a kind of sweet potato) flavors (I didn’t eat everything I have listed, but am just relating what was there!). I bounced among various groups of conversation and then just relaxed while others cleaned up (something I don’t usually do – I liked relaxing!). Everyone left to go back to Manila except for the Manila PCRVs – taking advantage of the holiday weekend, we stayed over!
We took a walk – nice to be in the country – and had a drink at a place on the non-valley side of the ridge, overlooking Taal Lake and Taal Volcano. The lake is in a giant caldera, and there are over 40 cinder cones and other volcano formations that are islands in the lake. It’s a beautiful setting. We then lucked out with the first restaurant we tried – I had some fantastic pumpkin soup.
We got up early the next morning and took a tricycle down to Talisay, a lakeside resort town. From there we took a boat across the lake and hiked up the volcano; there are several hikes in the area, but we took the main route, a 45-minute easy climb. Most of the other visitors were riding horses up, but we walked. And inside the crater was another lake, and inside the lake was another little volcanic island. So there was a lake inside the crater inside the volcano inside the caldera on an island in an ocean….
When we returned to the resort of our boat hire, the proprietress (who is married to a Dutchman) had prepared lunch for us – Lake Taal tilapia, rice and vegetables. It was delicious. We got back to Manila in time for a book signing by the founder of their partner agency, and then went to another Makati watering hole. It was a great weekend!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Meetings - and the End of the Tuna Sandwich
Highlight of the week – there’s somewhere to go for lunch! I had been told there wasn’t, but I guess I asked the wrong person. There’s a shuttle from the corner to a nearby mall (Rockwell, listed by Lonely Planet as one of the poshest in town) that has multiple food options! Someone asked me to go out to lunch there the other day. I was so happy! The people at work don’t go out due to time and/or money; eating there will cost me plenty of both and go against the corporate culture, but it’s worth it. The tuna sandwich (or occasional sampling of Filipino food) in the canteen was one of the most depressing parts of my life here – now I feel I have a new lease on life! It made my week!
Lowlight of the week – I rode the MRT during evening rush hour. I was in the women’s car, but even so, the crush of sweaty humanity – and the people sardine-ing into an already-over-capacity car – was so unpleasant that it might win the award for worst moment of 2009! I shall not ride the MRT in rush hour again. In other news – one of the things I bought for the Philippines that I didn’t have in Morocco was computer cleaner. I decided that it was long past time to clean my computer – and can’t find the computer cleaner! Did it not get packed? Fall out? Get lost? Not make it here in the mail? My search for it made for an opportunity to straighten all of my things. I did see some in a Mac store in Makati, so I can just get some more, but now I’m wondering what else I don’t have that I thought I had (other than the boxes that never made it to Morocco…okay, let it go).
That said, this was a busy and other-highlight-filled week! Monday was a holiday, National Heroes Day – I’m still writing up that trip. Tuesday we went into the Peace Corps Office to be brought to the Bureau of Immigration to get fingerprinted. I had a chance to talk to the Program Coordinator, picked up maps to use as wall décor, took books out of the library. The Bureau of Immigration is in Intramuros, the old historic area – I hope to explore that soon! I had some computer time in the Volunteer Lounge, and met a PCV who was just getting over dengue fever. It does happen here…. Not only that, but we received a volcano warning and a typhoon warning from the Safety and Security Coordinator this week, along with a mention of the PCV robbed at gunpoint and some other robberies that PCVs have experienced lately – per his note, the Philippines is one of the Asian countries hardest hit by the economic situation, and when unemployment is high, people get desperate. I guess I should be happy for the security checks everywhere I go – the trains, the malls, even the fast-food places – but I’m still not used to them.
In the afternoon, my counterpart and I went to a meeting with USAID that I had set up. They don’t usually fund housing but there are other possible ways to work together – they were very helpful and it was a good meeting and now I have some follow-up work. The next day, we went to a meeting at the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines; I had set that up too. As with USAID, not a lot of hope for direct support, but a lot of constructive leads and ideas and another good meeting – I think of both as coups.
I also attended an organizational meeting for the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum. The second of its kind, it will take place in Manila next week. Over 400 attendees from 30 countries will discuss many aspects of housing for the poor. I was already set to attend; with a week to go, several people in the office were drafted to help out. At first I was given a minor role but then the chair looked at me and all of a sudden I was in charge of summarizing every presentation – about 80 in all! Including, each day, five sets of simultaneous breakout sessions! I have to write a Power Point slide per session with the main strategic recommendations and cutting-edge thoughts by 7:00 pm each day so that it can be presented early the following day. I spent the rest of the week doing what I could do in advance, setting up templates and familiarizing myself with the agenda. I will certainly get immersed in the issues of housing for the poor! And potentially meet some movers and shakers in the field. I couldn’t tell how my supervisor felt about my taking this on (he later told me I didn’t have to – but the president seemed happy, and I think it’ll be good, though a lot of work!). After the Housing Forum, the rest of next week there’ll be a Habitat for Humanity Asia-Pacific Leadership Conference; I don’t have a role there at this point other than taking it all in. And late next week, the other Peace Corps Response Volunteer partnering with Habitat will start! We’ve been emailing this week and I am looking forward to meeting her.
One more really good meeting this week – tea with the Programming and Training Officer, the second-in-command at Peace Corps Philippines. She worked with Marilee, who was Acting Country Director when she started here; we both think of her as a role model. I wanted to network about Peace Corps jobs and non-profit work; in addition to getting some great job-hunting tips, we also had a fun talk! She’ll be leaving (her 2 ½ years will be up) before I do, but I’m planning to meet with her again before she goes (perhaps next time – at her suggestion - for dinner or massages!).
Lowlight of the week – I rode the MRT during evening rush hour. I was in the women’s car, but even so, the crush of sweaty humanity – and the people sardine-ing into an already-over-capacity car – was so unpleasant that it might win the award for worst moment of 2009! I shall not ride the MRT in rush hour again. In other news – one of the things I bought for the Philippines that I didn’t have in Morocco was computer cleaner. I decided that it was long past time to clean my computer – and can’t find the computer cleaner! Did it not get packed? Fall out? Get lost? Not make it here in the mail? My search for it made for an opportunity to straighten all of my things. I did see some in a Mac store in Makati, so I can just get some more, but now I’m wondering what else I don’t have that I thought I had (other than the boxes that never made it to Morocco…okay, let it go).
That said, this was a busy and other-highlight-filled week! Monday was a holiday, National Heroes Day – I’m still writing up that trip. Tuesday we went into the Peace Corps Office to be brought to the Bureau of Immigration to get fingerprinted. I had a chance to talk to the Program Coordinator, picked up maps to use as wall décor, took books out of the library. The Bureau of Immigration is in Intramuros, the old historic area – I hope to explore that soon! I had some computer time in the Volunteer Lounge, and met a PCV who was just getting over dengue fever. It does happen here…. Not only that, but we received a volcano warning and a typhoon warning from the Safety and Security Coordinator this week, along with a mention of the PCV robbed at gunpoint and some other robberies that PCVs have experienced lately – per his note, the Philippines is one of the Asian countries hardest hit by the economic situation, and when unemployment is high, people get desperate. I guess I should be happy for the security checks everywhere I go – the trains, the malls, even the fast-food places – but I’m still not used to them.
In the afternoon, my counterpart and I went to a meeting with USAID that I had set up. They don’t usually fund housing but there are other possible ways to work together – they were very helpful and it was a good meeting and now I have some follow-up work. The next day, we went to a meeting at the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines; I had set that up too. As with USAID, not a lot of hope for direct support, but a lot of constructive leads and ideas and another good meeting – I think of both as coups.
I also attended an organizational meeting for the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum. The second of its kind, it will take place in Manila next week. Over 400 attendees from 30 countries will discuss many aspects of housing for the poor. I was already set to attend; with a week to go, several people in the office were drafted to help out. At first I was given a minor role but then the chair looked at me and all of a sudden I was in charge of summarizing every presentation – about 80 in all! Including, each day, five sets of simultaneous breakout sessions! I have to write a Power Point slide per session with the main strategic recommendations and cutting-edge thoughts by 7:00 pm each day so that it can be presented early the following day. I spent the rest of the week doing what I could do in advance, setting up templates and familiarizing myself with the agenda. I will certainly get immersed in the issues of housing for the poor! And potentially meet some movers and shakers in the field. I couldn’t tell how my supervisor felt about my taking this on (he later told me I didn’t have to – but the president seemed happy, and I think it’ll be good, though a lot of work!). After the Housing Forum, the rest of next week there’ll be a Habitat for Humanity Asia-Pacific Leadership Conference; I don’t have a role there at this point other than taking it all in. And late next week, the other Peace Corps Response Volunteer partnering with Habitat will start! We’ve been emailing this week and I am looking forward to meeting her.
One more really good meeting this week – tea with the Programming and Training Officer, the second-in-command at Peace Corps Philippines. She worked with Marilee, who was Acting Country Director when she started here; we both think of her as a role model. I wanted to network about Peace Corps jobs and non-profit work; in addition to getting some great job-hunting tips, we also had a fun talk! She’ll be leaving (her 2 ½ years will be up) before I do, but I’m planning to meet with her again before she goes (perhaps next time – at her suggestion - for dinner or massages!).
Friday, September 4, 2009
At the Market
In keeping with the spirit of both the Peace Corps and the Philippines, I made up my own acronym. This week I launched what I am calling the ITEM-F – Initiative To Eat More Fruit. The trip to the market with Kate on Saturday helped. The closest market to me is EDSA Central, which is where I switch from the bus to the jeepney on my way home. In rush hour, people bum-rush the jeepneys. Since it’s a free-for-all and I want to keep an eye on my pocketbook and my computer, I used to be reluctant to also be carrying bags of fruit. But no more! I need fruit!
I like market pictures anyway. Here are some of the fruits I have tried and some I have yet to try. There are also bananas, pineapples, apples, and clementines. I miss pomegranates but I did have a glass of Pom juice just about every day in Southampton…. There are also papayas, but they weren’t particularly picturesque.
Rambutan – open it up and there’s a cool white fruit with a big seed – I’ll guess it’s a member of the lychee family. Hard to eat but refreshing:
Lanzones – same family, I think, though you wouldn’t guess it from the outside!
Atis – I haven’t had this yet but I hear that there are lots of seeds:
Mangosteen – my favorite so far (of course - it’s expensive) – the thick, hard rind opens up to reveal a small, white, segmented, fragrant, sweet inside – also with a big seed in the middle:
Mango – they say the Filipino mangoes are the sweetest in the world; far be it from me to dispute it. They have green mangoes as well, not as sweet:
Santol – I haven’t tried this either. They say it has a lot of seeds too. It looks apple-like to me but I’m told it is not!
Jackfruit – I haven’t tried this either! Hey, the initiative has just started (though I could never eat this big a fruit – some places sell it cut up):
Durian – this is the one that I was told about in Thailand – smells horrible, tastes great. I may or may not try this!
Coconut – I don’t see myself buying one of these either; there are plenty of places that sell the juice, which is refreshing but not my favorite:
Calamansi – small native citrus fruit; makes great lemonade, but I think they are too sour to eat. I just liked the picture:
I like market pictures anyway. Here are some of the fruits I have tried and some I have yet to try. There are also bananas, pineapples, apples, and clementines. I miss pomegranates but I did have a glass of Pom juice just about every day in Southampton…. There are also papayas, but they weren’t particularly picturesque.
Rambutan – open it up and there’s a cool white fruit with a big seed – I’ll guess it’s a member of the lychee family. Hard to eat but refreshing:
Lanzones – same family, I think, though you wouldn’t guess it from the outside!
Atis – I haven’t had this yet but I hear that there are lots of seeds:
Mangosteen – my favorite so far (of course - it’s expensive) – the thick, hard rind opens up to reveal a small, white, segmented, fragrant, sweet inside – also with a big seed in the middle:
Mango – they say the Filipino mangoes are the sweetest in the world; far be it from me to dispute it. They have green mangoes as well, not as sweet:
Santol – I haven’t tried this either. They say it has a lot of seeds too. It looks apple-like to me but I’m told it is not!
Jackfruit – I haven’t tried this either! Hey, the initiative has just started (though I could never eat this big a fruit – some places sell it cut up):
Durian – this is the one that I was told about in Thailand – smells horrible, tastes great. I may or may not try this!
Coconut – I don’t see myself buying one of these either; there are plenty of places that sell the juice, which is refreshing but not my favorite:
Calamansi – small native citrus fruit; makes great lemonade, but I think they are too sour to eat. I just liked the picture:
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Bagong Silang
I spent most of Friday at home, working on my monthly report. Peace Corps paperwork! I don’t mind it though – it will help when the time comes to write up my Description of Service, and it helps frame what I’ve done so far (not that the haiku didn’t frame it…). In the evening, I went to the mall (and now I hear from others that Shangri-La is one of the best malls in the city – Makati malls not included – so yet again it seems I really lucked out with my location) to meet Kate, one of the regular PCVs. I had met her a couple of times – during orientation and in the Peace Corps office – and I invited her over. She’s a neat person – interesting background, very involved in Peace Corps life here, productive volunteer at her nearby site; she would have COSed this August but extended for an extra six months (13 people from the batch that left the week we arrived – they call them batches here – extended for different lengths of time – so different from Morocco!). We had a quick dinner and went to see “Up.” A first-run movie in a plush movie theatre at a bargain (compared to the U.S.) price – wow! I found the movie quite touching, too. Four stars!
Kate stayed over, and in the morning we went out for a traditional Filipino breakfast – tapsilog, a compound word (and dish) consisting of tapas (dried beef), sinangag (garlic rice) and itlog (fried egg). It was surprisingly tasty and filling! We then went to the market nearest my home to buy fruit – Kate identified and described some of the items I didn’t know. Then we set off for Bagong Silang, a neighborhood about as far north as you can get and still be in Metro Manila, where Jonathan and Charlie live.
Bagong Silang used to have a reputation as the worst slum in Metro Manila – a million people are crowded into a space of five square miles. It didn’t feel unsafe or even overcrowded to me, though – there were a lot of people walking the streets and hanging out, but to me it seemed like a busy and thriving neighborhood! Nothing as fancy as a restaurant, but you can live there and get your basic needs met (except for the need for a less-than-a-three-hour ride into Manila!). Not to make light of it – I think the worst slums and shacks just weren’t on the main streets we walked on, and there is quite a contrast not only to Manhattan-like Makati but even to the more Queens-like neighborhood where I am. Jonathan and Charlie are staying in the home of the baranguay captain, which is by far the nicest in the area. The people who live in the house prepared a multi-dish Filipino meal for us (what a difference from the way I am living! – but their commute makes it too difficult for them to get their work done, so they are looking to give up the homestay life and move to somewhere more accessible). They are assigned to another agency that does housing for the poor, and we went to one of the villages that their NGO had built. Colorful houses, a sense of community. It’s bordered by shacks – in another phase of the project, the shacks will be replaced by more new houses; construction is ongoing. We played with the kids for a while; Kate, who is in the Children and Family sector, is a natural. I’m still a bit shy but was less so than I was in the orphanage. It helps to know some language – I could ask the kids their names and say a couple of other sentences. Taking their pictures and show them the pictures on my digital screen was a winning activity, though.
We then went on to the neighborhood market – it is big! Tables and tables of fruit and vegetables – much more than the market near me has – and a huge fish area. I miss the souk in Morocco, but the market (called a palenque) here is not all that different! With getting there, walking around and getting back, we were gone all day. Jonathan and Charlie came along to stay over with me since we were leaving early the next day. First, we went back to the M Café to meet some of the expats we had met there last time. One of them had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia – he was kidnapped at one point during his service, and the story he told was quite scary. I’m glad we were at an upscale café for it! One drink tends to be enough for me; after a while my mind left the conversation and I started thinking about my fellow Morocco PCVs, who I miss. Would they like it here? I also started thinking about Youssef and Abdou – I wish they could be here to see another culture. And I started thinking about my place in the scheme of things – I’m glad to be invited out by the guys, but I was never much of a bar person. Over the years I’ve had so many issues with belonging and not belonging. The other PCRVs are good people, and even though I may be different, I feel included (we all seem to like hearing each other’s stories). I think it also helps that I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I am comfortable with who I am in many a situation. That may sound like a lot of thinking that I was doing while conversations and beverages were swirling around me, but actually I was just letting everything swirl, living in the moment. That’s not to say that if they had expressed an interest in staying in and playing cards I wouldn’t have chosen that instead! But it was a fun day and evening.
Kate stayed over, and in the morning we went out for a traditional Filipino breakfast – tapsilog, a compound word (and dish) consisting of tapas (dried beef), sinangag (garlic rice) and itlog (fried egg). It was surprisingly tasty and filling! We then went to the market nearest my home to buy fruit – Kate identified and described some of the items I didn’t know. Then we set off for Bagong Silang, a neighborhood about as far north as you can get and still be in Metro Manila, where Jonathan and Charlie live.
Bagong Silang used to have a reputation as the worst slum in Metro Manila – a million people are crowded into a space of five square miles. It didn’t feel unsafe or even overcrowded to me, though – there were a lot of people walking the streets and hanging out, but to me it seemed like a busy and thriving neighborhood! Nothing as fancy as a restaurant, but you can live there and get your basic needs met (except for the need for a less-than-a-three-hour ride into Manila!). Not to make light of it – I think the worst slums and shacks just weren’t on the main streets we walked on, and there is quite a contrast not only to Manhattan-like Makati but even to the more Queens-like neighborhood where I am. Jonathan and Charlie are staying in the home of the baranguay captain, which is by far the nicest in the area. The people who live in the house prepared a multi-dish Filipino meal for us (what a difference from the way I am living! – but their commute makes it too difficult for them to get their work done, so they are looking to give up the homestay life and move to somewhere more accessible). They are assigned to another agency that does housing for the poor, and we went to one of the villages that their NGO had built. Colorful houses, a sense of community. It’s bordered by shacks – in another phase of the project, the shacks will be replaced by more new houses; construction is ongoing. We played with the kids for a while; Kate, who is in the Children and Family sector, is a natural. I’m still a bit shy but was less so than I was in the orphanage. It helps to know some language – I could ask the kids their names and say a couple of other sentences. Taking their pictures and show them the pictures on my digital screen was a winning activity, though.
We then went on to the neighborhood market – it is big! Tables and tables of fruit and vegetables – much more than the market near me has – and a huge fish area. I miss the souk in Morocco, but the market (called a palenque) here is not all that different! With getting there, walking around and getting back, we were gone all day. Jonathan and Charlie came along to stay over with me since we were leaving early the next day. First, we went back to the M Café to meet some of the expats we had met there last time. One of them had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia – he was kidnapped at one point during his service, and the story he told was quite scary. I’m glad we were at an upscale café for it! One drink tends to be enough for me; after a while my mind left the conversation and I started thinking about my fellow Morocco PCVs, who I miss. Would they like it here? I also started thinking about Youssef and Abdou – I wish they could be here to see another culture. And I started thinking about my place in the scheme of things – I’m glad to be invited out by the guys, but I was never much of a bar person. Over the years I’ve had so many issues with belonging and not belonging. The other PCRVs are good people, and even though I may be different, I feel included (we all seem to like hearing each other’s stories). I think it also helps that I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I am comfortable with who I am in many a situation. That may sound like a lot of thinking that I was doing while conversations and beverages were swirling around me, but actually I was just letting everything swirl, living in the moment. That’s not to say that if they had expressed an interest in staying in and playing cards I wouldn’t have chosen that instead! But it was a fun day and evening.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Month One in Haiku
I had a wonderful weekend and a busy start to what looks like a busy (at least) two weeks, and I’ll write all of that up, but first, I thought I would summarize my first month in haiku:
Waiting done at last
And then a long flight over
Hello, Philippines
Orientation
Six of us Peace Corps Response
I like this group lots!
On to Habitat
My new digs – Pasig City
It’s right near a mall
Down to work day one
Overseas marketing plan
Lots of ideas!
Historic moment
Corazon Aquino death
She did some great things
Field trips to sites
Reading, meetings, researching
Lists, and still more thoughts
Some integration
House blessing, trying new food
A little language
Some exploration
Around Metro Manila
Jeepney, rail and bus
Cemetery, Park
Pasig River, Museum
Embracing the malls
A volunteer day
With a group of Japanese
Put me top of world
And a getaway!
Mindoro, nearby island
Waterfall, beach, friends
All in all, happy
Work, home, pals, serving
One month flew by fast!
Waiting done at last
And then a long flight over
Hello, Philippines
Orientation
Six of us Peace Corps Response
I like this group lots!
On to Habitat
My new digs – Pasig City
It’s right near a mall
Down to work day one
Overseas marketing plan
Lots of ideas!
Historic moment
Corazon Aquino death
She did some great things
Field trips to sites
Reading, meetings, researching
Lists, and still more thoughts
Some integration
House blessing, trying new food
A little language
Some exploration
Around Metro Manila
Jeepney, rail and bus
Cemetery, Park
Pasig River, Museum
Embracing the malls
A volunteer day
With a group of Japanese
Put me top of world
And a getaway!
Mindoro, nearby island
Waterfall, beach, friends
All in all, happy
Work, home, pals, serving
One month flew by fast!
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