Ilocos Norte

When I designed the trip, there was an extra day built in – I figured we would figure it out once we got up north. What I really wanted to do was go whitewater rafting – there’s a place in Kalinga province that offers it, but Kalinga province is in a safety-and-security forbidden zone. I’ll jump ahead to say that when I got to Sagada, I met some Americans (an RPCV who is starting a business and a West Virginian who is here for a couple of weeks to train guides) starting a whitewater rafting business there. I could have gone had a group of at least five wanted to go – but out of 40 PCVs/others there for Thanksgiving, only an Australian and I had the desire, money and time flexibility to do it. It’s just as well – it would have meant skipping the rice terrace hike, which I think was my favorite day and place of all – but I remember how much I loved it in Bali and I may think about going (in Sagada? In a forbidden zone? Near Boracay?) after I COS but before I leave.

I thought Vigan might warrant an extra day, but we covered it in one. There are a couple of other UNESCO World Heritage Earthquake-Baroque Churches nearby, but the one in Intramuros covered it. I looked at Lonely Planet to figure out options and decided that what I most wanted to do was go to Pagudpud, “the Boracay of the North.” Bill had already been there, but he was willing to go along.

We took the bus to Laoag, Ferdinand Marcos’s birthplace (his embalmed body is displayed nearby, but we ran out of day – which may also be just as well!) and from there a driver offered to take us around the province of Ilocos Norte. First we went to a lighthouse – the Princeton alum I had met in Makati had told me to go there. Then we went to a wind farm on the northern coast of Luzon – the sight of all of these windmills along the beach was quite impressive (as they are in California and Iowa, where I have also seen them). Further on was Pagudpud – a beautiful white-sand beach, not at all crowded. It was raining then but we took a little walk and had lunch (our other option was not hiring the driver and just taking the bus and spending the day at the beach – again, probably just as well if it rained all day, but it was still nice there). Then, back down south, we went to the Malacanang of the North, a Marcos palace. The exterior and the rooms were beautiful, but the furniture was somewhat worn (it could have come from a ‘70s American basement – I didn’t even take a picture) – you can’t photograph Malacanang in Manila (at least I couldn’t from the Pasig River boat ride) so this (and the
Imelda home in Tacloban) will have to do! It looks kind of like both of those, but is white.

Back in Vigan, we had some pizza and took a walk in the town center; there was a concert and there were a lot of people milling about. The park was decorated with colorful lanterns. Near the town hall was a holiday tree decorated with products of the region – tobacco leaves and wine bottles (nothing says Merry Christmas like alcohol and tobacco!). There was a relief map of the Philippines showing the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and a collection of sculptures of famous landmarks – Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Statue of Liberty, Great Wall, etc. – Bill said he recognized them all except the one in the middle, and I told him that it was a representative Spanish colonial home of Vigan. Oh well, I give them credit for trying.

Vigan

From the UNESCO web site: Established in the 16th century, Vigan is the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia. Its architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines, from China and from Europe, resulting in a culture and townscape that have no parallel anywhere in East and South-East Asia.

From a combination of Lonely Planet and my own observations: The architecture was influenced not only by Spain but also by Mexican and Chinese structures, and includes Filipino touches such as capiz-shell windows as well. The ground floor has stone walls and is for storage and/or work, and the first floor, made of wood to withstand earthquakes, has a large, airy sala for living. Bedrooms, a kitchen with outdoor space for cooking and washing, and bathrooms are upstairs. Founded in the 1500s, most of Vigan’s extant buildings date from the 19th century.

On Friday afternoon, Bill, the Gawad Kalinga PCRV who started at the same time as Julie, decided to come along with me. He was a good travel companion – good company, easygoing, fine with doing whatever I had planned. We met at the Starbucks at Shangri-La on Friday night and took the MRT to Cubao to get the overnight bus to Vigan. I actually slept decently on the bus – a combination of the hour, not feeling well and a Benadryl helped. We arrived in Vigan at around 7 am on Saturday and had a tricycle take us to the B&B I had reserved, Villa Angela, an old Spanish colonial house decorated with antiques. We put our stuff down and went in search of breakfast, through the quiet historic streets.

We hired a kalesa (horse and carriage), for a de rigueur tour of the town and environs. These included a 16th-century belltower, the Padre Burgos Museum with its artifacts of the region, a free zoo with exotic animals, a pottery factory that dates from 1824, a garden, weavers and the main church and streets of the historic district. On our own, we walked in the historic district, shopped a bit, and went to a couple of other small museums and houses. It was very pleasant to walk around – wide, clean, quiet streets and a very comfortable town. We had a nice lunch and a good dinner (highlight – they were out of mango shakes but I had a yummy grape shake) and retired early (we may have slept well on the bus, but not all that well, and the hot showers and antique beds at the B&B were quite inviting!).

Some Pictures of Food

The Hewitt girls (and other commenters) asked about the food here. We took the Habitat for Humanity International visitors to a Filipino buffet, and I snapped pictures of some of the more typical dishes (that is, those I could identify – the staff member with us couldn’t tell me the names of some of the dishes!).

Chicken Adobo – soy sauce and vinegar:


Lots of stews – chicken, pork, beef or fish:


Lumpia, like spring rolls – vegetable or meat:


There is lots of fish here!

More fried fish:

Pancit – noodle dish with a variety of meats and vegetables:


Salted egg – made by baking:


Shrimp – often used as flavoring:


Sisig – chopped pork or chicken, onions on a sizzling plate:


Some vegetables!

World-Wise School Questions

Before I launch into the trip narrative, I thought I would share with you some of the questions asked by my World-Wise Schools partner class, a seventh-grade history class at the Hewitt School in New York. Those of you who are or have children or are or know teachers might want to participate in this wonderful program! I did answer the questions and if you’d like to know what I said (some topics I have already addressed here in other posts), email me, but the reason for posting them is not that I liked the answers so much but that I liked the questions! I hope to visit the class and meet the girls when I return!

- They want to know more about the kids of the Philippines and also what the food is like.
- And they want photos of your journey. They are very intrigued.
- Is it that the Filipinos are Catholic that makes access to family planning limited or poverty? Or does the government have Church-influenced birth control policies?
- Are there nice beaches? Do you go swimming?
- Are you bringing back any sorts of gifts? What kinds of local handicrafts are around to buy?
- What sort of work do you do there?
- Why is the nation called the Philippines? Is the Spanish influence still visible?
- What American or Western perceptions have you shed due to your Peace Corps work?
- How has this service changed you?
- Are there any Jewish Filipinos? (The teacher told them this would be extremely rare, but they wanted my answer.)
- Why are there no vegetables?
- How are arranged marriages, arranged?
- What are the main Filipino sports?
- How long are you staying there?
- Does it ever snow there?

I should also mention the political massacre in Mindanao – this has made international news. There are still powerful family clans here, and as an opposition family and its supporters went to register, the ruling family gunned them down and then backhoed them into a mass grave. There’s a lot of outrage, but election time here means a lot is at stake. I’ll be gone before the elections take place in the spring, but the volunteers here will be on alert. Mindanao is where most of the violence is and it is off-limits to us anyway, but it was quite a contrast to be reading and hearing about this while in the peaceful and beautiful mountains of the north….

Subic and More

On the Wednesday night of the build, the PCVs from afar who were still in town and the PRCVs in Metro Manila all got together and cooked dinner – pasta with white sauce (I made it up, based on past tips from Morocco PCVs combined with my own improvising – and it came out well!), sautéed vegetables (with spices – which have been missing from my cooking here), garlic bread and salad. It was delicious – but more, it was fun to cook with a group. This was a big part of my Morocco experience and the first time I had done it here. Inshallah, it won’t be the last – it was a good time!

We had billed the build as three days on site and a reward day of recreation; that’s the way Habitat organizes their volunteer builds. For our reward, we went to Subic Bay, site of the former US Naval Base. The base closed in 1992 and there are various things they are doing now with the site – some tourist attractions and some retirement communities – but the area has the air of lost economic support. We had what Julie referred to as an unfavorable travel-time-to-activity ratio, but it was a fun day.

We arrived and found a place for snacks and mango shakes with bubbles (I don’t know how long bubble tea has been around, but this was my first, and they have yet to grow on me). It was nice to sit and chat – almost tempting to stay there for the day – but our destination was the pristine forest. Most of the Philippines (I think I recently read 80 percent) has been logged (largely illegally), but this part of the forest is pristine – the military used it for jungle training. Good old US military! We took a hike with an Aeta guide. Also called Negritos in some places, the Aetas were here prior to the arrival of the majority Malays. They are small in stature, darker than most Filipinos, and have kinky hair.

Our guide showed us some of the plants that were used for jungle survival – what was good for diabetes, good for stomach, etc. Bamboo and other plants could be cut for the water inside and used for plates, utensils and other tools. It was an interesting tour and a nice walk. Then a tribal elder in native garb did a fire-making demonstration. We would have liked to walk to the Aeta village, but there wasn’t enough time. Instead it was back on the bus and to the Shangri-La mall for Mexican (might our next cooking event be Mexican night? That was popular in Morocco!).

The next day I worked from home, writing up the Habitat International visit from the previous week and making CDs of build pictures for everyone who participated in the build. I felt a little tired and achey after non-stop activity, guests and/or travel starting with Veterans’ Day a week and a half earlier, but the better to sleep on the overnight bus that night!

My vacation came at a wonderful time. In addition to having the International guests and the build behind me, I had finished my big email appeals and gotten the USAID and other appeals ready to go – in other words, I was at a good breaking point in my work. And also in my service – in a way my trip north was the equivalent of my trip to the south of Morocco after COS conference. After the vacation week, there are about eight weeks left here, still almost a third of my service - plenty of time to get some work done, but also a good time to transition towards the finish, summarizing what I’ve done to date, starting the final report/plan, and then prioritizing what to do with the remaining time. The vacation was wonderful – it’ll take a while to write everything up (and this month’s haiku will be late), but for now I will say that I saw some breathtaking parts of the Philippines and had a terrific time and returned invigorated and ready to get back to work (and to travel some more!).

Peace Corps Habitat Build - Part Two

Day One of the build contained the most heavy lifting – was that by design? If so, it was a good idea! On Day Two, there was still some gravel to move, but just a few feet over, so there would be room for a delivery of new gravel. I hadn’t had a chance to shovel the day before, so I did that for a while. Other people were making concrete interlocking blocks – the Lego-like innovation of Habitat for Humanity Philippines. Volunteer-friendly and consistent. I rotated in to make these for a while and almost every block I made crumbled when I took it out of the mold. I decided to stick with it, and after lunch one of the homepartners demonstrated his method, pounding the sand in. I hadn’t been packing the sand in hard enough! After that tip, concrete-block-making was fun and productive! Other people painted beams, and then some of us moved scaffolding from one part of the top floor to another – those metal poles just kept on coming!

On Day Three, all of us painted, some rafters and some stair railings. I discovered something about myself – I am a messy painter! But then again, I didn’t miss any spots. I joked (at least I think it was a joke) that the next group of volunteers would come and remove all the drips and drops I left behind. Unfortunately, one of my pairs of quick-dri pants, my sneakers, and my Christopher Lesta Southampton 5K shirt will forever have paint on them, but at least they have a story to tell. At least the paint came off of my skin after a couple of days!

We ate lunches in a canteen in the neighborhood and I discovered a new dish that I like – pinakbet, a vegetable stew. None of that nasty bitter gourd! This was mostly squash and green beans (and the teeniest bit of meat). After our last day, we hung around in the streets outside the build site for a while, talking to the neighbors and having kids run and play all around us. Two of the regular PCVs said this was their favorite part about the Philippines – the smiling people and the happy kids. It wasn’t the elaborate party that Habitat had thrown for the Japanese group, but it was just as rewarding.

I got so much out of the build – it was fun to put the group together and fun to work as a team. It was a lot of labor but nothing we couldn’t handle. I had been thinking that I wanted to do something more for my birthday – I did what I wanted to do earlier this year by traveling, but as I saw my friends back at home I realized that I’d like to do more with them as well – so I am now thinking of organizing a build in the spring in a Katrina-affected area for whoever can come. I think it would be a wonderful way to celebrate with friends!

Peace Corps Habitat Build - Part One

I had advertised it on the Peace Corps Philippines weekly update and in a couple of other places; some people had to drop out when the timing changed due to Ondoy, and others who couldn’t have come then were available now. Two of our PCV builders had to cancel at the last minute due to medical issues; both were husbands whose wives still came. One person brought a counterpart, one a fellow RPCV who is working in town but is not a PCRV. A Filipino expat who lives in Hong Kong and had always wanted to do this joined our group for a couple of days. All in all, we had twelve people on the build – five who came for all three days, and the rest for a day or two.

We went to Pasig I, where I had done the farewell day/little bit of sand sifting way back when. Lots of progress has been made, despite losing a month because there was still water blocking the way to the site (there is STILL water, but it’s navigable – and there’s a big mud line about waist-high on most of the buildings). The first building is almost finished, and they’re starting the foundation for the second one. The engineer and many of the skilled laborers remembered me – amazing.

We arrived in time for the morning devotion and then were given our assignment for the morning – moving a big pile of gravel from the front of the building to the back of the building. Shoveling, bagging, carrying and unloading were the assignments. We were getting in each other’s way until the break, when Charlie organized an assembly line/bucket brigade/rotation. His background is construction management, so he could see the efficiency in doing it that way. The skilled workers had just told us what to do and left it to us to figure out who would do what and how. It made me think about going back to school for a PhD in group dynamics, with my thesis on different groups of Habitat volunteers. Does everyone figure out a system eventually? Who assumes a leadership role? How do the volunteers work as a team? How does it differ with different types of groups (e.g. students, religious groups)? With groups from different cultures? I think this is an endless source of research!

In the afternoon, we moved sand – it wasn’t as heavy as the gravel, but by then, we were all tired. The women were dirtier than the men, probably from cradling the bags against their bodies where the men just carried them. We were all tired and sore and we went to bed very early and slept very well! The first night I had one guest in my room and three in the office – but then the couple went to the hospital and the pension, and the counterpart stayed one night by himself and then went home early the next day because people were fishing illegally in his jurisdiction. So the guest load was not only manageable but fun!