Unexpected adventure

Final stretch

Sat, 7 Mar 2009 16:52:56 +0800

My favorite thing about traveling is the feeling when a foreign place stops being foreign. I’ve felt that in the past two days here. We are attending the Rotary district conference in Davao, Mindanao. People from every club we’ve visited, including many of our homestay hosts, are here and it’s been so wonderful seeing so many familiar faces. I certainly feel like I will know some of them for a long time. That’s particularly true of the outbound GSE team members who are headed for NH come May. I’m so excited to return their generosity here and to help show them around.

Thursday night was a “fellowship” night during which the various clubs performed elaborate dances in Mardi Gras attire. There were many women over 50 dressed in very little clothing and fantastically confident about it. I loved it.

Our team, along with another GSE team visiting from Washington state, danced the chicken dance. It was a big hit.

The Governor’s ball was last night. We ate and drank and danced for hours. I also kissed a pig. (see above - taken after one too many shots of tequila) We’ve eaten every possible iteration of pig here - sausage, lechon (roast pig), fried pig knuckles, pig face ground up and stir fried with a fried egg over top. That last one was actually one of the most delicious things I’ve had here.

We arrived home at 4 a.m. We are staying with a very Catholic, incredibly sweet host, named Jun. He’s probably around 85 or older, lost his wife four years ago. Many kids and grandkids. A saint - he’s raised millions of pesos for Rotary projects - who has had a personal audience with Mother Teresa. He thought we didn’t come home at all last night and told us it was ok. “I’m very liberal,” he said. “I thought you might have been escorted.” Not so. We were eating BBQ chicken on a stick with our friends from Ormoc.

Tony and I take off Monday night and arrive in Boston early Tuesday morning. While we readjust to the cold and the snow, Katie and Amy will be lounging on the beaches of the world-famous Boracay. Back to reality...

Friendly Filipinos

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 23:48:49 +0800

A few random observations about Filipino people:

They aren’t shy. Very few people will refuse to take a turn on the mic when the Karaoke machine comes out. They sing their national anthem at every Rotary meeting and everyone sings. People are very familiar with each other and friends and family are very affectionate. Public dancing performances are a big part of the heritage - and nearly everyone knows how to dance.
They are incredibly accommodating and generous. We haven’t done anything for ourselves in the three weeks we’ve been here. As soon as we express even a slight need for something, it’s done for us. Sometimes it is great. For example, we wanted to take a side trip to Bohol and they made it happen for us. Other times, it has impaired our experience: We haven’t gotten to walk through a public market, shop at a fruit stand or interact with many people outside of Rotary.
Probably about one-third of the words and phrases they use with each other are English. They use the word “already” a lot. This is a weird observation, but it’s almost distracting how often they say it.
The Filipinos seem as though they are confused about which side of history they are on. They praise both Magellan - who brought Christianity to the land - and Lapu-Lapu, the chieftain said to have killed him who is honored for being the first and only leader to successfully take a stand against an outside conquerer. In a similar vein, they have a tortured relationship with the U.S. The U.S. rescued the country from the Japanese in WWII and gave the country its independence. But the Japanese had carpet bombed on its way out. The Filipinos had to rebuild their country from nothing (and really are still working at this). The Japanese were supposed to pay war reparations but didn’t carry out their promise, at least according to the people we’ve talked to. The U.S. helped rebuild Europe but essentially abandoned the Philippines, which has never really recovered. But, of course the country covets all things American.
Including our president. Most people talking gushingly about him. Remember that part of his inauguration speech when said that any nation with a corrupt government is on the wrong side of history? They think he was speaking directly to President Arroyo.
Corruption is pretty much an accepted part of the culture here. People seem to think that there is little they can do to change it. They have zero faith in the integrity of their elections - Arroyo has admitted on tape to rigging the race (for her second term - the first she took in a bloodless coup) but none of the efforts in Congress to impeach her have gathered enough steam.
The smartest most dynamic people either are too smart to get involved with politics, or don’t have the right family name to make it very far.
Much like the Spanish, they are very affectionate people. Friend hold hands, walk arm in arm and kiss hello and goodbye. They often hold onto each other’s wrists as they talk. I think this is how it should be everywhere.

A few of the friendliest people we’ve met so far:

(Above is Nestor Archival, a Cebu city councilor who has transformed his home into a laboratory of sustainable living. He collects food waste from local markets, composts it and uses to fertilize his many many rows of vegetables and flowers. He has a grey water system an his house is built of recycled materials - He has inserted wine bottles into the bricks throughout to let in light. He has at least a dozen employees from his local neighborhood whose job it is to turn recycled shipping crates into furniture - bed frames, trays, school chairs, etc - which he is stashing until he figures out what to do with them.)

(Gelo: part of the GSE team coming to NH. An assistant superintendent in Calbayog. Incredibly sweet. He is in his late 30s believe it or not.)

(Jonathan and Ruan - eating balut - my very funny Cebu hosts. Balut is steamed duck eggs in which the fetus is between 14 and 18 days. That means it has bones and a face and even feathers. I wanted to try it just for gastronomical bragging rights, but just couldn’t. I did try the “soup” which is the juice in the egg.)

(Their daughter Thandi, 2. She speaks some Visayan and some English and some of her own language. She can talk for hours, acting out tales and singing and dancing, but no one can understand what she’s saying. The other day I could only understand three words, which she kept repeating: trouble, monster and details. I have no idea how those fit together.)

(Clems, one of many foreigners we’ve met who is married to a very very young Filipina. I didn’t expect to like him, but he is really endearing. He a gentle way about him and he’s smart and thoughtful. Many of the others we’ve met - particularly the Americans - seem to be either running from something or were likely misfits in the states but can land a gorgeous girl here. It’s a pretty well accepted practice here - to meet a woman via the internet and to marry her, promising to care for her and her very poor family. It’s been something that has been difficult for us three women on the team to swallow.)

(Rose and Toto - my surrogate hosts in Cebu who have driven me around when Jonathan and Ruan are working. Super nice and lived for a bit in Nashua, N.H.)

(Dr. Ziegy and Anya - both coming to N.H. as part of the GSE team with Gelo.)

(Ilin from Ormoc. One of the few people I’ve met who like to hike in the beautiful mountains here.)

(Norma and Trina - my hosts in Tacloban. Polar opposites. Norma wouldn’t stop talking. She’s really interesting - never been married, travelled all over the world, former tourism head. Trina is super soft-spoken, also not married and took over Norma’s job).

Monkeys and dancers and dogs, oh my!

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 20:28:31 +0800

Just a quick post to give you some details about what we’ve been up to the last couple of days. After we returned from Dumagete to Cebu, we participated in a Rotary district bowling tournament. We were probably the worst team here. They take bowling pretty seriously there. Several of the Rotarians have something called “bowler’s thumb,” a disfiguration caused by a few too many pitches down the alley.

Then next morning, we left for a night away at a beach resort in San Remigio owned by one of the Rotarians. We had a relaxing small-talk-free day - no scheduled tours or Rotary meetings to present to. Our only task was to soak up the sun.

We returned to Cebu yesterday afternoon. Our friend Christian and his parents, Toto and Rose (Amy’s hosts), took Amy and I to a convention showcasing the arts, crafts and culture of the Visayas region, which is the central Philippines. We ran into a few of the Rotarians we’ve met along the way - Mayor Mel and Gelo, one of team members who will be coming to NH in May, both from Calbayog, and Trina, one of my hosts in Tacloban. It was great to see familiar faces. We watched an incredible performance of the best cultural dances in the region. There were thousands of people involved. Each province had a dance troupe of at least 100 people, plus a band. It was like an orderly Mardi Gras parade on stage.

These really don’t do it justice:

This morning, we hopped a two-hour ferry to Bohol, land of the Chocolate Hills - a stretch of more than 1,200 naturally formed, perfectly cone-shaped hills created over millions of years by coral deposits being pushed out of the sea and then shaped by the weather. The hills are covered with little more than grass because the topsoil is too thin to support much more. In the dry season, the grasses turn chocolate brown. It’s breathtaking:

We stopped to pick up some local delicacies - coconut rice wrapped in banana leaves. Then, it was off to see the Tarsier monkeys, said to be the smallest primate in the world. They look like hybrids of an owl, a small possum and E.T.

(Amy and the tiny tarsier)

We made it back to our host’s neighborhood just in time to see the sunset. He brought along two of his six german shepherds, (he also has six armed guards at his gargantuan beachside home - more on that later). Dogs aside, it was gorgeous.

Charme

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:16:23 +0800

I received this e-mail from Charme, a student in Ormoc who gave us a tour of her high school a little over a week ago:

hi! its me.......charme.......remember I am the one who tour you in our school right??????from Valencia, Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines......u know i really miss you all with your co-workers and I am hoping we can chat with each other if you are not busy............... I will always pray for you sisters for your success in life.............. do u remember when you ask me if i can take up college ? yes i can't because we are indigent family sister i'm hoping that you can do something to help me in my study. You know i'm willing and love to study so that i could help my parents...........

Renabell

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:29:17 +0800

My teammates and I have started to talk about fundraising projects that we might be able to work on when we get back - particularly for college scholarships. A little money goes a long way here and there were far more students who want to go to college than can afford it. We’ve all been moved by our visits to schools here. I was particularly touched by one today.

We took a day trip to Siquijor, a small island - with about a 75 km circumference - that is a 30-minute boat ride from Dumagete. It’s known as a mystical island - home to many renowned magic makers and “witch doctors” (more on that below). My photos don’t really do justice to how beautiful this place is - white beaches, lush green hills, big bright flowers, and incredibly friendly people. It’s understandable that it has become a popular place for foreign retirees.

We visited two elementary schools where Rotarians are working on projects here. One in the town of San Juan has the only classroom on the island for children with special needs. One students there was a blind third grader who is learning to read and write braille for the first time. She is 26 years old. I am 26 years old. Her name is Renabell. She started first grade at age 17. She was sweet and soft spoken and seemed, in just the few minutes I met her, to be an eager student. But the classroom had about 12 students and two teachers. The students range dramatically in age and disability and the teachers have few resources. This was in the same school where the principal declared the first grade building condemned. He is waiting on money from the government to fix it. In the Philippines, he said, they wait and wait and wait.

(Renabell’s classroom)

(In every classroom we’ve visited, the students stand when we enter and say very distinctly, “Good morning visitors.” These students followed us out to our cars.)

We also paid a visit to a healer - this 84-year-old woman who lived in the mountains. She treated Tony, our team leader, for chronic pain in his neck. This involved blowing bubbles into a glass of water with a pebble in it and running it along his neck. The water turned a dirty brown. She also whispered things over him and massaged his neck with oil. I think I have a very open mind about these kinds of things, but I didn’t find this treatment in particular very convincing.

(Here she works on another Rotarian)

More impressive was this banyan tree we visited, said to be 400 years old.

I must say adieu to my bamboo hut early in the morning. Back to the big city for us.... sigh.