The Birthday Party, a photo essay
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Birthday parties and other food related things
The time for my site visit is slowly creeping up on me. We leave our cluster sites and travel to what will eventually be our permanent sites this coming Tuesday. We thought that we were supposed to go on Monday, but it’s Labor Day here and that means holiday for Read More …
A brief intermission number
No function in the Philippines is complete without an intermission number or two. Here we have some of the neighborhood dance troupes in our barangay’s 2006 Search for Miss Caroyroyan.
A not so secret admirer
I have the feeling that my family was either trying to set me up with a cousin or said cousin got the brilliant idea on his own, but now I have been receiving the very unwanted attention of a 30-something filipino police officer whose life dream is to go to Read More …
Return to Hub and Water Safety
So, a few days ago we left our cluster sites and returned to our hub site, which is where the training for the volunteers in this region occurs and where the training staff for our region is staying while we’re away. We had about 12 days with our families and Read More …
The Lenten Season
As one might assume, because the Philippines is a predominantly Christian (specifically a Catholic) country, the Lenten season is a pretty big deal. Our first few weeks at our cluster sites coincided with the culmination of all of this, so we had the opportunity to observe how our communities observe Read More …
Freedoms
It’s been almost two weeks at cluster and at this point I am happy, but also very ready to return to the hub site for a few days just to recharge my proverbial batteries. Life hasn’t been terribly demanding or frustrating, but it is a lot to take in all Read More …
A Moral Dilemma
As many may know, the Philippines is a very Catholic country. I believe it’s something like 92% of the country is Christian (there’s a large Muslim population in the south, near Indonesia) and probably 85% of the people are Catholic. Unlike the in the United States there is no separation Read More …
Life in the barangay
Life in the barangay (say: bah-run-GUY) is very different from what we’ve experienced so far. Peace Corps has been stepping down the level of accommodation since staging, likely to make the process of transitioning to a host family as smooth as possible. We will periodically return to our hub site, Read More …
At the cluster site
The last few days have been rather hectic. I haven’t had time to compose any journal entries, but I have plenty of ideas including a short thesis on the use of the car horn in the Philippines. Two days ago I came to my cluster site with three other volunteers. Read More …
Donsol revsited
As I said before, my hub group spent Sunday taking a trip to Donsol in Sorsagon. Before we even left Manila, we all expressed interest in going to swim with the whale sharks and our RVC managed to organize a group trip only 2 days after we arrived at our Read More …
Interacting with sharks
Today I “interacted” with sharks. Sunday is our only day off during training and as a group, we decided that we wanted to go see the whale sharks. It’s a plankton/krill eating shark that not much is known about and there is much excitement over. Apparently the city of Donsol Read More …