3 Months in

Well, I’ve reached three months. The time has definitely gone quickly and it’s a little hard to believe really! But I’m finding it interesting to reflect on what’s been and what’s to come. I have today (Monday) off as it’s been declared a public holiday. Pangulo Gloria is giving her State of the Nation Address (SONA) today at 3pm and it’s been a rocky 3 months for her as well. I’ve been wanting to write a post about it, but partly I don’t want this blog to bee too po.itical and partly I feel a little underqualified as I am still learning the ins and outs of the political system, what actually happened with her and Mr Garci, and the implications of what will happen if she is removed from office (there is no real viable alternative). But my overall impressions are that this country could do with an overhaul of their political system. Whether that means a move to federalism, more drastic moves towards a parliamentary system or a range of radical reforms I can only contemplate. But power is strongly and systematically concentrated in the elite classes in this country and most of the poorer population of this potentially rich country are sadly missing out.

3 months in and I’ve managed to dodge the Maynila bug – or so I’d thought. It’s been an up and down week. Thursday I lost my appetite for most of the day and felt a little under the weather. Friday I seemed to recover a little until an evening of Indian food and cocktails (what was I thinking??) resulted in the development of a closer relationship between be and the toilet – yes, both ends. By Saturday afternoon I felt ready to eat, but my stomach was still very tender and still is. So it hasn’t quite hit me (apart from the 12 hours or so on Fri night – Sat morning) and I’m hoping my relatively strong stomach will fight those evil bugs.

Being here for 3 months has also made me reflect a lot on what I want to do in the future and where I want to go after my time here. We keep saying to ourselves that we don’t have to think about it yet, there’s still 9 months to go – but I’ve always enjoyed considering the future, where I want to be, what I want to be doing. I definitely enjoy development work and would love to spend more time overseas. Philippines is great, the people are wonderful, but I feel like I’ve been cheating a bit in a country where everyone speaks English, my counterparts are highly skilled and intelligent and where I’m living in a high-rise, a bit away from the rest of the community and isolated from the real culture. I get a bit of it at work and I keep saying I should stop using English so much – so why don’t I?

OK lang! Makikita ako sa Pilipino at subukan harder. Sige?

Maynila has become a city we are currently battling with a little. It’s still hot and muggy and dirty and busy and Filipinos walk really, really (talega?) yes really slow, especially when you are in a hurry (like it’s raining – don’t you want to rush to get out of the rain you crazy people? Do you have soy sauce in your brain!! – I like that Pilipino saying!!). Plus our fridge, stove, spare toilet and sink are all broken and the phone still hasn’t been connected. But for the most part we are staying positive. We’ve hired some people to come and clean for us twice a week – Neil doubled the amount they were going to charge as it was ridiculously low. And it’s been great coming home to a nice clean and tidy house. The woman (Joy) is even arranging for things to be fixed and is on the case with our phone connection – so she is worth every penny (or centavo I should say). So she is really making life a little easier for us. So there definitely remain some positives – great people at work – cheap shopping – the promise of more travel out to the provinces and best of all, we’re not in cold Canberra!! But hopefully we’ll be able to expand our knowledge and appreciation of this diverse country over the next 3 to 9 months – I’m sure the time will fly!

Adiyos kaibigan!

EMEM (My Pilipino nickname!)

posted by batik billy @ 12:16 pm