palenke and buko man
Last week there were some markets across from Malacanang, near our work. Here are some pics of some pretty typical Filipino type stuff. Sorry about the lack of written detail lately on the page - must have some kind of writers block.
Cooking 'bibingka' - rice cake which is cooked from both below and the top. 
Macel in front of a food stall selling spring rolls, fish balls, squid balls, fries, and other Filipino meriyenda items.Irene with the local 'buko' - young coconut - seller with one of Malacanang gates in the background. You both drink the buko juice with bits of fresh buko. I prefer the buko flesh to the juice itself. This man roams the area with his cart charging about a dollar. If the police catch him he must surrender his produce and pay a fine. The local council prefers that sellers are stationary and require a licence.
Work Pictures
Here are some pictures of work . . .
This is a picture of my work building.
My workmate Macel walking downstairs inside our building.
Workmates (minus Irene) pulling funny poses on the street where we get our lunch everyday. We eat out of plastic bags.
Anna and Irene in the office eating one of our many meriyendas (afternoon tea)
ASEAN Committee on Women
Last week I was involved in documenting the proceedings of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Committee on Women meeting in Manila. The purpose of the meeting was to agree on a workplan to operationalise a regional Violence Against Women committment made last night. Let's just say the lunch was exciting. Anyway, here are some pics.
Representatives at the ASEAN Committee on Women
The very talented documentors, Macel and Dette
Visit from Kevin
On the weekend Kevin, a friend from Australia who has been living in Papua New Guinea for the past 15 months or so came to visit us in Manila. It was great to catch up with him again and hear all about his time in PNG.
Neil and Kevin
Neil, Kevin and I at an Indian Restaurant in Makati
Neil with his broken shoe.
Training in Rizal
Last week Macel and I went to do some training in Rizal Province, about 2 hrs away from Manila. The purpose of the training was to orientate people from the University of Rizal on how to establish a Gender Resource Center. We had a look at the proposed site at the university and provided some technical assistance on the best way they could go about setting up a Center.
Macel and her presentation in the background
Our audience - Gender Focal Points from throughout Rizal Province, mainly based in universities.My counterpart Macel is a great trainer and is one of those people who can just stand in front of an audience and eloquently talk about an issue. It's something I need training on! I presented on some experiences of other Gender Resource Centers in operation throughout the country and had to read most of it from my notes. Perhaps I just need more practice . . .
One of my more 'tangible' outputs - a brochure I developed on Gender Resource Centers.
Star of the Family
You may need to focus in to see the writing! (My mom - pictured- has been chosen to as a baton runner for the Commonwelth Games!)
Iloilo
After only 2 day s back at work we were fortunate to be granted another day off to celebrate the end of Ramadan and Eid'l-Fitr. Instead of remaining in Manila, I took the opportunity to head down to Iloilo on Panay island and visit another AYAD, Sarah. Unfortunately Neil was not able to enjoy the Filipino public holiday, so he was left in Manila for the weekend.
It was a super early flight down to Iloilo, so after Sarah kindly picked me up from the airport we headed to meet up with some Australians and have some breakfast. The Australians who were in Iloilo were related to Sarah's work - there was the CEO and Chair of the Australian branch of
Opportunity International (OI), one of the vice-Chairs, and two couples who were interested in the work of Opportunity International and its partners as potential investors. We met up with them at their hotel, and after a quick trip to the local market we met with the local OI partners with whom Sarah is working with,
Taytay Sa Kauswagan Inc. (TSKI). TSKI is essentially a micro-finance NGO that works with the poor in providing them with credit to build or expand their micro-businesses. It's modeled on the successful Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Their programs also include micro-insurance and they are recently introducing micro-health insurance for members.
The main purpose of the trip was for the launch of a new program to target the poor who have not had the skills, credit or capacity to established micro-credit enterprises on their own. But in the morning we were fortunate to visit a few of the established community groups who had benefited from the micro-finance programs of TSKI. And I was happy to tag along to learn more about it all.
Walking through rice fields to get to the first community group
The local basketball court with cow.
The first community we went to was a little way from the main road through one village and across some rice fields. This community was using their loans primarily to expand their business in growing and selling vegetables. After viewing some of their gardens we talked with the group about the changes that have occurred since the micro-finance program began. Most of them cited improvements in their income and the ability to now send their children to school as important outcomes. When asked about what kind of alternatives they had in accessing capital they mentioned the 5-6 scheme where in the morning they were able to borrow 5 pesos, but had to return 6 at the end of the day. We were pretty shocked at this!! We then headed out to a second community where the micro-finance groups was composed totally of women. Many of them shared their stories with us and it was really interesting to hear the changes that they had gone through. They told of the importance of micro-insurance - one of the woman's husband had recently died from pneumonia and she was left supporting 4 r 5 children. With the money that she received form the insurance (which is part of the lending program) she was able to bury her husband and put the rest of the money in the bank. For people here with little money, the death of a major bread winner not only decreases the income of the family, but often puts many people into spiraling debt due to funeral costs.
Some of the Children in the local barangay
Women at their group meeting telling us their stories.
So it was a really interesting morning. Next was the formal launching of the Community Development program of TSKI. It was a pretty typical Filipino affair (long, with many speakers, each having to personally acknowledge basically everyone in the room), but the food was good! Finally the Australian's had to leave to catch a plane back to Manila so they wrapped up the program and Sarah and I headed off to her house. After dropping off our stuff we decided a Thai massage was in order. I'd never had a Thai massage before and while the process itself wasn't the most relaxing thing I've ever done, afterwards I have to admit, I felt pretty good. So we had to finish off the day with some Thai food and some tea at the local wi-fi coffee shop. We were both pretty tired by the end of the day and were looking forward to an early night before catching the 5.30 but to Caticlan and Boracay the next morning.
The local Iloilo market - much like others in the Philippines, except this was pretty early in the day so not too many people yet.
Boracay
Someone recently mentioned that I write too much on this blog. So I will try and let the pictures of Boracay do the talking this time. All I have to say is that it was beautiful and really relaxing despite being the main tourist destination in the country.
Beautiful Boracay water
Sarah on White Beach, Boracay
A bit of indulgence is nice sometimes. Even though Boracay is pretty touristy for the Philippines, sometimes you just can't get too much better than relaxing on comfy chairs on a beautiful white beach under palm trees, drinking cocktails, and watching the sunset.
Sarah looks a lot more exotic than I do! But we both had a great time!
Em in Boracay
Bohol 1
After spending a couple of days exploring Manila on their own, we joined the Corbins on their holiday on Wednesday and flew down to an island in the Visayas called Bohol. It was a pretty early flight and we arrived a bit sleepy and hungry in capital of the island, Tagbilaran. We were met by Piers, a new AYAD who had arrived 10 days earlier and who would be based in Bohol for a year. We had some early lunch and then caught a jeepney out to a town called Loboc on the picturesque Loboc river, and then a boat to our accommodation Nuts Huts.
Nuts Huts had been recommended to us by a few people – settled in the middle of the jungle on the river, they were very much away from the hustle and bustle of any major town. The huts themselves were ‘traditionally’ Filipino made of bamboo and thatching with limited electricity but flushing toilets and a cold shower. The main dining/common area was up a huge flight of stairs, but overlooked the Loboc valley. That afternoon we took a boat trip up to the Loboc waterfalls. They weren’t quite what we expected and were actually quite small, but we were able to do some swimming which made it a lot of fun.
The next day we hired motorbikes to head up to the Chocolate Hills, one of the main tourist attractions of not only Bohol but the Philippines. It was great fun riding on motorbikes through the countryside and we were able to see people going about their daily business – something that we normally miss travelling by jeepney, taxi or bus.
Heading inland, we overshot the Chocolate Hills by about 30 minutes, but eventually found it my asking some of the locals. While not the most spectacular vista in the world, the Hills are an interesting site and quite pretty (Neil wishes to describe them as mellow spherical, angular and bulbus??!). Especially as we had blue skies with some clouds overhead made for some nice pictures over the surrounding landscape.
After eating lunch, we headed out to some falls not too far from the Chocolate Hills that many people had told us were very nice. The track down to the falls was great, riding through the Bilar National Park. Arrival at the ‘Logarita Spring’ was itself a bit of a disappointment as there weren’t really any falls, and the spring was a concrete swimming pool where a bunch of young Filipinos who were loud, roudy, and were singing the local filipino ballads.
So instead we decided to head back through Loboc to Corella and the Tarsier Visitors Center. Again after over-shooting the turnoff to Corella we asked around and realised the rickety old bridge over the Loboc River was in fact where we were supposed to turn off. Running out of daylight we decided to keep going for another half hour to see how close we would make it to the Center before we would have to turn around to make it back before dark. The road to Corella through Sikatuna was unpaved but we passed many houses, villages, rice fields and people at work. Unfortunately we were unable to make it to the Tarsier Center but on the way back school had gotten out so we passed heaps of local school children walking home for the day. It was great as they were so friendly and would always wave and yell out hello to these strange white people riding past them. At one stage I told Neil to pull over as I wanted to take a picture of a huge, decrepid old Spanish style church in the middle of nowhere and a whole class of school children ran across the field yelling hello and waving. It was really amazing.
Bohol 2
We finished a great day of motorbiking by heading back and enjoying a few beers. Unfortunately Tash felt a bit sick that night but luckily woke up feeling better the next morning.
The old church of Loboc
The next day we headed into Tagbilaran to do some adminy stugg and for some lunch at a Filipino institution - Jollibee. We then set out to reach the Tarsier Center which we were unable to reach the day before. With some help from a local friendly policeman we hired a taxi and made the trip back out towards Corella. Along the Loboc River there were a lot of Tarsier places and a lot of tourist yelling and pointing at the small tiny creatures. The Lonely Planet recommended heading out to the
Tarsier Center run by the Philippine Tarsier Foundation instead in which tarsiers are kept in their natural environment with more controlled toursim. When we arrived it was obvious that there wasn't much funding for this Center which runs captive breeding programs as well. We saw some tarsiers which are nocturnal, strange but cute little primates and were saddened that not more funding is going into preserving these endangered creatures.
We ended the day in Tagbilaran at our hotel on the lagoon between Bohol proper and Panglao island with some dinner and SMLs. After building a few 'bridges' of beer bottles we headed into the main town again for some live music and videoke. Needless to say it was a late night to bed!
Bohol 3 - Panglao Island
We then headed out to Panglao Island for some beach action. As you can see from the photos, it was a pretty white sand, palm beach on Panglao. We also had met up again with Piers and Sally from Manila who joined us for the weekend. After arriving, a few of us headed out for a quick swim at the beach. We then got some more motorbikes and headed to the
Bohol Bee Farm which overlooked the sea from a cliff face and served great organic food.
Neil on Alona Palm Beach
On the Sunday we organised a boat trip from Panglao out to a marine reserve to do some swimming and snorkeling. Fortuantely we had great weather and the trip out was beautiful. About half way out to Balicasag Island, we were so fortunate to see dolphins! The boat headed out towards huge schools of them swimming and they started swimming at the front of the boat. They were so close and the water so close that we could see them swimming in the front wake bit of the boat. It was amazing. Neil decided he wanted to get in a swim with them - which lastest about 5 minutes as he was unable to hold onto the boat - and then they were gone. But it was fantastic to see them in their natural environment.
On the way to Balicasag Island.
We reached Balicasag island and jumped into the warm, clear water for some snorkeling. We saw lots of fish and it was fun swimming around. We then headed straight into a rain storm on our way to Virgin Island. But it soon passed and we were happy we made the trip. The island wasn't particularly nice for swimming or snorkeling, but it was so picturesque.
Em and Neil on Virgin Island
We walked around the island then hopped back on the boat for the trip back to Panglao. It was an amazing morning. After some more beers and food, sadly it was time to go. Thanks especially go to Sally for helping us out with the bill. Again, typically, Neil and I were not particularly organised with the $$.
Matt and Tash on the boat heading back to Panglao
Cooking 'bibingka' - rice cake which is cooked from both below and the top. 
Macel in front of a food stall selling spring rolls, fish balls, squid balls, fries, and other Filipino meriyenda items.
