Fiesta by the Pool

Last weekend we had a party at Valencia Hills as a little thank you and goodbye to many of the people we have shared the last year with. Here are some pictures!

Some of Neil's boys from the Embassy.

posted by batik billy @ 10:30 am

2 weeks to go! Huh?

With 2 weeks to go in Manila and the Philippines, it’s a shame that I’m not feeling 100%! I’m sure I have written before that when you are healthy, Manila can be a bit of a challenge, but when you aren’t feeling great, the city is very effective at magnifying that yucky feeling and making you feel downright awful. I guess it is just a typical stomach big that I’ve got that’s making me feel bad, but unfortunately it has completely turned me off wanting to eat Filipino food of any type (I’m even off JT’s Manukan – a really delicious locally barbequed chicken – and given that we are hosting a despedida (going away party) and a belated birthday party on Friday night with JT’s provide over 50 BBQ chickens, I hope I get over this one quickly!)

Normally at work we eat at turo turo stores where food is cooked in the kitchens of local residents. For the most of the year this has been a decent, cheap way of eating at work. It can get a bit repetitive, but it’s ok most of the time. But sometimes the veggies taste like fish (from having a local flavoring – bagoong – little shrimps added), and you know that sometimes it’s been sitting out for a bit letting the bacteria grow in the nice Manila humidity. No HASSP food standards here . . .but like I say, apart from a couple of bouts of feeling yuck and the Manila belly, it has been ok. So it’s a shame that at the moment, with only 2 weeks to go, just thinking of some of that food here is making me feel really ill!

Only 2 weeks to go! Having spent almost a year here what do I have to say about it? Not sure yet – of course it has been really great but I think I will have to record my reflections when I actually arrive back in Australia. I’m busy busy at work (of course, the busiest that I’ve been here all year!) trying to complete the development of a couple of Directories and a monitoring database, devising and doing some basic database training, writing a Manual as well as some Quick Reference Sheets for the staff here to continue some database enhancements after I go (that IHSS database knowledge has come in handy here Glenn!). In any case, I’m sure I will miss my little work room with my great NCRFW colleagues, the chikka chikka, daily meriyendas and even the multiple ‘hello maam’s, and strange things that happen everyday on the walk to work everyday (including questions from the local Malacanang guards ‘Saan po kayo ma’am – Where are you ma’am? – ‘right here sir . . .’).

I know I will miss the lifestyle (we bought a 1 litre of vodka for 180 pesos last night for our party – about $4.50 - and can afford to eat out a lot), the ability to travel in a diverse country, no winter!, and the fact that I’m still learning new things about the culture even after having spent a year here (like why aren’t there Easter eggs in the stores 3 weeks before Easter when Christmas starts in September? Because Easter is a solemn month where many Filipinos, who take Lent seriously, only really celebrate after Easter Monday in honor of the resurrection).

Getting to the end of my time here means getting to the end of the blog – another sad thing - as I enjoy recording my experiences and having an excuse to take lots of photos all the time! Even when I was younger I enjoyed keeping travel diaries of my experiences with bits and pieces of other places. And this blog has served the purpose extremely effectively in this electronic age. So I hope to post a few more entries before I leave, some reflections of my time in the Philippines when I get back to Australia, but I’m also thinking about writing a bit more about some of the people that I’ve spent this year with here. I hope they don’t mind and I am well and truly willing to amend anything I’ve written if I cause offense – it won’t be intended because in many things Filipino I know that I am still a little culturally ignorant!

posted by batik billy @ 12:38 pm

Happy Birthday Wissy G!

Who'd ever think we came from the same womb?

posted by batik billy @ 3:32 pm

My Work Building

I'm not sure if I've posted this picture of my work - its hard to believe I have only 2 weeks to go! They will be taken up by trying to finish the development of a couple of databases, conducting some training on the database use and enhancement and completing the database manual. Hmm! A busy couple of weeks!!

Our room is actually on the 4th floor. The partially hidden 3rd window from the top floor to the left.

posted by batik billy @ 3:28 pm

Pictures from Donsol

Basic Accommodation at Donsol - quite nice really!

posted by batik billy @ 3:11 pm

Swimming with Buntanding

It was a great weekend down in Bicol - we went swimming with Whale Sharks (Butanding). These peaceful creatures grow up to 15 meters long and we were lucky to swim with 4 of them. It was an amazing experience and hopefully the underwater cameras will turn out a could of good pictures. More to come . . .

posted by batik billy @ 11:28 am

Philippines in the News

Not sure whether is is bad luck or not - but the people of the Philippines have definitely had it a bit tougher than usual lately. First there was the shocking stampede at Ultra Sports Ground where 100s of people were crushed (and 79 odd were killed) trying to get into a famous day time TV gameshow - WowWowWee for its first anniversary. One estimate put the crowd at 30,000, all trying to get into the 13,000-seat stadium. They had come from poor communities in and around Metro Manila, hoping to win big cash prizes at stake on the show. Some speculated that the shoving started when someone from the crowd shouted that the show’s staff were distributing free tickets that give the holders a chance to win a house and lot, a taxi, a passenger jeepney, or P10,000.

Then there were the landslides in Leyte where Red Cross officials said 200 people were feared dead as 1,500 others have remained missing.

And then there are all the political rumblings that have been going on here. A couple of weekends ago was the forced resignation of the head of the marines which resulted in a 6 hour standoff as his troops apparently had not been advised. Many civilians gathered at the base in Fort Bonifacio in Manila and people gathered at the University of the Philippines in support of the deposed leader. However this was eventually resolved. But security remained tight under Gloria's 'State of Emergency' declared after the army said it had prevented a coup. She said was taking the action "because of the clear threat to the nation". Of course for us, it was the quietest few days we've spent in Manila. There were a few isolated protests, street rallies and confrontations with police but all in all it seemed to be a fairly orderly, peaceful affair.

One of the scary things though is the apparent restriction of the press as a result of the State of Emergency. Although lifted last week, many opposition Congressmen remain under arrest, the government is pushing to review and charge television stations with acts against the state for 'biased' coverage of the incident at Fort Bonifacio. Despite being one of the freest presses in Asia, I read in the paper the other day that more journalists have been killed in the Philippine since 2000 than in other county in the world, including Iraq! Ano bayan??!

It was an interesting period to be in Manila, we went through a few heavily armed military men at police checkpoints throughout the city and on a Monday trip to work I was completely surprised by barbed wire, shipping containers and again lots of heavily armed militia around Malacanang.

posted by batik billy @ 6:36 pm

Chinese New Year at Valencia

posted by batik billy @ 11:29 am