Emanila

Bumalik ako sa Maynila!

2006-07-02T10:54:00.000+08:00

Where to start! I have returned to Manila to attend an Annual General Meeting of the Asia Pacific Group for Anti-Money Laundering for work. Now that I am back I realise how the Philippines and Manila really are a part of me now. It's wonderful. The familiar 'hello ma'am', the warmth and business of Manila streets, the friendliness of the Philippino people. I only realise now just how much I miss this place! I don't know if anyone ever read my blog, or continues to check it once in a while to see if I have got my butt into gear and actually finish off this blog as I promised. Somehow returning I feel an urge to do that again. We will see how I go!

Last Day at Work

2006-04-06T13:49:00.000+08:00

For my last day at NCRFW I attended part of the Board meeting in Mabini Hall, Malacanang. Of course there was a surprise for me - presentation of a beautiful plaque by the Commission. I'll post a close-up picture of it soon.

Being presented the plaque by Miyen and Ms Myrna Yao the Chairperson.

NCRFW Commissioners - and me

Afterwards I, An and I took the opportunity to snap some pics inside the Malacanang grounds.

Another despedida - Kamay Kainan

2006-04-06T13:32:00.000+08:00

Did I tell you that Philippinos don't skimp when it comes to despedidas? Here was another one - or maybe just a good excuse to get together and eat eat eat! We all met at Kamay Kainan in Quezon City. A Pinoy buffet restaurant. I think people thought I was a little strange taking heaps of photos of all the food - but there was such a large variety of typical Philippino food on offer that I couldn't resist.

Dinner was with my workmates at the Program Development Division in NCRFW as well as with the Executive Director, Miyen and members of the Gender Resource Network Core Group, Aida, Carol and Milalin.

All of us at dinner

The buffet with beans and ginataang tahong (mussel chowder) in the foreground

The buffet with bopis (innards) in the foreground

Ginataang kuhol - snails

Mmm - atay (chicken livers)

Beef nilaga (foreground - beef stew) and diniguan (pigs blood)

pata tim - pork

salted egg - a favourite eaten with tomatoes

getting 'dirty icecream' - no sharing and no left over sign in the background

part of PDD

Me and Dette at the dessert table

Dessert - gelatine, matamis na saging (sweet bananas), ginataang (coconut dessert), more gelatine and indian mangoes

My dessert - a halo halo of everything!

SAGRIC despedida and welcome to the newbies

2006-04-04T12:01:00.000+08:00

Last Thursday we had our AYAD despedida at SAGRIC in Ortigas. It was a chance for a final catch-up with everyone and we were able to meet some of the incoming new Philippines AYADs.

'Oldies' - Sally and Ange

Newbie - Elyse and 'oldie' Reggie

Nat, Tina and some new AYAD arrivals

Kate, Nat, Lynette and Me

Neil, Ange, Sal and Nat

And so the videoke begins!

My despedida from NCRFW

2006-04-03T12:53:00.000+08:00

On my last Thursday at work, my workmates threw me a surprise despedida (going away party). Most of the staff from NCRFW were there and of course there was heaps and heaps of food.

Here are some pictures.

Surprise!

Check out all the food! Buko pie, 2 cakes, lumpia shanghai, turon, kropek, pancit and more pancit!

Macel and Me

PDD till the end!

Fiesta by the Pool

2006-03-29T10:30:00.000+08:00

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!

The party in action

The Embassy crew - Gaye, Ghia, Peta and Chris getting into the shots of Tequila

Some of Neil's boys from the Embassy.

Josephine, Dette, Joy, Ann and I. Josephine and Joy have been our fantastic friends here in Manila - they clean up after us!

Me, Dette, Naomi, I and Jean

Elizabeth (an AYAD located in Bacolod), Lynette (our great ex-In Country Manager) and Tina (the new In Country Manager with some big shoes to fill!

Neil and the star-appearance of Mr Joel Torre. We know him better as the owner of our favourite place to eat in Manila - JT's Manukan.

Mr. Joel Torre with my work mates and great friends - Chii, Me, Macel, Ritchie, Dette, I, Jean, Anna, Joel, Aleth and Tracy

By the look of Neil - can you tell it's the end of the night?

Ange, Me, Neil and Kate.

2 weeks to go! Huh?

2006-03-22T12:38:00.000+08:00

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!

Happy Birthday Wissy G!

2006-03-17T15:32:00.000+08:00

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

My Work Building

2006-03-17T15:28:00.000+08:00

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.

Pictures from Donsol

2006-03-17T15:11:00.000+08:00

Basic Accommodation at Donsol - quite nice really!

One of the bathing options - Reggie and Ken

On the way to the tourist centre to book the Whale Shark boats.

At the donsol tourist office.

Our 'look-out'

In the water - members of the other boat

Ange, Me and Kate on the boat

This is what we came to see - Nat's photo of a whale shark

The water wasn't the clearest - the whale shark is huge though . .

thanks to Nat and Mia - hope you don't mind me borrowing some of your pics. . .

Swimming with Buntanding

2006-03-08T11:28:00.000+08:00

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 . . .

Philippines in the News

2006-03-04T18:36:00.000+08:00

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.

This street I normally walk up and down to and from work. I was shocked to see these huge shipping containers blocking the road.

This barbed wire fence was partially blocking the path way. Normally there are jeeps, cars and students everywhere along this road. Because Gloria declared a holiday for all students, it was eerily quiet. Of course the shipping containers blocking all traffic also had something to do with it.

This is the next day - all the shipping containers have been moved to the side of the road.

Notibly absent are photos of the large number of military guards with their shot gun . . .

Chinese New Year at Valencia

2006-03-01T11:29:00.000+08:00

Smokey Fashion for People

2006-02-24T11:33:00.000+08:00

Natalie, a fellow AYAD has been busy establishing 'Smokey: Fashion for People'. This week she launched the Smokey website with information on their range of clothing. Please check out the site and let me or her know if you want to order any of their great clothes. And please link their site to yours to spread the word!

'Smokey – Fashion for People' is a funky new label coming out of the back streets of Manila. orking together with emerging Australian fashion designers, the Smokey Mountain community is producing exciting poverty-busting urban designs with an ethical edge. For more information email us on smokeyfashion@gmail.com

You can read more about Nat's earlier exerience here in my blog archives.

Smokey Mountain visit

2006-02-23T18:24:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago we headed out to Nat's work at Smokey Mountain for an awards ceremony. They had held a t-shirt art-work competition for the residents at Smokey so that they could sell them to VIPs and tourists who come out to view the community. It was a great chance to see the infamous Smokey Mountain and just where Nat worked.

Smokey Mountain. To the left is the rubbish dump - you can see how close the units have been built next to the dumpsite.

Nat with her fellow judges announcing the winners.

Some dancers who entertained us during the awards ceremony.

One of the gorgeous girls at Smokey. Despite some of their living conditions the people are so warm and friendly!

This little girl 'Angel' was one of the dancers during the ceremony. She just didn't want to let go of Sally!

More lovely people from Smokey.

A cheeky boy who just loved having his photo taken. The kids especially liked having their photo taken when they were showed the pictures afterwards. Smokey in the background.

Smokey's neighbours are also not so well off - cardboard and tin make up their housing and there is a permanent odour in the air - not sure if this is still from Smokey, from the river you can't quite see in this photo - or from Manila Bay docks which are to the right of this pic.

Mom's visit - Siquijor

2006-02-23T11:41:00.000+08:00

Mommy and Liss arrived late on a warm Pilipino evening on the 14th of Feb to a crowded airport. It was great to see them. After a late night we woke up to a lovely grey Manila day. Their first day, after a brief and annoying detour to Malate to try and pick up some plan tickets, I took them for a brief walk along the picturesque (**cough, splutter**) Manila Bay and made friends with the local wildlife (beach cockroaches). Then it was over to Makati – where there aren’t as many cockroaches to lunch at one of my favourite restaurants in Manila– People’s Palace. We are lots of yummy, fresh Thai food before hitting the shopping! We toured through the 4 counter-joining malls of Greenbelt, Landmark, Glorietta and SM where momma found one of her favourite brands - Kipling. Being good and purchasing only 1 bag, we then took the train to Greenhills – a big market close to our house. Mum and Melissa went slightly crazy J before heading home for a rest.

The next morning we were up bright and early at 4 am to catch a flight down to Siquijor. Siquijor is known for its ‘mysticism’ and witch-doctors. Somewhat disappointingly, we didn’t see any during our time there.

We spent 4 nights at CoCo Grove resort, a lovely little resort on the south west side of the island. After a taxi, plane, ferry and car ride we arrived to our welcome drinks of fresh watermelon juice – and set about immediately relaxing (after some annoying conversations with Philippine Airlines!!). We went for a walk along the beach, had a swim in the pool and took a kayak out on the water for a while. We then settled in next to the pool for the evening with gin and tonics, caprioskas and a pack of uno cards.

Manila has fostered a growth spurt in Emily

The next day we got off to a bit of a slow start – with fruit shakes, banana pancakes, Spanish omelets and American bacon. We then hired bicycles and went for a short ride along the quiet roads of south western Siquijor. As with many places in the Visayas, the local people were very friendly and would wave, yell out hello and of course stare as we rode past. We started searching for a beach that was supposed to be really beautiful and after a couple of dead ends – we think we may possibly have found it . . .but we’re not quite sure! It was nice though to spend the morning riding around.

At about 3, Neil arrived and joined us in lazing by the pool. We had a late lunch and set in early with the drinks. After 5 o’clock massages, a few swims in the pool, and of course a few drinks we had another nice dinner on the beach. That evening we enjoyed an extremely enjoyable game of cards with Neil.

The next day we headed out on motorbikes to explore the island. Motorbikes are a great way to get around on the islands down in the Visayas. You are able to see how people spend their days and stop wherever you want. And you see a lot more than you normally would in a bus. Our first destination was an old church of which there are plenty scattered around the islands. Then was a quick dip at the local waterfalls, and then we rode up to the highest point on the island. Unfortunately there were clouds everywhere so we didn’t get to see a whole lot, but it was a strange and eerie change from the areas around the coastline. After a lunch break we braved the rain for a few hours trying to get back to our accommodation! We were well and truly soaked through by the time we got home!

Corregidor

2006-01-27T10:54:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures of us at Corregidor Island.

Corregidor is a small rocky island in the Philippines about 48 kilometers west of Manila which is stragetically located at the entrance of Manila Bay. This island fortress stands as a memorial for the courage, valor, and heroism of its Filipino and American defenders who bravely held their ground against the overwhelming number of invading Japanese forces during World War II. Or so says the Corregidor Island website.

We went there last weekend. Sorry, can't be bothered writing too much more at the moment but I hope you like the pics. It was a nice day trip.

Wissy G - notice the baby goaties in the background!!

Santo Nino

2006-01-21T17:19:00.000+08:00

So here we are back in Manila - the holiday honeymoon of China has worn off and we are facing the daily grind of commuting, work, heat and pollution again. But I for one am feeling positive about it. Perhaps it’s the fact that I'm exercising more partly thanks to a fellow AYAD Nat who is also on a health kick and is making a reliable gym partner, or because I actually am working on some tangible work outputs at the moment In any case, it is making life an enjoyable thing at the moment which really it should be all the time.

Neil and I promised to get out and about in Manila a lot more to enjoy the time we have left here. So far in 2 weeks, we haven't done or seen anything new! Well so much for that! However, last weekend I gave up a Saturday night out to get to bed early so that I would wake up at 7 on Sunday morning to head to a religious festival in an area of Manila called Pandacan. Ok, so giving up big Saturday nights aren't that difficult for me anymore (in fact, going out on a Saturday night is a big achievement now a days!!) but getting out of the house by 7.30 on a Saturday still is! Anyway, I left Neil snoring and hungover in bed to head to this festival where I was going to meet one of my workmates. It was the festival of Santo Nino - the Jesus Child and I expected it to be a smallish, traditionally religious procession. Well it was my first real religious festival in the Philippines. But I was really surprised upon arriving to see hundreds of people gathered around the Santo Nino church with drums beating, people chanting, fireworks, dancing and little dolls being held by everyone. At first my worry was that I wouldn't find my workmate (I never did!), but then I had a look around at the people in their groups dancing, at the 3 cars decorated with Santo Ninos and even got splashed with holy water by the priest and had a lot of fun.

So with only 3 months left to go (ahh- 2 and a half already??) we really are starting to feel like we are in the final stages. It is still some time to go, but the way time is flying it will be over in no time. We have our mate Glenn from Canberra coming to visit next week and hopefully mom will come soon after in mid- early Feb. There are plans in early March to go down to Bicol and see the Whale Sharks and Mount Mayon. Hmmm, I wonder how much leave I have left!

To add to my ramblings I've read 2 interesting books lately - The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst and a fantastically interesting, and slightly sad read, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. The first I received as a Christmas present from Uncle Andrew in 2004, the second I remember giving to Uncle Tim the same Christmas. Anyway, here are some pics of Santo Nino . . .

Santo Nino Church in Pandacan

One of the cars elaborately decorated with Santo Ninos

Some of the great dancers at the festival

China posts

2006-01-07T16:47:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone - we're finally back. I'm starting to put up some posts of China but there is heaps to write about and a lot of photos. It's probably best to read the posts backwards - by their date - as I'm trying to post what we did each day in China. So be sure to check back for the completion of the China posts and some more updated Philippines ones!

Shanghai part 2

2006-01-02T17:49:00.000+08:00

Our last day in China we had a tour of the sites of Shanghai. After about a 20 minute walk from Jasmine and Mark's appartment, we took the underground into one of the main shopping roads, Nanjing Road. We walked down to the river and the famous Bund. Unfortunately it was a really gray day and the view across to Pudong wasn't the best.

Mark, Jasmine, Amber and Dave on Nanjing Road (looking west)

Emily on Nanjing Road (looking East)

Neil with the buildings of Pudong in the background

We then headed to 1221 restaurant where we ordered heaps of Chinese food including salt and pepper squid, some great duck, chicken, Szechuan beef, tofu and vegies, dumplings and wontons. They also served tea of course, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. I liked the way they served the hot water though.

Neil at 1221 restaurant with the waiter pouring hot water for the tea

The boys then went home to 'rest' and the girls headed out to the Shanghai 'Old Town' to have a look around at the markets. We spent most of our time around the Yu Gardens and restored Bazaar which was very commercial, but very interesting.

Yu Gardens area

Yu Gardens

Amber and Jasmine at Yu Gardens

That night we caught up with some other friends from Canberra, Justin and Eli. Unfortunately Fiona had the same bug that many others had been dealing with the last few days and wasn’t able to meet up. But all the same it was great to see Justin and Eli even if it was for a little while. We capped off our trip with what else but food at a Xinjang restaurant where Neil and Dave went a bit crazy with the lamb kebabs. But they were pretty good, and cheap too.

Neil, Jasmine, Mark and Dave at the Xinjiang restaurant

The next morning was an early flight back to Beijing and a bit of another administrative overkill getting out of China. Of course the Philippines airlines flight getting back to Manila was late in departing, but we had a great taxi ride (joining part of a police led VIP escort through the peak traffic of EDSA – the main highway) to make it back home at a decent time.

China was a great place to visit and even having 6 whole days in Beijing didn’t seem like enough to see the highlights of that city. China itself is huge and I would have loved to have more of a chance to really get out and see some of the other mega-cities, the other amazing sites (like Nanjing, Xian, the West, the gorges, Yellow and Yangtse rivers – no river cruise though! - and some of the southern areas that Mark, Jasmine, Amber and Dave had just visited). As well as really going to see how the ‘real’ China lives in the countryside. China is definitely a boom country that can be seen when visiting Beijing and Shanghai. There are heaps of new buildings and construction projects, the place seems pretty clean and organized, and there is an evident pride in that it has been done the ‘Chinese’ way. I guess just how ‘Chinese’ that way is, and what kind of other development related issues (like how much does the success extend to the countryside, the huge numbers of rural to urban migration, pollution) is in a way hidden from the average tourist and could not be easily grasped in a 2 week visit staying with friends and relatives. But it definitely sparks an interest in the place. The food for the most part was great, the sites inspiring, the language was interesting and the variety offered seemed broad. Of course it was great to see Dad again and we always (I guess with most families) seem to be able to pick up where we left off – normally around a few plates of food!!! By the way, did I tell you all that my New Years Resolution is to eat more sensibly? Smaller portions, get rid of that junky stuff I eat all the time and don’t stuff myself just because the food is in front of me. Arrrgh. Not sure how long I will last with this one!!

New Years Eve in Shanghai

2005-12-31T14:12:00.000+08:00

Ok, so the arrival into Shanghai wasn’t the best in the world, but I still thought that the train was a fun way to travel. Once everyone emerged from their sleep-in we went to grab some lunch at a nearby yummy Australian restaurant. With 3 and a half out of 6 of us facing gastro-issues, it was a wise choice for some familiar food. Jasmine and I were the only ones of the group who were feeling 100%! Neil was still getting over his gastro as was Dave. Amber and Mark were both facing it in a big way and as some of you can probably imagine, the discussion for most of the next 2 days focused around gastro issues, ailments and medicines. Joy of joys. I won’t delight the rest of you about the finer details of these conversations – those who know Neil in Manila can imagine his excitement to find 2 more guys eager to talk about the subject . . .

Anyway, it was a relaxing day where we just caught up with everyone, went to get massages and of course got ready for New Years. Out of everyone it was poor Mark who didn’t quite make it to midnight with everyone – he was looking pretty pale through dinner and went home. We ate dinner at an average Korean-type restaurant and then taxied it over to a great bar in the French Concession area called ‘Face’.

Face

Face was an old British colonial building that was once an opium house or something like that. Drinks were very much at New Years prices but the ambiance was very nice and realistically the price of an average Australian bar drink anyway . . . We stayed there until just after New Years when Amber and Dave left to go home.

Dave and Amber

Jasmine

Andy and Neil

Emily and Dave on the dance floor

The rest of us headed over to a huge Mexican place called Zapatas. Fully of ex-pats and Chinese the place was definitely in party mode, and after another drink or too Jasmine and Neil joined in the festivities on the bar tops. Finally at the respectable hour of 3am we headed home and crashed.

You should be dancing . . .yeah!

One last goodbye

As can be expected with 2 sick people, 2 half sick people and 3 half hung-over people, New Years Day was a quiet affair with McDonalds, videos and a massage.

Last day in Beijing

2005-12-30T13:54:00.000+08:00

Entrance to one of the hutongs outside the Lama Temple leading to the Confucian Temple

Unfortunately again Neil woke up feeling pretty sick so on our last day in Beijing I headed out alone to the Lama Temple and the Confucian Temple. At first I was expecting the Lama Temple to be something different from what it turned out to be, and I was initially a little disappointed at it looked as though it had much of the same architecture as many of the other temple type places in the Forbidden Palace and Summer Temple for example. But just walking around the area outside the entrance to the temple was very interesting as there were stores selling Tibetan products, incense and other Buddhist offerings.

I went into the Lama Temple amidst a few tourist groups and went through the complex coming out pretty amazed. While the outer architecture is pretty typically Chinese, inside the series of temples was very Buddhist. There were huge statues of Buddhist deities with multiple hands and big scary eyes. There were some beautiful hanging cloth adorning the temples. And there was a small museum with a large collection of Buddhist deities describing who they were – along with a freaky life-like monk sitting on a 3 tiered alter type thing in the middle. Perhaps most interesting was that the Temple is still a place of worship for many of Beijing’s Buddhist and people were lighting incense and making prayers all throughout the courtyards and the temples. The temple buildings got larger and larger as I progressed through the complex until the last building - it housed an enormous gold gildered standing Buddha.

Lama Temple - This part of the temple houses one of the tallest Buddha statues in the world

Lama Temple - still used by Buddhists

I then quickly headed over to the Confucian Temple nearby for a look. Down one of the hutongs the Confucian Temple was a good contrast to some of the other major sites around Beijing as it was under serious repair and showed what most of the temples must have looked like before undergoing major restoration work. They are fixing up many of their main tourist sites getting ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Mr Confucius with a temple under repair in the background

I had a great taxi ride back with a very jolly and vivacious (drunk perhaps??!) taxi driver to meet Dad and Neil for lunch again at Happy Duck. This time the place was absolutely packed with people, and again we ordered heaps and heaps of food. The same yummy fish as our first lunch, beef, fried rice, some fried potato/sweet potato dish and a delicious stirfried celery and lotus flower. Of course I had to stuff myself because it was so yummy and it was our last lunch in Beijing!!

Neil headed back to the apartment while dad and I went back down to the Ladies market where dad bought me my Christmas present – a jacket. We had a bit of a look around and then dad went back to work while I went back home to pack.

Later that evening after saying our sad goodbyes, we took a car down to the Beijing train station where we were totally confused as to where to take the train to Shanghai. Fortunately the sign pointing to the ‘tourist ticket office’ turned out to be the waiting room for the train and at 6.30 we boarded our ‘deluxe’ compartment for the overnight trip down to Beijing. After our initial excitement of our first overnight deluxe sleeping berth train ride, I suffered a little train sickness, dinner turned out to be a little dodgy, we found out that they didn’t sell any water on the train (they had beer though!) and Neil suffered a sleepless night that he shared with me on and off throughout the night. Arriving at 6.55 am wasn’t much fun either – I would have been happy if the train took a few hours longer so we could have arrived at 8 or 9 . . .

But eventually we ate a McDonalds breakfast and got in a taxi over to Jasmine and Mark’s house, where we promptly joined everyone else in sleeping in late.

The train from Beijing to Shanghai

Mao and Markets

2005-12-29T13:37:00.000+08:00

The next day Neil stayed home sick while I went back into Tiananmen Square. Turning in my belongings to a nearby storage area I joined a large queue of Chinese lining up to see Mao in his mausoleum. It was a very surreal experience walking along marked lines and stopping outside the mausoleum for people to buy flowers. Quickly pulling out 1 yuan to purchase the official pamphlet on the mausoleum on the way into the entrance. Seeing the large entrance hall where there is a large statue of Mao where the flowers are placed. And being ushered through the mausoleum room where you see Mao and try to work out if that really is him or a wax figure. But you can’t pause for too long or the guards will tell you to hurry up! That was it. Over in a minute or two. It makes you want to line up again just so you can get a second look! But I couldn’t be bothered of course and probably spent more time looking at the souvenir stores at the back exit before grabbing my belongings and walking around Tiananmen a little. I then caught the underground subway down a few stops to Paul’s restaurant where I met Neil and Dad for some lunch. For consistency purposes – I’ll let you all know - I ate a chicken sandwich – tee hee.

Mao's Mausoleum in Tiananmen Square

After lunch we went to the Silk Market – another one of dad’s favourite shopping places where we bargained for some souvenirs and browsed the clothing market. Poor dad had to go back to work, but Neil and I caught the train back to Wangfujing street – a large pedestrian mall for a browse around.

Emily at the pasalubong and tea shop

Neil on Wangfujing Street

Neil was able to purchase some super-cheap antibiotics (24 pills for $1) and I bought some expensive Chinese tea (although in fairness it was 6 decent boxes for about $20), and some funky food to take back to work. Neil soon got tired and caught a taxi back to the house while I continued to walk around for a while before joining him.

That night we went to see the Shaolin Warriors. Neil seemed to enjoy it, but the highlight of the evening for Dad and I was when they got Neil and a couple of other audience members to get up on stage to do some kung fu. Perhaps even funnier was having Neil tell the story that he had been leaning forward in his seat and avoiding the eye contact of the Shaolin warrior as he walked through the empty theatre as he was trying to control his gastro problem – going up on stage he was a bit scared that he would present the audience with a terrible addition to their night of entertainment! Despite seeing Neil on stage, I think I would rather have gone to see the acrobats . . . Afterwards we got some late dinner at a semi-ritzy restaurant called the Pavillion. Run by ‘westerners’ the place had a pretty eclectic menu and was pretty yummy. We ate spring rolls, fish and chips, chicken and bacon salad and chicken wings. I had some red wine and dad had a Kilkenny. Yummy. Thankfully I was doing a lot of walking during the day . ..

Dad being silly with his Chinese porcelin dolls - they're really nice!

Great Wall

2005-12-28T15:45:00.000+08:00

Fortunately Neil was feeling a little better the next day as we had booked a tour bus out to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. Even though I’m not a huge tour fan, the tour group leader was pretty entertaining and it was an easy way to get out and see the Wall. Fortunately for us we were the last people to be picked up at 9am (the poor first people had been picked up at 7!) so at least we didn’t have to sit through too much Beijing early morning traffic.

We headed out north to the first stop, the Ming Tombs. Not quite what we what we were expected, but semi-interesting none-the less, as the main tomb is of Zhu Di, a prominent Ming Emporor who you may of heard about if you have watched the National Geographic Special on the Adventures of Zheung Hue (recommended), or have read the book 1421: The Year China the Chinese Discovered the World. It’s a very interesting piece of history which shows that huge Chinese boats sailed around a lot of the world back in 1400s with very advanced technology for the time. However, due to some decent laws prohibiting the excavation of any of the Ming Tombs until technology can preserve them better (a couple of tombs were recently excavated whereby many of the delicate writings, paper and buried materials quickly were destroyed when exposed), people are unable to actually visit the tombs themselves. Instead we saw a large temple building with some of the preserved artifacts, and the tomb stone of Zhu Di.

Zhu Di himself inside a large temple

The tombstone of Zhu Di - we were surprised to see this man bowing to an Emperor from some 600 years ago!

Of course, next on our stop was to the jade factory with over-priced jade materials. Impressive however was the huge jade boats and carvings on display. We saw how jade was carved, how to tell the difference between real and fake jade (personally, I don’t mind fake things too much as I’m a bit of a stinge) and heard the romantic story of jade bracelets – the Chinese equivalent of the wedding ring. It really made me want to buy some jade and I looked around for some rings like the one Melissa had bought me – but fortunately I guess the prices were all too much for what I was willing to spend (did I mention being a stinge!!)

Next was lunch at the ‘Friendship Store’ which conveniently had a huge array of touristy items available for purchase. Fortunately the food was pretty decent and we (well I – Neil was nursing his sore stomach a little) pigged out again. We washed the lunch down with some Mai Tan, or Chinese rice wine which smells like mentholated spirits and tasted like paint stripper. But at least it warmed us up!!

Finally we were off to the Great Wall – another 20 minutes or so away through some barren, frozen landscape. Approaching the ‘Badaling’ section of the Great Wall we were able to see parts of it on the hillsides of the approach. Pretty impressive. We arrived and walked past tourist stalls where we started to ascend the Wall. It was amazing. We could see parts of the wall stretching into the distance even despite the foggy conditions.

Starting to climb the wall - see it in the distance

We headed to the left – the steeper section, but apparently the way with the more impressive views. Walking along the wall was pretty amazing. Every few steps you could see a different view of the wall in front of you, behind you and into the distance.

Again - you may just be able to make out the wall in the distance. An amazing photo really because there are no people in it! Just the bin. . .

An older, unrestored part of the wall contrasts starkly with the great work done restoring the wall.

The wall stretches approximately 6,700 kilometers. There are more than 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers that were used to house troops, store weapons and send signals in case enemies were seen approaching. Smoke signals were used in the day and fires were lit at night to communicate with other military outposts along the wall. The views from all along the wall are really amazing.

Walking down we had to pass through this group of police cadets (?) getting their photo taken. An impressive site really.

While waiting to leave on the bus, a man and his camel happened to stroll down the main street.

Amazing stuff. We arrived back in Beijing tired, but happy.

Summer Palace

2005-12-27T15:44:00.000+08:00

Neil woke up feeling unwell but rallied to head northwest to the outskirts of town to the Summer Palace.

Originally called "Qingyi Garden" (Garden of Clear Ripples), it was know as one of the famous "three hills and five gardens" (Longevity Hill, Jade Spring Mountain, and Fragrant Hill; Garden of Clear Ripples, Garden of Everlasting Spring, Garden of Perfection and Brightness, Garden of Tranquility and Brightness, and Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure). Like most of the gardens of Beijing, it could not elude the rampages of the Anglo-French allied force and was destroyed by fire. In 1888, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit, changing its name to Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). She spent most of her later years there, dealing with state affairs and entertaining. In 1900, it suffered again, being ransacked by the Eight-Power Allied Force. After the success of the 1911 Revolution, it was opened to the public.

View of the Summer Palace from across the lake

A man writing calligraphy with both hands on the pavement

Entering the huge complex we headed straight to the main lake which frames a lot of the Palace. It was a chilly, overcast morning but was still a very impressive view. We spent the next hour exploring the southern part of the palace. It was very cold but Neil’s sudden urges to rush to the bathroom began to explain some of his grumpiness.

Neil had to try out the frozen river

One of the longest covered walkways in the world - beautifully painted

After eating some instant noodles for lunch (I alone) Neil decided to head home. This left me to explore the rest of the Summer Palace which was absolutely huge! Highlights included one of the longest roofed walkway in the world with some beautiful coloured painting and exquisite detail, a huge marble boat, beautiful views despite the overcast weather of the lake and surrounding areas, a large golden Buddha on the top of the mountain, numerous pretty hidden pagodas along the walkways, the back part of the Palace with buildings looking more Tibetan than Chinese, a small street of tourist type stores selling Chinese bits an pieces straddling a small frozen river, and exploring the large living quarters of the Empress. Not so flash was spending most of the afternoons looking for the entrance to the biggest temple of the Summer Palace. It was undergoing restoration and I’m still not sure if it was actually open or not!

The large marble boat

The back side of the Summer Palace took on more Tibetan looking architecture

This little street - Suzhou Market Street - was close to empty - the tourists must come in the summer. It was pretty nonetheless

Across the lake from the main Palace complex this little island linked by the bridge in the photo provided beautiful views

Forbidden City

2005-12-26T15:43:00.000+08:00

The 26th we headed out to see some of the main city sites. We caught a taxi to the Forbidden Palace with dad’s trusty book of destinations. Because not many people speak English, including taxi drives, there are a set of cards with major Beijing destinations written in English, Pinyin (Anglosiced Chinese) and Chinese. Most Chinese can’t even understand Western attempts at speaking Chinese because it is so tonal and we are basically useless! So the set of cards come in very handy!

So, we arrived at the impressive north end of the Forbidden City, took some pictures around the moat to find someplace to eat and enter from the front gates (to the south) bordering Tiananmen.

Emily at the north west corner of the walled Forbidden City

We found a great little restaurant near the eastern gate and again ordered up big! Noodles, rice, bamboo and spinach, chicken and beef! It was way too much food but very delicious. This gave us the energy to continue walking along the beautiful hutongs (traditional narrow streets) down towards the entrance with a couple of divergences into an art gallery and a pretty little park.

One of the nice little art galleries along the side of the Forbidden City

Neil being a lion

Emily in front one of the nice little gardens

Walking up to see the front gate of the Forbidden City with Mao’s large portrait hanging at the front was very impressive. And looking south across Tiananmen was also awe-inspiring. It is one enormous square framed by impressive large buildings; the National Museum to the east, the Great Hall of the People to the west and Mao’s mausoleum in the middle looking south. We took in Tiananmen for a few minutes and then went over to enter the Forbidden City through the Gate of Heavenly Peace. We purchase entry tickets and got the Roger Moore audio guide describing some of the main elements of the Palaces.

Neil with Mao's portrait on the Gate of Heavenly Peace

After a not so quick bathroom stop for poor Neil we started going through the huge Palace complex - it was huge and there was so much to see

The first courtyard of the Forbidden City

Off limits to commoners for 500 years, the Forbidden City is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. Home to the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rest of China was governed from here until the 1911 revolution. Originally built between 1406 and 1420, most current buildings are actually from the 18th century. Made mostly of wood, the palace has gone up in flames many times in its history. During the 20th century there have been 2 main lootings of the Palace - by Japanese forces and the Kuomingtang. Apparently there are a large number of old Palace relics in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan - some say that this was not necessarily a bad thing as the subsequent Cultural Revolution destroyed much of China's artwork.

One of the middle courtyards of the Forbidden City

Apparently there's a permanent restoration team moving around the City repainting and repairing the place. It is estimated that it will take about 10 years for a full renovation by which time it will need to start over again! The place is definitely huge!

Some detail of one of the City temple buildings

Neil starting to feel a little tired at the back end of the City

Neil at the back end of the city - where we both started and ended the day

Christmas Day

2005-12-25T15:42:00.000+08:00

Christmas day was fairly quiet. Dad worked a bit in the morning, we made some calls home and then we went out to lunch at a café called Bellagio. It was a more up-market type of trendy Chinese restaurant/café with some great food. We ordered yummy noodles, chili chicken, pepper beef and broccoli with rice. I had a snow pear juice to drink. It was all delish.

Dad with the Bellagio food

Afterwards I ordered red bean ice for dessert thinking it was quite small – when checking the menu I realised it was supposed to be a ‘small snack’ in and of itself! It was huge! Well – there was our Christmas cake!

One of the waitresses serving the red bean ice

Silly dad trying the red bean ice. Neil and I liked it . . .

We then did some DVD shopping before heading home for some r&r and then heading out for a couple of beers at one of the ex-pat local bars. Of course we then ate again at an Italian restaurant which again had some great food -–are you beginning to see a pattern of our activities in China?!!

An interesting photo taken by Neil from Dad's office

Temple of Heaven Park

2005-12-24T15:39:00.000+08:00

On Christmas Eve Neil and headed out to see one of the famous Beijing sites – Temple of Heaven Park. Here we met up with Piers, an AYAD based in Manila who was also on holiday in China visiting his sister and her family. The Temple of Heaven Park is a huge place. As we walked through the western gate we came across local Chinese ballroom dancing, latin dancing to Chinese folk music, Chinese playing hackey sack, twirling colourful ribbons, practising tai chi, playing paddle ball, playing checkers and chess, playing musical instruments and singing. It was pretty amazing, especially because it was so cold!

Emily at Temple of Heaven Park with women practising with their ribbons in the background

We wandered around the park viewing many of the major sites. Unfortunately the main Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was closed undergoing renovations, but we were still able to see the impressive buildings of the Round Alter, Hall of Fasting, Echo Wall and Imperial Vault of Heaven.

A huge park of about 267 hectares, the temples are interesting in that most of them have round rooves with square bases. Apparently this is a pattern deriving from the ancient Chinese belief that heaven was round and the earth was square.

View back over some of the Temple of Heaven temples

Piers in front of one of the impressive gates at Temple of Heaven

After spending a couple of hours wandering through the park we walked out of the Park and around the corner to eat at a dumpling house. Unfortunately we discovered that it was closed, but found the Quanjude Duck Restaurant right next door. At first it looked a little tacky as it had pictures of all these famous people who had eaten there – like George Bush Senior, Yassir Arafat, Yanni etc., and the guide book didn’t give it the best review in the world, but it turned out to be pretty good. We ordered Peking duck – which the carved at our table and which was the nicest duck I’ve ever eaten, plus snow peas, beef, some dumplings and rice. It was a pretty yummy meal.

Chef carving the delicious Peking Duck

Piers and Neil with our great lunch

Piers then headed up to Tianamen while Neil and I went over to meet dad at the Pearl Market – one of his favourite places in Beijing. It has heaps of pearls as well as some clothes and touristy stuff. Of course we made some purchases, including one of the beautiful Beijing China porcelain dolls that dad is collecting and got into the local bargaining spirit a bit. I wanted to buy one of the dolls too as they are beautifully decorated and very colourful – dad maybe a present for the birthday if you can send one home!!

That night we went out of town a bit to the house of one of Dad’s colleagues for a Christmas Eve party. There was so much food there (all American type stuff – the chili was pretty good!) – and lots of Americans!

A strange site - view down one of the alleyways off the main road

China!

2005-12-23T15:07:00.000+08:00

Early on the 23rd Neil and I left sunny Manila and its Christmas festivities for the wintry cold of Beijing, China. Although 2 weeks sounds like a long time, I knew it would absolutely fly by. We left early on the Friday morning and after a 4 ½ hr direct flight we arrived in Beijing. Flying over China was pretty interesting as it was all brown – coming from green Philippines it seemed a bit like a barren desert with patches of civilization every few hundred kms. Of course, we forgot for a moment it was the middle of winter and most things were frozen!

At first, landing on the tarmac Neil and I were a little freaked out being in a new city, a new country with all Chinese characters everywhere, and 0 degrees temperature . . . but that happens whenever I land in a new, unfamiliar county. But I knew my dad was meeting us at the airport so we had it pretty easy really! After a few administrative hurdles at the airport including a bit of critical analysis of my passport we grabbed our bags and met dad who had been waiting at the arrival gates. He took us straight for lunch at a German restaurant – Shillers after which went home to his apartment and dumped our stuff and freshened up while dad went back to work for a little while.

Chinese artist at work at the Flower Market

Dad lives to the north west of the main Beijing CBD in an area called Chaoyang. But of course Chaoyang is about the size of Quezon City here in Manila where we live – there are probably over a million people and many kilometers that make up the ‘suburb’. And as expected, Beijing is huge. But the other thing about where dad lives is that it is handily right near ‘Ladies Street’ (‘Lai Tai walk way’ as a westerner would say in Chinese!) which was handy for directing the taxis. ‘Ladies Street’ is so named because there is a flower market there that has I guess expanded to include clothes, a few trinkets, some Chinese art and food stalls. So that’s where we spent our first afternoon exploring a bit of the Chinese market culture. Neil bought an all important beanie and we shared our first bowl of Chinese noodles from the street side stalls.

Neil outside the flower market

Emily eating the noodles outside Flower Market

After dad finished work we caught up for a while and then went down the road to one of his favourite Chinese restaurants for some lunch down the road– Happy Duck. We ordered so much food I was in heaven! We had chili spinach – cold spinach leaves with a little bit of spinach and peanuts in a yummy light dressing, sizzling beef, some green veggies, rice, and a brilliantly presented sweet and sour fish. We tried one of the local brews – Tsing Tao – which got full beer marks from me, and of course drank tea. We waddled home cold, but definitely full! It was a great first day in China.

Neil at dinner observing the amazing presentation of the yummy sweet and sour fish

NCRFW Christmas

2005-12-22T10:45:00.000+08:00

On the 21st of December NCRFW held its Christmas party at the office. It was full of food, fun, games and prizes for everyone.

(left) Jo Jo and his mum Jean

(right) Tracy

(left) Me, Ann, Irene and Mirium

(below) Yellow - My team - I'm hidden at the back!

Anna won the Grand Prize of a DVD Player

Preview of Post to Come

2005-12-20T10:16:00.000+08:00

Aleth, Irene, Jean, Macel, Dette, Me (back)

Tracy and Anna (front) at our Christmas party

AYADs @ videoke

2005-12-16T13:29:00.000+08:00

Videoke is huge in the Philippines. This is all the AYADs at a videoke night about a month ago. Yes, I know I've been a bit slack with the updates - promise more to come this weekend.

Emily, Neil and Martin (friend of Neil's from the Embassy) sa likod. Sally, Elizabeth, Kate, Reggie, Sarah, Ange and Natalie in the front.

Gun Sign

2005-12-07T14:04:00.000+08:00

Guns really are everywhere in the Philippines. All major businesses and shopping centers, as well as banks, drug stores, airports and even homes have security guards with guns. This sign was in front of a hotel in Iloilo. I took it for you Dad!

palenke and buko man

2005-11-25T10:10:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-24T10:01:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-23T09:57:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-23T09:48:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-22T09:34:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-18T09:23:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-10T14:08:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-08T13:54:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-07T14:01:00.000+08:00

Bohol 1

2005-11-01T14:30:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-01T14:25:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-01T14:20:00.000+08:00

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

Matt and Tash Visit the Philippines

2005-10-29T13:58:00.000+08:00

Good friends from Canberra – Matt and Tash – came to visit us in the Philippines last Sunday. They arrived on what we found out to be their one year wedding anniversary! After picking them up from the airport we took them back to our place where they were introduced to Philippines beer – San Miguel Light. For lunch we took them down to Manila Bay where we had some very average kare kare (later which we realised contained ox-tail) and a tour around Rizal Park.

Tash, Matt and Neil at Rizal Park

Later that evening we went out to Quezon City to a restaurant called Moombas with the rest of the Australian crew for some dinner and typical Philippine entertainment of ballad singing. Matt and Tash received a special happy anniversary from the singer before we all headed home.

Matt getting acquainted with San Miguel Lights

Mendiola Protests in Manila - at home today

2005-10-21T10:48:00.000+08:00

I've got the day off work today. I started going to work when I received a text message from our in-country manager warning about going anywhere near Mendiola (street). Well I walk down Mendiola every day to get to work so while I was happy to go to work, I had heard my workmates talk about getting stuck at work sometimes when there are protests. Plus there had been heaps of police at the Mendiola gate this week (like at least 50 with batons and shield things) which is kind of a little disturbing . . . anyway, then my boss rang and said it would be better to stay at home and needless to say I didn't argue.
I walk down this street everyday to get to work. It has to be the quietest street in Manila. Why? To the left is Malacanang Palace, the residence and operations of the Philippines President. And at either end are guard posts that only allow certain vehicles to pass through.

This is a picture of the guard posts. If you look closely you may be able to see their huge guns. They are friendly though, they always say 'Morning Maam' when I walk by. This is actually the end of Mendiola.
This is a picture of the middle of Mendiola. Just behind is where all the police have been stationed and where some of the protests are held. You can see just some of the traffic - that's a jeep in the foreground next to an FX (a 4WD that is like a shared taxi). You can see the rails to the LRT train that I take home.

On a different note, I am reading some pretty interesting things at the moment:

still going with 'The End of Poverty'. I quite like Sachsy.
Started reading the Commission for Africa's 'Our Common Interest'. It's an easy, interesting short read about looking at Africa's development problems. Did you know that the developed world spends the same amount on agricultural subsidies in one year for it's own produce than the total annual income of all people living in sub-Saharan Africa? That is crazy stuff. Commission for Africa
I also have started Francis Fukuyama's newbie 'State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century'. He's still a bit right wing for my liking (hee hee) but I guess what do you expect with a title like that?
John Le Carre - 'A Perfect Spy'. I have to admit I haven't gotten into it as much as the Constant Gardner yet. But I'm only a few chapters in so far.

6 months?

2005-10-20T10:56:00.000+08:00

Can anyone believe it has been 6 months that we’ve been here in the Philippines? I surely can’t. We’re on another high about being here – probably because we have Matt and Tash coming to visit from Canberra and we will be heading down to Bohol for a nice trip away from Manila!

We’re half way through and we are now the old-timers! The new batch of AYADs arrived in the Philippines early last week. There's only 4 of them which is a pretty significant reduction from the 9 of us that arrived here in April. Like us they had a busy first week schedule - they've been doing in-country training in Manila and spending most evenings out with all of us. Reggie is the only Manila based AYAD this time around - he'll be working with an Environmental Advocacy NGO. He's from Brisbane, was born in the Philippines and lived here until he was 11. Elizabeth if from Sydney/Canberra (how long do you have to be living in Canberra for before you say you are from Canberra?) and will be based in Bacolod, the capital of the island Negros in the Visayas. She'll be working with the Local Government Unit trying to assist them in improving their statistics and statistical reporting. Cho is from Canberra too and is heading down to Bohol to work with some Environmental NGOs. Pearce is from Melbourne and has an assignment that he describes as being half Dan Brown/half Indiana Jones type adventure. He is a linguist who will be working with a local indigenous community in documenting their language I think. It is a pretty unknown language group and there are some interesting theories about whether it is a real language or not!

Last week at work NCRFW our division in particular hosted a forum ‘Constitutional Reforms: Are Women In?’. It was a pretty big event and everyone here worked pretty hard on it. At the moment there is a lot of talk around reforming the constitution and out of the 49 –odd Consultative Commission that was appointed to discuss and put forward recommendations, only 8 were women. Pretty bad really. So the forum tried to raise the issue of women and women’s concerns in this important process. This week we are working pretty hard to produce some outputs – something that is pretty hard to do without a finalized Strategic Agency Plan . . . but the women here in PDD are pretty good and are soldiering away.

On the weekend Neil and I ventured out to Intramuros – the ‘old’ city of Manila to a Spanish Verbesa – or fiesta type thing. It turned out to be really good as they had Spanish food; yummy paella and sangria in a beautiful garden setting set against and old Manila fort. The Verbesa rounded off a whole month of Spanish movies and culture in Manila. The one thing about Manila is that there is actually heaps of stuff to do in terms of events and live music. The Embassies always seem to be hosting one thing or another, Filipinos are really fond of movie festivals, and the local music scene is pretty decent once you find out about it. Anyway, at the Spanish festival a great latin band played (unfortunately it was early in the night and no one was up dancing) followed by the Filipino band Pinikpikan (see my previous post)! It was a bit of a surprise that they were playing – but they were great! They have fantastic drum beats all through their songs and were great with the crowd. It was a fun night that finished with fireworks!

And finally on Monday we restarted Tagalog lessons – with a great teacher! About time. So I’m getting a bit more motivated again with the language. Who knows, by the time I leave I might actually be able to have a conversation in Tagalog! Let’s hope. . .

Apo Pictures 3

2005-10-14T23:52:00.000+08:00

Apo Clownfish - pic taken by Mairin

Neil on Apo Coastline

Apo Island sunset (taken by Mairin when she was in Apo)

Apo Photos 1

2005-10-14T12:59:00.000+08:00

On the boat heading over to Apo

Friendly family we shared the boat with going to Apo

Women we bought Apo t-shirts off with Neil in the background

Apo Island coastline

Apo Island Photos 2

2005-10-14T12:48:00.000+08:00

This cute kitty joined us for breakfast every morning

Neil in our room

Apo Island

2005-10-12T12:58:00.000+08:00

For the weekend, Neil and I celebrated Neil's birthday by heading down to a tiny little island in the Visayas called Apo Island. A couple of months ago some of the other AYADs had travelled down to Apo and came back raving about how beautiful it was down there. Apo is one of the few, but growing protected islands in the Philippines. A marine sanctuary was established, and dynamite fishing is banned.

Great view from our accommodation

We flew down to Dumaguete early Saturday morning and arrived at the tiny airport at about 7 in the morning. We were picked up and driven 40 mins south of Dumaguete where we caught a small boat across to Apo. Upon arriving we checked into out beautiful traditional 'Bahay Kubo' style accommodation and grabbed a quick bite to eat. We booked a scuba dive for the afternoon and went for a mid morning nap. There is only really 2 places to stay on the island, both are quite small and both are fairly close to each other. We stayed at Liberty's on Apo Island which employs almost all of its workers from the island and promotes conservation, protection of the natural surroundings and basic community development and sustainability on the island. The accommodation was fairly basic (bucket toilet and shower, minimal electricity), but with the room opening out with a view of the bright blue sea, palm trees and blue sky this was really what attracted us to the island in the first place.

After a delicious fruit salad and pancit canton for Neil, we went down for our first ever scuba-diving lesson! David, the instructor, was a sea-changer from Britain and had been on Apo for about 5 years teaching and guiding scuba-diving off the island. We went through the basics, got on our gear then went out for some practice runs and the dive itself. The water was very clear and blue, and initially we focused on practicing some basics like clearing the mask of water, changing mouth pieces and basic hand signals. When we both passed, we went out from the beach and started looking at the reef. Underneath, it was amazing. There were immediately large varieties of fish and coral. We cruised over getting used to how to go up and down in the water and keeping horizontal so that we wouldn’t damage anything. There were sea cucumbers, bright blue starfish, heaps of fish (including fish from Finding Nemo!), clownfish, lots of bright coral and even turtles!! Neil was having a few problems with the dive– he had been sick recently in Perth and still had a bit of a runny nose and blocked sinus – but after adjusting a little to the surroundings he was still able to have a look around.

Turtle underwater at Apo

We spent about 50 minutes under the water then came to the surface. Neil cleansed his mask of snot – yes, it was quite gross – and lamented being so stuffed up for his first dive. We boated back around to the other side of the island where we dumped our gear and went for a quick bucket shower. Invigorated, but slightly tired from the dive, we went for a quick walk through the town and back along the beach where Neil and I ‘collectively’ succeeded in dropping my camera on the rocks, where it then rolled into the water. Great – no more photos of Apo! Anyway, we then headed back for a brief rest and then down for a nice bite to eat for dinner – fish of course! We chatted with David the instructor for a while before heading up to bed before 10 when all the electricity went out.

The next day we had a nice sleep in while large storm clouds rained down over the island. Fortunately before too long they started subsiding and we went down to catch some breakfast down in the restaurant. Even the restaurant was a pleasant place to relax as it looked out over the coconut palms, rocky beach and blue sea. We were initially planning to do a second dive today, but as Neil’s cold was still hanging around, we decided to do a snorkel instead. After breakfast we went for a walk up to the highest point of the island – to the lighthouse – which gave a great view of the surrounding islands of Negros, Siquidor and Mindanao. We then headed back down to grab snorkeling gear and walked over to the Marine Sanctuary. The sea was still quite rough and unfortunately it was still pretty overcast, but the sea water was warm and underwater the coral and fish were still amazing. I was a little disappointed in not being able to see another turtle, but we still saw heaps of fish around.

We had a late lunch at the other restaurant on the island (not as good as Liberty’s) then went for a real walk around the island. We walked through the main ‘town’ and saw children out playing and some beautiful, well-cared for houses. Most of the people were extremely friendly and smiled and waved. We walked over two hills and ventured over to the other side of the island where we had dived the day before. While walking, Neil was on some crazy mission trying to find a coconut that he could crack open and eat. Of course he couldn’t find one and I am sure some of the villagers were wondering what this weird white man was doing scrummaging around under coconut palms. On the other side of the island was another small village. Most of the residents were heading out on the boats to do some evening fishing. We sat on the beach for a little while and met some Christian Protestant missionaries who had just conducted a mass. They were from one of the surrounding islands. Before it got too dark we headed back over the hills to the main settlement for another yum dinner and sleep.

Our last day and again we had a lazy morning. We were had breakfast, went for another walk and one last quick swim before heading back on the boat to Dumaguete and our flight home. The rush back to the airport almost ruined our relaxed state – but we made it on time and were able to enjoy the last few moments in Negros before returning to Manila. It really was a beautiful weekend away and we enjoyed the diving, the water, the island and its people.

More photos to come!

Week in a Flash

2005-10-08T13:04:00.000+08:00

Tuesday night I headed down to 'Forbes Park' darling to the Ambassador's Residence for a 'Get Together of the Australian Community in Manila'. We were the youngest people at the party but we took advantage of the free wine, nibbles and ear of the Ambassador.

Wednesday evening I headed down to Makati with a bunch of people from NCRFW to watch a Spanish movie marking 100 years of the woman's movement in the Philippines. The movie was about domestic violence, but I appreciated it as it gave an interesting view of how domestic violence is affected by the women and men involved.

Thursday at work I went to Malacanang Palace for the first time. I walk past the Malacanang buildings everyday, but it is fenced off so I never get a chance to enter. We went to Mabini Hall for an orientation on the CEDAW convention and committee (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). There were some lively discussions with the Ambassador to the UN CEDAW committee who was a Filipina with some frank advice for NCRFW (NCRFW is due to present its report to the CEDAW committee next year). That evening I went back down to Makati to meet up with Neil and his friend Francisco to watch another Spanish movie, this time one sponsored by the Mexican Embassy. I went to get tickets an hour before the movie and the women told me that it had sold out! I went to meet Neil and Franc at Franc's hotel room and he called the Mexican Ambassador (whom he knew of course) to see if he could get in to see the movie. We went back just before 7 and they were giving out free tickets to the movie! Very Filipino! Because Franc knew some of the staff from the Embassy we got into their free wine and free food pre-movie type function. So much for our planned post-movie Japanese dinner! The movie was a satirical type look of corruption at the local level in Mexico. It was set in a tiny Mexican village. I didn't enjoy it as much as the movie the other night - I think I had gotten my fill of corruption type issues here in the Philippines and perhaps didn't understand the context particularly well.

Friday was Octoberfest at the Australian Embassy. I had a pretty full week so wasn't too keen on going - Neil eventually called and said that I didn't have to make the 1 and 1/2 hour trip down to Makati because it wasn't the most exciting Octoberfest that he had been to. After paying some bills and getting takeaway Chinese I got home to relax and Neil called. He was on his way home too!

Saturday Neil made a big new purchase and both of us drank McDonalds ice tea. That night we went over to see Franc again and Neil started to feel a little ill. They played around with their toys for a while and then we went for yummy Japanese dinner. Neil had an interesting run in with the CR and we went home pretty early as we were pretty tired.

Sally, Robert (our builiding lobby-man), Natalie and me before heading out on the town.

Dirt and Pong

2005-09-29T18:31:00.000+08:00

It has been particularly dirty and stinky in Manila this week. It’s turned hot and muggy again too which is probably why there is so much pollution hanging around. There is a family who lives at the vacant car park on the way that I walk to the LRT station. They are pretty new residents there and have taken to burning their rubbish in the morning. It’s pretty common here for families to burn rubbish on the streets – plastic and all. But the main cause of the pollution is probably the traffic – mainly the public transportation that spews huge amounts of fumes along the streets. The buses here are all hand-me-downs from Japan and Korea. You can still see the foreign characters on the sides of the buses and most of them probably haven’t been serviced since they were replaced with newer, cleaner, more fuel efficient buses and dumped here in the Philippines.

The main vehicles that clog the streets however, are jeepneys. Modeled on ex-US military vehicles used in the Philippines throughout World War II, jeepneys are everywhere in Manila and serve as a popular mode of public transport. They are loud (I’m pretty sure they don’t they use mufflers), and spew out the worst fumes. People walk with handkerchiefs along many of the main thoroughfares – you can see the grit hanging in the air (remember everything here is still diesel) and you see it when you wipe your face – nice! Jeepneys have set routes and are pretty cheap to ride (7.50 pesos – about 20 Aussie cents). You can get on and off anywhere along their route which makes them very effective at bringing traffic to a standstill. Often they are the only vehicles on the road, and yesterday morning I noticed how many of them were either half full, or driving around with no passengers whatsoever. There definitely seems to be a saturation of jeepneys around the place but for many people, driving a jeepney, taxi, or tricycle is their only source of livelihood here.

This is a jeepney - in Manila you are no longer allowed to ride on the top.

Just as scary as the damage I know is being done to my lungs by living here, is the dirty, stinky politics being played out. After last week’s rumours that a martial law-type proclamation was being drafted (think Marcos), this week GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) has issued EO (Executive Order) 464. A bit of context – the Hello Garci tapes hit the news earlier this year – they were tapped phone calls ‘allegedly’ between GMA and the Electoral Commission Chief in Mindanao – Garcilliano – discussing how GMA was assured to win by at least 1 million votes in the upcoming Presidential election (held in 2004). Mr ‘Garci’ has literally disappeared from the country and GMA’s public apology and effective killing of impeachment attempts in Congress have dominated news in recent months. But nothing really seems to be happening. Her political support is still strong enough for her to keep her job, and she’s definitely weathering the political storm well.

Anyway, the Senate Committee is running some investigation on what went on – EO 464 bans all administrators (public servants) and military officials from testifying in the Senate and House hearings without her permission. Yesterday a Marine General and his Deputy were called before a Senate inquiry. They testified and were subsequently sacked for disobeying EO 464. They also now face court marshal hearings. It’s pretty big news because the military has presented a unified supportive stance on Maam President. The EO basically gags all witnesses from testifying and essentially shuts down the Senate Enquiry that has been producing pretty damning evidence. Dirty indeed.

A view from our appartment - Manila on a less polluted day. The pollution at least makes for nice sunsets! In the picture you can see the LRT train that I ride to and from work every day.

Sally's Birthday

2005-09-26T13:08:00.000+08:00

Last weekend was another busy one without Neil! On Friday I went to watch The Constant Gardener with some of the girls from work. I had just finished the book by John La Carre and I would recommend the movie. Saturday we went out for Sally's birthday. We had a yummy breakfast (champagne and orange, ricotta pancakes and coffee - very indulgent) then we went out to watch the Austrailan Rules Football Grand final at a sports bar in Makati. After a quick change of clothes we were out again for dinner at Global Cafe in Makati - here are some photos. We finished the evening with dessert at Max Brennans (?) a place specialising in chocoloate!!

Ange, Nat, Sally, Me and Lynette - our SAGRIC 'in-country manager' at Sally's birthday dinner

Kate, Sally, Me and Lynette

Rosalee, Natalie and Ange

Smokey Mountain - Guest post by Natalie

2005-09-23T09:56:00.000+08:00

The Scene

Smokey Mountain - named firstly as a mountain becauseit has been as high as 35 m and secondly because it smokes almost continuously during the hot summermonths. Waste from the City of Manila was first dumped here almost 50 years ago. Before that it was actuallya fishing village, the sea is now a kilometre or soaway from Smokey. The land has been reclaimed with dumped garbage over the years.

Around 15 years ago if you went to Smokey Mountain you would have found around 4,000 families living on andaround the active dumpsite. The families were mostly poor migrants who came to Manila from the provinces insearch of work. Smokey was a good location because itwas cheap to live on and its close proximity to theports where itinerant work could be found. Contrary to popular belief, not all the families living there were scavengers. Of course, a large number of them did tryand scrape together a living from pulling anything ofany value out of the numerous trucks that dumped rubbish there every day.

In 1993, Smokey Mountain was closed and the government made a promise to provide housing to the squatters and to rehabilitate the mountain (we’re still waiting forthat last one). Around 3,000 families were housed intemporary accommodation nearby while the new permanent accommodation was constructed. The rest of the families were housed in other areas or accepted cashgrants.

The temporary housing, which stretched from what was supposed to be 2 years to about 10 years, is a fairlysqualid example of accommodation. From what Iunderstand, the two storey structures were open insideand families were to construct their own walls to getprivacy. There was only 1 bathroom per floor. Iimagine that would have had to be shared by 50families. The temporary housing is still there and anew bunch of squatters has moved in. Now, with noelectricity or running water and no-one responsiblefor any repairs, it is quite a depressing area.

Last year, the families were moved into their new accommodation, the permanent housing. This is alsosometimes referred to as Paradise Heights. Although Inotice that tends to be by outsiders, the residentsstill refer to it as Smokey Mountain. It probably hassomething to do with the still smoking, still 25 oddmetre high mountain of garbage never more than 100 maway from all the housing.

The new housing is 5 stories high, with 24 units on each floor. Someone said to me once the units are about 32 square metres. Each unit has its own bathroomwith a toilet and shower head. The sleeping quartersare a mezzanine level about half the size of thebottom level. A lot of the residents have donerenovations and extended their mezzanine to cover thewhole area. They have electricity and water is available from 6 am - 8 am and 6 pm - 8 pm daily,which means water needs to be stored for toilet flushing, washing and cooking in big containers duringthe ‘off’ hours.

Last week, I met a woman who lived in her unit withher husband, five children, 2 dogs, 4 puppies and acat! So I think privacy might be a foreign concept insome of the units. Not to mention peace and quiet!

This is what it's all about...

The People

A strong part of the Filipino culture is dependent on having good relationships with the people you are engaging with. In my more cynical moments I would saythis practice tends to perpetuate the cycle ofcorruption, but it has also given me a greatopportunity to meet a lot of wonderful people. As partof my job I have been visiting residents in theirhomes, just getting to know them and to chat about their environmental concerns. I thought I would sharewith you a few of the stories.

The gay culture in the Philippines is like much of South East Asia – very definitely present, most oftenwidely accepted and involving a lot of dressing up tolook like women. Although, unlike Thailand, most ofthe gay men in the Philippines can’t afford boob jobsso you see a lot of skinny flat chested men in skimpy clothes and a lot of makeup. The giveaways are theflat chest and the adam’s apple. A few weeks ago I waschatting with some of the Smokey gay population, intheir hairdressing salon. One of the ‘ladies’ had alovely photo of herself up on the wall from when shehad entered the Miss Gay Paradise Heights. She didn’twin, although I thought she looked pretty good in herphoto, so I wonder what the winner looked like! They were all very happy to talk candidly about themselves. This lady had been taking hormone tablets to growboobs for about 2 years, but had stopped taking thembecause she was worried about the side effects on theheart. They cost about $4.50 for 4 months. But it musthave worked because she had some great cleavage in herMiss Gay Paradise Heights photo.

Being a strongly catholic country with a growing population, there are a lot of kids at Smokey. Although I am not quite Pied Piper status yet,everytime I am there the kids will be yelling out tome “Hi Maam” “Hi Joe” “Whats your name” “Americano”“Whats your favourite colour” or whatever else theylearnt in English this week. Normally I just smile,sometimes I have a bit of a chat in which case they goall shy and hide behind their friends and I always correct the American assumption. And of course thereis a lot of giggling and commenting in Tagalog. MostlyI have no idea what they are talking about butrecently I had a colleague with me and when a littleboy of about 3 was tearing around me yelling inTagalog I was able to ask her what he said. When shes topped laughing, she translated that he had beenyelling ‘Everybody, look at her, look at her face. It’s different to all the other faces’.

Kids here, who are normally so noisy go all shy when a camera is pulled out.

Yesterday I was talking with a woman who was clearly very happy. The story came out that the day beforethey had been on television and won 5000 pesos (amonths wages here or about $125). And how had they won this? Well they came second in some kind of a pettalent contest (I assume) with a pair of dancing rats. I was privileged enough to see the rats in question,and to see one of them dancing against the wall of its cage. What a talent! Paul McDermott you gotta seethis!

I have also heard some tragic stories. I was in a house yesterday and noticed there was no TV. I thoughtthat it was unusual, in fact it was the first house Ihad been in with no TV. It came out that their house had recently been robbed, by their son-in-law, who isaddicted to shabu (a cheap local drug). He also beatshis wife, their daughter, and has done so for years and has made death threats against the whole family. They have a small child who wandered in while I was there, no doubt her grandmothers house is a safe haven. They make their living by making and selling arice sweet. If they sell all they make, they earnaround $4 a day. On that they must send their youngestson to school as well as all the other daily expenses.I felt helpless hearing this story, but I am sure there are many more like that. I guess all any of uscan do is try and make a difference the best way we know how. Hopefully, my project will create a few more long term sustainable jobs for the community.

Wherever I go, I am almost always offered food and adrink. I have never been asked for money when walking around. Yet I know how much some of these people earn,my colleagues have not been paid for 6 weeks and are scrounging around for things to sell to make some money to be able to come to work. And still everyone is generous with what they have, if its their time,their contacts or what food they have. Some days at Smokey I look around and see a povertystricken area, I hear stories that make me want to cryand I pass filthy children returning from scavenging jobs who look longingly at the other kids singing songs in the day care centre. But some days I can see why people don’t want to leave when they start earningbetter money – it’s a very strong community, childrencan run around with their friends and everyone islooking out for everyone elses kids. People are smiling. A lot of the residents help set up livelihood programs, to help other residents who are probablyonly marginally worse off than themselves. It’s also agreat place for me to introduce a waste segregationprogram because I don’t need to spend much timetalking about the effects of poor waste management, these people know more about it than me and they areprobably some of the best segregators in the world.

So that’s a little bit of my world. I’ll be here for another 6 months or so and hopefully I will be able tomeet some more of the incredibly friendly andwelcoming Smokey folk. You can check out some photos of my workplace on my website – www.flickr.com/photos/nataliejiricek

Also check out this BBC article on Manila and Smokey Mountain

Photos of Manila Zoo

2005-09-23T09:44:00.000+08:00

Macel, Anna, Me, Tracy, Dette and Aleth at Manila Zoo

Dette, Macel, Chi and Anna on the boat at Manila Zoo

Dette, Anna, Macel, Tracy and Aleth

Pinikpikan

2005-09-20T14:04:00.000+08:00

I meant to write about Pinikpikan after returning from Bagiuo. What is Pinikpikan? Well, it’s a Bagiuo delicacy that I semi-witnessed while walking down a street on a cool, pleasant morning in Bagiuo. But I’ll let this website explain –

Not for people with weak hearts.

Ever heard of pinikpikan? This is one of the most exotic food of the people from the highland provinces of the Philippines. Sometimes we call it the "killing-me-softly" recipe because of the way this is preparped before being cooked. The following may not exactly be the way the Igorots do it but this is my son's instructions the way my son saw the guys prepared it.

Put one wing of a chicken on a flat surface. Hold the head, one wing, and the legs in the one hand. Using a club softly beat the other wing from the inside. Beat it so it does not break the bones. Beat the wing from the inside to the tip, and then back again. You must do this twice. Repeat for the other wing. After beating the wings, lay the head of the chicken, on the flat surface, facing one way. Beat the neck from the top to the bottom. You may probably wonder why the chicken has to be beaten. The reason to beat the chicken is to make the blood coagulate on the wings and on the neck. The wings get thick and look big when cooked. It is said that it tastes better as well. Another reason is when the blood coagulates, you then have to butcher the chicken, and blood does not drip as much. If done right, there would be very little blood dripping to the ground.

Now you must kill the chicken. To kill the chicken, hold the chicken firmly by the feet and wings in one hand. Use a club to hit the back of its head, just below the comb. Not too hard, or the chicken will bleed. One blow should do it. Use a torch or fire, burn the feathers off. Keep burning the chicken until it starts to look a little bit burnt. Don't worry, the burnt look is only at the surface because it was only the feathers that got burnt.

Once the feathers are burnt off remove the remaining feathers. Use tweezers if necessary to remove the roots of the feathers. My dad is not an Igorot that's why he does that, but the real Igorots don't bother removing them anymore. Clean the inside of the chicken and then cut the chicken into medium sized pieces and put them into a pot. Add etag if you have any. Cook on high heat until meat is tender. When the chicken is done, add chayote or any vegetables of your choice into the pot. Add salt and remove the pot from the heat. Keep covered. Leave for four minutes minutes. Stir the soup and enjoy.

** To make etag, get a side of bacon and slice it into squares about an inch long. Dredge the meat in coarse salt and put in a ceramic bowl. Cover it and let it dry in open air for about 3 days. Keep in a dry container for about 3-5 weeks.**

And yes, to confirm the chicken is alive when they beat it! When my workmates first described this to me I thought they meant that the chicken was dead when it was beaten. But no! Walking down the street in Baguio we saw a Pinikpikan store. There were live chickens in cages and we saw some people buying the end product of a charcoaled chicken still with its feathers and everything! After thinking that it wouldn’t be too bad to try this local delicacy, I decided that it may just be one of those foods that I’ll pass on please.

More pleasurable is another Pinikpikan, a local Baguio band comprised of local artists playing local instruments. Here’s the story: It all started in 1989 at the first Baguio Arts Festival, Baguio City, home to many of the Pinikpikan - Participating artists from Manila had joined up with members of the Baguio Arts Guild at a dinner at Cafe by the Ruins after the festival's opening. As they sat around the Cafe's Dap-ay (a circular rock and stone installation found in tribal villages in the northern Cordillera where elders hold their council and rituals) someone picked up a couple of pieces of pinewood meant for the fire raging at the center. Another picked up some bamboo segments. Rum and beer bottles were used. So were covers of pots and pans. Rocks were pounded. Sticks flailed. A rhythm was born. Very Igorot in its influence. Then the rock band The Blank joined with lead and bass guitars. A keyboard was set up. A couple of guys brought out their saxophone and flutes. Manong Bencab called them the Pinikpikan, after a Mountain Province chicken dish which is prepared with an Igorot beat.

Macel, Chi and I ate breakfast at Café by the Ruins where I bought one of their CDs. It’s a beautiful café and much more enjoyable and friendly to the animals than it’s namesake! (Although Neil isn’t a big fan of some of the wailing . . .)

Weekend

2005-09-19T14:12:00.000+08:00

Neil left for Australia on Friday leaving me all alone. But there were lots of things planned for the weekend so I didn’t feel too lonely. On Friday night I was invited to watch one of the AFL semi-finals in Malate. Unfortunately I had a series of meetings on the other side of town at the University of the Philippines. With the rain and Friday traffic, by the time I would have arrived there the game would have been half way through, so instead I went home to relax before Jarrah’s going away party. Jarrah is an AYAD who arrived in the intake before us and has been working with Sally at the Asian Council for People’s Culture (ACPC) . He had his going away party at a restaurant-type place called Conspiracy in Quezon City which plays live local music. On Friday night a local artist called Joey Ayala was playing. He was very entertaining. Most of the Manila AYADs came along, as did Irene from my work which was great.

On Saturday I slept in and headed down to do some grocery shopping. In the afternoon I headed over to Malate to meet up with Ange and Kate at the Instituto Cervantes (Spanish sponsored Institute) to watch The Motorcycle Diaries (nice website). I had become confused thinking that this was a movie version of The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which I had been lent to me by the son of a women that mom sings with in Perth and whom Melissa and I had bumped into at a youth hostel in Geneva in 1998? The book was ok, a kind of philosophical look at . . . quality and stuff. OK so I don’t remember it too well but the guy who leant it to me had raved about it, I though it was ok, and deduced that it was a guy type of thing. Actually, Neil would probably really appreciate it. Anyway, despite the confusion, the movie was great! In Spanish with English subtitles, the movie was about an trip of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Alberto Grenada throughout South America on a motorcycle in their early years. The trip appeared to be the basis of the foundation of Che’s ideals and beliefs for a unified America respecting the marginalised - particularly displaced indigenous peoples. The scenery in the movie was fantastic and I would recommend it to others to see (I think it’s on DVD now). Plus it really made me want to go spend some serious time in South and Central America!

Afterwards, Ange and I went for some dinner and then I went home for an early night in bed.

Sunday morning was an early one for a Sunday! I met Dette from my work at 8.30 and headed through Quiapo where we met Anna and ventured down to Manila Zoo for Dette’s birthday. There we met Aleth and her 4 year old daughter Tracy and Macel and her partner Chi for a nice Sunday stroll around the zoo. We went on a boat ride and saw a few strange Filipino animals that I had never seen before. Tapos (then), we went to eat some lunch. Here in the Philippines when it is your birthday you treat everyone else rather than be treated yourself. And it is a tradition to eat pancit (noodles). They call them birthday noodles. I went home after lunch for a nice afternoon nap and woke up on Monday feeling the best that I have felt in about 4 weeks (ie. Normal)! Hurrah!

Some more general musings from akin (me)

2005-09-15T11:49:00.000+08:00

This recent sickness has knocked me around a bit. I think the persistent heat, which along with the rain creates a high level of humidity probably isn’t helping either. But it’s been tough getting over this one and I wish I could have a break in Australia for a week or two. Neil is leaving on Friday for Perth. I notice it will be a sunny 19 degrees there today. Not 31, raining and humid. But the main purpose of his trip is to visit his step-mum Barbara and his sister and her children who have just returned from a few years in the UK. Unfortunately I only have a limited amount of leave and it hasn't been possible for me to join him at this time He’ll be there for about 10 days and will return just before his birthday on the 29th. Upon his return we'll head down to a place in the Visayas called Apo Island, near Dumaguete on Negros Oriental to celebrate Neil's birthday. Apo Island is pretty well known for its well preserved coral reef that has been successfully protected from dynamite fishing!! (unlike many other coral reef areas in the Philippines) We will do an introductory scuba dive while there and the small island itself is supposedly very peaceful and very pretty. This will be our first trip down to an island in the Visayas and I’m really looking forward to it.

We told our Tagalog teacher on Monday that we didn’t want to continue Tagalog anymore. We’ve done about 10 lessons with her and feel like much of the time has been wasted. She had never taught Tagalog before (only English to Korean students) and when we asked questions she was unable to provide us with some concrete answers. For example: Pwede mo bang ipakita sa akin sa mapa? (Can you show me on the map?) why is the bang – ba + ng joined together when in other cases it is separate, ba (to indicate a question) and ng (a ligature, another confusing aspect of Filipino). And when do you use ipakita and when do you use nakakita and when do you you use just kita (all are versions of 'see'). And when do you use 'akin' me and 'ako' I/me? Stuff like that. Anyway, so we’ve (hopefully) found someone who is a little more qualified and hopefully it will all go well. But I shouldn’t blame our teacher too too much. For my conversational Tagalog to improve I really need to start talking MORE!!!

I’ve become addicted to eating grapefruit for breakfast. I think it has become my favourite fruit – a pretty big call as I do miss Australian grapes. Here the grapefruits are imported from South Africa I think, so they aren’t too cheap, but they seem to be a bit sweeter than the ones in Australia. Perhaps they are just a different variety. The Philippines has some great fruit though. Much more than the apples and oranges that dominate the Australian shelves. When I get home, I’ll have a Filipino food party, because much of it can be found in Australia, but I had never tried it. Mangosteens, lychees, lanzones, rambutans, atis, stinky durian, dragonfruit (which looks very pretty but which I haven't yet tasted). Most of it is pretty sweet but all in all is pretty good.

Work is going well. Being sick I hit a bit of a brick wall again as to the focus of what I need to be doing here. But I am working on a couple of discussion papers on possible plans so hopefully that will reinvigorate thoughts about how to improve things. As I've said before, generally the women I work with here hold similar ideas about what is needed to enhance their work - money and more resources. Unfortunately I am unable to bring this to a large extent. But I guess an extra pair of hands and a sounding board goes a little way to helping out around here. It's become an ongoing discussion with a few other AYADs here and with the in-country manager. And it was a question raised when I was back in AusAID in Australia. Just to what extent can a single volunteer help an organisation? I guess it would differ between different organisations, and even within different parts of organisations depending on the individuals working there and the contexts in which the volunteer is working. One of my colleagues here is seriously considering volunteering with a women's organisation in Pakistan. I'm excited for her - she is very matalino (intelligent) and could impart a lot of knowledge. I guess when it comes down to it, I would encourage people to go and volunteer for a while. You learn a lot and the transfer of knowledge and ideas on both sides can be rewarding and valuable (a plug for the AYAD program, new assignments are advertised I think on the 15th of September). And despite the pollution, humidity, sicknesses, msg-ridden salty sweet food and frustrations of Manila, it is fun to be overseas. You just need to really remember it sometimes.

Cha Cha

2005-09-14T08:48:00.000+08:00

Well it had to happen – a political post. I am working in the government after all. And a hell of a lot of political rumblings have been going on in the Philippines since our arrival. Its really a wonder that a political post hasn’t appeared sooner! I guess what really prompted it is that I've been attending a number of seminars on Charter Change in the Philippines. On Tuesday it was, 'Charter Change: Will it Drive Economic Growth and Democratization?' and last week, 'Charter Change: possibilities for Local Sectoral Representation Advocacy’. Local Sectoral Representation, or rather advocating for the passage of an LSR bill through Congress is one of my tasks here at NCRFW. It’s been causing us a bit of grief, partly because it has been around for so long (I think over 10 years people have been pushing for an LSR bill) but also because of the current political situation. The forum was a chance to look more into the political implications of the proposed governance reform process on LSR advocacy and it was hosted by the LSR Task Force of which NCRFW is a member.

There has been a recent push in politics here to under go charter change, otherwise known as; 'cha cha' to reform the political system and move the Philippines from a unitary and presidential system of government to a federal and parliamentary one (like Australia’s for example). There has been a bit of a long history in the Philippines for cha cha, from Marcos through Ramos to the current Arroyo government. A lot of it has been about Presidents trying to stay in power (they are only technically allowed one term of 6 years), but it has also surfaced again lately due to recent political controversies – the Hello Garci tapes, alleged cheating in the latest election, ongoing juenteng, the 'self-exile’ of Gloria’s husband to the US, impeachment processes, and ongoing graft and corruption claims throughout the government.

The meeting was all in Tagalog so I only got a general understanding but one of the presenters, Dr Jose Rocamora, Executive Director of the Institute on Popular Democracy (IPD) gave a good speech with some great quotes such as:
- When talking about whether cha cha should go ahead, "Gloria has to face the music before we dance the cha-cha".
- When talking about the absence of strong political parties along with the desire to move to a parliamentary system where functioning political parties are essential, ‘it’s the age old question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg. In the Philippines we have our Pinoy answer, balut. Here Dr Rocamora is proposing that 50% of all Parliamentary seats are delegated to party list representatives to facilitate the strengthening of political parties in the Philippines.

For LSR, the recommendations weren’t so positive, but overall it was one of the more informative and useful advocacy meetings. Since the talk on cha cha has reignited here, and the realisation of how rotten politics are here in the Philippines, Neil and I both have been reflecting on the Australian system - which although has problems of its own, we think is a much more positive and responsive system than the one currently in operation here. I’ll be giving a bit of a talk on the Australian system to the staff at NCRFW as a practical example of a parliamentary, federal system and what the office may expect if cha cha goes ahead. At least my office mates and many Filipinos are engaging in the debate! It’s good to see, and a positive development.

Just to finish, I thought I would add something more about the context of Charter Change in the Philippines from a publication of the Citizens’ Movement for a Federal Philippines (CMEF) and the KC Institute of Federal-Parliamentary Democracy entitled, Charter Change for Good Governance: Towards a Federal Republic of the Philippines with a Parliamentary Government by Jose Veloso Abueva. I think it is a good introduction to why changes are necessary to improve governance in the Philippines.

”EDSA 1 and 2 : In a non-violent explosion of “people power” at EDSA [the main artery road in Manila] from February 22 to 25, 1986, tens of thousands of outraged but unarmed Filipinos gathered to defend a small but swelling band of military rebels. United in their anguished cry for ‘Justice, Freedom and Democracy’, they peacefully immobilized the armed forces of the 13 year Marcos dictatorship. On the forth day they banished the dictator into exile [interestingly, his daughter is now a House of Representatives member and his son, Governor].

“In January 2001, not only at ESDA in Metro Manila but also in many cities, citizens gathered and employed “people power” once more to bring down a president who was perceived to be abusive and corrupt. [Estrada – an ex-movie star. Interestingly his wife and son are both Senators in the 24-person national senate] Aggrieved citizens felt good once again, but “people power” alone could not bring us the good governance that we really need as a developing nation and democracy.

“We restored an outmoded system of democracy. The restoration of free elections and electoral democracy under the 1987 Constitution has not checked our pervasive problems of mass poverty, unemployment, corruption, social inequality, injustice, rebellion and the environment. Underdevelopment and population shill force legions of Filipinos to migrate [approximately 10% of Filipinos live and work overseas] as our country lags farther behind our advanced neighbors in the region. Political and economic power remains concentrated at the top of the social pyramid. . .

“We restored our adversarial separation of powers in a presidential system that daily creates conflict and gridlock between the Executive and Congress, with a vengeance. Our obsolete form of government and dysfunctional political parties sustain our politics of personality, patronage, cronyism and corruption without public accountability. . .

“We should recognize our glaring lack of ‘good governance’ which can be understood as the sustained, institutionalized capacity of the government to make the right decisions and policies and to implement them effectively to solve our problems and realize our goals. This gaping lack is what sets the Philippines apart from our progressive democratic neighbors (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand) and our progressive semi-democratic neighbors (Singapore, Malaysia, China).

“Basically, good governance is the primordial responsibility of our national leadership. But since the mid-1960s we have suffered a collective failure of our political leadership to reform our institutions of governance for the common good. In spite of some good leaders here and there, most of our leaders have helped to preserve our traditional political system in which their power is rooted and nurtured.

“Pervasive poverty, insecurity and dependency, as well as lack of civic competence, compel many citizens to play their passive role in traditional politics. Our kind of capitalist or market economy also perpetuates our elitist political system. Moreover, the status quo of bad governance is sustained if we cannot build a deeper sense of nationhood, a stronger commitment to the common good and the national interest, spirituality, moral values, and modern ethical behavior. We need more of our reform-minded leaders in government, business and civil society to push for institutional reforms for good governance. We need responsible and reform-minded citizens in a growing middle class and a modern political culture. We need to break out of our vicious cycle of deficits in good governance and democracy.”

Long time no post

2005-09-12T13:34:00.000+08:00

Just a quick post to update people on what I have been going - I haven't had much of a chance to get on a computer to post lately. There is a long post in the works, so hopefully I'll get it organised soon. But I've also been sick again, had some days of work and ventured into a medical clinic for blood tests to see what was wrong with me (very vague symptoms of nauseau, constant headaches and needing a lot of sleep). They didn't find anything serious which is good, but prescribed antibiotics. After 7 days I am starting to feel better and more recovered, but this one knocked me around a bit.

We had Lyndon, an AYAD from Bohol come stay with us last week, and Franc is now back in Manila and stayed with us for a few days. Unfortunately we didn't head out much while they were here due to my sickness, but we'll see Lyndon later in the year with a trip to Bohol. Here's a pic from Franc's website - the traffic on EDSA (main road thoroughfare in Manila.

Baguio 1

2005-09-01T08:58:00.000+08:00

Friday afternoon Macel and I made our way to Baguio - a 2hr bus ride up into the mountains. We arrived at about 7 and met Macel's partner Chii who had come up from Manila to join us for our Satruday in Bagio. We dumped our bags and headed out for dinner. We went for dinner at a nice place near the large Bagio Cathedral which overlooked the city.

The next day we got up early and went for breakfast at the Cafe by the Ruins. This is a great little cafe - open air, bamboo, local art works and Philippino food. I wish there were more restaurants like this in Manila! I ate french toast and maple syrup. Yum.

Me and Macel at Cafe by the Ruins

Afterwards we headed up to Mines View, which overlooked the surrounding mountains. Next on our whril wind tour of Bagio was to the Bagio market place where we bought pasalubong (food for people at work) and a few little presents for ourselves and other people. We then went back to the hotel, packed up our stuff and headed about 5kms out of Bagio to Tam-awan Village.

Chii and Macel at Mines View

Baguio 2

2005-09-01T08:52:00.000+08:00

Tam-awan Village is a replica of a traditional Cordillera community with reconstructed huts made of hand-hewn pine wood and thatched roofs. The village is a popular haunt of Baguio artists who regularly hold exhibits in the compound and an eclectic mix of workshops from painting, pottery, paper-making to performance arts. One can even see as far as the South China Sea on a cloudless day if one stands on the topmost part of the village. There are a number of old Igorot huts within the village from Ifugao (the rice terraces that Neil and I visited a few months earlier) and Kalinga which will allow you to see how the homes of the mountain people really look like.

Macel and I heading up to Tam-awan Village

View of Tam-awan Village. The two rice God statues white and black guard the entrance.

Next we were off to Camp John Hay, an area developed in the early 1900’s by the United States Armed Forces as a r&r place for their troops. Now it's a large recreation area open to the public. We headed to another nice little cafe that served chocolate. After a long, fun but exhausting day, we jumped back on the bus to Manila.

Emily at the Chocolate cafe - I forget what it is called!

Emily and Chii at the Chocolate Cafe

Photos from Vigan work trip

2005-08-30T09:32:00.000+08:00

Emily at the Pamulinawen Gender Resource Center at the University of the Northern Philippines.

Me, Macel, a potter, Gigi, a GRC member and Milin, head of the Pamulinawen GRC at the UNP Ceramics Training Center.

Macel and I, along with the local Governor and some local women at a regional meeting hall where gender materials are on display.

Work Trip up Northern Luzon

2005-08-29T13:25:00.000+08:00

On Wednesday, Macel and I took a 9 hour bus ride up to the north of Luzon to undertake an informal monitoring visit with the Gender Resource Centres in Region 1. Gender Resource Centres are a mechanism developed by NCRFW to advocate and undertake gender mainstreaming at the regional and local level. There are 6 GRCs throughout the Philippines based in academic institutions and it is one of my primary responsibilities at NCRFW to assist in strengthening their capacities and to expand the GRC model to other areas in the Philippines. Since arriving at NCRFW I’ve done a lot of reading about GRCs, their limitations, problems and needs to be more effective. But this was the first opportunity that I had to talk to the GRC members in person.

We arrived in Vigan at about 7.30 at night and went to the University of the Northern Philippines where we were treated to a nice Illocano dinner of bangus (a common Pilipino fish), vegetables and rice. We were accommodated in the University guest house and I pretty much crashed out soon after dinner. The next morning we took a short tour of the university, visited their pottery school and then met up with other GRC members. I was predominately responsible for running the meeting with the GRC members which was basically a meeting to find out how the GRC was going, what kind of activities they were undertaking, problems their were facing, and what kind of vision they had for the future of their GRC – essentially for their sustainability. The discussion was to help Macel and I in helping to strategise in further supporting GRCs throughout the Philippines as their role is pretty important in assisting Local Government Units in integrating gender concerns in their local programs and activities. And of course, some GRCs have been more successful in this than others! It was a pretty successful meeting except for the fact that as an AusAID sponsored volunteer they thought I was going to able to bring some money to their operations – I think they also wanted some pretty concrete solutions to help them in their limitations. I tried to emphasise that they know the local situation, and had some pretty good solutions themselves, I just hope that it got through to them ok!

After some lunch we headed out to some local Barangays for a field visit. Most of the work that the GRC in Vigan is undertaking is research work on the role of women in various industries. First we went to a local meeting hall where women from various organisations were able to meet and discuss their activities, and where the GRC is able to share information on gender. We then went to some local pottery communities (Vigan is fairly well known for clay floor tiles and pottery products). The GRC was undertaking research on the role, income and division of labour in the pottery production industry. These were really poor households where women were undertaking highly labour intensive activities, fulfilling multiple roles and receiving low income for their productive work (about $20 a week). The GRC members talked to them about their business relationships, whether they were members of a co-operative (they weren’t – usually members of cooperatives in the area are able to share more in the profits of the sale of their products) and how much capital they had etc. It was pretty interesting.

Afterwards we headed back into Vigan town proper and visited Villa Angela – the ancestral home of the NCRFW Executive Director. It is an old Spanish colonial home. We then went to eat empanada – a local delicacy – like a deep fried spring roll type thing that looked like a pastie, but was filled with vegetables, egg and longganisa (Illocano sausage). We then hopped on another bus to head 4 hours south to San Fernando, La Union.

The next say in San Fernando I observed Macel give a workshop to local tourism workers on gender. It was an all day seminar aimed at increading their awareness of gender issues both in the workplace (like undertaking equal employment opportunities, being aware of gender divisions of labour in operation, and sexual harassment and predujices) and in the broader tourism industry (like issues of prostitution, portrayal of women in tourism marketing, people trafficking and how tourism may affect women more generally in the local community).

Once the workshop finished at about 4 we caught another bus (this time only 2 hours) to Bagio to start our time off for the weekend! Bagio post to come with pictures!

Chinese cemetary

2005-08-27T09:06:00.000+08:00

Last weekend Neil and I headed town to Binondo – Chinatown. Manila has quite a strong history of Chinese involvement, Chinese make up a high proportion of the city’s business elite and our apartment complex for example has a lot of Chinese residents. We had a great lunch at a large Chinese restaurant called President Restaurant which was delicious.

After lunch we went to Binondo Church which is one of the older structures in Manila dating back to 1596 and then had a walk around Chinatown, which isn’t too big itself, but is generally pretty clean and pretty interesting. There are quite a lot of old European churches around Manila. Most of the really old ones were bombed to the ground during World War II, only a couple survived the war, many more were rebuilt out of the ashes.

We made it over to the MRT train station and headed north to check out the Chinese cemetery. The Chinese cemetery is filled with mausoleums with crystal chandeliers, air-conditioning, hot and hold water, kitchens and flushing toilets for the mourning families. Most of the mausoleums were nicer than many of the surrounding Philippino houses in the area. It was pretty amazing.

Children of the Philippines - guest post and photos by Mairin

2005-08-22T14:12:00.000+08:00

I've never seen anything as gorgeous and innocent as the children in the Philippines, they’re absolutely lovely! During my travels here I’ve been fortunate enough to take some incredibly beautiful photos of them.

Some of them are so poor, yet they always have a big smile on their faces and are always willing to entertain you. Some are shy, others extremely outgoing for their age... but all outwardly happy. There is widespread illegal child labour here, consisting of child beggars who just simply follow you around saying “ma’am food hungry” and there are others who sell low-priced objects such as flower necklaces. Personally, I try not to give them money because I know that if I do it will just go straight to the adult who is co-ordinating it all. Instead I try to give them food or water, amazingly though they often refuse to take this even though they are probably starving! I know it’s not as bad as other countries, such as India where begging truly is a way of life, but it is definitely confronting. One of the photos below depicts this typical situation - It shows a young boy with his faced pressed up against the cab window begging for money.

This is a fairly common occurrence here, especially if you’re a foreigner. Whenever I’m in a taxi and stop at an intersection I am guaranteed that I will be propositioned by a child, some unfortunate individual that has a disability or a street vender selling his goods… there all after the same thing, money to sustained their livelihoods.

The Philippines is full of inconsistencies…. There is a lot of wealth in this country but the dispersion of this wealth is disproportioned. I’ve never seen anything like the traffic here; there are ten times more cars here then in the city of New York so the traffic is always horrendous! More people own mobile phones here then anywhere else in the world. It is not an unusual occurrence if an individual has two or three mobile phones so that they can go with different providers depending on the deals that they are currently promoting! All the middle/upper class families have yayas (which are nannies that look after the children 24-7) so there is essentially a generation of Filipinos that are being primarily raised by their nannies where there interaction with their own parents is minimal because they are working long hours – trying to get ahead.

Then there is a population of people that are struggling to put food on the table let alone send their children to school or even dream of having someone to assist in the caring duties of their child….

It really does get you thinking… at the end of the day it really is the children that suffer the most. Although they are not totally aware of this, you have to wonder what future they have to look forward too, I mean look at them they are so beautiful and innocent!...

Mairin is an AYAD currently working at Family Planning Organization of the Philippines

http://www.fpop.org.ph/fpop/aboutus.htm

Another Week, Another Post

2005-08-17T16:36:00.000+08:00

Another week, another post for the blog. Time is absolutely flying – we are in the middle of August already? I can’t believe it. Just so people don’t forget – its my mommy’s birthday on the 22nd and Lyn’s on the 21st. I’ve bought you both presents (mom- yours might be a bit small so I’m not sure whether to send it or not – I forgot that one size fits all in the Philippines is one size fits all children under the age of 14 in Australia!!). But buying presents isn’t really the most difficult thing – sending them may be a challenge and commitment to your birthdays. . . finding a post office for one, and the bureaucracy here is pretty amazing for everyday things. I went to pay my water bill in the admin part of the building where we live and they wanted a check. The total bill was about $10.00 for the month and it costs about $1 to get a bank check, let along finding a bank open outside of working hours to get a bank check written up. Basically anything involving public services and banks are just a big pain in the butt here really. I really miss Bpay!!

As you can tell we haven’t been doing anything too exciting here – its turned hot again and awfully humid – I’m sick of sweating at 7.30 in the morning – and I’m remembering the one weekend where we headed to the beach and it poured and blew a gale the whole weekend! Oh well. We stayed in Manila last weekend. Neil bought a DVD player and a friend of his from work lent him about 30 burned CDs that we’ve been slowly getting through. On Saturday we went to a going away dinner for an AYAD who is getting ready to finish her time here in the Philippines. We had pre-drinks at our house with our new blender, had an Indian dinner and bar hopped a bit in Malate. It was a pretty big night and Saturday I was pretty hungover the whole day. Must have been those tequila shots – what was I thinking!?! I’m getting old – I just can’t do it anymore!!

Mairin, Jarrah, Me and Natalie at a bar in Malate. We are all AYADs - Mairin and Natalie share an appartment in the same complex as Neil and I, Jarrah is from the intake before us and only has a month or two left to go.

We were going to head out of Manila this weekend as well, but Neil is pretty keen on going to a punk night at a local music club. Natalie’s (AYAD) boyfriend (also an AYAD based in Bangkok) is coming over this week so we’ll be heading out again with the AYAD crew. Neil’s invited some workmates to come along as well so hopefully it will be pretty fun (punk? I dunno . . .). I’ll try to find an interesting picture to accompany this post. Here we go -

This is Leharne and Neil at Indian dinner on Sunday night. It was Leharne's going away. She's been based in Los Banos at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Some everyday stuff

2005-08-09T16:48:00.000+08:00

I don’t know how interesting this post will be for people, but since I kind of want to use my blog to remember my time in the Philippines after I return home, I thought I would just do a post on some everyday stuff.

Cooking – we haven’t been doing a lot of cooking here. It’s hot in our kitchen, we don’t have many pots and pans, and we hardly ever go grocery shopping – it’s pretty hard without a car. We have to end up taking a taxi home, but more to the point, we have to find time to actually go out and get groceries. Neil sometimes grabs some stuff on his way home from work as he passes through the closest main shopping mall to our house every night. But also, the food here is slightly different to that in Australia, which makes the Indian curries taste a little funky and the Chicken Kiev’s a little non-existent. So were are basically living on a pretty consistent weekly dinner diet of pasta, stirfry and the occasional other meal like noodles or stew. We eat out fairly often as we find it pretty cheap, but again our meals consists mainly of Italian food, pizza or pasta, from Cibo or Italiannis if Neil is feeling generous, or of Japanese from Teriyaki Boy all at Araneta Centre in Cubao (that shopping mall I mentioned earlier).

Laundry - We don’t have a washer let alone a dryer so we take our laundry down on a weekly basis to the local laundromat. Except that they do it all for you which is great, but sometimes they have so many orders to do that we have to wait 2 or 3 days for our clothes. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that we only brought a limited number of clothes, and don’t have too many reserves. We’ve been trying to buy clothes, but again, sizes are very different which is great for me and shoes, (I have the typical Filipino-sized foot) but not for pants (I guess I have the typical Western thighs and butt). Actually, talking about my thighs and butt, I have lost weight here. I think this is mainly due to the 40 minutes of walking I do each work day (20 mins to and from work) and the smaller, but more regular meals (I eat an average of about 5 times a day – and this is pretty typically Filipino). But for me, the size and amount of food matters! It’s amazing all that money I spent on my gym membership when all I needed to do is eat more often – but importantly eat smaller servings . . .

Other physical activity - I’ve started playing badminton once a week at a course near our house. I’ve been going with our AYAD neighbors who live in the building next door. It’s fun and we’re noticeably getting better each week. To make an otherwise fun event a little annoying is the fact that the guy who works at the gym where we rent the court has a crush on poor Natalie and keeps asking if he can play with us, and generally is a real pain in the butt. But hopefully we’ll bring Neil along this week to play doubles and he can give this guy a stare-down or two. . . I doubt it!!

Other extra-curricular activities - The only other constant after-work weekly event is Monday Filipino language classes. Our teacher is a teacher of English to Korean students here in Manila and while she is fairly nice, she is a bit strange. She talks about her period, how she gets flushed and hot right before she gets it, and even about her bowel movements (this one was fortunately not to us, but to another AYAD who has her for language classes!). But this is pretty typically Filipino. It makes me wonder what it is that I do that grosses my workmates out, or that they may consider ‘rude’. I guess discussing bodily functions should not be such of a faux-pau in Australia – but it takes some getting used to!! Particularly when nice workmates pull a huge loud burp after eating, are happy to talk about how they are currently suffering from constipation before heading into the toilet, but seem to go out of the office if they have to blow their nose . . . I love it really, it makes me laugh! J

Blood? - I’ve been asked twice this week what my blood type is because a couple of people have been sick (one with dengue, the other is having a kidney transfusion thingy) and the hospitals/blood banks don’t seem to carry enough blood here for these types of medical emergencies. I guess this is the kind of place where donating blood could really be useful (or is it useful everywhere . . ?) I wonder if concerns with blood donation and AIDS etc are ok here – I am sure they are due to the huge AIDS education and awareness campaigns that have been undertaken internationally . . . but it would have to carefully considered if I go ahead and start donating here.

What else? At work they place music all day and today we ran out of computers for the number of people who wanted to use them. It’s finally cooling down here but I have a really sore ankle and need to buy some new shoes. Mikey-in-law if you are reading this, I may have to come see you for a professional visit when I get back to OZ, I suspect I may need some orthopedic things to stop rolling out on my left foot when I walk. We finally found a nice pasta sauce to cook with, and a new restaurant opened at Araneta on the weekend, which is always an exciting event. Its called Peking Duck. We might try it tonight so I’ll have to report on it tomorrow. Oh and they are planning to open a Pancake House there too – I hope it’s good!!

That will just about do I reckon. Before I sign off, thanks everyone for the comments – please leave more, especially what I should write about – what do you want to know about the Philippines?? And I also wanted to finally share some ridiculously long, real Filipino words in an article about the origins of the Filipino word ‘Jologs’ – a word that I quite like (it’s like the word ‘lame’ in English):
· Pinanlalampaso (16 letters)
· Nangangahulugan (16 letters)
· Ipinagmamalaki (16 letters) – something about ‘big’?
· Kapangyarihang (16 letters)
· Ipinangangalandakan (20 letters)
If I have any Filipinos reading this (I?!) can you please translate what on earth these mean!! J

And sorry if this post has been so .. . . jologs!

This is Neil at the local market - there is some great fruit here and it's so cheap! 50c for a kilo ove huge, delicious avocados!

Verde Island

2005-08-09T09:59:00.000+08:00

On Friday afternoon, Neil and I met to catch the bus down to Batangas for a relaxing weekend away. It didn’t start too well – I left work early to get a taxi – but there were no free taxis. So I arranged to meet Neil down at the bus stop by catching the train. On the way down there was a huge downpour – and when I say a downpour – it was a monsoon-like storm! Of course Neil, who was meant to leave work at 4.30 couldn’t get a taxi and ended up having to get the train too – an hour and a half later!! Needless to say I was a little tired of waiting for him to arrive, even if it wasn’t his fault for being late . . .exactly. Anyway, I won’t continue because I was a little pissed that he took so long to get there, and he got angry that I was angry, but we eventually got the bus down to Batangas and arrived at our hotel at about 9.30.

Saturday morning we got up early to catch a boat over to Verde Island where we had booked our nice relaxing weekend away. Unfortunately the rain hadn’t really subsided much – it was still really stormy and not the best weather for a weekend on the beach! The rough trip over to Verde Island took about an hour and a half and a few people in the boat got pretty sick. Of course when we arrived at our destination it was too windy and rough to dock the boat, so we had to boat around to the other side of the island while the weather calmed down a bit. Finally we went back and were able to dock the boat and walk down the pier while getting totally wet from the rain and the high, rough sea which crashed against the pier throwing water all over us. But by 1pm we had finally arrived and were ready to eat lunch/breakfast and relax.

Verde Island Resort is made up of separate cabins overlooking the sea at the base of a tall hill. There isn’t much to do here besides relax and go snorkeling or diving when the weather is nice. Unfortunately for us it continued to rain and despite the ocean water being really warm, there was no way we were able to go swimming or snorkeling – it was just too rough. Instead we had a buffet lunch, an afternoon snooze and a brief walk around the surrounding area. I even went for a swim in the very picturesque pool. That evening we had dinner and a few drinks before retiring to bed.

Sadly we had to leave extra early the next day (7am!) during low tide to ensure that we were able to leave at all. Despite being a very nice, quiet place, our time spent on Verde Island was way too short for the 5-hours or so travelling time, and the money spent on our relaxing weekend away. It was also the first weekend where it has rained and been overcast the whole time – typical! But it was still nice to get out of Manila and to be in a nice environment with fresh air, no traffic and a beautiful view of the ocean.

Verde Island pictures

2005-08-09T09:12:00.000+08:00

Sick at Last

2005-07-29T16:42:00.000+08:00

Yep, I’ve just had two days off work – it hasn’t been the on-the-toilet type of sickness I was expecting to get, instead it’s been the ‘I feel really hung-over but I haven’t drunk anything’, and ‘I feel fine as long as I am in a horizontal position’ type of thing.

Yes, I took this photo in Manila - and it's true!

Mid morning I fell back asleep and had one of those dreams where you wake up and you can’t open your eyes. They are always vivid for me and I feel like I start to panic a bit. – I’ve had these dreams fairly regularly in my life (since I’ve had my night and day contacts??) and I’ve been able to instill more of a sense of “don’t worry, it’s just a dream” type of sensation into them. But with this one, I tried to ply my eyes open with my hands, walk to the bathroom and put eyedrops in (did my contacts stick to my eyeballs and to my eyelids?) and I even ducked under the covers to try and open my eyes (was the daylight just too bright for them?). Then thankfully the doorbell rang , it was 11am and I opened my eyes straight away.

I’m not sure if the doorbell was a blessing or more of a added burden to my dreams, the fact I felt really ill either sitting or standing and my pretty constant headache – it was the pest control guy who proceeded to spray pest control stuff throughout our bathrooms. I am sure this is pretty unhealthy – it stank like chemicals and was stronger than any other bug stray stuff I had smelt before. I don’t think it did much good anyway.

On Thursday I felt like my body could do some food so I cooked up some pasta and tomato sauce – it made me feel a little better, but I ended up going straight back to bed. I wanted to do some Tagalog practice, but my brain couldn’t function particularly well with a gurgling stomach and still a sore head. So I just laid there – and it was nice – I usually feel guilty just laying around – I don’t know why – it’s like I’m just wasting time or something. But today it’s all I felt like doing and it was probably just the best thing for me at the moment.

By Friday afternoon I felt a little better and read a little – something light; and I even watched Oprah.

What I’m reading:

The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs – I’ve only read the first couple of chapters, but it’s really good so far – a little academic.
There’s no Toilet Paper on the Road Less Travelled edited by Doug Lansky (leant to me by I at work) – Bill Bryson’s inclusions are definitely the funniest. And I haven’t even read much of Bill Bryson!
The Filipino Saga by Cortes, Boncan and Jose – a social history of the Philippines, initially leant to me by Macel at work.

I’ve recently finished:

Tree by F Sionil Jose – a pretty famous Filipino author
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell on Earth – leant to me by Sally and Natalie – one of those books you can read over the course of a weekend and really made me think about a future job with the US. I’m of course more interested in development work rather than war and post-war conflict situations, but good nonetheless.

Melissa and Tagaytay

2005-07-26T11:49:00.000+08:00

On Thursday night Neil and I made a trip down to the airport to pick up Melissa, my sister who arrived in Manila from visiting my dad in China. Unfortunately her trip turned out to be only a short one, but it was still great to see her! On Friday I took the day off work and we headed down to Greenhills for breakfast at Pancake House and some shopping. We bought a few things but the highlight of the morning was Liss’s, “that’s a tall Filipino woman” and my response, “that’s not a woman!” After we got tired of shopping and all the “Yes maam you like?” comments, we dropped our stuff off at the house and caught a taxi to Intramuros. We had a quick look around but it was raining a bit so we stopped off for some lunch while it passed. As one of the main tourist attractions of Manila, Melissa seemed pretty unimpressed with Intramuros. Perhaps coming from China where she showed pictures us of the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven Park, and Tianammen Square I should have known! We walked through Rizal Park and then over to the bay, but by this time the weather had turned really hot and the sky was pretty overcast and muggy, so we instead decided to go home for a rest before going out for dinner.

After a rest we headed into Makati where we had a quick look around the mall before eating some yummy sushi and Asian food in Greenbelt. We then headed down to Max Somethingerather's which specialises in chocolate. We both ordered chocolate drinks but it wasn't as yummy as we thought - especially for non-chocolate lovers, but the idea was pretty novel. By that stage we were full and tired so we caught a taxi home.

The next day we headed down to Tagaytay, a pretty touristy area where we were immediately accosted with comments like, "boat ride", "where are you going", "do you need a tricycle". From that moment we should have known what it would be like in this highly touristy town. We spent a long time looking around for a decent place to spend the night – a first here in the Philippines for Neil and I. Usually we are able to find decent, affordable places pretty soon after arriving in a new town. So it was a bit of a pain, and most annoyingly, we were taken advantage of by a couple of local drivers. This only equated to a couple of Australian dollars, but it’s still annoying. After getting a better layout of the town, we took Jeepneys – they are a standard price and a decent ride. We finally found a decent place to stay, but the room wasn’t available until after 8, so we headed back up the hill to eat a Josephine’s. Josephine’s ended up being a yummy and picturesque restaurant which overlooked Taal Volcano and its lake. It served Filipino food and was pretty decent. At least finding a decent restaurant and decent place to stay meant that the day ended fairly well.

The next day we left the hotel and had breakfast at a little place up the road. It turned out to be a good choice with decent breakfast and Seinfeld on tv. Hee hee. We then waited about 30 minutes in a jeepney before it took the 20 minute trip down to Talisay where you catch the boat across to Taal Volcano (some jeepneys won’t leave until they are full of passengers).

It was a nice boat ride across the lake to the volcano – we got a little wet, but it was nice to be on water. Once we arrived we were then accosted with offers of guides and horses to take us up the mountain. The Lonely Planet noted that you don’t need a guide, that the path is just one way up the hill and we were kind of happy to walk rather than take a horse up. For the first 10 minutes or so we were followed by people trying to offer services as guides. One even tried to make us pay him $200 pesos entrance fee for the municipal police. I told him to take us to the Municipal Police Office and we’ll pay it there and kept walking. This weekend was really the first time in the Philippines we’ve been hassled like this!! The walk wasn’t the nicest as we had to hike up a dusty track with lots of horse poo everywhere, but it kind of got nicer as we got further up the hill. We stopped and let Melissa try some buko (young coconut) while we rested a little. Then it wasn’t too much further before we reached the summit. After a disturbing incident with a kitten – we were kind of over the whole thing (which was a bit of a shame because the inner crater was quite impressive) and hiked back down. We got caught in the rain but Melissa and I had umbrellas so we only got a little wet.

The next day we were back in Manila and went to do some final shopping at Megamall in Ortigas. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and bought some clothes and some new shoes. We met Neil for lunch and then it was time to go home so Liss could head off to the airport to head home – boooo hooo – the trip was way way too short!

3 Months in

2005-07-25T12:16:00.000+08:00

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!)

Pics courtesy of Mairin

2005-07-15T09:10:00.000+08:00

I think this is a great picture in the bus that we took from San Fernando, La Union to Vigan.

More Photos courtesy of Mairin from our trip to Vigan

2005-07-15T09:07:00.000+08:00

These pics are from the weaving place that we went to.

Cinemalaya

2005-07-12T09:35:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday evening I caught a taxi after work to head down to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (itself an interesting building that reminded me of some of the Canberra cultural buildings: http://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph/index.html) to meet up with some of the other AYADs and watch an Italian movie. When we arrived, there was no Italian movie showing as it had been cancelled for the opening night of Cinemalaya, an Independent Pilipino film festival.

As part of the opening ceremony, we were treated to free wine and a performance by a local artist, Grace Nono, and some dancing. After some introductory speeches to open the festival, we then moved into the main screening area to watch 6 short films that were made by new film artists. Most of them were great and showed interesting aspects of Pilipino life and culture. Full length features will also be shown throughout the next couple of weeks culminating in a closing ceremony where winners of the short and full length films will be announced. Here are the short films we watched:

MANSYON by: Joel Ruiz Short Film CategoryDolores, a housemaid, and her husband Ambo, a gardener, are hired to take care of a large house while its owners are away on a long vacation. Weeks of tedium go by until a small accident sparks a series of discoveries within both Dolores and Ambo.
KULTADO by: Lawrence Fajardo Short Film Category
Set in a chaotic market place in a small province, a young vegetable vendor seeks vengeance against a meat vendor, who is also the leader of a gang of butcher's collecting "bribes" from other vendors in the market, bullying him as well as his brother and father. He got beaten by the leader several times. He picks fights with this butcher hoping to be able to beat him up someday. When this butcher then resorts to also hurting his younger brother, he then practices hard for the fight he's preparing for against this butcher. The task at hand may be more difficult than he imagined but he is willing to kill and be killed in this fight.
PANAGINIPAN by: Anna Isabelle J. Matutina Short Film Category Two young, deeply disturbed women meet and discover a different kind of bond despite their contrasting personalities. MONA, despite her seemingly calm and controlled facade, has already reached a point in her life wherein she can no longer hope that life will ever get better. SARA, on the other hand, wishes to escape the constant and pointless pain of her uncontrollable need to fall in love. Both women have already attempted several times to kill themselves, seeing that death is their only escape from this repetitive suffering of the human soul. After exhausting all means of suicide, they discover a foolproof way to end it all – that is, to consciously decide to stop breathing.
BLOOD BANK by: Pamela Miras Short Film Category
Des is a woman suffering from aplastic anemia who receives weekly blood transfusions. This is administered in a blood bank where Emma works as a medical technician.
One night, Des is mugged by Cleto. Going through her things, he discovers Des' diary and so learns more about her person. He becomes drawn to her. He stalks her, and is lead to the blood bank where he learns of her predicament. He decides to sell his blood. With this act Cleto feels a sense of redemption, his way of making up for the crime he has done to her and to others before her. At the blood bank, he also develops a friendship with Emma.
BABAE by: Sigrid Andrea Bernardo Short Film Category BABAE (WOMAN) is a coming of age story of two women who grew up together in the city slum community beside railroad tracks. They become best friends during childhood, shared dreams during teenage years and eventually started a family during adulthood when a child accidentally entered their lives. Real Stories of Women and a Man were added to give this color to this black and white film. A mixture of Drama, Comedy, Musical and Fantasy that will surely touch the Pinoy Heart in You.
ALIMUOM by: Milo TolentinoShort Film Category
In a darkened room a man commits murder- a bullet through the head. An act of madness that left him emotionally crippled with guilt and paranoia. He sits there weeping, splattered with blood, haunted by the echoes and images of his violence. Beside him a dead body lies face down on the bed, blood staining the white bed sheet. In this canvass where the smell of incense mixes with scent of blood and a crucifix peers accusingly out of a half-drawn drawer, the man struggle to hide his crime and cleanse himself with water. But it seems the dead body has its own agenda. Haunting him again and again, taunting him. A cycle of guilt, paranoia, shame and fear cut through the man's senses, driving him closer and closer to grieving madness. In that maggot infested sanctuary, where shards of broken glass and a dead fish lies eerily on a blood-smeared floor, a man struggles, hopelessly to atone himself of sin of violence to no avail.

Sabang, Puerto Galera - 9 – 10 May

2005-07-11T08:59:00.000+08:00

After a busy week I was really looking forward to getting out of Manila for the weekend. It was getting harder to get up in the mornings, and the pollution, people and traffic were all starting to get to me. A trip to the beach was just what I needed! I got up early on Saturday morning and along with Sally and Natalie, we caught a taxi to the bus station to meet Kate and catch the bus down to the Batangas pier at about 7am. After the 3 hour bus trip, we hopped on a ferry to head over to Sabang, Puerto Galera on the island of Mindoro. It was nice weather and with the fresh air, and beautiful ocean views, it was almost an immediate cleansing! About an hour on the boat we arrived in the little town of Sabang, where we checked into our modest inn and headed out for some food. We also met up with Mairin who had arrived the night before with a bunch of friends from Perth who are over in the Philippines doing some prac. work for their uni courses. They headed out for a small tour of the surrounding island while the other four of us changed into our bathers and walked over to a nearby beach for some swimming and snorkeling. The snorkeling wasn’t so great as there were a lot of people and boats around which seemed to have destroyed some of the coral, but we were able to see some nice colourful fish. We relaxed on the beach for a while and met some ‘colourful’ characters – some really young looking women who worked in some of the local bars. There were many ex-pats around the place – mainly men and you can only guess what Sabang used to be quite well known for. It’s been cleaned up a little and the diving has become the main attraction, but none of us were divers and there was still some interesting remnants of the other side of Sabang around. We all met up for dinner and watched the Australia vs. Springboks rugby game at a local pub. The next day we had a relaxing breakfast by the beach and then I went for a walk around to the look out point. We had to catch the ferry back at 1pm so it was a short sojourn to the beach, but a relaxing one.

Work picture

2005-07-03T16:26:00.000+08:00

My Week from 27 June - 1 July

I though I would document my week. Looking back, it's not really indicative of my previous weeks here at NCRFW as I have been really busy. Usually I try to fit in some vocab learning each day at work on the slow times of the day, but I've just been too busy this week. Perhaps it's because I'm finally feeling a little more knowledgeable about the work of the division and therefore more confident in my ability to help out , or maybe it's just been a busy week. Only time will tell! So here we go - I've included food too because it's lunch that I've really been able to be exposed to the real Pilipino food. . .

Lunes (Monday) - AM: We had a 9am General Assembly to discuss the rationalisation plan of the Government of the Philippines. All government agencies must submit a rationalisation plan on how they are going to streamline their agency and provide administered savings. It went for a long time, most of the morning.
LUNCH: I had pork chop steak in a nice sauce with gata kalabasa (one of my favourites for lunch - pumpkin in a light coconut sauce) and rice. This was followed by left over merienda from last week - avocado, icecream and coke (Only the avocado and icecream was combined).
PM: We had another agency-wide meeting with just the technical staff to present section feedback on the Agency's draft operational framework to 2010.

Martes (Tuesday) AM: last night I was informed that I was to have a meeting with the Executive Director, so in the morning I did of preparation for this. We were then advised mid-morning that a meeting with the NCRFW Board, and a meeting with the Social Development Committee (SDC – a Committee with the head of Government Agencies) hosted by NEDA (National Economic Development Authority – the central planning agency) would be held later in the week where Local Sectoral Representation (LSR – one of my tasks) would be discussed. So I asked I if she needed any help. We agreed that I would revise the PowerPoint presentation for the NCFRW Board. So I worked on that until lunch.
LUNCH: I had torta talong (an eggplant omelet type thing - was good), ginisang sitaw (sauteed green beans) and rice.
PM: I worked on the powerpoint presentation then met with the Executive Director at 3. The meeting went for a while but it was a good opportunity to talk with her and Anna (my formal supervisor).

Miyerkoles (Wednesday)
AM: After saying to myself that I would sleep in, I still got to work at my normal time. But only Aleth was yet in the office. So I quickly jumped on the computer to check emails. The AYAD in country manager is coming for a monitoring visit next week so I had to check the details. Once everyone else arrived it was time to eat morning merienda - mais (corn) from the street vendor. I just had coffee (instant coffee with a little sugar and creamer - no milk). We chatted for a while and then Macel and I talked about our planned trio tomorrow to meet with local government officials to provide technical assistance in their GAD planning and budgeting.
LUNCH: I had lumpia shanghai (my favourite! - homemade spring rolls) along with monggo (cooked mung beans) with rice
PM - I worked on providing comments for the Office of the Press Secretary's GAD Accomplishment Report and GAD Plan and Budget. NCRFW has to endorse all the GAD Plans and Budgets of all Government Agencies. Mine was only a 1 pager - I hope my comments are in line with the division thinking . . . we'll see.

busy at work at the office

Huwebes (Thursday) AM: I arrived at about 9am where I quickly finalised my comments on the OPS GAD Plan and Budget for Anna. Macel and I then went to LEARN for the trip down to Los Banos. At about 10 we drove down to Los Banos to meet with local women’s NGOs and local government officials to present information on engendering the local planning and budgeting process. My role was really just to observe, while Macel presented to the group. She did a really great job – I don’t think I would have been able to have presented for an hour as well as she did! It was interesting to see the dynamics at the local government unit and many of their issues were very different to those at the national level. So even though I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, it was another good insight into government planning and budgeting process.
LUNCH: We had either an adobo type dish with vegetables. For merienda we had pancit (noodles) and a rice cake type thing - I can't remember what it's called!

Biyernes (Friday) AM: Everyone was really busy when I arrived - they had to present something at the Board meeting. SO I busied myself in reviewing the presentation that I had prepared for the SDC meeting and after coffee and some cassava pie from Los Banos (buko pie is much better I think!) I asked I about my Pilipino homework (she gave me some context on the prepositions we are supposed to learn for Monday's lesson) and then hopped on one of the computers to finish some 'mapping' of NCRFW's allies to target them for some LSR advocacy.
LUNCH:
PM: Friday afternoon I went with I to NEDA to the Social Development Committee meeting held monthly between with heads of Departments and Agencies. NCRFW presented a number of agenda items including a report back on the 49th Session on the Commission of the Status of Women in New York (which the NCFRW Executive Director attended http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/english/49sess.htm, an update on passage of a bill on Reproductive Health rights for women and families and on the Local Sector Representation. By the time the LSR was presented, there wasn’t much time and there wasn’t much time for discussion. So it was a bit of a disappointment for I especially. We ended up going for a drink afterwards and met Neil for a great chat.

Emanila Photo Updates

2005-06-25T16:18:00.000+08:00

Just to let you know, photos have been added to the following posts:

Los Banos
Hiking in Batangas
First Day at Work
Touring Manila
Patronising the Megatrend

and the posts below. Hurrah!

Vigan

2005-06-18T14:36:00.000+08:00

After the fun of the Volunteer Sharing Session, we were all keen to get out and about to see something a little interesting. So we (the AYADs) decided to hop on a bus to make a 4 hour journey north to the town of Vigan. It was a long, dusty trip, but at the same time it was great to see the local countryside and local farming communities of this northern part of Luzon. We arrived in Vigan at about 5:30 and after finding a place to stay and having a quick shower we headed out to grab some food. We went straight to Café Leona which was having a Thai food night. Since Vigan is pretty close to the sea, I tried the spicy Thai calamari with a SML (San Miguel Light beer). And it was good! We then had a walk through the town and saw the famous Vigan cathedral and squares.

The famous Vigan Cathedral and Bell Tower

Once we got tired of walking, we hopped on a ‘kalesa’ for a longer tour of the town. Vigan is known as one of the only remaining towns in the Philippines withhold colonial buildings, cobblestone streets and for horse carts (kalesas) which are still a regular form of transportation here. Everywhere else in the Philippines was pretty much destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. Some of the horses looked pretty skinny, and I seems they stand around all day in the heat pulling carts around; and while I felt pretty sorry for them, at least (I hope) the money from the rides go some way to help their keep. Our ‘driver’ was really friendly and took us past the main tourist sites of the city. Even though it was quite dark, it was a nice way to see the town. The end of the ride took us up Villa Crisologo, the famous street in all the pictures of Vigan which is closed off to all ‘motorised’ transportation and which is so picturesque. It was a great way to end the day.

Our accommodation - Grandpa's Inn and Restaurant

The next day we all headed off to ‘Mango town’ – well the Illocano translation of Mangotown, which was a little weaving village. There we bought up pretty big after watching some local women working at their looms. I wandered around a little and met a Pilipino man who lived in New Jersey but had returned here to his home as his aunt had died. A tractor drove into the little square (cornered by a school, health clinic, this man’s house and his nieces weaving business) to load bags of corn which a woman and her children were bagging for animal feed. The tractor was just a seat and wheels pulled by a tractor motor – it was strange without the tractor body – and the corn was drying on the floor of the square and the school basketball court. It was such an everyday, rural town setting which really was so far away from everything we know in Australia. And talking to the ex-local resident who now lived in New Jersey – everyone here is just so friendly, willing to share their stories and their lives and eager to know about you, where you are from, why you are here – just to be friendly. It’s a really nice aspect of the Pilipino people here. After some pictures, we headed back to town for some lunch.

to be continued . . .

At the weaving place with the Grandmother and son of the owner

Volunteer Sharing Session - as exciting as it sounds!

2005-06-16T14:34:00.000+08:00

Wednesday morning I, along with 6 other AYADs and one of their mums met at SAGRIC at 9:30 to travel to San Fernando, La Union for a Luzon volunteer Sharing Session organized by the Philippines National Volunteer Service Coordination Agency (PNVSCA). http://www.pnvsca.neda.gov.ph And yes, to preempt this post- it was as lame as a Volunteer Sharing Session sounds. After waiting around the SAGRIC office for over 2 hours while our transportation was reorganized, we finally left at about 12 for the 6 hour ride up the northwest coast of Luzon. We arrived at about 6:30 to check into a dorm room and to have a very average dinner of rice and chicken with pink sauce (?!). Along with AYADs, there were volunteers from Korea, Japan, the US, Germany, Kenya and the Philippines. After dinner we all mingled a bit before pairing up and introducing our ‘new friend’ to the group.

Natalie, another AYAD at the Volunteer Sharing Session

The next day, after rice and fish for breakfast, we started a day of ‘fun’ in various discussion groups contemplating the role of volunteers in the Philippines. Perhaps it was because I was in a cynical mood, perhaps it was because I was the only volunteer placed in a government agency, or the only volunteer working on women’s issues, but I didn’t find my ‘governance’ group (who were all social workers??) particularly useful in considering my role as a volunteer at NCRFW. After another lunch of rice and fish, we again broke into regional groups to discuss ‘ways to network with other volunteers in the region’. Finally we broke for the day and all the AYADs went down to the beach to have a look around. Not being able to face another meal of rice and fish, we splurged and bought ourselves dinner at a beachside restaurant. We then returned to the ‘camp’ for more organized fun – a ‘social’. Fortunately for us they had put on some drinks and nibbles which went down pretty well. Some funky dancing went on before we decided to call I a night. The highly productive 3 days ended at lunchtime on Friday after a series of beach games in the super hot sun. Needless to say, we were all really eager to participate while getting burnt and dehydrated.

Our new in-country manager, Lynette, and Naomi, an AYAD in Los Banos at our 'alternative dinner' in La Union

Despite the really nice PNVSCA head, sadly the ratings on my assessment sheet weren’t particularly high- sorry!

Banaue and Batad

2005-06-12T13:45:00.000+08:00

After a delayed trip back the unsealed windy road back to Banaue, we checked into our accommodation overlooking the town before heading out to have a look around the town. Unfortunately because it was so late, there wasn’t a whole heap of time before the sun set. So we found a place to eat and had sinigang baboy and pancit canton (pork in a sour soup type broth and stir fried noodles). It was pretty good. We then went home for an early bed time as we were pretty exhausted and had a big day ahead of us.

Neil from our hotel overlooking the town of Banaue

I’ll let Neil take over for a while . . .

“It takes a windey nine hour bus journey to get to Banaue, the central drop off point for the relatively few but steady visitors to the rice terraces. From Banaue, the mission was to reach the rural mountain village of Batad, accessible only by foot. From our hotel room (one of the most expensive hotel in Banaue, at roughly $6 AUD each), a tricycle (motorbike and carriage) dropped us off at an isolated junction on a dirt road nestled within the mountains about an hours drive away. We hiked for a while before we were overtaken by an elderly local who beckoned for us to take his ‘short cut’, a very steep hidden trail which tunnelled its way through the dense fauna on the mountain face. It was paved with stone steps and for a brief moment my long term fantasy of being like Indiana Jones was fulfilled.

The lookout area at the top of the track was the final point that could be accessed by vehicle before beginning a sharp descent into the rice terraces of Batad. On the way down we passed a group of extra fit locals transport huge sacks of rice up the steep track on their shoulders. Before beginning our descent, a local named Darwin unobtrusively offered to be our guide for the day. We were very sure that we didn’t need a guide but his words ‘we help you to help us’ resonated and in future we will be more conscientious of the fact that it was necessary to have a local guide, after all, we were hiking through their private land, their communities and at times their homes.
One feature of my experiences of touring in the Philippines is learning to let go of your expectations and questioning the necessity of your own standards. This happens for most accommodation you stay in and most food you eat. If a bus is parked somewhere, it’s a bus station. If tourists sometimes stop here for a rest, it’s a tourist information centre. If it contains a few crepe bandages, it’s a clinic.

Philippine, we had been treated to an assortment of new experiences contained within such a short getaway, such riding through the mountains on the top of a Jeepney (an elongated US army jeep which is a remnant from WWII, good for about 14 passengers), and tunnelling into a huge cave with swarms of bats at the entrance, but gorgeous waterfalls, pools and rock formations at the base 300 below the entrance. All of these experiences were made possible and most worthwhile through the assistance, generosity, trust, modesty and good humour of Philippinos. ”

OK, that’s all he’s written for the time being so I’ll keep going. . .

The 40 minute hike down the hill into Batad proper was a welcome relief from the hot, muggy uphill walk we had just made from the jump off point. We got to know Darwin a little and he pointed out their local crops and talked a bit about the town and his life there. When we finally descended into the main part of Batad we were pretty awestruck. It was amazing this town nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains and rice terraces. It was beautiful. Darwin took us down through to a part of the town where we stopped a traditional Ifugao hut with a woman and her children. We asked if it was ok to take a photo – she said sure as this was the house of our guide! We met Darwin’s wife and his small children who were gorgeous.

Neil with Darwin's children

We then started a walk along the actual rice terraces themselves on the way to see a large waterfall. It was amazing that after every few meters a slightly different view of the town, rice terraces and framing mountains would be revealed. After a while we started the decent down towards the waterfall. The landscape reminded me of the movie Clear and Present Danger where the army guys all get left along the river in the South American jungle. Fortunately at this time there isn’t any military activity going on in this area!

Walking down through the Rice Terraces

About half way down we hit the dirt track and I head someone slipping behind me. Of course it was Neil, but when he didn’t answer when I asked if he was ok, I quickly ran up to see if he was alright. He was, but he had sliced his leg open on a sharp rock. I quickly grabbed a little towel I had in my bag which we tied around the wound to stop the bleeding as it initially looked like a pretty deep wound. Of course we had left the medical kit in our larger bags back in Banaue so there wasn’t really any antiseptic to clean it off. And the water around the area probably isn’t the best water to clean a wound with. So we walked back up to find the chemist – how stupid of us. This is a tiny little village in the middle of the mountains with no road access – as it there would be a ‘chemist’ here! But there was a health clinic worker with some access to bandages and betatine type stuff.

Walking down to the waterfall just before the accident

Neil was feeling a little better by the time we met with the clinic worker (the main health worker who was also the village midwife, was in Banaue for the weekend), Neil felt a little better about his wound, but had met another man who had cut his foot which looked like it had gotten infected. So he bought him some antibiotics and other stuff as well as donating some money to the local clinic for them to buy more supplies. They rely on funding from the local government – but they hardly get enough funding for medicine let alone salaries and other equipment which means their supplies are always very low. They also receive occasional funding from private sources or from politicians around election time. And some of the things they need are as basic as aspirin, bandages, antiseptic and medicine for dehydration and stomach amoebia bugs. It pretty amazing to get a glimpse into the needs of this remote mountain community which is probably a lot better off compared to many in the surrounding area as at least they have income from tourism (which unsurprisingly we were told has both positive and negative effects on the village).

Anyway, by the time all this finished we were pretty exhausted and hungry, so we had a great home cooked meal and then got ready for the long hike back to the junction point. Unfortunately we had a pretty strict deadline as we had to take the bus back to Manila at 5.30 that afternoon.

Sagada

2005-06-10T13:32:00.000+08:00

At 10 am Neil and I boarded an overnight bus headed to northern Luzon to a city called Banaue. Known as the ‘8th Wonder of the World’ for its ancient rice terraces, Banaue is one of the main tourist attractions of the Philippines. Fortunately, for once, we came well prepared for the 9 hour bus trip – with earplugs and sleeping pills. So that while I doubt anyone could say that a 9 hour overnight bus trip is enjoyable, we arrived at about 7.30 in the morning with sore butts and necks, but not too tired or overwhelmed by the trip.

As soon as we got off the bus there we heaps of touts, however our experience so far in the Philippines has been that people have generally been very helpful and willing to please. Like Denwil – we were keen to head straight of to another town called Sagada about 3 hours from Banaue and he was immensely helpful in providing information on how to get there. He took us in his tricycle down to the main town centre and then up to the Banaue view point for a great view of the surrounding rice terraces. It was beautiful and pretty overwhelming landscape to see these rice terraces carved into the mountainside.

Neil at the lookout point at the Banaue Rice Terraces

After a few photos, Neil spotted a jeepney coming up the hill which we flagged down to see if it could take us to a town called Bontoc where we could to take a jeepney or bus to Sagada. Fortunately it was taking a group of Filipinos from Manila straight to Sagada and was happy to take us along too for a decent price. So we stopped for some breakfast at the Banaue viewpoint before starting a really bumpy ride to Sagada over unpaved roads, but through beautiful mountain terrain.

Em and one of our Pilipino travel companions from Banaue to Sagada

We arrived in Sagada at about 1pm and booked into the Sagada Guesthouse in the middle of town. After a nice warm shower and a change of shirts we headed out for some lunch and a wonder around town. Sagada is not at all like your typical Pilipino town – there is little traffic, no rubbish or pollution, the houses are quite large with gardens that are well taken care of and are in more of a Spanish or European style. Plus it was chilly - for the first time since our arrival we wore jackets and long pants! After lunch it started drizzling, but manned with umbrellas we took a nice walk through the town, over to the large church and then through the cemetery to ‘Echo Valley’ to see the ‘hanging coffins’. It was pretty eyrie walking through a cemetery and then a wooded forest while it was overcast and rainy – it was almost like something out of a horror movie looking for ancient burial coffins in a limestone cliff face. The hanging coffins weren’t exactly what we were expecting, but it was pretty amazing that these ancient people were able to put these coffins so high up the cliff face.

Emily at St. Joseph's

Saturday morning we went to grab some breakfast at the Yogurt house. We’d been told that Sagada is well known for its yoghurt and carrot cake. So for breakfast I ordered a banana and yogurt pancake. It was pretty good. We then walked through the Saturday morning market where I bought a banana cake (carrots must not have been in season) for about 50c AU before heading to the Municipal Hall to register for some caving. It cost about $AUD10 to hire a guide which we thought would be a pretty good idea. The guide was Ariel and he told us to be prepared to get wet up to our waists. He lived and worked in Sagada and with his family he owned a couple of rice terraces, a small store and drove a jeepney between Sagada, Bagio and Manila. He was quite soft spoken, but was very friendly. It was an amazing walk through the small town on the way to the ‘Sumaging’ cave. There were more hanging coffins and rice terraces and the views out to the surrounding countryside and mountains was very picturesque.

I was a little freaked out as we started descending into the cave. It was pretty big, but it was really dark and we only really had a single gas lantern to light our way. I trusted our guide as he couldn’t even count the number of times he had been down the cave, but it was still a little scary all the same. After descending for about 10 minutes we heard and smelt the bats. After about another 15 – 20 minutes we came to the underground water. Here we took off our shoes as surprisingly we were able to grip the rock a lot better. And it was beautiful. The cave was cleaner obviously because of the water, the rocks were well warn into smooth artistic like shapes and the lamp reflected pinky earth tones. We descended further into the cave, crawling through small holes and eventually having to jump into a waist deep pool which of course Neil and I fell into. We waded through the chilly but refreshing water before coming tothe bottom of the cave. It was exhilerating and almost disappointing to be right at the bottom. All in all the climb through Sumaging Cave took about 2 hours.

Neil at Kings Curtain in Sumaging Cave

Emily, wet, at the bottom of Sumaging Cave

Soaking wet we walked back up to Sagada for a warm shower and some lunch. We then splurged with a Swedish massage from some local women we hadet at St. Josephs the night before. It was great, although Neil's hairy legs and chest didn't take too well to it. After the massage we went fora great walk through the small paths of the village which tookus past local houses and cottage gardens.- it was amazing to see how locals really live. Here they all really take care of their property and of the town a lot more than in other places we've seen - it's clean and very picturesque.

For dinner we went to a restaurant up the road called the Log Cabin for a buffet dinner. Not just ny old buffet dinner, but one prepared by a French chef. We ate mushroom soup, roast chicken, suteed zucchini and mushrooms, freshly baked bread, watercress and flourless chocolate cake for dessert. And of course a couple of bottles of red wine. We ate with an interesting couple- a man from the UK who had spent many years teaching in Peru, Colombia and now Singapore and his wife from Peru.

Neil at St. Joseph's

After a great time in Sagada, the next day we hopped back on the jeepney for the ride back to Banaue to see the rice terraces.

No Water means No Toilet

2005-06-08T10:52:00.000+08:00

So today at work we have no water on our floor - this also means there is no flushing of our toilet. So we have to walk down 3 flights of stairs for the 'comfort room' that has some running water. This is fun, especially on the one day where the night before you experience a slightly dodgy meal that doesn't sit entirely well in your digestive track! I just hope the water lasts in the 'CR' downstairs!!

The Weekend

2005-06-07T10:47:00.000+08:00

We started the weekend with dinner in Rockwell - probably the wealthiest suburb in Manila where many of the posted Australian Embassy staff reside. Here we met two of Neil's workmates, Deon and Gaye for dinner at a Greek restaurant. The dinner was really nice, but as was expected, pretty expensive. After dinner we went bowling at the large shopping mall which connects many of the restaurants and residential areas in Rockwell. At first I bowlded really badly (Neil beat me), but the second game was a vast improvement. We then played some pool and headed home in a semi-drunken haze.

Saturday we slept in then went to our 'local' shopping area, Cubao/Araneta for some lunch. We went to have a look at the large wet/dry market where we saw all types of fish, was nearly sick from the mixture of smells coming from the fish and meat areas and then tried some of the local Philippino fruit in the much more pleasant fruit and vege area. We ended up buying lanzones, mangosteens, pomelo and lychees which were really sweet and delicious. I then met Macel and Dette from work for a movie. We ended up seeing Madagascar which was actually very enjoyable.

On Sunday Neil and I went down to Makati where we had some lunch, and then went to the Ayala Museum. http://www.ayalamuseum.org/ The best part of the Ayala Museum is the series of dioramas which portray selected points of history of the Philippines. They also have some model ships of the Chinese trader and Spanish Galleons which are really well done. When you come visit - you should come to this museum, it was fun. It was a pretty chilled out weekend, but we're planning a bit one next weekend!

The Ayala Museum

One of the dioramas

My recent post - hiking in Batangas

2005-06-03T14:14:00.000+08:00

Just to let you know that I think the links to the photos from my recent post on our hiking trip to Batangas have been fixed - fingers crossed that you can see them too!

Basketball

2005-06-02T10:53:00.000+08:00

Last night, Mairin (another AYAD), Francisco (an Argentinean/New Zealander friend of Neil's who is working here as a fisheries consultant for the EU), Neil and I went to the Araneta Centre to watch some basketball. Basketball is one of the most popular sports here in the Philippines which is initially surprising because the Philippinos are generally not the tallest of people. We struck it lucky as while we would have been happy to watch teams from the National Philippines Basketball League play, at the moment the 16th FIBA Asia Champions Cup is being hosted in Manila. So we grabbed tickets to watch Philippines versus Iran. It was great fun and were only about 5 rows back from the court, but the Pilipinas team lost. Here's the game lowdown!

16th FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2005
Manila, Philippines May 29 -- June 5 : Day Four Result http://www.fibaasia.net/

Manila, Philippines (June 1)-Powerhouse Iran-Saba Battery imposed their superiority over the Philippines 85-75 to grab solo leadership in Group A in the Fedex 16th Fiba-Asia Champions Cup at the Araneta Coliseum here. With the victory, the Iranians not only installed themselves on top of the leader-board with an immaculate 4-0 card, they also emerged as the favorites to win this year’s edition of the Champions Cup.

The Filipinos, who were down by 12 points several times, the last at 68-80 with still 2 minutes remaining in the game, suffered their first loss in three games. Iran relied heavily on their imports- Lorenzo Daynard Hall and Andre Doran Pitts who scored 17 and 24 respectively, while the Philippines was led by Dondon Hontiveros and Rommel Adducul who had a combined output of 41 points.

Tomorrow, the Philippines is expected to bent their ire on Lebanon to assure themselves of the number two position at the end of the elimination round. Game time between the Filipinos and Lebanese is scheduled at 7:15 p.m. at the Ynares Gym in Antipolo City, an estimated 20 kilometers away from Manila.

Meanwhile, three-time champion Lebanon, which is slowly getting back on track, smothered Kazakhstan 94-75, their second straight victory after dropping their opening game against Iran 51-71 last May 29. Kazakhstan suffered their 3 rd straight loss in as many games joining lowly India down the cellar of Group A.

Qatar showed no mercy in beating Syria 79-54 as it warmed up for the highly anticipated showdown with Jordan, their archrival in Group B today. Qatar and Jordan have identical three straight victories to show with no defeat. The battle between Qatar and Jordan will be at 2:45 p.m. also at the Ynares Gym in Antipolo City.

Kuwait annexed their second victory against the United Arab Emirates 81-74, putting themselves in the number two position in Group B with a 2-2 win-loss record. The loss pushed the United Arab Emirates dead last with Syria in their bracket, both toting a 0-3 card.

SantaCruzan

2005-06-01T10:58:00.000+08:00

On Sunday Neil and I headed over to Ermita for some lunch and to try and find some operational phones to call home. Finding public phones that work here in Manila can sometimes be a bit of a challenge - especially because if you buy a phone card, you can only use that card from the same company's public phone - so it can be a bit annoying! Anyway, after lunch Neil went home as he was feeling pretty sick which I walked up along Manila Bay, through Rizal Park and Intramuros to meet some friends to watch the Santa Cruzan parade.

In the month of May, Filipinos hold the Santacruzan. The festival comes from a religious origin, a commemoration of the finding of the Holy Cross by Queen Helena and Constantine. Young ladies dress up in lavish Spanish-style gowns of lace and beads and parade on the streets, together with their escorts. They walk elegantly beneath arches of flowers in a procession while people hold candles and torches as they sing songs of praise. Some people think that the Santracruzan is an obsolete ritual, but there are also those who believe that it is relevant to the Catholic faith. And more than that, they say, the practice of the Santacruzan also adds color to the people’s cultural life.

The procession through Intramuros was a little more tame than I was expecting, but it was still fun to see the women and men in traditional Spanish dress. After watching the procession, we walked down one of the roads in Intramuros where we stumbled across a cultural fair with stalls, food and entertainment from the northern Mindanao region. We stopped for a while and watched some of the traditional dances before grabbing a taxi down to Manila Bay walk for some dinner. It was fun.

Photo of us with buko on our hike

2005-05-31T13:13:00.000+08:00

Watching Star Wars Pinoy style and why you don’t want to be caught outside when it’s raining in Maynila.

2005-05-30T13:15:00.000+08:00

We decided to stay in Manila this weekend, partly so we could enjoy some sleep-ins, but also because Neil was again feeling pretty sick. So on Saturday we decided to go see the new Star Wars movie. We’d already been told that going to the movies is pretty cheap, but that Philippinos talk all through the showing. Gee was that true!! Dad, you would have loved it – the guys behind us didn’t stop talking for the whole movie. Melissa – you would have enjoyed the guy sitting next to me who sounded like he was trying to burp up his entire stomach. Sadly, it wasn’t funny – it was disgusting. And mom – sorry to say, Philippinos can’t even get popcorn right! It was stale and had salty fake cheese flavour on it – I think it was the first time I haven’t finished popcorn in a movie ever! But, the movie was good and at $3.50 I’m sure we’ll be back to enjoy many more – just remember to bring your patience.

On the way home it poured with rain and of course we forgot to bring our umbrellas. But it was only about a 10 – 15 minute walk from the station to our home so we made a run for it. Now, it wasn’t too bad getting wet from the falling rain – the worse thing was that water was coming out of the drain pipes rather than flowing in and half the road was flooded. Which meant that we were walking through drain water to get home. With all the lovely smells you encounter walking down the average main road in Manila, we knew exactly what we were walking in – lovely. And I can’t wait until the real monsoon comes. Apparently you need a change of shoes and pants when going to work . . . nice!

Hiking in Batangas - Environmentallica, lots of waiting and Neil up to his old tricks

2005-05-26T10:27:00.000+08:00

Last weekend Neil and I, along with two other AYADs here, Natalie and Sally decided to join a Pilipino hiking group called 'Evironmentallica Pilipinas' (http://www.environmentallica.org/home.htm) for some hiking in a region south of Manila called Batangas. Our aim was to climb a picturesque peak called Manabo Peak on Mt. Malipunyo.

We woke up at 4.30 am on Saturday morning to catch a taxi down to the bus station to make the 6am bus. After waiting about a half hour at the bus stop for the 6 Pilipino Environmentallica members (how could we forgot about Pilipino time!) we caught the bus down south to Lipa City. After arriving two and a half hours later, we again waited around for about half an hour while we organised a jeepney to take us to the 'jump-off point' (the start of the climb) and for the Pilipinos to order some lunch from the local turo turo store (point point store - basically someone cooking meals out of their house for you to buy). We arrived at the jump off at about 9am where we again waited around while deciding whether we should have lunch now and then start the climb up the mountain, or 3 hours later at noon. After a prayer to start the walk – the group finally decided that we would hike up half way to a rest spot and have lunch there.

Neil with our leader, Ace

Earlier we had thought we would be doing some serious hiking with this group, but later discovered that it would only take 2 hours to get to the summit! While initially we were a bit disappointed that we weren't doing a bit more of a challenging hike, it is still really hot here and after 5 minutes we were all hot and sweating and happy to be doing a smaller warm-up hike in the Philippines. Plus it was fantastic just to be out of Manila and in the real countryside of the Philippines.

Em half way up

We hiked along a small dirt track surrounded by coconut trees and lush jungly forest. Along the first part of the hike we would occasionally come across local houses with their families and give a wave or stop and chat. After about an hour we reached the water source and had lunch while cooling down under the ‘fresh’ water coming from the local stream. Next to the water stream were two Christian alters near the water source as well as a small hut and some bamboo benches. We rested there for a while as it was still quite hot, and got to know the Pilipinos a little better. I tried some melhado (liver) and 30 day old aborted chicken egg – not balut – which is aborted duck egg which is semi formed – this was more like small little round balls which tasted pretty plain and chewy. (Is everyone impressed with this funky food that I have been willing to try? I am!) After ‘making chikka’ (chatting), resting and eating, we then departed for the summit which was only about 45 minutes away.

A large white crucifix marked the summit which showed picturesque 360 degree views of the surrounding landscape – from Laguna (where we were last weekend) south to Taal Volcano. It was beautiful.

We then went down to the campsite which was pretty close to the summit and rested before putting up the tents. Fortunately we got them up before the weather started moving in and the rain started coming down. It rained for about 2 hours and we were pretty much stuck inside our tents (although the Pilipinos were happy to be outside in the rain in their shorts starting to prepare dinner and drinking the local cheap spirit tuba - a sugar cane alcoholic spirit!). Once the rain started to subside we joined them in preparing the meal and sharing the tuba. Neil had already started on his cheap 18 peso (AUD$0.20) 375 mL bottle of rum while it was raining so he heartily joined the Pilipinos in their drinking antics.

The rain coming in

Once dinner was prepared we all sat down in front of the tents to enjoy the meal of rice, chicken adobo, tuna with vegetables, and spam. Afterwards Neil led everyone in conversation and in singing popular songs common to both the Philippines and Australia. He was funny . . . for a while until the shots of tub, whisky, gin and brandy got larger and larger!

After a while we went to bed while Neil continued to extend his ‘diplomatic’ topic conversation pieces with the Pilipinos (such as “I will shoot Marcos” – response = “he’s already 6 feet under”, and “if you see any old white men with pretty Pilipino women, call the Australian Embassy line” answer = slightly confused nods of the heads!).
The next morning, unsurprisingly, Neil was very hung over and stayed in bed while we were cooked a nice breakfast. We headed down from the summit pretty early because by 7.30 is was already getting hot. Half way down we bought some buko (young coconuts) from some local boys who cracked them open with their machetes for us to drink the juice and eat the flesh. We reached the jump off point at about 10.00 then waited for another 2 hours while lunch was cooked (so the food wouldn’t spoil?) before catching a jeepney and bus back to Manila.

So while all in all we only did a little bit of walking, a lot of waiting and a lot of sweating, it was a great weekend. The Philipinos (Ace, Nads, Nivram, Leo, Joma and one other whose name I can’t remember) were so friendly and hospitable (they cooked all our food and carried all the supplies) and it was great to get to know them a little. The surrounding countryside and view from the summit was beautiful. And it was great just to get outdoors and see how local Pilipinos live outside of Manila and the cities.

Tharindi Karunaratne

2005-05-23T14:31:00.000+08:00

I try to make my blog a positive one, recording experiences and events here in the Philippines. But today I heard some very sad news that an old friend in Canberra died last Friday. Tharindi went through the graduate program with us in immigration and had been working in Defence for the past few years. It was a shock and saddening to hear that she is no longer here.

Work at NCRFW

2005-05-19T16:47:00.000+08:00

I thought I would write a bit about what I will be doing at work for the next 11 months. Basically I will be assisting the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) in the division responsible for promoting and implementing gender responsive governance throughout the Filipino Government.

As Government Agency under the Office of the President, NCRFW responsible for implementing the Filipino Framework Plan for Action (FPA) which calls for 'a holistic and comprehensive response to the gender gap in the Philippines, and attempts to 'address 'systematic and structural causes of gender inequality'. NCRFW focuses on 3 main strategies to achieve this: promoting women's economic empowerment, upholding women's human rights, and promoting and strengthening gender responsive governance.

My division, the Program Development Division (PDD) focuses on mainstreaming gender throughout the Philippines Government and promoting gender responsive planning and budgeting to make the Government bureaucracy more gender responsive. More specifically, I am assisting in strengthening and facilitating the operation of some gender mainstreaming 'tools' including the support of:
· Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Points (GFP) - these are government employees in various national agencies who are mandated to advocate and oversee gender mainstreaming efforts. (Things like training management in gender sensitivity, inputting gender into the Agency annual planning and budgeting processes, and preparing and implementing GAD plans which are meant to ensure that Agency priorities, programs and activities are responsive to gender considerations). Basically NCFRW oversees the operation of GFPs throughout the bureaucracy and provides 'technical assistance' where required or requested.
· GAD Resource Network (GRN) - this is a network of gender specialists (mainly from universities) that is pretty much dormant at the moment. GRN members are seen more as possible resource points rather than an actual network of gender specialists working together to achieve tangible outcomes. I'm to help formulate some sort of solution to either revitalise or restructure the GRN.
· GAD Resource Centers (GRC) - these are resource centers mainly based in universities in regional areas. They serve as gender information hubs which also advocate and provide technical assistance on GAD and women's concerns more locally. Again, NCRFW basically coordinates the GRCs and I will assist on strengthening and expanding GRCs nationally.

In addition, I will be helping to advocate for the passage of legislation called the Local Sectoral Representation bill (LSR - Can you tell Philippinos like their acronyms too!). If anyone has any innovative ideas for advocacy materials - please leave me a comment!! As NCRFW does not have anything like a Minister assisting the PM/President on Women's Affairs, and as the President is preoccupied with the economic crisis, pushing for these types of bills to be passed is proving difficult.

More broadly, I'll be assisting wherever I can on gender and governance initiatives and I've already attended a number of meetings on gender budgeting, NGO participation in the budgeting process and on various projects that NCRFW has been implementing with funding from the Canadians and UNIFEM. Getting funding for anything that comes out of this office is a challenge with the National Government's current austerity measures. Even the GRN and GRC mechanisms have been previously funded from the Canadian project and pretty much all core NCRFW funding is purely 'departmental' and spent on salaries, maintenance of the building and basic admin - and even this is pretty minimal. (I think I mentioned that staff pay for their own toilet paper, soap, washing detergent?) Another big issue is the creation of additional work. From the UNIFEM and CIDA governance projects, a lot of demand has been created for NCRFW to assist other agencies to improve gender consciousness in their planning, budgeting and every day work. The implications of which are already resulting in high workloads for the staff in PDD. I see that it would be good to strengthen some of the networks that are already formed, but this will create additional work for the staff here. This is fine while I am here to help, but whether it can be sustained (like the outcomes of the CIDA project in setting up resourced GRCs and a technical GRN without any sustained future funding) is the more challenging aspect to my job here!

But all in all, my workmates here are highly educated, are strongly committed to achieving greater equality throughout the government and are such nice, friendly and helpful people that I know my time here will be great. I just hope that I will be able to impart some knowledge and lasting assistance while I am here.

Monsoon Season is coming!

2005-05-18T08:19:00.000+08:00

Yesterday seemed to be the first indications that monsoon season is heading our way. At about 5.45pm a huge storm hit over Manila. By the 6.30 and home time it was in full force with strong winds, heavy rain and lots of thunder and lightening. We waited at work for about half an hour hoping the storm would die down. It did a little and we all headed out for the walk to the LRT station. Of course I hadn’t brought my umbrella because it has been hot and clear (well – clear in terms of not much rain – it’s never really clear here in Manila thanks to all the smog) since we arrived with little sign of rain. Luckily I was able to share an umbrella, but that did not stop my shoes, socks, feet, pants, shoulder and bag from getting totally wet. Because the storm was so strong, all public transport was packed. It was impossible to get a taxi, the jeepneys were full and by the time we arrived at the LRT station at 7:30ish, we found out that the LRT had been closed because of the lightening! Instead we decided to grab some food (Wendy’s) and wait for people to go home. Finally we were able to get a taxi which dropped me off near home at about 8.30. I was absolutely exhausted! But I’ve been assured that there are plenty more days like this to come over the next 3 months!

Los Baňos - Hot Springs and Buko Pie

2005-05-16T16:44:00.000+08:00

On Friday night Neil and I escaped Manila to head 2 hours south to a town called 'Los Baňos'. Situated on 'Laguna', a large inland lake, and surrounded by agricultural farming fields Los Baňos is well known for its natural hot springs and resorts. It took Neil and I about an hour and a half just to get out of Manila because of the traffic and the very full buses heading south out of the city. We eventually arrived at our accommodation - City of Springs - where we had dinner, a swim in the warm pool and some drinks.

The next day we headed out for a walk to observe the local Los Baňos community. It was very hot (mainit!) but it was great to see a more relaxed pace of life. After a while we decided to head out to the university and to the starting point to a climb up Mt. Makiling, a mountain (about 1400 meters) framing Los Baňos to the west. A tricycle, jeepney, long walk and another jeepney later, we found the start of the hike. However by this time, we were already tired, had ran out of water and were hungry for lunch. We headed back down to get some supplies and decided to head into the Botanical Gardens which were close to the starting point of the hike up the mountain, and which had a swimming pool located in the middle of the forested area. It was very picturesque and very refreshing after our tiring morning.

After chatting with some locals at the pool we decided to give the climb a miss. While the guidebook had indicated that it would take 2 hours to climb Mt. Makiling, they said it would take up to 6 and had become fairly dangerous with some hiker having recently been held up by knifepoint and all their belongings stolen. We were keen to see the hot mud springs, about an hour up the track, but decided to heed the warning and instead wandered around the Botanical Gardens.

It was a beautiful setting with tracks leading all through jungly forested areas. We walked up to see the Philippine raptors - mainly threatened and endangered native hunting birds, such as owls, hawks and the large and impressive Philippine eagle. On the one hand it is always to see these graceful large birds caged, at the same time they are being protected, are at least situated in a natural environment and are fed live natural food (like rats and rabbits!).

Neil on the walk through the Botannical Gardens

We then headed back down to Los Baňos proper to meet up with Naomi, an AYAD who is living here for the year and is working with with sweet potato farmers. We went to see her house and then caught another jeepney to get a local delicacy - 'Buko Pie'. Buko pie is coconut pie and is absolutely delicious!
I bought 2 pies, one for us to enjoy and another for merienda at work on Monday. With Naomi we headed back to our hotel for a swim and an icecream before heading out to the small pier to watch the beautiful sunset over the Laguna. (Pictures soon I promise!!) We also watched a large band who had been practicing for an upcoming festival in the local park near our hotel - a band of drummers and xylophone players along with girls twirling large flags.

We then went to a restaurant for dinner which was on stilts located over the Laguna. We had a meal of fresh grilled tilapia (fish), steamed vegetables (okra, sweet potato leaves and local zucchini) and sizzling sisig (pork) with rice of course with calamansi juice (lime juice), fresh mango shakes, some funky turnip drink that Naomi ordered and of course a couple of San Miguel Lights. For dessert Neil and Naomi tried the local Halo Halo - another funky Philippino drink/dessert with crushed ice and milk over a bizarre mix of various things like jelly piece, sugar, turnip, corn, chick peas, mushroom and whatever else is thrown in by the maker. All in all, it was a nice meal in a nice setting - despite the occasional stink from the Laguna there was also an impressive thunderstorm in the distance and fireworks from an unknown town across the lake.

Emily looking at the menu

The next day we had a bit of a sleep in and headed into the main part of Los Banos for some breakfast. We were a bit indecisive about what we should do for the day - there was a large festival in a town some distance away (we would need to take 2 or 3 jeepneys with travelling time of about an hour and a half if we didn’t get lost) and another pineapple festival in a town a bit closer, but we weren't actually sure if this was on or not. Plus we had our bags and buko pie which we would need to carry around with us all day, so instead we decided to head on the bus back to Manila to ensure that we got a seat, and had some time to relax and get organised before work on Monday. When we got home we went to the gym, picked up our laundry, went for a swim, bought Neil a new SIM card (his phone was lost/stolen on Wednesday) and found a good Chinese restaurant walking distance from our house - so heading back home a little early was probably a good decision in the long run. But we will be back after the wet season to climb Mt. Makiling with Naomi when it becomes a bit cooler!

View of boy with kite from our hotel

Isaw

2005-05-13T11:52:00.000+08:00

Well it had to happen - the girls from work have been very excited that I have been trying the local Philippino delicancies. Fortunately for me, so far these have consisted of things like monggo bread (mung bean bread), sweets, different types of rice cakes (buko, puto and babinka), fried fish balls and things that are definitely edible. Yesterday however, I had the honour of being treated to a popular Philippino delicacy at the University of the Philipinnes after a UNIFEM workshop meeting in Quezon City with my workmates - isaw.

Isaw baboy and isaw manok - pig intestines and chicken intestines on a stick. Yum yum! Wasn't too bad actually - a little chewy!

I was able to find a picture of the same isaw stall at UP on the internet!

37 degrees and toasty

2005-05-11T13:55:00.000+08:00

It's been a pretty constant 37 degrees here in Manila for the past week. In our kitchen I am sure it is well over that - which makes for some fun cooking. Thankfully our appartment has great air conditioning, but unfortunately I am sure the hot weather and the airconditioning at both home and at work has caused my painfully sore throat. At least I am keeping away the amoebic bugs . . . so far!

My Monday the 9th of May

2005-05-10T17:51:00.000+08:00

Today I was up and out of the house by 6:50 to get to work before 8 for a flag raising ceremony. In the rush I got on the train going in the opposite direction (towards the shopping mall!) and was the stupid white person who rode 1 stop before changing to get on the traing going in the right direction. After a very brisk walk from the train station to the office, I changed shirts before joining my workmates in the conference room for the ceremony. I had little idea of what this ceremony was all about, but it seemed to be an internal get togehter of staff. Apparently they are held at the beginning of each month.

The meeting started with saying a prayer (I think - it ended in an amen), sang the Philippines national anthem while facing the Philippino flag, then pledged an allegence to the Philippines and then to the Government as public service employees. One of the staff gave a presentation on a legislative bill being introduced into Congress which aims to regulate and introduce working conditions for domestic workers (who of course are mainly women). They then gave out little presents to those who are celebrating their birthdays in May, as well as a present to the one person who has been on time to work every day since early April and the introduction of the 4 day working week. This is no mean feat as staff are expected to work from 7:30 to 6:30, 4 days a week (and often more than that on their days off and until late in the evening). Then I was formally introduced and was asked to say a few words. Ahhh! I think I babbled something about being happy to be here, thanking everyone for their warm welcome, hoping to get to know everyone better and hoping that i will be able to add to the work of NCRFW during my time here. We then sang another song to the Philippines and had orange juice (which was really a powdered orange flavour mix) and some 'buko' - sticky rice cake - which tasted ok, but was very heavy.

Work consisted of doing some reading on a bill being introduced into Congress called the 'Local Sector Representation Bill' (LSR) in preparation for a meeting in the afternoon at the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) - the central planning agency in the Philippines. After lunch 'I' (the officer primarily responsible for the LSR - Irene) and I drove over to NEDA for an interagency meeting to consider and prioritise legislative priorities to achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). These would be submitted to the legislative 'Multi-Sectoral Committee on International Human Development Committments' to be fed into Congress. The meeting was interesting in learning about how Philippinos operate: limitations of doing core business in English, the importance of gaining consensus, the reluctance to make committed statements or agreements on an individual level and the very long and descriptive input of participants made for a long (4 hours) and fairly unproductive meeting. If the meeting had taken place in Australia, it would have frustrated all involved! However, reflecting on inter-agency meetings in Australia, I shouldn't be so critical of the Philippines Government Agencies - Australian ones can also be extremely frustrating!!

As the meeting was in Ortigas (quite far away from the office) we were able to go straight home at about 5. I took me to a gourmet deli which was selling a bunch of celery for P345 (about $8.50) - ridiculously expensive even for Australian standards! We then caught the MRT back through Cubao where I-Irene was able to meet Neil, who arrived at about the same time. All the girls think (and I-Irene confirmed) that he looks like Bill Murray!