Philippines
Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon/ Bagong Milenyo sa inyong lahat!!!! (That's Merry Christmas and Happy New Year/New Millennium to you all). I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and an eventful New Year. It's time again to update you all on the craziness of my life. The past 2 months have been wonderful, a blast. I did a lot of fun things and now with the New Year, work has resumed. So, during the month of November, I held a 2 day camp for students and teachers from my high school. It was a huge success and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was great to see everyone get down and dirty and do some hiking and camping. Though, the Filipino way of camping is much more high tech and planned out than our way. We had a sound system and fluorescent lighting set up, as well as an elaborate cooking station. Not like the basic camping that I am used to.
After the camp, I left for training in Los Banos, 2 hours south of Manila, in the next province over from me. I was there for 2 weeks, one week being Tagalog lessons and one week for technical training. It was an incredible 2 weeks. All 26 of my fellow group mates were there and it was the first time for many of us to see each other since we left our training in June. Although it was awkward to be reunited at first (with much energy generated and stories to tell), we quickly got reacquainted with one another. While there, we also made some new friends who are veterinary medicine students at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) and some who work for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). They are an eclectic mixture of Canadians, Americans, Filipinos, Nepalese, and Pakistani. We spent a week hanging out with them every night. After training ended, we had a Thanksgiving dinner at the house of our country director in Manila. It was an amazing spread, lots of turkey and vegetables and wine.
Returning to site after being gone for 2 weeks was hard at first, but I settled back into things. Plus, the month of December was very busy with social engagements for me. ( Because of Christmas, very little work is done during December) I was interviewed about composting on a morning talk show with the US Ambassador's wife. The next day, I attended a program at Malacanang (the Presidential Palace). President Estrada was supposed to attend, but he never made it I guess that I am a celebrity now, huh? Besides these engagements, I went to Christmas parties and saw my friends from Los Banos a few times. I'm glad to have experienced Christmas here. It is a very festive and alive time. There are tons of lights up everywhere and homemade stars called "parols." I spent Christmas with my host family. We went to my host mother's hometown of Liliw, Laguna and celebrated with her family. Unfortunately, I was sick from all of my running around. Nonetheless, it was fun, (though weird to be without cold weather, snow, and my family.) There was lots of food and lots of kids. Plus, my host aunt has this tradition of throwing out money to members of the family. I made about 100 pesos!
After Christmas, I traveled to Palawan (another island here, the westernmost) for the New Year. All but 6 people from my group went, plus 2 of my friends from Los Banos. We spent a few days in the city of Puerto Princessa, which is a hip, laid back place. Then, we spent 3 nights in Sabang, 3 hours north of Puerto Princessa proper by jeepney. The ride isn't easy either. 3 hours, no pavement, dirt road, 5 million people inside the jeepney. It's an experience, though and especially fun when you ride on top of the jeepney like we did. So, we rang in the New Year by having a costume party and then went to the beach (we were staying on this gorgeous beach) at midnight for a New Year's swim. Napakarelaxing (very relaxing)
But, back to life and reality. I have some good projects lined up. My Youth Environmental Club is busy with t-shirt design contests and the planning of a waste management seminar for February. Hopefully, I will be doing some health management seminars with the farmers at Mt. Palay-Palay. In March, I will be attending a week long conference on environmental education in Mindanao.
Palawan, Philippines
2000
