We finally know

The last couple of weeks have been kind of a blur. When we first arrived in the Philippines time seemed to stand still but now it is the complete opposite. On June 22nd I left Bataan and went to Zambales which is about a four hour drive north for Marine Protected Area training. I spent three days there and then met Rebeka in Tarlac which is about a five hour drive from Zambales. We spent three days in Tarlac with our supervisors and then traveled to our permanent site which is in Batangas province. We spent three days there and then went back to Tarlac for two days and then traveled back to Bataan. It's been an intense couple of weeks. Our site has black and white sand beaches with large mountains in the distance. There are an unbelievable number of coconut trees there. It is much more rural than where we are now. The town proper has a Spanish era church, a dunkin donuts, and a couple of parks. It is one of the cleaner places I've seen here but there is still trash along the beaches and rivers. Our camera ran out of power so we won't have pictures of it until August. Rebeka will work at a National High school which has almost 400 kids and is only 3 years old. I'm going to be working on solid waste issues, ecotourism, and protecting marine areas. There is more than enough work there so we are going to be busy for the next two years. When we went for our site visit we stayed in a small fishing village. It was located in a coconut tree grove right on the beach. The beach is lined with small boats and the village has a unique feeling to it. Our host family lives about 200 meters from the ocean in a small concrete house. On our second night there I broke their ceiling fan when I stood up. It wasn't as awkward as you might imagine, they all laughed and then our host pulled the rest of it off the ceiling. During our site visit we met the Mayor, Vice Mayor, a district congressman, about 10 resort owners, and numerous other people. So if any of you have a chance come visit us.