Whale Shark Video and Photos!!!!

Healthy and happy!

A perfect scene

Which way is out?

Brittle Star

Sea Cucumber, its supposed to be delicious

Still cute

She's so cute!

Banana Blossom

Tail of Blue Marlin (only .80 cents per pound at market)

Stove

Faucet

Kitchen

From the living room window

Living Room

My new friend

Extinct volcanoes, fish traps, and fisherman

View from our local mangroves

After a long day of school

Shower

Bathroom

Bedroom 1 of our house

Whale shark sighting in our town

American Invention: The Personal Space Bubble

I spend many minutes of my day reflecting about the different situations I go through. These reflections cause moments of joy and laughter but never really disappointment. The one thing that many volunteers learn in the Philippines is to laugh at adversity, just as many Pilipinos do. One of the greatest differences in culture between Americans and Pilipinos is the concept of privacy. In America we have a form of hyper-privacy where people guard their thoughts and possessions with a passion. We even have a term in America which is the "personal space bubble". This term represents our individuality and need for isolation. The Philippines has no such code and Pilipinos live in the opposite manner of the American expectation. The below stories should more than explain exactly what I mean.

• I had been in the Philippines for about 2 months and was on a field trip for CRM. We had just been introduced to the staff of the CRM department and after a five minute introduction one of the staff members grabbed me by the arm. As we were walking down the stairs he informed me that his sister had been kidnapped and the governor of his province was working very hard to get her released. I was left speechless and just responded by nodding my head with my mouth wide open. (side note: having your mouth wide open is another way to say what in some parts of the Philippines) I didn't know this at the time but I wasn't expected to give an extraordinary response just an acknowledgement of the situation.
• About a month ago Rebeka and I were riding on a jeep home (tightly packed public transportation) and there was a women with an infant on her lap to my left. The baby started to cry and the next thing I know the mother was breastfeeding her child. Lets just say this was incredibly awkward for me. I was trying to face forward to give her some kind of privacy but kept having to turn towards her to collect money from passengers passing their payment forward. Then I felt a heavy object resting on my arm and come to find out it was the kids head. Heck, the mom must have gotten tired of holding her kid and my arm was available so it was the logical solution. I did sign on to Peace Corps to help in anyway I could. I wonder how that would look on a job resume: used as headrest during breastfeeding.
• Two weeks ago I was at work and one of the municipal employees who was a women was saying masakit which means pain. So I unknowingly asked what's wrong and her response was simply my flow. At that moment I wanted to cram my question back down my throat but it was too late. The next thing I know is I know too much. She is a 49 year old women, with two children, and she has started going through menopause..... That is the abridged version, the full length version includes descriptive terms that I am doing my best to forget in order to relieve Peace Corps of future payments to a psychiatrist.
  
• Our 3 and a half month house sharing experience came to an end yesterday. So after sharing meals and a house with our Pilipino family we are on our own. The last time we lived on our own was 7 and a half months ago when we left our apartment in Montpelier. We then spent a month bouncing around the homes of our family members, then three months living with our first host family and the last three and a half months with our second host family. Our last experience included a 8x10 foot bedroom that shared a 1/4 inch wall with a family of four. One bathroom, one kitchen, one couch, two chairs, two bedrooms and six people all under one roof. The experience wasn't easy by any means but it will be unforgettable for so many reasons. It is unbelievable that our host family invited two foreign strangers into their home and treated them with such compassion. I only hope one day that I can repay the favor to them or any person that is in need. I just want to say thank you to our families (American and Pilipino) for all that they have sacrificed.
  

Last weekend we spent a good amount of time exploring our local mangrove forest. This is one our favorite places in the world. The trees are old and full, and walking amongst them is cool and refreshing. The bark is amazing, look at the colors! The area is full of life (small things) like this crab. We came across this little girl and her aunt collecting small snails to see in the market.





Steve was recruited to our municipality's basketball team. They play nearby municipalities and have games on the weekend. Steve is the tallest on our team, but there are guys on the other municipality teams that are bigger than him! A rarity here in the Philippines. This is a picture of him with Joshua his #1 fan.

Some evenings we go down to the ocean and spend time enjoying the sunset and watching kids playing in the water. Its really fun to watch them throwing sand at each other, or flipping into the waves.

The best part of Peace Corps is never knowing what's next

Last night we spent the evening sipping cocktails, eating roasted lamb and fresh tuna salad, listening to a world class violinist and mingling with some of the most beautiful women in the world on a white sand beach at a world class resort. Peace Corps is tough. Miss Earth, the 3rd largest international beauty pageant http://www.missearth.tv, is held in Maynila and one of the judges owns a resort in San Juan. The resort owner hosted 10 of the girls at his resort (Japan, China, Costa Rica, New Zealand, England, Canada, Poland, Argentina, Columbia and Peru) for a couple of days. Steve and his supervisor have worked with the owner of the resort because he is very interested in the environmental conservation of San Juan; beautiful beaches = environmentally sound practices. Hence we were invited to attend the activities yesterday. In the morning the girls went to the Municipal Hall where they were greeted with a traditional dance and local treats like lambonag (coconut "wine" thats 85 proof). Later they visited a bangus (fish) processing center and "planted" a mangrove. In the evening we went to Virgin Resort and gorged on amazing food. There was lumpia, fresh tuna salad, fresh vegetables, roasted lamb and sandwiches for appetizers. For dinner we ate green salad (something we haven't had in 6 months!) soup, and grilled prawns with eggplant and tomato. Dessert was turon (banana wrapped in an eggroll wrapper, coated in sugar and deep fried) with caramel sauce and sesame seeds. To say that we were stuffed is an extreme understatement.
The range of our experiences has been so great, sometimes it is all a little surreal.

Students who performed a traditional dance for the visitors at our Municipal Hall

Miss Earth candidates and the resort owner with his family

Big Bats

One of the best things about our time in this country are the "once in a lifetime" experiences we have had. Last week we joined some Manila photographers in a trying horse ride into the mountains to see a pretty amazing site. The horses here are short and squat, perfect for climbing about the narrow and rocky trails. Luckily our hosts found a horse that was tall enough to keep Steve's legs from dragging on the ground. Each horse had a "saddle" that was formed from a piece of wood that had been artfully manipulated so that it laid across the horse. We rode about an hour into the woods on a narrow trail that wound up and down the mountainous terrain. We passed a number of small homes, bananas, guavas and areas where the soil was eroding down the hills. We also saw butterflies and unique birds that we had not seen before, but the purpose of our trip were the fruit bats. At one point we stopped and leaving our horses walked up a small trail to the crest of a hill. From this point we could see a couple of very large trees from which hung the largest bats either of us has ever seen. There are many bat variates in the Philippines and our hosts called them Giant Fruit Bats, but we are not sure exactly what kind they were. What is certain is that the bodies of the bats were about 12 inches long and their wingspan was easily 4-5 feet. They flew like birds, with a gentle flapping motion, and their toes pointing out behind them.
It was a pretty amazing thing to see.

The Wild Things...

One of the best things about being somewhere different is the variety of new and different animals we have encountered. Our first couple of days I was fascinated with the small lizards who we spied climbing on and in the hotel we were staying at. I soon learned that these are "butiki" and they really live everywhere here; I see two or three anytime I look at the wall in our home. The teachers at my school couldn't believe that we don't have butiki in Vermont. Steve has seen the most unique animals during our four months here, including a monkey (which was someone's pet, but was likely wild at some time) and a sea turtle. I decided to post a few of the pictures we've taken of local wildlife (and domestic life) to show you some of the animals we've come across in recent months.

This is not a butiki, but a slightly larger lizard we came across while visiting a historical site in Bataan.

This is the largest spider I think we have ever seen. She was bigger than my fist.
The dikya (aka jellyfish). We did not see a lot of marine life in our training site, but there were a lot of dikya.
The ugliest dog I think I've ever seen. He was mean too.

One of my favorite animals, the carabaw (water buffalo). There are so strong and gentle. People use them in the rice fields and pulling carts.A big slimy snail. These guys came out at night at the hotel we were staying at in Manila during our Swearing In.
Ants, there are SO many here! They are our constant companions.
Its hard to see, but that little dot is a lice egg. Ipis (cockroach) this one lives in our bedroom. He's about the size of my big toe.

Running in Circles

I've spent the last twelve days "working" (there are many reasons that the word working is italicized here). For example I spent yesterday from 7am-930pm "working". However if you analyze the work day there is usually less than 10% devoted to actually accomplishing a task. There are just an unbelievable difference between an American and a Filipino perception of work. At this point I just feel dizzy from it all and can't recognize much reward from it all. Despite all the headache associated with that aspect of Peace Corps life there are many rewards in the day to day things. Our host family is incredibly generous. The two kids ages 10 and 8 are hilarious and their two cousins are always around also. They've become less shy in the past couple months and now interact with us but there are few words. I came to the realization a couple weeks ago that they own a total of about five toys between the four kids. It was while I was trying to figure out the rules to the game they were playing that I finally noticed there wasn't a toy chest in the house instead they were playing with rubber bands. At this point I've identified five different games they've created with just rubber bands. The amount of respect that people have for each other here is amazing and especially the kids. Rebeka's students always identify their parents as their hero's because of the sacrifices they make for the family. I'm always addressed as sir and Rebeka is addressed as mam by younger kids. I believe after two years here the hardest thing about adjusting back to American culture will be the lack of respect present in our society.
I have a great story about the export of American culture. One day I was walking back from town and was greeted by a young kid probably about 8 or 9 waving his middle finger at me and saying "whats up". The interesting thing is he had a smile from ear to ear and wasn't trying to offend me at all but was simply showing me his understanding of America and trying to greet me in an American way. You may be thinking right about now Americans don't greet each other like that however to the eight year old Filipino boy all he knows of America is from what he has watched on MTV and in the movies. Since those are his resources for studying American culture it makes perfect sense that flipping someone off is a way to make a connection. I wish I had the Tagalog vocabulary to tell him that most people in America aren't like what you see in the movies, that we aren't all rich, we don't drink constantly, and we don't flip each other off regularly or as a greeting but even if I could I feel that the years of movies and TV will serve as a more prominent educational tool. Therefore as I passed him I smiled and waved because I didn't want to be rude.

*In response to Uncle Matt
There is wildlife here but most of it is insects, reptiles and amphibians. The population of birds has been wiped out due to the use of banned pesticides and habitat destruction. The best wildlife here is the marine life. There are dolphins, whale sharks, sea turtles, hundreds of fish species, lobsters etc. I saw my first sea turtle last week and have identified probably close to sixty fish species. However everyday that goes by there is more habitat destruction so the sooner you get here the better chance of seeing wildlife. So snorkeling is the best activity. Did you go on the top thrill dragster???

Amidst the Mangroves

So there we were in a stew of water and trash, it reached my knees and Rebeka's waist. We were making our way home along the coast after a day out. High tide was approaching and we had to get through one last obstacle, the mangrove forest. For all of you out there that haven't had the chance to see a mangrove forest just think of mud, lots of critters, and a knot of trees. So we started making our way through the forest with relative ease as the incoming water pushed us deeper and deeper into the forest. Then we got to the muddy stuff and every step took more planning to avoid losing a leg. Then just as things were getting a little ridiculous we saw the light at the end of the tunnel (literally). So we pushed forward and just as I crouched down to fit underneath a branch I heard what sounded like a WWII aircraft flying next to my left ear, as I went to swipe it away it bit or stung me in the neck. Just about then I started to recall if I remember hearing about any poisonous insects in the Philippines. It was about then that the pain set in and the walk home was a little less enjoyable than I had imagined. Despite the unusual amount of pain that bite caused it didn't swell abnormally or cause discoloration, so to say the least it was a missed photo opportunity.

It is hard to believe it is September and fall is beginning in Vermont. It is so different living in a tropical climate with little variation in seasonal temperatures and precipitation. There have been a few showers lately, some which are strong and we love the sound and feel of the rain. These pictures are of our new host family's house. We live in the house on the left, and hanging out front are our very clean, hand washed, sun drying clothes. Steve is an exceptional guy
because he and I wash the clothes together. Usually wives do all the laundry by themselves, although single men will clean their own clothes. The house on the left belongs to our family's relatives. They are a young couple with two sons who often come over to play.
The small house in the front of this second photo is a bahay kubo (or nipa hut) that our host dad uses to store his nets (it is also where our family stayed when we came to visit them in July before they had divided the bedroom). The yellow part of the house on the right is where our bedroom is.
This is a picture of us in our room after a walk along the beach and a nearby mangrove forest. The sun is so bright and intense here! It is definitely a lot for our pasty Vermont skin.

Last weekend we woke up early to watch these birds in their daily migration. The sunrise was amazing and we both love the ocean in the morning. We are not sure what kind of bird they are, but it was impressive sitting on the beach watching them cross the sky.
After our birdwatching we rode a bangka (local boat) along the coast to a river that flows into the ocean. Along the way we stopped to see a turtle egg nest that had been protected by a local nonprofit.

We also stopped in one of the local barrios (villages) to watch the community help the fishermen with the catch they had just brought in. It seemed like the whole village was on the beach helping to get the fish out of the nets and prepare them for eating or a trip to the market.













The river we traveled up was one of the most beautiful places we have seen here in the Philippines. The river was lined with different mangrove trees, nipas (the small palm trees poking out of the water) and other greenery. We saw colorful birds and butterflies. It was a relaxing quiet place that felt quite isolated.
Steve has been working in the mountain communities recently. Earlier this week he was shoveling goat waste and mixing it with plant debris to help with the vermiculture (worm and fertilizer) project at the municipal dump site. Many families live in very isolated areas in the mountains, far from electricity, running water and any schools. This is the view from one of our mountains looking across to the next province.

Two months worth of pictures

Finally a trip to the internet cafe where we have the camera, the appropriate cable and enough battery power to post some pictures! As always special thanks to Le and Brian!

Eggplants growing outside Emma and Jon's host sister's house

Carabao, Rebeka's favorite!

Filipino ....................... Americano

We LOVE cheese! Thanks to Steve's mom who mailed us some Vermont cheddar

Steve teaching the children at our local elementary school why a clean oean = happy ocean = lots of fish = full tummies

Some of the students from my class at the school where I trained in Bataan. These kids are high school freshmen.

Sunrise over Manila Bay -the fishing spot for many in our barangay

.... also a popular spot for garbage

July 24, 2007 Two years and counting....

Our good-bye dinner with our very dear Bataan host family whom we miss very much!

Our Swearing In Ceremony with our co-trainees and our technical trainer and language trainer

The view from our bedroom window in our new house