Manila to Dumagete

After a week of waiting and guessing we found out our new islands for the next three months. Despite my survey request to be in a city and live with kids, I ended up being sent to a small less populated island in the South with a host family of two retired adults, a servant, and two grown but single daughters (which means that they are living at home until married). Staying with the Amasula’s and being on this island ended up being a blessings in disguise. Mrs. Amasula is a retired teacher who worked in the Philippine education system for forty something years and Mr. Amasula is a retired Architect. They both have lived in Dumagete (my city for now) all of their lives and raised six children here. They speak fluent English and are both highly educated, which means that I am getting to know Dumagete very personally.


The city is known as a University town and has the only Protestant University (Siliman) in the Republic. It is also used to diversity because of this, so the stares and the “Hey Joes” (how Americans are addressed in other Filippino towns) are limited. There are animals everywhere including dogs without leashes, goats on the side of the road, cows agrazing anywhere there is grass and cats. The ants are out of control but luckily are the non-biting kind (so far). Geckos help to check the nasty mosquito population which transmits not only Malaria but Dengue fever. There is also a bigger small crocodile lizard pronounced shukshuk that is about half a foot long and consumes even more bugs that geckos.

The traffic here is like nothing that I have ever seen. There are no traffic lights so when you approach an intersection you just work your way across the road, it is quite efficient. People take turns and no one crashes. It is a great lesson in collaboration and being in the present while driving. Dumagete is also known for its roomy trikes, which is my main form of transportation. A Trike is a motorbike with a canopy and platform attached to it so that four people can sit inside, two people cal fit on the motorcycle and four can sit on the outside of the carriage. Today we had seven fit on our ride home, but another volunteer has seen as many as thirteen people on one. The more people ride, the more money the drivers make and the less money the passengers pay so as long as the bike can take the weight it ends up working. These buses are another form of public transportation.





The fruits here are delectably delicious! I arrived right in time for Galong (a big round fruit which has dessert like insides), Rhambutom (tastes like Lychee), Durang (Stinky cheese like fruit which is an acquired taste), Mango, and Dragon Fruit season! I eat rice for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and have never eaten more meat in my life. You know what they say about Rome though....."When in Rome...."

We have a huge mall here called Robinsons where a wierd mix of globalization and non-globalization occurs. There are traditional Nipa huts five minutes away from an airconditioned mall with a movie theater and ice cream that is "Fresh not Frozen".
Stay p0sted for more Chica Chica (gossip here from the Philippines).

Home to Manila

After a successful staging in Philadelphia, myself and 80 other Education Volunteers (new funding through congress allowed us this opportunity) boarded our planes headed to Tokyo. The excitement was buzzing at our gate as we waited for our twenty hour flight to Manila.


Twelve hours and three meals later we arrived in Tokyo for an hour lay-over. The airport was one of the cleanest I have ever seen. It also had a few cool things that caught my eye. An Origami store with huge scenes of different things like Japanese Gardens and Japanese Dancers. There were Cherry Blossom trees and and Fireworks that were just a piece of a whole scene but individually really cool to visually study.



Five hours later we arrived in Manila to an amazing welcoming party of Peace Corps staff and helpers. From the time that we walked through the gate we were taken care of. Our luggage was loaded onto buses and we were driven through Manila to our little resort about a half hour from the airport. As stated in the guidebooks, the poverty is quite visible to a passer-by. Tightly packed houses built higher and higher because of limited land space.

After a good nights sleep my roommate Tracy and I headed out to check out our home for the next week at daylight.
The river outside of our hotel was filled with trash including what Tracy thought at first to be a human body floating in the water. It turned out to be a deflated Santa doll.

There were also wooden boat racks coming out of the water which were pretty cool looking.
We find out where our homes for the next three months will be on Thursday. In the meantime it is a bunch of introductions and preparation sessions for the next two years. The weather is much more humid than Hawaii but not too uncomfortable. The people are incredibly hospitable and friendly, we are definitely being spoiled for our short stay here in Manila.