Augusto dayon sa Septyembre

School started again and the months have flown by since summer. I handle four classes along with my counterparts. This school year I have three different teachers (counterparts) that I co-teach with. There is Maam Bacang, who I worked with last school year and whose been my main advocate at school.

Maam Ann Bacang and her son Haniel.

Maam Panesa and I co-teach one class and the girls basketball team.

Maam Panesa

Lastly there is Maam Lasola (picture to follow later). Her and I teach the Homogeneous class in our second year curriculum. The Homo class (yes that is what its called for short, no implications of anything gay are meant) are amazing to teach because they all listen to lessons and do their homework.

I am lucky to get to learn from three different teachers with three different styles. I work morning from 7:30am -12pm and then have afternoons to work on secondary projects. I am trying to get funding to start an after-school club for at-risk students where we will do different activities like painting a wall mural, taking an environmental tour of Mangroves.

Besides teaching I now coach the girls b-ball team twice a week and we are getting ready to do our Provincial wide meet which if we win we will go to Bohol (a neighboring island) for Regional competition. So wish us luck, we have come a long way from practices filled with double dribbling, fouls and traveling to practices now filled with drills and offensive plays.
Fellow volunteers David and John helping out with coaching basketball

My team with David (whom they all like because he looks like a Korean actor)

Glorie, our star point guard.


Latest Adventure's:

1. Mount Talinis is the second highest mountain on this island, at 1890 feet. This dosen't sound like much, but when you go from sea level it can be a nice hike. My German friend and adventure buddy Loana and I did a two-day trek up the mountain, camped overnight on a crater lake and slid down the other side of the range the next day. We were guided by this amazing mountain man named Adong who grew up and worked in the mountains all of his life. This man was in his sixties and was kicking our behinds the whole hike. He would walk barefoot at a pace that made him look like he was floating on air. We would stop every once in a while where he would show us some plant that was harvested for something or a spot where Japanese soldiers hid out from American Soldiers during the war. As we approached our camp the first night Adong runs into the woods cuts down four logs, skins a palm tree and throws a tarp over the top to form his tent. He always had water boiling for us and at one point when I was trying to dry out my tennis shoes from the morning dew he went again into the woods to get four more branches and he sets us this shoe rack to put my shoes over the fire on.
This mountain was a huge challenge to me, as we were literally grabbing roots and pulling ourselves up for hours the first day and then sliding down on our butts the other side of the mountain in the rain the next day. At one point I started crying like a baby but when nobody came to carry me I had to get up and keep going. I now have fond memories of our trip but at the time of finishing it, I would tell you that I would never do the hike again. The bruises and cuts have healed and I am left with a great sense on accomplishment. In fact Loana and I are thinking of doing another one in a few months. We both forgot our cameras and so unfortunately we have no proof that we really were on the mountain so here is us posing with what is kind of the mountain we climbed in the background.

2. Apo Island adventure with Peace Corps volunteers from neighboring island and cities. Four amazing women converged upon my little city for a holiday weekend of eating at the best restaurants, laughing and two snorkeling trips to world famous Apo Island and Dauin. Apo is world reknown for its reefs and we got to ride on my friend Harold's new boat! Here's some photos of the adventure.
Amari (Iloilo City), Mindi (Dao, Panay), Stacie (Bacolod, Negros) and Hanna (Iloilo)

The girls with PCV Rachael (Bacolod), Loana (originally Germany) and Zelda (local)
Our destination, Apo Island, a marine protected area known for its amazng diving.

3. MoalBoal is a town known for its reefs on neighboring Cebu island. Loana and I decided to check it out. I am not ceritified to dive yet, so we stuck to snorkeling the reef, but there were beautiful corals and an amazing drop in the ocean floor that we got to free dive a bit, or at least tried to. A German woman who is in the same program as Loana joined us for the night. We stayed on one beach but the next day went to White beach which was supposed to have.....white sand. That it did, giving us a nice relaxing Sunday on the beach.
White beach

4. Cousin Michael on his way home from working a year in Laos stopped by the Philippines for a visit. We got some great beach time and headed to "The healing island" Siquior for a night. It was great to get some time to catch up on our lives, as the last time we met was Nuni and Josh's wedding in 2007.The beach outside our front door.

5. My good friend Sarah from Panay, came to visit for a few days randomly after a failed beach weekend in a town on the other side of the island. Turns out there was a Typhoon coming through while they were staying at this beach resort. She decided to extend her vacation and come visit me in Dumaguete. We mostly hung ou around town, but what a special treat it was to have her here.

If you want sugar its extra.

Checking out the Chinese temple