Last week Alan had the opportunity to attend two conferences regarding child labor that World Vision put on. These conferences were held for teenage children to learn about what child labor is especially in the sense of sugar cane fields. Alan helped facilitate a couple of sessions, used his artistic skills to create posters and of course was the photographer for the day.

In the morning children learned what the difference is between child labor and child work. Pretty much the concept is, house hold chores are child work while child labor is manual labor done in sugar cane fields. The goal is to promote going to school and not missing because of working in fields. This program has been funded by a grant from USAID since the US gets so much of it's sugar from the Philippines.

The afternoon consisted of a photography sessions of 'what you want to be' when you grow up. Alan and Lauren obviously picked our dream jobs!!! What is the difference between a 'need' and 'want' - I think that this session should be taught to American children as well. Then the day was wrapped up with Alan teaching a session on potential careers you can have if you stay in school and get an education.

It's been a great and productive week for both Alan and Lauren. Next event is the town Fiesta for Anilao where Lauren works. We will keep you posted on how this event turns out.

 

 

Field Trips

This week Lauren visited the Mangrove site in Anilao. A mud crab project is in progress, meaning that a pen was built for juvenile mud crabs to grow up in. This pen is trenches dug out between mangrove trees. In the pictures you can see the trenches dug out, the water height chances with the level of the tide. The crabs were moved to another site because the water was beginning to become to acidic (were not sure why this happened). Fishermen dig out the crabs and tie their claws together. This is done so each of the crabs can be measured and weighed before moving to the new pen. Hopefully the crabs will be happy in their new home. Let's hope that they don't go into shock from the new atmosphere:)


Alan has been working youth camps and is sweaty and tired.

Alan and I made it to our permanent site safely and our getting settled in. We our living in Banate, Iloilo with an amazingly nice host family for the time being. We have our own room which allows for privacy and a nice large open space for the living room. Not all houses in the Philippines are this nice so yes, we don't exactly have it hard with the flat screen TV and cable. Emily is the house helper and cooks amazing meals for us (we will certainly miss her once we move our on our own). Where we are located shrimp, craps and oysters are in abundance. Again, I know that you feel so sorry for us.

Our municipal is located on the sea front. Since it's baggiyo (hurricane) season the ocean is very rough and stirred up. Even during the calmer times, the ocean isn't crystal clear with white sand buts it's still beautiful. We have a market that you can pretty much get any fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, chicken, etc. We already have a couple of stands that are our favorites and are becoming regular customers. Everything is so fresh and the stands only have in-season stock. The island next to us has the sweetest mangos in the world so we made Mango salsa for the family a couple of days ago. We thought it was amazing.

It has been nice for Alan and I to be living in the same location instead of apart like in training. We are slowly starting to get to know our way around town and getting to know the community. It's been both exciting and frustrating learning basic functions but we are getting there. Work is going well for the both of us, it's just one week in so more to follow on this topic......