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......