Luxury of Refrigeration

We finally saved enough money to buy a refrigerator.  Just in time for the hottest months of the year, April and May.

Every evening we make dinner and make sure we have enough left for our baon (boxed lunch).  With the new freedom of refrigeration we bought some prawns for gumbo. One was as large as Lauren’s hand.  What’s even more amazing we were able to buy these and still stay within our budget of $1.67.  We have such amazing access to cheap seafood and local fruits, which helps make up for what we lack in daily accommodations. 

In season at the moment are mangos, both yellow and green.  The unripen green mangos have the taste of a ripened mango but the texture of an apple.  They are wonderful, especially with a little chili salt.  Next month we will travel to Guimmarus Island (where the sweetest mangos in the world are) for the Mango Festival.  You pay 100 pesos ($2.32) as an entrance fee and get an unlimited supply of mangos to eat. 

Most importantly, with the refrigerator we are able to put our leftover food in a safe place.  As you can see from the photo, we have the rat king dancing about our kitchen.  This is the second rat we have caught this size and there have been 5 others that are a little smaller.  The small trap in the photo is one that Lauren’s parents sent; she thinks there might have been a miscommunication on how big these damn things are.  At least we get access to cheap seafood for the price of dealing with RATS of this size. 

Community Gardens

I’ve been staying busy with the gardens, youth life skills sessions, inspections of our site, and reporting forms. In addition to this, I have been on a crash course of organic farming practices. It’s very enjoyable and the people I work with are very knowledgeable. I've been mainly a carrier of practices from community to community. All four community gardens I have been working on are cleared and planted.  We should have produce to show in a couple of weeks. I also got elected to the Volunteer Advisory Committee as a representative for the Visayas. and am very excited to have a way to help my fellow volunteers.

This is why the Philippines will soon dominate the NBA.

We work the same projects in the communities with the same condition as all other Peace Corps volunteers; the main difference is there is an emerging middle class here.  This gives volunteers access to numerous items other country volunteers would drool over. We are experiencing this first hand in our community. Our project include; registering mangingisda (fisher folk) through the municipal level for the provincial government database, building and maintaining four community gardens, snorkeling to set up and monitoring artificial reefs, monitoring sea grass and coral, training and setting up community saving programs for local farmers, training older students to help tutor younger students, train community member in technical skills for their own livelihood, work with youth to help keep them from working in sugar cane fields and attend school instead.

March 2, 2014

Tea is a black single estate Darjeeling.  Sundown is apple honey ice tea with Tanduay.  All water in-between.

March 3, 2014

I took the iPhone into the CR this morning. As I have done, every morning, since 2005. Instead of playing Full Deck Solitaire – Montana, I ended up clapping my hands at mosquitos. I killed all 8, which is actually a new high score. I didn’t even use the iPhone. As I haven’t done, every day, since July 8, 2013. Tuning out technology, check.

March 4, 2014

Diner last night was Roasted tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, garlic, in locally made elbow pasta, covered in pesto and a light amount of palm oil, a side of green beans, and local chocolate and rice pudding. We cook on a wood-burning clay pit and a hot plate, we eat all our meals from local produce found a block away at the Mercado, and we eat and drink for $1.67 each a day, although the spices and dry goods are subsidized by the care packages from our families.

March 5, 2014

I rode 16 Km yesterday and 12 Km today. The road is very rough and I’m exhausted. Still have to travel another 16 Km this afternoon. Think I’ll take a trike.

Now.

Time for a sundown.

Training

We returned back to Manila for two weeks of training in February. 

The first week focused on learning our local language, Illongo. This was very helpful but exhausting.  The national language is Tagalog yet there are 175 local/native languages.  Something else that makes the Philippines unique is all national and local laws are written in English. The fisher folk registration forms that Lauren is using are in English which is great for her but not for the fisher folk.   We hope to be able to communicate just a little better with our community now after the training.

We would hate to not have any fun so many games were played in between and during sessions.   A game of capture the flag occurred, surprisingly no one was hurt even though a few of the older volunteers (anyone over 25) pulled muscles.

In the midst of all the training sessions we were able to take a field trip to the ancestral home of Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines.   The original house was destroyed but an exact replica has been built in its place.  The first floor was used as a store and the second floor is where the family lived.  It was a great opportunity for all the volunteers to learn a little more history of the Philippines. 

The University of Philippines, Los Banos campus was our second stop where we toured their museum of natural science and explored the botanical gardens.  Even though it is starting to ease into summer and not many flowers were blooming, the trees were breathtaking.  The sere size of the forest was incredible. All had ferns had vines growing on them and the ground was covered with an abundant amount of greenery. The spring however was the highlight of the gardens.

The second part of the training included our Filipino counterparts.  We learned how to design a project and what funding is available for our projects that we might implement.  Peace Corps doesn’t allow volunteers to implement projects until we complete this training.  Our first focus as volunteers is to integrate in our community and find out what our community wants and focus on a project that they want.  Lauren is looking into environmental education within schools at the third grade level.  Alan is looking into teaching basic business principals to his community; so many individuals have livelihood projects but no understanding of how to put themselves into an advantageous place in the market.

Now it’s time to put this into action.