Last Thursday Peace Corps volunteers were consolidated across the Philippines in the closest city they lived to. We traveled to Iloilo City with 6 others to a hotel for safety. We have been lucky, our city wasn't hit hard and we have been able to live with some kind of normalcy.

However, once we left the bubble of the city the devastation can be seen. Many areas flooded but most of the destruction came from the winds. In our town of Banate about 80% of the trees are no longer standing. Brush is usually burned, so the whole town looks like it's on fire from the smoke. Destruction of homes ranges anywhere from losing roofs to the house being completely destroyed. Our host family’s house helper, Emily no longer has a home to go to. They are trying to rebuild as quickly as possible. Most of the homes that were destroyed were those made out of organic material, bamboo, which is what the majority of the population lives in.

The electric lines and poles are completely down. At many points on the highway, a bamboo pole is holding up the lines so cars can pass under them. Electricity is said to be out anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. This wouldn't be a huge problem but all the water filling stations are down as well. Most Filipinos, including us Americans, don't drink the water from the water wells. Water jugs are filled from purification centers. We have been told that some centers have bought generators and are up and running now. For charging your cell phones to stay in touch you can go to the market where someone has a generator and pay 20 pesos to plug in your phone.

Our site certainly has some devastation, but the roads have been cleared so food and gasoline can be easily transported to our town. As you move north along the road it gets increasingly worse and harder to navigate. In one northern town, school isn't expected to start until January because the concrete building is longer standing. With all of this being said, Filipinos are remaining resilient. We haven't had any looting or forceful activity on our island of Panay.

To date, some volunteers have been evacuated to Manila because their site experienced so much devastation that it isn't safe for them to be in the community. We are uncertain of what is going to happen next with these volunteers, but we are just glad that they are safe and made it through the storm.

As of now we will be able to continue at our current location, which we are very excited and relieved about. It is going to be an interesting road ahead of which we don't know much of what will happen. We will have to figure it out day by day and keep going just as all the Filipinos around us will have to do.

Greeting from Iloilo

Last Sunday Lauren became a God-mother to an adorable two month old, Chana Rianne Malutao. It was quite interesting considering she had never met the child or parents before the actual baptism. She had worked with the grandmother of the child a couple of times. When filling out her name at the church on the baptism form, there were 12 spots for the god-parents, they don't joke around here.

After the baptism we were invited back to the families house to eat. The family lives in the mangrove area which is very near the coast line, has brackish water and is effected by the tide. It's very much like a marsh area. We crossed over a bamboo bridge to get to where the family lives since the tide was at the high point during the day.

When we arrived we were seated at the head table and given all sorts of delicious food ranging from pig to fish to fresh coconut salad. There was enough food there to literally feed an army. Two lechons (pigs) were roasted for the event and were amazing.

A short note to Lauren's god-mother, Sally. Alan wanted you to know that Lauren is able to trounce around a swamp-like area wearing a dress and jewelry. Would you really expect anything less?