So, again it's been quite a while since I have had time to sit down and think.
A lot has happened since I last wrote in here, so I'll try to remember everything.
So, lets see, I spose I should start with some more info on the projects I've been helping with.
MANGROVES!!!
Oh boy, I had no idea there would be so many, haha. Early last week we decided that the mangroves were at the right height and decided to move them down to the beach. You base the decision to plant off of the plants hight and number of leaves. They need to have at least 3 sets of leaves with 2 each, so six leaves. It took us a day and a half to move the 5000 trees to the beach. We made several trips in a bus with it packed to the ceiling.
Everytime we would make the trip to the beach, it seemed like a race between me and Paul to empty the bus first, but I wanted to take it easy, because I noticed that the leaves would rip off fairly easy (Paul dropped a bunch too, and every time he did, I would laugh a little to myself, not in his face though, I'm not that kind of person). Those couple of days felt good though, because after all that hard work, I really felt like we had accomplished something (and we did).
One day Kuya Vincent didn't know what I should do, so I decided to head down to the beach and do a little clean-up, pulling out the garbage from the ground and the bigger mangroves. I found tons of crap (pardon the expression, but it seriously was crap). I found a bunch of pairs of underwear for one thing ( :/?), I also found shirts, rope's in all shapes and sizes, nets, plastic bags, a cup that said "Made in China", a fork, some panties (oops), alot of pieces of rice bags, and numerous other types of crap.
Today we actually were going to plant the trees (since they've been on the beach now for a week) but the tide came in too quick, so we just picked up more crap and had a fire to burn it all! Very environmentally friendly right? Well it's better then it floating around in the ocean or getting caught in trees and killing the branches. Plus, when I helped will and tabs with there house, we burnt much worse stuff.
Also, before we actually moved the trees, we were re-potting them into bags. When we were at the nursery re-potting them, this little girl named Angel showed up. She didn't speak a word of english, but she understood a tiny bit, for instance I asked her how old she was and she told me she was four. She was very cute, and to my surprise, she really wanted to help us! She kept handing me mangroves to pull out of their existing cups and then would hold the bag up to me so I could put dirt in it for her, then she would plop the tree in and carry the bag over to our pile of already re-potted trees. She was a great help, but gradually got more and more demanding. She would come up and have 5 or 6 trees and want to do them all at once, and then she would say "Isa Pa" which means one more. She would say that over and over, so I said "Hindi" which means No. I would point at the ones she had on the ground and say "Ang mga ito" which means "These". Eventually she got tired of it and just left, Haha. She was a good help though.
COMPUTER CLASS !!!!
It's really amazing how things on this trip are just falling in place! When I found out that I would be teaching computer class I had no Idea it was gonna be such a big ordeal. I teach 2 classes Monday and Wednesday from 11-1, then another 2 classes on Tuesday and Thursday from 11-1 again, but then in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday I also teach adults from 2-4. I also get the chance to teach teachers on some Saturdays!
For me, I learned everything I know about computers just by fiddling around with them and finding out by myself. But for these classes it's a little different, because these people haven't had computers, ever. There is only one computer at the local elementary school, which is crazy to think about for me since at my middle school we had probably over 200.
Teaching the classes are fun, but can be frustrating because of the language barrier. Most of the kids know some english, but like a lot of kids, they can be very shy. Each class I have is studying something different. In one class, the pupils (students) have absolutely no experience with computers, so that class is a lot of fun, haha. In my other classes I am going over things like Power Point, Windows Movie Maker, and Excel.
I love computers, traveling, meeting new people, being outside, and many other things, and during this trip, God has provided me with so many crazy experiences and opportunities. I hope that the rest of my trip is full of fun and adventure.
So not this last weekend, but the weekend before was my 20th B-day. This is how the day went.
Woke up with a soar throat at 7.
Headed over to church (4 Square Gospel Church) for a 3 hour Service!!!
Headed back over to the House and had a little snack
Laid on the Couch and watched old movies that I have made
Got up in the afternoon and walked over to Mom Tess's house for dinner
Had a special b-day dinner, Filipino spaghetti and Chicken!
Went down to the beach and watched the sunset
Not the most exciting 20th Birthday, but one I will hardly forget.
The weekend before my Birthday (Nov 14-15) me and Paul went over to another Island by the name of Romblon, where the town of Romblon is located, which is as you know, in the province of Romblon. Haha.
We had to get up at 7and take the ferry at 8am from San Agustin to Romblon. exciting 40 minute ride. It was a fairly small pump boat, with enough room for maybe 40 people. Thankfully that day the skies were clear as we made our way out onto the sea. Once we arrived in the Port we got off and started walking. We didn't have any plans or any idea of where to go, we just walked.
We came across this restaurant called Romblon Deli, it had an Italian flag on the front, but the owner was actually another Brit! Naku! Haha....Oh well.
As we ate we were approached by a woman. She asked us if we were looking for somewhere to stay, and before I could say anything Paul said yes. She mentioned a hotel by the name of Muruvian, which is owned and operated by a New Zealand man. Ironically as we were on our way to the hotel, I received a text from Ate Eden telling us about a hotel by the name of Muruvian.
We got there and Paul was like "Alright! I'll take it, cool"..........
about 1 minute after we booked our rooms I got a text from Ate Eden saying that there was a resort by the name of San Pedro Beach Resort, and she said it was the same price, much nicer, and we would probably be the only people there! Ahhhhhhhhh.....poop.
I wasn't very impressed with the hotel to be honest. The New Zealand guy left, and sadly once he leaves, his employees do a poor job. I didn't have a sheet, I didn't have a towel, and I didn't have Toilet Paper.....urgh.
After we checked in we went outside to walk around and see what the town was like.
Every where I go, There is at least a group of Pinoys yelling out "Hey Joe!".
This phrase comes from tradition and actually stereotyping. Any white person a filipino sees, they will yell some sort of greeting, weather it be; "Where are you going?!", "What's your name?!", "Where have you been?!". All of these phrases are not ment to be taken literally. If you respond with an actually answer, instead of just "Hello!", they will presume you have time to chat, which isn't a bad thing, unless of course your in a hurry.
But the Phrase "Hey Joe!" come from a reference of The G.I. Joe. So even if it is a Brit, Australian, New Zealander, anyone with white skin, they will yell "Hey Joe!", haha.
When we were walking around Romblon, plenty of people were looking and yelling those phrases.
Walking through the streets I passed numerous marble dealers. Romblon is famous for it's marble quarries and it's marble is considered on the same level as Italian Marble.
Since I got that text from Ate Eden about San Pedro, I wanted to go and check it out. Paul and I got a Trike from the center of town out to the Resort. Once we got there I was super angry that we didn't go there first. It was like paradise! Well, close. All the cottages were empty, and we were literally the only people there. A private beach, restaurant, hammocks, marble tables, floors, statues, Bungalows on the edges of cliffs. It was a real amazing place.
Instead of sleeping there, we just spent the afternoon. It was about 1 dollar to have access to the beach (where I found a big purple star fish).
So that was Romblon. I only spent a day there and then had to head back "home".
Just this last weekend however, I had an amazing time and met some real great people.
When I got my visa back in the states, It said it expires on December 11th, so the closest immigrations office is located on a super touristy island called Boracay.
I had to make a trip there, so this last weekend I did so with one thing in mind, the renewal of my visa.
I woke up early 4:30am on saturday morning to catch a trike into San Agustin. Once I got into San Agustin, I waited about an hour for the Jeepney to arrive that was heading down to a town called Looc (Low-oc). The jeepney started off fairly empty but gradually got packed! San Agustin was only about 15 or 20km from Looc, but the trip took almost 3 hours, due to all the stopping to let people on and off.
We finally arrived in the town of Looc and I asked one of the other passengers if he knew where I could catch a ferry to Caticlan from. He told me to get on the trike he was getting on. We headed down to the bay and from there I boarded a small ferry that was bound for Caticlan. The ferry took about 3 hours to travel the relatively short distance. The reason it took so long was we were going slow so that the waves wouldn't bust the boat apart and kill us all.
I choose the worst possible seat on the whole boat. I sat right next to the super loud, old, sketchy looking engine. It was blasting away for the whole 3 hours, So i sat and listened to music on my Ipod, or at least what I could hear of my music.
Finally we arrived in Caticlan. Caticlan is actually on the island of Panay, which is further south of Boracay. Why they make all visitors go through that port instead of heading directly to Boracay, I don't know.
Once in I got off the boat I headed into the port terminal to get the ticket for the pumpboat to Boracay. I had to purchase the terminal fee, the environmental fee, and the actual ticket, so total it was about P200, and it was only a 10 minute ride. The 3 hour boat trip from Looc was the same price! I could tell I was getting close to a popular touristy spot.
Once we got on the pump boat we were all told to put on our life vests, but i didn't because I barely had room to move. On our way over the guys stood up because the seats they were sitting on were apparently part of the exhaust system, and the back of the boat started to fill with smoke! Nobody freaked out though, I guess it was a fairly normal occurrence, haha.
So finally we arrived at Boat station 3 on Boracay Island. As soon as I stepped foot off the pier these two ladies approached me. Immediately I thought to myself, "Oh great, here we go with the 'Are you interested in this or that!?, how about a nice souvenir?!' crap".
But actually I ended up getting to know them quite well. There names were Helen and Wilda, and it was there job, as employees of the tourist board of Boracay, to help tourists with no initial place to stay.
They took us (Paul and I) to a resort called "Alice In Wonderland". Paul ended up staying there, but I wanted to at least look at some more places before just decided on the first one. So I went with Helen and Wilda and they showed me all these different hotels and resorts along White Beach and Main Road. From Boracay Regency, to Boracay Holiday Resort, to Nigi Nigi Nu Noos Resort, to Red Coconut Hotel, to Editha's Inn. All sorts of places. I told them I was picky, haha.
Eventually I ended up picking Nigi Nigi Nu Noos, because to me it seemed like the best deal with the best features for a good price.
As we were walking along the beach looking at all the places I got to talking with them about what I was doing in the Philippines, and told them why I was in Boracay, and I also asked them something I have been wondering since I got here.
"Is there any place around here to get a tattoo?"
To my surprise, Wilda's husband's friend is a tattoo artist, and she told me he would be able to give me a tattoo for a cheaper price at his house rather then at a shop. So I kept that in mind as I turned in for the night (8 hours of traveling on boats kinda wore me out).
The next day I texted Wilda asking her about the guy who does tattoos, and she told me that they were just talking about that, and she asked me If I wanted to go over to his house. I got ready for the day and met her outside the resort, and the two of us caught motorbikes over to the other side of the island. On our way I got to talking with my driver. He thought it was neat to hear why I was in the Philippines. My driver's name was Tom, and Wilda's driver's name was Jerry. Haha.
So we arrived at the house of the guy, and I could clearly sense a difference in the atmosphere from over on White beach as compared to where he lived. Again everyone was staring at me, since no white people ever visit the other side of the island.
I met the guy who does the tattoo's. His name is Siegfred Tubi. He told me the price for the tat, and we agreed on a price, and that's when i started getting nervous....eek.
He started getting everything ready and told me to come sit down. It didn't take very long for him to finish it, maybe about half a hour. The whole time though we were talking. He told me he had taken the morning off to meet with me. He asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day and I told him I had none, so him and his brother's invited me to a fight that afternoon.
Now when I say fight alot of things come to mind, but this was a cock fight, which I had never seen, but I have wanted to since I got in the Philippines, because over here cock fights are a big deal.
So After the tattoo, they took me with them over to this little stadium where there were hundreds of bikes lined along the gate outside. As we were walking in, there were tons of people with chickens in line waiting to get spurs put on their feet.
(In a cock fight, they first must size out the chickens for even fights, all based on size, aggressiveness, and agility. After they size the chickens out, they get real sharp razors, called spurs, attached. Only one spur per chicken, on its right foot. It's a razor with a metal band that wraps around the leg of the chicken and is then secured with a colored piece of string.)
We went inside and found some seats and waited for the fights to start. Once the first fight started the only thing I could think of was Gladiator. I thought it was actually kind of fun and exciting to watch. Before each match started, the audience would start screaming really loud and yelling at each other, but I found out that they were placing bets and gambling on which chicken would win or lose. I didn't have any money, but I bet with words with Siegfred, and to my surprise, I won each time. Too bad I didn't have money! Haha. I thought the fights were okay, for a few reason, first off chickens don't have souls, 2nd the loser is one less chicken to wake me up in the morning, and finally, they eat the loser. Haha.
So we were at the fight for about 3 or 4 hours, and the whole time I got to talking with Siegfred,
He told me he just turned 27 in August. I told him I had just had my B-day last week, haha, so going to the fight was my belated birthday present. We got to know each other and he asked me what I was up to tomorrow. I told him I had no plans until later, since the only reason I was there was for my visa. So he asked me if I wanted to go with him and his brother the next day to a few different places, kinda like a private tour. So I said sure thing, sounds fun.
After they dropped me off back at my hotel, I went out to eat dinner at the seafood restaurant at my hotel, and I ordered a pizza and a chocolate milkshake, haha. Later that night I went down to the beach to finally take a swim. And since it was late at night, there were only a few people on the beach, where as during the day, there were hundreds of people!
White beach is an amazing beach that stretches for a couple miles and is made of this really fine white sand, which is actually where the island gets it's name. The sand feels like cotton, which means Borac in the native language, so they named it Boracay!
So the next day I woke up and did a little souvenir shopping, got a few shirts and some shorts, mostly clothes, because I left all my dirty laundry back at the dorm in Sugod, haha. Then later that afternoon Siegfred texted me the place to meet them, so at around 3pm I walked over to meet up with them.
They picked me up on his brother's little 100cc motorbike. So three people on this tiny little bike, and there was absolutely no room for me to move. They had told me they were taking me to some bat caves that were on the island. I assumed that it was some kind of a tourist attraction, and in a way I was right. I thought there were going to be more foreigners, but there were none. We took this small, bumpy, dirt road, and at the end was a basketball.
A group of people had set up a tent and a cardboard sign saying "Bat caves - 50 Piso".
I was only wearing flip-flops, but so was Siegfred and the guide. The walk to the caves was really beautiful. It was on the side of the island that wasn't very developed, so there were alot of wide open spaces. Eventually we started heading into the jungle and got to the mouth of a cave, I snapped some pictures, and I figured that that was it, but then they asked me if I wanted to go in.
So being me, adventurous and all, i said "Of course".
I didn't bring a flashlight, and neither did Siegfred or the guide, so he was using his phone to see the rocks. Once we got down a little further I saw something white on the rocks in front of us, and it looked like a pole. They told me it was a seasnake and that it was very poisonous. They said there were alot at the bottom of the cave, so we just stopped there.
As I stood on the rock I could hear the waves crashing in the bottom of the cave, where it lead out to the open ocean. After we climbed back out we headed over to another cave, where we took a couple more pictures.
After we walked out of the jungle back to the basketball court I gave the guide a 50 peso tip, and we took off to go to another part of the island called Mt. Luho (which means Never Reachable, which is kinda strange since it's a tourist spot). We got off the bike and headed up this path that lead up to the top where we climbed up onto some canopy walkways above the trees. And oh man was it windy up there, I'm glad he told me to take my hat off, otherwise it would've gone bye-bye.
He took some pictures of me for my facebook dp, haha. We headed down off the walkway where they had some animals on display. There were tons of cages, but some of them were empty because the animals had escaped, uh-oh, haha. There were also alot of wild monkeys on the mountian, which was my favorite part. Siegfred went and got these leaves he called Saint Peter leaves, which were very sugary apparently, and the monkeys loved them.
At one point I was giving some leaves to this grouchy old monkey and he decided it would be funny to play a trick on me. After he finished eating the leaves he looked at me (with an evil eye I might add) and reached out with his left hand, almost as if to say "Here, I give you permission to touch my hand", but as I reached out to touch his finger, the sneaky little dork snatched my glasses right off my face with his other hand!
I wish now I would have taken my camera out and taken pictures of him, but I was too scared for my glasses. He was actually putting them on is face trying to wear them! I started laughing but I was still freaking out. I yelled at Siegfred to go get me some more of those leaves, which he did, and once the monkey saw them he dropped my glasses. Thankfully they weren't even scratched! Good memories though, haha.
While we were around the monkeys, I slipped on a sharp rock and sliced my foot open, and was bleeding all over. Siegfred went and got these leaves called Haganoy and sqeezed the oil out of the leaves onto the cut. Only after a minute, the bleeding stopped and the cut didn't hurt. He said "There ya go, traditional way of healing a wound, haha."
It was alot of fun to hangout with them, because I honestly thought I wasn't gonna be doing much, but I ended up making some good friends.
I finally got my Visa renewed, but It was much more expensive then I thought it would be. It was 5000 Peso for only 2 months, so I'll have to renew it again in February.
The day I left was a real windy day, and the boat was rocking soooooo much. Water kept splashing in on everyone. The waves must have been about 20 or 30 feet out on the open water, it was crazy. But now i understand why there are so many accidents and deaths with the ferries here...
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Since Boracay, there have been alot of new adventures for me. Just last Friday we got 4 new volunteers. Kelley, a 28 year old Australian, Maggie and Martin, British couple in their 50's, and Winnie, a 27 year old Chinese girl who lives in Canada, haha.
I'm so happy to have some other volunteers other then just Paul, no offense to Paul, but (and I don't mean this to sound punny) he get's old....
They are all real great people. Winnie can be a little...umm..ditsy, but I guess that's just her personality. She is a real nice lady though.
The other day we (Kelly, Maggie, Martin, and I) decided to climb what the locals call the "Tower".
Arthur
(I think I mentioned him before, maybe not, but here's the short version. I was sitting on the porch alone on one of my fist nights, and these guys came up on the porch and sat down, Eduard and Arthur. I thought they were only like 18 or 19 (my age) but they are 22 and 23, everyone here looks younger then they really are. But they were two of the first people I met here)
was our guide as we headed towards the top. We decided to leave at around 2 in the afternoon on a saturday. I noticed no-one was bringing water, so I figured why should I then. There were about 7 other guys who tagged along to be our guides.
As we started, it was fun, but as time went on, we started to climb steeper and steeper fields and trees, almost rock climbing. And we were just flying up the mountain. We only had one bottle for like all of us, haha.
There were multiple times where we had to stop and rest, but every time we started we would take off like rockets, seriously almost running. Actually there was a time where, I was in the front by Arthur and this guy behind me (named Eric, haha) told me to start running! I was seriously almost dead. My friend Eduard was climbing up the mountain with a cigarette in his hand, and once we got to the top he smoked it, ahaha. By the time we got to the top I felt like I was in a dream, or like I was flying, my head was just spinning like crazy. But I have to say, It felt great to make it to the top.
There were some great views from the top. It's called the tower because at the top there is cell tower for Smart, a cell phone company.
Going down was a million times easier, and it was more fun, because we kept slipping, and everyone would laugh at you.
At the top of the Hill, It looked like a real nice grassy top, but in-fact it's about 6 foot sharp grass!
So when you slipped, you would disappear, thats when everyone laughed.
Half way down we took a rest. Arthur and some of the other guys started collecting these real small peppers which were Chinese Chili Peppers. which apparently are hotter then habanero. We started betting how many pesos to eat a handful, haha.
The other day Kelly and I were talking about how only a few houses have Christmas lights, so we decided to go into town and get some to put on mom Tess and Felix's house.
While we were buying Christmas lights, we also got a new basketball for the guys in town who are always playing basketball. Also while we were in town, Maggie, Martin, Kelly and I got a little snack at a shop. I have no idea what it was, but I call it mustard bread, haha.
On our way back, I stood on the front of the trike and when we got close to the basketball hoop, I tried to make a basket, but didn't go in, haha.
So this afternoon I went for a run (3k) for the first time in probably 2 years. It felt amazing, and I felt real refreshed after I got back. I almost didn't make it and I had to walk for 100 feet or so, but then I started up again, and I was just about to stop off on the side of the road, but just as I was about to, all these little kids started running along side me, so then I knew I couldn't stop while they were running with me! I made it all the way back, drenched with sweat, but happy about it. I really think that if I run everyday I'll really start to get in shape, with the kind of meals we eat here, haha.
So tonight we just watched the 2 half of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, and I sat on the porch with Eduard and we shared a cigar while we watched the movie. After the movie ended I grabbed my computer and Actually started typing part of this blog when I noticed a strange noise. It sounded like a big bug flying around the living room, so I turned the light on and got to big suprises. A nasty huge freaking spider, and a little humming bird, that had accidentally flown into the fan! He came to a rest on the couch and I picked him up and put him outside. Thankfully he was still alive and was able to fly away. The spider on the other hand wasn't so lucky! I took lysol to that nasty thing. The spiders here are soooo big, but thankfully on our island we only have one poisonous one, and it usually stays in the ground, unless of course it's raining, Which it is right now. So Once I'm done typing this I'm going to fall asleep on the couch, because for some reason I feel safer on the couch then my bed, haha.
I apologize for how long it's been since I last updated this. I've actually been working on this blog for a week now, or 10 days or something like that. Because every time I try to finish it, I get caught up doing something else, and as soon as I know it, It's two days later and I have more stories to write about!
Thanks for the prayers, and I'll make sure to keep you up to date!
