Whoah, We're Halfway There

One year down, one to go. Before joining the Peace Corps, two years like a long amount of time. But now that I have completed my first year of service, I can say with certainty that one year would not have been enough. I feel that I'm in my groove at site, and I have a lot to do before this experience is complete. I can only hope that year two will be as exciting, fulfilling, and fun as year one was. I am confident it will be even better, but I know that it's going to fly by!

To mark the half-way point, Peace Corps holds a training aptly called Mid-Service Training (MST). It's a chance for the entire batch to get together for the first time since arriving to the Philippines over 15 months ago. I always enjoy the conferences: staying in nice hotels, eating great food, and catching up with friends in other regions, but this one was definitely stranger than the others had been. We weren't divided by regions, as we usually are, so putting everyone together meant there were a lot of people I didn't even recognize. People are all at such different places in terms of their attitude about site. Of the 117 remaining (out of 144), I was sad to see how many were really struggling, but hopefully MST can be a turning point for them. Apparently it’s common for this to be a low point for volunteers but that year two is better for most people.  

At MST, the volunteers held our annual "Stash Bash." The even was fun and surprisingly well-organized and highly regimented. It's not usual for all of us to get to do something fun together.

Even the girls participated.

After MST, some of my friends and I decided to take the opportunity of being flown to Luzon (by far the biggest island in the Philippines, where Manila is located) to do some traveling up north. Here's how the trip unfolded. 

Saturday AM. Left Lyma, Batangas, where MST was located. Took a 6-hour bus ride to Manila, had some Wendy's (the type of fast food restaurant that can only be found in Manila) and then took another 5 hour bus ride to Tyler's site. Tyler, Elliott, and I decided to do a little trip to Tyler's site while the rest of the group went on a 3-day hike in the mountains. Not that I was totally opposed to the hike, but I have been wanting to check out Tyler's site for some time. Tyler is a friend in my training batch, but after a site transfer, was moved out of the Visayas to a small town called Bani, north of Manila. Somehow, despite being a coastal resource management volunteer, he lives 45 minutes from the coast!

Saturday night - Tuesday noon. Spent some time at Tyler's site. I always enjoy seeing other friends' sites because you get to see how different each volunteers' experience (living situation, friends, work, etc.) can be. Plus it makes talking about life much easier. Additionally, volunteers often make some really fun and interesting friends, and as visitors, we just get to go and hang out with them.

Some activities we did there was traveling to the next town to go to the 100 Islands National Park (it's actually 123 islands, but who's counting), and we also went to the Mangrove Marine Protected Area, that Tyler is thinking about including in a project. Some pictures are below.

100 Island National Park.

There's me!

A giant clam hatchery project. These are definitely the biggest giant clams I've seen.

Elliott, me, and Tyler. Not sure who's taking the picture...

Tyler loves jumping off things.

Another thing Tyler got us to jump off of. This cave was covered in bats. Pretty cool site.

The bamboo foot bridge at the mangrove MPA managed by Tyler's LGU.

Traveling through the mangroves on a small pumpboat.

Tyler has a really great barkada (Filipino drinking circle). When we arrived, the first thing his buddy said to us was, "Hi Tyler. Good news! We have some dog for you and your friends!" Apparently Tyler had mentioned that he was interested in trying dog, and the night before a Victory Liner bus ran over a stray dog. Alas, dog adobo was our evening's sumsuman (food you eat while drinking). When I told some of the other volunteers later that we had tried dog, I got some strange responses. "I heard it was really stringy," or "Did it make you feel really warm?" and my favorite, "One of my friends says it was the best meat he's ever tasted." All wrong. Especially the last comment. There were lots of bones and skin, not much meat, and more difficult to get off the bone than goat. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I never really got over the fact that I was eating dog, but I thought it wasn't too tasty. Although I still preferred it to the chicken liver, which was the other sumsuman dish.   

Later that night we went with his barkada into town. There was a little festival going on, and I was surprised to see the number of people living in his area. I Luzon is just more populated than the Visayas. One of Tyler's friends got his buddy to turn on the ferris wheel for us, and we were able to convince Tyler's terrified Filipino friends to join. Later, on our way from the festival to one of the friend's houses, it was time for balut. Balut is a Filipino "delicacy," a semi-fertilized dug egg that people eat as a nice little snack. I already completed that Peace Corps Philippines right-of-passage last December and was never planning on eating it again. But you can't refuse food from friends, as Tyler made sure to remind me and Elliott, who were less than excited to eat balut for a second time. After eating it well over 10 times, Tyler had no sympathy for us. So while Elliott and I struggled to open the shell, suck out the juice, and chew up the shockingly tough egg white and fetus (mine had an eye!), Tyler and his friends chowed down as if they were eating any old delicious hard boiled egg. 

Elliott, Tyler, and I really tore up the town of Bani. The next night, we went to the search competition for "Mrs. Bani." Yes, I mean "Mrs." All the contestants were married with children. I've seen Mr. and Miss searches for adults, children, and teenagers, Macho competitions and Ms. Gay (boys dressed as girls)  contests, and now I can add Mrs. to the list. Someone from Tyler's office was competing, so we joined his supervisor and other coworkers to cheer her on. After the search was over, after being egged on by Tyler's supervisor and barkada friends, Tyler, Elliott and I took to the dance floor and proceeded to dance with the elderly ladies of Bani. We had a very solid fan base going, and I know Tyler was happy to get some face-time out in his community. This type of thing people tend to remember.

Tuesday Noon. Said goodbye to Bani and took a 6 hour bus ride to Baguio City. Baguio City is like another world, compared to the Visayas. The city of 300,000 people is built right into the mountainside, and the streets are steep and crowded, but it's a pretty amazing city. Much cleaner than anything in the Visayas and much more organized. Cars and people actually follow street signs telling traffic where to go, where crossing the street is allowed, and which side of the overpasses people should walk. The city has a much different vibe: it's known for being more relaxed and quieter than most of the Philippines I've come to know and love. It's also cold! I should say colder, because going out in jeans and a sweatshirt in November was more than enough, but that's still highly, highly unusual for the Philippines. It was definitely my first time wearing that sweatshirt out on the streets and not on a bus with aircon.

Wednesday 6AM. Time to take the morning bus to Sagada. Sagada is a small mountain town in the middle of the mountain province in central Luzon. Celebrating Thanksgiving there is a Peace Corps tradition, and I've been wanting to see if it lives up to the hype for some time. This post-MST trip gave us the perfect opportunity to check it out. The ride from Bagiuo was incredible. I was heard to do the trip during the daytime, so you could see the views, and that was great advice. Winding through the mountains, passing by small towns lodged in the middle of the mountains, was an incredible trip.

On the road, I was checking out a map, and saw that on the route we were traveling, we were only about 2 hours from Banaue, home of the 2,000 year old rice terraces. Filipinos call the rice terraces one of the great wonders of the world, although I'm not sure exactly who gave them that moniker. Nevertheless, people travel 12 hours from Manila to view these sites, and I had wanted to see them myself, so a 2-hour trek seemed worthwhile. Tyler and Elliott weren't quite feeling it, but I decided to go for it. So I found on the map a fork in the road. One way goes to Sagada and the other to Bontoc, a town 1.5 hours away via jeep to Banaue. So I quickly changed into the proper clothes, and when we got to the crossing, I hopped off the bus, leaving my pack behind with Elliott and Tyler. I only had to wait for a about 15 minutes for a trike to Bontoc and saw that I had 20 minutes til the last jeep of the day left for Banaue. Perfect timing! I ran into a couple American college kids from Connecticut backpacking through Southeast Asia, so I had the perfect companions to travel with to the rice terraces. The best way to see it all is by riding on top of the jeep. The ride was incredible. The roads winding up and down around the mountain, paved well at most parts but lacking in others. Waterfalls scattering the hillsides, evidence of rock slides at other points. At times it felt like we were right on the edge of the mountain, but I kept telling myself it is safer on the top where one can just jump off than being stuck inside the jeep. 

After the magnificent ride, I didn't have much time in Banaue, but I did get to check out the rice terraces. They were pretty spectacular, but the jeep ride definitely made the side trip worthwhile. I made an agreement with the jeep drivers to wait for an hour than take me back with them to Bontoc, where I would catch a ride back to Sagada. They were very accomodating and even stopped at one of the viewpoints so I could take a couple pictures. 

Wenesday PM - Friday noon. Sagada. I had heard a lot about Sagada, but it still managed to exceeded my expectations. The place is beautiful, tucked into the mountains. There's so much to do, from caving to hiking to waterfalls to seeing the hanging coffins. The people were so friendly, and I was very impressed with their English-speaking abilities. The food, so different from that of the Visayas, was excellent, and I ate many things that cannot be found in my place (like strawberries, lettuce, and yogurt). There was even a crazy French baker who made amazing chocolate croissants and delicious breads! There were a decent number of backpackers, but the group of Peace Corps volunteers definitely took over the town. For Thanksgiving itself, we had an amazing meal for the 25 volunteers staying in the pension. Everyone helped out and contributed in some ways. I made some garlic bread, which turned out decent at best, but my best contribution was helping to roll the lumpia (Filipino eggrolls) with my hands. It was my first time doing that. There was even a turkey, and I got to watch my friend Aja kill a chicken for her first time. That is one task I am yet to complete.

Our time in Sagada was short, and I definitely could have spent more time there. We did check out this store called Sagada weaving, which was founded by a woman who saw a Peace Corps volunteer back in the 1980s backpacking through Sagada. She saw his backpack and was inspired to make one on her own. Now they have a little shop, with women in the back weaving together the fabric while others put it together in a bag. It was amazing traversing through the mountain province how many people carried those bags! Another highlight of Sagada was hiking to see the hanging coffins. There in Sagada, there is a belief that the body should have access to the natural elements of the environment: wind, air, and water. Therefore, traditionally coffins were places on the sides of mountains to achieve those objectives. 

Here's Aja and Tyler's preparing to behead the chicken.

Mission complete!

There goes our turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving, friend!

Me, Will, and Stef, the lumpia wrapping team (under the watchful eye of Pa).

Some volunteers preparing desserts.

So much food! Here's Ian, Carmen, Ben and Brad.

 

The Sagada Weaving weavers making the cloth for their bags.

And here they are putting it all together right in the shop.

The town of Bontoc. Here's where to take the jeep the Banaue.

One view of the 2,000 Year Old Banaue Rice Terraces.

My jeep conductor and I posing for a picture.

 Friday noon. Took the 6 hour bus back to Baguio. Ate a great dinner and then watched a live reggae band for a couple hours with Rob, Morgan and Brad. The rest of our crew decided to skip the band and straight to Manila, but we thought taking a 1AM bus that arrived to Manila at 8AM was a better alternative than arriving at 4AM. And we were right, because I passed out as soon as we stepped foot on the bus. And believe it or not, I felt pretty well rested waking up at 7 the next morning.

Saturday. After about 35 hours (in less than a week) on a bus, we were back in  Manila. Saw some sides of Manila that seemed very different to me. We walked around Makati, the very nice area in Manila where many foreigners and wealthier people work and live. We headed to Salcedo, a fancy outdoor market with an incredible array of food. Then we headed back to the pension for some quality time on the internet getting ready to retun to site. 

The Salcedo Outdoor Market.

We were excited to see not one but two items from Guimaras. Along, with dried mangoes from the Trappist Monestary, there was ginamos (or small, baby shrimp all smushed together into a paste). People love putting ginamos on many things... unfortunately.

Sunday 9AM. Taxi ride to the airport. Flight to Iloilo. Ride to SM City in the Guimbal ambulance (thanks Elliott!). Jeep to the wharf. Boat to Guimaras. Jeep to Nueva Valenca. And finally back to my nipa hut. All is well. Try to rest up as I begin the second half of my service.