Tuesday 9 August, 2005

Just chucking something quick in here so you don't think I have died or something. We will be off-site at a planning session for the next three days, and then it is the weekend, so I am not sure when I will get internet access again.

All is well here in Manila. The weather has been a bit cooler over the past three days, as it has been raining - that is a lovely change (and I have managed to be indoors during the driving rain and only been outside during drizzle). Ange and I continue to set up the new flat - it feels more like home now than it did a week ago, although it is still a little devoid of decorations and I still have some boxes and bags to unpack (didn't have much free time over the weekend).

I have been tackling the washing machine which has to be one of the most frustrating experiences of my life, I think! It is a twin tub and if you don't know what that is, don't stress because neither did I before moving here. Basically it means that you have a machine with a tub that fills with water and washes, and then a separate tub for spinning. So the process for washing clothes is this:

1) Put your clothes in the tub with the detergent. Turn on a tap until sufficient water fills the tub and then let it wash.

2) When the incredibly loud buzzer tells you the wash has finished, you go in and grab the hose that releases the water and let enough out of the tub onto the floor of the laundry so that it is almost, but not quite, flooding into the adjoining rooms. Five minutes later, when enough has drained/evapourated to clear the floor, you repeat this process. This continues for about half an hour to an hour, until the tub is empty.

3) You then repeat step one except for without the detergent - this rinses the clothes (more or less!)

4) Repeat step 2 until the tub is empty.

5) Repeat step 3 with fabric softener.

6) Repeat step 2 - however, sometimes you can pre-empt this a little by taking some of the garments out of the tub and putting them into the spinning tub. You can only put a few in at a time so this becomes a juggling act - go and take some clothes and transfer them, then let the water out (while keeping your shoes dry) and then leave it for the five minutes it takes to spin. Then you go and put more in to spin, hang up those that have finished spinning and then let out another bit of water.

It takes quite a few hours to get through a load and is a massive pain in the backside!! Also, the spinning is quite vigorous and I didn't want to subject some of my more delicate clothes to that. So I have clothes hanging up in the laundry that have been there for four days and are almost dry now, after I just hand-wrung them out. I am hoping that I will work out some of the kinks as the weeks pass! I tried to be a smarty pants and put the draining hose down a drain, but only wound up giving myself a (small!) electric shock, so abandoned that solution.

I am also doing boring things like cleaning out cupboards that are a little grubby and getting rid of an accumulated store of marmite jars (with quite a bit of marmite in them - unfortunately we couldn't think of any local Brits we could palm them off on to...)

Also had a hilarious (and frustrating) trip to mega mall to buy some household supplies like a fan and placemats (Ange will never know how close we came to having Donald Duck placemats in our house!) that resulted in me lapping mega mall in a taxi for half an hour while Ange had our groceries checked through (the check out kept scanning our p19.75 (AUD$0.49) stubbies of beer at p160 (AUD$4.00) and then they had to take her credit card and phone some bank. As you queue for half an hour to an hour (no exxageration at all) to get a taxi coming out of the supermarket, I went on a hike to secure one (dragging a trolley up and down these massive curbs and being propositioned left right and center) and finally found one but had to go around and around waiting, listening to the poor cabbie's sob story about his Canadian 'girlfriend' (later revealed to be a one-night stand, which demonstrates a different level of commitment from what I am used to, but I am open to cultural differences of opinion!) who promised to get him a visa and take him to Canada, but then of course vanished... Most taxi drivers are extremely talkative and often seem to expect you to be able to get them into your home country! Or else you just listen to their efforts to migrate - it is a fairly common theme for anyone with nearly enough money to do so - quite sad.

Anyway - it's eight o'clock and I have a lot of papers to read for tomorrow so I am going home (well - to the gym, but that's just semantics)

Toodlepip

Some piccies (finally!)

Having a little difficulty posting the piccies properly...

Anyway - this is the view of Coral Cove, the place where we stay at Sabang. The main thatched roof that you can see is where the restaurant/bar is located and the roof you can just see poking out to the left (behind the trees) was one of the rooms we have stayed in. It is very nice and has a wonderful location, but probably does not merit the hard time Geoff has been giving me about 'aid workers and their terrible conditions'. As Debs said, it is incredibly luxurious - so much so that during the rain, you can have a shower without actually having to leave your bed!! But it is very nice and a welcome break from Manila

This is Debs and Ange in our boat heading out for Ange's and My first ever scuba experience (Ange is looking quite nervous - that built over the next half hour!) Our instructor Ricky is in the hat and Debs' Dive Master, Christian is in the T-shirt. I never quite figured out what the girl was doing there - I think she just didn't have anything else to do that afternoon! The boat is actually called the Kiwi Magic 2, but somebody either doesn't like New Zealanders or has a sense of humour, hence the repainted sign!

This is the view from Coral Cove across the water - it is so tranquil and beautiful there

Can't be bothered linking any more now - it is a bit of a performance and I am tired!

More to come
Toodles

Thursday 4 August, 2005 - Random Ramblings

Okay - need to do a great big shout out to Joel here in the office (although he will probably never know it!!) as he managed to fix that little box you see in the previous post where you can enter your email address and then my updates will be sent to you automatically (somebody please tell Andrew Newmarch about that feature!!!) Joel is a champion - a fairly quiet fellow who is responsible for doing the website and student database management system here, and is an absolute technical wizard. For those of you who have seen my groovy new signature on my work email (and those of you who received my initial, somewhat mis-typed email about it...*red face*) he is the chap who did that. And when the code to do this sign up thing wasn't working and I was about to pull my hair out, he got me to email it to him and soon emailed it back, and hey presto! It worked... Such a legend

This is an example of a lot of the Philippinos. While they are very friendly and welcoming, they generally appear to be quite reserved when you are getting to know them (there are obvious exceptions, as anyone at WVA who knows Ichie can attest!) But it is worth making the effort as the hidden depths are wonderful. Yesterday I was having a conversation with one of the guys here in the office about the political situation. As I was saying to Ange last night, you would probably write him off as a bit of a lightweight if you just met him, but he has amazed me a few times with some really insightful and interesting discussions about a huge range of topics. Some of the staff appear to be stuck in the 'reserved' frame of mind, and I have given up a bit - I am perfectly friendly but constantly beating your head against a brick wall only kills brain cells! But then there's the guy who wouldn't stop calling me ma'am when I arrived, and now is one of my closest friends in the office! And the IT guy, who I hardly spoke to in my first month (we started within days of each other and were just running around both trying to fit into our jobs and figure out what we were doing!) and who I now spend waaaaaaay too long chatting to - he is one of those ones that you cannot get away from, although he is usually very intersting and that is fun. He is actually so enthusiastic about relief work - he was involved in the typhoon response here last November/December and just loved it. Talking to him reminds me of the point of everything we do here and the joy that can be found in truly making a difference in people's lives.

Not sure what the point of this post is - I guess the joys to be found in the depths of the Philippino people. They have a reputation for being extremely friendly, which they are. However, I think a lot of the AYADs discover that friendliness at the office doesn't generally extend beyond that, which I think is true. They don't tend to invite any of us home, and few of my colleagues socialise outside work, which is different from Australia (possibly due to the size of Manila and the distance that some of them live from the office - the aforementioned Joel has a six hour round trip on the bus from Batangas province to the office each day!!) If you ask any of them what they did over the weekend, the typical answer is 'hung out with the family, went to the mall, went to church'. The activities are not terribly varied (I think the heat dampens many an adventurous streak) and we certainly stand out with our general weekend activities (went out to dinner a few times, went to this club and that pub, went to this sightseeing venue, did some sporting activity, listened to this band, went away etc) I sometimes find myself listing only half of the weekend activities because it sounds a little absurd in comparison.

Some time soon I might introduce you to some of the key people I work with (will bring my camera in and take photos perhaps!) but for now, am still endeavouring to make my posts shorter so will sign off

Toodlepip

Trying something out

I am trying to make my blog prettier and cooler with stuff that Emily has told me about, and this is one of the thingamijigs - just let me experiment for now. Ultimately I hope that this will be a box you can fill in so that my posts can be emailed to you, if you want. But I am struggling a bit with this thing - the instructions say post in anywhere on my blog. But this is the only place I can see that I can post it. Think I might have to bribe Em to help me this weekend (*frustrated face*)

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Tuesday 2 August, 2005 - Home Sweet Home

Okay - really want to get home as it is 7.15p.m. but haven't posted for a few days.

And yes - I finally have a home. Three and a half months after arriving, I have moved into what will, I hope, be my permanent abode for the rest of my time here...

Debs left for Singapore yesterday (*sad face*) so I took over her room (and her flatmate Ange!) and moved my stuff into my fourth home in five weeks (and my seventh or eighth since April!) I am still unpacking as I left a whole lot of stuff there during my wanderings and haven't even gotten to it yet. Sigh

It doesn't really feel like home yet. For a start, it still feels like Debs' place and also there is nothing personal up yet, except a photo of the family and my Victoria calendar, suitably turned to a snowy mountain scene for August (*more sad face, although I don't think the snow is that good right now*)

It is a bit sad without Debs - have gotten to know her better over the past month in particular, and just seem to have a few farewells lately (Anita going back to Oz last week, Debs leaving, one of the guys from my team, Archie, who I get on with really well, is finishing this week). So lots of goodbyes (and lots of cake!)

On the weather front, I decided today that the whole 'monsoon where the weather cools down' is actually a myth dreamed up to lure foreigners here, who would not otherwise come if they realised that the heat is unrelenting. It is so blinking hot - you should have seen me when I arrived at my desk this morning - I was stared at so much (again!) Actually - on Monday I was coming back from buying lunch and this guy took a photo of me with his camera phone from inside his car! I couldn't believe it! And nobody at the office thought it out of place (although they got a good laugh) - apparently it will happen a lot and I just happened to notice it this time. I sometimes get very sick of being the constant center of attention, and the subject of constant cat calls and shout outs, just because of the colour of my skin.

Okay - I do have a lot of other news but am trying to honour the calls for shorter posts so will try to get back here with more in another post later.

Toodlepip

Kate