Musings of no particular significance...

This is most of my team at work - we took this picture on Jelson's last day,
and unfortunately a few people were away.

Back row: Joel, me, Lorna and Henry (standing)

Front row: Marites, Gemma, Salve, Jelson and Melanie.

Missing: Dayan, Marion and Aileen.

These guys are a lot of fun - I love working with them, and in many ways, they are some of my best teachers about the Philippines. There are other wonderful people in the office as well -
our IT guy is a good friend of mine, as is the accountant and the receptionist.
In fact, they all rock! I will try to get a piccie of all of us -
I know we took some on Prayer Day (start of the financial year) this year.

I haven’t posted much lately – I have been flat out at work and also home sick (not homesick, as one friend thought I meant in an email, but at home, sick – should have put a comma in there!!) I haven’t even finished putting up my Palawan pictures (not even close, I’m afraid!!) but all of a sudden blogger just decided it wasn’t going to post any more one day, so I spat the dummy and shut it down (power of the user?)


Anyway – I am still alive, although a little the worse for wear. I have been sick a lot since I got here – the number of colds I get has become legendary. I lost count but I think I am in double digits over seven months (and am sadly not exaggerating) – people can no longer tell if I am on the tail end of the previous one, or starting another one. I have yet to have a major upchuck event (which I count as a triumph, seven months in!) but have had a full spectrum of other ailments – my most spectacular was two weeks after arriving. I was pretty ill and went to the clinic in Mega Mall (yes – they have a full medical clinic, a church, a skating rink, a bowling alley (that I have yet to see) – I think they should just open a hotel and a school - then you could never leave. It’s like Singapore airport. Anyway – I went from the clinic down to the chemist to fill my prescription (scribbled by the doctor onto the back of a piece of paper – getting prescription-only drugs here is just a matter of looking persuasively at the ‘chemist’) and proceeded to pass out – twice! It took people a really, really long time to notice a white person (extra white at this stage) passed out on the floor – or maybe they just thought I was a druggie and didn’t want to come help! Anyway – eventually some very nice folks dragged me back down to the clinic while I tried to ring everybody I knew (which wasn’t that many people at that stage) and had this ridiculous moment where I literally couldn’t get anyone to pick up their phones. Eventually, I got Ange and she said she would come and get me. So I lay down in the clinic for a while and then Ange, Sally and Nat all walked in – it was quite a sight. Three tall, blonde Aussies in gym shorts (they had been on their way to play basketball) – apparently they attracted quite a bit of attention as they strode through the mall. It was pretty funny – they said that when they walked into the clinic, they didn’t even have to ask for me – people just started pointing them in the direction, “you want to go there”, “she’s through there”, etc. Guess there weren’t too many half conscious white people in there that night!!



Anyway – I was home sick again a couple of days ago, and Ange just totally cracked me up. I was sprawled out on the sofa working the horizontal position as that reduced most of the symptoms, and I can hear her banging and clanging around in the kitchen and am thinking I should go and help her out, but really couldn’t get up (was still proud of making it out of bed!) And then she emerges from the kitchen with this huge grin on her face and comes over with dinner for me – on a tray! With salt and pepper and a little thing of condiments. And cutlery on a folded napkin and everything!! I felt absolutely mortified – I think all my colour returned in spades in a hurry! But at the same time it was hysterical – I am not sure why it was so funny but we were both killing ourselves laughing and it was just so incredibly sweet – I still can’t believe she brought me dinner on a tray…must have been flashing back to her hospital days.


The next day, I was still at home and having to miss dinner out with everyone. Luckily Nat came over to kill some time between appointments near our house, so I had some company for a while. And then, about 7.15p.m., some of my colleagues from work called me, just to see how I was and to tell me that they missed me. It was so touching – it made me realise how much I have come to love the people I work with and how much I will miss them when I leave. And also that we all work too long hours!!!


In fact, I have come to love the Philippines as well. There are days when it drives me nuts – days when I want to be cold, when I want to walk to work without every guy I pass staring openly at my chest, days when I don’t want to feel guilty all the time about my relative wealth, and not get angry about the incredible corruption everywhere. But it has wormed its way into my heart. Filipinos have the most fantastic smiles you have ever seen – they light up their whole faces and the word ‘beaming’ comes to mind. They are the most warm and friendly people – when you ask for directions, chances are they won’t have a clue but will send you in the wrong direction as they are too embarrassed to admit it, but they will always want to do their very best to help you. So many people here struggle every day just to feed their children, but instead of resenting me, they are just incredibly friendly.


But you can get these platitudes a lot of countries you go to – especially developing countries. I guess you have to live in a country, share its ups and downs and make friends from all walks of life to really immerse yourself in it. I have so many wonderful friends here now – friends I will miss like crazy when I go. I have a life here – I know Manila, I know my favourite places to go. Every time I leave the city, I am struck by how amazingly beautiful this country is – it is so lush and green with the most fantastic scenery – volcanoes, rice paddies, mountains, rivers. Sometimes you think you could be driving through rural England and I have even passed red dirt that reminds me of Australia. I enjoy my life here – I like hanging out with my Aussie friends, my Pinoy friends and my international friends. I like that at devotions at work, they speak in Tagalog with me in the room – I don’t understand 99% of what they say (my Tagalog still sucks) but it means I am just part of the team now. It is hard to articulate what I am feeling, but I get a warm and fuzzy feeling walking to work (if I keep my eyes firmly fixed in the middle distance!) driving through the countryside, or showing other visitors around Manila (as a 'local'!) and I know that no matter what, the Philippines has claimed a part of my heart.

Still - it will be nice to go home at Christmas and not attract any attention at all - just be anonymous...

Sth China Sea at Sunset

Sunset pics!

These are the little 'bankas' (pronounced Bung-car)

- the boats that fishermen in the Philippines sail on It's a tough life, but somebody's gotta do it!


I may have gone a little overboard in the piccies,
but don't worry - there are plenty more to come ;-p

Pics from the boat in Coron...

Isn't it stunning!












An amazing storm we had to sail through - our second day was very wet, both in and out of the water!!!

More mountain photos

Mt Tapyas Pics

These shots were all taken from Mt Tapyas (I remembered its name!!) looking down over Coron as we went up and down it...

Palawan continued...

I want to start posting more piccies, but thought I should finish the narrative of Palawan before I do that, so as not to ruin the flow… And brace yourselves Uncle John and Aunty Rhonda (do you even read this???) – There may not be too much weeding in the pics as Palawan is just that stunning! All the relief you felt when seeing how selective I was with my Egypt pictures last year can just go hurtling back out the window!!

Anyway – we are back in Manila and I have been absolutely swamped since returning, so haven’t had a chance to update. Coming back was very hard to do (ridiculously hard – we had to sit for an hour and a half after our plane was supposed to have left in this dodgy little terminal while absolutely nobody told us what was wrong with our plane. I got into this ridiculous situation trying to find out what the problem was as there was only a security guard in the terminal and he had no idea what was going on, eventually saying that the captain knew and said Captain was on the plane. So the Security Guard said he was going to find out some info and never returned. So I decided to go to the check-in counter and ask there, and saw him there hiding! When he saw me again, he turned and walked out and on it went etc! Pretty funny (and incredibly annoying). Eventually, one and a half hours after scheduled take-off, we boarded and with no apology or explanation for the delay (although they did apologise for the warm cabin temperature!) we took off. As I was saying to Ange, if there is a problem with the plane then tell us – none of us want to get in that steel hotdog and go hurtling through the air if it is broken. But we just want to know why we are still sitting on those ghastly chairs – we will understand, but just tell us, for crying out loud… She suggested that it was once again the Filipino fear of losing face – they wouldn’t admit there was a problem (I eventually found out there was a problem with the autopilot and they had to get approval from the head of the airline in Manila to take off and they couldn’t find him…or something like that).

So we are flying back into Manila and can see the smog on the horizon and I looked down and the bay was just black and fetid – so depressing in comparison to the green hills and mountains and the sparkling ocean we had been at a few hours ago. We briefly contemplated hijacking the plane and making it take us back, or transferring our entire offices to Palawan, but eventually took one for the country, landed and battled the Manila traffic to come home.

Backtracking a little…
Our last day in Coron we climbed the hill that I mentioned (can’t remember its name now – will look that up and get back to you). It is 690m and was just incredibly steep steps – we had sweat absolutely streaming off us in rivers and I was panting like I was in labour or something – it was unbelievable. But the view was stunning so it was worth it. Then we went out in a tricycle to these hot springs about twenty to thirty minutes ride way. That was great – the water was incredibly hot and you couldn’t stay in too long (thank heavens Palawan is cooler than Manila – and it was not April!) and it was perfect after the climb.

The next day we flew to Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan. Actually, what I may do it stop the narrative here, and put up my pictures from Coron, then continue on with Puerto in my next entry…
Toodles

PADI Open Water Diver!!!!

Yes - that's me!! *squeals* I am a qualified Open Water Diver and can now be let loose in the water with a tank on my back and a Darth Vadar mask in my mouth! It is very very exciting and I think Ange and I are now addicted! We are in Coron, a small town/village on the island of Busuanga, in the north of Palawan (a group of islands right to the west of the Philippines - apparently Palawan was once part of Malaysia and broke away in an earthquake, however many years ago (I am thinking hundreds of thousands, but whatever...) (btw - this is an insanely slow computer - I am not sure how long I will last before I get fed up and storm back out into the heat of the day!)

Today is our last day here in Coron and we are being extra cautious about not diving and flying, so are having a quiet day today - I want to do some souvenir shopping and visit a gallery (thinking about Christmas presents), there is a hill that we want to climb and later on we will go to some hot springs about a twenty-minute jeepney ride away.

Anyway - I will tell you a little bit about diving, but probably not everything now as I don't want to make this a super long entry and I could talk about it for days. Ange and I flew down here in a tiny little plane on Friday morning (it was an eighteen seater, with no toilet, steward or even cabin pressurisation! As we were taking off, Ange turned to me and said, "it's like Lost" (the TV show about the people whose plane crash landed on a remote desert island and they have to survive there!), which wasn't particularly comforting!!! Anyway - we finally got to Busuanga and had a one-hour jeepney ride to Coron through this incredibly green and lush countryside - each time we leave Manila the lushness just astounds us. We started our course that afternoon with Maddy, who is the friend of my friend Kim in Manila. Maddy is British and has been a scuba diving instructor here for about five years (I think?) and is just the loveliest person - we had so much fun with her. We did 'academics' on the first day which consisted of watching a few very cheesy videos that PADI (Professional Association of Divers Inc., I think?) have for their course.

The Open Water Diving Course generally takes four days, although you can do it in three. There are five videos you watch, followed by 'academics' sessions, four quizzes, five 'confined water' dives, which is where you go through things in shallow water (often done in a pool, we did ours at a shallow beach) and then four actual deep dives - we started out going to 12 metres and by the last one went to 18 metres. The next day (Saturday), we were joined by another guy, Richard, who was a Filipino from Manila and did the course with us. (just an aside - I have been trying to log in to msn messenger for thirty minutes and am about to do something violent...) So we were off scuba diving around the sites of Coron.

Hmmm - I may leave this here as I don't want to be too long and boring. I will come back with more news soon...

Tomorrow we are flying from Busuanga into Puerta Princessa (the capital of Palawan). We will do something around there tomorrow, go to the Underground River on Saturday and then fly back to Manila on Sunday (*cry*) Really don't want to go back......

Anyway - toodles