cock fight

so i forgot to tell you. i went to a cock fight, it is the national sport of the philippines so they have them all of the time. there are cock rings everywhere -- every barangay has one. i was a little scared going into it, but it really wasn't as bad as i thought it was gonna be. we went in and its this big dirty ring and there are hundreds of people everywhere yelling and betting. they have hand signals (which i am now a professional at), that they use to bet with other people. i bet 50 pesos and won -- the funny thing is, is that i didnt know that i won, because all of the roosters look alike. the fights only last about 2 minutes, becuse they really do rip each other to shreads pretty quickly. They both have a big talon sized razor attatched to the back of their left leg and they jump on each other cutting and slicing each other. Usually in nature they do this when they are fighting over a hen to mate, but in real life they don't have razors, so they just bruise each other a little. but they eat the looser, so i guess it's ok, because they were probably gonna eat him anyways. at least this way he gets to go out like a gladiator. outside the window of my bedroom, live about 40 roosters. at first i thought i would never get used to the cock-a-doodle-doing at 4am. oh and it lasts until about 7am, 40 of these things outside my window -- and at first i couldn't sleep. now i don't hear them at all. we have lots of chickens running around our house, we eat 1-2 a week. we also have a dog, her name is dora. she is short, long and blonde --and it looks as if someone cut off half of her tail. she is a cool dog. she had puppies last saturday, 6 of them. my family is going to keep 1, and what happens to the rest. thats a good question. well dogs here just roam around on the streets, they are pretty street savy too. i see dogs all the time look both ways before crossing the street -- it's definately something you have to see to believe. i show people my pictures of gracie-lou, my dog in panama city, and they laugh that i brought pictures of a dog, and in a frame nonetheless. a dog in a frame is the funniest thing i think that they have ever seen. they think that i am rich to keep a dog like that.

still working

so i have been at my job for 3 weeks now. they really do want me to teach a bartending class to the out of school youth--not exactly what i thought i would be doing when i joined the peace corp. but it turns out that they are working on tourism development in guimaras, so they have alot of new resorts coming in, so training them to work in the hotels is what they really want. and it leaves me with alot of time to go to the beach. so when i say hotel, its not the high rise pc beach style hotels -- its totally bungalow, nipa hutt, no air con style resort. there is marine turtle sanctuary on my island, they want me to work there with the sea turtles -- oh and there is also a safe deck for the dugong(manatee), so i will also be working on those habitats. yeah, i really know nothing about sea creatures, but because i am american they think i do -- and it sounds like fun to go hang out and work in the water, and i'll probably learn alot. my island is so beautiful - my friend karen has a website with pictures on it. go to www.photobucket.com/albums/y49/dubulet/ and you can see pictures. there are links to click on -- to see guimaras, click on guimaras june 8-10 and its our little vacation, and pics of my island. let me know what you think. i have found a place to build my nipa hutt -- i am not officially allowed to move in until september, peace corp rules, but i can start stock piling materials -- bamboo, nipa, and furnishings. i am so excited to be a first time homeowner in the philippines...crazy.

finally settled

hi -- sorry it has been so long since i last updated my site. The island that i have just moved to does not have internet, so i have to take a boat to Iloilo city, and find an internet cafe. So it may be a week or 2 between posts. Alot has happened since last time. I have moved out of Ivisan, it was so sad to leave my host family and our little community. They threw me and my cluster mates a going away party, called a despidida. We had lots of food, i made mashed potatoes and green beans -- the filipino's didn't like it, but the americans chowed out. I left Ivisan on June 3rd, and went back to our hub site in Kalibo. We did our pre-service training debriefing, which was pretty useless, except for the fact that all of the volunteers got to hang out for a couple of days. From Kalibo we took a bus down to the south part of Panay Island, to Iloilo City. We stayed there for 4 days, we had a conference with our supervisors from our work sites, and had our swearing in ceremony. We stayed in a pretty swanky hotel -- air con, hot water, and cable tv. My roommates and i just stayed in our rooms, laying in bed watching tv -- it is the happiest i have been in 3 months. i know it sounds lazy, but there is no air con here in the 110 degree heat, so for one day to not be sweaty and stinky -- it was awesome!!!!!!!! After our swearing in, we had to go to our sites. HA. ok so me and all of my luggage, all 140 lbs of it, had to get to the wharf, get onto a pumpboat, and come to Guimaras. That was probably the funniest thing to see -- everyone was staring and laughing, this white girl walking through the streets carrying more things than they own. So i payed a guy 20 pesos to help carry my things to the boat. 20 pesos is about 45cents. Some other volunteers and i decided that we needed a little break from the peace corp, the philippines, and speaking ilonggo -- so we took a mini vacation. We found a little island off of Guimaras and went there for the weekend. They had little nipa huts that we rented for 2 nights and just hung out on the beach listening to bob marley, we swam in the sea--i was snorkeling and saw eels, spoke english, and drank some filippino beer. It was a much needed weekend. I have pictures -- i made a cd, and am sending it to my mom--hopefully she can figure out how to put them online. The computers here suck, so trying to do anything other than email is really out of the question. So now I have been living on Guimaras for a week. Adjusting to life here alone is really hard. my office that i work for really has no idea what to do with me. They think that i should be teaching bartending and how to apply makeup -- WHAT??? So I am having to rework that plan. There is another volunteer on Guimaras as well, her name is Erin, from Minnesota. She lives about 30 minutes away from me. Every week we go to the beach and swim -- just to get away and vent. I truly have a new respect for people from other countries who move to the US to have a better life. Because life here sucks. There is so much poverty and corruption, people are starving and dying -- while the people in power are hoarding money that should be distributed to the people. I have been talking alot with my host family about the government here, they say it is the 2nd most corrupt in the world...the 1st being columbia. WOW. I see it every day, and i feel so blessed to be an American. Because even though I am living here with these people, I am not stuck here, I can go home to an amazing place anytime i want. I really love the USA.