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.