5 months

i can't believe i have been living in the philippines for 5 months already!!! i can't believe how fast the time goes. this has been a very slack sort of week. we are so close to our pst2, which is the second part of our technical training. we are split up according to sector, i am business and youth -- so my training will be in cavite, 40-50 km outside of manila.(the capital) there should be around 40 volunteers in my training group, and most of them from other areas -- so should be a good time. it will also be nice to get away and just hang out with other american's for 2 weeks. this weekend everyone is starting to travel and visit other people -- so i have been in the city all weekend with other pcv's who have come down to visit. it's so great to see everyone. i am in the city now, waiting for adam and jeremy -- we are gonna stay here tonight and then tomorrow going to guimaras to show them around and go to the beach. i am flying up to manila a few days early to hang out. i haven't seen the volunteers from other regions since we first arrived in the philippines -- 5 months ago. it will be like meeting everyone all over again. it should be good times, but i don't think i will get much email time -- so i'll try to keep this updated as much as possible. hope to talk to everyone soon.

green fuzzy mold!!!!!!!

so i think i have discovered i have an allergy to mold -- so if anyone has any ideas on how to de-mold a room, please let me know. this was a pretty busy week, not with work of course, but just generally busy. friday night i spent the night in one of the coastal barangay's, getting to know the people that i will be working with in october. it was fun, but way too intense. they want me to live there--and build my nipa, but i think that i will have no privacy or alone time -- so i am still looking for a place to live out the rest of my 2 years. saturday was erin's birthday weekend, so we spent the night at the beach and cooked some food -- fun. the rain let up just enough for the sun to peek through for a few hours, so the next day we swam, jumped off of boats and went kayaking. it was a great weekend. monday i just hung out in the office(which is full of mold) and ate rice with my co-workers. they have been extra nice and talkative to me since i have started eating rice for lunch. when i brought a sandwich, they hardly talked to me at all -- but now that i'm eating rice, i guess i'm in the club. tuesday i just couldn't take it anymore and i had to go to the hospital and see a doctor. my skin is covered in whelps and lesions, my eyes are red, puffy and itchy and i keep getting respiratory infections. the allergy docotor told me that it was a food allergy and put me on an"all rice, all day" diet. she told me not to eat veggies, fruit or meat -- no sugar, gum or chocolate -- no soda, milk, tea or coffee. and she told me not to brush my teeth for 7 days. what! all i can eat is pork and rice ---and since i don't eat pork, i guess it's all rice all day. NO THANKS!!!! so i called my mom, and we figured out that i must be allergic to mold. i am allergic to pennicillian, penn comes from mold, there is mold covering my room--wow, that was quick and easy. why couldn't the doctor do that?? oh, and she also gave me a prescriptions for steroids -- so i may have a beard and talk like a man, but at least i won't have hives. so needless to say, i'm not taking the steroids. today i got to vaccinate dogs for rabbies. it was interesting, we hiked through woods, rice fields, and ankle deep mud, trying to get to all of the houses. it was fun at first, but hiking at noon in 100 deg heat -- whew, that sucks. but atleast the puppies got their vaccinations. so now i am just trying to spend as much time away from my office and house until i can get this under control. so seriously if anyone has any good tips -- don't hesitate to email me.

don't let the bed bugs bite!!!

(a cup full of amazing) so i was in manila for 5 days. wow. starbucks everywhere--they have definately taken over the world, but it's fantastic -- i've had 5 coffee's already. The reason that the peace corp flew me up there wass to do language interviews. i represented all of the ilonggo speakers, yeah, i pretty much suck, so still trying to decide why they chose me. my last interview was in english actually. i nailed it. our language instructors had to be certified in their english interview skills. i was more than happy to speak english with them. it's funny though, even though they are speaking technical english, and i can understand the words -- the meaning of what they are trying to say or ask is totally lost in translation. example: "how do you find that place?" -- i gave directions stating how to find the place -- what they were really trying to ask is--what do you think of that place. Filippino english is definatly different than american english. Anyways, it was a free trip to manila and i had alot of fun. now i am back, and it's life as normal -- well as normal as you can get here. i have bed bugs. i thought bed bugs were just a myth, something your mom says at bedtime when your'e little. "good night and don't let the bed bugs bite". wow - they are totally real. at first i thought that i had hives from some allergic reaction, but everytime that i leave the house for a couple of days they go away. coincidince, i think not. it's not so surprising, since we wash our clothes and bedding in rain water collected outside in garbage cans. hmm. so i bought a can of raid in the city, and sprayed my bed with raid, trying to kill everything. i just hope that sleeping in a cloud of raid doesn't kill me too. anything is better than sleeping with bugs, and being covered in red whelps. on a lighter note, the rainy season has left my room coated in mold. everything i have has a layer of green mold growing on it -- so last week i took all of my clothes out and washed them. i also found some clorox wipes and scrubbed my room from top to bottom. and then sprayed the place with anti-bacterial, mold killing lysol. i feel like i live in a toxic waste dump now -- raid, clorox and lysol coating everything in my room. but i guess it's better than mold and bugs, right. hmmm. we'll see.

to manila

so i flew to manila(capital of the PI) yesterday. every new experience just astounds me even more. so i go to the airport in iloilo yesterday around 12:00 for my 2:20 flight out. i walked to the mall to get some cash and then i took a cab to the airport, everyone gave me different directions -- so i figured a cab would be easiest. filipino's are notorious for their bad directions. everyone knows how to get there, but the art of giving directions has been lost on the people here. they just pucker their lips, toss their head and say "der, it's over der". But where is "der" and what does that mean????? So taking a cab was definately the best option. we drive for about 15-20 minutes and the cabbie stops and says "air philippines", i say "yes, go to air philippines". he says "this is air philippines" -- WHAT? WHERE? he points to a little building behind a yellow gate, and i knew this was going to be interesting. i went into the office, 2 hours early for my flight. i didn't realize that being 2 hours early here is like being 2 days early in the US. so i sat there for an hour until they opened. they took my bag immediately -- what, no bag check, i guess that's ok. what, no id check -- i guess they think i look safe. oh, and hmmm, my ticket is written in pencil -- i guess people here don't know about erasers, so it must be fool proof. so now as i walk down this empty hallway to the departure waiting area, i encounter the real safety check -- the metal detector, not 1, but 2. oh, and guards with machine guns. so as i walk through the 1st detector it goes off, so of course i stand there waiting further instructions, but noone even glances up at me -- so i just walk on. as i am entering the departure area i go through the 2nd metal detector and it goes off. this time a woman comes up to me and asks "do you have any firearms you wish to declare?" i say "no", so she shakes her head and lets me pass. wow, i think to myself, the US must have it all wrong doing body searches and x-raying bags. here in the philippines, all you have to do is ask about firearms, and the bad guys just turn them over. wow, what a safe country. i sure am glad to be here. as philipine time dictates, the plane must be atleast 30 minutes late -- and right on shcedule it was. it's just a 45 minute flight to manila, so i was there in no time. it was a pretty pleasant flight, only 10-12 babies screaming. we land and i head out to the pension house(like a hostile) in a cab. i love cabs. i get to the pension and am sitting outside in the courtyard, reading my lonley planet philippines, when i hear a hillbilly voice say "where you from"? i look over and there is an old man in a cowboy hat, wranglers and boots -- i think yay, an american, i'll talk to him. i go sit with him and chat a while, he tells me how he shot and killed 2 filipino men who were throwing rocks at him, that he's been here 19 years, doesn't speak a work of tagolog, and is looking for girls. well that is when i excused myself and ran up to my room. finally a couple of hours later, i found some other volunteers and we hung out. we walked around the city for a while and found a starbucks. YAY!!! 4 months, no starbucks -- it was truly amazing. it was like i was in america for 30 minutes, drinking my nonfat iced caramel machiato. some other volunteers came down from other regions to hang out -- and more will be here tonight, so should be good times.

dako nga waves

(this is a pic of the boatride from iloilo to guimaras on a calm day) So this has been the craziest week. I came into the city last week to run some errands around 10am. I left iloilo around 3pm to go home to guimaras, so i get on the boat, and in the chanel where i board the boat it was flat -- looked like smooth sailing. about 30 seconds into the ride i knew that was not the case. all of a sudden a huge wave pounded our boat, and we looked out into the open sea -- holy crap -- we are in 6-7 foot seas in this wooden boat, with a tarp fastened over us for cover. i look out of one of the openings in the boat and see dark clouds coming in on us, and the sea just wouldn't stop. our boat was being tossed from one side to the other -- at one point we were ontop of a huge wave, and as we came down the nose of our boat went under water. the water came pouring in the front of our boat, soaking everyone -- we were in ankle deep water. a trip that should have taken 15 minutes took over 30. we were in the water being pounded for the longest 30 minutes of my life. looking out the side of the boat and seing raging seas all around, and people in the back crossing themselves,praying and crying -- wow -- it was definately intense. when the boat finally pulled up to the wharf, well needless to say, we ran off of the boat. we went over to the edge of the wharf overlooking the sea and wow, i can't believe we were just in that -- it looked like hurricane waves (for the florida people). i was walking back to get on a jeepney to ride home, and saw another boat full of passengers take off into the waves. i still can't figure out why they would operate in such weather. and why when i told people about what had happened they laughed and thought it was funny. i was definately looking for the american response "oh my gosh, are you ok" anything but laughing. i think that the priorities here are very backwards. riding in a boat in 6-7 ft seas, no problem. walking by myself to a neighbors house at 6pm, with out an umbrella -- well thats just the biggest sin you can commit here. i found this out last week when i walked 3 houses down to my language instructor's house. i wanted to talk to her about my host fam. i wasn't there even 2 minutes when i heard, NAH! NAH! NAH! - this is what they scream when they come to the door, they won't quit until you come to the door and open it. I knew it was my nanay(host mom). She came down to tell me that it wasn't safe to be out at this late hour of 6pm with out a companion and an umbrella. "But nanay, it's not raining - the sky is clear" -- but apparently i still needed the umbrella and a companion. Because God forbid i go any where alone -- i mean that is just unheard of here. AHHHHHH!!!!!!

i have a picture site

(erin and i drinking buko juice straight from the coconut. freshly picked) hey everyone. i know i have been promising it for a while, so here it is. i have finally started a picture website. it's still a work in progress and i still have alot of pictures to put on it, so keep checking it -- i will be adding alot more. it's been a while since i've been able to go to the city, because it's monsoon season and it rains all of the time -- all day and night. you will see in the pictures. hopefully i'll get back to the city later this week and update this site. hopefully the pictures will hold you over until then. love you all ~ lindsey the site: www.photobucket.com/albums/b255/linzzbob