back in the swing of things

So i am back at home. you always hear that there is no place like home -- even if home is in the philippines, it's true. done traveling for a couple of months, so now it's time to get back to work. it's nice to have real work to do. i have been in the city all day using the computer. i am making a proposal to submit to the barangay council of hoskyn, for the bartending class that i am starting to teach. the barangay council came up with P15,000 ($272.00) for me to work with for the class. wow. that is alot of money -- they really take their drinking seriously over here. so now i have to submit the proposal, and have it approved by the council members for them to actually start buying supplies (ie. vodka, rum, whisky) wow what a tough life. they expect so much paper work from me -- never did i think that i would be doing paper work and spending so much time on the computer when i joined the peace corp. i have never done a proposal before -- so i hope that it looks professional. and even if it doesn't, all i have to say is "oh, well this is how we do it in america" and they usually let it be. i have a meeting with the officials tomorrow -- so wish me luck. let you know how it goes soon.

almost home

(me and my trusty backpack - only 20 kilo's)& (the superferry terminal in dumaguete) whew -- what a month. i am almost home, finally after a month of traveling and living out of a backpack. all i want to do is go home, give my nanay my laundry, eat a plate full of rice and fish, and curl up on my plywood bed. home. no, seriously, that's all i want to do. i took another all night boat from cebu to iloilo, but this one only took 15 hours, and i actually slept on this boat - trans asia malaysia. we took the economy class, which meant that we slept under the boat in a sea of 100's of bunkbeds -- no sheets, no pillows -- just a plastic mat. our trip was cool though, we left at night -- so adam and i hung out on the bow of the boat for a few hours. there were illuminescents in the water, so as we cruised through the water, there were little sparkles everywhere -- it was really beautiful. we docked in iloilo at about 7am saturday morning, i wasn't quite ready to go home, i had some things to take care of in the city -- like this blog -- so i stayed in a pension last night and hung out with adam -- my buddy. so i have to go home and get back to work and reality sometime today. i got a phonecall last night from amanda(my roommate in orlando), who is in seatle right now. i love getting phone calls from the states - hint, hint. she just got engaged to jason yesterday. congrats. i love you.

superferry

(jody, me, dan, heather on the superferry) so i left cavite on friday, sep 16 -- and had the craziest trip ever!!!! 5 of us left at 5:00pm and hopped a bus to manila, only a 2 1/2 hour ride. got to manila and scurried around town getting food and our tickets for the superferry. superferry is a cruise ship sized boat that carries passengers from the top end of the PI to the bottom. the superferry ride was interesting to say the least. it was supposed to leave at 10:45pm, but we finally pushed off at around 3:30am. we were sitting on the floor of our room playing cards when dan says, "hey linz, did you spill your drink?" i said "no, i don't have a drink" -- he replies -- "well then where is all of that water coming from?" so i opened the door to our room and the hallway is filled with water. Holy crap, our boat is sinking -- no, it's just the air-con room, the pump broke and flooded our side of the boat. whew. so we moved to another room. the next room we hung out in for a couple of hours, but since the air con had broken it was like an oven -- so they moved us again. but this time they moved us to a room that only had 4 beds -- we had 5 people. so we decided that there was no need for sleep, so we sang videoke until the sun came up. it was really funny -- there were people standing in the breakfast line, and the 5 of us are still singing videoke and being really loud. we totally lived up to the loud, obnoxious reputations that amercans tend to have all over the world. so for 36 hours, we played card, chess, sang videoke -- and ate lots of food that was unidentifiable -- such as beef stuff and rice, fish stuff and rice, and hey, does that fish stuff have egg in it, why is it crunchy!!!!! ewwww !!!! it was a good time. our boat finally docked in dumaguete, negros -- an island in the visayas, around 11:00am sunday morning. we went to the resort that peace corp had rented out. i wasn't supposed to be there for that training, i was just mooching a free room and food -- and hanging out with friends. so for 2 days while everyone else was in session, i swam and ate free food. good times. the training ended tuesday, so we all stayed until wednesday afternoon and then adam and i hopped a boat to cebu -- the next island over. so now we are in cebu city, sitting in starbucks --yet again. it's a really nice vacation -- i feel like all i write about is vacations. but there is alot of time to travel, so i am taking full advantage of the situation -- and cruising all over the PI. it's really nice. i should be here in cebu until saturday, then head home to guimaras. there is another boat ride -- but only 16 hours this time. whew. i have lots of cool pictures, as soon as i can find a computer that will upload them -- i will.

more traveling

>(the picture from the cockpit, while i was driving)em> >wow -- my PST2 is over and it's time to go. go where??? i'm taking a week vacation. 4 other volunteers and myself are taking a super ferry -- a cruise ship style boat down to negros, an island in the eastern visayas. it's a 36 hour trip, and we're sleeping on bunk beds(on a ship, hmmm) that is if we sleep at all. Negros is a beautiful island, with lots of beaches. there are also lots of little islands off of negros that have good dive sites. so that's what i'm gonna do -- i'm getting my paddy dive certificate. it's really cheap here, only 7,000 pesos, and that includes equipment rental. Approx $150. I'll let you know how it goes -- and i should have good pictures, my mom sent me a new digital camera. Thanks Mamma!!! This definately is the club med of peace corp :) my classes, they went really well. everyone showed up for the second day of business training -- and for filipino's, that's unheard of. so the second day i taught about marketing strategies and basic marketing principle's -- for you marketing people, the 4 P's. i think alot was lost in translation, but our 1 on 1 sessions seemed to be pretty helpful to them. it's amazing to see the difference in people just based on where you grow up. some of the things that we take for granted, like exposure to tv, internet, higer education -- these people have never had. so just to talk about basic marketing and sales strategies to these business people that had no previous knowledge on the subject, just blew my mind. we are so blessed to live in a place where anything and everything is at our finger tips. and it's something that's hard to realize until you remove yourself from the situation -- and everything is gone. wow. this really is an amazing experience, and i am loving it -- but you can bet in 2 years, i am definately coming home!!!

i finally started teaching

i have been in so many different places the past few weeks that i have had no time to write. i was back in manila for a few days, then came down to cavite -- which is about 1 1/2 hours south of manila. i am here with 30 other volunteers for PST2 (training). we have been learning so much -- my sector is business advising for youth development -- so that's what we have been doing. business. today 10 of us went to a meeting of small business owners and facillitated a workshop/seminar. we discussed things pertainging to their small businesses and how to make them grow. my part of the training was to simulate a production game. i had the people split into 4 teams and build paper airplaines. it was a simulation for small business -- i gave them costs of supplies, items they needed to rent, labor, and interest for the credit that i was extending to them. this was a tough job, because i am in a place that speaks a different language than the one i learned. that's the real hard part about being in the PI -- over 1,000 dialects -- no communication. they had to make a proposal and present it to me -- how many planes can you make in 20 minutes and come up with pricing, so they would make a profit. i stressed that quality counts and if planes were not up to spec, they would be rejected. this fact seemed to go right over their heads and they all went bankrupt. it was a good situational practicum, it gives me a good idea of what their skills and knowledge are -- which doesn't seem to be very much. so tomorrow i go back, and now have ideas to work with -- and have figured out the areas they need the most help. i never thought that i would like teaching, but it was really fun. i left the site feeling that i had imparted a little of my knowledge on these people -- and that maybe they could really use some of the things i taught today. hmmm. we'll see how it goes tomorrow and if anyone comes back for my session. i'll let you know.