my little bro

So my mom sent me this picture and i just thought it was too good not to share with the world. he's pitching at mosley!!!!! ha ha ha -- love you cody!

Mudslides

Hi everyone -- i just want to thank everyone for their concern about the recent mudslides here in the philippines. i am totally fine, as is my island. the mudslides were on the island of leyte in the eastern visayas -- which are the islands in the middle, on the eastern side. i am in guimaras, which is in the west -- so i am not affected at all my last weeks happenings. you know what's funny, is that i didn't even know about them until my parents called all worried. which makes you stop and think about how good the news system is here -- or maybe that it's in a language that i don't understand. probably some of both. there were some other peace corp volunteers near that area, and they are all fine too, but can't get back to their site because, well, their sites were washed away. Just for your reference I have included a map of the PI at the top of this blog. Guimaras is in the middle islands to the west -- between the islands of Panay and Negros. You can find Leyte in the eastern group of the islands in the middle (also known as the visaya's)

my new roommate

so i wake up this morning to hear scratching in my closet. usually the scratching is the mouse that lives in there, so i just ignore it, but today it was so loud. so as i turn over and look through my sleep filled eyes and mosquito net that encompasses my bed i see something way bigger than the little gray mouse that lives in the wall. my first thought was holy crap thats a big rat -- and he's on my shelf with my pants -- but after wiping the sleepers from my eyes and crawling out from under the mosquito net, i realize that's not a giant rat at all -- thats a chicken. i screamed a little and ran around like a crazy person trying to shoo it out, and it just got tangled in my mosquito net. so finally with a broom and alot of yelling i get her outside. whew, that was a close one -- crisis averted and i can bathe in peace. so i finish bathing, come back to my room, and there she is again, trying to nest in my closet, and this time she is not alone. She brought in the 2 biggest cock's in the yard -- trying to muscle her way in. i shoo them out and try reasoning with her, seriously, it had come to that. i explained that just because she is knocked up and homeless doesn't mean she can come live with me in my closet, but she feels otherwise. so after about 10 more minutes of me trying to coax her out, i get the broom and start wailing on her -- i mean she is crapping everywhere and that's just gross, and what about bird flu!!!! so this is one stubborn chicken, and she is not leaving -- so i moved my pants and made her a little place, and we'll see what she does. i mean at least i could get some omlets out of her -- ewwww!!!!!!

NO WATER ( wala tubig)

(this is my water supply) i was recently reading an article about the scarcity of water in third world countries. it was explaining that over 2,000,000,000 people worldwide are dying of water related causes, the most common was the lack of water. and that every 15 seconds a child dies from a water related cause; be it lack of, or dirty disease infested water. my usual response is wow, that sucks -- but wait, aren't i living in a third world country and could this happen to me???? funny i should read that article now, because rainy season is over and the underground water supply is starting to dry up. the water that used to come billowing from my faucet into the bucket in my bathroom has slowed to a trickle. and to turn on two faucets at the same time is impossible. so all of a sudden it's not just an article, it's my life -- i have to keep a full bucket of water in the house, because there may not be more. I can no longer do my own laundry because i don't have enough water and i now have to buy 5 gallons a week from a water company just to have to drink. wow, all of those articles and newsclips that we see and blow off are really happening, and the scarriest part of all is it's happening to me. it's the strangest feeling of being a part of real poverty and having no way to change it. ironically, what makes me the happiest is also what saddens me the most; i can escape it, i can go home any time i want to and not have to deal with it -- but these people are home. where do they go when all the water is gone???? so i really know nothing about how to make water potable, so i was asking questions to my barangay captain (head of the community). i asked him about distilling salt water or using some sort of evaporation method to get fresh drinking water from the ocean. his answer to my questions was, "ms johnson, we have no money -- unlike americans we just have to wait for the rain". that made me feel about 2 inches tall. here i am this ignorant american coming in to solve their problems which i know nothing about. i'm still trying to figure out what in the world i am supposed to do to help these people. if anyone has a clue, please let me know!!!!!! what if you turned on your shower and nothing came out, or pushed the button on the fridge to get a glass of water and nothing came out -- what if there was no culligan man delivering gallons of water to your house every other tuesday. well, that's what i'm trying to figure out now. what do i do???