MABUHAY! land of flipflops & mango's

my krazy week in africa

2007-06-19T05:19:00.000-04:00

so it's been an interesting week here in good ol' uganda, to say the least. here's just a little crash course to my week. buckle up, cause here we go . . . monday i was on a boat in lake edward, surrounded by hippo's and water buffalo, when we found ourselves at the border with the dem republic of the congo. we had to turn around, because if we were to go any further it would be breaking international law and we figured we might be shot. (not really) (me standing on the equator) tuesday as we were driving our car out of the lodge we were staying at, we had to stop to let elephants cross the road. on our way home (9 hr drive) we decided to stop for lunch in masaka, uganda. did i mention that masaka is ground zero for the aids pandemic. yes, they have traced the start of aids back to the very place in which we had lunch (we ate packaged crackers and bottled coke's). wednesday was not so interesting as we only sat in a van at a gas station to have lunch, which consisted of crackers and coke. thursday was fun, we went to a church to have a women's conference. we were singing some songs and this woman falls down to the ground -- the pastor comes up with a concerned, yet calm look on his face and declaces "demons, yes i believe it is demons"! so they took her to the back of this 10x10 room of sticks, mud and boards they call a church and exorsise her demons -- all while serving us lunch in the front. after she was exorcised, and all of her hair had stood straight up, she came to shake our hands, tell us thank you and good bye. what a week you say, well it doesn't end there. friday after we got back from teaching, we had an earthquake -- the epicenter was in the congo, but could be felt as far away as narobi, kenya, which is to the east of us. so if you are looking for a nice, relaxing getaway vacation -- uganda is definately not for you. i thought it was a brilliant week, and have had a great time. i am at a market right now getting souveniers for you all. we are going to the source of the river nile tomorrow, which should be fun. i didn't realize that the nile starts here in uganda at lake victoria, there is a big dam, which they use to control the waters -- they say it should only be a 2 hour trip tomorrow, so hooray, more fun stuff is still to come. this pic is of me and my new kenyan friends who were in town for the east african union meeting. we are standing in front of the source of the nile. we fly out of here on thursday morning, and land in london about 3:45pm. we stay there for 4 nights and then it's back home, move to dc, and find a job. my time is running short, so i've gotta run. more love from africa, linz

boat saphari today

2007-06-11T11:17:00.002-04:00

so today we finally got the to the myewa lodge where we ate lunch, took a hot shower and went on a boat safari. we saw lot's of cool animals -- hippo's, elephants, gazelle's, water buffalo, birds, croc's, snakes and wart hogs. i only have 3 minutes left on my internet connection, so i'll wrap up this sweet little blog by saying all is well here in the motherland, and i hope to post some pic's and video soon to my photobucket site. www.photobucket.com/albums/b255/linzzbob.

2007-06-05T12:50:00.000-04:00

so i've successfully made it here to uganda, and it only took 2 days. whew. we got into the entebbe airport around 8am thursday morning, and out of the 7 of us that came over together, i am the ONLY one whose luggage made it. i've learned how to pack a little more wisely these days. anyhoo -- rashid, the director of one of the schools we are working at came to pick us up. we loaded all of our stuff and off we went to see where we were staying. we are actually staying at a really nice place on top of the hill overlooking the city. in a way it sucks because i don't feel like we are "in uganda". we have a cook who cooks all of our meals (semi-american style) although when we go out, we get to taste some local foods. mtoke is my favorite so far, it is boiled plantaines that are mashed. they don't really taste like anything, but you can dip them in the juice from the strange array of meats they serve, and is actually quite good. so as far as work -- 4 of us have been working at bethel junior school, elementary. to say they have nothing is a gross understatement. they have no electricity, no running water, no doors, windows or floors in the classrooms. oh they have holes where the windows and doors should be -- but nothing. they have painted over the concrete wall a place to write with chalk, and have wooden benches 2 feet long each for roughly 8 children to sit on. they have no books to use, only small notebooks with 10 or so pages in which to write. i saw a student ask the teacher for a pencil yesterday, and the teacher broke it into thirds so they could share with 2 others who had no pencils. i was looking around wandering how they would sharpen these broken pencils, when the teacher pulled out a 2 sided razor blade and gave it to the little girl who had asked for the pencil. did i mention that she was 5. i watched some kids playing football (soccer) during break, they had rolled up garbage into a ball and tied a plastic sack around it to keep it together -- but were perfectly content with their creation. so in this school of 500 students 150 are boarders -- and they have no electricity or running water -- they just collect rain water. 3-4 children sleep in a bed, and most only eat porrige or bread every day. the level of poverty at this school is overwhelming. but the kids are amazing. while the american teachers go and help the african teachers, i have been working on bible verses (since it's a christian school), singing songs, telling stories, and helping to organize some donated books -- they just have no idea what to do with them. i only have a few minutes left on my computer -- so i'll wrap this up. this place is amazing, and the spirit of the people is overwhelming. they are so friendly, not shy one single bit, and are working SOOO hard with so little. i'll write more when i can get back to the computer. we go on safari monday -- so i'll have some good pic's when i get back on june 25th. hope everyone is well. sending lots of love from africa!!!! lindsey

पोंद hopping

2007-05-30T08:20:00.000-04:00

so i've successfully hopped the pond and am sitting at someone's house in london. we flew from panama city to atlanta (4 hr layover) then to chicago (another 4 hr layover), and then an 8 hour flight to london -- and we're here for 15 hours. we rode the train, and missed our stop -- so a nice brittish man put us back on the right train and didn't charge us for the extra stop. they seem to be a little more rigid on protocol here, which is a little annoying, but when in rome . . . i only have a few minutes on the computer here -- so i'll keep this short. i have a cell phone which i'll be able to use in uganda -- and as soon as i get a sim card i'll post the number. happy trails.

uganda

2007-05-23T01:21:00.000-04:00

so alot of people have been asking where uganda is . . . and i'm proud to say that almost everyone knows that it's in africa!!!!! so here are a few maps for your reference . . .enjoy!!! so as you can see on the map, sudan is to the north, rwanda to the south, and the congo to the east -- so with all of the conflict going on in surrounding countries, i am extremely curious to see uganda. a few interesting facts about uganda -- they have made the biggest comeback in all of african history. after dictator idi amin, uganda was left in ruins -- disease, poverty and an overall feeling of hopelessness is what was felt throughout the entire country. the current elected president, Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI, has really turned things around for the people. ground zero for the aids pandemic has been traced back to uganda. in a place where entire villages were once killed off due to aids - they now have the lowest hiv/aids infection rate in all of africa. they have instated a parliment and a true working democracy, and for the time being all is well. ugandan women are still being opressed, but not to the extent of it's surrounding coutries. i just had a meeting with the group of people i'm going over with, and we were told that in the rural areas where we are to be staying, women must wear long dresses and be covered. so today i went dress shopping for "amish" style dresses -- they say in uganda only the prostitutes wear pants. so as not to be misconstrued as a hooker -- i've bought some of the ugliest dresses ever -- and you can believe i'll be leaving them in uganda with the locals!!!! i've got a fancy schmancy new camera, so hopefully i'll be posting some sweet pic's of life and people there. we are going on a safari when we first get there -- the lodge that we are staying at (for only 1 night) is on a big game preserve. they say from the balcony you can see elephants, rhino's, girraffe's and lots of other pretty animals. so stay tuned, i hope to get some really good photo's!!!!

africa or bust!!!!!

2007-05-23T00:17:00.000-04:00

so it's been almost a year since i posted one of these things -- and boy has alot happened. after i left the philippines, i had a really hard time readjusting to life here in the u.s.. it was so strange to come back to panama city, wearing a big white back brace, i smelled and looked bad, my tastes had changed, my ability to relate to people had changed and i was really confused about it all. after a few months things got back to "normal" and i moved back down to orlando. i was so excited to go back down to my old college town and have lot's of fun -- but things there weren't quite as i had expected them to be either. all of my old roommates and friends had moved away, and i ended up renting a room from a really odd girl -- i tried talking to her, but she was having none of it -- and would just go into her room and lock the door. it sucked, but turned out to be a good thing, as she was not a distraction for me with school. that's when i discovered myspace -- i found alot of old friends, and harrassed alot of my new ones. going back to school was a little tricky at first too. i had lost all ability to pay attention and focus -- while that was a good thing in the philippines, sitting through meetings and other events that seemed neverending -- but here in the states, i really needed to pay attention. so i started drinking coffee by the gallon (i'm totally not kidding), and only recently quit, since i started having chest pains due to the absurd amount of caffine running through my system. i completed 2 semesters back at the university of central florida, and for the first time in my life feel like i am headed in the right direction -- dc, by way of africa. i'm spending the next month teaching at a school in western uganda. and am restarting this blog to keep in touch with everyone while i'm away. anyhoo -- the point of all of my ramblings is that being med sep'd early from pc, ending up being a really good thing. and most of you know that i was going to et anyways -- i'm still not sure if i would have had the balls to do it though. so i'll try to keep this blog updated with fun africa pic's and weekly updates. safe travels to you all -- keep in touch, lindsey

if anyone's still reading......

2006-07-30T14:49:00.000-04:00

so if anyone is still reading this, which why would you after the adventure is over. well, anyways -- so i'm definately home for good. in the next week or so i'm making the big move back down to orlando. i fought it for as long as i possibly could, but i got a job, an apartment and as of tomorrow morning a car. i'm going to finish up a few classes before starting grad school next fall, hopefully in denver. and i still have a big trip planned through s.e. asia with some friends who are still over in the philippines. when i moved home, i thought i would just get a "real job" and move on with life, but it turns out finding a real job is harder than i thought. just putting together a resume and coverletters for each specific job is a job in and of itself. whew. so i guess waiting tables and taking a few classes until april, which is when i leave to go meet my friends in the philippines, isn't going to be so bad after all. we'll see. so this trip i speak of, i'm planning on flying back to the philippines at the end of next april, and hanging out there for 6 weeks visiting the people and places that i missed. so then we fly to beijing, china for a 10 day hike of the great wall of china. from there we proceed south through china to vietnam, laos, cambodia and end up lying on the beach in beautiful thailand. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that this all works out according to schedule and that peace keeps holding out in that region, and that everyone over there still wants to travel. living in another country is exhausting. it's something i never would have thought about pre-peace corps, but translating ilonggo all day every and trying to speak to people and make them undedrstand about you and what you are doing in their country is the most exhausting thing i have ever done. teaching classes in ilonggo and just communicating with co-workers is enough to warrant a good 10-12 hour night sleep. going to bed at 8pm and waking up mga 7-8am is usually how most of us live over there. so there's a tentative plan for the next year. and that's about all i know for now. lindsey

america the beautiful, wonderful, amazing and everyother great ajective there is!!!!!!!

2006-06-15T14:29:00.000-04:00

so i've been back here in the states for almost a month now. at first it was really hard to re-adjust, but as they say time is the ultimate cure. so as time goes on, so do i -- back to the hustle and bustle of "normal" american life. i'm still recovering, but i'm job hunting, car hunting, clothes hunting, and let's not forget the most fun hunt of all, man hunting. it's crazy what a year and a half will do to the single girl. and all of the filipino habits that i picked up--wow, gotta get rid of some of those. like shamelessly staring at people as they walk by. and i don't mean an extra second or two added onto a glance, i'm talking full out staring. i can just imagine the thoughts of people, like who is that freak girl, and why is she staring that guy down. in the 'pines everyone stares, and even if you stare back, they don't break the gaze -- it's bizarre. so i got used to staring too, because i guess it's not rude there. and i gotta say, once you start, it's hard to stop. so i bought some big black sunglasses to be covert about my malfunction. let's see what else . . . oh yeah, my favorite -- my cut off, holey, stained adidas pants. i love them and would wear them anywhere in the 'pines, but here, not so much. i forgot how much appearances count here -- even at the gym, i could see people staring at me and i assume thinking -- wow, she must have spent all of her money on the gym membership so she had no money to buy pants. . . poor girl. or atleast that's what i felt like. but my most favoritest part of all is my sweet, sweet blendability. i blend in here, can speak the language, and know where i'm going. america is simply amazing, and not until i left did i realize this. noone here looks the same, talks the same, believes the same or even eats the same foods. there is so much diversity, yet there is still unity -- it's a truly unique charactersitic that i feel only belongs to america. so because of all of the diversity, noone even gives you a second look if you are of a different race, creed, or religion. we'll excluding parts of the south -- and i'm working on that one family member at a time. so being part of a monochramatic society such as the philippines, it makes you (me) realize how blessed we are to be a part of such diversity, and how much we can learn from each other. a fun little story . . . i was going into a book store in the mall in the philippines, the guard searched my bag and told me to check it at the bag check counter before i could enter the store. this is normal with bigger bags, to prevent theft, but my bag was small, it was actually my purse. i saw other filipina's walking in with bigger bags than mine, and i got really upset and tried arguing with the guard. and he only replied, "mam, please deposit your bag". the more i argued the angrier i became, i felt discriminated against, and actually pulled out the race card. i said, "it's because i'm white isn't it". . . what . . . where i'm from it's usually the opposite. but all of a sudden i'm the minority and this man has the authority to deny me entry into the store. i have never felt anger like that, and truly feel for anyone else who has too. so i ended up checking my bag -- and got my childish on for a while. i went into the store and rearranged all of their books, moved everything around out of order. but it made me feel a little better.

not in the 'pines anymore

2006-05-18T06:38:00.000-04:00

ok, so the previous post probably makes no sense without this little piece of info. so i have been medically evacuated from the philippines. i had a little accident on april 23, and herniated 2 disks in my lower back. so i was in the hospital in the philippines for about a month, laying in traction. i finally was cleared for flight home on march 15, which was exciting, because in my condition i needed to lie down for the flight, so they bought me a world business class ticket. for anyone who has never been in world business class, it's amazing. they greet you by name, take your food and wine order from a menu, serve you with linens and real dishes. i got slippers for my cold tootsies, and a toiletries kit, so i could brush my teeth and comb my hair. i mean, it's business class, you're not allowed to be stinky or unkempt. so i layed back in my 180 degree reclining seat, watched my own personal dvd system, ate delicous food and wine, and just felt fabulous for the next 17 hours of flying. so now i'm home and talking to doctors that speak english and can explain what is happening. i have 45 days to make a full recovery, and i can go back. if not, i get medically seperated from peace corp, and do 1 of 2 things. 1--stay here in the states, get a job, take some classes - or - 2-- appeal and reaply for reinstatement and go back to my little hutt in the philippines. not quite sure how it's going to play out yet. i don't have any closure on my situation in the philippines, i never got to say goodbye to my community, or coworkers. i didn't even get to go back to my house to pack up my things, it was done for me -- and i'm missing alot of stuff i thought should have been packed up...hmmm... so i guess we'll see.

philippines, home, usa and all the space inbetween....

2006-05-17T18:15:00.000-04:00

looking back on a place and time, i have such a different perspective than looking it straight in the face. i've only been home for a few days now, but hearing and reading all of the negative things i have written and said about my year + in the peace corp phillipines really makes me think. think about what i have accomplished, about what i have learned, and the person i have grown into. it seems when you are in a difficult situation, the tendancies are to focus on what is negative or frustrating, and overlooking all of the tiny little things that made a place in time so great. tiny things like my neighbor greeting me as i walked home every afternoon with a hearty "maayong hapon, diin ka naghalin?" -- good afternoon where have you been??? and her 15 year old smile and wave with the same excitement to see me every day.....and i still don't know her name...it's a hard one. and my same answer, "didto lang" -- just yander. or another neighbor inviting me to eat fish with him and his friends as they had their every afternoon drinks, beer mixed with rum. jeff, sher, igang, mak-mak, apol, and random others, and how it only took them 2 months to build up the courage to look me in the eyes, and another 2 months to actually unleash a "hello mam" -- and finally after a year we are making full sentences. although, we have to repeat them 2 or 3 times just to understand, we were making big strides. and my co-workers pointing out my zits and my size, well i guess there are a few things i won't miss!!!! i'm not really sure where all of this is going, but i just felt like i needed to focus on some of the good things, and some of the things that made me smile over the past year. and the amazing pcv's that have become like brothers and sisters to me. i wouldn't have made it a single day without them. so i guess it's not so bad afterall. it's funny how when removed from a situation, you are able to see the good. i am able to see the good, sucks it took so long.

happy easter

2006-04-16T23:47:00.000-04:00

well, i survived easter in the philippines. it's definately nothing like the states, with girls in pretty new dresses, easter egg hunts, pink bunnies, and jelly beans. here we celebrate the entire week - "holy week", starting with holy thursday -- fasting all day, and then eating "the last supper at sundown", and there is no meat until easter. then on good friday, they do the pagtaltal, which is the reinactment of the passion. we sat through a 2 1/2 hour passion play, which was totally in ilonggo and tagalog, and couldn't understand a word of it. finally, at the ending jesus walked his cross outside and was nailed. this year it was fake nailing, they put the nails between his fingers, and just tied him up there. i'm still not sure if i was relieved or dissapointed that i sat through a 2 1/2 hour play expecting to see someone nailed, and they just faked it. they actually nailed 19 people in pampangas, manila. friday is supposed to be a day of fasting and mourning, and the priest officiating the pagtaltal told everyone to "abstain from eating" for the entire day. that was actually funny, because there were vendors selling snacks and mango shakes outside of the pagtaltal, and there was a canteen set up for lunch, so everyone was eating. then saturday, well, i'm not exactly sure what we were supposed to do on saturday, so we went to the beach. then on sunday, i just stayed home. outside my house, my neighbors were killing some goats to eat. it was horrible, i heard a loud, non-human scream and i ran to the window and there were goats strung up by their back legs hanging outside my house. the men were standing around laughing and watching the goats struggle. i asked why they were hanging the goats, they say if they hang them they work up adrenaline and it makes the meat taste sweeter, i started crying a little and had to go back inside. but a bamboo house with open windows does little to muffle the sounds. so i watched out of my window. after about 20 minutes they bled the goats and shaved of all of their fur with a big knife. little kids started to gather around and were jumping in excitement, and all i could think is that would have traumatized me when i was a kid. i remembered when i was little and there was a bird dying in our yard, my dad hit it on the head with a shovel and burried it, i went to my room and cried. but these kids were cheering and laughing at the dying goats. one kid threw rocks at them. life is definately different when you don't have frozen tyson boneless, skinless, precut chicken breasts in a bag for $7.99 from publix. so that was easter in the philippines. it was an experience, but i still prefer pretty bunnies and chocolate eggs to slaughtered goats and people nailed on the cross. so everyone eat a cadburry egg for me. yummy chocolate.

actual crucifixion

2006-04-10T02:05:00.000-04:00

so these are some pictures i found from last easter. this is pampangas, manila. these people actually volunteer for the reinactment -- and they actually get nailed (as you can see) to the cross. supposedly, they get a doctor to show where to nail, so as to not hit any major veins or ligaments. but still, these are some crazy bastards to get nailed to the cross. they believe that this act is pennance and will cleanse them of their sins. for a so-called christian, bible believing country, they sure do have it all wrong!!!!!

start of holy week

2006-04-10T01:53:00.000-04:00

palms for sale on the side of the road so yesterday was palm sunday. i didn't realize this fact until the trike i was riding on had to stop due to the thousands of people in the roads with palm fronds. at first i thought it was a funeral, or just another of the hundred's of fiesta's we have here. i asked a few people what was going on, but in true filipino form, they just laughed at me and walked away. it was nice when we finally got to the city, because it was empty, and we could, for once, walk around in peace. wow, do i sound bitter. hmmm. so this is the start of "holy week". we have no office on thursday or friday, so a couple of volunteers are planning on coming down to guimaras and witnessing a real life crucifixion. i have to say, i'm a little intrigued as to what is going to happen, and when i say intrigued, i really mean scared and wierded out!!! so this should be an interesting week to say the least.

frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-04-08T21:41:00.000-04:00

what a week. as i start to work more and more with filipino's, i just get so frustrated. my first class started yesterday, my 2 counterparts were supposed to meet me at the high school on friday to check out the venue and set up. after waiting an hour for them, i finally went home -- really pissed off. the next day they were supposed to meet me at my house at 7:45 to help me carry the supplies down to the school so we could set up before class started at 9:00 -- again they didn't show up. so at 8:30 i found someone else to help me carry the stuff down there to set up. i was stressing because the american in me thought we would be pressed for time with setting up and getting everything ready for class. nope. because noone showed up until 9:45, and we had to actually go get the people out of their houses to come. they really do expect a personal invitation. ahhhhh. half of the students decided not to come, they went to the beach instead. some of the students won't even talk to me, they are all so "ashamed". they say they are too "ashamed" to talk to an americana. so i keep asking myself the question, why am i here??? why did these people request me??? why do they want me to teach a class, when they give me no help and we have to go beg people to come??? i'm so frustrated. so erin, nicole and i are spending the night in the city -- just to vent, and take a hot shower.

???????

2006-04-04T23:17:00.000-04:00

it's funny how your ideals change after being in a place for so long. i remember at the beginning, when i first got here, and i would get so angry at filipino's for being lazy, or using money designated for a project for personal use. so i am in the city now with 2 filipino counterparts, we are buying the supplies for my next class. i noticed when we got to the checout counter, there was alot more stuff in our basket than was on the supply list ......lotion, shampoo, chips. When i first began working here, i would have made a stink about that and told them how wrong it was, but now, it's just how it is. i mean if they don't think it's wrong, and the agency that is funding the project doesn't think it's wrong, then should i??? or should i do anything about it???? people here complain constantly about how corrupt the government is, but they don't see the it in themselves -- so how do i, an american girl, do anything to change something in a country to which i don't belong??? or is it even my place to try???

hot hot hot

2006-04-02T22:37:00.000-04:00

hi everyone, i know my blogs have become far and few between, but everything seems to have slowed down. or atleast i have slowed down. friday was my 1 year anniversary of being in the philippines!!!! and looking back on the year, it really is amazing at everything i have learned, like, another language, how to barter at the market, how to travel, and how to truly depend upon myself. now it just seems that everything here is not quite as WOW as it was at first, and little things like the bucket shower, sleeping under the mosquito net, and transportation are just an everyday, normal occurence. not quite as blogworthy as it used to be. it's hot again, whew, is it hot again. a few friends came over to my island to hang out for the weekend. we went to the beach and got so sunburned, even with spf 30, just fried to a crisp. the sun is so strong here. so during the day, when it's too hot to move, i lay in my house with a cooling pad that my mom sent me(thank you), and the fan directly infront of me, and i melt. it's too hot to even eat during the day, so i just eat fruit trying to stay hydrated. so i go through a watermelon every other day -- they are alot smaller here, little round ones. and mango's are in season, so i go through a couple of kilo's a week; and i chug water -- atleast 2 gallons a day. i have to buy distilled water in the city to drink. so now dry season is in full effect, and our well is drying up. so i only have water for 1 hour in the morning now. i have a big garbage can that i keep filled with water, i keep the faucet on, so that when we have water i don't miss it. having water is my new exciting thing. i get so excited to wash my dishes from the night before, bathe, and pour water down my toilet to clear the line -- wow. erin is not so lucky, she only gets water every other day for 2 hours. next week is holy week here, so there will be lots of activities to write about. the philippines is a very devout catholic country, and the church pretty much runs everything. they actually nail people to the cross here on good friday, and whip people as pennance. so i'll bring my camera and take pictures of all of the craziness that is sure to ensue next week. love you all ~ lindsey

pwede ko hambal sa ilonggo maayo gid subong!!!!!

2006-03-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

so for the past week i have been in cebu city for a conference on HIV/AIDS awareness in the philippines. it was a really productive week, i learned alot, met some really active people in my community, and made a project plan. so been feeling pretty good this week. well, i can't say the starbucks and bagels hurt my week either -- cebu is great!!!!! so the trip back home is an overnight boat ride, about 14 hours. so nicole and i hung out and sang videoke and chatted up some local guys -- who really couldn't speak english. so as we sat there talking, i realized, holy crap, i'm speaking and understanding ilonggo -- and doing it fairly well. see, on my island most people speak understandable english, so when i get confused with ilonggo, they just switch to english and we go from there. it was a great feeling to see that i was totally able to use the language and have a native ilonggo speaker tell me that i was "maayo gid" (very good). so it was a good ending to a good week, until i got back to my island -- and went to the trike stand to catch a trike to my house, and everyone was laughing at me. i have no idea why-- there were no holes in my clothes, nothing on my face, but something about me was terribly funny. so now i am back on my island where the only othere white person is erin, unlike cebu. cebu is filled with foriegners -- i found myself starring at them, like wow, they are tall and white like me. amazing.

projects ... at last!!!!

2006-03-09T23:24:00.000-05:00

so i finally had a really productive week here!!! i had a meeting with TESDA, which is the local vo-tech school. they offer classes in specialized area's (mostly welding and automotive classes) and then the students recieve a certificate of completion -- and can hopefully obtain a job. so i went to TESDA on tuesday for a routine meeting, which usually consists of me sitting there having no idea what's going on, drinking horrible coffee, and leaving having done or learned nothing. so, as you can tell, i was really looking forward to it. but to my surprise, they actually had some problems that i was qualified to help with. they are offering a food and beverage class that starts next week -- but they have no training materials, no teachers, and more importantly they haven't got a clue -- about anything. i asked them how they were going to have a class without materials or teachers???? they looked at me confused like and told me people had signed up and paid, so they had to go on with the program. but i explained that they had no program, but i guess that's just my american way of thinking. no program + no teachers = the F & B class at TESDA. hmmmm. so i offered my help in developing materials for the class, which they jumped on. so for the next couple of weeks, i am developing a working curriculum for the F & B class. I also have a new bartending class that i am teaching in my barangay of Sta. Teresa, so i have also donated all of the materials that i have created to TESDA -- just so they have something to work with. Gheez!!! Whoever would have thought that 7 years of working at the outback steakhouse would have helped me in real life. crazy how things have a way of working out.

3rd world hospitals ... not all they're cracked up to be!!

2006-03-06T02:08:00.000-05:00

hi everyone -- hope everyone is well. i am doing alot better, i had my first hospital stay last week. i was feeling sick on thursday, so i didn't go into work, and friday was worse so i stayed home in bed hoping to sleep it off -- didn't quite work. saturday morning i woke up and felt like my gutts were twisting, and had had a fever of 39-40C. When i finally figured out how to convert that to farenheit, i realized i just might need to go to the hospital. conversion -- multiply the temp in celcius by 1.8 and then add 32. so 40*1.8=72 + 32=104F = go to the hospital. so saturday morning i went to the hospital and they checked me in. so when i say hospital, i mean i had a plywood bed with a rubber mat on it, a bucket in the bathroom, and an iv stand that i had to carry around with me whenever i moved. they had no medicine, ihad to go get my own and my own thermometer. no towels or blankets, but they did have a mini fridge for me to store the rice that i was supposed to have brought with me. seriously, what would we have done without the rice fridge. erin stayed with me for the 3 days i was there, thank GOD. neither of us had any money, so we ate crackers and water. so next time any of you have to go to the hospital, and you think it sucks -- just look around at the blankets, towels, beds, call buttons, tv's, ready supply of medicine, and english speaking nurses and doctors and think of this blog. and consider yourselves very lucky. oh, the best part -- we had the private, deluxe room. my supervisor came to visit me, and was like, wow what a nice room. ha. they never figured out what i had -- the best guess was ecoli or an amoeba, they wanted to do a colonoscopy, but i regretfully declined and promptly checked myself out of this place of healing. i'm better now, and it makes for a fun story -- but you can belive when i say i'm NEVER going back!!!

my little bro

2006-02-21T00:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-20T01:44:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-17T22:51:00.000-05:00

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)

2006-02-11T22:23:00.001-05:00

(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???

february .....already

2006-01-31T22:45:00.000-05:00

i can't believe it's feb already. the past few weeks have been pretty busy. Last week was our 88th foundation day at my municipal hall, which meant lots of loud, inappropriate music and dancing. this place proves the case for ignorance is bliss. they play the dirtiest music at public functions and little girls dance to it, but noone can understand the words, much less their meaning.....they just like the beat. so as i sat in horror, listening to the words, contemplating whether or not to ask WHY??!!! i realized that noone else even had an inkling to what they were saying. i had a little chuckle at their expense, and realized that ignorance truly is bliss. my office of social welfare employees also had a dance, and i swallowed my pride and did the dance to the song "lady lumps" infront of my entire municiapal hall and officials. thank God that they don't know what that means. our outfits were just as amusing. the theme was "recycled" so we wore sardine can wrappers on our legs, pom pom's made of trash and our belt made of noodle wrappers. i was horrified, until everyone else was doing it and thought it was great -- i mean, when in rome -- wear sardine wrappers as accessories. the next day erin, nicole and i spent at the beach and then went back to my house and watched movies. not such a bad weekend.

winter, well it's 75

2006-01-15T22:03:00.000-05:00

it's january here -- which means winter time!!!!! it's amazing, at night it's about 75 degrees farenheit, which may not seem cold to you, but a 30-40 degree drop in temperature sure feels cold. i actually turned my fan off and used the sheet -- last night i had to use my sheet and a sarong. wow. the mosquito's don't like the cold, so they have gone away for a while too. this week we are schalacking my nipa -- i didn't realize when i built the hutt that bamboo molts off it's outter layer and throws dust everywhere. it's like living in a saw mill -- bamboo dust everywhere -- piles of it. so to cure the situation we are schalacking it to seal in the dust and keep the bugs out!!!! so hopefully the mold wont grow and my eyes won't swell. work is going pretty slow right now, just trying to meet with officials to get another class started. since everything is slow now, i have volunteered to be the hiv/aids awareness representative in my region. i don't have a great knowledge on the subject, but my basic info far surpasses anything anyone here knows. so i guess that qualifies me for the position -- and is something else to do.

back to life in the PI

2006-01-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

so it's back to life as normal -- well, normal for a filippino -- or peace corp volunteer. i thought going back to the states would be a good break and it was, i just wasn't prepared for the huge emotions that come with leaving the third world and re-entering my old world. it was like waking up from a 10 month coma -- everything was still the same, but so different. or was i different??? that seems to be the big question floating around my head these days. i intended to walk back into my life as i left it, but that was exactly the problem -- i had left my life. it's definately not like going on vacation -- i actually moved all the way to the other side of the world and changed my entire way of living. that reality didn't hit me until i got back to the states and felt like i didn't belong there anymore. it was even more strange to walk back into my hutt and be all alone again, and not just by myself, but really alone. going back to the office really freaked me out aswell -- all of a sudden i am back where i can't understand anyone and everyone is staring at me all of the time. it's such a huge shock to the system -- it's exhausting. so now i have to re-figure everything out and get back into my routine. hmmm.... i'll let you know how it goes.

BACK IN THE USA!!!!!!!

2005-12-23T01:47:00.000-05:00

so alot has happened since my last post. i am back in the USA for christmas, and it's great. i left my house on tuesday morning dec 13 around 7 am and went to iloilo city and caught a plane to manila. my flight to the states left wednesday morning at 6:50, whew was that an early one. another volunteer eric was on my same flight, so we hung out in manila and pulled an all nighter of videoke. we got to the airport around 4am, and thank goodness we did, because our plane was packed and the lines were huge. we had a stopover in japan, then straight to detroit -- which total was about 19 hours -- in coach. that was the longest 19 hours of my life, the people sitting next to me didn't speak english, so there wasnt even any chit chat on the plane. in japan we picked up a new flight crew, and 2 of them were american women, mid 40's. they were standing 5 rows ahead of me and having a conversation in english, and laughing. it was the first conversation that i have been able to understand in 9 months, i cried into my pillow for 20 minutes. even though i have made many filippino friends, i felt more connected to those 2 strange women than anyone i have known in the philippines. i realized that what i really was missing was a sense of belonging to something or someone familiar. so that was my big culture shock. when we landed in detroit it was snowing, and me, just coming from the tropics was wearing a t-shirt, capri pants and flipflops--i had to buy a sweat shirt in one of the shops. i got stuck in customs, so i missed my 1205 flight to memphis, so i got to hang out until 5. but it was amazing, because i was in america, and everyone spoke english and the food was all good. so i wandered around the detroit airport with a dumbass permagrin on my face for like 5 hours, going this is the greatest place on earth. everything here is HUGE!!! and our bathrooms, even the gross ones are sooooo nice. the automatic flush kinda scared me at first. america has everything, and as americans we have so much more than anyone else. it makes our problems seem so trivial, i mean when was the last time that we didn't have food, potable water or shelter. it only took 2 1/2 days to get home and 30 hours of flying, so i don't think i'll be making this trip again any time soon. so i have been here for a week now, and have been eating everything i can fit into my mouth. food here is sooo good, wow, if everyone else here knew just how good they have it!!! so i fly back to the philippines on dec 29th, and i'm actually excited to get back to my house, friends and work. i miss how cheap everything is there -- i am out of dollars and noone will take my peso's, even the bank -- so i gotta go back and spend them. so everyone have a very merry christmas and a happy new year. love you ~ lindsey

finished nipa -- finally!!!!

2005-12-06T00:35:00.000-05:00

My nipa is finally finished and i moved in on monday nov 28th. it's the most amazing little house -- it feels like pretend. it's 6 meters wide x 7 1/2 meters long, that includes my front porch. i love it. i had the week to get settled, then on friday december 2, we had my house blessing/birthday party. i can't believe i built my own house and turned 26 in the philippines -- it doesn't seem real. the house blessing was cool, i got a local pastor to do the blessing, which consisted of praying, singing, throwing flowers, rice and coins for beauty, plenty and prosperity. it was definately interesting to have 25 - 30 people hanging out in my house praying for the walls and doors. and it was all in ilonggo, so i have to hope they were saying good things. the blessing was supposed to start at 2, at 2:30 when no one was there i started to get a little sad, but in true filippino tradition, they all showed up at 3. i cooked a bunch of food and everyone filled their plates high and ate until the food was gone. they hung out and asked me how much everything cost (it's not rude here) and had several offers for people to stay with me. they still don't understand why i would want to be alone. it was a good birthday and blessing. i had alot of fun.

whew, what a turkey day!!!!

2005-11-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

hello everyone, hope everyone had their fill of turkey, mashed potato's and RICE. well i sure did!!! we took an overnight boat from iloilo to cebu city on tuesday night. if you've never stayed up singing videoke on an all night boat, then let me just tell you that you haven't lived. we rolled into cebu around 8am wednesday morning and headed straight for starbucks. sweet peppermint mocha's and bagels just make it feel like the holiday's. we camped out in starbucks for a good 3 hours, well, actually the most amazing 3 hours ive had in a while -- aircon, flush toilets and no rice or pork fat in sight. only one little snafoo, i accidentaly threw my wallet away and had to dig through the dumpster to get it back. if i wasn't stinky enough before, i definately was then. we took another boat to bohol, which only took 2 hours. 20 volunteers from all over the visayas came to cook, eat and hang out. we stayed in this awesome place called "nuts hutts", it is a nipa hutt tropical resort, set in the middle of the jungle. the land was virtually untouched with prestine vegetation, i have some amazing pictures that i will post on tuesday. there was a muddy river to swim in, which i was sure we would catch something from - nothing yet. it was like being in the amazon, definately one of the most memorable thanksgiving so far. we had turkey and mashed potato's and of course rice, it just wouldn't be thanksgiving with out rice. so in the true thanksgiving spirit we stuffed ourselves silly and laid around like bloated american's all day. i love thanksgiving.

happy almost thanksgiving

2005-11-21T23:24:00.000-05:00

Happy almost thanksgiving everyone!!!!! i am kind of sad not being at home for thanksgiving, but with everyday comes a new adventure here. myself and 4 other volunteers are taking the overnight boat to bohol, an island in the east. we are meeting 20 other volunteers here in the visaya's at a resort called "nuts huts". its a nipa hutt cabin resort in the mountains of bohol. we have 3 turkey's and everyone is bringing a dish or something that is thanksgiving-like. so hopefully it will be a good time, filled with eating and hanging out with friends. this has been an extremely busy week. i have been trying to finish up my house -- it should be finished by the end of the week. cross your fingers for me. because i am going to be gone for a week, i had to leave money for the workers with sheila, my language teacher, buy the rest of the materials, and pack up my room. i should get off the boat at 7am monday morning here in iloilo, and go straight to my house and move!!!!!! yay. the graduation of my bartending class was last night. i couldn't have been more proud of my students. they were just bartending their little asses off. we had the final exam, where we set up a bar and had tables. we decorated it like a little bistro, for a while i really forgot where i was. all of the barangay officals attended, as well as some of my peace corp friends, and local townsfolk. i mean who wouldn't come for free drinks and service. it started at 7:00 and ended when all of the liquor was gone -- whew, what a stressful night. my students were so excited, they will get certificates of completion of the course -- which hopefully means they will have an advantage when applying for jobs in the city. wish them all luck -- they are really good kids. so now i am off to bohol -- i hope everyone has a great thanksgiving. i will have pictures of my nipa hutt next week and hopefully some fun ones of thanksgiving and the bartending final. love you all and happy turkey day!!!!!!!

nipa updates

2005-11-14T22:22:00.000-05:00

i have a move in date -- nov 28, 2005!!!!!!!!!! i am taking vacation for thanksgiving -- going to meet some other voluneers on another island, bohol. i get back the 28th and can move into my house !!!!!!

check out my nipa --only 2 weeks til finished

2005-11-07T22:31:00.000-05:00

So this is my house and i am standing in it. it should be done in 2-3 weeks and i can move in. to see more pic's go to www.photobucket.com/albums/b255/linzzbob the pic's are under LINDSEY'S NIPA

bartending pinoy style

2005-11-07T20:41:00.000-05:00

so i had my first bartending class in hoskyn on saturday. wow, what an experience. so to start off, this is the first real work that i have done since i got here in march -- and it's now november. so things move really slowly here, to say the least. i went into the city on thursday to buy the supplies, they didn't have the money of course, so i fronted around 4,000 pesos myself. hopefully they will have them returned to me today or tomorrow. cross your fingers. so all day friday i spent making a really great powerpoint and notes, i must have spent 7 hours on it. i asked my filipino counterpart nino, if it would be ok to do the powerpoint and he said yes. remember, a filipino will never tell you no, that would just be rude. so at the end of my 7 hours of getting this awesome powerpoint ready, nino comes in and says that we can't use the powerpoint tomorrow, that we have no lcd screen ---WHAT!!! so i asked him how long he had known about this -- he said since yesterday. WHAT!!! i just spent 7 hours making this ppt, and he just spent 7 hours watching me, and he knew the whole time. he said, "we will just use it next week" NO, it will be useless next week. so i decided to go to bed and just wing it tomorrow. So finally it's saturday morning, 9am sharp, everything is set up and i am there waiting for my students -- everyone shows up at 9:30 and we begin. i used as much ilonggo as i knew, the rest was in english. everyone was so excited to learn -- and even more excited to taste the drinks. the class had 2 sessions of 3 hours each and we learned 20 drinks. so hopefully they all show up next week.

building a hutt

2005-10-26T00:19:00.000-04:00

so we have started construction on my nipa hutt. YAY!!!!! the land has been cleared, the holes have been dug, and my coco lumber and bamboo have just been delivered. on monday i bought all of the cement, wire and nails and tools needed - for P11,171 ($199.48). i bought the coco lumber for the studs, posts and trusses for P10,399 ($185.71) and the rest is pretty much labor. so labor works differently here in the philippines, you pay the workers weekly, that part is pretty normal -- but they also expect you to feed them while they work. i told them that i'm not feeding my workers, ill just pay them more. i don't know how to cook rice and pork fat -- so pesos will just have to do. so basically i am building my house for around P50,000 -- which is less than US$1000. Alot of the material are being donated to me. The mayor is giving me sand and gravel, and the nipa for my roofing. The vice mayor said he will come out and help build for free, so my community is really being supportive. They just don't understand why i would want to move out of a host family's house and live by myself. My neighbors are constantly telling me that they know of someone who will be my companion, and stay in my house with me. I just tell them that American's are used to living alone and it's normal for us, and i won't be lonely. i don't have the heart to tell them that i can't wait to get out of the host family's house, that they are constantly in my room going through my stuff and asking permission for everything just isn't working any more.

chocolate is a gir's best friend

2005-10-17T23:37:00.000-04:00

so we have hurdled so many obsticles -- moving to the philippines, training, surviving one host family and moving in with a 2nd, starting a new job and having NO direction, community integration, learning and speaking a new language, travelling to different islands, and starting construction on my first home. now what, i don't know. after doing so much and having so much on my plate -- life has calmed down and boredom has set in. what do i do, and how do i live life as a filipino does??? i am soooooo bored. i have settled into a routine of going to the office 2-3 days a week, and though there is really nothing for me to do, and i feel like a nuecence to my counterparts --i go, and have lunch with them, read, and just hang out. i go to the city on tuesdays, and just some random afternoons where there is nothing to do. i meet erin and nicole and we watch movies and eat chocolate -- i mean chocolate is the cure all for everything. i told my host mom that i like chocolate, so she made me chocolate rice -- sorry, but that's just wrong. and on saturdays, i teach my bartending class. saturday is the only day that we could gather everyone together, so i spend the weekends teaching. my co-workers are amazed at how much work i do, and i say are you kidding -- you think this is fast paced. whew. i guess that's why i am here. i get lots of time to think. i can't even begin to tell you some of the crazy things the brain comes up with, when there is nothing else to do but sit around and think (daydream). i have become patient -- i was having a meeting, supposed to start at 1:00. noone showed up until 3:00, and the mayor, who is chairman of the committee we were meeting with showed up at 3:30, and didnt even bother to come inside. so i have learned how to wait. and i have learned filipino time means, well i guess it doesn't mean anything at all. and i am trying to get the point across that being on time matters. hmmm, i'll let you know how that goes.

Yay ..... a hutt!!!

2005-10-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

so this past week i decided that i couldn't live with my host family any more. the house is too moldy and i am waking up with my eyes swollen shut. i have pictures, look under the "philippine funk" at www.photobucket.com/albums/b255/linzzbob -- i look like a bruiser. and also, i just need my own space. so i designed a floor plan and i took it to a professional engineer, and he is drawing up professional house plans for me to build my own nipa hutt. it will be on the property next door to my host family now and when i move, i just give it to them. so it works out great for both of us. i get my own place and they get a free hutt in 1 1/2 years. YAY -- i am finally moving into my own nipa hutt. i get the plans back this afternoon and hopefully we can start everything next week. i'll keep everyone updated and will be taking lots of pictures!!!!!

back in the swing of things

2005-09-28T02:47:00.000-04:00

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

2005-09-25T00:41:00.000-04:00

(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

2005-09-22T03:01:00.000-04:00

(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

2005-09-15T08:30:00.000-04:00

>(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

2005-09-09T06:35:00.000-04:00

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.

5 months

2005-08-28T01:08:00.000-04:00

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!!!!!!!

2005-08-25T03:36:00.000-04:00

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!!!

2005-08-10T23:46:00.000-04:00

(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

2005-08-08T20:50:00.000-04:00

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

2005-08-05T23:56:00.000-04:00

(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

2005-08-01T02:15:00.000-04:00

(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

7am earthquake!!!!!

2005-07-15T00:30:00.000-04:00

so i woke up this morning to rattling windows and my bed shaking. what!!!! i ran out of my room and was like, what's going on??? my nanay was in the shower and she came out all soapy with a towel, and was like "Jesus, Lord help us, it's an earthquake". earthquake, cool, never been in an earthquake before. apparently it was pretty small and only lasted for about 30 seconds, but wow, an earthquake. all i could think about was that earthquake that spawned the tsunami in indonesia and sri lanka, only a few hundred miles south west of where i am. but it's ok, and there was only 1, so i went back to sleep. there is alot going on here in the philippines, with our government. it's all anyone can talk about right now. the president, gloria macapagal arroyo, who has been pres for about 2 years now has been proven to have rigged the election, and she may not have won. there are rallies and protests in manila(the capital) right now and have been going on for weeks. Peace Corp Volunteers are not allowed to travel to or around manila right now. Her opponent has paid P4,000,000 to have a recount of the votes, but we have also just found out that there is a plan to assasinate pres. arroyo. so now pres. arroyo has fired all of her staff, and replaced them with military officers -- because a coup is sure to come, and she wants to be prepared. there are alot of people asking arroyo to step down, but she won't and people are afraid that she will declare marshall law, like in the marco's administration. that means the PI would be under a totalitarian govt. what does that mean for me, hmmm, good question. we are watching the news closely, hoping for a peaceful settlement, but the PI has the 2nd most corrupt govt system in the world -- so that is not so likely to happen. if anything serious happens, peace corp will evacuate us back to the US and my peace corp service will be over. what, i just got here -- i am supposed to start building my nipa soon -- and i have trips with friends planned. i can't go home yet. if anyone sees anything about the PI on the news, please let me know. The news here is in tagolog and i have to get in translated by people who don't really speak english too well. so most of my info comes from my town and some stuff that PC Wahington DC tells us. on a lighter note...yesterday i went to this little island off of the south coast of guimaras. there is no electricity or running water. there are about 50 households, and the chickens out number the people. they are all fishermen and rice farmers, and are so poor. they are trying to find other forms of sustainable livelihood projects to make money for their families. i went with erin and her supervisor oliver, we took a boat over. when we got there they were stringing up nets in bamboo frames, so they could grow seaweed and sell it to cebu (the 2nd largest city in the PI). i asked, what do the people do with the seaweed? i had to have an interpreter, because noone on the island goes to school or speaks english -- so they said that they process it and use it to make plastic and they put it in food, like icecream. that's disgusting i thought -- but thought back to the time i was served icecream at a fiesta. i was so excited to hear about icecream, i mean it was so hot and i was sweating -- so i take a bite of wonderful, cold, delicious icecream... wait, why is it chewy and what are these yellow chunks???? yeah, they call it seasonal icecream. which means whatever the seasonal "crop" is, that's what they put in the icecream. yeah, my icecream was filled with corn, chunks of cheese and coconut. i almost threw up. it really sucked too because since i was their foriegn guest, they gave me the biggest portion. i really couln't eat it, i had to tell them i was "busog" (full), and then i walked around and fed it to a dog. i know that was probably rude and culturally insensitive -- but it was probably better than eating it. oh well.

planning a trip to the PI????

2005-07-12T01:25:00.000-04:00

ok, so all of you who have said that you're gonna visit; well here's your chance to prove it. my nipa hutt will be finished sometime in october and the rainy season will be ending, so it's the perfect time to visit. make those arrangements, check online for tickets -- and save $174, you can live like a king here for a month. i am also planning trips to indonesia in january and thailand in june-july, so if anyone wants to tag-along -- you're more than welcome.

pretty boring week

2005-07-12T01:00:00.000-04:00

i wish i had something cool to write about this week, but i don't. not much is happening. saturday erin and i came into the city to hang out. it was raining, we took the boat in the rain -- it's covered by a tarp, but we still got wet. we watched a movie, the fantastic 4 -- i give it 2 thumbs down, but it was the only movie in english and we got to sit in air con for a couple of hours. movies here are cheap. they cost about 50-60pesos, approx $1.00. it is amazing how cheaply you can live here, in US dollars. $1.00 = P54, so my living allowance of P9400 is roughly $174 per month. and i live pretty well and get to travel and go to the city alot. sunday we went to the beach and swam to the deep parts for some coral. it's illegal to remove coral from the water -- and erin works for the aggriculture office that is supposed to educate and inforce that law. Except for the funny fact that everyone in her office, who is working to protect the reef, has "illegal" coral on their desks and at home. people here are employed to care about the environment, but really they could care less, and understand even less than they care. so of course we dove down and got some coral too. monday i went into my office -- hmmm-- they have moved my desk back behind a big wall, where i can't be seen. what do you think that means???? so now i have to talk really loud and make sure to walk around to be seen. it gets lonely behind the big wall. so i left and went to iloilo to use the internet and hang out with some other volunteers that went awol too. so now it's tuesday and erin and i are back in iloilo. noone here does anything, so when i try to get something going, they just walk away and look confused. you would think that people who have 7 different words for work, would actually do some work. it's the rainy season now, until october, so people don't do anything -- most of the time they don't even show up to work. so now i have alot of time to come to iloilo and talk to all of you reading this page. i get pretty bored, so all of your emails are really appreciated!!!

happy 4th of july

2005-07-07T00:58:00.000-04:00

i hope everyone had a happy 4th of july!!! i sure did, the best weekend ever. Erin and I left Guimaras around noon on the 1st. We went to iloilo to have lunch and use the internet before we left for boracay. We went to the grocery store, and stocked up on food -- american food--everything we always took for granted. I know i talk about american food alot, but when we get to eat it, wow, so exciting--especially when all i see all week is pinoy food, like blood soup. Yes it is curdled blood with pork fat -- and that's just one of the more appetizing dishes. So we were in iloilo hanging out, because our bus did not leave until 3am. we watched 2 movies, war of the worlds and a lot like love, just to pass the time. finally around 10pm we went to find some dinner. around 12am we headed to the bus station, thinking back it probably wasn't the smartest idea. there were 5 of us, nicole, erin, karen, lloyd and me, so we felt relatively safe -- besides we can all speak ilonggo fairly well now. we waited there for almost 4 hours, yeah, the bus was on philippine time -- always late. we rode the bust from iloilo to caticlan, which is at the northern part of the island of panay, it took about 4 1/2 hours. then we rode a boat from the caticlan wharf to boracay -- wow -- boracay is amazing. it has white sand beaches and crystal clear water as far as you can see. there are reef's, which we snorkled on all day the 1st day. and there were westerners there, mostly europeans -- so for once i wasn't the only white person on the island, and noone really stared or yelled at us. Some guys in our group met this woman venus, she has a 7.5 million peso house ontop of a hill overlooking the ocean. We got to stay in this huge house all weekend. i haven't seen a real house since i left the US. it had showers and flush toilets. they had plush couches and cable tv with a remote -- all sitting on the most beautiful island i have ever seen. it was a great weekend to celebrate the 4th and just hang out with friends. we swam all day, then at night after a real shower, we went out. boracay looks like a movie set -- all of the restaurants, bars and music stands with live bands are made of bamboo -- with table and chairs set up on the beach made of drift wood. i woke up every morning looking out over the ocean, thinking wow, i can't believe i live here. it was kind of sad to end the best weekend i've had since coming to the PI. we left at 5:30am tuesday the 5th to catch a boat to caticlan-- rode the bus 4 1/2 hours back to iloilo, then hopped the boat to guimaras. so,yeah -- on the way back to guimaras our boat broke down in the middle of the iloilo straight. we sat in this boat with 45 other people, waves crashing up on us for about 30 minutes befor another boat came to tow us in. i should have known not to get on a boat named "the burt and marge". i finally got home around 4:00 pm. such a long day -- i fell asleep around 6:00 and woke up at 8am the next morning. now i am just trying to figure out how to start working -- they still don't know what to do with me here yet. so i just go into my office for a couple of hours each day and take a book or sometimes i just hang out. the value system is very different here. you don't prove yourself on how hard you work or how much you get accomplished -- it's all about making personal relationships. it's so backwards, so i have to force myself to go into this office every day and just hang out -- even if there is nothing to do. i mean theyre not doing anything either -- they are govt workers, why would they need to do work???

just another week in the PI

2005-07-01T16:15:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so just another week in the PI. my supervisor was out of town for monday and tuesday, so i had no work to do, which was good, because i wasn't feeling well. So monday i went to the beach with Erin -- we swam and laid out. I'll never get used to how we have to swim; shirt and shorts -- no bathing suits, they are uber conservative. So needless to say, my farmers tan is kickin. I came down with hives this week, i don't know where i got them or what they are from. I have a medical book with all of the diseases they have here, i went through all of them. At one point i was convinced that i had typhoid, giardia, scabies, or denghae fever. but turns out it was just an allergic reaction to something, no cool diseases yet. so the rest of the week was pretty slow, i only had one day of work. erin and i have language class together every wednesday -- it's great we get to make cookies, out teacher has an oven, not many people do here -- it's a total luxury item. Ovens here are really small, probably half the size of an oven in the states. So this weeks class was us learning how to yell at people when they are trying to rip us off -- which happens alot, because they think that we are ignorant tourists. the trike drivers are the worst, a trip that only costs 7 pesos, they try to charge 40. Yeah, until i break out my ilonggo -- indi, syiete ka pesos sa st theresa, kamahal bastos ka!!! nagaestar ako upod si ti viol para duha ka tuig, ko kabalou tagpila ang plete, syiete ka pesos !!! You should see their faces in confusion, why is this white kana speaking to me in ilonggo, and how does she know the fare. they have stopped trying to rip me off, and they all know where i live now, so they drop me off right at my doorstep with out me even having to tell them. but when other kana's come to visit me, they still try to rip them off. they suck. i am in iloilo city now, its a little after 3pm on friday. we are catching a 3am bus to caticlan -- the northern part of panay island -- takes about 4 hours. then we are taking a boat over to boracay island for the 4th of july. it's a total tourist destination, so lots of westerners -- we can wear our bathing suits and not eat rice. well i may still wear my tank top, i still have hives. YUK!!!

cock fight

2005-06-26T00:44:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-26T00:16:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-15T23:43:00.000-04:00

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.

Guimaras

2005-05-26T16:15:00.000-04:00

sorry it's been so long since my last post. i have been doing sooooo much travelling from island to island, that there has not been much computer time. I went on site visit to my permanent site Guimaras. I will move there June 10. I spent a week there, learning about what i will be doing for the next 2 years. My office is in the Municipal Hall, i work with "child friendly" -- yeah kids. And if you know me at all, you know that i really don't like kids. hmmm. i will let you know how it goes. my secondary project is working with the tourism department. Guimaras is an amazing tourist destination -- caves, beaches, rock-climbing, mountain biking, marine sanctuaries with endangered turtles -- and so much nature that is untouched by man. It is also the mango capital of the philippines -- so we eat mango's for breakfast, lunch and dinner -- and "meryinda"(10am snack & 3pm snack). Philippino's like thier meryinda -- they freak out if there is no meryinda. I stayed with my new host family -- who are the most religious people that i have ever met. I was promptly told that sunday's are not my free day, because i have church obligations all day long. whew. my room is nice, but the bed, that is another story. it looks like a nice warm, inviting bed -- but as soon as i plopped down on it --THUD!!!! oh yeah, plywood -- covered in a sheet. I have never had so many body parts fall asleep. I woke up numb all night long, crazy. My host mother has 11 brothers and sisters and they all live on the same street -- so we walked from house to house meeting all 200 family members. The family system here is mindblowing. They live at home until they are married, and then they build a hutt in the backyard of the parents -- so the family just gets bigger and bigger -- and more crowded. And crowded is how they like it. I am never alone -- they don't know what it means. I get walked to the bathroom, and someone waits outside -- walked to the trike stop -- i must have a "companion" at all times. "Sin-o upod mo?" means "who will your companion be?". It is the first thing everyone asks -- getting used to not having as much independence has been hard. So i freaked out a little -- along with 4 other volunteers, and we left our sites early. We went to Iloilo, a fairly progressive city on the island of Panay. we stayed in a pension house and locked ourselves in a room for 2 days. we had a/c, hot showers, and cable tv . . . i haven't had any of this in over 2 months. Such a nice treat. i had 2 days of being totally american, i never realized how great the u.s. is. we didn't have to speak ilonggo or eat rice. we spoke english, watched american movies, ate nacho's, onion rings and drank real coffee -- it was amazing. From Iloilo, we went back to our hub site ASU, which is about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride. We got back to hub Sunday the 16th -- we went to the south cafe, which is our hangout. a couple of the volunteers jason and adam were armwrestling -- jason broke his arm -- his humorus. we had to go to the hospital, and do exrays -- when they found out that it was broken -- jason had to be medically evacuated back to the US for surgery. he has 45 days to make a recovery, if he doesnt he will be medically separated from the Peace corp; which means he can't come back. We are all really sad -- he was one of my favorite people here. I have found a new sport. I have been racing bamboo trycicles down hills. They build really short trcicles, with no metal parts or nails or screws -- just bamboo. You find a hill, climb it as high as you can -- and race to the bottom -- they FLY down the hill. They had never seen an adult do it -- i am probably going to break the trike. My friends have pictures -- as soon as i get their web info, i will post it so you all can go look at the crazy pictures. I won all of my races -- there is a picture of me holding up my trike in victory. I'll have the info soon. Take care ~ i love you all.

big loser

2005-05-05T01:03:00.000-04:00

so i had my first incident, but it was totally my own fault. last sunday, may 1, we all headed back to Aklan State University for hub session. Another volunteer Lloyd and I met in Sigma, a barungay(town) where we could catch a bus to Aklan. Well since I have been getting made fun of for all of my luggage that I brought(140lbs), seriously what was I thinking, I tried to pack light for this trip -- only using a shoulder bag. Well I needed some more room, so I put my favorite sneakers, my favorite hoodie that i bought in san francisco, and my toiletries in a plastic bag. I set the plastic bag on the floor of the bus -- when i got off the bus, I left my bag. As it was driving off, I remembered the bag that I had sat on the floor, but it was too late. In the big scheme of things there really are worse things to loose than a sweatshirt in the philippines, so hot. I kicked myself for about a day, and then was reminded that i only have 138 pounds of luggage now. I am buying a big backpacker's backpack and sending one of my suitcases home. Other than that my week has been great. We were given information on our jobs and site, mine being on the island of guimmaras. I go there this monday for a week visit, and to meet my supervisor and my host agency counterpart. I will stay with my guimaras host family, who are filipino, but lived and worked in florida for 10 years. so this next week should be very interesting, and i should know alot more about what i will be doing for the next 2 years with the peace corp. so i should be able to answer more of your questions. this is the address where i can receive mail: Letters: >PCV Lindsey O Johnson >U.S. Peace Corps >Airmail Distribution Center >P.O. Box 7013 >N.A.IA. 1300 >Pasay City, Philippines > >Packages: >PCV Lindsey O Johnson >U.S. Peace Corps >PNB Financial Building >6th Floor, Bay Side >Diosdado Macapagal Avenue, Pasay City >1300 Manila, Philippines

mass, mass, mass

2005-05-01T02:45:00.000-04:00

ok, so this has been a very eventful week. I have been to mass 5 times -- ENOUGH -- I will never go again. I went to 2 barangay fiesta's, and before the fiesta begins, of course you have to have mass. It is the exact same every time -- songs, stand - niel - sit, stand - neil - sit. I have the songs memorized too, even though they are in illongo and i have no clue what we are singing. I just make up my own meaning. Fiesta's here are fun, and there is always one going on. These people like to party -- they celebrate everything. It is so strange to see a country and group of people that have next to nothing, but are always celebrating and gathering together with their friends and family -- oh and when i say family i mean grandparents, parents, children, cousins, aunts and uncles 3 times removed. it makes me wonder how these people have so little, but are always celebrating and sharing with others. in the same aspect, we as americans, with so much, don't celebrate and appreciate what we have like they do here. I wonder what the difference is? I have also been to a birthday party, and a wedding. The wedding of Venhart and Ella was so beautiful -- but long, 2 hour ceremony. They had mass ofcourse, and took communion before the actual marrying began. This is definately the most religious counrtry that I have ever been in. They cross themselves 30 times a day. I do have some pictures, i will be sending them home soon. i always thought that i was pretty tan until i saw the pictures of me standing next to the filippino's. I glow whiteness.

boracay

2005-04-23T03:13:00.000-04:00

so the past few days we have been at hub site, which is where all of the volunteers from my group gather for 4 days and have classes in peace corp policy. it is pretty stupid and pointless, but we all love getting together to hang out. so the last day we were there, thursday we went to the island of boracay, which is the tourist destination of the philippines. it has white sand beaches, crystal blue water, beautiful palm trees, shopping and lots of sun. we did our water safety class there. we rode out about 200 meters in a big boat and had to jump out. in pairs of 2 we had to climb into a little bonka boat. a bonka is a 1 1/2 meter dug out canoe, with outriggers -- ALL boats here have outriggers. we climbed in, and had to flip it over, so we would know what to do if we were ever in the situation. then we had to flip it back over from the water and bail all of the water out -- it took so long, but so fun. the rest of the day we spent swimming and snorkeling. we got to eat pizza, which was so good that we all scarfed our faces -- i mean enough rice already!!!! each day is getting better and better, hopefully the rough patches will get farther and farther apart too. my ilonggo is getting better, i am making sentences -- which don't always make sense, but they love that i am trying, and also love to correct me. i am getting better at getting around, the jeepneys and trikes aren't quite so scarry when you can communicate with the drivers -- so i am venturing out more and more.

life is great

2005-04-20T00:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, i think i have gotten through the hardest part -- the first few weeks. I was really sick last week, i had a respiratory infection, thought about coming home -- but i am so glad that i stuck it out. Moving in with a host family is difficult, I have a 6:00 curfew -- which is probably safer anyways. I am only there for 2 months anyways. I got my permanent site yesterday. I am going to the island of guimaras -- which is famous for their sweet mangoes, white sand beaches and lobster. how perfect is that. I will be close to the 3 other girls that i have made friends with -- they will all be less than an hour away. I am so happy here right now. I am still bathing with a bucket of cold water, no makeup or hairdryers, and am constantly sweating -- but it really makes me so happy to be here. Sorry family, but i am not coming home just yet. We are taking lots of jeepney rides, which is so fun -- jumping into a long jeep, giving the driver a couple of piso's and jumping out whenever you are where you need to be. the hard part is trying to figure out where in the world you are going. English is spoken, but not always well -- so Ilonggo class is mostly translating phrases about directions. we never travel alone though. the 16 of us have split up into different towns -- 2-3 per town. every 10 days we come back together at Aklan State University, which is our hub site. I am here now, and get so excited to come back and see everyone. Seeing other Americans and speaking understandable English is so wonderful. I don't think that any of us would make it if we didn't get to come back for a few days and hang out. Tomorrow we go to Borocay for water safety training. Borocay is the most famous beach in the philippines, known for its white sand beaches and beautiful water and diving. So really getting excited to see it and swim. Girls here have to swim fully clothed -- such a pain in the ass!!!!! Really who wants to swim in clothes. But since Boracay is so touristy, we can wear suits. I haven't been taking pictures really, but I am going to start -- and will try to post something soon.

nanay and tatay

2005-04-12T05:34:00.000-04:00

I have been living with my host family for3 days now, they are so nice. I have my own room, pink decorated in hello kitty, and an electric fan, which they are very proud of. My nanay (mother) and tatay (father) are both retired, so they are at home alot, and they are always trying to teach me things . . . but most of the time i have no clue what they are talking about, so i find myself nodding and saying "sige" (OK) alot. I am on my 2nd day of Ilonggo class; it is nothing like spanish - i'm so screwed. I have learned my greetings, and how to say i don't understand -- "hindi ako ka intyende", I have been using that alot. Philippino's don't eat vegetables, so going into my host family as a vegitarian was hard, but they are trying. They keep saying vegetables need meat to be palliateable. So I was teaching my nanay to cook only vegitables, but she kept adding more butter everytime I turned around, saying this will make it palliateable. My tatay would not try the vegetables - he said they were not food. I find most Filipino's spend their day either eating or thinking about what they are going to eat, or telling you about a dish they are going to make you. They have told everyone about the meatless veggies, and everyone laughs so hard and points at me. We got to meet the mayor of our town today, his office has AC, so that was a nice treat. AC here is different, it is only wall units. Only the rich have them, but even they can not afford to run them. Every day we have a "brown out" -- the electricity goes out for an hour or so, and we sweat with out the electric fan. I went to catholic mass with my nanay on Sunday. The church is open, so there were dogs and birds running about all through church, no one seemed to notice or even care. A couple of dogs came in and peed on the pulpit, and no one seemed to notice -- so life here definately has a different set of rules or at least standards. My house has one CR Comfort room, the toilet and shower are connected. I fill a bucket with water and pour it over myself with a smaller bucket. It's really not that bad. There is no hot water, but in this heat who could really take a hot shower?!!! I should have brought more books, I have alot of down time with nothing to do, but sit in front of my electric fan -- so that I don't die. If you all think that Florida is hot and muggy, man, this is a whole new level of hot and muggy -- i would give anything for that right now. i love the phone calls and emails, so keep them coming . . . love you all, Lindsey

land of flip flops

2005-04-08T07:32:00.000-04:00

i have found my home here in the land of flip flops -- i have not yet seen anyone wearing shoes. they have stores dedicated only to flip flops, it is pretty amazing. this is as close to being famous as i will ever come, everyone stares and yells to you "hey joe" and "hey cano" but in a very friendly way. everyone knows your name and whether or not you are married. if you aren't married they are trying to marry you off. kind of like panama city. a few volunteers took a trip into the city yesterday, on the way back we couldn't find a jeepney -- but motorcylcles with sidecars are everywhere (tiny motorcycles) -- so 6 of us piled into the sidecar, and rode a few miles. it was the scariest thing ever, but so much fun -- i have never felt closer to 5 people, literally!!! I love the transportation here, price is always negotiable and it's always an adventure. the fruit here is amazing, i am in the mango capital of the world -- they serve fresh mango juice with every meal, it's very thick and sweet -- i water it down. they also serve alot of watermelon -- they are the small round ones, but it's so nice to have something familiar. i can not eat another bite of rice!!!!! I have been putting ketchup on my rice, they think that's wierd, and maybe it is, but they make their ketchup with banannas here, so it is very sweet. tonight at dinner we had cabbage rolls, and what was rolled in them you ask -- oatmeal, i don't know who thought to put oatmeal in cabbage, it was not wonderful -- i miss american food. i am going to come back so skinny. I move in with my family tomorrow, so going to go and get lots of sleep.

still flying

2005-04-07T06:27:00.000-04:00

i am on the island of panay. we flew in yesterday to the city of kilebo --it has a 1 room airport, it was so neat. we are staying at Aklan State University for 2 more days, then we meet and move in with our host families. the university put on a dinner and show for us. They roasted a whole pig, the skin and the fat are supposed to be the best parts, so that is what they gave us -- of course i didn't eat it, still holding out for as long as i can. i was served a whole fish, it was the scarriest thing i have ever seen. they eat the heads here, so of course i was expected to too-- thankfully the guys sitting next to me were braver than i and ate it for me. food is definately going to be the hardest thing for me. they put on a show of drums and dancing, the dancers were boys dressed in tribal gear -- and had deer heads for hats -- we danced as well. more fun stuff to come.

western visayas

2005-04-05T00:48:00.000-04:00

i finally got my assignment, the year of saying i don't know to all of your questions is over!!!!! i am going to the western visays, with the most wonderful group of people -- everyone is so much fun. the western visayas are supposed to be the most beautiful islands in all of the philippines -- i'll let you know on wednesday -- that is when we fly out. i have a cell phone, i have emailed everyone with my number, so use it. if you didn't get it email me. we went to the us embassy yesterday, met with the us ambassador, and all of his staff -- they gave us alot of security warnings (nothing bad). I am still having the best time, it is going to take a while to get used to the crazy driving. they have no traffic lights, signs or laws for that matter -- and they get in way less accidents than we do, go figure!! have more shots today and typhoid meds, malaria meds, hep A & B shots, Japaneese encephilitis, rabies, and more tomorrow. lots of people have gotten sick - our bodies are on overload. tonight is our last night as a group, so everyone is planning to go out - we fly at 4am - so good luck to us all!!!!!!

Magandang hapon ( good day)

2005-04-02T03:06:00.000-05:00

hi everyone - i finally made it to the philippines, we got here on April 1, but totally missed the 31st because we crossed the international date line, that is mind boggling to me. Our flight was about 20 hours - with a stop in japan. i got detained in japan and searched. it was so aggrevating because no one would speak english to me. the japan airport was the cleanest, most organized and quiet place i have ever been -- until we loud americans walked in -- everyone stared. i tried to go to the bathroom, but opted otherwise when i saw the porcelain hole in the floor that i was supposed to squat over -- no thank you -- i took a picture. we got here to the philippines around midnight, we took a bus to the resort where we are staying. the ride was crazy, there are no markings on the road, so whereever your car will fit is where you drive -- busses, jeepneys, motorcycles, trycicles all squeezed in to a two lane sized road. i now understand why we aren't allowed to drive for 2 years. we leave the resort on wednesday to go to our hub sites for more training and shots. we started our malaria med's today -- they are supposed to give you crazy dreams -- we'll see. everyone is so incredibly friendly -- and wants to help. i can't wait until the real action begins. we have been doing tagalog training -- it's nothing like spanish-- much harder. i will try to stay updated, computer time is limited, which hopefully explains the lack of punctuation and capitalization. please stay in contact i miss everyone - especially my family and gracie lou. love you all ~ lindsey ps - i am so brown after hawaii, a man asked me if i was part filippino -neat!!!!

blue hawaii

2005-03-21T00:25:00.000-05:00

i have been in hawaii for a little over a week, it is so beautiful. We have gone to Pearl Harbor, driven over mountains, gone to an ancient temple, seen the north shore and its ginormous waves, I have walked to Waikiki more times than I can count; and tomorrow we hop a plane for the big island of Hawaii. It has an active volcano, and you can get close enough to the flow to touch it with a stick. Lots of sunshine here, which makes for a tan crowd -- can't wait for tomorrow -- tell you all about it when I get back. I leave here Saturday the 26th for dirty detroit, staging for 3 days. Then it is off to the Philippines. It all came so soon. I'll write more when I know more. Lindsey

GETTING CLOSER !!!!!!!

2005-02-28T13:11:00.002-05:00

Holy Crap !!!! I only have a little over a week left . . . still have not received my staging kit, so I guess I am packing on a prayer, because my packing list comes with the kit. I just sold my car, finally. Didn't think that I would ever get that beast sold. A wonderful boy named Seth bought it, and he's taking it away this week . . YaY!!!!!!! Anyways, how do you pack for 2 years, with only 2 suitcases and a backpack????? Seriously, if anyone has any ideas, help. It really is cool to know that all I own, I can carry in 2 suitcases. There really isn't anything holding me down anymore. So I am expecting lots of email from everyone, and visitors -- everyone come and visit, the Peace Corp really encourages visitors. When I get my final info, I will email everyone with specifics.

flyin' high

2005-01-19T00:35:00.000-05:00

Ok- so alot has been going on since last time. I got my invitation to the Philippine Islands. I leave for Detroit, for three days of staging, March 27-31. Then on April 1, I am off and flying to the Philippines. My program is Business Advising for Youth Development, and I guess I will find out what that means when I get there and get through training. The good thing is that most Philippino's speak English. YAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One less thing to worry about. The peace corp wants so much stuff from me, I had no idea . . . I have to get a new passport, visa to live in the country, send my updated resume and aspiration statement to the Philippino government. They also wanted a passport picture of me to send to the govt, in which i look cross eyed and bloated. I mean the list just goes on and on. But I am planning a little vacation. I am going to Hawaii to visit Billy on March 10, so a little de-stressing should be in order after all of my hard work, and I guess right before all of the real hard work begins. I really can't wait. I am trying to figure out how to post pictures, so hopefully there will be more to come with the look of the page. Gotta go work. Lindsey

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-01-08T02:34:00.000-05:00

OK-- Finally something is happeing with the Peace Corp. My invitation to somewhere??? was sent out yesterday. I am so excited that I am jumping out of my skin. My parents on the other hand are not so excited, my dad told me that I owe him $40,000. Why you ask, well that would be for college and my car, he thinks that I am throwing it all away. I don't think that is the case at all, only the next couple of years will tell. Anyways it's kinda funny, until he really starts trying to collect!!!! Keep you posted.

Hope this works

2004-12-31T04:15:00.000-05:00

Hello to all -- I hope that this website works out, usually I just use the internet to check my email and bank account. But seeing as I am about to completely move out of my Florida comfort zone, and move all the way around the world, I was thinking I should move out of my internet comfy zone and start a website. Good luck to us all. I have been in Panama City, FL for almost 3 months now -- whew!!! Everyday I get more comfortable here, which makes me want to leave even more. Still waiting for my Peace Corp package to arrive, and hoping it will say good things, like we are not sending to Afghanistan.