You wake up an hour before breakfast- 5:30am -without alarm clock.
You look forward to rice at every single meal.
You aren't really doing anything but are very busy and have time for nothing.
You don't sleep with your mosquito net.
You randomly burst out singing "Hey Jude".
You don't identify with the white TOURISTS who you might see on the beach.
You go rock climbing in slippers or barefoot.
You start calling flip-flips "slippers".
You can't eat without both a fork and a spoon simultaneously.
You drink coffee at every meal.
You can get more than half of the fish meat off the bone and into your stomach without consuming the bones.
You don't want to leave in a week because the past 8 have flown by all too quickly.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Dancin' in the moonlight
Every Tuesday night is dance lessons with Jao for the kids. We burned him a bunch of songs from our computer for him and as a warm-up the kids freestyled to "Boom-boom-pow" on repeat for about 15 times.
The four of us, watching the action on the stage from a dark second-floor deck of the yellow house, looked on from a distance so that the kids wouldn't see us and potentially become embarrassed. When Jao started to choreograph a dance to the song "In the Ayer" we followed along and decided to learn the dance and surprise the kids and Jao when they finish the dance.
It was only slightly awkward when Johnny came up and saw the four of us dancing clumsily on the porch in the dark.
The four of us, watching the action on the stage from a dark second-floor deck of the yellow house, looked on from a distance so that the kids wouldn't see us and potentially become embarrassed. When Jao started to choreograph a dance to the song "In the Ayer" we followed along and decided to learn the dance and surprise the kids and Jao when they finish the dance.
It was only slightly awkward when Johnny came up and saw the four of us dancing clumsily on the porch in the dark.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
4th of July in the Philippines
Yes...we celebrated.
We brought a little non-manifest destiny taste of America to Stairway in the form of a fun history lesson, a huge bucket of "dirty ice cream", a game of kickball, and hamburgers for dinner.
Alex and Mitch put together a fantastic powerpoint presentation including not only the story of the American revolution, but also videos of some of America's finest cultural moments such as Jazzercise, the Bu font hair style, platform shoes, MC Hammer, etc.
The best part of the presentation was when we showed them what an assembly line was. In order to convey the point, we looked to Lucy and Ethel, in the episode where they get jobs wrapping chocolates. If you want a good laugh, check it out here, on youTube.
Both the kids and adults at Stairway were in tears because they were laughing so hard.
What is dirty ice cream? It's not dirty- it is actually quite delicious. They call it dirty ice cream because you can buy a cup of it for only 3 pesos. But it also comes in HUGE containers if you are buying for a lot of people- and we ordered two flavors- chocolate and cheese. Yes. Cheese ice cream. It was more like strawberry with some type of cheese in it- it was actually good!
We played kickball on the beach with the kids- the closest thing we could get to baseball! It took a few innings for them to get the hang of it, but wound up having a blast once they figured it out!
For dinner, we were planning on having hamburgers. We had gone to the market in the morning to get the ground beef for the burgers. We did not expect, however to see the woman helping us to cut the beef directly from the carcass that was dangling from the top of her stand, then slap it on a (probably unwashed) scale, then onto a (definitely unwashed) block of wood, chop it up a few times, then throw it in a grinding device and plop it directly into a plastic bag that you would use to carry groceries. Talk about fresh meat?
Nani Sitas, the cook, said she would prepare the meat for us and to come up after beach time to make the patties and start grilling. When Carissa and I came up to help her, the hamburger meat looked more like hamburger meat soup, and she had started to use tinfoil on top of the grill to cook the gloopy concoction. Knowing that the kids would probably not enjoy hamburger pancakes, I quickly suggested that we find something to add to the mixture to absorb the liquid. Breadcrumbs were the only thing in the kitchen, so our burgers wound up tasting a little bit like meatballs! But with ketchup and mustard, they wound up tasting pretty good! At first the kids were nervous that there wouldn't be rice at dinner, but we kept with the every day tradition and ate rice as well. The kids liked the burgers so much that they were hiding then in their pockets to save.
Overall the kids loved every second of the treat-filled day and all of the fun, and we enjoyed showing them a few things from home.
Pictures will be posted as soon as possible!
We brought a little non-manifest destiny taste of America to Stairway in the form of a fun history lesson, a huge bucket of "dirty ice cream", a game of kickball, and hamburgers for dinner.
Alex and Mitch put together a fantastic powerpoint presentation including not only the story of the American revolution, but also videos of some of America's finest cultural moments such as Jazzercise, the Bu font hair style, platform shoes, MC Hammer, etc.
The best part of the presentation was when we showed them what an assembly line was. In order to convey the point, we looked to Lucy and Ethel, in the episode where they get jobs wrapping chocolates. If you want a good laugh, check it out here, on youTube.
Both the kids and adults at Stairway were in tears because they were laughing so hard.
What is dirty ice cream? It's not dirty- it is actually quite delicious. They call it dirty ice cream because you can buy a cup of it for only 3 pesos. But it also comes in HUGE containers if you are buying for a lot of people- and we ordered two flavors- chocolate and cheese. Yes. Cheese ice cream. It was more like strawberry with some type of cheese in it- it was actually good!
We played kickball on the beach with the kids- the closest thing we could get to baseball! It took a few innings for them to get the hang of it, but wound up having a blast once they figured it out!
For dinner, we were planning on having hamburgers. We had gone to the market in the morning to get the ground beef for the burgers. We did not expect, however to see the woman helping us to cut the beef directly from the carcass that was dangling from the top of her stand, then slap it on a (probably unwashed) scale, then onto a (definitely unwashed) block of wood, chop it up a few times, then throw it in a grinding device and plop it directly into a plastic bag that you would use to carry groceries. Talk about fresh meat?
Nani Sitas, the cook, said she would prepare the meat for us and to come up after beach time to make the patties and start grilling. When Carissa and I came up to help her, the hamburger meat looked more like hamburger meat soup, and she had started to use tinfoil on top of the grill to cook the gloopy concoction. Knowing that the kids would probably not enjoy hamburger pancakes, I quickly suggested that we find something to add to the mixture to absorb the liquid. Breadcrumbs were the only thing in the kitchen, so our burgers wound up tasting a little bit like meatballs! But with ketchup and mustard, they wound up tasting pretty good! At first the kids were nervous that there wouldn't be rice at dinner, but we kept with the every day tradition and ate rice as well. The kids liked the burgers so much that they were hiding then in their pockets to save.
Overall the kids loved every second of the treat-filled day and all of the fun, and we enjoyed showing them a few things from home.
Pictures will be posted as soon as possible!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
All around the world, this one's for the girls
I met the most eloquent, energetic, and lovable 11 year old girl the other day. Her name is Joy. She speaks almost perfect English, and could even keep up with our sarcasm. Then I found out that she spoke some French, and German too. I met her on the beach, and she was playing a game in the sand with the other kids. Maybe that is why I noticed her and was so absorbed by her; she was playing on the beach, with the boys and maybe one or two other girls.
I always see Filipino boys playing on the beach, in the river, in town, playing sports etc., but the girls are always casually absent. I asked Zach, Lars and Monica’s son, where all the girls were and why they weren’t out on the beach on a hot Saturday afternoon. He said that they usually just stay home, complacently, clean, and take care of their younger siblings during the day. If they are not doing that, they just are not allowed to leave their homes because their mothers are afraid that they will get into trouble.
The girls do not play sports- not because they are not allowed or because they are not athletic, but because there are simply no programs for girls sports. If the girls play sports with the boys, they are called Tomboys-which is not a good thing for Filipina girl to be called, because it means she is gay, which is so frustrating to think about. We try to explain to the people here that at home, tons of girls play sports and it does not mean that they are gay...it means that they are girls who like sports.
It makes me sad, though, to think about Joy. She is an extremely bright girl, on her way to speaking 4 languages. But she will probably wind up maybe going to high school, and working as a masseuse or sari sari shop owner for the rest of her life. Not that many women are not very happy doing those jobs. But for Joy to only have a miniscule chance of continuing her education in college or beyond, or traveling to Europe like she dreams of, is disheartening for me.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Nepalese man stole my slippers
This weekend we had visitors from the Nepalese Human Rights Commission staying at Stairway. I never really thought about what it would be like to meet a Nepalese person, nor did I think about the fact that if I did meet one, he would steal my brown and pink flowered, size small, flip flops (they call them slippers here).
But that is exactly what happened. Usually here, we take off our shoes at the doors, and in the Yellow House, we place our flip flops by the stairs on the patio, going up to our room so we don’t get everything sandy. All was well with my flip flops, I thought, until Carissa came up from the bathroom and told us we should check to make sure our flip flops were still at the base of the stairs because she had had an awkward and unexpected run-in with a Nepalese commissioner as she watched him casually slip into her slippers and walk away in them. Of course I went down to see if my slippers were there. I didn’t want to lose another pair of flip flops, mostly because I didn’t want to haggle with the women at White Beach again not to sell me flip flops for 250 pesos just because I am white. (We got our price down to 80). Anyway...I went downstairs and hysterically, my slippers were absent as well, along with the other 4 pairs that were down there. REALLY? Apparently the Nepalese people thought that our ragged, worn in flip flops were put their for them to use.
That is not the funny part.
As we were showing the Nepalese people around Stairway and the beach, they continually asked us why we weren’t wearing any shoes. In my head I thought... BECAUSE YOU’RE WEARING OUR SHOES! In fact, the commissioner who was talking with Alex even offered him "his" (Mitch's) flip flops on the way to the beach!
I didn’t get my slippers back until the next morning, when I saw that my culprit had left them outside his door. As much as I enjoyed the awkward hilarity of the entire situation and making up excuses for why I wasn’t wearing shoes the whole weekend, I swiped those slippers as fast as I could and kept them in hiding until the Nepalese departed from Stairway that afternoon.
We did have fun with the Nepalese however. After they watched Cracked Mirrors on the stage, we whipped out the bongos, guitars, and other instruments and jammed while they taught us traditional Nepalese dances. Mitch, Carissa, Alex, and I continued the party with our buddies Lexter, Diego, Tonio, Jao, and one of the Nepalese men until 2am, singing American songs and probably keeping up the rest of the Yellow house.
Hmm...serves as payback for the loss of our slippers over the weekend!
But that is exactly what happened. Usually here, we take off our shoes at the doors, and in the Yellow House, we place our flip flops by the stairs on the patio, going up to our room so we don’t get everything sandy. All was well with my flip flops, I thought, until Carissa came up from the bathroom and told us we should check to make sure our flip flops were still at the base of the stairs because she had had an awkward and unexpected run-in with a Nepalese commissioner as she watched him casually slip into her slippers and walk away in them. Of course I went down to see if my slippers were there. I didn’t want to lose another pair of flip flops, mostly because I didn’t want to haggle with the women at White Beach again not to sell me flip flops for 250 pesos just because I am white. (We got our price down to 80). Anyway...I went downstairs and hysterically, my slippers were absent as well, along with the other 4 pairs that were down there. REALLY? Apparently the Nepalese people thought that our ragged, worn in flip flops were put their for them to use.
That is not the funny part.
As we were showing the Nepalese people around Stairway and the beach, they continually asked us why we weren’t wearing any shoes. In my head I thought... BECAUSE YOU’RE WEARING OUR SHOES! In fact, the commissioner who was talking with Alex even offered him "his" (Mitch's) flip flops on the way to the beach!
I didn’t get my slippers back until the next morning, when I saw that my culprit had left them outside his door. As much as I enjoyed the awkward hilarity of the entire situation and making up excuses for why I wasn’t wearing shoes the whole weekend, I swiped those slippers as fast as I could and kept them in hiding until the Nepalese departed from Stairway that afternoon.
We did have fun with the Nepalese however. After they watched Cracked Mirrors on the stage, we whipped out the bongos, guitars, and other instruments and jammed while they taught us traditional Nepalese dances. Mitch, Carissa, Alex, and I continued the party with our buddies Lexter, Diego, Tonio, Jao, and one of the Nepalese men until 2am, singing American songs and probably keeping up the rest of the Yellow house.
Hmm...serves as payback for the loss of our slippers over the weekend!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Said I was a Buffalo soldier, troddin' through the land
I saw a water buffalo on the way to church on Sunday. It wasn't in the water. It wasn’t remotely near the water. It was in a field and looked like a cow with rhinoceros skin and Shrek ears.
We ate fried chicken last night for dinner. I usually avoid fried chicken to the dismay of my southern friends and if I do eat it, I almost always,in the interest of not clogging my arteries, take the skin off. But last night I shamelessly licked every bite of chicken off of my chicken leg. We don't get familiar food here very often, and though the food here is great and much better than I had expected before coming, it is really nice to eat something and know what it is.
It was also the first birthday of the new batch of kids. Mark turned 12 and was, at first, very shy about the birthday attention when we sang to him at breakfast, but he loosened up as the day went on as his peers wouldn't let anyone forget that he was the birthday boy. It was as if they were as excited about Marks birthday as they would be about their own. We all watched The Road to El Dorado and ate cake at the Main House. It is really adorable the way they do birthdays here. No matter how big the cake is everyone gets a piece, no matter how small. I insisted that is was not a big deal if we didn't eat cake so others could have more but Ate Donna wouldn't hear of it. The birthday kid gets to choose a movie to watch at the Main House, and is given a gift.
For many of them, their birthday at Stairway will be their first birthday celebration that they have had in their whole lives. Some don't know their actual dates of birth so Ate Donna asks them when they would like their birthdays to be, and they celebrate on whatever day they choose. I just wish my birthday fell during the time we are here!
We ate fried chicken last night for dinner. I usually avoid fried chicken to the dismay of my southern friends and if I do eat it, I almost always,in the interest of not clogging my arteries, take the skin off. But last night I shamelessly licked every bite of chicken off of my chicken leg. We don't get familiar food here very often, and though the food here is great and much better than I had expected before coming, it is really nice to eat something and know what it is.
It was also the first birthday of the new batch of kids. Mark turned 12 and was, at first, very shy about the birthday attention when we sang to him at breakfast, but he loosened up as the day went on as his peers wouldn't let anyone forget that he was the birthday boy. It was as if they were as excited about Marks birthday as they would be about their own. We all watched The Road to El Dorado and ate cake at the Main House. It is really adorable the way they do birthdays here. No matter how big the cake is everyone gets a piece, no matter how small. I insisted that is was not a big deal if we didn't eat cake so others could have more but Ate Donna wouldn't hear of it. The birthday kid gets to choose a movie to watch at the Main House, and is given a gift.
For many of them, their birthday at Stairway will be their first birthday celebration that they have had in their whole lives. Some don't know their actual dates of birth so Ate Donna asks them when they would like their birthdays to be, and they celebrate on whatever day they choose. I just wish my birthday fell during the time we are here!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Picture this, a sky full of thunder
Yep it is the rainy season here in the Philippines, and we are experiencing a minor typhoon according to Ate Ami. It is quite rainy and there is thunder, but it is not so windy. We're not in any danger, that I know of. But the four of us "joke" that a hurricane or another potentially problematic event could come plunging through here and we would have no clue that it was coming due to the fact that there is no cable television here and nobody cares to check the weather much online, that we know of, at least.
Also, I finally got some photo albums online. You can get to them from the links section on the top left of the blog and click on the link that says Pictures.
Also, I finally got some photo albums online. You can get to them from the links section on the top left of the blog and click on the link that says Pictures.
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