My Apartment, First Floor

I've almost been in my new place for a month now. I've been moving around so much with work and vacations that I haven't made my new home mine all the way yet. I've slowly outfitted it with the essentials, from cookware to a hammock. It's getting better and that's all I can hang my hat on for now. It's a mess but at least I can cook for myself (which is synonymous with "feel good"). Check this place out!

This is my messy (I want to show you the REAL Austin) entryway/living room. There are several things to note here, first the hammock. I just bought that this last weekend and boy is it nice. Everyone should have one in their house. It's secured to my staircase and the window frame. Window frames here are pretty tough/strong, it holds me no problem. You can also see: my beloved bike, helmet, laptop, and all three backpacks I own (one of which is the wicker looking thing on the far right).

Now this is a photo where my back is to my front door and I'm facing into my apartment from my living room. Prominent in this shot is my staircase which I've turned into an improvised clothes hanger. You can also see my dining room table, more shoes, and way in the back is my favorite place, my kitchen.

Here it is. I spend considerable amounts of time here. Looks like a nightmare but it works alright. There's the propane stove and it's best friend Tank on the left. behind that back door is another room, half indoor, half roach and spider infested. I don't go out there much. If you look closely at the window, on the bottom right part is a piece of cardboard wedged against the screen by a vitamin bottle. Why did I do that? At first I was blocking hole, about the size of a pool ball, that I thought was letting bugs in. Turns out something bigger, with claws, uses that hole. I've had to replace that cardboard several times, it was knocked out once.

So, it's basic and there's no getting around that. The faucet is finicky and the sink has spots that wont clean. There's the pot I use to make...

Chili!

My open face cupboards. I have all the essentials and a ton of terrible other stuff. The terrible stuff includes packets of sugary drinks, sweet spaghetti sauce, Vienna sausages, mega-oily tuna fish, and banana catsup. The good stuff is beans, onions (blue bag), garlic (light blue bag), beans (green bags), spices, hot sauce, loose tea (dark pink bags, upper right), and my new very healthy kombucha baby (bottom right, covered with a piece of t-shirt).

Here's my ref. In the Philippines refrigerators are referred to as refs, the more you know!

Aww yeah, the bathroom. Only the finest of accommodations here, I have both a knee-high spigot, and a pipe that spits on my head! Actually, this is out of the ordinary, usually people use a tabo (small bucket with a handle) to pour water on their heads, so I've got it good. The above ground piping is nice too. 

Toilet seat? nahhhh. I like to imagine the people that lived here before me took it with them, rationalizing it as "well, we bought it" (they may have). Or,there never was a seat to begin with. This toilet has also lost it's ability to flush, so I have to pour water from the big green bucket.

From the kitchen facing the front of my apartment. This is where I live. It doesn't fit with my first idea I had of where I might end up in the Peace Corps but I'm not complaining. You take what you're given here and I was given an alright apartment.

Christmas In Sagada

It took 12 hours of continuous travel to get home from my Christmas vacation in Sagada. As long and drawn out the trip home was it was a return from a good time.

The trip there started on the Thursday before Christmas as I left Cabanatuan City for La Trinidad, just outside of Baguio. From work, I took my bags to the transportation terminal in town and was loaded into a hot hot hot van. The rule with the vans to Baguio is we don't leave until it's packed. Packed so much that the van owners have hand crafted seats that fit the gaps between seats, the gaps used for getting in and out. We waited for 45 minutes and pow, we were off!

Leaving any place at five in the afternoon has to be rough. Cabanatuan City is no exception, actually it's more the rule. Couple the time of day with the fact Christmas was two days away, traffic was dense and slow.

After about four hours, I was in Baguio for the first time. I found myself in a place where I don't sweat because I'm barely moving. The temperature was delightful. Thanks to my friend Ericka, I had a place to stay that night free of charge, so I made my way out of Baguio and went to La Trinidad right next door. I was greeted by Ericka and her old host family from training and fed all the food I wanted. We talked and quickly called it a day. We had to get up early for travel the next day.

Ericka and I rose early and left to find another friend and the next transport we'd use. It's worth noting that I left my pretty new tube of fancy toothpaste at Ericka's host family's house, oh well. Anyway, we found our other friend, Matt, and loaded into another van. Instead of going directly to Sagada, we had decided to see Matt's site. It's along the way and we were sure we could pick up a bus when we wanted to leave.

The van took off and started climbing the edge of La Trinidad and the next thing we knew we were driving along the ridges of mountains. The pictures I took barely give justice to how grand the scene was. I can't say how far up we were but I assure you, we were way up there. The sides of mountains were cut with shelves as if they were the physical representation of topographical maps. The shelves were where mountain farmers would plant their crops. I assume they're called rice terraces but I know that they grow other things like cabbage at least some of the time.

We drove through this beautiful and half-ways frightening landscape for nearly four hours before reaching Matt's site. By this time I was wearing the fleece jacket I left Portland with that I had assumed would not see use again til my return to home, the temperature was downright cold. Matt's site was beautiful, fitting with almost this whole experience. He's located at a place called Mt. Data (daw-taw), it's a small town that stretches along the highway, on the side of a mountain. He introduced us to his current host family and showed us some highlights of his community, including the school he works at. The views around his community were quite enviable.

Trash Hole: Not so Beautiful

Cloudy Mountains: Beautiful

When we got back to his house I was excited to see how Dinaguan (chocolate meat(pork stewed in pork blood)) was prepared. His host family was making it and had yet to add the blood to the mix. I've found myself excited about cooking recently (seen my cooking website recently?) and therefore wanted to see the process. I was particularly interested in the bucket of blood they had in the kitchen, how often do you see that? Dinaguan is actually a fairly non-outstanding dish, it doesn't have all that much flavor in my opinion.

Ericka and I were only allowing ourselves a short amount of time at Matt's site and we quickly grabbed our bags and began our wait for the next ride headed to Sagada. Matt was going to stay at his site while we went on ahead. Little did we know that we would be waiting a long time.

Three hours later, of standing, waving, yelling, pleading, and patience we were on our way again. At this point I was tired and just let my head hang and fell asleep, waking up to see the beauty and grandeur of the mountains we were crawling through. After another two hours, we were dropped off at the base of the mountain Sagada stood on top of.

We flagged a passing truck headed to Sagada and hustled into the bed. The road to sagada quickly turns from paved to dirt to scary. The scary parts were where our truck would be driving along a road that was closer to a ledge than an actual road. There would be quite apparent roadside deterioration that was coined as “slippage.” If any of the road had “slipped” anymore we would have fallen well past 100 feet. Thankfully that didn't happen, and we made it, finally, to Sagada in one piece.

Sagada is beautiful. It's picturesque, homey, cold, and interesting. When Ericka and I rolled into town we met up with the big group of friends who also had decided to spend their Christmas there and we all marched off to our vacation home. The house we were staying in was an apparently extra home of one PCVs counter-part. The walk to the house took us ten minutes away from the town by a walk and took us through a functional rice terraces. Inconvenience aside, I was truly grateful to have a free cozy place to sleep.

Ericka, Ebonee, Becky, and Gypsy in the Communal Cottage

The day after arriving, I got together with my long lost training friend Kaiti, along with her dad who was visiting, and we headed out early after breakfast for some exploring. We teamed up with my friends Becky and Ericka for a full party.

Kaiti's Dad (Daddy Joe as he was known), Becky, Kaiti, and Ericka

In Sagada there are several big attractions which include hanging coffins, caves, and waterfalls. We saw all three in a three hour tour with our friendly but quiet guide Benjamin. We started with seeing some hanging coffins from a long distance off, and yelling into echo canyon “SKYFLAKES” (a terribly popular saltine-like cracker) to the bewilderment of the other vacationers. We then went to the coffins, clambered down some muddy (slippery) paths, saw a small cave and crossed it's small stream, scaled a large rock, walked more muddy paths, crossed a larger stream, saw a much larger cave, climbed out of Echo Valley, and finally walked a long ways and downhill to a quaint waterfall. The water was delightfully cool, it would have been brisk if anyone of us had decided to dive in. There were some local kids who caught up to to us and dived in no problem, just in their skivvies.

Benjamin Our Guide

Hanging With Friends

I'm on a Massive Boulder Taking This Photo

One of the Caves

The Brisk Waterfall

Ericka and Becky

Also, it's interesting to note that this whole trip we were accompanied by a female dog with a lame back left leg. She was friendly and fairly unobtrusive, although I almost tripped over her once. After we made our way back to town she took off.

As far as Christmas goes it was very laid back. I woke up early and gathered breakfast goods (eggs, bread, oil, coffee, peanut butter, and love) for everyone and prepared breakfast. It was a plain breakfast but everyone seemed to appreciate the thought. It wasn't until far later in the day when we all reconvened that we did our Christmas celebrations. These included dressing up, making dinner, listening to Christmas music, and a gift giving game. I didn't bring a costume but my friends helped me into what I assume was an approximation of a hipster, I was dressed as such next to my friends the Jeepney, King of Peacocks, New York Business Woman, Jesus, Merienda, and Biker. Surprisingly I don't have any photos of these events.

In the gift giving I was the last to choose what gift I wanted to steal or I could take the last unwrapped gift. I saw that everyone was happy with what they got and although I would have preferred what they had in hindsight, I chose the unwrapped gift (kindness of the heart I say). I got a coin purse.

I had a great time, saw some great sights, saw my great friends, ate some good food, and felt cold for once in a long time. I recommend Sagada if you want a cool place to visit in the Philippines. By the time I was headed home, I was ready to feel heat again, I never thought I would have that feeling.

Merry Christmas!

Massive Cave. Maybe Thanksgiving.

Youth Leadership Summit and Moving In

I'm writing this on the bus headed home from one fun gathering of youth and friends. The youth summit was located in Dupax Del Norte in Nueva Viskaya, North of my site by four hours bus ride. The bus trip took me from the lowlands I live in, into the mountains I can only just see at the edge of the horizon when I'm home.

Before I left for the summit on Thursday afternoon, I had to move out of my host family's house and move into my new apartment. I was able to make the move completely by bike, I made about eight trips back and forth, filling my backpack and grabbing another piece of luggage each time. I left my all my stuff all over the downstairs, locked my bike up, and started out for my trip North.

At 3:17pm I was on the right bus. I was left with one spot in the back of the bus where the seats had broken into a form that forces all who want to use them to lounge-out. Thankfully the trip was fairly uneventful, it was exciting to see more new countryside and to climb out of the farm lands into the mountains. Some of the roads looked hairy, with one side of the roads hugging the face of mountainsides, with a steep drop off the other side. I made it to Dupax Del Norte by 7:10pm.

When I arrived I was greeted by a van full of friends and we immediately rode towards the place we'd be staying for the summit. What we arrived at was a resort, the kind of place no one had imagined we'd be staying. We were given clean and comfortable rooms, a small room allowance for food and drinks, and were even greeted by the owner of the resort. This gave me a chance to finally catch up with my friends who I only usually get to communicate with through Facebook or text. After a few hours, we were all tired from traveling (everyone else had arrived hours earlier than me) and settled into bed, looking forward to the next day's events at the youth summit.

The summit was prepared to host about 120 kids but when all was sorted, we had about 50 youths. The first day had the youths doing group work and allowed us PCVs to break the ice. The PCVs rotated groups facilitating different activities all revolving around leadership. After several hours of groups everyone was allowed to go home and told we would reconvene the next morning.

The Bus Home for the Youth

After most of the youth had left, in a huge truck, the PCVs settled into one of the most favored pastimes here in the Philippines, videoke. The PCVs tried their hands at singing but none of us could really muster the courage to really belt out songs into the mic, instead we opted to do choral versions of all the songs selected. Songs included TLC's Waterfalls and an N'Sync song I can't recall the name to. Be assured that it was artistically impressive.

The next day of the summit (Saturday) PCVs were split into two person teams and had one activity they needed to facilitate the whole day. The youth would rotate PCV teams and by the end of the day all participants would have completed each one. I was partnered with my friend Alex and our activity was based around “discipline.”

Our activity started bumpy to begin, Alex and I were trying to grasp the concept as we went along too. We were able to get a good handle and flow to the activity and by the mid-way point we were really in full stride.

The Longest Line. A killer game.

Even with the activity in a form we really liked, it was short in comparison to the other groups, we were left with figuring out something to fill the time in with. First, we added charades, it would last one round and was a moderate success in all. Second, we added a cultural exchange, a time where the youth could ask us any questions about the US and even about ourselves. This was really fun, the youth took awhile to get rolling with questions, but after they started they hammered us with questions. One of our favorite questions was “what was the best Christmas gift you've ever received?” Finally, the last group we were working with even burned through questions so I had to come up with games on the spot. I did two games, “everybody up”, and a game I'm most proud of, “Over, Under” my quick-thinking adaptation of another game “Over, Under, Through.”

After the activities had finished, the youth and PCVs were both allowed to enjoy some videoke action. The PCVs opened the singing with another rendition of a favored N'Sync song. The youth finally started singing shortly afterwards, and further illustrated some of the great singing talents I could seemingly trip over wherever I'm at here in the Philies. After a couple hours of singing and dinner, the PCVs decided to pack it in and head back to the resort. No one hung out that night as most of us fell asleep moments after hitting the bed.

The next morning was for wrapping up the summit which included a tree planting and election for members of a new committee of youths. Also, the PCVs were allowed a chance to feel like celebrities when the youths mobbed each of us for out signatures and photos. The election went by quickly and the members who were voted in were some of the most standout participants, the PCVs were pleased. In the end, the PCVs were presented with wicker-back-packs (which are awesome) and received several seated ovations.

I was able to eat lunch with my fellow friends after the close of the summit but had to leave immediately afterward. I gave hugs all around and was driven to the side of the road where I found this bus I'm in now, writing this. I had to leave so soon and fast because I have to get my new apartment in order. As it stands now, I won't have a bed to sleep on tonight but I might be able to clean the fridge if I get there soon. 

The Long Road Home

Sadly, the bus trip has been slow. I've been on the road for about three hours and I reckon I've got several more to go.

Later... It took almost five hours to get home, as compared to four the other direction. I was able to do a basic set-up of my apartment but I've got a lot of work to do. Here's my bed and how I built it. The best way to end a great trip.

Half my dinner. Canned Vienna sausages.

Question: Work and Theaters

Picture Unrelated: In my right hand is a tiny spoon.

 

I got my first set of questions thanks to Travis. Here goes.

What's the average day like for you? You seem to be doing a lot of varied things. Do you work on your own time or is there a rigid schedule?

There was a time, in training and the first two months at site, that my days could be prepared for. Training was a whirlwind of “go here, do this, that, and another”, throughout current PCVs would tell me things would slow down when I got to site. I did get to site and it kept up, for awhile.

I had meetings with politicians, bankers, agency heads, and even my new office mates. I was ferried to varied events: Children's Congress, Agency meetings, awards ceremonies, and one youth competition in Pampanga. I had to find my way around my new home city, finding where I could buy black beans, peanuts, and locating a laundromat. In the middle of that was the flood that pushed a mountain of responsibilities on my department's shoulders, consequently shoving important non-flood related projects off into the future.

Thankfully things have slowed down a bit. People mostly know who I am, I know my way around town, it's a down period for events, and most projects have been caught back up to speed. I've actually had little to do for the last couple weeks thanks to all of the above. This period will pass soon though as I can look forward to a few big events: A dozen Christmas parties I “HAVE TO ATTEND”, proposal of my volunteerism project with the PYAP youth, preparation for life-skills training for street educators, inquiring about setting up a library (I was asked this moments ago), moving out, leadership summit in Nueva Viskaya, Christmas vacation in Sagada, New Years Eve in Manila.

That's just December.

In a day, I can go from doing a lot, to almost nothing. I come in at 8am and leave at 5pm. After getting to work I sit in my patio-furniture-plastic chair at my desk, turn my laptop on, and begin my day.

I do research for projects, like my life-skills training for street educators. I found a perfect life-skills training that was written up by other PCVs and will probably use it for my group.

I make proposals for all sorts of things, mainly trainings, but recently my biggest proposal is for a PYAP volunteerism group. PYAP is already a collection of youth in Cabanatuan but it's still in the midst of being rebuilt, it's been defunct for years in Cabanatuan. The idea is to have interested youths volunteer their time (and mine) to hold council and discuss community issues they'd like to see improved/changed. They would gather, discuss, find an item that concerns them (ex. trash on the street), discuss solutions (preferably of the sustainable variety), plan, execute, assess the results, celebrate, and begin a new project. That's the hope, the dream is to have it wind up a self-sustaining organization under PYAP where I'm not needed.

I advise my coworkers on a number of topics. I've been pulled aside to help with choosing colors for a t-shirt logo, making a catch phrase, proofreading English documents, crunching numbers too, and mostly talking about why I don't eat rice/do eat black beans.

I act as a resource really. I'm the ideas guy who has some skills, connections, resources, and a whole bunch of time on my hands. I have access to a pool of Peace corps information that has almost all the answers/guides to the issues I might have at site.

I also have downtime where I sit at my laptop looking at Facebook, reading Gawker websites, and writing emails or blog posts. These hours have been more abundant recently.

So it goes:

Arrive at work

Sit at laptop

Lunch

Sit at laptop

(maybe go into field?)

Go home

That's the most basic of days. There is room for me to out of the office all day in the field, or in a meeting. There just aren't many average days.

Also I remember you mentioned the theater a while back. Did you ever go to one?

We have cinemas here, two as far I know. I haven't been to a movie yet here but from what I've heard, it's a different experience. The reports I've heard are that some Filipino movie goers don't mind showing up for a movie half way through and sitting through the first half of the second screening to catch the first half they missed.

When I happened past a crowd in front of the theater in one of the local malls, I was surprised at the size of the mob. Thankfully I didn't need to get past everyone because it was wall to wall people in the lobby in a way that seemed to indicate the doors to the theater would be opening soon.

I've been offered a few opportunities to visit a theater but the selection of movies have yet to pique my interest. Of the three screens at the Pacific Mall nearby, two are often reserved for Tagalog movie (I don't know if they play with subtitles, I would assume not) and the last is English. Having only one screen available for English makes for tough competition for what get the spot. Breaking Dawn has that spot currently.

Natalie Leaves

 I just got home from saying goodbye to my friend. Natalie and I trained in Olongapo together but in separate clusters, we saw each other from time to time but rarely collaborated. When I found out where my site was going to be I checked to see who would be the closest to me from my batch, and that was Natalie. My first response was, “really? Natalie?”, I was unenthusiastic. I did know that I had little trouble or complaints regarding Natalie from training, I complained about others in excess, so I figured she couldn't be bad. Correct.

Sometimes your “feelings” are on the mark. While Natalie and I saw no reason to be friends before site, we made an effort to change that when we got to site. Our friendship immediately took off, we met on weekends, talked shop, and were even planning a vacation to Sagada, one of the coldest places in the Philippines, come Christmas.

I had prepped myself into declaring Natalie as my main emotional support, she was a friend, from my batch, and nearby so we could hand and process our Peace Corps experience together. Sadly, today that idea will be a dream from here on. Natalie opted to Early Terminate (ET) her service.

Why did she decide to ET so suddenly? I won't talk details, as she has confided in me and I'm still very much a friend of hers, but it was a sudden decision that she was more forced into making.

When I first heard the news of her possibly Eting I was unconcerned. As the days progressed and the final choice came to be ET, I still found myself unaffected. I reminded myself she would be fine and focused on the positive (oh me!). I'd been texting Natalie and she told me she'd be back in her city today and would leave tomorrow morning, today was my last chance to say goodbye. I said “see you later, “ and left directly from work to see my friend for the last time.

After an hour's ride in a bumpy jeepney, and a quick trike ride, I was finally with Natalie. We hugged, talked briefly and set out to find some food under a time limit. As I'm an hour's ride away, there aren't many jeeps back after a certain time, and that time was an hour after I arrived in her city, we had so little time.

She was upset over her decision but was at grips with it. She said she was so excited to see her dog again and have a real Thanksgiving. We went in search of a restaurant and gave up when no interesting candidates were found. I treated her to a supermarket banquet of cookies, peanut butter, and a drink.

We sat outside the mall, talking, drinking, laughing, encouraging, apologizing, eating, and even snapping a photo for memories. We noticed a group gathering where the jeeps park and figured that was my group (I had only one shot at getting a ride home at that hour). We made our way over that way and when a jeep barker announced the arrival of the last jeep to Cabanatuan City, we had to wrap our goodbyes up.

We hugged a good long time and wished each other luck. I ran off to the jeep and she walked towards a trike. That's how a new friendship was cut short.

I wrote a long time ago about the emotional support network here. It's mainly built of PCVs for me as I'm finding. If you imagine the game Jenga, where you remove a block (a friend?) from the middle of the structure and place the block on top of the tower, that about sums up this experience. A block was removed from my base and over the weakness is now more pressure, creating instability.

Don't worry though, I'm not teetering on the edge yet, I'm alright. The departure of Natalie came with hurt and it'll weigh on my mind for awhile. I still have my local PCV friends Emily and Caitlyn, they're wonderful people. I'm trying to turn this serious downer into encouragement, something to that makes me achieve more in my site.

We'll see.

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Celebration

Some guy sleeping on me as I started out.

Oh boy. I've just returned (as I write this) from a four day excursion in Manila. The reason I went to Manila was to celebrate Peace Corps 50^th anniversary and to see my friends.

Fresh PCVs, like myself, have waiting period after swearing in where they can't take annual leave. Since the 50^th fell on a Friday, we were allowed a special exception to take annual leave in our waiting period, and a good number of PCVs from my batch seized the opportunity.

I packed up and headed that way on Thursday afternoon, the 3^rd, as my ride I was supposed to have on Friday morning had fallen through. I met up with fellow PCVs Caitlyn, Emily, and Natalie in a nearby town and we hopped on the first bus that would have us.

Two-ish hours later, plus a ride on the light rail system, we arrived at Pension Natividad; the hostel PCVs use the most in Manila. We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for a fancy dinner later that night and before I knew it I was in a taxi headed for some highfaluting hotel.

I was under dressed in a sea of three piece suits, Barong Tagalogs, flowing dresses, and belts. I forgot to put a belt on. Thankfully no one was turned away and we were all allowed to mingle with the crowd of RPCVs, Peace Corps Staff, USAID staff, and politicians.

I met some interesting people at the dinner:

• I met a guy who was a member of the first(!) batch in the Philippines.
• A guy from a batch in 1969. Very interesting gent who lives in the Philippines and dresses as Santa in the holiday season. He did in fact look like Santa in plain clothes.
• USAID staff
• The Peace Corps Director
  
  
  
  
  

That last one listed is pretty cool. Aaron Williams doesn't just swing by at random, he's usually found in DC. Since the Philippines have been a part of Peace Corps for almost all of Peace Corps' existence, he came out to show some love. He was a nice guy but I spoke with him for a minute.

The food at the gathering was FANTASTIC. I've got a diet but I abandoned it the moment finger-food-everything was wheeled out. I ate roughly 20 miniature mocha eclairs and 30 chicken skewers. There was also wine.

The next day was the actual celebration at Mall of Asia (MOA). With a group of friends I arrived at 9:50am, prepared for a day of standing, shopping, and eating. All of which I did in excess.

The events were interesting enough but they were more aimed at the public. I ambled through the displays and demonstrations, watched my friends perform on stage, watched speeches, and walked in a “parade.” The parade was just walking behind a marching band, they played very well.

After the speeches and parade the celebration shifting into info booth shows and I began the impossible task of exploring all of MoA. That mall is so big that I don't know how much of it I saw. I walked a good distance and saw a number of storefronts, but the directories kept showing more.

After a fantastic burger lunch at Wham! Burger, expensive coffee at The Coffee Bean, and several hours waiting, the flash-mob kicked off.

Flash-mobs are defined as an event that is organized within a large number of people (like PCVs and PC staff) and is enacted in a surprising fashion in a public place where bystanders are none the wiser. Our flash-mob was a choreographed dance of almost seven minutes long that was near the end of the entire program. It went very well, even without my help. Here's the video of the dance, if you have amazing eyes you can see me walking out of the crowd on the left of the screen after a couple minutes. I didn't know the dance.

On Saturday, I went to a farmers market in Makati that reminded me of the ones back home. Makati is one of the more wealthy areas in Manila and the prices at the market reflected on the products. Quality was thankfully part of the bargain.

After the market a few friends and I decided to visit a tourist-y place in Manila and decided on Intramuros. What I know about Intramuros is still limited but from what I recall it's a place that was here before the spanish showed up, and they built onto it. It resembles a walled city, the wall being twenty feet high and thirty feet wide, allowing space to walk along its surface. Within the walled area was one ancient cathedral, built in the 1570s. The belfry was impressive with its massive bells. I couldn't tell if they actually rung them as there was a gift shop in the same room as the giant bells.

Sadly our sightseeing trip in Intramuros was cut short by the rain. Typical rain. My friends, Munya, Natalie, and Deborah, and I hadn't brought any rain gear and we hustled under a recessed portion of the ancient wall. The area we had chosen looked like a jail and lead out onto a bridge that spanned a shallow moat. Beyond the moat was what looked like a nice park to visit sans rainfall. 

We were trapped by the heavy rain but were willing to just wait it out. As it would turn out we would be forced to leave thanks to flooding.

Deborah and Natalie, trapped

The floor of the dungeon like area was dry when we entered and was for several minutes after the rain started up. This dry state was finite and my friends and I watched as a small puddle pushed it's way in from outdoors. This puddle crept across the floor at a healthy pace and within three minutes I, with my suede Nikes, couldn't put my feet on the ground without being soaked. A few minutes later pushed the water level to ankle depth and the water showed no intention of abating with the rain still hamming the ground.

Natalie, Munya, Deborah, and I were trapped in a watery dungeon. At least we were until a group of entrepreneurial petty-cab (BMX bike with sidecar) drivers assessed our situation and rolled in to lend a hand and a lift. For Php20 a piece my friends and I loaded into a single petty-cab, where the water was now over the floorboards, and began our short journey. The bike was half peddled, half pushed, by a large group of gentlemen that even included children playing along. There was a foot drop of a lip to climb out of the dungeon and this was the toughest part. With the water licking at our boots our new rescuers strained their bodies and wills (maybe?) to pop our chariot into the flooded street. Thankfully the guys who helped us out also flagged a taxi for us and we padded through the lightly flooded street from the petty-cab's interior into the waiting taxi. Those guys got paid well for a grand service.

That about highlights my trip to Manila. I was able to see some friends who are in sites far away and I even made some new friends. I ate great food at high prices. I had a good time. 

In-Country Friends

Kaiti and I

At the end of Pre-Service Training (PST) I had to say goodbye to my newly made friends as we all left for our sites. My batch of trainees was broken up pretty well and the friends who I'd made in Initial Orientation in different sectors or regions were also spread far and wide.

I had met my closest neighbor PCV, Emily, right after I knew I was going to Cab-City. Thankfully we've made fast friends already and that's a great thing. Near Emily is another PCV Caitlyn who I've not spent all that much time with but thankfully what time I have spent has been pleasant.

Natalie, me, and Lucy back in training

Another PCV is a little further off, Natalie, in Tarlac City and she's great. She's the closest PCV that trained in Olongapo like I did, so we've got a shared experience. We didn't know each other well before we got to our sites but we've hung out several times and are even trying to pull together forces for a xmas vacation up North. I'm lucky to have PCVs nearby and I don't ignore the fact.

To stay in contact with my friends who aren't so close I have to text. Texting here is done almost strictly on a pre-paid system and I can usually expect to burn through 100 pesos of load, load being the name of the money on the phone. Their all worth it though

All these people come together as a support group for each other and myself. It's a great thing to have some bros.

My group when we did immersion in Manila

Speaking of which, I'll be seeing a big bundle of the far flung PCVs at this Friday's Peace Corps 50^th Anniversary Celebration. I'll write more on this after the event, I might even get to meet the Peace Corps Director!