Can it already be the 1st of July? I uploaded these photos a week ago and still haven't edited the text. Things at work are very busy (but very good) lots of my Knowledge management tools are coming to fruition which provides a nice sense of achievement after a slow start. Can't believe I am well into my second year here already and feeling so at home.
Having said that we will be in 3 weeks and I can't wait to see everyone. Only myself and the kids are now going. We got stung by the Oasis collapse and although I'm hopeful we will get the money back on the credit card its 2K pounds+ for all 4 of us to go to UK Also Marc now has a job with a friend of ours setting up a solid waste management company, whilst its not permanent, its good wages whilst it lasts and gets Marc in the job market again. Its hard here as local wages are so low - its difficult to compete within local labour. Marc's boss has suggested a new possible project from August for 3 months at a slightly lower salary - I'm just hopeful that the longer he stays the greater the chance of something more permanent coming up or an alternative comes up elsewhere.
The photos posted are from our summer holiday to Palawan with Jo, Gaz Stephi and kids from UK. It was a great trip. The actual road trip there was at times both terrifying and exhilarating
catch all the action here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMLt4uqdl3I
catch all the action here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMLt4uqdl3I
Port Bartin is a lovely place - very rural and therefore interesting, as you can get the beach holiday whilst getting a feel for rural life. Port Barton only consists of a couple of roads, a handful of resorts and bars along the beachfront and a few small shops. As the road is so bad they are very dependent on boats to get supplies in and if the weather is bad they are completely cut off. The house we stayed at was great owned by Mal Brewer an Aussie. It's the house with boat in foreground marked port Barton. The cost was about 250 quid for the week but for that we had another house thrown in at Nao Nao for overnights or picnics. The picture of the girls playing with machete in the sand was taken at Nao Nao, as were the action man coconut tree climbing shots. The house at PB had its own bar complete with pool table , table tennis and badminton for the lawn. We hired the local staff so had someone to cook clean and shop for us each day. The great thing about self catering in the Philippines is you don't actually have to do any "self-catering"at all! We ate well - lots of fish - fresh lobsters - and lots of barbeque's on the beach.
The house was large and could easily have slept a couple more than the 9 of us.
The main attraction is however the fabulous beaches off shore in the many small islands off Port Barton - I saw my first turtle and the kids loved the snorkeling once they got the hang of it, especially the clown fish (Nemo!) it really was the best so far here in the Philippines with giant clams, huge extensive coral reefs and abundant fish. We went out in the boats 3 of the 7 days we were there - a boat was around 16 quid for the day for 4 people - with a beach barbecue cooked by the fishermen for lunch. Back at Port Barton the favorite hang out was Judy's Place which did great food. Marc had met Jim ( and Aussie) and Judy on his previous trip to PB with Boyd last September http://camperbellescapers.blogspot.com/2007/10/action-action-action.html. The girls took themselves off for pancakes everyday and Judy quickly became their favorite person in town.
After the holiday there was time for a few girls nights out in Manila taking in the bars and revelry in Makati and Malate. Jo and the girls enjoyed the shopping and pampering sessions in the local malls. Gianna enjoyed the girls being around but of course there were the usual squabbles especially as 3 usually leaves someone out....
Since they left Gianna and Angelica have both restarted school and seem to be settling in really well. When we went to Gianna's school they had erected banners with pictures of the cheerdance competition. Guess who was featured - yes Gianna - her celebrity status assured for another year!
She had a great birthday party at the beauty bar where her and 7 friends had their nails painted with nail art followed by pizza. It was a good mix with a couple of the girls from the British school and the rest from Gianna's school they all seemed to get on well. Its so different, this year, compared to last, when we were completely lost and out of our depth, not knowing the school system. Suddenly its all so easy and familiar and Gianna has lots of friends. She is even talking about staying on at CSA next year. She has started guitar lessons no doubt with aspirations to become the next Avril Lavine.
We've had out first Typhoon in Manila. We slept thru most of it as it hit early Sunday morning. Marc and his mate Michael had been out watching the European football, well at least till the typhoon cut the power. They had to pay triple fare to get home as there was quite bad flooding. Apart from the power gone for a few hours we weren't really affected but other parts of the country were really badly affected the number of dead was 540 as of Friday evening included at least 291 were reported injured while 277 remained missing.
The typhoon affected almost 3 million people 4000 villages. At least 65k houses were destroyed and 167K damaged. The estimated cost of damage to infrastructure and agriculture amounted to P7 billion. The fact is that as most people live in wooden structures they don't stand a chance against the wind and high seas that come with the Typhoon. Most the the fatalities drowned either at sea or in their houses washed away by the floods.
The worst incident was of course the sunken ship. The figures don't include the 500+ still missing from the ferry that sank. Typically the incident illustrates the poor safety records in the Philippines and complete disregard to basic good practice. For starters the manifest doesn't match the number of people on the boat, the boat set sail even though a typhoon warning was in place and it appears that although a distress signal was sent 2pm in the afternoon the ship was not reached for almost 24 hours even though it was close to shore as all rescue vessel were in Manila. Very few people got into life boats even though land was within sight of the boat and survivers report that the crew were more interested in saving themselves - most children and older passengers did not even have life vests on when the boat turned. Most alarming was the discovery that the ship was carrying highly toxic pesticides not included on the manifest at the time it sank. This was only disclosed after the divers hadalready begun operations to retrieve the bodies leading to the divers having to be hospitalised to check they had not became contaminated. Apparently the pesticide was being sent to the Del Monte factory although I heard reported its use was supposed to be banned several years ago. No more canned pineapples then! We have never actually been on one of the large ferries and incidents like this reinforce the view, that carbon footprint or not we're better off in the skies. This is the 4th major ferry disaster for this company in the last 20 years.
We've also had a kidnapping which in the soap opera we call "Living in the Philippines". It started off as a journalist and her crew being kidnapped by "Muslim extremists linked with Al Quiada" and ended up as basic extortion with the Mayor's son being charged with Kidnap - He who had negotiated the release of the hostages for millions of pesos. Seems the Journo wanted an exclusive with the Leader of the Muslim Group and everyone decided to get a piece of the action. A major flaw in stopping kidnapping is that ransoms are routinely paid for kidnap victims. So whilst most victims are freed unharmed kidnap is generally accepted as a easy way to raise funds for whatever cause you are seeking to support, including a better lifestyle for yourself. Having said that I certainly would not want to the hostage if the payment policy changed!
