Explosion

There was an explosion in one the Malls in Makati on Friday lunchtime killing 9 people. At this stage its a wide open field as to whether it was a dreadful accident or a deliberate act. What seems to be emerging in the press, is that if it was deliberate, far from being the work of a radical Muslim or Communist group - the groups that have been linked to similar acts in the past - they are pointing the fingera little nearer to home, either the military or the Palace- some commentators say the president has the most to gain from the tragedy, as it takes the heat away from the latest bribery scandals. After a weekend of debate over what sort of explosives where used - Monday has brought the revelation, that in fact no explosives have yet been identified and the blast came from a store room in the basement, where all manor of chemicals and an oil tank were stored. It may well be that this is eventually found to be caused by the prevailing poor attitude to basic health and safety - We will see - For now we don't feel any less secure as we have no indication this is anything other than an isolated event - lets hope that is the case. Try this link for a view from one of the Philippine Broadsheets http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=95909 and watch this space :)

Diwali Dhoom and Catwalk Capers

Last Saturday we decided to go along to a Diwali celebration being held by the Indian Womans Association. It was a fabulous night - they had a fashion show of saris along with Bollywood and traditional dancing, with all the kids joining in. The great thing was the atmosphere and of course the food - the primary reason we went along. Quite a few of Gianna's school mates were there - there is a large Indian Community in Manila and many go to Gianna's school. Gianna enjoyed the fireworks but Angelica just covered her ears!

Angelica and I had out hands hennaed......You can see Angelica on the stage in one photo (in the distance) in the arms of the winner of Indian Idol! She was less than impressed by the attention. Poor Angelica is so fed up of everyone telling her how beautiful she is ( she's fair) she just scowls and puts her tongue out! Most other people we know went along to the Hoedown being held by the Americans - That cost too much for us and although they had a free bar I heard it ran out of beer and wine by 8pm - I would have been well unhappy if we'd forked out 30 quid for a ticket!

Sunday I took the new volunteers around Manila for their street skills. Its amazing how different the places seem now. We followed the same route we took when we were newly arrived. I just remembered being overwhelmed by the number of people, the noise and the traffic..... what a difference 7 months makes...I felt quite at home showing the others about. I've added some touristy shots of Manila for a change to the traffic scenes.

Monday I had off in lieu and went to a charity fashion show.....(life is such a social whirl)....that was great fun too. It was held in one of the hotel ballrooms and in true catwalk style the champers came out at 10.30 - followed by a yummy lunch. There were lots of people I knew there I hadn't realsied just how many I have got to know in the time here. Great way to spend a day off work eating drinking and being (very) merry.

Talking of work - things are going well and I am still really enjoying it. Spent the last 6 months planing a new meeting and learning cycle with the team and integrating it into their M&E systems. Next for review is the basic training which I currently working on, with a new course planned for January. I am designing my workshops with the partners and volunteers for early next year- the aim is to get the 40 partners to institutionalise learning systems as part of our capacity building for VSO pull out in 2010. Then there's the new communication strategy for partners and volunteers and finally development of the knowledge legacy for the handover . So enough, I think, to keep me out of too much trouble.....!

There is a much more relaxed approach to kids and work here and people regularly bring their kids into work. Gianna pops by on the way home from school and does her homework in my office. Marc and Gianna often drop by to say hello or I can go and pick Angelica up from nursery and walk her home as she is only 5 mins away. I like working with the team - its a very social atmosphere which revolves around food. Filipinos eat at least 5 times a day and the mid morning and afternoon snacks are important focal points in the day. Everything stops for Merienda...Its hard to avoid actually eating ( i would be huge if I did) but they have gotten used to my strange ways and I will join them but avoid the spaghetti, donuts, noodles, buns served as snacks before lunch and dinner! Lunch is a good time to catch up on the gossip as everyone sits down together for our cooked lunch where most of the chat (Chismis) is in taglish....Marc and I are still persevering with our tagalog each week - and some of it seems to be sinking in....some :)

I am busy preparing for Mums arrival - we sort of stopped with the house when we weren't sure whether we would move. Mothers arrival is providing a catalyst, to get the few extras, we had planned to make the place more homely. I'm looking forward to the break in Bohol because although it must seem like we are always away, apart from the long weekends, its all been linked with work/workshops. The 6 days in Bohol will be the longest complete break from work since I arrived, although working at beach resorts is of course not such a hardship and I mustn't complain. It will do Gianna good to have a week off school and the early mornings and recharge all our batteries........

And finally, the latest installement from your political correspondant! Last week the senators that support the President went over for breakfast and were given bags ( not envelopes) containing between P200,000 & P500,000 (2000 and 5000 pounds), about an average annual salary! One whistle blower went public and now more and more are owing up in the press each day, to taking the bags .It has been suggested, the money is a reward for the senators support for a sham impeachment - which has given her protection from a real impeachment attempt for another year. It appears that no-one can/will say where the money came from or why the senators were given it....It makes cash for honors seem relatively tame ................!

Food "glorious" food

Some weird and wonderful foodie things from Manila -

The Ice cream thing is called Halo Halo and means mix mix . Basically its ice cream with lots of other things like sweetcorn, vegetables, beans, jelly, cream caramel, ice ....... in fact it seems that anything can go in a Halo Halo - personally I find it rather perturbing to find a sweetcorn or a haricot bean in my ice cream ! The rather bright orange things with legs are day old chicks fried! You can see the stall vendors laughing at the look on my face! They do a lot of strange things with eggs! they boil them, bury then in salted ground and colour then purple ( Very popular food colourant here - purple cakes are very common!) .

They also eat egg embryos - Balut is a popular Filipino street snack and is essentially a duck egg with a fetus inside, typically between seventeen to twenty days in gestation. It is so popular that it is equivalent to what the hot dog is in the states. There are balut vendors who push around carts full of fetal treats and bark their wares in a sing-song chant of “baluuuut, baluuuut!” Balut is also a popular aphrodisiac for men so beware the man with the embryo in his mouth ...........................

The table of vegetables are in fact "medicines" - Filipinos embrace alternative medicine - a lot of the time because they can't afford a real doctor, although there is also a deep respect for faith healers etc.. This table of goodies that claims to fix all known ills including cancer, hepatitis, fertility ..... is outside the big church in Quiapo in downtown Manila. So if praying for a cure does not work u can hedge your bets and buy some herbs to do the job instead. Even educated people tolerate the quack doctors. On an office outing, where one of staff stepped on a sea urchin, the healer was brought in to blow on her toes and announce she had been bitten by a snake!For P125 he claimed to cure her and save her life - until she had to go to a real hospital of course 2 days later for proper medicine to treat infection from sea urchins.....

Theres a huge market in wonder diet therapies and all manner of things claiming to make skin white - a national beauty obsession - along with vitamins and of course formula milk - A lot of money spent on crap cures and inappropriate nutrition by very poor people - having said that Balut is probably quite good for u although I'm not sure of the nutritional value of a day old chick!

Action Action Action

September has been a mad busy month - It started off with a volunteer conference at the Gardens of Malasag Eco Tourist resort in Mindanao for me - http://www.philtourism.gov.ph/ecom_desc.html The aim was to facilitate learning between the volunteers around the issues of conflict management , although the "open space learning" ie time at the bar and swimming pool seemed equally valuable (strange but true).

The highlight for me was the field trip on the Wednesday to another eco park - Mapawa Nature Park, where we undertook abseiling, Zip lining, canyoning and horse back riding. The riding , western style, was great! We trekked up to a hill overlooking the park where they farm 700 head of cattle- fantastic views. (Thats me action Girl in the photos)

In terms of the field trip, as Knowledge management adviser, I suggested, that the skills acqired were in fact relevent to conflict resolution - As in - get out of the conflict zone asap by whatever means necessary - The only 'real opportunity to practice my new found conflict resolution skills was on the taxi driver, on our way home after the "disco"in Cagayan De Oro. Following the huge row about why he wouldn't put the meter on (AGAIN) and the clear lack of resolution on the issue- I suspect I need to try a little harder before I'm sent anywhere as a UN peace negotiator! Note taxi drivers in Cagayan D óro are the worst in the whole Philippines - FACT!

During the workshop we were introduced to "Ridos"which are clan feuds that happen fairly regularly in Muslim Mindanao. One of the NGOs that we work with tries to prevent the clans killing one another. Islamic law has more prominence in these areas and disputes are often settled by payment of blood money. The NGO trys to avoid the spiral of violence that arises once "tit for tat' killings start - an eye for an eye approach to justice. For my colleagues in Mindanao, Ridos can regularly disrupt their work and they have to withdraw until the matter is settled. The rule of law is very different in Muslim Mindanao and has little reference to Filipino law - Its a world away from Cosmopolitan Manila. Its also true that outside Muslim Mindanao, the rest of the region is like anywhere else in the Philippines - there are some fantastic tourist spots that have until recently struggled to survive, being tainted by the "Mindanao Reputation". Camiguin is still my favourite island, yet it is in Mindanao and gets far fewer visitors than it deserves - visit now before everyone discovers it! The Peace Accord between the government and rebels is on the verge of being signed, no doubt helped by the prospect of 190 million dollars of US aid promised for the region, when completed. Hopefully this will lead to a boost in tourist activities generating much needed income for Mindanoans.

We've been to another cheese and wine frenzy this month - the 25th anniversary of the Manila Cheese Club. It was back to the Polo club for the event, where there were cheese mountains and wonderful wine! We ended up hanging out with a group of ambassadors - not sure of the collective noun for such an arrangement. The Brazilian Ambassador, who has now been posted to Pakistan, invited us over to his private residence the following week for his leaving do! Rather conveniently taking place on Marc's Birthday.

The day after the cheese club was very hard! I had to catch a 7.20 flight to Cebu for a workshop and a 9am presentation. I arrived back the next day as Marc left for Palawan - we probably crossed one another somewhere in the air! Marc accompanied a friend looking into buying property there. Palawan is often touted as the most beautiful island and has several large marine parks. Like many places it is still very underdeveloped in tourist terms. They met government officials and people who have invested in the area. They spent a lot of time riding around on the motor bike, on local boats , exploring beaches - a real road trip adventure by the sound of it.

We've had our second lot of visitors - Pete and Marie-Line from London. We took them to Nasugbu (Mayamaya Spa Resort) for the weekend- then Marc took them to Bohol for 3 days. Myself and the kids are heading down there at the end of the month with my Mum. The photo is of Marc and the little Tarsier Monkey - the smallest monkey in the world and indigenous to Bohol. They had great weather even though pouring with rain in Manila - with different weather seasons in different parts of the country, in theory it should always be possible to escape the rain somewhere in the Philippines.

Meanwhile in Manila we've been gripped by the political shenanigans of the country's politicians (again). The ex-president, Estrada, a former movie star, was found guilty of of illegally amassing about P4 billion pesos (US$81 million) in bribes and proceeds from illegal gambling. The court allowed Estrada to return to his Rizal rest house, instead of being hauled off to prison and he was then offered a presidential pardon - which he refused! Clearly its a soap opera that will run and run. This week the Philippine elections chief, who has been accused of offering bribes to a Cabinet official and a businessman, to push a Chinese broadband contract through, was forced to step down. No doubt he'll bounce back somehow b4 too long - Now Marco's family have filed to recover money they hid with their cronies, allegedly stolen from the country's coffers when they were in power! The cronies of course want to keep it and the Marcos family seem unperturbed at publicly trying to recover the money even though they can't explain how they got the money in the first place - If someone made a film - it would be called too far fetched!

And now its raining again! The monsoon rains have moved in and I'm feeling very cold and have evens switched off the AC in the office. Can't believe it but 24 degrees feels quite chilly! I have my long sleeved jumper and trousers on. I knew i'd acclimatised once I could wear my jeans out in 30 degrees and not melt....

The Tree Massacre

The tree massacre has begun - It's a beautiful tree but I don't want to live under it anymore! It makes living in our current house feel like living in a cave, as it covers the whole house and court yard. Not to mention the mozzies that are attracted to the pockets of fallen leaves on the nearby roofs.....I would be feeling guilty if I had suggested cutting it down - which I didn't! As the house slowly emerges from under its huge canopy, I can see new potential for plants, pots, and sunbeds. We are considering staying on here at the end of the contract next month! ! The money we will save on a move can go towards a little garden area. I won't miss the mango's dropping on the roof at night which was rather perturbing although great for a mango shake in the morning!

The landlady has been told by the Barangay (roughly equivalent to a ward in UK) Captain ( sort of mini mayor)to cut it down as dropping leaves on all the other properties and causing mosquito's etc. The tree has apparently been annoying the bloke next door, who's president of the tennis club, and therefore has a lot of influence around here.

Barangay Captains wade in on all sorts of disputes including domestic violence, child abuse and general anti social behaviour. They have their own guards to back them up. Power can and does get abused in some places and captains get shot, along with any other level of politician - but hey they would stop those never ending fence arguments in the UK if introduced! Marc was told off by our Captain for sitting wrongly on one of the Park benches! He was only copying a neighbour sitting the same way - anyway now we know what the Captain looks like. Not a lot happens without the Barangay Captains say so, therefore a lot of VSO work involves keeping good relationships with Çaptains in the Barangays were we work.

The tree surgeon or rather giant (A huge man particularly by Philipino standards) turned up at the door to tell us we needed to get the red dwarf out of the tree before he could cut it down. He told us he would be leaving some food to coax it out of the tree. Apparently we're lucky it wasn't a black dwarf? I assume the bad dwarf has now left, as the giant is now up there fighting with the tree, trying to cut it down with what appears to be a penknife or at most a very small machete. Given he'd already been at it for 3 days when the pictures were taken, he'll be living in the tree for some time to come! So goodbye red dwarf- hello giant and sunshine!!!!!!

Parents Day and Nursery Visit

Not sure if I've mentioned before that I had got roped into being a vice president of Gianna's class PTA. Anyway my first duty was to coordinate the parents day. Not having any idea what happened clearly hampered by usual creativity so I took a back seat and let the president take the lead. The parents day consists of the kids performing for the parents and the parents taking over the classroom with activities for the kids...

Initially I was told I just had to demonstrate napkin folding - and provided with instructions for this incredibly useful skill! However on the day I was left with the microphone, a timetable of activities and asked to compare the event as my President was off to his other sons class! Things were going Ok until we got to the ear ring making task. The kids were asked to get the glue out of their folders and produced 45 tubes of SUPERGLUE!!! Imagine the chaos - the hardest job was to keep them from sticking their fingers together - in the end I decided that just removing the glue was the best tactic even though by this time the tubes were stuck to floors/desks etc....There is a generally lower key approach to health and Safety everywhere but then has the more developed nations just become a bit overprotective? Not when it comes to superglue I decided!

We swiftly moved onto paper flower making and I volunteered to drop the napkin activity so save on time! Hopefully this won't be missed in the year end exams. The kids gave presents to their parents, introduced them to their classmates and then performed for the parents - Amazingly(sic) a song from HSM - the girls, and some rap number - the boys, followed by a rather sweet song about building a home. You can see these on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW9-TInKTsQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE0uXo3kFVY

Apart from the American accents it could have a been a school performance anywhere in the UK . The finale was a huge buffet of food the kids had brought in - nothing happens in the Philippines without food! The president was busy looking for the Samosas! He had written out the menu and was particularly looking forward to the Samosas from the Indian families. Advised me this was a major perk of the his role! Hummm must ask for a few curries for the sports day coming up! I was impressed that it was all so well organised especially when there are 45 in the class and their academic work is so demanding.

We've just finished the first quarter exams and I'm finally seeing the light! I now know where to look for the learning competencies, know the difference between a periodical and mastery test and the difference between homework, projects and assessments! Phew - to say its been a challenge does not come close to describing the last 6 weeks. However Gianna managed to pass in all subjects and get an overall grade of Good. Now we know what we're actually doing we should do even better next time. Basically its an hour of work or study each day to keep up but I'm sure they are doing stuff I didn't do till senior school and last week we had to get the dictionary out to understand the spellings! Gianna did really well especially as she missed a whole term of 4th year in the end and is the youngest in her class :)

I was away in Mindanao last week and came home to find that Angelica's class were coming on a field trip to our house. They are studying homes and wanted to visit one of the kids houses to look at the different rooms - Ate (the nanny) and Marc had done a brilliant job on the house and Angelica's room looked finished ( all those little jobs done) . Angelica proudly showed her friends around but then burst into tears when they left - she thought they were staying to play! The photos show her 2 teachers and the kids on the bed. In the photo u can see the labels they had to stick in each room- unfortunately we had a little hiccup at garden but we did manage to sick the label on our one plant in the yard!

Summer Update.....(as in UK season!)

Time flies by so quickly these days I can hardly be live its almost a month since the last entry. been spending far too much time on facebook and neglecting my blog. Well the rains finally arrived with a vengeance. We have had two typhoons pass us by. Whilst neither made landfall they drew in monsoon rains which meant we had torrential rain for about a week. Parts of Manila flooded and the schools were closed on both occasions something Gianna thought was rather fun! Marc ,not so, being stuck at home with the two kids for days on end. The only possibility for entertainment is to dash to the Mall in between downpours but that's not always feasible.

I was in Tagatay for the first soaking with the VSO staff team for work planning. Tagatay is on the ridge of a volcano, overlooking another volcano, in a lake which is also in a volcano. U sort of have to see it to get the picture, which I can't supply at the moment as visibility was nil due to the weather. U can trek up the volcano, but seemed rather pointless when I was there. The planning stuff was all interesting and spending a week with my colleagues helped my Tagalog especially as there was no cable TV and watched the soaps and Deal no Deal" in Tagalog every night!"

At the end of the week there was a joint staff Day with Bahaginan one of the VSO's federated offices here in the Philippines. There was lots of team building games and karaoke, the weather improved and we got to do some sight seeing.

For the second typhoon I was in Manila. Marc and I decided that we wouldn't be hampered by such a minor climatic event and took off to Malate to see a PINIKPIKAN again on the Friday night. The band played, the water rose and nobody seemed to care! At the end of the night I'm sure the taxi sailed home, there was just too much water to drive - Philam were we live doesn't usually flood so we are Ok - the malls keep open whatever, so we can get to the shops even if it means getting wet! Actually being inside a mall is probably a good survival tactic if a bad storm hits as once inside are oblivious to it all. Luckily we had Ratatouille and the Simpons movies on during the bad weather ................

In between the downpours we get good weather- very hot and dry in day although it does tend to still rain at night. We've had 2 bank holiday weekends in august so took off for the second. We caught a ferry over to Mindoro the island next to Luzon (Manila is on Luzon)) and went to Puerto Galera. We had been before, our first trip away for my birthday, but this time we headed off to White Beach and stayed at funky place called Coco Aroma. Nice beach, not exactly white sand but clean and clear water. Coco was at the quieter end of beach so could ignore the packs of young Koreans on holiday. We had a Nipa hut right on beach for p1200 (12 quid) and live music in bar at night.

Not long after we arrived got text to say that two different friends were also heading down to PG for the weekend although staying at yet another beach. We decided this was a good opportunity to try out a 3rd place in the area so headed by tricycle off to Laguna the next morning after a beach massage.

Here we found an even cheaper place, overlooking the small bay, for P800 and hooked up with our friends at their fancy resort ($60, 50 yards further up the beach) for happy hour cocktails. Had a lovely time hanging out on the beach - kids playing on the bancas with the buddies they met. A few sports bars at Sabang next to Laguna kept Marc happy watching football and rugby with one of his golfing buddies. We stayed another 2 nights before Angelica and I headed back via public transport whilst Gianna and Marc stayed on an extra day, as no school, and got a lift back from port straight to Manila with our friends.

One of the strangest coincidences has been us meeting a lovely English/Filipino couple who also have girls aged 3 and 9 as well as a new baby which arrived 2 weeks ago. We found each other via MSM - They live in Brighton but have moved here for Helen's 1 year maternity leave. Theres an amazing number of coincidences such as Paul growing up a stones throw from where we now live, Helen studying Archeology and Paul being into property development. Once Helen's back on her feet we hope to get out on the town! The girls got on so well. It'll be lovely for Angelica to have an English friend her own age, Gianna has Amy, but more importantly a relief for us to have some like minded brits with kids the same age, to hang out with. Everyone we have met so far has kids a lot older.