Arrived just a little hassled after an unexpected 5 hour stop over in Hong Kong. Apparently a switch fell off the dash board on the plane so we had to wait whilst someone came to fix resulting in a 2 hour delay at Heathrow and thereby missing the connection to Manila. Instead of arriving at a rather reasonable 6.30 in the evening it was almost 12 midnight by the time we got out of the Airport.
We had hooked up with Jerome a rather dashing young French man who is also a VSO volunteer - needless to say neither one of us had a number for VSO Philippines on us when things began to go pear shaped but luckily I managed to pull it off the laptop in time to call and let them know of the delay. What did we do before technology? Jerome and Marc hit if off from the start. Jerome is a marine biologist and will be based in Palawan -A rather lovely island which is rather fortunate for us, as we can go visit him.
Coming out of the airport reminded me more of arriving in Dehli than Thailand. The heat was quite oppressive and it was so loud!!! The major difference in the Philippines though is that u don't get hassled in the same way at all. People are really very nice and never seem moody - makes a change from London. The first thing that struck us was how busy it was so late at night. the roads were full everything seemed open - people seem to always be on the move . We arrived at Philam Homes which is a small gated community in Quezon City where both our guest house and the VSO office is based. Its an oasis in between 2 major roads. Very green and quiet theres a park, pool and tennis courts as well as a small supermarket, laundry barbers etc. Quezon is one of the many cities that make up Manila. Its where all the major hospitals and universities are and is apparently quite green although I can't say I've noticed.
It was lovely to escape the traffic but our journey was not quite finished as we had the wrong address and spent about 30 mins trying to work out which was the Right house. In the end we called the VSO emergency number and finally got into bed about 2.30am. (picture of house above)
NO REST FOR THE WICKED!
We all got up for breakfast the next morning and met the other new VSO volunteers. One from Holland, a Canadian , a Kenyian and of of course Jerome. I thought they were joking when they told us we were starting ICT (in country training) that morning but low and behold a member of VSO staff arrived @ 10am to take us to the office for an induction into Philippine culture. Off we went (kids incl). I was very impressed by the offices and shown my very own office. It was once a large residental house and has marble and wooden floors which makes it very cool. Its also air conditioned so it was nice to get away from the heat. We also have our own cook who cooks us a hot meal each day for 70p each and puts on fresh coffe etc in the morning!
The kids loved the induction which was a lot of fun and involved eating lots of sweets. We were then all taken to the nearest shopping mall to get photos and lunch. Shopping is a national past time for Philipinos. It is incredible the number of and the size of the malls here. They are full of all the shops we have at home including Marks and Spencers, Clarkes and Debenhams and are air conditioned and very trendy - basically most people seem to live in the malls to escape the heat and pollution thats out on the streets. They have bars cinemas, restaurants, gyms and nightclubs in. In fact u could spend your whole existence in megamall HELL. No- really they are quite nice if u like shopping which I do! Especially when its so much cheaper!
Back to our first shopping trip - we all had to have a whole photo album of photos taken for various IDs etc. You can imagine that nobody looked our best - for the rest of my time here I will forever be presenting a rather washed out faded version of me after very little sleep and a rather long journey.
The next day we were once again rounded up at 9.00 and taken out for "street skills". This was another assault on the senses and seemed to consist of taking every form of transport available in as short as time as possible. The girls loved it especially the jeepneys which are old extended US army jeeps that operate like buses. We ended up near the markets and old cathedral where masses are played onto a huge screen outside in case u can't get in. The markets were great - everything seemed to cost 20/30p whether food or clothes - mind u I wouldn't want to try and squeeze my "curvaceous" figure into some of the rather teeny weeny things on offer. DVDs were 70p for 12 films. The quality is a bit hit and miss but so far at least 50% are good and the rest at least good enough for the kids to watch.
Finally as if we hadn't been exposed to enough #new culture# we were also introduced to the other national Philippine past time which is karaoke! We stumbled across it the first time in the meat market between the dead chickens and other offal. the market workers entertaining themselves in between cutting chickens heads off. Philipinos will do Karaoke almost anywhere and take it extremely seriously. Eventually someone is going to ask me to get up which I have been told I must or be socially ostracised, God help them that's all I can say. Finally we staggered home this time in a cab but cetainly a little more enlightened.
