First, I should point out that there are NEW PICTURES UP!!!!
After weighing my options for the two weeks since my last update, I have decided that it would be better to actually experience something before I write any more.
I have been evacuated due to the erupting volcano, this is not news.
Friday I decided to take a vacation from my vacation and leave the peace and quiet of the Amor Farm Beach Resort in Donsol in search of better entertainment. A fellow volunteer, Richard Higgins, has a site in the town of Daet in Camarines Norte. He told me, earlier this week, that he was having a Solid Waste Management seminar. Given that my sector is Water and Sanitation, I felt obliged to attend.
By a strange coincidence, Daet also has the only good surf beach in the Bikol region. Must have been a lucky choice on my part to go....
SWM Conference Meringue
6 Volunteers
1 Local Official
3 Pieces Broken Audio Equipment
120 Eager Beaver Students
1 Pre-Arranged Conference
1 Not-Really-Pre-Arranged Thunderstorm
Paper
Markers
Sprinkles
Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
Mix in a large concrete bunker of a school.
Fully prepare conference and call local official to ensure community participation.
Slip rainstorm into mix when chef is looking at something else.
Giggle as chef swears in one of the hundreds of Bikol dialects.
Fall asleep after local official decides that it would be a good idea to read the recent government act on SWM to a bunch of high school kids.
Dream of electric sheep.
Awake occasionally to the soothing sounds of feedback through the speakers.
Conduct your portion of SWM seminar in loud booming voice reminiscent of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
...
Profit
After the conference, REAL PIZZA.
I must digress for a moment; when volunteers get together, our conversation drifts through many different topics. There is not one conversation that does not include the discussion of the foods we all miss from home. Don't get me wrong, Filipino food is delicious, but there are just certain nuances of the locals' taste buds that are not agreeable with American sensibilities; the closest facsimilie to cheese here is something called "Kraft Eden," the look/taste/smell of which makes me think of coagulated radiator fluid from the cold war era. Consequently, conversations usually sound like this:
"When I go home, I am just going to sit in in AirCon room and eat a block of cheese."
"I'll raise your block of cheese for two bagels with lox and a Dove bar."
"Oh you bastard, I'll see your bagels and ice cream and raise with a jar of pickles."
...and so on...
Cheese. Pizza. Turkey. Subs. BAGELS! Ice Cream. Real Coffee. Cookies. Pasta. Olive Oil. Spaghetti Sauce that is NOT LADEN WITH SUGAR!
There is a pizza parlor at the beach that had real mozzerella cheese and real pepperoni. That was nice. I ate so much that I got sick.
Afterwards, videoke. See pictures for highlights.
This place, Bagaspas beach, has an easy beach break and a really cool guy named Baker who runs the local waverider's club. Their surfboards were broken, but we got some boogyboards and had a good morning of it. I will return.
Until the volcano is done belching up lava, my address is whatever bus I happen to be on for the day. Who knows when this will end? My work misses me. I miss my work, but not enough to sneak back to Legaspi more than once a week. If things continue this way, I will go straight from my vacation to my second Peace Corps training in Iloilo City (Panay Island, Visayas).
Enjoy your dairy you bastards.
Goodbye for now.
ps - Has anyone recieved a postcard from me yet? I am curious about the world mail system.
4 comments:
Like the pictures - teach me that recycling jingle - so many people here Don't Get It! Why is it harder to put the plastic bottle in the blue bin than in the trash can? (And why is that harder than just letting go of it wherever you happen to be?). We humans are badly fouling our nest...
We can send you some REAL coffee if you think it won't tempt someone to ravage your package - do you have a grinder or what grind do you prefer (percolator, drip, espresso...)?
When does training phase 2 occur? Should I send a package to Legaspi City, or to the PC address?
Love, MA
mmmmmmm...pizza!!! if you want authentic but cheap italian fare (gelato P35, 12-inch pizza P245, italian pastas P150-P170) go to amici di don bosco at makati. (corner Arnaiz and Pasong Tamo streets)
it's cafeteria like, but the taste is authentic. it's a school run by italian priests...
hope this helps.
those pictures are great, i especially like the beard thing you got goin' on. I am in the process of reading On the Road as well, but I don't get to do it in a hammock halfway around the world.
Hell of love mang,
Louis
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