Time for some R&R

After 3 weeks in India, 1 week in Indonesia and one week finalising action plans and writing reports, it was time for some rest and relaxation. Stien and I ventured out on our first boat trip… 26 hours from Manila to Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan, an island south west of Luzon. Not so much fun during a tropical monsoon: it was like being on the pirate boat all night long! You go up in the air, your stomach holds on for 2 seconds and then falls back down… luckily both of us didn’t get sick! We enjoyed listening to other people sing (there was a videoke machine on the boat- hilarious!) and learning some more tagalog (picked up the most important sentences: “makano” (how much?), “tawad naman, puede po?” (can you lower the price please) and then big smile, haha!)

On Saturday we arrived in Puerto, and took a light Sunday: shopping and going around town. During the next week, we ventured out to Quezon to see the Tabon Caves and to Sabang to go on a hike to the underground river (only for the physically prepared the brochure said- me :-)!). We also visited the open prison of Irwahig, where prisoners can live with their families and earn a living through rice production and selling souvenirs. We asked one guy what he was in for… homicide (he killed his best friend after the friend had an affair with his wife)… time to get out of there!

After one week we went back to Puerto Princesa to take the boat to Coron, another island between Palawan and Luzon. During world war II, the Japanese hid parts of their fleet in the Busuanga islands group (they covered them with green canvas so that the Americans would think they’re islands – it worked for a while but when have you ever seen an island moving at 10 miles/hour? So when the Americans found out, they bombed all the boats, resulting in lots of excellent diving sites). Bert, my “colleague” here, has a partner organisation in Busuanga, they’re called Saragpunta and work for the rights of indigenous people. Bert provided us with a tour guide (Tonton, a really shy guy in the beginning but as soon as we left Coron he started to loosen up and was really funny). We went with him to Calawit, an island with giraffes and other wild animals imported by a previous ruler- a sort of safari park. But since there was a funeral that all employees of the park attended, we could not go there… not really a loss I thought. We stayed there for 1 day, and left at midnight on a small banka (little boat, where you can sit with 4) to cross a part of the sea. The plan was to take the jeep to Salvacion, a town 2 hours away and from there take a boat to Tending island to get a tan. But things didn’t work out that great…

The jeep left on time (the people managing it were the same we met a couple of days before, they were really cool and nice, so we were really pleased to see them again) but after about 5 kilometres we got stuck on this steep slope (here in the Philippines you find concrete roads only in big cities, as soon as you venture out in the countryside, there’ll be dirt roads all the time). The driver tried to get us out, but we slid further and further until he ended up with the back of the jeep in the ditch… impossible to get us out. So everybody had to get out of the jeep (this was at 2 am!), collect stones, branches, lift up the jeep, push it, … and it started raining again! The road became muddier and muddier, causing the jeep to sink deeper… at 4 am they got another jeep to pull us out of the mud- but the rope was not long enough so we almost got the other jeep in trouble as well. They headed back to a house, got a longer rope, got to the other side of the slope (going down), tied the jeep to it and finally got us out at 6 am… So far for taking a short trip. But for us it wasn’t so bad, we only lost time, the people of the jeep were more worried. Our guide told us that for every trip they use up about 1000 pesos in gas (16 €), but because they were stuck (and could not turn off the engine since they feared it would not restart) they used about 2500 pesos (40€). So we tipped them, they were really pleased with it. After this episode, there was a real bond between everyone – kind of like “we survived this”, and we had a great laugh for the rest of the trip. The engine broke down further down the road, everybody got out and pushed and jumped in while it drove, really funny. In Salvacion, they were really sorry to see us go. We got their address for Christmas presents!

Once in Salvacion, we found a place to eat breakfast (some other people of Saragpunta that we met in Coron were there as well) and then took a 2 hour boat ride to Tending, a small island (13 hectares) inhabited by 6 people: Max (father of Romal), Romal (5 years old) and Mimi, John and their 3 sons Ron-Ron, Joshua and Roger. We planned on getting tanned, but unfortunately there was a typhoon (the one that hit China hard, we only got strong winds and rain) so we forgot about that. Instead, we focussed on playing with Romal and getting him fat (“gusto mo ito cookies”? (you like these cookies?) “opo” (yes) and collecting our own food (snails – not so nice- and one teeny tiny fish… so pitiful). On Saturday morning we took the boat back to Coron and from there the ferry to Manila (delayed for 6 hours due to a storm – we were not so at ease). Once in Manila, we headed home for a nice meal and some sleep before the work week began again.

This week we’re having one party for Stien, her despedida, her going away party. She was here for almost 2 months to do research, we really had a lot of fun together. Some of our funniest moments:
- says Stien in the Saragpunta office: “I just bought the ugliest umbrella in the world” ; says one girl there “oh, I have the same”
- In the Tabon caves I fell, and while I’m saying to Stien “maybe I should fall again to even out the stains on my pants”, I glide – zwiep, bam – a bruise the size of a melon that’s been here for already 2 weeks
- In the hot springs, Stien tries to imitate my “zwiep”, but even more elegantly done: fully flat with 4 scrape wounds on her body
- By the way: we both have the same way of dealing with people who get injured: laugh like crazy
- We asked Freddy (the owner of the jeep) how far it still was, he says still 8 more baranguys, I say to Stien: “waw, all these guys have the same name, baran”
- On the trip to New Quezon, there are 2 towns: Conception and Salvacion behind each other… so first you get pregnant and then you’re saved?
- In burger king (only the best fast food in the world) they only had the “whopper junior” … “The cows were not fat enough to make a real one?”
And many more equally stupid…

Oh yeah, final note… I’m off pig meat (not beef yet). In Coron I saw a pig being hoisted on top of a jeep (2,5 meters high) solely by pulling on a rope that was attached to its legs. The pig was squealing like crazy. Second episode was on Prince Milan where they put a pig on the hood for a 50 km trip… squeal squeal squeal… When I worked for Hefboom, I once visited a pig slaughter house, and felt that the animals got treated pretty good… maybe only here it’s not so nice. Anyway, no more Lechon for me!

Field missions to India and Indonesia

In August and September I had my first field missions: 3 weeks in India and one week in Indonesia. Hectic but very interesting! I arrived in Mumbai on the 20th of August and then travelled south to Kerala and Bangalore, where I attended the ITUC seminar, the international trade union confederation – the new international umbrella organisation of the trade unions. In Mumbai and Kerala (see photo: team in Kerala) I met with NDWM and the Migrant Forum, 2 organisations that work for better rights of domestic workers and migrants. Many of them are exploited, get extremely low salaries and are treated very badly by their bosses. It was a real eye opener to see one of our partners in their daily routine.

After India, I left straight away for Jakarta (I was in Manila for 6 hours) to attend the seminar of one of the garment federations we will support in the new program. One of the objectives is to strengthen partners in the clean clothes campaign (CCC) – a campaign set up to raise awareness on labour circumstances in the garment and textile industry and the seminar held in Jakarta was an ideal opportunity to talk to that specific garment federation, talk to other Indonesian partners, meet with the sub regional coordination and discuss the tsunami program WSM has. Again a very busy week but it was great fun.

A few new adventures since the last update

21/7: Yuichi’s and my bienvenida to Manila
A great party, with fabulous people, food and entertainment. We had 2 fortune tellers present, who put down tarot cards, ordinary cards, read your hand and aura. A bit anxious at first (I didn’t want to hear bad news), I went to both… But no worries there for me, my future will be great! I definitely hope so!

2/8 till 5/8: trip to Bantangas
After working for 10 days in a row, we thought we deserved a break so Raffy, Nana and myself ventured out to San Juan, in the province of Batangas (south of Manila, about 3 hours drive) for a rest and relaxation break. We went to a really nice beach resort, chilled and ate a lot! Saturday night we supported local economy again by getting a body massage, fantastic! On Sunday, after a pancake and syrup breakfast, we headed back to Manila so we could start the week afresh.

This week
Mainly working, as I have to finalise the new action plan for 2008-2010 before my colleagues come back from their holiday. I’m also preparing for India, I’m leaving for Mumbai on August 20 and will visit NDWM, an organisation that works on labour rights for domestic workers in several states in India. Jeanne Devos, the founder of the organisation, is Belgian and was nominated for the Nobel Price for Peace in 2005 but did not win… Nevertheless, she’s an inspiration to many and I’m really looking forward to meet her and her staff and visit their projects.

This week there is also a typhoon here in the Philippines, but the eye of the storm is in Batanes, an island way north of the Philippines, close to Taiwan. Here in Manila we have heavy rainfalls but no strong winds, and some areas are flooded but it comes not even close to the floodings in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Thousands of people are homeless, have lost their livelihoods, jobs, crops and food, all their possessions. I’d like to wish them strength and courage to start again.

And finally, an event in Cebu caught the eye of the international press… Thriller, performed by inmates in the Cebu prison (also the prison where Nana shot her movie about children in prison). Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

Smokey Mountain II

Last Wednesday I went on an excursion trip to Smokey Mountain II, the area where waste is disposed, at the Manila bay. Smokey Mountain I was a famous icon in the Philippines in the 80s and 90s, plenty of photographers went there to show the extreme poverty and inhumane living conditions to the world. Seeing its controversy (there are people here who are as rich “as the ocean is deep”, others are starving), the government decided to strip it down (that was in 2002). They built housing blocks for the people that lived on the mountain, but the living conditions are pretty bad there and they didn’t think of relatives and friends of those people coming down to Manila as well… turns out that those housing blocks could not house all the people (and it’s expensive for them: the rent is about 20 euro per month, but those people only make 35 to 55 euro per month- when they’re lucky). So people had to move to the new dumping site, known as Smokey Mountain II. Around 12.000 people live there now, and more keep coming in every day.

When we arrived, we saw plenty of trucks full of garbage standing on a muddy dirt road, waiting to unload the trash on field next to it. Yuichi, my housemate, works for a Japanese NGO (ACCE) and they have a partner organisation on Smokey Mountain, so we first head out to their centre: a shack in the middle of the living compound, with no electricity during daytime and with a tin roof, hot as hell. Getting there was a bit of an adventure: we had to walk over a shabby wooden plank to get over the creek (full of garbage) and then through small alleys (not really alleys, they could fit 1 person), swarming with flies. In the NGO’s centre ( serves as a main office, school, medical centre, entertainment area, …), they explained us the history of Smokey Mountain and the poor people of the Philippines. Most people living there, scavenge for a living i.e. going through the garbage that the trucks dump there and look for anything worth selling. They make around 50 to 70 pesos a day (around 80 cents to 1 euro). As they work in the informal sector, they have no social security, no health insurance, no job security. They mostly eat “pag pag”: tossed away food they find in the garbage, dust off (that’s the “pag pag”) and fry it again. According to a recent study, people should earn 500 pesos a day just to survive here, put their kids to public school and provide for food and housing… You can imagine what conditions those people live in. We went to see the field where the garbage was disposed, people were going through it, looking for something pricy.

What struck me most was not the despair, but the hope of these people. They still have dreams, can laugh and hope for the best. They were not poor… because poor is the one who has no heart. May their dreams one day be fulfilled!

Bastille Day

The best, best, best treat in a long time: we got invited for Bastille day!

We got dressed up, hopped in the car at 6 o’clock and drove off to the Sofitel hotel, where the festivities for the French national holiday would be held. When we arrived, we saw really high society people, impressive cars, lots of security and big, German Sheperds, just the teensiest bit scary (as if!). Although we looked really fancy, we were totally underdressed compared to the others: people were wearing gowns and tuxedos or business suits… it made us feel a bit uneasy (just until after the first glass of champagne, haha!)
We went in and started mingling. After the speeches, we turned around to enter the buffet: It was designed to make you drool like a dog: camembert, brie, chaumes, roquefort, paté, rosette de lyon and other nice salami, pain de campagne, lamb chops, gratin dauphinois, red cabbage and a dessert buffet that would make anyone envious: crème brulée, milles feuilles, chocolat mousse, little tarts with strawberries, éclairs, … . We sat down at a table (after cleaning out the buffet) and started talking to people there, they said to us: “sorry, can’t talk now, have to concentrate on eating”. Haha! I think that’s how everyone felt! After the food, we watched the fireworks outside, talked to some people but mainly gazed at what the others were wearing and giving comments (we were too full to go and dance, haha!).

On Sunday I held a “Heroes” marathon, I watched the whole first season (not that I planned too, it was just too thrilling to stop watching it) and prepared for another week at work.

The beach getaway

In the weekend of 6th till 8th July Nana and I went to Davao for Sheila (Nana’s sister) and Rage’s wedding. Friday we spent the whole day in Davao, going for lunch, shopping, relaxing, meeting Nana’s family (they are so nice, really great people!) and telling family tales. Saturday morning we had to get up early, get washed and dress up for the wedding: first we drove to the church where Sheila and Rage exchanged vows, and then we were of to the boat that took us to Samal Island, a beach resort just 15 minutes from Davao. We stayed in this resort called Paradise island, and it was!!! We had lots of fun swimming, tanning and mostly eating! There was chicken barbeque, a lechon de leche (a roasted pig – this one wasn’t really leche anymore, it weighed 11 kilos- but still tender and good), a great chocolate cake, sashimi, …). And on Sunday morning room service for the 1st time in my life: Pancakes with strawberry jam and syrop + a cappuccino. DELICIOUS! We spend almost the whole day on the beach again, listening to Nana tell funny stories of her trips abroad, playing with Reema and Kallee (Nana’s nieces), and getting mangosteen and the sweet pomelo Davao is famous for. On Sunday night we flew back (temporarily stressed out though: our plane was delayed due to engine problems, and then when we went in, we sat on the 2nd row and I kept thinking (it was too freezing cold to sleep!!!) “if we crash, we’ll die too since we’re so close to the cockpit!” Fortunately, we arrived safely in Manila past midnight. And then it was just another work week, sweating over the new program 2008-2010 that we need to finish before I’m off to India in August and there’ still loads to do…

Check!

For my BFF (best funny friend) Babs, with whom I travelled through New York, Mexico and Guatemala and some parts of Belgium too... check this (v)...

Last weekend we went to a concert of Joey Ayalla, a famous Philippino singer, he's really good and funny! (and I shaked his hand (check "meet a celebrity"). We went there with Kat, Boyet, Cita (who was very excited) and Emily, a Fullbright scholar from Georgia, who's been here for 8 months already. That night we decided to meet up again the next day to have drinks and go to a photo exhibition of Emily Shieffer (another Emily- but also a Fullbright scholar) who's been working with poor kids close to Manila. She's a really talented photographer, and spent the last year teaching kids how to take pictures, and this exhibition was the final stage of her project. The photos were really amazing, some were taken by 15 year ols, it was incredible! I went there with the MRT (Metro up in the sky, really nice, check "endure public transport"). I also met my first admirerer (check "pick up stalker").

After that we went to the "fête de la musique", a music festival in Malate, a touristy area of Manilla (with a lot of old white men and young Philipina women). It was like the "Gentse Feesten", there were 4 stages, one with hard rock bands, one with reggae, one with hip hop and then a main stage with pop music. The crowd was really diverse (met some young punk people) but the atmosphere very cool and laid back. The perfect Saturday night outing! Check " kick back at summer festival".

Sunday was mainly relaxing and making pasta (check "busting my butt on mean lean cuisine") and ... PREPARING FOR OUR FIRST PARTY! Yuichi and I haven't had our "bienvenida", so we decided to launch one on July 21st in our house off Land Street. Nana was really up for it, so we started planning directly (we already set up a guest list, will now make invitations, and decide on decorations etc.). And this weekend actually, we're having a try-out party for Elle's birthday, just to make sure that the 21st will go by smoothly. But do we really need a reason to party??? Check "getting a new hobby" too!

To finish off my check list, I went to an Aikido-class Monday (check "aiya wha... my first time martial arts"), not that I will be good at it I think. It's too zen... unlike me.. haha!