Maupay Nga Kulop! (which means Good afternoon in Waray - the local language here)
Today is the 1st November, which is Saints Day. In the Philippines, this is a national holiday so although it's a regular Monday and I should be at my placement - today I get the day off.
So firstly, let me tell you what I got up to this weekend! Friday was Matt's last day at our placement so at 4pm we had a big farewell party at the RRCY. All the other volunteers came along and we sat through a very sweet ceremony consisting of messages from some of the boys as well as dance and music performances by some of the residents. This was followed by a makeshift disco and the residents cutting some shapes!
Saturday was an excursion day. As part of being a volunteer here, we get two excursion days. The first excursion for me, was last weekend where we visited some of the other project sites including the Dumpsite project and Build-a-Home project. It was wonderful to see a brand new home that had been built through funding provided by Walter, a donor in Hawaii. We were fortunate enough to have Walter present with us that day and to be able to hear his story and reasons for getting involved with this type of project. Later on, we spent the remains of the afternoon at Tadyaw, a beautiful beach resort.
This week, the excursion was to Calawayan, another beautiful beach resort. I decided to take a quick swim over to a near by Island. Error: About half way across I felt a sudden shock down my entire arm. I turned around and slowly hopped back to the shore. It seems I managed to get stung by a big jelly fish. I've never been stung by one before so I didn't really know what to do. I was advised to put ice and sugar on it which seemed to do the trick. My best attempt in describing it to you would be comparing it to a really bad encounter with some stinging nettles! You could see a huge line down my back and arm of where the tenticle had stung me. The rest of the day was spent pretty much chilling and collecting shells - I found some keepers. Unfortunately, when I showed them to the kids at home, they didn't remain in my possession for much longer.
So now I'd like to share with you some of the daily rituals I complete in order to demonstrate how living here is an experience far removed from my home comforts. I am not complaining - I'm merely trying to convey to you how different life is out here!
Showers and Toilets: There's no running hot water here. Toilets don't flush themselves. Most homes don't have a shower head... or a shower for that matter. They have what is called a Comfort Room, consisting of a toilet and a hose pipe. Once you're finished using the toilet, you have to fill a bucket with water and pour it down the bowl. Showering involves the same bucket...and with a scooper, you pour cold water over your head - as simple as that. In many ways it's actually quite refreshing, considering how quickly you get hot and sweaty in this place!
Laundry: Laundry is an interesting one! The lack of hot water is the least of your concerns. I wash my clothes once a week. For me this involves sitting on a little stall outside my house with a big bowl filled with water. I then scrub each item of clothing with a bar of soap detergent and then rinse each item, one by one. Clothes are then hung outside until they dry.
Weather: As mentioned, it's generally very hot and humid here. My tan is booming - and I've even managed to burn myself once, which is very rare for me and my African skin (alright I'm not african but I've definitely got Mediterranean blood.) I've yet to wear anything other than t-shirt, shorts and flip flops! All my long pants and sleeves have remained folded in a drawer somewhere. However, despite this glorious weather, it's a tropical island and so it rains frequently and when it does, it rains hard! It takes no more than 10 seconds to be completely soaked. Carrying an umbrella is essential and probably the most necessary accessory to have here. I've managed to break two already! No big deal when they cost about 1 pound!
So that's what's happening right now. There's been a few new volunteers arrive in the last week so it's been fun meeting new people, seeing new faces and showing them the ropes here. What's coming up? Well It's likely to be more of the same - The RRCY, tutorials and more fun times with the group of friends I've made here. Two of the volunteers, Matt and Madri are moving to Ormac (another settlement about 2-hours away) to complete a separate placement for a month so we won't be seeing them as often for a while. However, myself and Hazel (who's the dance teacher here) are planning on visiting them for a couple days at some stage.
It's been lovely updating you once again. Next time, I hope to share some of the Waray Waray language that I have picked up here.
Much love!
Sam
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