Graduating Students Retreat '08

My husband I and went on the graduating students retreat in Baguio city this February. My husband is graduating with and M.A. in Community Development, and I'm graduating with an M.A. in Applied Linguistics this April 6, 2008. It was at least as cold there as it was when we went to Baguio in the winter-cold at night and not too hot during the day.

The retreat was only two days and three nights, and

the schedule was really busy. It went something like this: Breakfast 6-7, Chapel or Devotional time 8-11:30, Lunch 11:30-12:30, touring Baguio 1:30-6:30, Dinner 6:30-7:30, after dinner activities 8:00-11. My husband brought me breakfast in bed every morning cause I don't like to get out of bed that early:)

We also went on a tour of the military academy.

I think my favorite place on the trip was the Strawberry Farm in Baguio. The strawberries were really fresh! I also

bought a small container of blueberries, fresh carrots with the leaves still on them, and large, seedless oranges.

going up to the village

These are some pictures from our recent jeepney ride up to a village. I remember that I was holding my hat and a lot of other stuff, and somehow I must have dropped my hat. I was never able to find it after that :-(.

in the village

We went to a village far up in the mountains. It took a six-hour long, tiring, bumpy jeepney ride on the edge of the cliff to get there. In the village, we went to a family reunion, where people eat a feast of boiled pork with rice. (Someone gave me sayote tops cause I don't like to eat pork.) When we came down several days later, I talked my husband into hiking, and we made it down to the lowlands in only five hours. It was great to get some exercise, but I could hardly keep my legs moving by the time we got down to the lowlands. We hadn't brought enough water, and couldn't find anyplace to buy water on the way down, and I was really feeling dehydrated under the sun. Finally we stopped and drank the juice of a coconut and some bottled water.

Community Development Day

My husband held a meeting with the village community for his Community Development internship. He asked the people who came to from small groups (with either just men or women) to write down the things that they think need attention in their community, then arrange these into categories. Mainly what they came up with had to do with taking care of the environment, which is also what he thinks needs attention there. His Community Development classes emphasize helping people with what they think is important rather than telling them what he thinks needs to be done.

our five-hour hike from the village to the lowlands

The second picture is of the town in the distance that we were heading to.

We saw a baby carabao, a goat, and crossed a long hand made (not using machinery) hanging bridge.

We crossed a smaller hanging bridge, a carabao stuck his tongue out at me, and we saw a couple of small children hiking to the other mountain. These children would have to hike for at least an hour to get to the other mountain, and no one was with them.

balagnot

You take off the outer bark and boil and eat the inside like a vegetable.

oranges