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

a funny story and other faulty assumptions about foreigners

A few of us went up to one of the villages, and I already posted some pictures below. Now I just want to post a funny story before I forget it. We walked from the Kalanguya center to the street in a group of 6, I think. The others got into the first tricycle, then my husband and I got into another one a few minutes later. After we were already hiking up the mountain, one of the people in the group, a former house mate, was laughing about something the tricycle driver had said. He had asked, "Isn't that foreigner going to ride, too?"
She told him that she thinks the American will walk to where we were going.
"Oh," the driver said, "Does she know how to walk?" He obviously believed that a foreigner wouldn't have ever walked more than a few steps.
She didn't want to offend him by saying that of course the American knows how to walk, and answered, "Well, maybe her husband will teach her how to walk."

Here in the Philippines, I run into funny assumptions about foreigners from time to time. Not all Filipinos make any or all of these assumptions. Many (or most) know better. Obviously my former house mate knew better. I also learned some from a few of the Burmese students at school that I go to. Here are some other faulty assumptions about foreigners that I've run into during my time in the Philippines:

1) All foreigners are very wealthy and have an unlimited supply of money. I don't agree. I know many who barley scrape by from paycheck to paycheck, and many who were not able to go to college because they couldn't afford it. Of course, about half of the population of Manila lives in squatter communities, so on average, I think we are better off.

2) Foreigners have never had to stand up on a bus. Yes, sometimes I will be just about the center of attention when I have to stand on a bus, and people will be worried that I'm going to fall. I've had to stand up on buses at least several times before coming to the Philippines, and I think I do pretty well at it.

3) The US is built on a slap of concrete with no grass, trees, or countrysides. I inferred that from a conversation I had with a few Burmese students. They were probably thinking of things they had heard about US cities or something and forgot that there are many people who live in the countryside, too.

4) Some seem to think that there is very little crime in the US, and that it would be a safer place to live. I haven't compared statistics, but there is a lot of violent crime in the US. There may be more snatchers here, but fewer who will kill you for your wallet. And almost everyone in the Philippines has bars on every window, so robbers have a hard time getting in (but it would be hard to get out if there were a fire). Houses are often broken into in the US, though, and the fire code does not allow people to put bars on their windows. Every house on the street that I used to live on in a suburban neighborhood in the US has been broken into. Murder and rape seems to be too common in the US. And I think laptops get snatched just as much in the US as they do here.

5) People never have to work their way through school. I know one very kind older Filipina who was telling about how she had to work her way through school, and her story sounded a lot like mine and many of my friends. Then she looked at me and indicated that she thinks I've never had any hardships in my life. Humm... But I was too polite to correct her.

6) Some Filipinos assume that foreigners think that they are superior to them. Well, lowlanders seem to think that people from the villages are inferior to them (I disagree). I suppose the natural assumption, then, would be that foreigners would think that we are superior. Not only that, but they have known foreigners who seem to have had a bad attitude toward their culture. I know some older people are prejudiced based on skin color. But what I and many other middle aged and younger N. Americans have been taught and believe is that everyone is equal no matter what culture they are from. I came here thinking that way, and was surprised when people thought that they were inferior or suspected me of thinking that I'm superior when I tried to relate with some by mentioning things that I found interesting or liked about the culture or whatever.

a short trip to a village

We went to a village recently, but just for the day. We left about 5, hiked and jogged madly down the mountain in an effort to beat the oncoming darkness, and arrived at the base of the mountain about 6, inspite of stopping to take a lot of pictures. The tricycle drivers there wanted a lot to drive us back to the town, and instead of riding, we walked quickly through the darkness for almost another hour to a place where some relatives live. The air had cooled off enough that it was enjoyable to be out walking. They stopped a tricycle headed to the town with a load, and we got on and made it back to the center.

This is by the church in one of the villages.

Kalanguya old people (naama 'old man' and nabakol 'old woman')

on the road to Baguio

Baguio

Christmas Pudding

I was fortunate enough for

once in my life to be invited to dinner by a British lady who made Christmas Pudding for us. I'd heard of Christmas Pudding in old poems and such, but never knew what it was. It's the brown mound of stuff sitting near the center of the table in front of the tea pot. It tastes like very strong tasting fruit cake, but has a softer consistency. I thought it was quite good, but it definitely made me thirsty. She said that people usually pour brandy over it and light it before eating it.