time for some photos

Photos from some sight-seeing around Davao.

Crocodile Park:

A “zoo” that houses over 500 crocodiles plus some other animals.  

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/484841.e09009342e4/editor

Eagle Conservation Center:

A center that focuses on breeding and conserving the endangered Philippine eagle, the largest eagle in the world.  Houses several other types of eagles and some other animals.

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/484845.3b5cfed4bc2/editor

Snorkeling/Island Hopping

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/484850.0efa41d5167/editor

Eden Nature Park

A resort that also grows organic produce and flowers.  I forgot my camera so these were taken with Tet’s cellphone.

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/484856.e0ee71c013a/editor

odds and ends

Hazel’s: When I first moved to my neighborhood, I was excited to see there was a place called Hazel’s Coffee Shop and Piano Bar.  I immediately contacted my friend Hazel and she was equally excited and asked me to take a photo.  Since there were no other coffee shops within walking distance, I assumed Hazel’s would become a regular hang-out for me. A few days later though, when I was walking past, I got a weird vibe and decided not to go there after all.  Later a Korean friend told me he thought it was a hangout spot for prostitutes.  But a filipino who knows the owner disputed this.  

Fast forward to several weeks later.  Tet and I were looking for a place to meet and I suggested we give Hazel’s a try.  I arrived a few minutes before her and ordered a glass of mango juice.  When the waiter brought me my juice, he leaned over and whispered to me “We have our lady here to entertain you if you’re interested”.  Well, I guess that answers that question!  I quickly finished my juice and when Tet arrived I suggsted we go somewhere else.  Since Tet often works in the evening she now teases me that Hazel’s is where I go to hang-out when she’s working.

Greetings:

Despite being in the Philippines for about 3 months, I really don’t have a sense of how people greet one another.  In Mexico, you would see people shake hands or hug or do the cheek kiss thing.  In Thailand people greet with a type of bow called a wai.  Wais supposedly can be fairly elaborate depending on the social status between the two people though I never saw anything other than the basic wai.  Here though, I have no idea.  

Disturbing: A few weeks ago, I was having coffee with a friend from England.  He’s lived here for about 18 months and is engaged to marry a filipina.  During our conversation, he mentioned that in filipino families, whoever is considered head of the family, wields considerable power over the other family members and can use or abuse that power as they see fit.  

A bit later his fiance showed up. I don’t remember how we got on the subject but she started telling us about how her father beats her and her brothers.  She related one tale where, when her brothers were younger, her father tied them up in a sack and started whacking the sack with a rod, having no idea where he was hitting his sons.  From the conversation, it wasn’t clear if her father still beats her (she’s 26) but she did mention that he definitely beat her while she was in college.  What I found most disturbing was her attitude.  She was very matter-of-fact about it and said something like “I’m a very opinionated person and its important for my dad to beat me to keep me in line”.  I really didn’t know what to say in response to that.  I think even her fiancee was shocked.

Well that was fun, take 2

Fun: Yesterday, Tet and I decided to engage in a “sportsfest” and planned an evening of table tennis and bowling.  We headed to Smashville, a local gym, that has a couple of table tennis tables.  However, it turns out that the table tennis room was reserved by an association of lawyers.  Granted, they weren’t actually playing table tennis, just hanging out and eating, but that didn’t help our cause.  So we left Smashville and headed to NCCC mall to go bowling.  We arrived and guess what?  Half the lanes were reserved by the same bowling association!  The other half were reserved by other groups.  Auggghhhh!!!!  So we ended up going to a place that has Wii and playing virtual tennis and bowling.  Lots of fun but not quite the same as the real thing.

Good deeds:  You know the saying…no good deed goes unpunished.  After playing Wii, Tet and I went to a coffee shop and had dinner.  We were sitting outside when a 10 year old girl came up to us, selling fans.  Tet talked to her for a bit and found out that she was trying to make money so she could buy food for lunch at school.  We weren’t interested in the fans but Tet gave her 5 pesos.  A few minutes later, a second girl came by selling fans.  Tet gave this girl 5 pesos as well.  Later, two more girls came by.  These two didn’t have fans to sell, they were begging for money.  This time I gave each of them 5 pesos.

Fast forward to today.  I went to the gym in the afternoon.  When it came time to come home though, I realized I had a problem.  I had left my wallet at home.  I had a shoulder bag with me that I carry my change in but that only had 2 pesos in it.  Not enough for a jeepney.  Of course, if I hadn’t given money to the two girls the night before, I would have had 12 pesos, which is plenty for a jeepney ride.  Instead, I had to take a taxi home at a cost of 60 pesos.

Skin color: White/light skin color is definitely prized in Asia.  A few examples.  When I went white water rafting in Thailand, the guide said he wished his skin color was like mine.  Then he’d be able to get a girlfriend.  Tet continually puts her arm next to mine and says she wishes her skin was ligter like mine.  And she told me that her cousin wants to have a daughter with my skin color.  Another American who lives here has actually had women come up to him at the mall and ask him to have a baby with him.  They’re not interested in marrying him, they just want a  baby with light skin.  

Contrast that with Americans and other light skinned people who spend time at the beach or in the tanning salon trying to darken their skin.  Interesting how we value the opposite of what we have.

slow days

Slow: I’ve been sick for about 4 days now so I haven’t been doing much.  In fact, I’ve only been out of my apartment twice in the past four days.  Once to go to the gym (yes, somehow I managed to go to the gym while sick) and once to go to the bookstore and the grocery store.  So I’ve been bored, mostly just surfing the internet and watching tv.  I had a bunch of books to read that a British friend lent me, but none of them interested me. Fortunately, Tet has been coming over and bringing me lunch or dinner and washing my dishes.  I’m sure there will be payback time at some point.  :)

Hospital Update: I obviously can’t go to the hospital and play with the kids when I’m sick.  But even before I got sick, things had really slowed down.  The cancer ward is only about half full.  That sounds good in theory but it’s hard to know what it means.  For example, I was told that one little girl died recently (I didn’t know her but I did play with her older brother several times).

In fact, I read an article recently that gave an alarming statistic….the survival rate for kids with cancer at the hospital is only 10%.  The pediatic oncologist (Dr. Delenda) who was interviewed for the article indicated that a more expected survival rate was about 50-60%.  As I understand it, a large part of the problem is treatment compliance.  Because the families are poor, they often can’t afford to continue treatment after a while.  Also, many of the families come from the neighboring provinces and have nowhere to stay when they come to Davao.  The hospital has made some progress with addressing this latter issue by building a transitional shelter called House of Hope that can house a number of families.

Ready for another shocking number.  According to the article, Dr. Delenda is the only pediatric ongologist in the entire city of Davao.  One oncologist to serve all the children in Davao, a city of 1.1 million (plus the neighboring provinces)?  That’s stunning!  I’m sure part of the problem is the “brain drain” that I mentioned before….a lot of well-educated Filipinos move to other countries because they can earn more money.

Okay, one more shocking number.  The Child Life program that I’m volunteering for has two employees…Shiena and Xai.  Xai recently went to a child life conference at a hospital in Memphis, TN.  Guess who many employees the Child Life program in Memphis has?  Would you believe…60!

New Owners: The place I’ve been staying at was sold recently.  The whole situation has been handled rather oddly in my opinion.  The old owners didn’t bother to tell me that had sold the property and were moving to a house down the street.  They left it to the caretaker.  Except the caretaker doesn’t speak very good English so I had to have Tet come over and translate for me so I could understand what was going on.

The new owners showed up about 10 days ago and moved into the house (my apartment is about 10 feet from their house).  They have yet to stop over and introduce themselves.  I find this odd….if you bought a property with tenants, wouldn’t you want to introduce yourself to your tenants?  And less you think this is a Filipino thing, Tet agrees with me that it’s very odd.

Well that was fun….

Fun: The other day I decided to go to they gym.  It was starting to drizzle as I left my place so I grabbed my umbrella.  I have a cheap umbrella that I purchased in Thailand that doesn’t work very well but is better than nothing.  It takes about 5 minutes for me to walk from my place to the main road.  As I walked, the light drizzle picked up and came down harded and harder until it was a complete downpour.  I jumped onto the first jeepney I could get and told the driver I wanted dropped off at F Torres (the street the gym is on).  By this time, the rain was coming down so hard, I couldn’t see where we were.  So when the driver pulled over and said we were at F Torres, I took his word for it.  I jumped off, looked around, and had no idea where I was.  The one thing I knew was that this wasn’t F Torres or anywhere near it.  I stood there for a minute or so, trying to decide what to do while my half-functioning umbrella only marginally protected me from the rain.  I finally decided to give up, so I crossed the street, at times walking through water that was up past my ankle. I hailed a jeepney going back home.  By this time, I was completely soaked, head to toe.  This time I wasn’t going to rely on the jeepney driver.  When I saw the road to where I live, I hopped off.  Except I was mistaken.  I got off too soon.  So I waited, getting even wetter and hailed another jeepney.  This time I got off at the right place and started the five minute walk back, getting even wetter on the way back, and sloshing through flooded streets.  I think this was the wettest I’ve been in my entire life!

Getting blessed:  One thing parents have their young children do here is to bless adults.  The child takes your hand and presses it against their forehead.  I’ve been blessed several times already.

Kuya Ed: Kuya Ed is what the kids in the playroom call me.  I’m pretty sure that Kuya means older brother.  And today I discovered a restaurant called Kuya Ed.

Vegetarian Food:  Filipino food might be the most un-vegetarian friendly food in the world.  So far I’ve only found one or two traditional filipino dishes that are vegetarian.  Even if you order something like vegetables and rice, they tend to put little pieces of meat in it.  There is one vegetarian restaurant in Davao though the food is Chinese. I went there today with a friend and we ordered 8 different bowls of food, 2 plates of rice, a couple of buns/rolls, and a liter of pepsi.  Cost…$4.50.  That’s total, not each.  The meal did end on a sad note.  As we were walking away from the table, I noticed a girl, about 10 years old, with a little plastic bag.  She want over to our table and began scooping our leftovers into her plastic bag.  I’m glad that she’s resourceful and that the restaurant let her do that; but still sad that that’s what she needs to do to eat.