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Published: June 20th 2011
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Tagaytay
No I'm not fat it was the wind catching my shirt...honest. The start of last week gave me an insight into the Filipino court system. We travelled to Cavite which is about 30km south of Manila, however, it took about 90 minutes to get there because of the traffic (motorcycling here truly is dangerous and you need to be as skilled as Valentino Rossi (world champion motorcyclist) not to crash or be hit). The court from the outside looked like any other but as we walked towards it there was a flag raising ceremony with many court officials and police stood ready to raise the flag. The people I was with ran to the shade when they saw this and I didn't realise why until the national anthem started to play and everyone had to stand still as a sign of respect. I was left in the direct sunlight for about 5 mins which was enough to make my shirt damp with sweat - not a good look when going into court. The court was so busy with many people queueing to register or waiting for their hearings and at the start of the session the judiciary went through all the cases for the day and there were 53 to be heard.
Now, I'm no legal expert but this sounded like a lot and realistically left about 5 minutes for each hearing - you've got to hope you've got a good attorney. Luckily our case came up quickly and we could leave for Tagaytay.
Tagaytay is a city near to the Taal lake. The Taal lake is formed from a volcanic crater and in the centre of the lake is the top of the volcano and in the centre of that is another lake. It's a stunning view from Tagaytay and is one of the coldest places (cold for the Philippines) here.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at the Philippine National Police training headquarters. The Child Protection Network train professional bodies with regard to child protection and there are many organisations involved in supporting this work such as Unicef and WHO. There were many lectures and tests for the police on issues such as child protection law, child development, legal-medical exams and human trafficking. Challenging cultural assumptions about what abuse is seems to be a difficult task here and there is still much work to do from the top right down to the bottom.
On Wednesday night I met two old friends
Tagaytay
A lake in an island in a lake in a volcano crater. - Red Horse and Balut. The first time I came to the Philippines they both gave me a hiding so I was determined for this not to happen again. Red Horse is a strong local beer which I was a little ill on in 2007, so I gave it much more respect this time round and only had a couple of bottles. Balut on the other hand I didn't try in 2007 because the thought of it put me off. Balut is a partially formed duck egg which has been heated to cook the white, yolk and chick and leaves a broth surrounding the embryo. The technique is to crack the shell, drink the broth and then eat the rest. As you can imagine I needed the Red Horse to give me the courage to eat one because it looks horrid - there is no other way of saying it. However, it did taste okay but it would take a few to get over the crunchiness and rubbery texture. I won't be eating a few. I was also asked if I'd like to eat a day-old-chick and the answer was an immediate no, just look at the pictures.
On Friday
I was out home visiting again and I travelled to another slum area which is located next to a rubbish dump. The smell is overpowering and is thick - you can feel the rubbish and dirt particles in your mouth and nose. It is the type of smell that causes a gag reflex. The dump though is advantageous for people (adults and children) because they use it to scavenge for anything they can sell such as plastic bottles or metal. I was told that on a good day a scavenger could earn about £1.50 which is a lure to people working on farms in the provinces who would earn less. Yes, that's right, people travel to the city to work illegally on the rubbish dump because it pays more than farming.
After a quiet weekend resting, I was invited to a conference today to see the introduction of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) to the Philippines. This is an international parenting scheme invented by Matt Sanders from the University of Queensland, Australia and it has been introduced to many countries already, including the UK. The conference was high profile with many organisation leaders (WHO, Unicef, state departments). I'm really
lucky to be able to attend many of these meetings.
Well that's the latest update, keep in touch.
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