Valencia

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I was sad to leave Boracay. It has probably been the best beach I have ever been to. However, we had a flight to catch. Next stop, Thelma's home town of Valencia on the island of Negros. We caught a small prop job airplane from Boracay to Cebu. This must have been the smallest commercial aircraft I have ever been on. I think there were maybe 15 passengers on board. There was sort of a partition between the passengers and the cockpit, but I could still see the left arm of the pilot as he guided us through the skies. The plane did not even have a toilet. The flight was less than an hour and we were in Cebu city before I knew it.

Cebu city is the second biggest city in the Philippines. It was this area that the Spanish first arrived in the Philippines, and it was also at this spot where Magellan met his demise. The former conquistador was said to be delicious. We had an option of staying in Cebu for a night, but after driving through it, I decided that I was not that keen. The searing heat did not make it conducive to exploration by foot, and I was keen to just relax. We found a traveler's lounge that allowed us to hold our luggage while we waited for our ferry. Our intended ferry had been canceled so that it could go into dry dock. Of course, there was no advance notice of the cancellation, and no replacement ferry. This tends to happen frequently in Filly. Luckily, there was one last ferry for the day which was actually only a few hours away from departing. After a quick lunch, we were off to the ferry terminal.

One thing that I noticed in Filipino ferry terminals and airports is that you always have to pay some sort of fee to the terminal or airport. This always involves another queue to stand in in order to acquire the ticket and pay the fee. Why they can't just include the fee in your ticket price is beyond me. I seriously think it is done just to create extra jobs. The devout Roman Catholic Filipinos continue to have large families, which has created a bit of a population problem. While I was there, the papers flashed the headline that the Philippines had become the world's 12th largest nation by population. There are too many people and not enough jobs, which is why I think they make up unnecessary jobs, like terminal fee cashier. Efficiency is the enemy of job creation.

The ferry ride lasted four hours or so. It was a very nice boat, except that the plasma screen was blasting out the karaoke version of Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits. I thought that was a bit of an odd choice, but when I turned to Thelma, I saw her mouthing the words to "Lady", so I guess there is something behind it. The boat arrived in Dumaguete before I could hear "The Gambler," but I knew when to walk away.

Dumaguete is the biggest city on the island of Negros, which makes it the logical location for the main port. Thelma's village, Valencia, was only about 20 minutes outside of town. Waiting for us at the port was a whole crew of new people for me to meet. Felix, his wife Roslyn, and their one year old son Teddy had shown up with their pickup truck. Mary Chris, Thelma's cousin, had also come along for the welcome party. We all piled into the truck and set out for Thelma's house. Although Dumaguete is the largest town in Negros, it did not take long to navigate the streets. It was a big enough town to have a Jolibee (a popular Filipino fast food restaurant), a McDonalds, and even a Dunkin Donuts. Much to Thelma's displeasure, Starbucks has not yet learned of its existence. We passed the town square and the requisite cathedral to leave the lights of Dumaguete behind us. The sun had just gone down, but the humidity still hung in the air. As the truck cut through it and the coconut trees flew by, I felt relaxed to think that I would be staying in someone's home instead of a hotel or hostel.

Although Thelma had spent her childhood here, her original house had been torn down to make way for a new one. Friends of the family still occupy the same site. Down the road, her parents chose a new plot of land to build their retirement home. We arrived at the house to find an even bigger welcome party. Tito Manton and Tita Vicki, Mary Chris's parents were there. Thelma's childhood best friend, Pilot, was there with her husband Franko, their daughter Mary Louise and her friend Schweety. Guardo and Carmen brought the total welcome party to 12. After the introductions, we sat down to a late dinner. Tita Vicki and Carmen had cooked an impressive meal for us. Every day in fact, they would cook a generous sized meal. It was always delicious and I think I enjoyed it a bit too much. After a week in the house, I was starting to tip the scales a bit.

While talking with Mary Chris on the ride to the house, I discovered that she was studying computer science at the local university. She invited me to sit in on her database class the next morning, and I accepted. I thought it would be fun to go back to school and even contribute a little bit. The next day she stopped by the house and picked me up on her scooter. Dumaguete has a number of different universities and is probably the biggest university town in the country outside of Manilla. Mary Chris had alerted her teacher that I was coming, who notified the dean of the department. I was greeted by her teacher and dean and was given a tour of their facilities and faculty. The facilities seemed up to date and the students were learning a lot of open source technologies. One of Mary Chris's classes was on how to program mobile phones with java.

Interestingly, there was an outsourcing firm located on site. The owner of the firm also owned the university. The university had a few thousand students with majors ranging from Computer Science to Law, to Architecture, to Teaching. I got a tour of the outsourcing facility and was really impressed to see them doing some very creative things. The firm basically focused on three things: 1) Architecture design, 2) Web Site Design, and 3) Animation.

I was most surprised to see the architecture component as I had never heard of that type of work being outsourced before. Their client, and architect in Hawaii, would send them a high-level design. The team would then generate all of the detailed designs on the computer, complete with computer generated three-dimensional mock-ups. The web site team created websites for clients, mostly on the PHP / my SQL platform. The animation team would create all sorts of animated videos, mostly in Flash, for their client in Manila. Most of the time, they wouldn't even know where their work would be eventually used. Some of it ended up in Japanese cartoons.

Back in class, I found out that I was to be the center of attention. The teacher had called in members of the faculty and suspended that day's lesson so that I could give a speech. I didn't expect this and had nothing prepared. I introduced myself and went through my experience, but tried not to get too technical. The class was an intro to databases and they were still learning the basics. Quickly, I opened the floor to questions, but I didn't seem to get many takers. On the left side of the room were the students, including more than a few giggling girls, and on the right side was the faculty.

The dean seemed to provoke a few questions from the faculty. I explained a little about Informatica, and they quickly inquired about getting a free copy. I'll have to look into that. I confirmed to the giggling girls that I wasn't married and tried to answer one of the faculty members questions about how they might work abroad. I even got a request on if my firm needed any workers. Being unemployed myself, I wasn't much help.

Unfortunately, it appears that there isn't enough computer work to go around in the Philippines. The outsourcing firm upstairs only had about a dozen people, and getting a work visa to leave the Philippines is almost impossible. Most students end up becoming faculty members or go to work in a call center. It felt to me that there was a lot of untapped potential there. Maybe I'll be able to tap it myself one of these days.

The next day I was back to school again, but this time with a much younger audience. Franko taught first and second grade students at a small school up in the mountains. Early in the morning, Franko and Mantong came by and picked us up on their scooters. As we passed kids walking along the side of the road, I would hear the occasional "Hey Joe" shouted at me. This seems to be the standard name for white guys. We headed up the gravel road to a small building nestled amongst the mountains. It was only two rooms and it housed first through fourth grades. Thelma had visited a few years ago and remembered some of the kids. Franko had let the kids know that he was bringing a foreigner with him. I think I was probably the first foreigner that most of these kids have ever seen.

They were pretty excited to see us. On the blackboard was a welcome message, and when Franko signaled them, we received a loud "Good Morning Tito Jason and Tita Thelma!" Introductions were made and I told the class where I was from. I'm not certain they completely understood me. I asked if they had any questions about me or America, but they were pretty shy. Thelma prompted a few questions and later proceeded to point out my blond hair, blue eyes, and big nose. I started to feel a bit like a science project.

We had bought some Oreo cookies in Dumaguete and passed them out to the kids. I explained that this was my favorite cookie in America. They seemed to open up a bit more after that . I had Sean bring me some baseball cards when he came to meet me in China and I passed those out to the kids as I attempted to explain baseball. I think they were more interested in the shiny cards then in my explanation. The students had been learning English as part of their studies and when I pointed to a few words already written on the blackboard, such as door and dog, the class immediately yelled back the answer. A few of them were eager to write their name on the blackboard and then read it out loud to me.

In the third and fourth grade classroom, I was put on the spot to sing my national anthem. I did so with a few cracks of my voice and the students gave me a gracious applause. They then sang me the Filipino national anthem, and it sounded a lot better than my solo performance. I had a great time with the kids and hopefully I recruited a few more St. Louis Cardinals fans.

After visiting with the students, Thelma and I headed into town on a jeepney. I hung off the back to get the air conditioned effect. We decided to hire a scooter for the week so that we could get around easier. I really enjoyed the scooter in Boracay and was feeling pretty confident for another go. Thelma was about to sign the rental agreement when I went to take it down the street for petrol. I was having trouble with the engine cutting out, so I put it in neutral to rev it a bit. When there was a break in traffic, I quickly put the transmission into first and set off. This scooter seemed to have more power than the one I drove in Boracay. It took off quicker than I expected and I zoomed over my lane of traffic and then the next lane before managing to stop it on the curb. Whoops! It's a good thing the cross-traffic was at a standstill. The guy we were renting it from rushed over to escort me to the petrol station with the widest eyes I've ever seen on a man. We hadn't even signed the papers yet and I think I scared him into thinking he would never see that scooter in one piece ever again. He calmly suggested that I might want to start off in third gear next time. I haven't had an incident since then. Maybe I'll even get my motorcycle license one of these days😊

The next day, Felix had arranged to give us a tour of the geothermal power plant where he works. The Philippines sits within the Pacific Ring of Fire, and has volcanoes a plenty. All that hot steam so close to the surface makes for a perfect, carbon-free, power source. The Philippines is the second largest producer of geo-thermal power in the world. Second only to the United States.

Felix works on top of a nearby dormant volcano. The power plant was built in the 1970s using technology imported from New Zealand. They are still adding more power generators to this day. The site easily provides enough power for the island of Negros as well as some of the neighboring islands; even as far away as Boracay. At night, it provides power to nearby Cebu City. I could tell that there was plenty of power in the volcano as we made our way up to the top in the van. There was steam escaping from the cracks in the ground next to the road. The area of the volcano used for power generation was quite substantial and was all beautifully landscaped.

There are many different power sites around the volcano, but they are all set up the same way. Holes are drilled down to the magma level which allows for a high pressure of steam tries to escape. The steam is then piped into a separator which removes bits from the steam. It is then piped into the power house where the steam spins giant turbines connected to generators. The steam then travels through a cooling tower to condense back into water and is finally piped down the volcano into a collection pool. The water contains a large amount of arsenic and other hazardous materials, so it can not be released into the water supply. Instead, it is safely piped back far underground from where it came. Try doing that with oil!

When the weekend came, Thelma and I took Felix, Roslyn, Teddy, Franko, Mary Louise, Schweety, and Mary Chris's sister Len Len on a trip out to nearby Apo Island. We had found a nice dive shop in Dumaguete owned by an American. I was going scuba diving with a few others and everyone else was on board to snorkel.

The dives were excellent, but I almost ran out of air on my first dive. I had to stay close to my dive buddy during our safety stop, just in case I needed his air. On the second dive, we had a curious sea turtle who followed us almost the entire way. I also got so see my first sea snake.

In between dives, we ate a home cooked lunch on the island and snorkeled in the surrounding water. The coral and fish life were superb. Franko used to go spear fishing and was very adept in the water. He more than earned the "Agua Man" nickname that I conferred onto him. Apo island is supposed to be a marine conservation area, but we did notice some fishing going on in what was supposed to be a protected area. The kids seemed to have so much fun that they couldn't manage to stay awake on the boat ride back. The next day was Sunday, which was the infamous day of the pig party and cock fighting (see previous blog entries).

After the party day, Thelma and I took a quick 2 day trip to the island of Bohol. We got up extra early to make the 6:30am ferry from Dumaguete, only to find that it had been canceled. Go figure. I guess it was running on Filly time. We managed to kill a few hours in town before catching the noon ferry. It was the same one that had brought us from Cebu, which meant more Kenny Rogers karaoke. Kenny had just finished belting out "Through the Years" when our boat arrived at Bohol.

Bohol is only known for a few things, and we found a driver who took us around the island in one day to show us everything. In addition to having beautiful beaches, Bohol has a diverse interior. It is most famous for its "Chocolate Hills." These are naturally formed lumps of coral stone which seem to bubble from the surface for miles. During winter, after the attached vegetation has died off, the hills turn a brownish color, giving them their name. We were there during the summer when the vegetation was still very much alive. Perhaps the "Emerald Hills" would have been a more appropriate name during our visit.

Bohol is also home to the Taiser Monkey, the smallest monkey in the world. I think it may hold the record for being the ugliest monkey in the world as well. The tasier is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, has a long tail, and huge eyes. It is a nocturnal animal and can apparently jump very quickly between branches when frightened.

After a bit of monkey business, we left to have lunch aboard a boat cruising down a river. The "boat" was just a big bloating platform, which was being pushed by a small boat with an outboard motor. I doubt the captain could even see where he was going. The lunch-boat cruise seems to be a big business and I lost count of how many other floating buffets we had passed on the river. Along the way, boys would swing from trees to drop in the water. They would quickly swim up to the barge and climb on board to ask for a donation. It was a school holiday that day, and the kids were taking full advantage of it. On the way back, we stopped at a floating platform full of locals who sang and danced to entertain us. The last stop on our Bohol tour was a historic one. We visited Baclayon Church, which was the first cathedral built by the Spaniards in the Philippines.

We returned to Valencia and only had one more day before we had to depart for Malaysia. There was supposed to be a fiesta in a neighboring town. The unusual thing about this fiesta was that it involved horse fighting. Two horses would be pitted against each other to fight for the affections of a mare. We traveled there by scooter, through the rain, for over an hour only to discover that the horse fighting was due to commence on the following day. Since we were flying out that day, there was no way we could see it😞

Instead, we explored the town and I manged to win a few pesos at a gambling game that was set up in anticipation of the fiesta. A board was set up with white and red squares with a funnel suspended above. Two ping-pong balls were placed in the funnel. They dropped onto the board and bounced around before each one settled on a different square. People had placed money around the board to bet on either white or red. If both balls landed on white, then white won. The opposite was true for red. If the result was mixed, then nobody won, including the house. This seemed like pretty good odds to me, so I stuck to white and just doubled down if I lost. I managed to get on a hot streak and my gambling buddy next to me insisted that I be the one to drop the ball in the funnel. I made both of us a few pesos richer.

I had an excellent time visiting Thelma's village. Every night we visited another person's house who was either a relative or a friend. Everyone seemed to be either an Auntie, an Uncle, or a cousin. I myself became Tito Jason and thoroughly enjoyed everyone's company. Each visit included a huge feast, and I never came close to going hungry while I was there . I found everyone I met to be pleasant, sincere, and accepting. I felt like I got a true taste of village life and was fortunate enough to experience the smiles and enthusiastic attitude of the family-focused Filipinos in what must be their most enduring quality. There's no way I would have had the same experience without Thelma and her family.

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Photos

Prop Job
Here's the smallest commercial aircraft I've ever been on. It was to be our transport from Boracay to Cebu.

Valencia Waterfountain
Thelma's hometown, Valencia, was named by a Friar after a favorite city of his in Spain. This is the waterfall that was built by that Friar. It used to supply the town's drinking water. Now it is a pleasant landmark to the town's central park.

Is this safe?
I've noticed that the Filipinos like to wrap everything in plastic. These are our life jackets on the ferry. They are all nicely wrapped in plastic, which probably isn't very helpful when you are most likely to need them.

How to make Pancit
Pancit is a traditional Filipino dish. It is served with almost every meal. It's an addicting dish of noodles, vegetables, and any kind of meat you want. In this picture, Carmen is teaching me how to prepare.

Welcome Wagon
The class was eager to meet us and gave us a warm welcome.

Franko's Class
Here's Thelma and me with Franko's class. I still don't think they understand baseball.

Back to School
Here I am getting filled in on all the classroom gossip.

Inside Jeepney
Thelma looks happier than the average Filipino to be riding in this jeepney.

Scooter Shot
Here is our Scooter in Valencia with a few palm trees thrown in.

The Generator Steams Heat...
Here's a shot of the geothermal power plant in action. The steam on the left is from the cooling towers. The steam in the middles is from the separators, and just to the right of that is where the pipes are drilled down into the ground.

Power Plant Backyard
Here is Thelma and Roslyn at the geothermal site. Not bad scenery for a power plant site.

Guess Who's Comming to Dinner
Here I am with Franko and Pilot's family. It's just one of many dinners that Thelma's friends hosted for us.

Apo Island
The snorkeling here was great

Sharkbait
That sandwich was too tempting!

Monkey Business
Here's Thelma with a Tasier Monkey

Monkey Paw
The Tasier is the world's smallest monkey.

Monkey See, Monkey Do
2 monkeys and a bottle

Chocolate (Emerald) Hills
Beautiful hills as far as the eye can see.

Lunch Barge
This is one of many different lunch barges that moved down the river with us in Bohol.

Tarzan
This kid was having a blast swinging off into the river.

Sto-away
Here is Tarzan after he has boarded our vessel.