Blogs from Mindanao, Philippines, Asia - page 11

For our next two days here in Cagayan De Oro, we have De Oro Mountain Explorers or DOME to entrust our lives to. Seriously! For the next two days, DOME shall take us to three ecotourism activities, namely: Canopy Walking at Claveria, Spelunking at Kweba De Oro, and Water Tubing (aka White Water Rafting Pinoy-Style) - I heard we are going to jump from a bridge too! As early as 7:30am, DOME’s jeep picked us up at PNRoa. We met Jerome (DOME president), Meg, and a few more of our guides for the day. "The Binary Tree" At around 9:00am, we set foot at Barangay Magbais, Claveria and started trekking for 30 minutes. This was a rather pampered trek because we were provided walking sticks and we didn’t have backpacks to carry. We noticed a strange ... read more

This month (or so) I have been really getting to know the area well. Going up into the hills to visit some of the tribal villages, taking part in two more fiestas, eating lots and getting fat. I also moved house and got a surf board. Putting this blog on the web has been delayed by a holiday with Viv but that can be the subject of the next entry in a week of two. First a random thing about eggs - why do I still buy 6 eggs at a time? Is there some unique rightness about buying eggs 6 at a time? Here eggs are sold by the piece and placed loose in a bag to take home. I have been asking around and volunteers still tend to buy 6 at a time - ... read more

Hello, This month there is something for everyone with a big dance contest, some nice holiday type pictures, a bit about work and a collapsing bridge. Once a year the province holds a “provincial day” called Kaliga this is mainly aimed at showcasing local businesses, products, tourist attractions etc with each municipality in the province having a stall to display and sell their wares. I got some very nice honey in an old rum bottle and also some carabaw (water buffalo) cheese. The cheese was similar to a very fresh young goats cheese. A bit bland but a real treat to a cheese starved me. To make it more of an event there are games and performances with by far the biggest draw being a dance contest between municipalities. Lanuza won last year so there was ... read more

One of the reasons for coming over here was to get some new experiences in the world of work. There will be some big new experiences! The basic situation is: The Local Government Unit (LGU) (similar to a county council) has responsibility for livelihoods, health, education, land use etc. Most of the normal government responsibilities with a few additions such as water supply. While the responsibilities have been devolved to a local level resources have not. The problems are not just financial - in the Municipality of Lanuza LGU where I am based the land use is 80% forest but they have had no forester or forestry graduate on the staff and have had difficulty in recruiting these skills. To further erode the local control the central government is responsible for operating and approving Timber Licensing ... read more

Standing outside an internet café in the seedy part of town long after Cebu’s respectable citizens are safely tucked up in bed a sleaze ball eyes me from across the street. He flashes me that fraudulent smile common to con-men, pimps and confidence tricksters the world over, and having made ‘contact’ he takes his cue to cross over towards me. Just as he begins his pitch I try to save him the effort with a firm “No!” since it was pretty obvious what he’d be selling in this part of town. I’m on the defensive since I must look like a potential customer standing here in this squalid street stealing a quick smoke. This knocks him slightly off his game and he decides to stop a respectable distance from me before pitching again “You want girls?” ... read more