Can't Get Enough Karaoke!

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Hello again! So here is my new weekly blog for the week of October 17th-23rd, 2011. Enjoy!

Monday through Friday at the office wasn’t too crazy or exciting. I conducted further analysis into the distributors that we should be looking into selling our fertilizer to, followed up with the Mayor about possibly arranging a program to collect chicken manure around the city (to be used in mixing with our fertilizer, essentially allowing us to double our production output), and worked a little more on logo and slogan ideas. The slogans my super-creative mind was able to come up with? I can’t really reveal them as we are not sure which one (if any) we will go with. One that I’m for sure ruling out though is: “Worm pooh, perfect for you!” Trying to find words that rhyme with terms like vermicast and excreta can be difficult so I did indeed resort to using the word “pooh” at a very low point in the creative process! As well on Thursday afternoon we went for a visit out to the project site (the farm). I was able to get a little bit of a better understanding of the overall processes and the role that member's play. Currently the focus is cultivating enough African Night Crawlers that will fill the new vermibeds made for full implementation. I catch a ride to and from work every day with Pablo, but this week there has been a few more occasions where Pablo (who is extremely busy and always working!) has had other items in his agenda to attend to. So I have had my fair share of tricycle rides this week, all from Tholits (another member of the cooperative). Riding in the sidecar of a motorcycle is kind of fun. Plus, these tricycles are everywhere! They far outnumber the quantity of cars here and it wouldn’t be a true Philippines experience without riding in one of these. Most astonishing is how many people are regularly squeezed and stacked in/on these vehicles! I plan on getting a picture of this soon and constantly keeping an eye out for the record amount (so far, the record is 6). I have yet to ride a jeepney, the other most popular form of transportation, but will not leave the Philippines until that is crossed off my list!

One thing that I have noticed is that despite the low income of many people in the area, people are always very generous with food! On Monday I got a little tired of staring at a computer screen in the office so I decided to go outside and get some fresh air. After walking maybe 30 yards I was called over by a group of people just relaxing and talking outside their house. Tholits happened to also be hanging out in the crowd. Instantly they started asking me questions and within a few short minutes I had a burger in my hand! On Tuesday we were provided lunch by one of the a deaf member’s family just down the road (I’m still trying to get used to eating fish that isn’t battered, deep fried, and served with delicious potato wedges). And on Wednesday, the house across the road from the cooperative invited everyone over for noodles and spaghetti after work. They were having a party of some sort in their yard with kids and people everywhere. There was so much food! So nice! They even rented a “videoke” machine. It was quite hilarious and surreal to see all the confusion on the faces of the children and adults as everyone watched the Lady Gaga and Beyonce music video – Telephone. I started to pray that their impressions of North American culture were not only founded on wildly strange and unconventional music videos like Lady Gaga’s. A very interesting site this was.

Upon returning back home that evening I proceeded to play volleyball and Frisbee with the kids outside again. This time was different though as there were some guys aged 13 to 21 playing basketball a couple houses down. When they invited me to join their 3-on-3 game I couldn’t turn them down! All the kids stood on the side and cheered me on as I got back into my basketball groove (I used to love basketball “back in the day”). It was a tonne of fun and very satisfying to interact with Filipinos closer to my age. The best part? In Canada, at 5’10/11 I’m usually not the tallest one on the basketball court. However, I’m taller than a solid 95% of the population here. Finally, Jason’s turn to get all the rebounds! Haha. The guys I played with were good sportsmen and we had a good time. I ended the night by saying it was nice to meet them in Tagalog ("ikinagagalak ong makilala ka") and it got some laughs. I often get laughs every time I speak Tagalog as it remains quite slow in comparison to how fast they speak it here. I've had to practice saying words so many times over in order to get them up to an acceptable speed. I've realized why this is. The pronunciation is often not too difficult as most words can be pronounced properly by simply sounding them out. Tagalog however takes getting used to with respect to reading and speaking as it has a significantly higher ratio of vowels to consonants than English, with many words having each consonant followed by a vowel ("ikinagagalak" being a perfect example). Understanding Tagalog I think will be even more to difficult to grasp when I come to that bridge. Everyone is very happy when I try though and they are always willing to help me in the learning process.

For dinner on Thursday I finally asked Pablo if we could stop by the little pizza place we regularly drive past on the way home from work. Pizza is by far my favourite food and having not eaten any for almost a month; it was definitely an old friend I wanted to get back in touch with. I got quite excited as I approached Pizza Pedrico’s. I was a little disheartened though when the kid working the counter took my order and proceeded to “make” my pizza. The steps to “making” pizza at Pizza Pedrico’s: take pizzas out of freezer, take out of factory packaging, place in small toaster oven, and wait for the *ding* indicating the timer is complete. My first pizza in a month was frozen pizza! Bah humbug! Haha, it was ok though. I was really just happy to have a hot meal that contained no rice. And it was surprisingly good pizza (by frozen pizza standards)! On Friday we had lunch again at our favourite videoke restaurant with unlimited rice – Palmeras. I again re-emphasize, if you are ever planning on living/working in the Philippines, you’d better be comfortable with singing in public! For those of you who know me well enough, you know that I take great pleasure in shamelessly belting out songs, regardless of whether I know the words or not (much to others’ dismay usually). However, here it is welcomed and encouraged. Even the videoke machine is very welcoming of my singing! The machine will give a grade out of 100 to the singer at the end of the song. Most people usually fall between 80 and 95. I think the machine may be made in Canada or something though as I receive a rating of 100/100 almost every time! My longest streak of 100’s so far is 7! My sense of accomplishment and pride was short-lived this past Friday though as Leo, one of the deaf members, saw the rating and said that the machine is “definitely a liar!” Getting your singing talent questioned/insulted by a deaf person can be a very effective tool in humbling you when you get a little too cocky!

Saturday was a pretty good day as I got to sleep in and relax for the morning. In the afternoon myself, Pablo, his family, and a few neighbours all piled into Pablo’s car for a trip to the Shoe Mart in Lucena. Shoe Mart (referred to as SM for short, but I prefer sticking with “Shoe Mart”) is essentially a huge mall chain in the Philippines. There were a variety of errands to run, one of which was to visit the bank as I have been unable to withdraw any money for the past few weeks. Every ATM and teller in Candelaria has not had the capability to process my Canadian debit card, making it very difficult to do things like pay rent. I was told the bigger branches in the Lucena Shoe Mart would be able to help me over the counter. Upon attempting, this was proven to not be the case. I stood at the 3rd bank I visited dumbfounded. Here I was, essentially a tourist, wanting to spend money in the Philippines economy, but they were offering no help in getting me the funds to buy their goods! Luckily I was finally able to get a good enough cell phone signal to call TD and report my issues. They were super helpful and after talking with a great CSR, I was enabled to withdraw money from the ATM’s. This came as a huge relief as I started to panic at the thought that I would soon run out of money and have no access to my bank account for the duration of my stay. After that fiasco was solved, I was able to shop with a smile on my face. Prices were much cheaper for certain goods, but for the most part were fairly comparable to that of Canadian prices. I wanted to purchase another Frisbee as my favourite one from back home is starting to take too much of a beating during playtime with the kids (and just recently it started to crack). After visiting a couple of the sports stores, I finally found one that sold Frisbees (technically “Frisbee” as they literally only had one in stock). Perhaps the most tiring part of the entire trip was going into the department stores and saying “hello” and “good afternoon” to the 100’s (that’s right, 100’s!) of employees they have scouring every section of stores, desperate to try out their English on a white person. They were all very kind but also kind of intimidating and pushy when trying to get me to buy goods from whatever section they represented. Upon saying “I’m just looking around,” most of them got the picture. It was just difficult saying this so many times. The perfect end to the trip was purchasing some Pizza Hut to go... so good! Through my travels to both Costa Rica and the Philippines, I can now confidently confirm that Pizza Hut is delicious no matter where you go.

Sunday was another good day of rest. Some repair guys came and fixed the wifi in Pablo’s house. Unfortunately, my neighbouring house is too far from the router to get a signal so I remain internet-less at the moment. It was ok though as the day was one of celebration for Crystal’s (Pablo’s wife) birthday. She is such a lovely and super generous lady. She made so much food for everyone! I’m Italian, but I still don’t think I’ve ever seen so much spaghetti in one bowl before. I’m not sure if it’s right to call it a bowl. It was more like a tub. At least 3 babies could have bathed comfortably in this kitchenware! I wish I took a picture. When we were in Lucena, Pablo purchased a new home karaoke system called “Magic Sing.” So there was consistent karaoke and food-eating going in the house for 7 hours straight. While I gasped for breath in the middle of singing “Any Way You Want It” by Journey, I looked up at the clock to see it was 6PM, or 6AM back home. In that moment I couldn’t help but think, it’s guaranteed that in this moment, I’m definitely having more fun than anyone I know back home. That evening and week came to a great close as I finally got to use Skype video chat to talk to my girlfriend back home. Hearing about the Halloween festivities that are starting to ramp up back in Canada seems kind of strange as (despite the fact that the Philippines celebrates Halloween) the Philippines has been ramping up for Christmas ever since I arrived at the beginning of October. Stores everywhere already have Christmas decorations displayed, something that you only see in Canada starting November 2nd usually. It’s funny thinking about how different my life is right now in comparison to what it would be if I never applied to this internship. I miss the comforts, rituals, and busy-ness of the WLU lifestyle but am slowly finding my new fit here. God knows I’m not having any problems with the amount of karaoke!

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Photos

Typical Filipino Security
There are security guards at every single reputable business in the Philippines! And it is quite common that they carry shotguns! This fellow is protecting a bank (more security guards with shotguns inside). You can also find these guys at malls, hair dressers, grocery stores, drug stores, fast food restaurants... everywhere!

Pizza Pedrico's
The finest frozen pizza in all of Candelaria!

Palmeras
Our favourite restaurant. This is actually where I ate my first meal in Candelaria.

"Videoke" Machine
The machine that seems to love my singing. Songs I've sang on this include Iris, Collide, Here Without You, and I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing (to name a few).

Chef Jason
Chicken and rice. Filipino staples. Made by yours truly. I greatly underestimated how much rice could expand... that is only 10% of the rice I made for that meal!

"Golden Cancer Stick" Contest
Willy Wonka Bars move over, there's a new golden contest in town! The lucky person who finds a golden cigarette wins about $465,000 Canadian. The signs for this contest are everywhere! Very different than Canada, where you can't even display the packages of cigarettes in stores anymore.

Tricycles
There are thousands of these tricycles in Candelaria, many of them operating as taxi's.

Jeepney
The other extraordinarily popular form of transportation, operates sort of like a city bus where passengers hop on from the back. Fun fact: they're origin in the Philippines dates back to the end of WWII when the US Army left/sold their huge surplus of jeeps to the country.

Farm Visit
Our full time staff member, Herman, giving the thumbs up to the worm cultivation beds he works with on a daily basis. Awesome guy.

Shoe Mart
Outside the Shoe Mart in Lucena. The mall had a solid 3 floors complete with movie theatre, restaurants/food court, shops, and department stores.