Corregidor Island

Corregidor Island is little island located in the mouth of Manila Bay, off the south coast of the Bataan peninsula. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend a weekend there with some of my friends and co-workers. 

After driving down to the southern tip of Bataan, we rode a bangka across to the island (most visitors to the island catch a ferry from Manila). Our adventures began almost immediately as our bangka broke down part-way across! This first adventure was perhaps not so appreciated by the half of our company who were already feeling seasick, but we did eventually make it across to the island...

Due to its strategic location, Corregidor has played an important role in Philippine history for hundreds of years. Most recent, and perhaps most significant, are the events that unfolded there during World War II.  

I wish I were a history buff, but... well, I am not. War history is so complex and I don't understand enough of it to give you a concise, accurate summary of what happened on Corregidor during WWII. So rather than me getting the details wrong, I'll leave it up to you to research the history of Corregidor for yourself if this is something that interests you...

Our official guided tour took us through the main part of the island's extensive tunnel system, to some of the ruined barracks, to several of the gun batteries, and to the war memorial and museum. We also did some exploring on our own. 

Bomb craters, bullet holes and ruins bear witness all over this beautiful island to the horrific nature of war. The devastation is inescapable. While I may not know all the details of Corregidor's history, this I do know: I am very glad that I have never had to experience war, and I hope that I will never have to... 

Although I enjoyed learning about the history of Corregidor, my favourite part of our trip was exploring the island with my friend Christina. It was so quiet and peaceful. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect. It was just so nice for the two of us outdoor girls to have an opportunity to get away from people and out into nature. 

Corregidor's native flora and fauna were almost entirely destroyed during the war, but due to post-war rehabilitation efforts and the speed at which things grow in the tropics, one would never guess that this were the case. The absence of permanent residents on the island has allowed it to become a perfect little wildlife sanctuary. 

Since there was no one else around when we were out walking, Christina and I were able to see a variety of wildlife that we didn't see during the guided tour. Over the course of the weekend, we saw geckos, lizards, bats, monkeys and a snake. We also saw many different species of birds, including the Philippine eagle and the critically endangered Philippine cockatoo. 

Adventures in the Kitchen

Well, despite my best intentions, it has once again been months since my last post. :-( I have taken hundreds of pictures since then, so it's high time at least a few of them made it onto my blog!

There are no exciting stories to accompany these particular pictures. These are just several instances when I happened to have my camera with me as I was learning to do things "the Filipino way".

 

Preparing vegetables to cook over a charcoal stove

Many Filipinos cook over stoves such as these, using either charcoal or wood for fuel

The last stage of lunch preparations: frying fish to eat with the rice and vegetables we had just cooked

Learning how to cut a pineapple the Filipino way

After the majority of the skin is cut off, the "eyes" are removed in diagonal rows

My turn to have a try :-)

Like a flower arrangement, only with fruit! Haha

Ta-da! The orange on top was slightly precarious, but these were the only fruits I had in my house at the time!

Trip to Tuguegarao: Part Two

So this is the second instalment of pictures from my trip to Tuguegarao. I thought this part deserved its own post since it was just a tad exciting (and also since I took so many pictures!).

Although I don't really know a whole lot about helicopters, I have been fascinated with them ever since I was a little girl and have always wanted to ride in one. Well I finally got my chance! 

One of our pilots had to do a recurrency flight on the last day I was in Tuguegarao, and I got to ride along as he flew over town and practised various skills on the runway. As there were no backseat passengers to get blasted by the wind, we were able to fly with the doors off - perfect for taking pictures!

Here are just a few of the pictures I took:

Isn't she pretty?!

I'm guessing most people probably don't want to see a lot of pictures like this,
so I'll just limit it to this one!

This is the same runway used for commercial flights coming from Manila

Doing 360's at the end of the runway! It was cool to watch the shadows change shape...

At the other end of the runway, coming in for our first of several landings

Our second landing: a slower and steeper descent than the first, making for better pictures

Not the greatest picture of me, but proof that I was actually there! :-)

Trip to Tuguegarao

As I plod along with language study day after day, it can often seem like there's not much to write home about. Typically, either nothing noteworthy happens... or everything happens all at once, and then I have no time for writing about it! 

I had thought that uploading some pictures from time to time would be a good, less time-consuming alternative... but then my camera died. :-( 

Well, finally, after about nine camera-less months, I bought a new camera - so now it's time to revive this poor, neglected blog of mine!

I spent most of this past week up in Tuguegarao (Northern Luzon), accompanied, of course, by my new camera, so here are a few pictures from my trip...

My missionary friends in Tuguegarao took me around to all their favourite places

This Aussie girl sure enjoyed the open spaces!

We spent one morning at a beautiful river (kind of) nearby. This was our swimming spot.

After driving to the river, we took this boat to our swimming spot.

The water turned different shades of blue or green in different places. It was incredibly clear.

I found the blue sections particularly fascinating. (If anyone knows why the water is this colour, I'd love to hear an explanation!)

There were lots of cool roots along the river banks.

An Unwelcome Intruder

So much has happened since my last post (yeah, it’s been a while!) that it’s difficult to choose a story with which to break the “blogging drought”. Whilst this story certainly does not fit in the “only in the Philippines” category, it is nevertheless probably not a common scenario for most of my readers, so I thought I would tell it to you…

A few weeks ago, we had a scheduled all-day power outage in our area. We have these from time to time, presumably to enable maintenance work to be done. It was hot inside my house without fans and it was also somewhat dark, so I decided to sit outside to eat my lunch. I doubt it was actually any cooler outside, but at least there was a breeze.

I grabbed my lunch and went and sat on the plastic chair just outside my front door to eat it. “My” cats (street cats who aren’t technically mine but are essentially my pets) obviously also thought that lunch was a good idea, so they gathered around and started eating their food which was under my chair.

Suddenly, behind one of the cats, I noticed something sticking out of a tiny little hole in the wall (a hole that, up until that point, I didn’t even know existed). A SNAKE was coming out of my wall!!

As it ventured out, it stuck out its tongue and evidently sensed danger (the presence of one human and five cats!). Before I could even process what was happening, it turned and slithered right under the front door, straight into my house!

After watching it slither across my dining room floor for a few seconds, I propped open the door and unleashed my weapon of choice – the cats! I was really hoping one of them would take care of it for me (at least drive it out of the house, if not kill it) so that I didn’t have to deal with it. I had no idea what type of snake it was at that stage, so I was not keen on getting too close to it.

Unfortunately, my Plan A failed to achieve the desired result. It turns out that the cats were rather wary of the snake too. One of them followed it across the room until it disappeared under the cabinet, but then she lost interest. It was pretty obvious that I would have to come up with a Plan B.

I soon realized that the cats were actually my ONLY useful weapon, so I walked down to my friends’ house to get help (just one more reason why I’m glad to have friends living close by!). They didn’t really have any suitable snake-killing implements at their house either, so we borrowed a shovel from some nearby workmen then walked back to my place.

In order to kill the snake, the first thing we had to do was locate it again (and when I say “we”, I mean my friend Cole who came to rescue me, the damsel-in-distress). This took a while. Of course it didn’t help that it was dark inside my house. The cat was actually somewhat helpful this time, as her gaze narrowed down the direction of the search.

In the end, Cole found the snake in the bathroom (the darkest room in the house, of course!) and annihilated it with the shovel. He then took it out and showed it to the group of curious neighbours who had, by this stage, gathered outside.

The neighbours didn’t know any more than we did about what type of snake it was, but after some research, I’m now fairly certain that it was a red-tailed green rat snake (apparently quite harmless). If I were to come across another one in my garden, I would leave it in peace. If, however, one would be so bold as to trespass inside my house again, I may not be so merciful!

I wish I could say that this was the first time I’ve had a snake inside my house, but unfortunately that is not the case. I think the count is currently at three (the last two were in Paraguay). But while it may not be the first time, I can always hope that it will be last!!

Recent Happenings...

Life has been pretty busy here over the past few months. In addition to regular language and culture study, we have kept busy with visitors, meetings, potlucks, birthdays, and a regional conference. 

Mock language evaluation

Sharing a meal with our church planting consultants

Ladies' meeting at our regional conference

When we  moved to this area, the ladies in my neighbourhood told me that rainy season starts at the beginning of June, right when their kids go back to school after summer break. They said that it always floods and school ends up getting cancelled.

Well this year the rain didn't start until the middle of July. We were beginning to doubt that there really is such a thing as rainy season in this province! Then it rained almost continuously for two weeks... 

It was so humid that water drops collected under my salt shaker!

Oops! I don't think that's the way it's supposed to work!!

Although it can be extremely humid when there's continuous rain, the weather is generally cooler, which is a welcome change from hot and humid! 

Rain makes it cool enough that I can actually enjoy a cup of tea

Since those two weeks of rain in July, we have had the occasional rainy day, but it seems like hot, sunny days are still the norm. I'm still not entirely convinced that rainy season actually exists! Haha. 

Drinking soft drink from a bag on a hot, sunny day

We Are Crazy!

So apparently it’s been a while since my last blog post! It’s probably about time to fill you in on what language class looks like these days…

Now that we are able to construct sentences in Tagalog, we spend a lot of time discussing pictures. Hannah and I take it in turns to say something about the picture we are looking at. Our teacher then helps us correct our sentences when necessary. As well as using words we already know, we are able to learn many new words by asking what something is or what someone in the picture is doing.

We started with using the pictures in a wordless story book and I discovered that sometimes my Tagalog speaking skills are better than my picture interpretation skills! After saying a sentence about the fact that the boy was lying on the bed and dog was lying of top of him, I was informed that I was, in fact, wrong. Apparently the boy was lying on the bed and dog was standing on the bed next to him. Whatever. At least my sentence was grammatically correct!

Many of our sentences are incorrect, though, and this often provides us with a good laugh. I think the funniest mistake I have made so far was when I said that the cake was going to eat the boy, rather than vice versa. (I then realized that there is only one letter difference between those two statements!)

Now we are talking about photographs from some excursions that we took together before we started formal language learning. Some of the photos we took are rather boring, but this one totally cracks me up…

I am possibly a little too excited about the fact that I am now able to say, “The man is hiding behind the curtain because we are crazy”! Although "crazy" may not be the most useful word I've learned thus far, I'm sure it is one I will nevertheless use a lot!