The important questions in life

First of all, I just wanted to say that the other intern at Samaritana that I mentioned in my previous post does, in fact, have a name. She is Ziwei (Zeeway), or Zaywee (as the women call her), or Zedway (as Danielle and I affectionately call her). She's back to the states for law school (look out, world!), so I would like to just pause and post this photo in rememberance of you, Zed.Now that we've set things straight, on to the important questions in life.

For starters, why don't all KFCs serve rice and/or chicken on a stick?

And it was FLG, colonel, it sure was...

Secondly, How did we ever miss out on these ingenious flavors?
Enough of the product placement and deep questions (blogs are for shallow chatter, not great philisophical ponderings and musings, after all). Now for something completely different:

I washed my clothes after one week in dusty Manila, which is a whole ordeal in and of itself. It's a semi-automatic, and the whole filling it up with water and draining it is not the automatic portion. Here's a photo of the byproduct... On a more serious note though, this photo reminds me of the darkness that I saw on Friday night when we hit up the local bar scene. It was both physically and metaphorically dirty and dark. It was a rainy day, turning the dirt roads on which the bars reside, into a muddy mess. The bars themselves are marketplaces during the day, not exactly in the nicest area of town.

We made friendly conversation with pimps, prostituted women, and their children. Yes, their children, who should have been safely home, tucked in bed, dreaming about rainbows and unicorns and fairies, instead of staying up late and seeing things they shouldn't be.

I can see how easy it would be to feel overwhelmed by all that's wrong in the world, but I think that it should give us all the more reason to fight for what's good, right, and just. Dear friends, please don't ever let me become cold, apathetic, bitter, or jaded. Kthxbai.

Crustasia

We went to our hosts' church on Sunday. The songs were awesome and in English, and the sermon was in Tagalish, with an emphasis on the Tagalog. The powerpoint was in English, so I suppose we had a good outline of what was going on. We met some of our hosts' friendly friends afterwards.

An intern with our partner organization brought us to the mall after, where we discovered Crustasia. Both witty and delicious. It's Asian seafood... get it? Also, they have a buffet, and they have bibs. I apologize for the overexuberance in the photo, but I was quite happy to learn that I don't have to give up seafood for 5 months.

Also... I was really hungry... But anyway, below is the display of what I got for ~ $12 CAD. I honestly didn't eat dinner.

Yes, I realize that my food exhibition skills are next to non-existent, but this only means improvement over the next 5 months, right? Anyway... next I spotted a Coffee Bean. Again, a bit of overexcitement may have occured. But with the perfect blend (sorry...) of nostaligia and yummy, can you really blame me?

The only downer of the day was when some jerk sliced open our friend's bag and took her wallet :( All important items were eventually recovered, and things could have been much worse, but the fact that chumps and injustice exist left a bad taste in our mouths.

Nevertheless, Danielle and I navigated our way home on public transit all by ourselves with no further incidents. Yay!

Halo halo

After nearly 24 hours from airport to airport, we arrived in Manila at 4 in the morning. We were promptly greeted by a wall of humid heat (apparantly it's been record-breaking hot lately), followed by a crazy drive to our home for the next while. I honestly believe driving here can shave a few years off your life.


I definitely scored in the country/partner/home/host departments. I love that I'm coming back to my roots, and after a 15-year wait, that I am finally reunited the best mango in the world. My partner, Danielle, is a kindred spirit with an outrageous sense of humor. Our home is beautiful, our room has tie dye sarongs for curtains, and we have two puppies.

Our hosts are lovely, generous, and hilarious. They treated us to halo halo, which is basically ais cacang: pinoy styles

The jet lag and lethargy from 14 hours of lying around on the plane, coupled with the intense heat and the resulting slowing of brain function, made me thankful that resting was the main activity today. Hopefully tonight will bear a deep and uninterrupted sleep and we'll be well rested for tomorrow's festivities (whatever those may be).

A new chapter

Thanks to Samaritan's Purse, I"m on my way back to the motherland. It's been 15 years since I have left the Philippines, my birthplace. I'm highly anticipating awesome things during this internship working with women in Manila, and I look forward to journeying these next 5 months with you.