October has been a really cool month! One of my good friends, George, came to visit me here in the Philippines. It was a pretty big surprise when I found out he was coming because I know how difficult it is to travel here, and I really didn't expect to get any visitors during my service. But, he was able to fly into Manila and then spend about two weeks at my site! We had some awesome adventures around the Bicol region that I feel are explained better through pictures than in words. So here we go...
We met up in Manila late on October 2nd. It was a bit confusing trying to find each other because Manila airport is so crazy, but we were eventually able to meet up at the Peace Corps hostel in Malate. George got to meet some of my good Peace Corps friends and then I took him to my favorite shawarma place in the area (shown above). Not a bad start to his visit.
After we got to my site and settled in, I showed him a little of what my day to day life is like. We cooked some traditional Filipino food and I showed him what the local market is like. He was pretty amazed at how much you could find at the fish market (stingrays, barracuda, swordfish). We ended up making Sinagang, one of my favorite foods here. This is basically a soup cooked with tamarin (which gives it a sour taste) and a bunch of local vegetables. Later in the week I showed him some spots that Sorsogon City is known for, namely the city pier, Bacon beach and Paguriran island.
My favorite part of his visit, though, was when I got to show him a little of what my work is like. Over the second weekend of his stay we traveled to the province of Camarines Norte to help two of my volunteer friends, Marissa and Keitoya, in an event with their college scholars. It was really cool for George to be able to spend the day with the population that I work closest with; college students from poor families who receive grants to go to school.
Our first stop was a famous library in Naga City where the students took some time to do some research and explore. After that we visited a nearby college campus to facilitate a meet-and-greet event with scholars from both colleges. This was, in true Peace Corps fashion, a totally spontaneous and minimally organized affair. In other words, it was ridiculous and a ton of fun. Students performed random musical numbers for about a half an hour, followed by a few bonkers team building activities. George was very amused by the whole thing. After that, we traveled with the students to a mysterious strawberry farm that no one seemed to know the exact location of. We ended up hiking a good 3 km in some fairly brutal humidity before we finally found it, but it was worth it just to experience the beautiful Filipino countryside. Here are some pics...
We finally made it!
Before we left Cam Norte we decided to check out the local Apuao Island on the suggestion of my friend Marissa. This place is know for its native Flying Foxes, which are basically huge, diurnal bats that are known to eat fruit. We spent the day hiking, swimming and taking in the beautiful views.
Overall, it was a really great couple of weeks. I'd say we were really lucky with the weather considering this is supposed to be the thick of typhoon season, but nonetheless I'm glad I was able to show a friend a good time.
At this time I've just returned from our Mid-Service Training in Manila. Its kind of surreal to think about how long I've been living here. My language has gotten stronger than I had imagined and I've normalized a lot of cultural things that used to be weird to me. Training came at a really great time, though, because I need to avoid getting complacent. Looking forward to growing even more throughout this next year. Peace!
