I'm Alive, Y'all: Photos and Updates!

Helloooooo everyone, and blanket apology for not updating this blog in far, far too long. A lot has been going on -- I've spent a lot of time traveling to and from the different field offices, and some time without internet/power (and one brief night with no water... which was unfortunate and I wish someone would have informed me of the situation BEFORE I'd tried to take a shower).

SO! Here is my latest update: finally, a collection of photos! These ones are mostly from driving around to and from field offices, and some you may have seen on Facebook. I plan on updating you all on my recent trip to Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge at some point; those photos will have to come later, though, because internet is fleeting and uploading pictures already takes an entire episode of Gilmore Girls.

Without further ado:

This is the view from the plane on my flight from Manila to Tacloban. Gorrrrrgeous!

On the road from one office to another. Those party streamers are for a Barangay Fiesta, which is an entirely different blogpost you will get soon. The dude there is driving a tricycle, or trike, which is the most common way to get around in the Philippines (and also one of the most hilarious). A post about those (and getting from place to place in general) is coming up as well.

One of the many (many, many, nauseatingly gorgeous, insane) views of the ocean and another island across the bay. Y'all -- these views kill me. They KILL ME. I spend at least 10 hours driving around these islands every week, going from place to place, and it is still absolutely gorgeous.

This is my home away from home, aka my bed (and mosquito netting) in the guest bedroom of one of the field offices. This room doesn't have AC, so I have to leave the windows open and turn the fan on, which is fine but leaves me vulnerable to getting eaten alive. The mosquito situation gets reeeeeaaaally bad when the power's out, because then there's not even a fan blowing over me to keep them off, so out comes the mosquito net. 

Bonus: in case one of the geckos hanging out on my ceiling falls, it won't land on my vulnerable, prone, innocent, soon-to-be-traumatized body. :)

Rice fields for days and days and days and days and a few more days. Usually you can see water buffaloes working in the rice fields. This one is near one of the places where my organization does field work.

The view from the Port of Tacloban City. You see that boat over to the left? I've ridden on a couple of them, and not ONCE (yet) have I fallen into the water -- those rail thingies on the side really do the trick of balancing for you.

This is one part of the view from the San Juanico Bridge, which is the longest bridge in the Philippines (about 2 miles). It's also, conveniently, the bridge that I have to cross to get from the island where our field offices are (Samar) to the island where Tacloban is located (Leyte), so I cross it about twice a week. This photo truly doesn't do it justice -- it is an INCREDIBLE view.

I also celebrated being in the Philippines for exactly a month on Tuesday, which I almost can't believe! I got a visa, so that's good because I've experienced being an illegal immigrant and I wasn't a big fan. And I thought I could give a quick rundown of some of the numbers of my experience so far:

• days in the Philippines: 32
• nights spent without power: 4
• kayaking trips: 1 (so far)
• pairs of Chacos forgotten in the US and lost forever: 1 :(
• unidentifiable meat products consumed: 8 (I only regretted 3, so that's pretty good odds)
• babies held: 1
• children who have screamed, "Hey! Americana!!" at me: 4803732832
• times I have been followed to my destination by a particularly enthusiastic group of children: 3
• words/expressions I know in Waray-Waray (the local language): 6
• Fiestas attended: 2
• paperwork I have reorganized into my preferred system: ALL OF IT
• times a frog or gecko has scared a shriek out of me: >20
• times I have braved the Filipino shopping mall (which was an experience in and of itself): 2
• mosquito bites: at LEAST 3000
• water buffalo encounters: 1 (this is a story for another day)
• hour-long massages: 1 (and it cost ~$7!!! inSANE!)
• sweaty, sweaty hikes up a nearby hill to see the view of Tacloban: 1
• jeepney rides: 7
• trike rides: approximately 1000
• unidentifiable baked goods/other foods consumed: ~30
• selfies strangers have taken with me: 2
• number of days I have gone without sweating at all: 1
• fresh (like, watched-them-pick-it-off-the-weird-ass-pineapple-plant fresh) pineapples eaten: 3
• islands visited: 3 (and counting)
• times I have growled about the internet going out: infinity
• bucket showers taken: ~10
• caves explored: 1
• pairs of shoes destroyed: 0 (which is probably like a personal record)

So that's all for this update, folks. Things are going really well here, and I'm finally starting to feel like I know what the hell is going on and what the hell I'm supposed to be doing every day, which is a really good feeling. I'm still learning a lot on a daily basis, about humanitarian work and the Philippines and just myself in general, but things are really really good here.

It has been a crazy week, y'all

Apologies, friends -- it has been a crazy, CRAZY week, and don't worry -- I'll tell you all about it. But there are several reasons why I haven't posted any blog updates, and it'll all become clear in the next few paragraphs. This is a long one, though, sorry!

First of all, I'm now in the field. I'm pretty sure my last post came to you from Tacloban, and I'm having a hard time believing I was even there long enough to post anything. I stayed in Tacloban for two nights (only one with a gecko), and then on the afternoon of the second day got a ride to the field. I went to an actual place with a name but I'm not allowed to give away any details specifically regarding locations, so that's all you'll get from me. [More pictures are coming, I promise; I just don't have a good enough internet connection to actually upload any while I'm here in the field.]



Anyways, I've been here, traveling back and forth between field offices, for the last week. I'm meeting with different people in the offices and getting to know the projects that my organization is currently working on basically by following people around and asking questions. It's all really cool information, and everyone is giving me loads of details and inside views into humanitarian work... but there are also a lot of meetings involved in which I have no idea what is going on.

NOW! As for all of the insanity of this past week, let me fill you in a bit.
First of all, I'm in a pretty secluded place (on an island), which means that there are power surges and the power goes out and comes back on like once every few days. Well LAST WEEK, the power went out in the middle of dinner on Thursday night (the place we were eating had an electric stove. Who would have an ELECTRIC STOVE that needs POWER TO WORK in a place with no reliable power, I ask you??), and did not return until Sunday night. We had a couple of brief flickers on Friday, and after a night of SWELTERING with no fans or anything, the head of the office here decided "Fuck it, we're using the generator." So we got some relief from the heat and the bugs during the day, until the generator ran out.

On Saturday, to escape the power-free zone (all of my electronics were dead and I'd already read the one paperback book I'd brought with me twice -- I have my Nook, okay?!! I thought I'd be safe! But it died), I went with my friend/coworker to the beach, to watch her take her weekly surfing lesson. I opted out of surf lessons, because I don't need to have any broken limbs/wounds on top of being sweaty.

So we went to the beach at 6:30 am, because the sun rises here RIDICULOUSLY early (like 5:15) and I the "curtains" I have block no light (so I wake up around 6 anyways because it's like being in the center of the sun). It took us about 30 minutes on a trike (basically a moped with a metal compartment/seat-contraption-y thing on the side that can hold up to 7 people. It's much safer than it sounds, I swear, and I will share pictures with you next time.

The drive was absolutely gorgeous, and the beach was beautifulllll, but it was already over 85* out so I immediately jumped in the water to cool off. But I forgot that I kind of hate the beach. And seaweed -- I HATE the feeling of seaweed brushing up against my legs. So I played in the water for a bit and got out, but it was too hot to not be in the water, so I would get back in and then get out when I got tired of getting pummeled by waves and repeat ad nauseum.

By 10:30 am I felt like I'd been baked, so I left my friend to enjoy the rest of her beach day/surf lessons and headed back to town. The power came on that night, and I slept with a fan on (HALLELUJAH!)

Then more insanity started. Gmail decided that I'd logged in from too many countries and my account must have been hacked (nope, it's just me!) and I got locked out. No gmail means no blogger so no blog updates, but it also means not being able to check my credit card bill or my student loan accounts or anything. Cue panic, as per usual. I managed to get back into my account just this morning (shout out to my sister, Audrey, for being a damn HERO and helping me out in the crisis).

I have also discovered, in the course of being in the Philippines for a few weeks, that EVERYTHING here in terms of skincare includes a "whitening" agent. I'm talking lotion, sunscreen, body wash, HAND SOAP. Everything. You have to hunt to find the ones that don't include it. So imagine my surprise when I got home two days ago from the store to realize the DEODORANT I'd just purchased included WHITENING agents. WHO NEEDS TO WHITEN THEIR ARMPITS????

In other news of ridiculous things that have happened in the last two days (bulleted because descriptive would take forever):

• gecko in the toilet so I can't even pee in my own bathroom
• electrical socket in my bedroom stopped working so I didn't have a fan (and I'd don't have air conditioning in my room)
• and the cleaning lady did laundry yesterday, and for some reason decided to mysteriously give back all of my clothes except my underwear. THAT was an experience, let me tell you.

I know that it sounds like I'm mostly whining, but it's not bad here! I'm really, really enjoying the experience, and there have been plenty of good things, too. For example:

• Today I only ate one thing I didn't know the name of/recognize (it was a donut with some violently purple goo inside. Apparently the purple goo is a root vegetable?? And the coloring is natural??)
• I have successfully learned how to take a bucket bath
• I can navigate from the guesthouse to the market and back (walking or with a trike, bonus points!) and buy things I need in the market
• I can say thank you in Waray (the local language) -- it's "Salamat!" in case you were wondering
• I have seen some GORGEOUS views (see pictures above and my instagram -- @scholzsl -- for more)
• The sun sets by 6 pm, which means it's perfectly acceptable to go to bed at 9pm (which is fine, because everything in town -- including the bars -- closes around 8:30 pm)
• I have friends! Or at least, I have people that tolerate me and eat dinner with me every night -- isn't that the same thing?

For real. Life is pretty good here in the Philippines. I miss you all dearly, but I'm learning a lot and having a good time. I will try to Skype (some of you. you know who you are) once I get back to working internet!

Back By Popular Demand

Aka everyone and their mother has been complaining telling me that I need to write a blog, so here it is.

Hello, friends! I am in the Philippines!

This has all kind of been a whirlwind adventure, so let me fill you in on how I ended up here. Three Fridays ago, I had a Skype interview for a job in Cambodia. That job didn't pan out. Two Mondays ago, I had a Skype interview for a job in the Philippines -- with the same organization. I got a call a few hours later saying that I had the job if I wanted it, but I had to be in Paris for training at HQ by the Monday after, meaning I had to fly out of DC on Saturday. I had five days to pack up my entire life and get the hell out of there.

So, of course, I did it, because why would I do anything the easy way?

Anyway, one week later I was wrapping up five days in Paris (though this time there were not nearly so many steps involved, though I did encounter several tiny elevators and a city-wide garbage strike) and on a plane to Abu Dhabi, UAE, where I hung out in the airport library for 8 hours waiting for my next plane to Manila, Philippines.

I am now in Tacloban City [pronounced tack-LO-bahn], in the Philippines, which will be my base for a while -- though, of course, there will be lots of travel in the area/country for work.

But work is not the real reason I started this blog, although it is important and I'm excited to be here.

I'm really writing this blog to keep you all informed of the ridiculous (read: typical) things that happen to me.

Let's start off with the gecko in my bedroom last night when I arrived. Pretty sure my neighbors thought someone was being murdered (or they would have if we had any), I shrieked so loud. My boss just kind of looked at me, like I was overreacting instead of at very real risk of possibly being mauled in my sleep (or at the very least suction-cupped when I least expect it).

OR we could discuss the small frog army that's gathering on the patch of grass in front of the guest house. Maybe I've always had an exaggerated mind's eye picture of frogs, but I swear to god they grow them extra large here in the Philippines: they all look ready to pounce at a moment's notice. I held my mouth closed so they couldn't jump down my throat and suffocate me as I sprinted for the door. (Unrelated side note: our driver thinks I'm insane. And probably also a big chicken. He may not be wrong on either count.)

For the moment, I'm exhausted (still not sure what time zone -- or even decade, really -- I'm in), so I'm going to pass out early. I'm 12 hours ahead of all of my East Coast friends, so if (when) you get messages or emails or FB notifications from me at an ungodly hour, just remember that it's already tomorrow here. :)