Backdating – over Halloween and All Saint’s Day last year I took advantage of the long three-day weekend to meet up with Kiva Fellow/compatriot in the Philippines Ed Coambs, and we proceeded to have a good time in Cebu. My overall impression of Cebu was otherworldly – especially in comparison to Cagayan de Oro, where I had been living. There weren’t many beautiful old stone churches in Cagayan like the Basilica of Santo Niño.
Complete with many landmarks commemorating the landing (and death) of the great European explorer Ferdinand Magellan, the weighty layers of history made themselves felt as I walked through the streets of Cebu. In a way Cebu is like a mash-up of Boston, for the history, and Miami, for the beautiful beaches nearby and modern amenities – including the biggest SM City mall in the Philippines, as my HSPFI co-workers informed me. You really can’t ask for any better than that.
Three weeks ago on our way back from HSPFI’s Valencia Branch, I handed my camera to Corroi, HSPFI’s Kiva Coordinator. She had been telling me all sorts of stories about Bukidnon province (which was her home), and because our departure from the Valencia office was delayed we couldn’t do some of the sightseeing in Bukidnon that she had originally planned. So I asked her to take some pictures of Bukidnon as our bus rumbled its way back to Cagayan de Oro. This turned out to be an inspired move as she took tons of awesome landscape photos, which I hadn’t done as good a job of documenting. And they were kinda artsy to boot, because of the movement blur and interesting lighting from our bus window.
I was just two days off the plane and back in the Philippines when I heard that HSPFI’s 2009 Q4 Project Officers Meeting would be taking place the next day. I really wanted to make something for the POs as a small token of thanks, so I threw a video together and showed it the next day to whoops and cheers. I actually think this is the best Kiva/HSPFI video that I’ve edited to-date, so I was really glad to see it well-received.
A bit of context – the first part of the video is mostly made up of footage from the HSPFI 2009 Staff Christmas Party. The day kicked off with gift exchanges and team-building/general bonding activities at a nearby resort; the night activities took place in the HSPFI office and consisted of a big delicious dinner and the HSPFI staff dance competition (and videoke/impromptu dancing). Having seen how hard HSPFI staff works on a regular basis, it was really cool to see the organization give back to dedicated staff members on the ground with a kickass Christmas celebration.
(Video Background Music: Allison Crowe – “Immersed” and “Midnight”, available on Jamendo.com)
Other footage used in the video were taken from the 2009 Q3 HSPFI POs Meeting & After-Party; Iligan Branch’s 15th Anniversary and 2009 Client Christmas Party; and Gingoog Branch’s 2009 Client Christmas Party. I also threw in some of my favorite photos from various branch visits/field travels with awesome HSPFI POs.
Ok, I admit that I mainly wanted to practice writing a “catchy” title for this post. I’m sure that people who know me are thinking something along the lines of “but you’re not even Christian!” And I’m not in the U.S. right now either. But I did just read a fantastic TIME article about how Christian church groups are standing up against the insane commercialization of Christmas in the States, offering some proof that this title might not be as outrageous as it appeared at first glance.
I guess it was just a matter of time before I did the obligatory food post about all the interesting dishes that I’ve been trying in the Philippines. Unfortunately what prompted me to type up this post was a string of eating mishaps, of sorts. On Tuesday a nearby barangay (or village) had a fiesta in celebration of its patron saint. As my co-worker informed me, this fiesta was for the Immaculate Conception, celebrating “the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain of original sin.” Which was a tad hard for me to wrap my mind around initially because it’s celebrating an event as opposed to an actual saint, but I guess this barangay fiesta is the local equivalent of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
At any decent celebration, party, or fiesta in the Philippines there will always be lechon baboy, or roasted pig. The first time I had it was in Cebu, where it’s a local specialty. I had met up with fellow KF9er Ed Coambs one weekend and made a point to try out lechon baboy, since all my HSPFI co-workers kept telling me that Cebu has the best lechon baboy in the Philippines. We ended up getting a tame, chopped-up version in a restaurant recommended on Wikitravel. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. I much preferred lechon manok, or roasted chicken. And to be honest, on that Cebu trip Ed and I gravitated towards American comfort foods. Like McDonald’s and pancakes.
I experienced a lot of firsts during my week in the field visiting HSPFI’s Camiguin Branch. Some good, some intense, all of it exciting. Amongst all these firsts, I’m convinced that I witnessed on Camiguin Island both the most beautiful and the most bizarre client interviews that I’ll get to conduct while here in the Philippines. This post is about the former – check out the latter at “The Most Bizarre Client Interview (Part 2 of 2)“!
A bit of background on Camiguin – I had been excited about this outing for quite a while, because all of my HSPFI co-workers kept telling me about this “island of paradise” that has hot and cold springs; a walkway through an old inactive volcano with stations of the cross that Filipinos from all over visit during Lent; the sweetest lanzones in the Philippines; a sunken cemetery.
Here are some additional photos from my first week in the Philippines -
I pulled an overnight at the Manila Airport on my way to Cagayan de Oro. I landed at midnight, but was surprised to see how many people were still out and about! Philippine Airlines apparently runs lots of early morning flights. I had to wait for the Philippine Airlines ticket office to open at 2AM before I can get into the domestic terminal; the office had just closed at 10PM. There were loads of people waiting/sleeping outside the terminal though, as well as scores of policemen patrolling around. With a bit of help from my Nintendo DS, I found the wait quite manageable.
It’s been a few weeks since my visit, but I simply loved Camiguin – a beautiful place filled with interesting people and things.
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