I think all of you who read this blog (unless you are a random stranger) now know that I am engaged. Of course it wasn't official until it was on facebook, and to me its not official official until it makes it to my blog. So here it is internet world -- I'm engaged!

David and I got engaged when we spent some time at Pearl Farm, a beach resort in Davao. David tells our engagement story much better than I do, so maybe he can be a guest blogger here! Mostly we are so excited to be able to gather all of our friends and family members to celebrate our wedding next year. I've just started a bit of planning here and there and I really hope it remains stress free!

So here are a few informal engagement photos/just some nice pictures of David and me for those of you who are interested!

(I know, I know, I'm a terrible friend to you all and have no close-ups of the ring, soon, soon)

S & R Warehouse

A Filipino version of Costco! A must visit in Manila!

And it seems I'm not the only person from Minnesota in Manila enjoying this American comfort:
Check out this blog

Seriously though, I don't usually shop at these places in the U.S., but it was fun to see basically the exact same thing in your country (layout, food, brands) in a foreign place!

Kaina! (Let's Eat!)

In the Philippines meals are the main event, a race, a feast, and an important social and family ritual. As I've mentioned before most Filipinos partake in 5-7 meals today (three main meals and then several snacks). My impression is that Filipinos have an amazing love of life, which comes in the form of a laidback lifestyle, amazing artistic and musical talent, and most obviously a, perhaps unparalleled, gusto for good food. While in Manila visiting family David and I were busog (full) basically 24 hours a day. Each meal was large and long. The meal was the main activity and space to renew our relationships with our family members. We did other stuff in between the meals, like sit in traffic or visit tourist spots, but it was always clear that the most important time was spent sharing in meals. I myself, especially this past week, have been brave enough to try a lot of new foods while in the Philippines, including, shrimp heads, shark fin, and chicken feet!

I had been wanting to do a food entry for a while (indeed, a whole food blog could be done on Davao alone) but I'm sort of embarrassed to take pictures of food in restaurants. Luckily my partner David lacks this feeling of shame and let me borrow his foodie pics for my blog.

At Pearl Farm, a beach resort we went to in Davao, we had the most amazingly large buffet, which left our plates overflowing:

One day at Pearl Farm, instead of the buffet, I opted for chicken soup. I got chicken soup in a coconut shell, topped with a yummy bread baked on:


At another resort we went to. Villa Escudero, our buffet meal was taken in the shallow river. Here you will see kare kare (the yellow dish, but sometimes its orange too, it is a tasty peanut dish), lechon kiwali (grilled pork), pancit noodles (a common merienda snack) as well as grilled fish. I have been thoroughly enjoying the seafood while I've been here. Its everywhere and its always fresh! Although I haven't been brave enough to eat the fish head yet! Lastly, you'll see some grilled caramelized bananas, one of my favorite desserts or merienda snack here.


My love of Filipino food stems largely from the amazingly delicious fruit available. Mangoes never taste this good in the U.S.! And in Davao, I'm right at the source of the fruit, since banana, pomelo, and mango plantations and farms cover the island of Mindanao.

In terms of dessert, one of the most popular dishes is Halo-Halo. It means "mix mix" in Tagalog. It's basically full of lots of different desserts, including leche flan, jackfruit, banana, gelatin, sago, sweet beans, and rice krispies, topped with ice, cream, and ube ice cream. You mix it all up and enjoy!

A Long Cab Ride

On my way back from Bangkok I had to spend one night in Manila before proceeding to Davao. I was alone (as I left a day earlier than my co-workers to get back in time to greet David at the airport) and was staying overnight in a hostel. My cab ride was incredibly long since I flew in on the tail end of rush hour traffic. Luckily, my cab driver was extremely chatty.

One great thing about telling people what I do in the Philippines is that it almost always elicits a political discussion. This allows me the opportunity to learn the various opinions Filipinos have of their country. And this particular cab driver had a lot of opinions. He was incredibly pessimistic about his country. He said his country was slowly headed towards anarchy. He felt that things were better during Marcos’ time (the president who is almost universally acknowledged as a horrible dictator). He said that during Marcos there was peace in Mindanao because he just drove all the Muslims out. It was only when President Cory Aquino was elected that the problems in Mindanao worsened. And he felt corruption began with the people around Marcos, not Marcos himself. The cab driver also told me that the People’s Power movement that ousted Marcos weakened the rule of law. Lastly, he felt as though Filipinos don’t care about their country, they are only “good” when they are in other countries.

I realized from this conversation how much I take democracy for granted in my country. Here in the Philippines democracy is quite new, and it hasn’t been altogether picture perfect. The citizens of this country face multiple insurgencies, deep seated corruption, rampant crime in many cities, and widespread poverty. For some, a hard-fisted dictator would feel much safer than this wild system of elections and change. There seems to be some people may feel as if there is such a thing as too much democracy. I think I finally understand why Mayor Duterte (now vice-mayor), who orders extrajudicial killings of “criminals,” is so popular in Davao. He really makes the residents feel like they are safe and everything will be ok. Residents acknowledge his killings, but they say it’s only of the bad guys; it is only to keep us good guys safe and everything under control, so it’s okay. Perhaps some are not yet comfortable with so much political control in their own hands, perhaps they would rather leave that power with someone trustworthy to take care of things as they see fit. I can see now, in the face of so many problems, how this is a viable option for some, even if it is so out of my realm of understanding coming from the political system that I do.

The cab driver also added another piece of the puzzle for me as to why the Philippines is struggling to move its country forward, that is, it is a archipelago of diverse peoples lacking in unity. The cab driver explained that there is no such thing as a Filipino; everyone identifies first with their tribe. He stated that it is untrue what people say about the People’s Power movement uniting Filipinos. He contended that the People’s Power movement only united Catholic Filipinos. He asked, how is our country every supposed to improve if its citizens don’t even identify as Filipino and fellow country men and women?

When I left the cab I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to reassure the cab driver that things will get better, that adjusting to democracy takes time and your country will get there one day. But really, I had no answers. And the cab driver, while slightly misguided about Mindanaoan history, made some important points. When I left the cab I simply said I hope things get better for you and your country. I also left wondering, however, what will a functional democratic society or system of governance finally look like in the Philippines? And what will need to happen for the country to get there?

Bangkok

About two weeks ago I had the most amazing opportunity to take a trip with my co-workers to Thailand to run a training entitled, "People's Diplomacy Training on Women's Engagement in Peace and Decision-Making Processes." In other words, the training was intended as a resource for our participants to learn about international and national mechanisms for promoting women's right and engagement in peace processes and providing them with tools to use these mechanisms to promote improved situations for women in their respective countries. We had participants from the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Cambodia, West Papua, Aceh, Thailand, and a few of us ex-pats from the U.S. Many of the participants were also resource persons, sharing their stories from their countries. We heard about truth and reconciliation processes in Timor-Leste, success stories of engaging with government in Cambodia, and the process of creating a people's peace agenda and lessons learned in including (or not including) gender in this agenda in Mindanao, Philippines. We also spent some time learning practical skills such as mediation, negotiation, and media advocacy. For me, personally, I was able to present and facilitate throughout the workshop, and I gained tons of experience in honing my trainer skills.

I also gained so much inspiration from the participants of the workshop. There were women from Burma literally risking their lives to work with NGOs on the border of their country. They told us horrible stories of the military junta, but also expressed hope that the Burmese population was slowly turning away from supporting the oppressive government. One day, the junta will have to face an entire population against them. There was also an amazing sharing among Muslim women from Aceh, South Thailand, and Mindanao. They all had different interpretations of how the Quran views the place of women in the public sphere, but the conversation wasn't a doctrinal debate, it was a sharing of how the one truth in the Quran can be humbly interpreted to different contexts, situations, and women. To me, this was religion at its best -- a tool for helping each person understand their lives and the world around them, while remaining respectful of all others.

We also had a couple extra days in Bangkok to explore! I loved Bangkok, it is clean, modern, and beautiful. The Thai culture is present almost everywhere you turn. Small shrines are erected outside of hotels and Western car dealerships. Bangkok seemed to me a cross-section of modernity and tradition that works. Here are a few photos:

First, we headed to Chatuchack market, a huge market with 5,000 stalls. You can buy basically anything you could ever need or want!

Then we headed over to the Grand Palace, but got there just as it was closing, so I could only take a picture from the outside:

We also caught a picture of the Temple of Dawn:


Then off to another temple, Wat Po, the one with the famous reclining Buddha:

Then we headed over to Khao San road, the tourist, backpacker's haven:

Mmmm Pad Thai off the street with Thai beer:

One morning, I also headed to Lumpini Park, took a walk around, and caught some people doing morning Tai Chi:

Boracay R&R

Dear Blog Readers,

I have been away for quite some time and apologize dearly! This past month has been quite busy, as I have been on travel, getting work done when I am in Davao, and preparing for David's visit. One trip I went on was to the island of Boracay with my workplace. Boracay is one of the top tourist destinations in the Philippines -- beautiful beaches, foreigners from all over the world, and delicious food. Boracay is in the Visayas, which are the set of island in the middle of the Philippines, south of Luzon and north of Mindanao. The staff went to Boracay for rest and relaxation and luckily there was room in the budget for me!

Here are some pictures from the trip, I put some up on facebook, but here are a few different ones and more description.

To get to Boracay you have to take a 10 minute boat ride from the main island of Panay:

Here is a pool side picture of our resort:

Here are pictures of the beach from the resort:


Later that night we went to eat dinner. We went to a place where there is a market with fresh seafood on one side and restaurants to which you bring your market purchases on the other and they cook it for you in any Filipino style -- this is about as fresh as you can get! Here is a picture of the market:

After dinner we walked around Station 2, the part of Boracay where there are a lot of restaurants and bars:

When we got to Station 1, where our resort is, I came across this restaurant and had to take a picture:

Sadly, every time I passed the Obama Bar and Grill it was empty :(

The next day we went on a boat tour around the island:


Our first stop was snorkeling, where we got to see lots of fun fish:

Our second stop was cave swimming. Here is the first cave:


We trek to the second cave:

This is the opening to the second cave:


But you have to crawl through a tunnel,


To get to swim in the second cave:

This is Puka Beach, full of puka shells. There are tons of women and men here selling jewelry made from puka shells to tourists. During our boat tour we stopped here for lunch:

While one side of Boracay is all white sand beaches, the other is rocky cliffs:

At the end of the boat tour we had the opportunity to do some water sports. Some went helmet diving (a light form of SCUBA), others went on inflatable floats attached to the back of the boat, and some of us went parasailing. Here we are on the boat getting ready to go:

Raquel and I in the air:

Parasailing was beautiful. It doesn't feel very fast in the air, just as though you are floating. You can see so far and it is so calm and peaceful.

So that was my trip! Goodbye beautiful Boracay:


Next up -- pictures from my trip to Thailand!

Illegal

Well I am officially an illegal immigrant in the Philippines. That's right this undocumented alien overstayed her visa. It was completely accidental (and technically via Philippine law I'm a non-immigrant) and all I have to do is pay a fine (here's hoping its not much!) but I can tell you I momentarily freaked out when I found out I had overstayed my visa. I immediately felt awash with fear, worried I had to leave the country right away or might be in some sort of big trouble.

See, the Kroc Institute applied for our visas for us last semester. My visa has an expiration date that says October 27. Since I just handed over what the Kroc asked from me to get my visa I didn't read any of the fine print or consulate information, so I just took that expiration date at face value. My roommate and I recently sent our passports to Manila to get the visa renewed since it is nearing Oct 27. The person helping us renew our visas explained to me that the October 27 date is the end date for when I can keep re-entering the country without penalty or renewal. The date I should have been paying attention to is the one that they stamped my visa with when I entered the country that tired Sunday morning. All non-immigrants to the country either get stamped with a 21 day visa or, like me if you applied beforehand, a 59 day visa. My 59 day visa expired August 28. Apparently this is all explained in the fine print of my visa, which of course I paid no attention to.

I blame it on the Philippines, their laid back attitude has rubbed off on me so much that I don't even stress over fine print and now I have to pay a fine! Pre-Philippines Anna would never have let this happen! Joke lang! (Just a joke!)

In all seriousness I should have figured this out on my own, since I was just researching visa information for David!!! But again, since Kroc took care of it last semester, I just assumed I was good to go until October 27.

I'm lucky really. The Philippines doesn't have very strict immigration laws (most people are leaving the country, with 10% of its population working abroad), they like tourists and Americans. But I realized my momentary freak out was due largely to my socialization as an American. In the US I've been face to face with immigration officers and women at serious risk of deportation and applying for visas for undocumented immigrants. I know how quickly things can turn badly, sometimes at the whim of an immigration officer. Currently, our immigration system is horribly unjust, broken, and inadequate. It tears apart families, leaves undocumented child immigrants at a dead end when they can't apply for college or jobs after completing high school, often ignores the role the United States plays in promoting policies that increase "illegal" immigration flows to the United States (cf. the US's economic and military policies in Mexico that have only worsened life for the Mexican people), and does not fit a world that is quickly evolving away from the nation-state system and towards a cosmopolitan system with fluid borders.

Not only is our immigration system broken, its horribly confusing! Like I mentioned above, I knew the visa information for non-immigrants coming to the Philippines. I understood the laws. I still made a mistake. I wonder how many people in the U.S. get stuck in some deportation center with horrible conditions simply because they made a mistake. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) makes mistakes -- its widespread knowledge that they have locked up numerous U.S. citizens who just happen to also be Latino/a. I'm not so sure ICE gives "illegals" the sort of margin of error that U.S. citizens and the government continues to give to this agency.

While I wish I didn't have to pay the fine I am sort of glad I am having this experience. For just a brief moment I got a glimpse into how it feels to think that the life you have slowly and painstakingly tried to carve out for yourself in a foreign country could just vanish, that you may be put in jail, deported, separated from the connections or family you have. If I accidentally overstayed my visa in the United States and wasn't the "right color," this very much could have been my fate.

Immigration reform, a bill that for years has tried to please both sides of the aisle by offering bolstered security and changes in immigration law that allows for families to stay together and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, is stalled again. Reform has become a victim of Republicans and Democrats playing politics, especially in the few months before mid-terms. And along with the bill, scores of innocent and/or abused women, children and men are hurt as well.

I understand the argument from the other side -- we need to secure our borders, people need to follow the law, and we can't reward criminality. But the problem with this argument is that immigration has a face, and "illegal" immigration often springs out of structural injustices. We can reform the immigration system to address security concerns and structural injustice. And if we create a just immigration system, then we create laws that the large majority will abide by.

Please, please, please vote in November! And if you believe the immigration system needs to be reformed, vote for candidates who agree.