A Philippine Wedding

During our last weekend in the Philippines my roommate and I had the incredible honor of being invited to our co-worker's wedding. The wedding was in the home province of the bride, at Lake Sebu in South Cotabato. I had heard from a friend how beautiful Lake Sebu was and I had been wanting to go the whole time I was in the Philippines. I was so excited to have the opportunity to go on this last trip to top off my time in Mindanao.

Attending this wedding was indeed a perfect end to the six months. It was a mix of indigenous and Catholic traditions, with the involvement of a priest, an Imam, and a T’boli religious officiant. To top it off, I attended with three vans full of some of the most inspiring peacebuilders in Mindanao. Numerous people noted that the wedding was a beautiful example of the efforts of peacebuilding in Mindanao -- it was a coming together of the three peoples of Mindanao to share in the love and dedication of one couple who are both dedicated peacebuilders themselves.

Lake Sebu

The wedding sponsors blessing the couple during the wedding mass

The happy and beautiful couple! Jamz and Sen!

Mindanao Peacebuilders!

Onto the reception: the "money dance"

Future Mindanao Peacebuilders

Lake Sebu again the next morning, now onto the Indigenous marriage ceremony

Jamz's entourage is gathered to follow him up the hill to meet his bride

The ceremony begins with Jamz going to meet Sen by horse.

Unfortunately, after this I dropped my camera on the cement, and don't have any more pictures. But I think you've gotten the beauty of the whole weekend nonetheless. The T'boli marriage ceremony was beautiful, with dancing and sharing of food and blessings. It truly was a perfect ending to my time in the Philippines. Much thanks to Jamz and Sen!

Back from the Philippines and my Blogging Hiatus

Well I'm back! My last month in the Philippines saw a flurry of activity -- attending a wedding, cramming in last minute travel interviews for work and my own research, spending as much time with our Barkada as possible, and buying the last of my gifts, while also attempting to cram them, and the last six months of my life, into my luggage. Needless to say, I was quite a bit stressed and lacking in much sleep in the last three weeks or so of my time in the Philippines.

Things didn't slow down much since I arrived home -- birthday in Minnesota, a week in North Carolina with my parents moving into a new house, Christmas-ing, and more birthday-ing, then back to MN for two weeks of solid wedding planning, learning to take the bus in the dead of winter, and hanging out with David and my friends I had been missing dearly the last few months, then to Florida for a quick surprise family visit to my Grandma on her 85th birthday, and then back up to South Bend to settle into my new apartment and last semester at school.

Whew...at least with my first week of school done I'm finally taking a moment to breath and to finish this blog!

Yes I haven't forgotten the blog, even if all my readers have. I've been meaning to wrap it up for two months now. I need to have some form of closure, some last reflections for my experience. So this week my goal is to wrap it up with probably three more blog entries -- so keep your eyes open!

Christmas in the Philippines

The first week I started work in the Philippines I was asked, "how long are you staying." When I told my co-workers I would be staying from July to mid-December, they immediately said I had to change my flight to stay for Christmas in the Philippines. It is an amazing time in the Philippines, I was told. And almost every person who subsequently asked me when I was leaving said the same thing! Yes, I'll miss Christmas in the Philippines, but luckily the season started months ago so I'm not missing out completely.

Christmas season runs in the Philippines during the "ber" months, that is, it starts in September and goes through to the end of December. And its true, on September 1 I heard a Christmas song on the radio (and we think we start early in the U.S.!). Christmas music and decorations and prolonged mall hours have increased with intensity since November began. So I figured I'd share with you a few pics so far of Christmas here. I hope to get downtown and to People's Park here in Davao to take some more pictures as well before I leave, because there are even more decorations there!

Here is our Christmas decoration at home, a parol at our door.


"A parol is a traditional Filipino Christmas decoration, a five point star-shaped Christmas lantern. Originally made of thin bamboo frames and covered with colored cellophane or with rice paper also known as Japanese paper or papel de Japon. It has two tails that serve as the rays of the star. A parol reminds the Filipino Christians of the star of Bethlehem that guided the Three Wise Men on their way in search of Baby Jesus." (http://hubpages.com/hub/Parol---Filipino-Christmas-Lantern-)

Here are some Christmas lights in downtown Cotabato City:

And a Christmas tree made of parols getting set up at Notre Dame, Cotabato:

It still feels a little weird to be getting pumped up for Christmas when its still 90 degrees outside, but I'm sure it will hit me that Christmas has arrived when the 10 degree weather in Minnesota does!

It just hit me – I’m really going to miss it here. This morning I was headed to work. It was the familiar routine I had for the first three months here. And since things have gotten busy and I've been on travel, I really have missed the routine of my morning commute. Before I had left for work I had cleaned out my closet a bit and thrown out old boxes and such. It is feeling more and more real that I am leaving. After that I took the jeepney to the neighborhood my office is in. Most days the jeepney makes me get all hot and I breathe in tons of exhaust, but this day I remembered how much I love riding the jeep. Its like riding the public bus in the U.S., you just feel so much more a part of the place you live in when you take communal transportation instead of segregating yourself off from everyone else by driving a car. Riding a jeep also indicates to me how much I have gotten familiar with Davao. I know the system, I know who to pass my money to, and I know how to say “stop just at this place, here” in the local language. Even though David has been to the Philippines several times he has never ridden a jeep. When I took him on the jeep for the first time he was impressed at how comfortable I was with it and how well I knew how to use the jeep. Riding the jeepney in the Philippines has truly been a source of pride for me and I will seriously miss it, breathing in exhaust and all.

After I got off the jeepney, I hopped on a tricycle to make my way to the office. The tricycle guys were joking about how my driver got to take the American. Almost weekly they have a new nickname for me, “Hi American!,” “Hi Tall!” I’ve been able to have short conversations with several of the tricycle drivers and have gotten to know a couple of them. They are always friendly and playful and I will truly miss the moments they make me smile every morning.

As I walked up the hill to the office from where the tricycle driver dropped me off I counted – I only have 11 days left here. Unlike other days, I walked up the hill slowly, taking in the birds hopping about, the tall trees and colorful flowers, the pets lined up along the houses on the hill. The office is in a truly beautiful neighborhood and I will dearly miss the scenic walk up that long, steep hill.

Many days here it was easy to be tired of the heat or the pollution or the many other challenges put in my way. But now, with 11 days left, I know that I’ve dealt with the challenges presented to me and didn’t let them hold me back or bring me down. While there were times I needed to spend some quiet time inside with the A/C on for a while, I never hated being in the Philippines and wanted to leave. I am completely happy and proud of the experience I have had. I have lots to do in the last week and a half, finishing work, shopping for Christmas gifts and thank yous, and attending a traditional indigenous wedding. Today, I realized, however, that even though I may be busy, I have to take each day slowly and appreciate each step through Davao, because I really am going to miss what has become home for me these last six months.

Rice Krispie/Coco Pops Treats!

Recently, I've been missing home quite a lot. With David gone, wedding planning begun, Christmas arriving, and applying for jobs, my head and heart are pretty much in the U.S. most of the time. In my quest to soothe some of my longings for home, I decided to make rice krispie treats. I don't know about you, but to me rice krispies are A. Delicious! B. Easy to make and C. A typical American treat. So off I headed to the local grocery story to grab some ingredients.

But when I arrived at the supermarket a terrible thing happened. There was no rice krispies cereal to be found! I had been craving rice krispie treats for days, it would have been horrible to turn back now. I already had two bags of marshmallows in my hands! Luckily I came across Coco Pops, basically chocolate rice krispies. While I love the simplicity of rice krispies and marshmallows, chocolate never made anything worse...

Two batches later my roommate and I have eaten about 20 of these treats, I've shared with my friends here, and most recently I brought them on travel with me. I'm currently in Cotabato finishing up my work with some last minute interviews. In the afternoon today I offered the treats to my co-workers. None of them had seen such a thing before and I think were quite skeptical. But they were sweet enough to me to at least try them. As I walked around the car one of my co-workers came upon me with his eyes wide, a big smile on his face and a huge bite taken out of his rice krispie/coco pops treat. "You must open a store, you must open a store in Davao and sell these, you can make them different flavors, they are so good...!" And a few minutes later, "You can cook! You must get married, you can cook!" After informing him that I indeed was getting married and I was so happy he enjoyed the sweets I made, I couldn't help giggling to myself. I spread the joy that is rice krispie treats to the Philippines. Also, I'm glad the easiest thing I know how to make is all the proof I need to show that I can cook! Hopefully David is looking forward to long years together marked by many rice krispie treats to eat!

On a side note, last year I joked that I would create an NGO called "Cupcakes for Peace." Basically the idea is that I will make the most delicious sweets ever and bring them to intense negotiations and diplomatic meetings among warring parties. The amazingness of these sweets will make everyone so happy that peace will be made with ease (this idea isn't too far from the serious fact that peacebuilders do have to be aware of the environment they set when facilitating an intense mediation session). I'm pretty sure the joy I saw in my co-worker over my rice krispie treats continues to prove my idea that sweets can really change the world!

Next up: Christmas season in the Philippines!

To the Market

Here are some beautiful pictures David took of the local market here. This market is right near my office and gym, so its where I buy most of my food.

Giant Siopao

I forgot to include this photo in my previous food entry, but that's okay, this picture deserves an entry all its own. Here is a photo of David's cousin Renato holding GIANT Siopao. Siopao is a Filipino food made of a steamed bun with different meat (or bean?) fillings. Usually Siopao is about a third or half of this size, but this Siopao is famous in Manila for its enormity. This Siopao is so special that the Mayor of Manila, during a hostage crisis a few months ago in the city, a tense situation in which several people were killed and the government was harshly criticized for its poor response, just couldn't resist and slipped away in the middle of the stand-off to go to the nearby restaurant that makes these specialties to eat some famous giant Siopao. Its that awesome...