Enjoying the natural beauty of my new home!
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2006
1
9
55
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
Tublay, Benguet, Philippines
Friday, June 16, 2006
I have had a wonderful first few weeks at site, albeit some of it spent away form site visiting other volunteers, but wonderful none-the-less!! Last weekend I headed to Mountain Province to meet up with the other PCV's placed there. What an incredible drive up the mountain, breathtaking views of the vegetable terraces as far as the eye can see and entire villages literally sitting on the side of mountains!! Amazing!! We spent the weekend in Tadain a Municipality of Mountain Province where a volunteer form last year's batch is placed! What a beautiful community, surrounded by mountains and wonderful hiking trails! Rachel has an amazing house there, tow stories and a huge kitchen. She said it was way nicer then anywhere she lived while in college in the states! We enjoyed great home cooked vegetarian and even Mexican food (what a treat!) and wonderful conversations and stories about being a PCV here! Since Monday was a Philippine National holiday we all decided to go to Sagada for an extra night. Sagada is yet another beautiful town in Mountain Province and famous for its caves. It is a very progressive community and has a quaint small mountain outdoors' feel to it. The caves were incredible.... I have never seen rock formation like it and it was incredible to be that far underground crawling around and swimming in ice cold under-ground pools! I have still not been inside the caves I will be working with in Tublay, but if they are half has amazing as the caves in Sagada it will be amazing! Needless to say a wonderful weekend in the Mountains I will for sure be going back!
Yesterday I spent the day in Ambogdolan, the Barangay I will be primarily working with. The Barangay council, Women's Organization and the DAR- Department of Agrarian Reform were sponsoring a tree planting and beautification project near the site of the caves. The entire day was filled with pinch myself moments... there I was planting coffee trees on the side of a mountain looking out at the incredible views of the area, and hiking down to the caves while chewing on Sugar Cane we picked from trees on the side of the road. Too amazing!! One of the other highlights thus far has been getting to know many of the women, there are two adorable gals at the Municipality who have taken me under their wing and I love it!! One of them is totally going to be a seregant aunt/mom to me. She always wants to pinch my cheeks! I spent this morning before lunch chatting with them at the nearby little snack-shop, our conversations ranged from the family planning policies here to the many issues facing the teenage population. The energy and spirit of women never ceases to amaze me!! I love how it has the ability to transcend all language and cultural barriers!! I look forward to continuing to grow with and amongst this amazing group of women!! As I have said many a time the backbone of the society!
As I write, the now daily afternoon rain heavily beats down outside! There is something very powerful yet peaceful about the rain here. That is until landslides or typhoons hit! Thank you all for the e-mails and snail mail always a treat to hear from each of you. I hope everyone is well and know that I think about you all often!!
All my love,
Sherry (Check out the amazing pics of the caves and tree planting)
Comments
Neat!
Wow ... thanks so much for doing this blog, I almost feel like I'm there with you when I read your entries and view your pictures! Miss you and I look forward to receiving your wish-list soon!
-D
Wish List
Diana-
Sorry it has taken me a while to respond... as you can see I have been very busy!! I am so glad you are enjoying my travel-updates, it really is a joy to write them and I love my digital camera to give you all images (which in no way do justice to anything I am seeing) but they try! As for my wish list it will seem a bit random but here goes... peanut butter, stationary, if you can get me a simple pair of silver studs (earrings) and if you want some silver cleaner, my earrings are getting trashed with all the diesel gasoline here yuck!! Let's see any new tunes form home would be great and of course tampons and oh I almost forgot the most important... Trader Joe's Trek Mix it is my favorite and I am dying to have some. It is called Trek Mix comes with dried cranberries, white, peanut, and chocolate chips and a wonderful array of nuts!! Also while you are at Trader Joes dried apricots would be a treat too!! I love you too much for sending a care package; it is always so fun to receive snail mail!! Remember to send it airmail so it will arrive safely and faster!! Hope it is not too pricey!!
I hope things are well for you, how is the Hollyfield Foundation going. Send an update when you can!
All my love from the opposite side of the Ocean!
Bear