Straighteners......at last!

Woohoo! I am borrowing my mum's straighteners for the weekend. No more massive hair! I stupidly didn't bring my ghds here, don't quite know what I was thinking. I have not properly straightened my hair for two and a half months, and believe me, my hair needs to be straightened. I straightened it quickly at my mum's a few weeks ago and it was very weird seeing myself with straight hair again. I got a shock at how long it is too. With it being up all the time I didn't notice. I will post a pic of my super straight hair this weekend ;-)

Most Filippina woman have sickeningly perfect hair. They can wash it and dry it in the sun and it ends up poker straight with no frizz and looks as shiny as silk. How can that be?! Mine grows ten times it's size if I don't blow dry and straighten it.

Fish again ;-)

I've just had an interesting time cleaning out the fishbowl. I clean it out twice a week as there's six of them in there and no water filter. It's not an easy process as the water pressure in our bathroom is non existent after the 'repairs' and comes out of the tap in a trickle. The fish are upstairs so I fill the bowl in the en suite so we don't have to carry it upstairs because it weighs a tonne.

I have to count the fish out into the half coke bottle they arrived in then count them back into the bowl, to make sure none get thrown in the sink :-D I got a bit of a shock when I went to the bottle and counted only five! I then saw a lifeless orange body on the floor!! One of the goldfish had jumped out of the bottle onto the floor. I would have taken a pic but I was desperate to get it back in the water lol. It wasn't dead but I think it's a bit traumatised. It's now swimming around the top of the bowl, round and round, really fast!

Next, I had to get them from the bottle into the bowl with the net and we had another jumper! He landed on the floor too! Laurence and I then counted the fish half a dozen times before we counted six. I kept looking around the floor for an escapee. They are, all six, now safely in their nice clean bowl -phew :-)

Evening stroll

My mum and I went for a walk round the complex yesterday evening and came across the neighbour's dog sitting in the road. He just watched us approaching out of one eye, because the other was covered in fur :-D He made us laugh because he had a funny tufty hairdo!

On our way back to my house we saw two of the other neighbours trying to get something out of their garden, each with a long plank of wood in their hands. At first I thought it was a rat but it looked like a tortoise so I went for a closer look. One of the ladies however told us to stay back as it was a 'turtle snake', they bite and they're poisonous! I decided against getting closer to take a pic! It looked like a tortoise but with a soft shell and moved like a snake, it was quite gross!

Bumper Brownout!

Phew! Today was definitely a hot one and mostly because of the lack of air con I encountered!  There have been a lot of brownouts lately in Gensan and I've heard some musings that it may be due to the enormous mall opening recently and sucking up all the power.  We can't be sure but they're certainly more often and for longer than they were at the beginning.  One Sunday we had no electricity for 6 hours!

Anyway, the reason they are called brownouts, rather than blackouts, is because they only affect parts of the city at a time.  Apparently here a blackout is if the whole city goes out. I don't think we've experienced that yet. The brownouts 'move' around the city so one area will lose electricity then when it comes back on, another area will have a brownout.  I must have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time today as I have been in a brownout since 9.30 this morning until now, 6pm!

I arrived at the school this morning to a brownout, then arrived at the college this afternoon to a brown out, then arrived home to a brownout! It was literally following me around the city! Or maybe I was following it, certainly NOT intentionally. At the college I couldn't use my usual classroom as it's right in the heart of the college, no windows so it was pitch black.  After wandering around the campus with my little group like nomads for about 10 minutes and getting removed from a classroom we'd adopted, we finally settled into the ICT room.  At least it was light and cool in there.

I was sad to hear when I got the the college that today was the last day with this current group of Hotel & Restaurant Management students. Next week I will have midwifery students for five sessions. It was a bit of a surprise for them and me both because we were all geared up for another five sessions and we had presentations prepared and more lessons etc. but it wasn't to be. They were a lovely group, most of them Christians which was really nice, as that would be unusual in the UK in such a small group.

So all in all a good but sweltering day, my fan came in very handy!  I used to be self conscious about fanning myself in front of a class but that had to go out the window! :-D  So, moaning over.....there is an upside to brownouts.  It is like a 'snow day' at home.  You can't do much so you just make the most of being able to relax! :-)

These are posters that have been put up in the school outside my classroom.  They show how the pupils in each class ranked following their last exams.  I felt really sorry for one little boy as he was visibly upset after seeing his position :-/  I can't imagine EVER seeing this in a school in the UK.....I can just imagine the uproar from the parents!

St Andrew's Day

Grade 5 learnt the Scottish song "Ye Canny Shove Yer Grannie" for St Andrew's Day today!  I couldn't believe how quickly they picked it up and the video was taken after just one practice.  They also added the clapping themselves! :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yOy_RaYqTw

They were excited to hear that people in Scotland would hear their singing so that's why some of them are frantically 'fixing their hair'!

Quite a stretching day today as I was teaching English tenses to the college group.  It's bizarre how you can speak a language without a thought, but really have to think about the grammar!  Because the last time I learnt tenses was in French I kept lapsing into French in my mind and had to keep stopping myself from saying it out loud.....that really would have confused them!

Two of the girls brought in some yummy banana cake for me, so sweet - thanks Julynne & Karen Faith :)

Gensan View Resort & Farm

We're just back from a swim at Gensan View Resort. It's great getting in the pool after the drive there in the boiling sun! I only realised today that the resort is part of a working farm. They had a stall set up with organic veg and there's field after field of produce. They've also got some
wildlife! When we were there yesterday we saw they had an aviary with some lovely birds, they looked like Love Birds or a type of parrot, and some small rabbits. Then today I noticed outside the resort, a pen with huge rabbits! Yesterday we also saw about five large birds flying overhead which looked like birds of prey. When we were in the pool today we saw two more, at first, that turned out to be eagles! I've never seen eagles in the wild before, they were amazing! Later, all five of them were flying overhead again.

Luau

Laurence and I went to the High School Hawaiian Beach Party today at Gensan View Resort. We arrived after the Hawaiian dance presentations unfortunately as I wasn't well this morning but it was a beautiful day so we has a photo session(as usual!), some lunch and a walk round the resort in the sun.  It was nice to see all the kids enjoying themselves in the pool.

I had my second college workshop class this afternoon which I'm really enjoying. The group are really sweet and a lot less maintenance than Primary kids!

Kris Kringle

The school have organised a 'Kris 'Kringle' (Secret Santa) event on the run up to Christmas which involves writing to one another (teachers) anonymously. There are forfeits for those who are found out! I don't fancy my chances much as my style of English/writing is going to be pretty obvious!

The High School Hawaiian dance is tomorrow at the resort with the pool, so that's something else I've certainly never done in November!

America intern students

I enjoyed my first session with the college students today. I gave them an English grammar test and had a five minute interview with them to assess their English. I felt for them as it took me back to having to do the same in French :-/ Some of them were pretty nervous, probably because they weren't prepared for the questions I was going to ask, so they were put on the spot but they did very well. I am going to cover the grammar they were stuck on and have plenty of role play situations over the next couple of weeks.

No contest!

I think I have a pretty good chance of winning this!?! :-D

English Workshop

I was called to the college campus this afternoon and the school's owner has asked me to run a 10-day workshop with a group of ten 19/20 year olds.  They are all preparing for a year long internship in America next year but Eilleen is concerned about their English.  I am going to go in for two hours every afternoon to help them with their English, interview questions etc.  I'm looking forward to the new challenge and I think it'll be interesting working with adults.  Hopefully a bit less rowdy! :-D

Tomorrow I have to start with an oral and written test to assess their level of English and then go from there.

Fish Update

There appears to be only one tiny fish left......so it seems that the rest have been eaten by the big fish :-(

Fish offspring!

My HT told us that one of her goldfish from the flea market had babies! So when Laurence said there were loads of new tiny fish in our bowl I though he was joking! But no, we now have about 10 more goldfish :-o Not sure if our small fish bowl will be able to accommodate them all! Laurence is going to have to get thinking of lots more names :-D

As the saying goes......

....I can officially sleep through an earthquake!

The earthquake which registered at 5.1 in magnitude happened in the early hours of this morning.  Laurence, my mum and George all felt it.  Laurence said the bed was shaking A LOT for at least 15 seconds and the fishbowl was shaking! :-o Laurence tried waking me up to experience it but I didn't stir or feel a thing!

More borrowed pics :)

These photos were taken by my mum on a mission trip in and around Maitum.

A young T'boli girl made herself a pair of glasses out of a banana leaf! 

The girl at the back with the white t shirt is from the T'boli tribe. She is 11 years old and she teaches Sunday school to 20 little kids. She came to a seminar for tribal pastors and Sunday school teachers :)

The Filipinos call us the Americanos (because we're white). My mum was passing this Carabow and someone shouted out" look an Americano caribow!!" :-D

Gensan View

Had a lovely afternoon at a resort today called Gensan View. We were able to go swimming and sunbathe for a while which was very welcome as today was a hot one.  I'm really pleased to have found this place as it's so close to our house and it's nice to be able to go to an outdoor pool in this heat.  It's a really nice resort, very well kept and you can rent out Nipa Huts which are really cool.  I want one for the garden at Park Avenue!  Next time we go we'll take a picnic and spend the day there.  It was surprisingly quiet too for a Sunday so I'd imagine if we go during the week it'll be even quieter.  I am there on Friday with the school for the High School dance.

http://gensanview.com/

Mount Calvary Baptist Church

We went to the church this morning and were surprised at how large it was!  There must have been over 500 people in the meeting hall and the pastor said there had been 800 youth in the Sunday School groups that morning!  The assistant pastor spoke this morning so it was in the local language Cebuano so we didn't understand it afterall! :-D However, he referred to bible verses a lot so we were able to get the jist of the message by following them.  We met a lady from Colorado, who's also a medical missionary and the pastor and his family, who are from California.  So it was nice to not be the only white people in the room! :-D  We returned tonight for the evening meeting and the (American) pastor gave a good word about the 'Christian Home'.  They were having a birthday celebration for the pastor after the meeting but we just had a coke while we were chatting then left before the food.  It seems like a nice church and we'd definitely go again.

I didn't take any pics but they've got some good ones on their website of their choir etc.

http://mtcalvarygensan.org/index.php?id=photo-album

Not as good as Struthers choirs ;-)

Celtic 2 Barcelona 1

This post is for Laurence who hasn't lost track of his beloved Celtic whilst over here! The pic is of him celebrating after Celtic beat Barcelona last week. The second picture is of me in my poncho getting ready to ride in the rain :-D

Serious plumbing issues

This house's plumbing has some serious issues!  The pictures are of the paintwork on the stairs filling up with water due to leaking pipes!

Saturday Night Gensan Style

We went out for a yummy tea tonight to Krabby Patty's.  I had steak and chips, it was fantastic.  Then we had a wander around the mall as there's always lots happening there on a Saturday night.  We watched the children playing in the fountain for a while.  They would stand over where the water was going to shoot out then all run away screaming-very funny!  There was also a huge outdoor Zumba class!  I tried to get Laurence to join in.  We finished the night off in Starbucks of course!

Al fresco Zumba!

We are going to try out this church tomorrow http://mtcalvarygensan.org as we've been told the pastor is American so we'll understand the sermon! :)  It was a medical missionary couple we bumped into one day in Pizza Hut who told us about it.  They are over from Atlanta, Georgia.

Chinese tea

I went out on Friday night to a fellowship meeting with mum and George to a nice wee hotel in Gensan. I met some lovely people, heard of God's AMAZING miracles He is doing in Mindanao and ate lots!  Among other things there was gorgeous carrot cake and Chinese tea.  I drank so much tea!!

The hotel seems lovely and I wouldn't mind staying sometime because they have themed room from all over Asia. I fancy the Japanese or Hawaiian room (don't think Hawaii is Asia though??)

Flea Market Friday & New Pets!!!

The school had a Flea Market on Friday morning, where the primary school kids and their parents could set up stalls and sell their wares to the high school kids and teachers.  It was really busy and there was a good atmosphere with the little kids using their selling skills to persuade me to buy too many sweet things! :)  The canteen area was decorated for the occasion.

Unusual products for sale!!

First year boys - they were sitting at a stall and they said I could 'buy one take one'! I said I'd just take their pic :-D

Canteen decorated for the flea market

 It was mostly food on sale but there were some goldfish on one stall, in half plastic Pepsi bottles!!  My HT saw me taking pics of them and bought them for me!!! So Laurence picked me up to find that we had six new pets! :-D  Friday afternoon was spent looking for a new home for our six new fishy friends (who Laurence has already named) and we finally found then a big glass fish bowl, which looks cool with the neon, coloured stones and plants.

It took Laurence & I five and a half years and moving to the other side of the world to get pets lol.  This is the lowest maintenance ones we could have hoped for though.  I love watching them swimming about, it's relaxing  I'm watching them as I write this as they are swimming around the top of the bowl eating their flakes :) There's two silver ones, two gold ones, a black one and a tiny black & white striped one (he's called Phil! :-D)

Feeding time! 

They are in there somewhere!

My HT may be seeing these goldfish again when we eventually leave here :-)

terrapins in the pet shop - I want one!!