Mt. Napulak

This past weekend was one of the most fun and enjoyable weekends I have had in a long time. Through meeting various people in the city, I was connected with the Iloilo Mountaineers. They were doing a fun climb to Mt. Napulak, which is located in the Provence north of Iloilo Provence. The thing about Mt. Napulak is that ever since my first visit to Miag-ao, I saw this mountain in the distance, it is very distinctive. It is the tallest in the area and has, what appears to be, a giant boulder at the top. So after be given the opportunity to spend a few days hiking and camping over the weekend, I of course accepted. I realize as I am writing this that I have failed to take a picture of the mountain from its base. I will try to get a picture up soon so all can see it. These pictures are all taken from the summit.

Now I don't want any of you did get any mis-conceptions. By now means was this a difficult climb, or technical in anyway. Just a lot of fun. A few spots along the way could have been considered a bit "hairy." As long as you kept your concentration and didn't fall off a path you were fine. It took a little under 7 hours for myself to get to the top with the first group of people. Other people took quite a few hours longer. The decent was much faster, for obvious reasons and we took a different route down. We did it in 3 hours.

It was great to be able to see islands off in the distance that I never could see from my beach. I could see 3 or the 4 major coasts of Panay island which was very interesting as well. When we arrived in the afternoon clouds were steadily rolling through, and visibility was fairly limited. However I woke up rather early, climbed to the top of the "Boulder" at the peak (which is much more like a huge rock formation once you are at its base, about 30-40 meters high and the same in width, great fun to boulder on) and watched the sun rise over Panay's neighboring island of Gimaras. It was stunning.

Below: Me, posing for all of you

Below: Dusk at the top of Napulak

Above: The left side of the picture, on the coast, is roughly where my house and beach are located

Above: Our campsite

Below: The ridge we hiked to reach the top

Above: Me posing one more time for all of you

Below: The "Boulder" at the top of Mt. Napulak. From my understanding the cross is a very recent, and not very visually aesthetic, addition to this gorgeous piece of nature.

Workin'

Holy Week starts this Thursday in the Philippines. Well all over the world really however they don't mess around here. I can assure you of that. The upcoming 4 day weekend is really a 7 day weekend, due heavily on the fact that from today (Monday) till Wednesday there will be no "working" done in my office what so ever. That’s fine, I have paperwork to catch up on and blogs to write. Quite a few, I think I will post 3 or 4 this week, or before Wednesday. I have to go speak at some training sessions for the new Volunteers who just arrived. Oh can you all believe I have been here for over a year now?.....me neither.

I am looking forward to the Holy Week celebration, mostly to experience it in this setting. I'm trying to plan a couple days at the nearby island of Gimaras, were the Good Friday celebrations are rather well known. I'll get back to you all on how it was at the end of April.

I mention briefly in a comment I left on my blog to my friend Brian Meyer that I had some recent success with the women's group I'm working with. I thought I would elaborate on that briefly. A few weeks ago was the 2 year anniversary of the Bocalad Center Economic Alliance. I have been working a lot with this organization (both with livelihood and with student leadership through environmentalism), which is located in one of the more rural sections of Miag-ao. I had been having my second thoughts on the women's co-op and how successful it would realistically be. Than they surprised me and decided to open a store in the BCEA Market, and to correspond with the grand opening of the store with the Anniversary celebration. The store will be selling medicine (which I have arranged for them to get at cost from an Iloilo co-op) and electrical supplies. Both items are very hard to get in the rural barangays and very expensive to get due to the high cost to travel to town or the city. In the future they hope to produce and sell banana and peanut candies. The latter I'm in the process of trying to arrange trainings for. I don't feel that the opening of the store counters all my previous thoughts; however it shows a motivation of some sorts that I didn't think existed. As the saying goes here, Simplyanay or in English simply first. It’s also a great example of how much English is blending into the local dialects (At ATM's the even have an option for TAGLISH, English and Tagalog). Below are a few pictures of the Anniversary day and its events. In all the typical Filipino style there was lots of food, speeches that went long, a church mass, dances, singing, and competitions of all sorts.

On another quick note about my work, seeing more of you are interested in it then I originally thought, I have found a German NGO to fund the replication of Environmental lesson plans (hard copy and digital) I have obtained for the 9 schools I worked with on Solid Waste Management and Environmental Education. I will be distributing the lesson plans to schools at the beginning of the next school year.

Above: The white guy with long hair is me, bowing my head during Mass. Yes Mass is held for everything. Especially during the Lenton Season.

Below: The local school arranged some dance numbers to entertain all during the celebration. This guy is bustin' his moves.

Below: The Mayor of Miag-ao cutting the ribbon for the grand opening of 11-B Dev Co's Grand Opening. There was also a blessing by the priest to ward of spirits and aswang (Witches). Yes, Cathoolicism and anceint beliefs are blended quite often in the Philippines.

Dugay Gid Na

That's a Long Time!

I recently experienced the longest ceremony of any sorts that I have ever been a part of. My neighbor’s daughter and friend of mine, Caren, recently graduated from nursing school in Iloilo. They not only have a graduation ceremony but also a Ring and Pin Ceremony. In all essence it’s the same thing, but it happens 2 days before graduation. I have become very close with her family, her dad is in my barcada, her uncle is my landlord, her Mom does my wash, her sister is my favorite little kid in the Philippines (Sy Sy), and of course she is my friend. I was asked to present her with her graduation ring for the ceremony. I was a bit reluctant at first but her family, including her, genuinely wanted me to take part, so I agreed. Little did I know that the ceremony would be almost 8 hours. I won't get into logistics to much, but ceremonies are drawn out here, and if you throw in a mass with communion, you get to eight hours rather quickly. It was interesting to take part of, and of course I can't say I minded having nothing to do for 8 hours than to watch young Filipina nurses walk around in their uniforms all day. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of me presenting Caren her ring, however here are some pictures from the day.

Above is Myself, Caren's Mother and Lady. Lady is another cute little kid here. She is my landlords daugher and Caren and Sy Sy's first cousin.

Below is Sy Sy and Caren having a laugh after the trials of spending a day sitting

Above is Me, Lola (Grandmother), and Caren. Lola couldn't make because she is not in the best condition, but I took lots of pictures and videos so she could enjoy.

Below is Caren and I snapping one of ourselfs because everyone else was busy eating.