I AM A MEDIA INTERN

After 8 months on the road (!!!), I’ll be honest: constantly being in a new place was getting a bit tiring.  I am ready to unpack the suitcase for a little while, but not ready to join the real world or anything like that…so I decided to volunteer for a while in the Philippines.  After seeing so many amazing things on this trip, it’s time to do something good.  I’m excited.  My home for the next month or two is Tacloban City on the island of Leyte, which is in the central part of the country.

I’m volunteering as a media intern for Volunteer for the Visayans, which is an organization with a whole bunch of projects around Leyte.  Every day I shadow a volunteer at one of the different project sites, help out, take lots of pictures and write about it for the website and newsletter.  So far I’ve seen a rural nutrition project, a construction site, an orphanage, a play put on by some sponsored kids, and a youth camp. Pretty cool stuff.

I live in a homestay with a Filipino family in the cutest area, a ‘cluster’ called Bliss – a little maze of a neighborhood where tons of kids are running around and everyone says hello when you walk by.  My host mother (nanay) and host father (tatay) have a couple of kids themselves, but they’re grown up and out of the house.

P1060105My host house, as seen from across the neighborhood basketball court.

So that’s the update.  For the next month or two I’ll be writing about living and volunteering in the Philippines – a place I’m really growing to love!

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A couple of kids at one of the project sites I’ve visited.

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Cooking fire at the construction site.

THE BALUT EXPERIENCE

Since arriving in the Philippines, I’ve added a few more items to the list of Weird Things I’ve Eaten.  The strangest of these?  Balut, a food which has been featured on both Fear Factor and Survivor.

Balut looks like a regular boiled egg from the outside, but inside there is a developing duck embryo with feathers and (small) bones.  The works.  Eeek!

I embarked on the balut adventure with some people from my hostel in Manila.  As soon as we got to the street stall, a couple of kids came up to us and started asking us for money.  I told them I wouldn’t give them money, but that I’d buy them balut if they’d give us a lesson on how to eat it.

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Because really, you need a coach.  Look.

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I peeled mine (luckily you couldn’t see too much detail from the outside) and took a big bite with my eyes closed.  Blind, it actually tasted kind of nice – the texture was ok and it tasted like egg and chicken meat at the same time.  When I opened my eyes, though, it was horrifying!!  It’s almost black on the inside and looks…well, exactly like what it is: an embryo that’s in the process of materializing from the insides of the egg.  This was Martin’s reaction upon seeing the innards of his balut.  Mine was similar.

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We passed the leftovers on to the kids, who slurped it all down like it was the most delicious food ever.  Oh the things that seem normal when you grow up with them…

PHOTO OF THE DAY: RING OF FIRE

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Seems like there are so many things to catch up on – the rest of Laos and almost 3 weeks in the Philippines!  Time flies.  Anyway, the first Photo of the Day in what seems like forever was from a party/gathering/event I went to the other day in Manila’s Piazza Venice.  Every Tuesday, people get together here and practice poi and hula hooping (with flaming hoops, of course).  Here is one guy spinning poi.  Pretty impressive, I think!

HAPPY NEW YEAR…LAO STYLE!

Celebrating Pii Mai (the Lao Lunar New Year celebration) in Luang Prabang, Laos, was A BLAST.  I mean, look:

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I haven’t felt so much like a kid in years – this was the best New Year ever.  Hartley and I bought squirtguns (hers was shaped like a dinosaur and mine was like a mini Super Soaker) and went out into the streets to experience the lunacy for a few days.

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You guys have probably heard of Songkran, the weeklong New Year festival in April where Southeast Asian cities turn into giant waterfights.  The water is significant: splashing other people is a wish for a long and happy life, as well as a sort of “new beginning” ritual.  Children splash their elders first, then monks, then each other…and everyone bands together on the sidewalks around big buckets of water, soaking passing cars and bikes and people!  It’s the very best sort of madness.  Bands of locals roll through town in pickup trucks laden with water buckets and bristling with squirtguns, and travelers follow suit.

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I love the relaxed Lao attitude towards having buckets of water thrown on them all day long.  The driver of one bus I was in got sloshed in the face by a bunch of kids spraying a hose through the open window as we passed by.  I think most people in the Western world would be not so cool with that no matter the time of year, but he just laughed.  Of course, it helps that it’s SO HOT outside, and also that it’s acceptable to walk around town absolutely soaked.  Restaurants don’t bat an eye if you walk in and sit down dripping wet.  Barely anything seems to bother the Lao people, and that is one reason why I adored them.

Hartley’s camera was waterproof, so we got some good action shots!  Or, at least I think so.  There were water drops on the lens most of the time, but then again there were water drops on my sunglasses and eyeballs too, so at least they’re an accurate reflection of the view, if not always crystal clear :)

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THE DEAL WITH VANG VIENG

Hartley and I went to Vang Vieng.

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Ooh, Vang Vieng.  

VV has a REPUTATION because up until recently it was a PAR-TAY.  An infamous rite of passage/debauch-fest on the Southeast Asia backpacker trail, which, like the Full Moon Party, is either awesome or horrific depending on what you’re looking for.

Like Sihanoukville, it existed only as a party zone for backpackers: essentially, it was Southeast Asian Spring Break.  Shoulder to shoulder bars and guesthouses playing Friends and Family Guy on repeat.  Backpackers drinking all day, trying to out-offend each other with car paint body decorations, and partying all night.

Fans of VV pointed to the fun factor.  It was like SPRING BREAK, MAN!  Who didn’t like a party?  And it’s not as though all of Laos was this way.  It was the one place that had totally caved to backpackers, so why not enjoy it?

Those who didn’t like VV brought up the fact that drunken antics and skimpy clothing showed a total disregard for the modesty of Lao culture and the actual residents of the town.  Not to mention the mixture of shoddy infrastructure and drunken idiocy that was causing deaths on the river at a rather alarming rate (booze and drugs can make those tenuous rope swings and shaky water slides seem like a good idea).

The bickering over whether VV was a fun-zone or a cesspool stopped when things got out of hand.  Too many people were getting injured or dying.  The government cracked down, bars were shut, tourism slowed, and the blogospheric rumor mill went haywire.  Was there still tubing?  Was there any point to going?  Was the town even open?

Well, folks, here’s the deal.  Vang Vieng still exists, but it’s not the VV of backpacker legend.  There are still bars on the river.  Guesthouses still play Friends.  But it’s quiet now, and draws a mellower crowd.  The town isn’t empty, but you can tell it’s built for a lot more people.  If you come here, expect tubing, hiking, and a chill vibe.  That’s perfect for me – just what I wanted out of it.

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The tubing, by the way, is delicious.  I spent two days floating lazily down the gorgeous river, stopping here and there to get towed into the riverside bars by a local kid with a long bamboo pole.  Chatting over cold cans of Beerlao with a pink-haired girl from San Francisco, her Welsh boyfriend, a group of English gap year students, a muay thai fighter, Aussies on holiday.

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P1050273If I’d had more time in Laos, I would have stayed here longer!  My advice?  Go.  It’s still worth it.

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Have you been to Vang Vieng?  Before the crackdown, or after?  Do you think it’s better or worse?

PHOTO OF THE DAY: SOAKED IN LUANG PRABANG

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Pii Mai, the Lao New Year festival, finished a couple of days ago.  It was a wild week of waterfights all over the country!  Hartley and I were in Luang Prabang, and we immediately bought some squirtguns and joined in – made me feel like a kid again.  More photos will be up soon (this was SO MUCH FUN), but this was my favorite – a guy emptying a huge bucket of water on us.

PHOTO OF THE DAY: RIVER PUPPY

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This is the second dog-themed Photo of the Day in what, two weeks?  Guess I’m missing pets these days.  Anyway, this little dog lives at one of the riverside bars in Vang Vieng.  What could be better than tubing, afternoon beer and a puppy to snuggle (well, ok, she actually just chewed on all of us, but whatever)?

PHOTO OF THE DAY: BIZARRE POSTER

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So today’s Photo of the Day might be cheating, just a little bit, because it’s a photo of a poster I saw at a roadside restaurant on Cat Ba Island – some advertisement for a water park, I think.  But I had to put it up, because really, how weird is this?  I think if a seal gave me a peck on the cheek I’d have a happier expression than this guy.  What about you?