Greetings from the Philippines

Hi everyone! I hadn't realised I could still access my blog account, so that's good news... However, I can't do anything with it, hence why Dad's gonna forward this on for me.

Belated congratulations to Gem and Clive! I hope you had a lovely anniversary. And also congrats J+R! I'm so stoked about Louis; he's gorgeous! Are you in the UK at the moment then? Looking forward to getting to meet him someday :)

Dad mentioned that Grandad in particular would love to know how I'm getting on over here so I thought I'd give you all an overview. So... I'm staying in Baguio, a city which is about 6-7 hours bus drive from Manila and it's in the mountains so it's much cooler than at sea level - a really comfortable temperature actually, around 18-24 degrees during the day I reckon. I've been here just over three weeks, so I've properly settled in now and made some great friendships, going a long way to making it easier being so far from home! It's still the school holidays at the moment (term starts up next Monday), so in terms of my volunteer work at the school it's been relatively quiet. During my first week I helped out at a three-day summer school and the week after that I helped run an English Theater workshop. Both were on a much smaller scale than school will be (and even then the school is relatively small - around 150 students I think) but it was a great opportunity to start getting to know some of the kids that I'll be working with soon.

English is widely spoken here, but I found a lot of Filipinos to be shy about using it in my presence, I guess because I'm the expert there! So at first it was a little difficult getting conversation going with some people but that's getting easier as time goes. And a lot of the children find it much harder to speak it, being so much younger and therefore still learning. The main Filipino language is Tagalog but they often use a combination of Tagalog and English - Taglish - and I'm sure it's just a case of whichever language first comes to mind in expressing a given sentence!

I've found the way of life here to be generally more laid back than in the UK, which, amongst other things, might have something to do with the laid back Filipino timing! It's not as bad as in other countries - I find it to be a little annoying sometimes but it makes things generally more flexible. And I find the Filipinos to be lovely people, quite sensitive and gentle which I like. In terms of my character I think I fit in well here, which is a good thing! Someone told me that, besides the accent difference, they can quite easily tell an American from an English person and they prefer the English!

Baguio is a great little city, very colourful, busy and polluted - I think the latter might actually be irritating my eyes a bit! There are loads of people, often carting produce to/from market, which is a great place that smells wonderfully of fish! There are small shops or stalls selling snacks nearly everywhere you look. And then lots of traffic. We get around a lot using jeepneys, which are colourfully decorated elongated jeeps. A very cosy form of transport, as the idea is to get as many people as humanly possible to sit on each of the benches running the length of the vehicle - it's good fun! And I get stared at a lot! Sometimes smiled at, greeted or called after. Westerners are few and far between in this area!

This last week was spent in preparation for school and for the wedding we had yesterday between Bevs, the directress of the school, and Domz, the school sports coach. I was asked to be one of the ushers, so that was an interesting task, and it gave me a good opportunity to meet people and feel 'part of it'. It was really good, in particular the little traditions they have such as the releasing of live doves and the prosperity dance, where people pin money to the couple as they dance! And then this week we have both preparation for the new term and some 50 odd people coming to stay here at the school for a convention which is taking place over three days, I think. So I'm sure I'll be kept relatively busy!

Hopefully that's given you a general picture... Obviously I can't attach any photos so here's a public link to my facebook album if you want to take a look. Hopefully it'll work.

Anyway, I'm having a really great time and I know I'll be home before I know it! Hope you're all keeping well! Lots of love, Jess xx