Location

This map shows cities of the Republika ng Pilipinas. The island Mindanao is inside the red lines, Davao is located in the south of the island. 

 If you take a closer look you can see that Mount Apo - the highest mountain in the Philippines - is quite close to the city. Talikud island is the small one infront of Davao. The bigger one is Samal island.

The last picture shows two houses. My Uncle Boy and his family are living in the big house. The small on

e aside is Richard's house and my home for at least one more month. 

Corall Garden

Annabie, Pieter, me, M., Frithjof, Jun and Maya infront

Right after I went to the market last saturday I met my Belgian classmates and others 

to go snorkeling. We rented a boat with about 20 people, most of them working with the Canadian NGO LGSPA (Local G

overnment Support Program for ARMM). 

It was a very nice trip going to another site of Talikud. Although the water was very clear you never expect to explore such a nice under water world by just snorkeling while you're sitting in the boat. 

For lunch we went ashore on a nice beach with just benches and cottages. The food we brought  was shared among the whole group. 
After lunch we went to another side of the island to see a place called corall garden, I saw Dories and Nemos, blue starfish, snakes, seahorse and an octupus (which was a bait that belonged to fishers). 

After hours of snorkeling we went back to the city and almost everyone brought a classic souvenir: sunburn! 

Fish

As a fan of seafood I was fascinated by the variety of fish I found on the market. Moreover different kinds of crab, shrimp, squid, mussels or even seaweed were offered. 

Fish sellers might already remove the bones for you (20 Peso ~ o,3 €). 

Nothing will be wasted because everything can be used for cooking. My Uncle just bought the head if this huge red snapper to prepare it with soup - it supposed to be a delicacy. 

I ate the eye (it was a big piece of meat with a little white stone inside) and it wasn't bad! 

Sa Palengke

Last saturday I woke up at 5 am to go to Agdao market (palengke) with my Uncle Boy. It is quite big and divided in several sections for fruits, grain, meat, fish, flowers and more. These fruits (mango, watermelon, pineapple, papaya, different kinds of bananas etc.) are carefully piled up and sometimes already cut. 

This jackfruit (nangka) for example is to big to sell it at once. 

A big market like this is not only a place for buying and selling but also for producing (anything that can be used for cooking). 

These men make wraps for i.e. springrolls (lumpia) - these white things in the front table. One is using pastry to create thin circles on the hot iron stove and the other one is collecting them. The wraps are done in seconds so these guys are actually working pretty fast. The wraps are also used for sweet bananas, that dish is called Maruya. It's usually served for meryenda (snacks are very common). 

Buried alive

When I took this picture I thought the pigs are dead. Instead they're lying on the street, wrapped in banana leaves and waiting to get grilled. This is certainly no country for people who are striving for animal rights because these pigs are still alive! 

Learning Cebuano

I still have a hard time learning the local language: Cebuano or Bisaya, at MaryKnoll Institute for language and culture. My classes are from 8 am to 3.30 pm every day except the weekends. There are only 4 other students in my class and aside from grammar we have seperate lessons with not more than 2 students (+ 1 teacher). Of course there are many brakes, sosyal awor (where we watch a movie or play scramble in Bisaya) and since the school is a missionary's house we also have mass twice a week (the priest comes from Poland and gives mass in Cebuano with a polish accent - kalooy sa diyos). 

The first week we focused on spelling, the second on non-verbal sentences (Ako si Lilli = I'm Lilli / Hinay hinay basta kanunay = slowly slowly - but always! you can actually create a lot of sentences with just nouns and adjectives) and this week we finally learn some verbs. It is very much a spoken language with words coming from spanish (like numbers: i.e. baynte singko = 25; words are slighty changed in writing and sometimes in meaning i.e. seguro = maybe) and english (drayber = driver or janitor = diyanitor) or with malay roots. In fact, the language already tells a lot about the culture (i.e. sayings with a religous meaning: pohon = (next time) if god is willing, there is also the verb "simba" that refers to the action of "going to church")! 

We usually sit outside under these "payag" during our lessons. It's a nice atmosphere but aside from mosquitos there are also caterpillars (tilas)

 walking around. Although they look nice their hairs will infect your skin with red pimples which are very very itchy! And what is even worse: when you scratch yourself the itchyness will spread everywhere your fingers go... I had one last friday! Luckily I spend the next two days "under water"! 

The last picture shows a fresh mosquito bite which looks like a flower - quite artistic these mosquitos! 

Their bites develop a certain shape (maybe just in my case) before it will get red and big. You could even make a psychological Rohrschachtest out of it: what else does this shape look like?

Starfishing

Although the rainy season is just starting the sun usually shows up in the morning to the afternoon. With the humidity it can get pretty hot and it never gets much colder than 20° C.

Last weekend I went with my class mate Pieter to Talikud island (one hour boat ride from Davao). The boat was full of filipino families and many were staying over night. Walking along the beach you could also find more remote sides with less people (just kids throwing sandballs).

The water was clear and we looked for starfish in different colors... 

Unfortunately the last boat back to Davao already left at 3 PM. Since the weather was nice and the boat crowded we decided to take a seat on the roof - nice view with a refreshing breeze : )

Price crisis

People are standing in line for rice from the NFA (just in front of the City Hall of Davao City).

Minda News reported that "Prices of goods in Central Mindanao have averaged 10.8 percent in April, the highest inflation rate ever recorded". The average price for a kilo of rice increased from around 15 Peso to 30 Peso here in Davao only within the last two months! This affects especially people who are already struggling for survival because they have to pay twice as much as before. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said "Lands that are used to be planted with rice and corn are now planted with bananas" (Davao Today). Meanwhile the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assures the country that the public has enough supply of rice but does not address the problems that lie behind the recurring rice supply deficits. Instead the National Food Authority (NFA) sells imported rice at the price of 18.25 Peso a kilo. "The Philippines is the largest importer in the world" (Philippine Daily Inquirer) but the importation will only have a short term effect and can only fill the deficit this year. Not only the price for rice increased within the last two months but food in general like the prices of grains, corn or meat and fish. Fuel, light and water increased almost 10 percent during the last two months and the prices are surging for the following months. Just on monday there was a transportation strike in Davao City as well as in Manila. 

As a main filipino nourishment rice is an essential food component. Filipinos are proud of their rich and filling rice compaired with the cheap one from abroad. When you refer to a main dish in Bisaya the term "kan-on" (cooked or fried rice) is the main part while "sud-an" is just the side dish, therefore a meal is always "kan-on and ...". The rice price is expected to hit 40 Peso/kilo in the beginning of July. 

Mango plantation

This is the mango plantation of my uncles and also my mom (5 hektars). It's located in Bansalan - like so many things I learn to know throu my family!

The  mangos (mga mangga) get ripped into newspaper. That avoids animals from eating it. Unfortunately, the harvest this year is very little! The rainy season started very early this year because of global warming and that caused the flowers to get washed away by the rain. Therefore there are less mangos hanging on the trees. You can see this one green mango hanging from the branch? Usually there are hanging like five mangos on one branch! And this time there are also trees with no fruits at all! 

Lechon

The pig (lechon baboy) you can see on the picture is a very typical dish for birthdays or other celebrations. It is grilled as a whole and also served like that. The thick skin supposed to be the best part! Additionally, there's a bowl with  only that skin on the table. But other typical dishes get also served like papait (the inwards of the pig which sometimes gets mixed with blood), (sweet) spaghetti (they add banana ketchup; long noodles represent long life), pansit (asian noodles with some veggie, seafood and meat - also very typical!), several kinds of fish (soup), goat meat, chicken bbq  and for dessert sweet noodle salad (with fruits), fresh local fruits and many more... of course, no meal is complete without rice!

Iris (on the right) was the birthday girl and May An is another classmate from High School. I was sitting at the end of the table. Iris cuts some meat off for me and across were sitting nuns, a priest was also around. Representatives of the church are very welcome and common guests for these occasions but they usually leave after dinner. If you take a closer look you can also see (one half of) the last supper hanging on the wall, you can find it in every catholic house! This little wooden square over May An's head adheres to some tiny forks and spoons (you usually use fork and spoon instead of fork and knife), the cutlery hanging on the wall can also be huge! After dinner karaoke was on the menu. It was nice meeting my old classmates again and other people from Bansalan, also getting into "community life" because the party was quite big - we even had two lechons! 

Karaoke

Birthday Party, Saturday night: May An, BopBop & Iris

Filipin@s love singing karaoke !!!

My cousin Rojenn and his friend Don singing in a bar. Karaoke is really common here! Almost everywhere you can find a Karaoke machine or a TV and a microphone, even in the countryside where everything is made of bamboo and the rice gets boiled on a fire stove but there is a Karaoke machine in the barn (besides it can also be a way to earn money). The songs are mostly (US) pop songs or love songs from the 90s. But of course there are a lot of local Tagalog and Bisaya songs too! Not only in public places, on birthdays or big celebrations you can hear voices singing - also at home! Almost every evening I can hear a mellow voice singing next door. Men and woman, children and seniors - everybody knows how. Like they're voices are all trained for singing not seldom quite high! Your friends & family become your fans, they support you by shouting, dancing and clapping hands. Even when there's no music around people are singing or humming all the time. 

How to ride a jeepney

This  driver has to move his windshield wiper per hand. 

One of the first things I've learned (I'm learning) is how to ride a jeepney. Besides of

 motorcylces, tricycles, cabs (or cars) are jeepneys a quite common means of transportation inside the city. There are no certain stops, in some places (like where there are yellow markers) more jeepneys waiting or stopping but in fact you can get on and off where ever you want. If you want to take one you have to beckon the driver so that he will stop and you can get on. But not all jeepneys take people or the same route so you have to read the little

 signs in the front window. Even that could be tricky (for foreigners) because the signs are written in shortcuts and they're quite small when they're coming from far away. On my way to school most of the jeepneys are already pretty crowded but luckily they never get full enough! I have to take a double ride to the school which takes about 45 minutes. Once you're inside you always have to duck to see where you are going. Usually a ride within 5 km costs 7 Peso (0,10 €) and with a tricycle it's 5 Peso/5 km. These two vehicles have no windows (open air) and leave a big grey cloud behind them, sometimes I even get a headache from all the exhaust gas pollution (combined with permanent beeping and honking sounds). To escape some dust you see people, mostly women, on the street carrying a napkin and holding it infront of their mouth ("to breath throu"). 

The last step: getting off. There are several ways to stop a jeepney, they stop where ever you have to get out. You can say "para" or "lugar (lang)" to stop the driver. Some people make a sound as if they would call a dog or a cat, that works too. Alternatively you can also take a coin and knock against the iron stake. 

carabao

hello everyone,

I'm doing fine here spending lots of time with my family talking, shopping, travelling, eating (I really enjoy the food here!) and most of all: learning Cebuano / Bisaya! I apologize that my blog isn't adequate to my adventures! Also: I don't carry my cam all the time and I don't spend so much time in the internet like in Germany... Most of you are asking for pics, so here they are. 

(I hope I can get you a better shot of the carabao (Wasserbüffel)! The peasants use them for diverse works on the field, you can also ride them but usually they are pretty dirty!)

Kialeg

JD climbed up a palm tree with rope and knife to get some coconuts, hmm delicous!

This is Vicky, Jen and Uncle Boy sitting infront of a rice field... 

My cousins Chrismon and Jay, as well as JD...

Bansalan

This is my lola's (grandma's) house in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, where we cooked rice with an open fire... 

... played with some puppies and had lunch. 

This is for Mom: the "new" bridge infront of lola's house which you want to see...

My first day

On my first day I went to Bansalan and Kialeg with my Uncle Boy, his wife Jennifer and two of his kids: Chrismon and Jay, as well as JD.