Marcos country in May

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Lina

So, been a  while now. Gonna try and update a little bit. Mostly pictures and some comments, even though I have tons of things to say about every single picture I will try to refrain from the previous looong posts. So here goes…

Cebu Pacific Air - weigh-in

We flew to Laoag to see a little bit of Marcos country. Laoag is in The north of the Philippines, in the province of Illocos Norte. This is where former president Marcos is from and also where his body lies “lit de parade”, or so they say. In our guidebook it says it is only a plastic doll and that his body really rests somewhere else. The family wants a presidential burial in Manila but the governments reigning after president Marcos, or dictator Marcos, have been refusing that for many years now. It sure looked like a plastic doll to me, but I did’nt get to look at him that long untill we were moved along by a guard.

Church of Paoay

We went around Laoag and Paoay by tricycle, jeepney and the local bus and just took it real slow. It was hot during these days so plenty of water and resting was needed. The city of Laoag was’nt much to see in itself but we did go to a sort of cultural museum of the Illocos Norte region, The Sinking Bell Tower, The San Augustinian church and McDonalds for some aircon and an icecream. 

The Church of Paoay was however well worth the 30-minute jeepneyride. A church built by spanish friars by big blocks of coral. Its withstanded many earthquakes with only the roof completely rebuilt with modern tin roof. Its also included in the world heritage list.

World heritage site, church made of coral

 

At the house of Juan Luna, the painter.

 The second day we went on a guided tour arranged by the hotel, nice to ride in an aircon minibus when you’re going a bit further. Vigan is about a two hour ride from Laoag. In Laoag we took a stroll in the old spanish city center where only horse-carriages and pedestrians are allowed. In Vigan we also visited an old fashioned pottery, the house-museum of a famous Filippino friar who got excecuted by the Spanish, the house of a politician who, someone whispered in our ears, was killed by people hired by another politician while attending church. There seems to be quite the history of politicians having other politicians killed here in the Philippines and especially in Illocos Norte and Illocos Sur. The most famous politician being killed is ofcourse the former president Benigno Aquino who was killed at the airport in Manila, when he came back from exile. His widow was president for a couple of years after that and now their son is the preseident. What you see when you travel around the Philippines are many many signs of candidates and government representatives looking down at you bearing the same family names.

Vigan city, world heritage city, province of Illocos Sur.

 

Spanish style house museum.

 The wife of former president Marcos is the infamous Imelda Marcos, a great collector of shoes and all kinds of luxoury articles in her days as a preseidental wife. Below is not her closet but this woman was also a bit of a collector dont you think.

The story of Imelda Marcos’ shoes is wellknown but the story of her jewleries worth millions and millions of dollars, bought by shady money, and almoust smuggled out of the country is not as wellknown. I’ve only learnt a little about it so far but i’m gonna try and find a book about it cause its an amazing story. Still ongoing for what I’ve understood.

Not Imelda Marcos' closet but could have been.

 

"Halo Halo" - Filippino dessert. I will never try it again.

 A very popular dessert in the Philippines. Its a weird mix of icecream, sweet rice, fruit, nuts, ice and milk amongst other things. Sounds like a good mix maybe but no its not.

"Fort Illocandia" the hotel we stayed at. Once a luxurious hotel built by Marcos for his daughters wedding.

The story of The Fort Illocandia Hotel is another Marcos story too funny and horrible to leave out. It was built to host the wedding of president Marcos’s daugther sometime back in the 70′s. He just went on and built a superluxourious hotel with all the modernities and interior designs of the time. Chandelliers, pink and blue fabric, white decorations and furniture, statues of greek gods and animals, fountains and huge ball-rooms for the party. And to top this luxory hotel he paved a road leading from the airport, which he also built to fly in celebrities, and he ordered a red carpet to be laid out to cover the road the entire way. This is what the guide told us. I dont know if the part about the red carpet is completely true but I would’nt be surprised if it is, the reign of Marcos and Imelda was all about building luxury houses and monuments instead of building a nation of healthy and fed Filippinos.  

We flew back to Manila again with a deeper understandning of the history of the Philippines and a little bit of a tan. Interesting trip indeed.

Posted in May | Comments Off

Clean and strict Shanghai versus smiling and dirty Manila

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Lina

Beginning of May me and Jon spent some time in Shanghai visiting my parents who just like us are trying out the expat life. Jon spent the weekend and I stayed to discover the city with my mother as a guide for a whole week.

How nice it was to touch down at the Pudong airport in Shanghai with the sun partly shining through the clouds but no heatwave pushing you back into the airport terminal again. The heat in Manila these days of summer are sometimes up to 38 degrees and it is not pleasant to wander around in.

Shanghai though, a breezy 24 degrees on our arrival. In the evening I even wore pants and a thin sweater.

We started our discovery of Shanghai by taking the Maglev, a highspeed train that that during our ride traveled as fast as 433 km/h. It took us quite far on our journey to innercity Shanghai before we got off and got on the regular subwaysystem to Peoples Park. Its quite the experience getting on and off the subwaytrain in Shanghai. People push and squeeze you back and forth to try and get on before you and even run past you to grab that seat you were just about to sit down on. It’s not very graceful and it seems everyone does it…men and women, young and old. The melody in Shanghai and for what I know all of China is “Go for it and don’t be ashamed about it”. But then, the population is huge, space in the big cities scarse and nothing is a given so if you want something then maybe you must just go for it.

Me and Jon coming from another big Asian city could’nt help ourselves comparing the two cities and its people. Manila with roughly 14 million people and Shanghai with its 22 million inhabitants, two cities with huge populations in common but other then that very different.

Morning workout at a school, catured from my parents balcony.

The impression of Shanghai is that it is very well organized, the public transport system is efficiant, well maintained and seems safe. You can easily travel around town with busses and trains just by reading the signs in English, smooth is the word. The streets are clean and flowerdecorations, parks and statues are everywhere to be edmired and enjoyed. Chinese people enjoy their parks and really use them, especially in the mornings where you can see old women and men doing marshall arts, Thai chi, feed the doves, play with their grandkids and play Mahjong all over the parks. Tea is ofcourse the preferred drink brought to the park and kept warm in a thermos, or you can get it in one of the many tea-stands on the streets and in the parks.

A game of Mahjong in Peoples Park, Shanghai.

They all look very healthy and happy doing their activities and its not just a way of staying sound, its also a great way of meeting your friends and family and just watching the morning break into day and simply people watch.    

So contrasts hey, on one side people brushing past you to steal that seat you were slowly making your way to and one the other side the chinese when they are leasurly and smilingly with nothing disturbing their peace just letting time pass with their friends and family. If I was a painter or a photographer I would definately bring my equipment to a Chinese park and try and capture the calmness and peace in the eyes of the elderly. 

Wheras Shanghai is very organized and clean, Manila is dirty and unmaintained. I’d like to compare the two cities with a male teenager. Manila is the teenage boy too busy living life today and thinking about it self while leaving a mess around him. Shanghai is the teenager who still is a teenager and doesnt think too much about others but learnt from his plutooncommander that its very important to keep your surroundings neat and tidy and hence does, through letting someone else do the work.

In Sweden most people like it clean, we try not to leave our trash behind and we have laws and money to put in institutions that keep our surroundings clean and tidy. Its unfair to compare Sweden with Manila and maybe still even with Shanghai, although that is more of a draw with the skyrocketing Chinese economy and all. It is however fair to compare the actions of man in Manila and man in Shanghai. In Shanghai it is clean – yes. In Manila it is NOT. During my stay in Shanghai I saw many people simply throwing their emptied cups and plastic bags on the ground and this is also how it is done in Manila and sadly also in the countryside and on the beaches around the Philippines. In Shanghai however you see little cleaning carts go around during the days and mornings picking up the trash and sweeping the streets from litter. You can also see men on bikes loaded with cardboardboxes or plastic cans. So there must be some kind of money put in from the gouvernment in cleaning and in the buisness of recycling. Hence the streets of Shanghai are clean, but man still litters. In Manila…everybody litters, nobody cleans, hence the streets are dirty. Simple but sad.

Man collecting cardboard boxes to recycle, Zhouzhuang.

Public transportation in Manila is poor. Manileños use buses, jeepneys, taxis and tricycles that from a safety perspective should have been taken off the roads years ago. Seatbelts are only seen in some taxis and the jeepneys are open in the back so people can fall out if there is a sudden break or crash. Traffic in Manila is however quite slow, so a crash is usually not a highspeed crash, more often a bump into another vehicle. But still.

Oh our Manila, how I love this loud city we now call home. I just can’t help it. With all the litter, pollusion, heat, poverty and lack of organization and good governance it is still just so easy to love. By every day that passes I get more proof that what it really is about, is its people. The warm and smiling Manileños.

In Shanghai they look at you very confused and strange if you happen to smile at someone at the bus or at a restaurant. And saying hello to people you meet in the elevator or wherever is met with silence mostly.

Jon and I got a bit frustrated when we were in Shanghai, I know it is’nt fair but we were, the ordinary chinese person does not speak many words of English. I tried ordering “Coke”, “Coca-Cola” or “Cola” at one restaurant but ended up sipping tea like everybody else. And you think that Coca Cola is the most internationally recognized word of all. Getting in a taxi, ordering food, asking for directions is very hard in Shanghai. Here we come from Manila where everybody can have a conversation in English and most of the Filippinos speak perfect English. Its even very much included and mixed in with the Filippino language.

Golden shrine and the Shanghai World Financial center in the background (looks like a giant beerbottleopener).

Shanghai has a lot to offer when it comes to sightseeing. We stralled along the Bund, took the elevator up the Shanghai World Financial Center to shakingly watch the view of the city, saw the Pearl of the orient media tower, visited Shanghai Museum, went to a Pearl market, tried a herbal tea good for gastrointestinal problems at the beautiful Yuyuan Gardens and ate some good and bad chinese food. Beijing duck still rocks my world of chinese cuisine the most.

Not as good as Beijing Duck.

When Jon had left to get back to work again after his weekend in Shanghai me and my mum and dad took a bus to the city of Zhouzhuang, also known as the Venice of China. Now that was really something to remember. Old wooden chinese houses wall to wall with narrow cobblestone streets and then the canals inbetween and beautiful bridges of stone connecting it all. There were a lot of people mingeling about this day because it was a public holiday in China and since Zhouzhuang is’nt very far from Shanghai many went on a daytrip just like us.

Zhouzhuang, Venice of China.

The specialty of Zhouzhuang was to eat pigs leg. It was eaten in many ways and we tried a popular but to my taste not very nice version of it. The restaurant we ate at was just a couple of plastic chairs and tables set out along the main canal. It was a pleasant place to sit down and have a rest at, enjoying the traditional boats beeing punted by boatsmen and women in clothes dyed with indigo colour singing high-pitch chinese songs.

Pigs leg.

My mother and I also ofcourse did a little shopping, I had two beautiful thai fabric dresses made for weddings to come and bought some gifts for nieces and nephews. Hope they will like their little gifts when they unpack them this summer during our visit to Sweden. 

It was so nice to hang out with my mum and since dad had to go away on business for a few days we really got some quality mum-daugther time. I can’t remember the last time we had that much time together…must have been when I was living at home or something. Truly wonderful. Mothers are the shit!  

Mum and me outside Shanghai Museum.

Coming home to Manila after a week in Shanghai was….warm…and nice…and I remember thinking, when stepping in to the airport lavatory in Ninoy Aquino Airport, how I’de missed having people smile towards me and around me…Its good to be home.

Home in Manila.

Posted in May | Comments Off

Boracay with the girls

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Lina

About three weeks ago we went to Boracay, which is a paradise island here in the Philippines. We went during Eastern, or Holy Week as they say here, which is not the best time of the year to go if you want to enjoy the beautiful white beaches of Boracay on your own. There were huge crowds queing even to get in to the airport through the first security check and the check-in desks. We were in time and all but when we got to the check-in desk we were the last people to check in and the woman checking us in emediately started talking to her fellow colleagues and looking a bit nervous.

Yes, we were on time but the plane was already full she said. Oh lord I thought, and it was holy week so he/she must have been tuned in for the earthly crowds and came to our assistance emediately. We unfortunately did not get on that flight, but the lady from “Cebu Pacific” got os on the next flight to Boracay, departure 10 minutes later, and for the inconvenience we got two extra round-trip-tickets to whenever and wherever within the Philippines. Thank you very much Cebu Pacific! :-)

I must admit we did play some good cop – bad  cop to try and get us out of paying for the extra 8 kilos of overweight that Jons Kite gear weighed also. It did’nt work, we’ll have to work on our routine a bit I think. Maybe it was the fact that we were unused to our new roles. Jon is normally the bad cop and I’m the good cop, this has however changed with the pregnancy. It is now Jon who has to tell me to don’t bother about things and is the one with the overload of patience. I think it might have become a bit better though during the last two weeks.

Because the air-strip in Boracay is so short the airlines are really thorough with the weight, they first weigh the checked-in baggage, then the hand luggage…and then you yourself. Yep, stand in line to get weighed-in everybody. Its funny aint it.

Landing at Caticlan Airport on the island of Panay in the Visayas, it was a short airstrip that started just 10 meters from the seafront and stopped a couple of meters just before a wall of mountain. Phew, we made it.

Huge crowds of tourists, 98 % Filippinos,  stood queing outside the ferry-terminal to catch a boat from Panay the “mainland” to Boracay the island. The first time I heard someone talk about mainland Filippines I was a bit confused, I mean where is that really? in a country that consists of roughly 7000 islands. In Sweden we are conected to quite a large area of mainland, but hey in the bigger picture all continents are merely larger or smaller islands floating around  in the oceans. Yes, I do know all land is anchored up on the bottom of the oceans but still, it just sounds strange.

So to the island of Boracay we arrived after 15 minutes on a Banca, took one of the millions and millions of tricycles that inhabit the island and got to Bulabog beach, this seasons Kite beach. This time of year the wind is on-shore on Bulabog and completely absent on the longer and more exploited White beach on the other side.

Kite in the sunset

From our balcony, Bulabog Beach Resort, Boracay.

We were a bit dissappointed at first, no wind, hardly no beach at all and the area around Bulabog was quite dirty and run-down. After a few hours though when we’d had some lunch and visited White beach, which was truly white, and as the tide drew the water back and the wind increased the Bulabog beach area did’nt look too bad anymore.

When walking on White beach Jon had forgotten his sunglasses at the hotel and almoust had a headache from the bright light reflected by the sand. The water was crystal clear and the palmtrees beautifully shadowed the sunbathers. It was absolutely beautiful….except for that it was overly crowded with people and restaurants.

Beach stroll after sunset

This was however peak-season for Filippino holidayers and on a normal weekend 85 percent of them would be gone with the wind. Still it was very beautiful and nice but we are dying to get a reason to fly back in off-seson to check it out. Petra och Jakob…beställ resa och packa kiten!

Sailing at Boracay

The Viking, the captain, me and Jon at Puka Beach.

The reason why we went to Boracay on that weekend was because Jon did’nt have to use so many of his vacation-days and also because this was the only time our friends from Singapore could make it out there. Jon and I had one day alone and then the gals came early next morning.

It was soo good to see Lena and Becs and to just hang around together for a few days doing nothing. Since we normally live so far apart the occasions on which we meet are very rare and often times way too short. Good to be with your buds, hang on the beach, catch up and talk about important stuf. Truly nice. 

Last night dinner at the Ambassador, Boracay

We rented a sailingboat one day and went around Boracay. The captain of the boat was a good sailor, he’d come in second on last years Round-Boracay-competition with his boat and these boats can really sail fast. The Boat was called Viking and was a catamaran or trimaran, not sure how to count the keels on this type of boat. It truly was sailing sitting on a net one meter above the surface with your feet dangling in the water and the salty water and wind gracing your face. Add to that the green island of Boracay, the white beaches, the limestone cliffs and the blue waters. Breathtaking.

Jon and I wanted to get Scotty to beam our fathers over cause the both of them would have loved sitting there with us taking it all in and just feeling completely united with the waters… perfect is the only way to describe it. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to show them this later this year when atleast Jons mum and dad are coming over for a visit.  

We did some snorkeling as well and stopped to have seafood-lunch at Puka beach, which was almoust deserted and pretty as a picture.

Lena and Becs all geared for kiting

Jon and the gals did some kitesurfing too, he was a bit dissapointed by the faint winds but then it was just the end of the kite-season so not much more to expect. He did get a few good hours of kiting though and I managed to catch one of his kite-smiles with my camera. Those smiles make it worth spending a lot of time on beaches all over the world worrying about him injuring himself on coral or in a bad jump. So far so good, knock on wood.

Kite-smile

 

I had an absolutely brilliant time in the sothing shadow under the palmtrees reading my books and just gazing at the blue waters. Peaceful.

Flew back after four and a half days without much delay or trouble. A good trip indeed.

Next up Shanghai, China visiting my parents.

Posted in April | Comments Off

Post World Cup babies – Alive and kicking

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Lina

Two days ago something changed in our lives for ever. It happened just after I’d finished that yummie “Abbas senapssill” and egg sandwich me and Jon had prepaired as our evening snack after returning home from Boracay. The swedish herring was apparently not only to my liking but also to our little babys… 

The moment he/she felt the taste of that truly swedish food he/she started doing all kinds of acrobatics inside me and has been doing so every now and then since then. Even though we’ve known for quite some time now it was our babys first real: “Hey mum and dad, whats up? You know I’m in here right?!” 

If everything goes well, we will become parents in September some time and we are soo much looking forward to it. Delivery will be here in Manila in a nice hospital that we’ve already visited a couple of times for check-ups and everything looks just fine. It’s just started to show and I hope my tummy will get big enough for people to stop hesitating and stare at it like they do now and just assume I’m pregnant instead of a bit too fond of chocolate-cake and pasta. Which to be fair, I really am.

For what I know of I will be number three in order to have a little post World Cup baby. I know a couple of the girls that wanted to extend their families already before the build up to London 2010 but refrained from it to be able to participate in their first and possibly only Rugby World Cup. Two other teammates from the 2010 swedish World Cup squad were quicker than me and Jon and will have their babies in June and July.

When I miss rugby too much and think of all the rugby-tours I miss out on this year I think that we atleast do take our responsibility to ensure there will be a next generation rugbyplayers ready for international games, come Rugby World Cup 2030 or 2031. ;-)

Go Sweden!

Posted in April | 4 Comments

The Philippino National Red Cross

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Lina

This sunday I spent a couple of hours in Barangay of San José helping the PRC to collect blood from the people living there. I did’nt do any actual drawing of blood or interviewing of the donors but mostly studied how it was all organised and carried out. Very interesting and except for that it was more of everything done in one place and a different kind of location, a small chapel, a lot like how it is carried out in Sweden.

The donors got information about the Red Cross coming beforehand from the community councils, churches and by word of mouth in the Baragays and simply drop by when they have time. They first meet a nurse who takes their weight, bloodpreassure, puls and performs an interview with questions of sexual activity, health history, piercings, tattoos, previous blood-donations, last date of delivery and menstruation (if applicable) and much more. If the person after this is still ok to be a donor they move to the next table where a Med-Tec (Biomedicinsk analytiker) or Nurse extract a drip of blood from the donors finger to check the hemoglobin level and also to decide which blood-type they are. The hemogobin-level was checked in a very simple and interesting way that I’ve never seen or heard of before. A drip of blood was simply released into a glass with a blue liquid (don’t remember the name) in it and if the blood did not reach the bottom of the glass within 10 seconds then the Hb-level was lower than 125 g/l and hence the patient was not fit for donating blood. The finger was squeezed and squeezed by the one performing this test and I was a bit worried about faulty answers, but the Med-Tec I spoke to about this said there is only risk of false-low Hb-results due to destroying some of the blood. Hence there should be no risk of letting persons with too low levels of Hb through to be donors, atleast due to the squeezing of the finger.

Two drips of blood is then put next to eachother on a piece of plastic and an A-liquid is added to one of the dripps on the plastic, and the same with the B-liquid to the other drip. The liquid is then mixed with a clean wooden splinter and depending on the shape, ruggedness and colour of the drip it is decided weather the donor has A, B, AB or O as blood-type.

Moving on from this station knowing if they have a Hb above 125 g/l and what blood-type they are the next step is to talk to a Physician. The physician goes deeper into the medical history, listens to the lungs and the heart and makes the final desicion on weather the person is fit to be a donor or not. Then the blood is extracted from the patient by a Med-Tec, most nurses in the team have’nt yet worked in a hospital and have no qualification to draw blood. The blood is weighed and given a specific code and then put in a room-temperatured or iced box depending on how many hours before it reaches the blood-laboratory.

To all my nurse friends reading my blog this was superexciting to witness! In Sweden we do most things through machines or simply send it directly to the laboratories and hence we mostly just see the results and not how the results are figured out. I really liked seeing a bit more of the “chain of health/care” as we say in Sweden and I hope to be more involved in the actual work next time I go with the blood-team.

I’ve also spent two days this week participating in a “Basic Life support-CPR” course in a Philippino Red Cross venue. The rest of the participants were Philippino nurses, nursing students and also a couple of people sent out by their companies to learn about Basic life support and Standard first aid so that they can be First Aid representatives in their companies. Heaven knows it is necessary to have people who know first aid in all companies when you are working in a Manila or Philippino building. The Philippines is situated within the “Pacific Ring of Fire” which means there is always a risk of volcanic erruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. There are many active volcanoes in the Philippines and the seismic activity under Manila is often reported of in the papers here. If you want to follow the seismic activity in the Philippines the institute of Volcanology and Seismology publish reports daily http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/

The house we live in is built to last atleast a scale 9.0 earthquake, there are however many unsafe buildings in Manila mostly inhabited by poor people and smaller companies and schools. Jon and I even have a little plan on what to do if there is a dissaster and where to meet up if we are in different parts of the city. In case of fire in our building we live on the third floor and the emergency stairs are just outside our frontdoor and we also have two palmtrees within reach from our balcony so there is a way out there as well. Knowing the nearest emergency-exit is all of a sudden not a joke.

The course was excellently taught in English and the group of people in the course were fun, easygoing and curious about me. I got a lot of info on places to visit as a tourist, got to taste Tamarind sweets and everyone wanted to take pictures with me. I felt very welcomed and even learned some more Philippino words and phrases to everyones delight.

I will try to take more of their courses and volunteer to participate in their activities as much as I can. They have a lot of projects all the time and many of them are carried out in the smaller and less fortunate communities, just as it should be. HIV/AIDS-prevention, Mother-child care, Learn how to swim, Blood bank, ambulance services and so on.  

Rest of this week is a bit uncertain though because I need to spend a couple of hours on the Chineese embassy applying for Visas for me and Jon. We have now booked tickets to visit mum and dad in Shanghai in a couple of weeks and hence need to get our Visas sorted ASAP. I also need to stay at home waiting for a silly DVD-repairman and for the delivery-guys to deliver our newly purchased and hopefully comfortable sofa.

Well summer is here now and the sun is shining more often so the roof-pool with a good book is a nice place to do the waiting. Am by the way reading an excellent book right now that I can highly recommend; “Cutting for stone” by Abraham Verghese (“Skära för sten”, Månpocket).

I’m off. Goodbye!   (Pa Alam!)

Posted in April | 1 Comment

Could this be it?

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Lina

Today was a good day…too.

Yesterday I signed up for volounteer service with the Philippino Red Cross in the Makati branch here in Manila. I googled around different volounteer organisation-sites within Manila and ended up thinking this could be the one for me.

The PRC (Philippino Red Cross, not Penguin Rugby Club :-)  ) do all kinds of community work with their volounteer-services and play a far more important role in the Phillipino society than the Red Cross in Sweden does in our society. What attracted me most about it was that many of the projects the PRC run revolve around bringing healthcare to the less fortunate and those who for some reason are in a crisis. They have six ”services” and they are: National blood services, Disaster management services, Safety services, Community Health and Nursing services, Social Services and Red Cross Youth.

Yesterday was just for signing in and getting an orientation of what the Red cross is. Much of it were facts I already had from various Uni-courses, about how the Red cross came about and what it stands for but what they do in the Philippines was very interesting and new.

They do really seem to play a large role in the Phillipino society and in a country where corruption is a big issue and the trust in the government is low (someone said 50 percent of the population do not trust their government) a politically free organisation is of great value. Lets hope it stays that way and that they can stand clear of scandals.

So today, my first day as a proper volounteer at the Red Cross of The Philippines I spent five hours riding jeepneys, buses and tricycles around Makati delivering letters to amongst others the Mayor of Makati, at the Makati City Hall. With me on this first day was a 19-year old Philippina girl called Nicole who’s still in college (all girls college) and who has to do a certain amount of volounteer-work as part of a course she is taking in school. She was a very sweet little girl and I think we got along quite well. Her doing all the tagalog-speaking with security guards and Jeepney-drivers and me being the map-person.  It turned out she had never ridden a community-bus or taken a tricycle in Manila either, despite being Philippina, so we probably both looked a bit lost and excited about all of it. For what I understood she is in a posh school, has parents who have wellpaid jobs and she lives in a posh villa-area somewhere in Metro Manila.

We delivered our letters in person, sweatted together in the fierce Manila-sun, no clouds today to shield us, and tried without succeding to shield our mouths from the heavy pollution from the plentyful cars. Phew what a day! I can’t believe the jeepney-drivers who sit in the heat and the exhaustgas all day long.  

In the end of the day we got back to the airconditioned office and had a giggely chat with some of the other volounteers. They did the majority of the giggeling and I answered all their questions about myself, Sweden and my reasons for being in the Philippines. I am aparently a very funny character. Most of them are 25 and younger so I feel very old, but it was very nice to chat a bit and I think this could be a fun and rewarding organisation to be involved in.

This sunday I will go with a small team to a Barangay in Mandaluyong to draw some blood for the Red Cross Blood Bank. I haven’t completely figured out how it all comes together in a safe way and how the blood is distributed but I bet I will know on sunday afternoon. Oh, oh! and I’ve learned a new english word today: Phlebotomist = Person  who collects blood primarily by performing venipuncture.

In an hour me and Jon will meet up for dinner with a danish couple, the guy works in the same company as Jon although they havent met yet, so I better start to get dressed.

XX / Lina

Posted in April | Comments Off

Sightseeing in Manila and our third trip to Mindoro

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Lina
Sightseeing in Manila is something I’ve done sporadicly during my first four weeks here. I first went to Intramuros alone, then with Jon and Johan and now this weekend with mum and dad who were visiting from Shanghai.
Intramuros is an old partly preserved, partly restored walled city within the city. Its been a trading post, an important point of defence during many battles in and of Manila and now its the most interesting historical place in Manila, to my opinion. Within Intramuros I’ve seen Manila Cathedral (rebuilt five times bescause  of earthquakes and wars), Casa Manila and Fort Santiago. Casa Manila is a museum-house built in old spanish style with dark furniture, bautiful linen and other household items placed just like they could have been more than a 100 years ago.
Fort Santiago is an old fort, built on the brink of the Pasig River and also close to the waters of Manila Bay. Fort Santiago also hosts the museum of national hero Dr José Rizal, the museum or shrine contains the prisoncell where Dr Rizal spent his last days and hours in life, before getting executed by a firing squad. Dr Rizal was not only a man of medicine and a botanist, no what he was really killed for was for the power of his feathered pen. He spoke up (wrote up) towards the spanish colonizers and wanted reform in the ruling of the Philippines, all through peaceful means. He was encarcerated because of the written word and in his cell on the night before his execution he is said to have written these beautiful words about his country: 
“Farewell, beloved Country, treasured region of the sun,
Pearl of the sea of the Orient, our Eden lost!
To you eagerly I surrender this sad and gloomy life;
And were it brighter, fresher, more florid,
Even then I’d give it to you, for your sake alone.
 
In fields of battle, deliriously fighting,
Others give you their lives, without doubt, without regret;
The place matters not: where there’s cypress, laurel or lily,
On a plank or open field, in combat or cruel martyrdom,
It´s all the same if the home or country asks. …” 
José Rizal, 1896. Translation by Edwin Agustin Lozada.  


Me and Jon went to Manila Zoo last weekend, had no high hopes of seeing any rare species, but were not prepaired for the worn down and dirty zoo that it was. Everything was just porly maintained, cages stood empty, many of the animals were alone and the only specimen of its kind and it made them look even more sad.
Trash from us humans is a huge problem in Manila, I’ve seen very few recycling facilities and everybody just seems to throw used cups, plastic bags, cans or whatever trash they have right where they finished eating from it. In the case of Manila zoo, this means there are piles of icecreamwrappings, empty water bottles and plastic material floating around in the hippos pond, lying around in the monkeys cage, stuffed in to a whole in the trees and just everywhere you look. Its a sorry sight I tell you.
This picture below was  a striking example of how worndown it was. A stuffed (?) zebra who has a broken back and nose thats been patted a couple of thousand times too many.
Manila Zoo; dirty and worndown.
                                          
Father and daughter reading up on José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines.

Inside Intramuros there is a nice restaurant called Illustrado, we’ve already been there twice with our guests, and its the only really genuine restaurant I’ve been in so far in Manila. Eating out is cheap but most of the places in Manila are in the shape of fastfood restaurants even if they serve all types of food. Not so cosy in general, so Illustrado is a nice oasis in the middle of all the plastic. Its in an old house with dark wooden furniture, just lite Casa Manila, white linen and superb food. Me like!

When mum and dad came last thursday we did a tour of Intramuros, had seafood at a Chineese restaurant (said no to sharkfin soup ofcourse), hung out at Manila Hotel  and ended the first night at Illustrado with a birthday dinner for the both of them. My father said he’s fallen in love with Manila after just 24 hours in it.

Small waterfall in the remote hills of Mindoro.

On saturday we took a trip to Mindoro, again, to let my parents have some beachtime and enjoy the sun. We had a calm day with good food, strolls along the beach, a little bit of snorkling and a nice dinner at El Galleon.

On the sunday morning we took a jeepney-trip to the countryside hills of Mindoro to do some trekking in the jungle, visit a waterfall, have lunch at a place called Hidden Paradise and finish it all off by visiting a small Mangyen village. The trekk was very nice, we got to see Cacao trees, Coffe-trees, Banana, Star apple, Black pepper, Mango and Papaya fruits. The swim in the fresh water stream was cooling and the freshly fetched and cooked fish was amazing.

Underwater chain with barnacle meets foot.

In the afternoon Jon went back to Manila and mum, dad and me made a short boat-trip to the Coral garden outside Puerto Galera to see the Giants clams and the beautiful fish and corals there. Unfortunately the visibility was crap and the sun was taking a brake behind some giant clouds so it was far from what I had hoped to show my guests. Mum and I got to see a giant turtle which was great, but other than that it was a poor snorkeling tour.

I also managed to cut my foot swimming to close to a Barnacle-covered chain holding a buoy for the boats. Not enough to need stitches but enough to sting a bit in the salty water. What is it with traveling, bleeding feets and me?

We went back to Manila on the monday and spent the afternoon in the shopping mall across the street getting my mum some proper walking shoes and me an Italian icecream.

Mum and dad left on tuesday morning to fly back to Shanghai and their own expat lives in a big city.

Me and Jon will be visiting them in a couple of weeks, if we can get our visas in order untill then. Fingers crossed the chinese embassy are quickedy quick fixing that for us.

Take care! / Lina

Posted in April | Comments Off

“I once had a farm in…” no, not really but a condo in Manila

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Lina

Our flat, or “unit” as they commonly say here, is absolutely perfect. And I say this despite the fact that the pestcontrol guy was here two days ago spraying the apartment. We had both “Crazyants” and “Fireants” and one of them even stung or peed  me, or what ever they do, on my left buttock and it is still itching.  They are gone now and we are yet again the only tenants in this unit. Phew…was a bit crowded, particularly in the kitchen when cooking.

So on monday morning I moved all our big bags from the hotel Jon had been staying in, for too long, to our new home in one of the condominiums in Joya, Rockwell area, Makati city, Manila. Joya is the name of the building itself, Rockwell an area with many buildings like ours where rich Filippinos and other expats live, Makati city is one of the 14 cities that Manila is actually comprised of. There is also a city in metro Manila that is called Manila, “-Oh, so Manila-Manila?” i said to our driver trying to be clever, “-No.” he said, “-Just Manila”. Hm ok then..

Our new home is a loft flat with modern furniture already in it, it actually has all that Jon and I have been looking for in Malmö but never found (within the right prize-category). Two bedrooms, modern kitchen, bathtub in a modern bathroom, large windows that let in a lot of sunshine, livingroom area with lots of space for dinnertable and tv-area and…a balcony with morning sun. Our list did not include two pools on the roof, spacious gym in the house or palmtrees outside the windows, but hey you dont always get what you want.  

Our new home

Our new home

We are very greatful for what we have here in all sorts of ways and just can’t stop smiling and thanking our lucky star for this experiece. Jon works more hours here than in Denmark, but the time spent commuting between Copenhagen and Malmö was the real thief of leasure time so he now has more time to go to the gym, have dinner with his wife and just enjoy life, despite spending more hours at the office. Its a win win I say.

So this week I have been the person to take care of all practicalities while Jon’s been at work. Many hours I’ve spent just waiting for repair-people, the pesticide guy, the DVD-repairman, the cable guy (talking to himself a bit and probably unaware of the sighs he let out all the time, but far from as crazy as Jim Carrey in the movie) as they never say “-I’ll be there at 10-O’clock” as would be the case in la Suede. No they vaguely say they will be there tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon or even just tomorrow. My time is’nt precious, no worries I’ll just stay in all day just waiting. I learnt quickly and forced the poor fellas into giving me a time for when I should be at home. The guy supposed to come at 10:00 a.m came before twelve and the guy said to come by at 4:00 p.m came at 5:20 p.m and that is just fine by me. I say, when in Rome, don’t try to change the Romans too much. :-)

I’ve also spent several hours in the shopping malls, -you go girl! some of you shop-o-holics might say, but this was more of a -Ok, what do we need most? kind of shopping spree. A kitchen full of nothingness and not being able to dry your hands when you’ve washed them kind of helpful merchendise was what we needed.  So food, frying pans, towels, vacuumcleaner and those kinds of things I spent hours buying in three different malls. Prices are good, really good.

I did however have a great shopping experience when buying loads of herb-plants, beautiful orchids, red roses, a small lime-tree and an Aloe vera cacti for the balcony (no worries about frostnights here no, no). I’m sorry mum, you always say I should’nt talk about how cheap something I’ve bought is but I just have to write this so stop reading here and jump to the next paragraf.  :-)    15 plants , 3 pots and a bag of soil for 1020 peso = 150 kr!

The balcony

The balcony

After shopping all those plants me and Obet, our constantly smiling and a bit shy driver, had lunch at a small stall close to the market. There were five stalls next to eachother selling all kinds of Filippino dishes and a small food court infront with plastic chairs and tables, all under a tinned roof protecting the eaters from the sun. I asked Obet to order what he thought was good and sat down in one of the plasic chairs. At the table next to ours sat two teenagers having lunch and speaking Filippino(Tagalog) and on the table one of them had sat a cage full of white mice or some kind of hamster. Not really sure what it was but I am sure that would never happen in a restaurant in Europe. I think I’m showing signs of becoming Filippino already since I did’nt actually think there was something odd about it untill after a while.

Oh, and while I’m on the subject I can not neglect to mention a cultural diffence that is so obvious you will notice it within half an hour of your arrival to this country. The Filippinos can’t say: “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand”!! The display of this cultural difference is so awkward and I’m not sure I will ever get used to it. The other night me and Jon went up to the roof to have a look at the pool and there met one of the guards/security guys who seems to be flooding this city. We spoke a little to him and he told us the pool was open from 7 a.m-7 p.m and then we started asking questions about how long the pool was and of when during the day the sun reached the pool (tall buildings around our building). A Filippino that does not know the answer or does not understand the question simply says “-Yes” repeatedly or just looks away waiting for you to change subject. This happened when we asked the guard the above questions and it was just amazing witnessing it. Jon who was leading the conversation just waited quietly and the awkward silence just grew. I just had to change subject to something else not to make the guard more uncomfortable than he already was. To lose face is something the Filippinos dislike and the above display is for what I understand a way of trying to avoid admitting that you don’t have the answer or that you did’nt understand the question and hence avoid loosing face.

Morningsunshine pool

Morning sunshine pool

So back to the lunch with Obet, he came back with Sinigang soup, Lechon Paksivy, Lechon, Pakbet, rice and ice tea. It was the cheapest lunch I’ve had so far in Manila and also the yummiest. Lechon is pig so we had pig cooked in two different ways together with a special Filippino soup, vegetable (Pakbet) and rice. It was so good. Wich reminds me I’m superhungry now and better get some lunch before I head for the fridge and the salty licorice our friend Johan brought us (me mostly) from Sweden when he was here for a few days of work last week. Gaaaah, Johan you are my hero!! 

Mabuhay!     (equal to “Live long and prosper” a la StarTreak)

Posted in March | 1 Comment

The Philippines

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Lina

Tomorrow at noon Philippino time I’ve been in Manila for two weeks. Two good weeks indeed.

It was great being in the same timezone as Jon again, after three weeks apart and with a seven hour delay. So frustrating not being able to talk to eachother except for after heavy planning or on weekends. Finally no more of that.

So, our year in the Philippines has finally begun. We have both since we were younger wanted to work a year or more abroad and now we are here. Its almoust to good to be true. We have through Jons work gotten the  opportunity to get to know a faraway country we’ve never visited before. A country where most things are different from Sweden. A different climate, a different nature, language, people, tempo, political scene, different laws, different level of poverty and many many other things. How fortunate we are to have one whole year to get to know this country and its soul. That is ofcousre, if it will let us…and if we can grasp it.

Even though it feels as if we have already experienced heaps in our first two weeks (Jon five weeks) we haven’t even scraped the surface of what this country is about. Not as to what the nation and its people is about, nor of what it has to offer as a tourist destination. But then, the slogan of The Philippines is: “More than the usual”….

So far “More than the usual” here in the Philippines and from the top of my head, is:

  • More ”-Yes Mam” and “-Yes sir” than usual.
  • More fat in the food than usual.
  • More low selfconfidence about size when shopping than usual.
  • More worries about earthquakes, earthquakesafe buildings, tsunamis and radiation than usual.
  • More dirtylooking kids without shoes or homes in the streets, than usual.
  • More trash in the streets and on the beaches than usual.
  • More beautiful beaches, coral and fishy than usual.
  • More ripe mango shakes than usual.

We’ve spent two weekends together here out of which we spent two away from Metro Manila and its noisy everyday life. The first wekend we had our temporary driver (courtesy of Jons company) drive us to Batangas, where we chartered a private Banca (semi-small wooden boat) to take us out to the island of Mindoro. Philippines is composed of 7107 island spread out over an area roughly the same size as Italy.

Because of the lack of planning on this trip we had just missed the last, and much cheaper ,shuttle-banca of the day to Puerto Galera on Mindoro and hence we had to pay a lot “more than usual” for our private banca. Happy as we were to be together, on the water and on our way to a beautiful beach…little did we worry about the overprize we had just paid.

The good thing about having our own boat was that it could take us straight to the jetty of the beach resort, which we wanted to stay at but had not yet booked, we had’nt planned that far either. I know, strange is’nt it…me going on an unplanned trip…only happens once every ten years and everyone but Jon missed it.

The beaches of Sabang, Small La Laguna (where we stayed) and Big La Laguna were nothing really special, a bit dirty, lots of boats and quite a small patch of sand between the sea and the houses. They were all good places to spend the night in, to go out for dinner sitting on a deck by the water and also good exit points for hiring a boat for a day to go to one of the close-by beautiful beaches or coral reefs.  We did the later and were NOT disappointed by the snorkeling. The reefs looked healthy and the fish plentyful. An amazing little trip it was.

Island we passed on our way to the coral reefs outside Puerto Galera, Mindoro.

The weekend that just passed we went a bit further away to the province of Pangasinan about a three and half hour drive north of Manila. The “One Hundred Islands National park” on the coast of Lucap. More than one hundred islands actually and some not bigger than a small strip of sand or a rock sticking out of the water. We got to the islands by banca, the most common transportation on water here, and stayed there island hopping to between four or five islands and also kayaking a bit.  We spent a couple of hours in the national park and then returned to Lucap in the afternoon to have a nice seafood dinner at our hotel by the sea (ca 255 kr incl breakfast).

On the sunday we had a lovely breakfast sitting on the pier looking out over the sea and then went to the islands again with our almoust teethless but smiling boatsman Bert. This time we asked him to take us to an island with a white beach with good coral that we could have to ourselves. And that he did. That island, Jon and I agreed upon, was paradise on earth. A small rocky island with some bushes and trees on top of it, a WHITE beach sprinkled with shells and bits of coral, a bit of cooling shade close to the rocks and all of it surrounded by turqouise and blue waters filled with coral and fish. Heaven…

We thought about letting the boatsman leave us there forever but then realised we only had one bottle of water and no freshwater spring on the island, so we hesitantly left our paradise island and swore not to tell anyone but visiting guests the name of it, so that we can have it all to ourselves the next time we go there. Our precious little island… precious…PRECIOUS!!

Paradise island and me

Back in town on sunday eve again and I will tell you all about this exciting week aswell, but not now. Fingers are bleeding and mind is empty..but above all I just got a bit depressed from thinking of our precious island. Boohooo I wanna go back now!

Posted in March | Comments Off

Departure…

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Lina

I have now spent 13 days here in the Philippines with my husband. So much has happened I don’t quite know how to take this on. So many things I have experienced and so much I want to write about. I’m even gonna have to start a couple of days ahead of the departure from Copenhagen not to miss important things that have happened in mine and other peoples lives. Me working my last paid day at the Primary Health care center in Malmö, my brother and his fiancee delivering a georgeous little baby girl and my neighbour living beneth me getting a waterleak in his hallway.

Friday the 25th of february I worked my last paid day, in about a year I guess, at my job as a nurse. It was a bit sad, at the same time as I just wanted to have it over with so that I could start doing the last packing, cleaning and visiting family before the big move. I left my keys, signed all the journals, took a walk around saying goodbye to the place it self and finally got goodluck hugs from all my dear colleagues and friends. Annika my best bantering buddy and cookie-soulmate gave me a beautiful dotted tin jar full of homebaked cookies!! Amazing present, might even have been the best gift I’ve ever received. I also got a thick book written by Marian Keys from my colleagues to read on the plane. I will miss them all badly and have already thought of them many times. I am proud to say that they really do put the patient first in all their actions, that is something to stick to even during times of change and heavy workload. Keep up the good work sisters!

Saturday was spent packing, cleaning and going to a fun birthday party with 80s theme. A good way to celebrate my friend P-Os birthday and at the same time be able to say goodbye to many of my rugby pals.

Sunday then, to see my newborn little niece in Kalmar. She was just gorgeous and her parents looked very happy but also very tired. Spent three days with my parents and brothers family cuddeling with the newborn and meeting up with my oldest childhood friend. Also had time to go out on a little walk in the woods along the sea, grilled hot dogs over an open fire and just enjoyed the swedish white winter. Its easy to enjoy it when you know you are leaving it in just two days.

Went home again to Malmö and did the last bit of clean up, left the keys to the guy who will be renting the flat and also to my friend who will help me if there is any trouble. At 10:00 p.m I was just gonna have a bath and then go to bed and get up early the next morning. BUT, that did not happen as I had planned it. I had my bath and felt so tired I knew I was gonna fall asleep just as I put my head on the pillow, but… When I pulled the showercurtain apart I froze. The bathroom floor was filled with 2 cm water… Gaaah! No no no no no NOT NOW please!

I jumped out of the bathtub and had just gotten my clothes up from the floor when the doorbell rang. Riiing! I’m not having any guests….  In a towel I then rush to open the door. Outside my door is my neighbour living beneth me standing there smiling and saying there is water dripping in his hallway. Oh no oh no oh no! I do NOT have time for this right now my plane leaves in less then 12 hours and I have no keys to my own flat.

My neighbor is fortunately a very nice guy, he phones the emergency number to the security guy on call. The guy miraculously shows up in just 10 minutes, says there’s a clog in the pipes, probably from me cleaning the drain earlier in the day, and fixes it all in five. Hallelujah!!  The guy then says there’s probably not gonna be any problem with the floor or my neighbours ceiling due to the quick problemsolving. No need for further actions he says. My angel then goes home and I can clean up the mess and then go to sleep to have a few hours sleep before I leave Sweden.

Thinking of it now, I was so lucky!  My luck: My neighbour smiling  in the doorway not really upset or concerned about the dripping in his hallway, the security guy just finished with an easy job a few blocks away, solving the problem in five minutes and then no cause for concern about moist in the floor. Just imagine how it could have gone if everything had been the opposite.

I left my home in Malmö just the way I had planned it on the 3rd of March going to Copenhagen -Denmark, Frankfurt – Germany, Hong Kong – China and finally Manila – The Philippines…

Posted in March | 1 Comment