Sarajevo, Bosnia

Sarajevo at dusk

So, the WCCES conference that I went to was in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Not to say that I wouldn't have gone to the conference had it not been in Sarajevo, but that was a definite bonus as it was an extremely interesting city and country to visit. I arrived on the Sunday before the conference at 6:30 in the morning on the train (thank goodness it was the last stop as the conductor had to come and wake me up, even though there weren't sleepers, I had "hogged" three seats and made a little bed for myself and was quite comfortable to say the least)... so in a pretty desolate, train station at 6:30 on a Sunday morning, what to do. As I had done little homework on getting money, I just assumed there would be an ATM or change place near to the train station. Luckily, after a little asking around, I was told that though there were no change places in the train station, there was an ATM at the bus station. So, went over the bus station next door, got some money out. Now, next step getting to the pension... hmmm well, after consulting the map I wasn't quite sure how far it was as I never know the scale of maps in guide books. It doesn't seem like there is a consistent scale, so sometimes it may be 1in to a mile while other times it is 1/2in. mile and still other times something very different. Point being it doesn't sometimes help to look at a map to determine whether or not the place you are going to is walkable with 30 pounds on your back and 15 pounds on your front (computer and books). Deciding to be on the safe side I took the tram; however, upon getting off of the tram two stops later I decided I definitely could have walked. I walked to the street where I thought the pension was... though wasn't sure as there were no street signs. So looking around quite "lost", a street cleaner looking bemused asked me where I was going, I showed him and walking up the hill at the same time was a gregarious old man who with one look at me with my 45 pounds around me exclaimed that he would show me where I was to go. Where are you from? Belarus, Romania, Poland, he asked? No, I sheepishly replied, United States (I am never quite sure how I should respond to such a question) but in this case it was fine as the old man replied with a positive oh! Though, this was about the extent of our conversation as we literally walked the rest of the way up the hill and on the right hand side was the pension. He knocked on the door, the owner and his grandson answered the door, looked at me a little and asked if I had reservations. Yes, I explained, but I was a little early, so I was welcomed inside. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, the owners quickly figured out who I was and with etc. and were offering me Bosnian coffee and a nice comfortable place to sit within minutes!! (Though, I quickly discovered that Bosnian coffee and delicious as it may be, I can only have one cup of the thick brew before my body says NO more!!!(or suffer the consequences:).
Sarajevo at dusk from the other direction
As much as I would have liked to, I had a littl

Budapest

Do you ever stay in one place? Well, can't say that it seems to be the trend lately, but I swear, as my adviser would agree, I must I must lock myself up in a nice little room and write now:) At least that is if I ever have any intention of finishing this things called a dissertation!
But since I had a conference in Sarajevo this past week, I thought that it would be a nice idea to see a little of the area also. And in such a historically political volatile region what an interesting few weeks it has been!
Jae-Eun a dear friend and myself ventured first to Budapest. What a beautiful city Budapest. Our first glimpses of the city were at night as you can see from the photo. So first of all, Budapest is two cities (Buda and Pest, was I the only one who did not realize this?) And at that has only been Budapest since 1873, before that it was under many different rulers and names. The Romans called it Obuda, then the Turks came in for a few hundred years and then the Habsburg Austrians defeated the invaders (the Turks), but decided it was such a beautiful place that they would stay for a couple hundred of years. Most recently, Hungary was occupied by the Nazi's during the second World War but have recovered and are now one of the newest members of the EU.
If you don't need a little history brief please skip to the part below:)

These two cities are of course separated by the Danube River. The big lit building in the picture is the Palace which is on what is known as Castle Hill (well at least in English it is:)

Kelli and Aaron's Wedding

The Picnic- Saturday before the big day.
Kelli's Grandparents

The big day arrived and sadly went way to fast!! So events started Saturday afternoon around 3PM at the picnic area (of which I have already forgotten the name:)in Libertyville. A great time was had by all:)Relaxed, caught up on life with family and friends and of course got to meet many new friends and family:)

Rhiannon and Jeff heading back on the Bus!


After the picnic, we all headed back to the hotel for a little drink and more catching up!!So much to talk about and so little time:( Especially since, I myself was still a little confused about what time of day it was. So... to bed I went so I could fully enjoy the next day's full festivities!!

Sunday- The Big big day!!!
Kelli, Ryoko, Kelsey, Bailey, Sherri, and I went to the nail salon to have nails manicured and painted:)

Kelsey, Kelli, and Sherri getting their nails done
























Of course picking out the color was the hardest! In the end a pretty light pink color was chosen.




















After everyone had gorgeous nails, we headed down the strip mall for new hair doos(sp?). Everyone was getting curls!! And even a few were so lucky as to get sparkles in their hair:)


Bailey checking out her beautiful curls


















With everyone beautied up and not too stressed!!:) We all headed back to the hotel to put our fancies things on! (Some a little fancies than other's:) Wow!! Kelli looked absolutely beautiful, see for yourself in this picture:)


Kelli with Mom and Dad walking down the aisle







Kelli, Sherri and Mom

Visit from my Brother

Well, things are pretty busy around here!! Yet when I got an e-mail from my "little" brother that he would be in the area (Malaysia), and was going to stop by in Manila I thought well maybe I could take one day off:)Plus, so little of Manila and the surrounding area have I seen, it would be a wonderful excuse to see some sights I thought! So, last Sunday Gareth arrived in the afternoon, made it to the hotel where I met him. Deciding that since he only had a couple of days in Manila, there was no better time than immediately get him on a Jeepney. The first Jeepney we got on, no problem, got us where we wanted to go, or at least closer. However, the second Jeepney (oops got us a little lost, i.e. went the wrong direction). I have this theory that even though you don't know exactly where a Jeepney is headed, you can't go that far wrong. Furthermore, for 15 cents, it doesn't cost much for the adventure. And to my case and point, where we ended up in the Jeepney wasn't that far away from where we wanted to go. (Although, after that we cheated and jumped in cab, it was starting to rain!!). We had decided to go to a seafood/fish restaurant on the harbor and even though the restaurant was right on the ocean, we were quickly told that the seafood and fish were not caught in the harbor, just in case we had seen it in the light of the day:) Exhausted, we both headed back to our "comfy" beds and agreed to meet at one of the light rail stations the next day.



I could tell Gareth wasn't too sure about this as it meant navigating his own way through Manila after only one day (not very nice of his big sister:) But I was very proud of him, he did it!! (Though a little late and very sweaty!!:)) We headed to the bus station to take a bus to a town about one hour outside of Manila. One of my friends from work had given me directions to one of the University of Philippines campuses from which there were some beautiful hikes. On the way to Los Banos we say this restaurant, unfortunately we weren't able to stop a take a peek:)



After arriving around lunch time, we thought it would be a good idea to get a little food before we started exploring. Hmmm... where would food be, it wasn't long before we happened upon one of the university cafeteria's (a little smaller than one at let's say U of I or U of M) but it had food, and that is all that mattered. So, we walked in and yes, definitely got a few stares.

Children's Data Collection

Well, I said at the beginning that I was going to tell you a little about the research that I am doing. So as to keep to my word, I am going to continue with a few stories about data collection in Antique. The main purpose of the going to Antique was to set up, train the data collectors in using the Storytech tool, and pilot tools for garnering the children's perspective on a quality ECCD program. Since developing and piloting the children's tool is extremely interesting to me I have decided that I will tell you a little about our two days in Egana Day Care Center. First, as you have seen from the previous pictures I have posted, the day care centers are not like our day care centers in the United States. That is comprised of a building with many rooms inside. Instead, they are comprised on either a one room building or one room withing another building, usually the community center or health center. I am attaching two pictures of Egana Day Care Center.

Teacher Norma(not real name) has been teaching day care for thirteen years, with 98 students enrolled in three sessions (so you can do the math, over 30 students per session). She arrives at the day care 7 AM and leaves at 5 PM. As you can see from the day care, she has worked extremely hard to make it a warm and inviting atmosphere. With extremely limited resources I am absolutely amazed!! Last year the Barangay Council (the village council) decided to each give 100 pesos/month out of their salary to increase Teacher Norma's salary from 2000 pesos (~$40/month)to 3000 pesos (~$60).

So, after our team had discussed with Teacher Norma how it doing the storytelling activities would work the best in her classroom, we were set to pilot it the activities out with one group of children. So, we too arrive at 6:45 A.M. to prepare for 35 children and four activities. The four activities we decided that the children may enjoy were storytelling with painting, storytelling with drawing, playdough, and water play. Initially we had thought that we would separate the children into four groups by their shape name tags, but in the end the children we quite content to go from one activity to another.

From the pilot we discovered two main things, first the children had never seen or "played" with paint or playdough. So, the first group of children at the painting table, sat there for a minute.. then stared at the paint and then Michelle showed them how to use the brush and paint and without a moments hesitation, they were painting sheet after sheet(we actually had to limit the pages;). Then any subsequent child to come to the paint table, watched the others for a moment and then went to it on their own. Now, the initial point of the painting was to use it as a forum to express their perspectives about what they liked in day care, what they would like to change etc.. Yet, since none of them had painted before, they were so excited about painting that they didn't really want to listen to the story and paint certain things. So, how could we go against the child's wishes as this was the whole point of the exercise-to listen to the child- so we just let them enjoy and as they were painting asked them to tell us about their paintings.

I was going to show you a picture of the children's painting, but them remembered that their names are on them, so I can't disclose names. But I have to tell you the names some of the children had were extremely interesting!! Named after bands, Axel Rose, Nirvana, etc.. Christina Aguilera (Sp?)

A similar thing happened with the playdough, though with the playdough there was no intention of asking the child to mold any particular thing. After the parents had created all the flowers, cell phones, dinosaurs etc... the children finally decided that they could have a turn at creating their own things. After this activity, it became extremely apparent how much our society values individual creation and creativity. Whereas, it was much more valued to copy the adults creations, than create one's own creation.
As I just mentioned above, the parents were creating objects. Well, in such a small place our presence created quite the stir in the village. People were curious, so at all time throughout the activities you could see about twenty people peering through the windows and around the tables outside we were working on. Parents were extremely respectful, they were honestly just curious! I think they had just as much fun with the playdough as the children!!
Well now what the kids thought of me:) When the first saw me, they just stared. I would say something and they would stare. I would smile and they would stare. But after about 1/2 hour of me being in their classroom, they decided that I was just like any other adult:) Just had different colored eyes and hair!! At least that is what I was told!:)
Overall, I believe it was a great time had by all!!

Iloilo- Panay Island

Sorry for the delay in posts, I have been working setting up, piloting and starting the data collection process in the second area West Visayas. Panay Island
More specifically, we are collecting data in the Antique Province, Sibalom Muncipality and Egana and Igpanolong (has taken me at least of constant practice to say the second one:) barangays. So for the last two weeks, the West Visayas research team, which is composed of myself, Joy (Technical ECD Coordinator), Arve (Research Assistant), and Michelle (Notetaker, Transcriber) have been working hard (to be honest they have been working harder the me) at translating, piloting, and setting up the data collection schedules!
For one of our pilots we conducted it with parents in a small village in Valderamana (Boroc-Boroc Barangay) where no vehicle could get to in the Monsoon season (see picture to give you an idea what it is like 5 out of 7 days during Monsoon season:). Hmm... you may wonder how did we get the the village. Well as so many people do in this world, we walked to the village:) One river in particular was about knee deep, with quite a strong current. So when crossing it was a good idea to have a few people linked together to stablize oneself while crossing. See pictures of us crossing the river! It wasn't so so hot that day, but still getting a little wet definitely helped keep up cool.

The village was about 2 km walk, no hills or mountains so it was a very pleasant and a beautiful walk. When we arrived at around 11 in the morning, we were greeted by many women and children! Many quite curious as to who this strange looking person was and what she was doing here. The main purpose of the visit was to celebrate the children's summer learning program. The program is designed for children who have not had any experience in an early childhood program. It is a six week transition/ preparatory for 1st grade program.
Of course since we were very close to the ocean (well on the ocean), I was itching to go for a swim. But unfortunately, the rain did not cooperate this time and I was not able to go:(

Imelda Marcos Dinner

Imelda Marcos

Imelda Websites: Quite interesting....
Imelda's Shoes on display
Imelda's Flea Market Jewelry Collection
Imelda
Imelda arrested


Well, out of curiosity I went to see Imelda Marcos speak. And as one of my friend's best put it, everything is BEAUTIFUL in Imelda's world. And to achieve such Beauty; time, energy and above all else resources must be invested!! Hence the 15 mink coats, 508 gowns, 888 handbags and over a thousand pairs of shoes(someone commented she could go over three years without wearing the same pair of shoes!). "I have to be a star and a slave to the people of the Philippines" Imelda Marcos explained.
Well, Imelda not quite so sure about this....
So, as I was forewarned, I really had no clue what she spoke about at the dinner we attended. All I know is that every other word (well, slight exaggeration!) was beauty, beautiful or some form of the word, including "Imeldific" (a term of which she is quite proud of and was coined for the extravagant a superfluous things she supported for herself and her country, the Philippines.
Anyway, the food was delicious and the questions after her talk were quite interesting! Actually Swetal's father in-law got up and asked some very thoughtful and insightful questions to which Imelda responded (the content of the response though, have no clue how it related to the questions!!)
Imelda Jewels

Tagaytay Philippines

Tagaytay Island

So a couple of weekends ago (I am a little behind, I apologize:)) I went with Swetal's in-laws to Tagaytay. Tagaytay is about 2 hours from Manila (so thus far it is the farthest I have ventured outside of Manila!) From the Philippine Tourism website,
"Tagaytay, considered as the country's second summer capital because of its crisp and cool climate all year around, is a treasure box of pleasure points in by itself. At nightfall, one sees the lake sparkle with the pinpoint lights of fishing boats. It is a perfect picnic spot. Within Tagaytay there is a small volcano called Taal Volcano. "It is reputed to be the world's smallest and yet most active. It stands on its own island amid a landscape of ash and cinder.
As the volcano is on an island in the middle of a lake, there has cropped up quite a tourist industry from ferreting tourists across the lake to the volcano. Thus upon arrival, boat ferreter after boat ferreter came up to our car trying to get us to be the lovely tourists they ferreted across to the volcano. Kindly, Balki (Swetal's husband) had arranged for a safe, reasonably priced company to "take" us across the lake waters. Unfortunately, a little poor planning on our part had us arriving to cross the lake and climb the hill in the heat of the day (and that day it was at least 90 degrees with probably almost 95% humidity!!). So, the operator of the company, kindly and wisely advised us to wait an hour or so before crossing. In the mean time we ate lunch and enjoyed the shade:)
"Beach"

So, once we finally got across the lake to the other side, we were greeted by many locals. (side note: Since the island holds an small, yet active, volcano the government will not in anyway support those who choose to live on the island. I am not sure what the exact rationale is, but my guess, is that they don't want to be held responsible for anyone who is injured in the event of an volcano eruption. Though the island does not have electricity, there are about 1000 inhabitants, a primary school, many houses, basketball court, stores etc..)
Gentleman and Horse


If you look at the rest of the photos on the photo link, you can see more of the amenities on the island. We than were taken to the horse "loading" area, where those who chose to ride a horse up the hill (about 4 km's at least this is what they told me, I really don't think it was that far, I think they were exaggerating a little to try and make me think I needed a horse!). Balki's in-laws got on the horses and I followed taking photos. (Though, behind me for a quarter of the journey up was a man on a horse, who kept asking if I was "alright" or if I would like to get on the horse. I jokingly asked him what her would ride then?) We got to the top and this is what we saw. Doesn't quite look like the volcanoes I have seen previously. As was pointed out to us, there was a "little" smoke rising from the lake. So, little that I really don't think my camera was able to pick it up:) See if you can see it!!

Taal Volcano

After our lovely volcano sight seeing, we headed down and went back to shore to enjoy a very nice tea at one of the many restaurants along the shore of the lake with the volcano in the middle of it.

Around Manila

Intramuros


Well, I have now been in Manila two weeks!! So last week, since I had yet to
actually visit "Manila" proper, I decided to take one of Carlos's infamous tours. Of course the day of the tour it must have been at least 95 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! The tour began at San Augstin church in the heart of intramuros. (The remaining walled part of the downtown of Manila, (i.e. the original city)

Intramuros

The things I learned about Philippines history (though from the Philippine perspective, I will note) of which we learned absolutely nothing about in school, even though we (the US) were one of the two colonists. I will however note to the United States credit. It developed the Philippine education system, much of Manila's infrastructure, and the trade routes.Though, to much the United States detriment, in 1946, they bombed Manila completely devastating and destroying much of what they had helped create. Killing over 150,000 total, the United States rationale being, they had to defend the Philippines from the Japanese. Yet, to me the question more to the point is how in the world did the Philippines end up in WWII?? I will leave this up to those who would like to read more on Filipino's more recent history.
Also, take a look at the link to the tour guide's website (Carlos). He has some interesting historical pictures and background which will probably add to most of our historical perspectives.
Casa Manila



We then went to Casa Manila (which is a replica built 20 years ago) by the infamous Imelda Marcus. All the original Casas were of course destroyed by the bombing in 46.
Here are a few pictures of the Casa. The name Casa comes from the Spanish meaning "house" (I believe this is right, not sure?). The Spanish of course were the colonists before the United States. Though as our tour guide pointed out, when the Spanish came in the 1600's they quickly gave the Philippines "up" to the church believing that the islands had nothing of worth (i.e. no gold). So, the Philippines was never considered a colony, but a "extended" part of Mexico. It was thought to be at the "end" of the earth!!



There was so so much information packed into the tour, there is no way my brain could take in even a fourth of the information. Though, I will say that often I go on tours and because they are not very exciting to say the least, I don't remember one little iota of information, but this guy was extremely gifted at keeping even the most sever attention deficient person interested!!!

Welcome to Rhiannon's Blog

Well, welcome!! This is very new to me, but as I am supposed to be documenting my research I thought starting a Blog would inspire me to write more and also more often!
Some may ask... where are you?? I am in Manila, Philippines.
Then the next question will probably be, what are you doing there?
I am doing my data collection for my dissertation research. I will be here for another seven weeks. I will be mainly in Metro Manila, but hopefully going down to West Visayas. Visayas is the central group of islands in the Philippines. I will be on the island of Panay. So, when I go, I will make sure and take lots of photos so that you can see the difference between the two areas.
I have attached a map, so you can see where it is that I will be working.
Hong Kong
So, I arrived a week ago after stopping over in Hong Kong (first time there!). I have a few photos of Hong Kong, but since I didn't have that much time I can't say that I saw that much. I just figured out what I would like to see next time!!

Manila
I came into Manila at 7:00 in the evening and it wasn't too hot:) Notice the operative word there too!! Right now in the Philippines is the beginning of their monsoon season. And in monsoon season it is hot, humid and wet!!! All the weather conditions I like the most:)
I think finally after a week and a half my body is finally starting to at least tolerate the heat (it will never get used to it:)!! And the funny thing is that when I tell Filipinos how cold it gets in Minnesota, they exclaim, "oh, I could never adjust to cold weather like that!!" Though, I must say that if I was to be anywhere where it feels like 110 outside it would be the Philippines. As a population, they are the most hygienically conscious people I have ever come across. Bathing as often as three times a day in this weather.
Another awesome benefit to this time of year, is that it is Mango season and no place in the world has more or better mangoes:) There also have delicious pineapple, jack fruit (even though it is the cousin to the very very smelly duriun it is very good), bananas, and mangosteens. (See picture)
Jeepneys
Originally these were jeeps left over from WWII, but they became something of an icon so now there is a company in the Philippines that manufactures Jeeneys. Now after my initial fear of getting on a Jeepney and having it take me to places I have no clue where it is. I take one to work every day. And to be honest, now that I realized how short their routes are, I never had anything to worry about!! So for about 20 cents a ride you just hop on an off you go....:) Inside there are two benches one on each side, when I feel a little more comfortable inside I will take a picture so everyone can see inside as well as outside. Because, just as every Jeepney is uniquely different on the outside, one can see some very funny, creative (not quite sure what the word would be) things on the inside.

The Filipino Population
The average Filipino is probably about 5ft 1in. So needless to say, whether I like it or not I stand out like a sore thumb!! Not only do I tower over people, I scare many children as they have never quite seen anything like myself. The tour guide from the tour I went on the other day, linked the population's shortness to the lack of calcium in their diet? I am not sure on this. Does anybody have ideas if this may be plausible??

My Research
The organization I am working with is called Save the Children. I will be addressing various different stakeholder groups beliefs and understanding of what they would like a quality early childhood program (ECCD) to look like in their community. As I get more into the research I will talk more about it. Since, I have a few pictures from January I thought at least I would give everyone an idea of the areas I will be working in.

Ok, this is enough I think for my first post! I would love to hear from everyone and what you are doing!! So drop me a line when you get a chance!
Rhiannon