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