So tired my eyes are going to fall out

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Trip Start May 10, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 25, 2007 Next
Entry

  Manila, Philippines
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

I have to think about where I left off.... I'm going to apologize now for any typos or sentences that make absolutely no sense.  I am just exhausted.  I'm leaned so far back in this comfy chair at the Korean internet cafe that I think I could go to sleep right here.
Yesterday, Sunday. ok, I'll try to pick up where I left off.
After my 3rd or 4th breakfast, some of the students dropped laundry off at "Let's Talk Dirty" to be cleaned.  They were desperate for some clean clothes.  We then walked over to the mall so some of them could find luggage for the ridiculous amount (and size) of wooden items they purchased in Banaue.  I'm still jealous and wishing I could've gone there.
The walk was about 10 minutes from our hotel and it was HOT.  My luggage had not yet arrived, so I was trying to keep my clothes from getting too sweaty.  That didn't really work out too well

Children working on a moving truck

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After walking back from the mall we took a few minutes to sit down and rest.
At 5:30 we met in the lobby of the hotel for a "nice" dinner c/o Johnathan.  We all dressed up and went to a restaurant/sports bar called Handlebar.  We had gone there last year, so I knew what to expect.  I had thai seared tuna and "freedom fries"; I guess that restaurant wasn't Australian.  Johnathan prepped the students for a few minutes at the end of the meal on what types of questions to ask at the girly bars.  I was so tired that I couldn't even focus my eyes.  After eating, we split up into groups of 2-3 people and hit the strip that was conveniently on the same street as our Makati Palace Hotel.  The first place Rusty & I went into (you have to go with at least 1 male because they don't want women coming in who aren't going to pay the girls) was called Banderas.  These girls clung to us IMMEDIATELY.  They were CHATTY and cheerful.  They love how blonde and "so pretty" I am, and they love my hairy arms.  Ha ha, gross, I hate hearing that.  So we asked them if they grew up in Manila, but most come from the Provinces outside Manila.  One girl was 36 with 4 children, ages 4-18. Her husband was in jail and she needed this job to make money and support her family.  Many girls come from large families and are basically forced to leave home because they have no way to make money.  These girls are typically in their early 20s and have very beautiful faces

Lined up to receive books

.  They wear bikini tops and short skirts, and they way they dance together on the front "stage" makes it seem like they're in high school putting together a fun dance after school.  The looks on their faces are so emotionless when dancing, but when they talk with each other they are like sisters and happy.  Some of these girls have children, but I spoke with a few who "knew better" and they didn't want to have to support children.  That's definitely smart of them.  Some of them have department stores job with 6 month contracts that run out and then they come dance at the clubs, waiting for another contract somewhere else.  I'm not sure why working in a store typically has a 6-month contract, but maybe that's just so lots of people can get jobs?  Doesn't seem efficient when it comes to training people. There was one girl who was on her first night and she was VERY shy and intimidated.  I don't think she expected us to just want to talk to her.  Instead of buying them drinks, Johnathan recommended just giving them maybe a 50 peso/ US$1 tip for their time.  If you buy them a 300 peso drink, then they still only receive 50 pesos, so might as well save ourselves some money.  The bar makes out very well.  If a girl is taken outside of the bar as a prostitute or date, it typically costs 3500 pesos (US$70), but the girl only receives 500 pesos and the other 3000 pesos goes to the bar.  It's not very fair and there's no tip-sharing, so it's every girl for herself.  There are LOTS of girls in each bar, too...

Lining up didn't work so well

not just one.  I've never been to a strip club in the US, but these are basically bars with lots of girls dancing and they SWARM men when they come in the door because they are so desperate to make some money.  I'm somewhat de-sensitized to this from seeing it last year, but our group seemed to have a VERY difficult time feeling comfortable talking to these girls.  They are all over the boys, but try to be your best friend if you're a girl.  They're very nice and open to conversation usually.  This experience was intended to have us understand the girls individually in order to understand the bigger picture.  It's easy to make a generalization about this sort of business, but until you hear everyone's personal stories you cannot fully understand what's happening.
I went to bed fairly early last night.  I was so tired that I couldn't see straight.  I had a hard time falling to sleep and when my roommate came in a few hours later, I thought she was someone else drinking my Gatorade and I almost yelled at her! haha.  Then I woke up again thinking it was time to get up and it was only 2AM.  Crazy.
This morning I got up at 6:30AM to enjoy my last "nice" shower for quite some time.  I had the extensive hotel continental breakfast, packed my bag, and headed out to find a street vendor that was selling swords I was hoping to buy for a friend.  Alas, no luck. :(  I even went back to Makati tonight and couldn't find the vendor

Model of Dump

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Today we headed to Quezon City to pick up a wonderful professor named Dorsey from the University of the Philippines; Diliman campus.  She took us through the city traffic in our air-conditioned Jeepney that was a bit too small for our group.  We went to the Dump just as last year.  There are squatter settlements surrounding the dump and scavengers work in the dump during the day.  It is about 90 meters tall and has to cells, one of which is closed.  Pipes run along the dump to collect methane and are converted to energy.  Currently the closed cell produces about 1 megawatt of energy; this can power about 7000 homes in Quezon City.  There was a landslide inside the dump and about 200 squatters were killed.  New guidelines have been set for the height and angle of the dump.  Squatters collect everything from glass to plastic to cardboard to basically anything that can be recycled, reused or sold at the market.  It's very much a disturbing sight to see.  If they become ill, the squatters continue working.  Their health is of little concern, they just need food for their family.  They work as long as there is some type of light out.  The dump is regulated by the government and leachate is kept from polluting nearby waters.  This is the FIRST of this kind of dump in all of the Philippines and they have been greatly commended for following the Kyoto Protocol guidelines. A typical squatter makes about 150 pesos per day (US$3) and if both the mother and father work, then that's number doubles

Squatters homes next to dump

.  If there are any children over the age of 14, they are permitted to work as well.  Imagine a family of 6 living off of possibly US$9/day.  How is that even possible?  Food is relatively cheap here, but that's still not much money especially is there is a family member that has a drug or drinking habit.  We sat through a PowerPoint presentation given by the man who is the head of he operations at the dump, then we got into Jeepneys and drove up the closed cell to look across to the open cell.  There were LARGE trucks and machinery constantly bringing in material and packing it down, while squatters are picking through the garbage.  It's a very efficient system actually, because the dump remains small and these people can make money that they might otherwise not have.  This really is an economic opportunity for some of the poorest people in the Philippines.  About 450 dump trucks come in each day, bringing about 1200 tons (I think that's the correct #) to the dump.  Men are atop these trucks as they're driving along, constantly scavenging for materials.  At the bottom of the dump on our way out, the head operator had the small children form a line and we were able to hand out childrens' books to them.  They were so excited, but there can be some dangers with doing this.  They may begin to expect gifts from all visitors and both ourselves and the smallest children are in threat of being trampled.  It's a very intense experience that we did not participate in last year.

Squatters working

After leaving the dump, we headed back to the University to have some lunch at an on-campus restaurant that somewhere resembled The Cheesecake Factory.  I enjoying a fried snapper sandwich, onion rings and some cake for dessert.  Unfortunately, Virginia fell very ill during lunch and I stayed with her (along with Meredith, our nursing major, and Melanie, her close friend) while the rest of the group toured the Geography Department.  Apparently the head of the department was a pompous, sexist, racist man who didn't seem to give a damn about the program and thought all the students were idiots.  It sounded like a VERY disappointing tour.  Virginia took a nap during all this and we waited by the restaurant for the group, then headed to the US Embassy.  Johnathan did not remind the students this morning to bring their Passports, but it SHOULD have been understood by now that you should ALWAYS carry your Passport ON you.  SO, luckily, I had already experienced the Embassy last year and stayed outside with 2 of the girls that forgot to bring theirs along.  We enjoyed an air-conditioned Starbucks and a hard rain while the group spoke to the US Ambassador.  The coffee did NOT help.  I think the heat is just making my face swell and my eyes feel like they could pop out of my head at any minute.
Afterwards, we dropped the students at Malate Pension (the cheaper hotel) and went to Makati Palace to pick up our luggage that we had left in storage all day

Squatters working in dump

.  It was a nice air-conditioned roomy Jeepney right with Johnathan and Megan back to Makati.  These two areas of Manila are fairly close to each other, but it was rush hour so it took a bit longer than normal.  We quickly loaded up the bags, Johnathan settled the bill and I searched for my sword/knife vendor.  Again, nothing. bummer.  We drove back to Malate Pensionne and unloaded everyone's bags while they had already headed out to the bars.  I went up to my fan room and walked in to a SAUNA for where I'll be sleeping tonight.  I knew it was bad last year, but MAN I had forgotten just HOW bad.  I'm still not as accustomed to the humidity as the rest of the group is, but our 2-person fan room is ridiculously hot.  I may not sleep tonight.  I remember sweating profusely last year.  We will be in these rooms for 3 nights total.
Meredith, Megan, Johnathan and I headed to Robinson's Mall about 8 blocks up the street so I could go to the drug store and buy some meds for my poison sumac that is getting out of control.  It's so foul.  If you can stomach it, I'll post the photos of how bad it has become.
We walked back to a nice hotel close to ours and enjoyed a sushi dinner that I nearly had my face in because I was so close to passing out from exhaustion.
I am going to sit in the air-conditioned Starbucks for a bit and then head to bed

Squatters' homes

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Tomorrow we are going to Bacolor to see the ruins from Mt. Pinatubo's 1990 eruption, have lunch a Herman's house, then hike through a tropical forest where we will see monkeys. :)  Wednesday we'll take a ferry for another hike, then go to a Call Center at 10:30PM.  The Call Center was created to provide jobs at the middle class salary range.  This is basically a place where people receive calls if Dell customers (for example) need technical help, or where I would call FedEx if I needed to find my Passport & plane tickets (though, one of the men we spoke to was in El Salvador; same type of system).  It's similar to speaking to someone in India if you need some type of technical assistance.  It should be very interesting!
Thursday morning we catch a 11AM plane to take a short boat ride to Apo Island where the students will learn to SCUBA dive and I will perpetually soak my poison-seeping legs.  I've never had poison ivy or anything like this before, so I'm pretty miserable with it. Ugh.
I'm hot and sweaty and greasy ALL THE TIME, but I LOVE IT.  I really do feel like I've never left, just that we switched people out and have a new group.  It's great!  This group parties, but they seem to be a little more intimidated than last year's group.  Everyday is a learning experience.
Ok, I said I was tired.  Air-Con, then attempted sleep.
Mabuhay!

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Squatters' homes 2

Tiny Truck!

View of Dump from Closed Cell

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