Dogs and Frogs

Only one week left in La Trinidad and I’m still as busy as ever.

Our community project last week was a success. After writing many letters and attending lots of meetings with the mayor and community officials, we were able to get 70 trash drums donated! We were worried at first because after spending an entire morning making house-calls inviting the community to our event, we had a no-show. We even called it 'Saturday Fun Fest' to try and distract from it's actual purpose (waste disposal and segregation awareness) But thankfully some students came to the school for report-cards and were also interested in learning. We ended up with a nice group of about 50 kids.  Prior to painting the trash cans, we led a fun workshop that taught the kids about proper segregation and waste management. We split them into groups and they rotated through four different stations led by the PCTs. Brian and I demonstrated how segregating and recycling can decrease landfills and avoid polluting Manila Bay. Afterwards we ate merienda (of course) and painted some of the trash barrels that will be placed in the community later. It was awesome.

Talking about trash.

I noticed I’m lacking some pictures of my neighborhood so here are some to give you an idea of everyday life. I live about a 5 min walk from the main market. I’m also right down the street from a major vegetable trading post in this region.


If I walk to the main road, I can catch a jeepney to my training site. Everyday is like a parade in the Philippines. I'm always admiring the jeepnies when I'm not riding in them. They are the main mode of transportation in the city. Don't be fooled, each one can hold about 22 passengers. If I close my eyes and imagine real hard, I can look across the street and pretend I'm back home. The only difference is that in this MacDo, the employees are the happiest people on earth. Customers get greeted with an overly-cheerful "Hello Sir!" every time they walk through the door.

The street outside my house.

Busy day at the trading post! Farmers from all over Luzon bring their produce.

Jeepney

McDo. The only place around with free wifi.

That's not a vet's office.

 I'm sure going to miss this place. Our group is planning a goodbye party to thank our host families. I'm working on making a pinikpikan pinata for the kids (beat the chicken, get it?) Besides that I'm feeding constantly from leftover merienda as I study for my Language Proficiency Interview.On top of all that I also have about a hundred invitations to dinners and lunches that just might send me into a food coma. Breakfast tomorrow with the Mayor. Oh, and as for the title of this post...that's what I ate for lunch today. No joke.