Good-Bye Grandma and Sis!

I've been so insanely busy this month and my mom reminded me that I need to update my website. So the low down on what I've been up to is this:

I went to the municipal fiesta in Tadian, Mountain Province. She lives in a very rural site so it's always fun to get away from the hustle and bustle of city living.

The next weekend, I headed to Manila in preparation of an HIV/AIDS meeting on March 13 and 14. It was great to work with other volunteers and Filipino counterparts to try and start projects to promote HIV/AIDS awareness. I facilitated a session on identifying assets in the community. Then I camped out in Manila for the rest of the week in anticipation of my visitors!!!

Francey and my grandma got into country late on Friday, March 17 and left this morning (Monday, March 27). Very short trip since the first and the last days were only for their flights. I think they enjoyed their time here...at least I know I did. It was so nice to have family around again, but they had some getting used to with bugs, hot and humid weather, toilets without toilet seats and of course, the infamous bucket showers. All in all, I was proud of their adjustments! We went to a lot of really beautiful places...especially in Mindoro Oriental. We had a lot of fun with Fr. Loyd Fiedler. We headed to Baguio afterwards and got to see the sites of the city. This was great because I had never been to most of the sites even though I've been in Baguio for 10 months!

Francey and my grandma also got to meet my host family, the staff and kids at my center as well as a lot of my friends and Peace Corps pals. I think they got a small sense of what life in the Philippines is like. I know they will have a few stories to take back home and share with everyone. I also want to say THANK YOU Francey and grandma for everything they did for me! They hauled a bunch of stuff here for me, my host family and my coworkers! Not to mention what great company and travel companions they were.

I'll be sure to get photos from my sister and grandma's visit in the next week or two, but you can click Here to see photos from the fiesta I went to at Rachel's site.

Yay!!! Finally More Photos!!!

Ok, ok...I know it's been a long time since I've updated my photo album, but it is finally done and pretty much up-to-date. I added 6...count 'em, 6, new albums so I hope that keeps everyone happy until I update again. Hopefully it won't take me 8 months to update again. I'll do better...I promise!!!

The first set of photos are from my site. They include photos of my house, center, and my surroundings. Click Here to view this album.

The second album is of my host family. Since I'll be staying with them for the rest of the duration of my stay, I thought it was time to include pics of the whole family. Besides, I kind of like them! They are the Calions and if you want to see who they are, just Click Here!!!

I've talked about my fellow volunteers in many of my entries, but now you finally have faces to go along with the names...at least some of the names. This album I'll update every now and then if I don't have any other place to put the photos. Click Here.

Here are photos from my travels in September of 2005. Yup, it was a long time ago, but trust me, the pics are worth it!

Here are pictures from Thanksgiving in Sagada. Just a few, but it's enough to get an idea of how things went.

And finally, Here are photos from Christmas. Both Rachel and I wish we would have taken more pictures, but this is all we could come up with.

So there you go! Oh, and by the way, if anyone has anything they want to get to me (cards, letters, granola bars, real peanut butter, books, gossip magazines, etc), Francey and my Grandma are probably starting to pack and get ready for a visit to the 'Pines!!! I can't tell you how excited I am to see some family!!! Anyway, get it to them and I'm sure they will be able to find room in all of their luggage.