Thursday 5^th April – to Guimaras

A not so early start for the long journey to Iloilo ferry terminal where we were met by RC of Guimaras President Lawrence and Rtn Connie.  The 15 minute ferry journey was in a small craft with bamboo ‘stabilizers’ on each side known as a pump boat and the vessel had been chartered solely for us.  We were accommodated at the Neptune Pitman Resort set in a tropical garden. 

The accommodation is very different to European hotels but seem well suited for the climate and country.  The furnishings are very well maintained, inside and out and PP Neptune and the Rotarians have been very kind and considerate hosts.

Roxas

Roxas – Seafood capital of the Pilippines

On Tuesday, 3^rd April, we said farewell to our hosts in Kalibo and set off on the road to Roxas.  On the way, we stopped to view a very large statue of Christ, built Rio style and looking towards Roxas. 

Once in Roxas, we went to the San Antonio resort, where we met up with our new hosts and Raymond, Joanne and Michael, members of the GSE team that District 3850 sent to Wales in the last Rotary year.  After settling in to our new accommodation, we were off on individual vocational visits.  We met up again at the San Antonio resort later that afternoon for snacks and drinks before joining our hosts for the evening.

 

The following day, we went to Olotayan Island, a low-lying island in the Panay River delta, where we saw a number of matching grant projects.  The journey was made by what was little more than a motorized canoe. 

The most significant project viewed was a series of fresh water points with a pipeline laid on the river bed to provide fresh water from the mainland.  Water borne diseases have been prevalent amongst the very young on the island and these water points provide an expectation that these can be greatly reduced. 

The Roxas clubs have also been involved in projects with the school on the island where they have provided a library and are receiving books from partner clubs in the USA.  The islanders provided a splendid lunch that included crabs, shrimps and lobsters.

Whilst on this journey, we stopped at a church in Pan-Ay with the largest bell in Asia (third largest in the world). It is 7ft in diameter, 5ft high and weighs 10,400 Kg.  

That evening we attended a joint meeting of the Roxas clubs and give our introductory presentation.

Onwards to Kalibo

Onwards to Kalibo

After 3 days in Boracay, it was time to leave the lovely beach and head to Kalibo.  A short sea crossing in a small pump boat to Caticlan and where we were met by President Bing, her husband, Rtn Vic and their daughter and taken on the one and a half hour road journey to Kalibo, capital of Aklan province.  We had a dinner with the host club that evening.

Next day, we were up early again for a half hour radio chat show.  This was followed by a visit to Aklan National High School for Arts and Trades: a school that provides vocational training for youngsters to fit them for work locally.  Only a limited number could afford the fees to move up to university from there and the school was very dependent on matching grants from Rotary clubs around the world. We met Hannah, President of the school's Interact Club, who showed us around the campus and escorted us later in the day when we viewed the plantation project.  

After a briefing on planning and tourism from senior staff in the Regional Governor's Office, where we had lunch, we witnessed the daily Rotary feeding programme for around 30 youngsters in the Barangay (political ward).  This programme lasts for 3 months at a time and the children are given a nutritional meal, vitamins and powdered milk 6 days a week. 

 Rotarian doctors also provide free medical attention and the children are monitored for TB and other ailments.  Another very worthwhile matching grants project

There followed a visit to a workshop that used fibre from pineapple and other plants to weave, cloth and make baskets.  A walk was then taken through a mangrove plantation where the sea has been driven back 200 metres in less than a decade.

The day ended with a club meeting in RC Kalibo's clubhouse where the team gave an introductory talk to the members.

Boracay Beckons...

Thursday 29th March started with a morning of fun playing with the girls at the 'Let's Care' home: volleyball, badminton and skipping was top of the agenda! After saying our goodbyes, we then had a lovely scenic trip with glorious ocean and mountain views all the way to the port to catch the boat over to Boracay... our island paradise for the next three days; being our rest & recreation stop. During our time on the island we took several walks along the beautiful beaches (they've been voted in the top ten beaches in the world!)

One of the beautiful beaches of Boracay

Us enjoying the sun!

We also took the opportunity to visit some of the shops that the island had to offer. The nightlife on the island was pretty hectic, although we were too tired to stay out too late!

One of the many lovely sand sculptures built on the beach at night time

Mango smoothies... Yum!

We stayed on the island until lunch time on Sunday 1st April, when we caught the boat back to the island of Panay. We were met by President Bing Santamaria and her family, and were kindly taken on a 1.5 hour journey to the town of Kalibo. We received yet another great welcome in the form of a dinner, before spending the night with our new host families.

Antique adventures

Wednesday 28 March 2012
Busy day today...!
Our first stop was the Let's Care Girls Home, where we were lucky enough to meet the girls that live at the home. The home was established in June last year for girls aged 5-18 who have been neglected / abused. It runs an 18 month programme in which the girls are able to socialise with the other girls and regain their confidence. There is then an 18 month aftercare programme to ensure the girls are content following leaving the home.The home currently has 14 girls and they were such sweet, polite and friendly children, it was a joy and an inspiration to be around them.

We are unable to show specific photos of the girls to ensure their safety within the promgramme.

We then made a visit to the Association of disabled people where we were able to meet some mothers who bring their children to the centre for therapy. We then went onto St Joseph's orphanage, where the many of the young girls have disabilities such as blindness. The children gave us such a warm welcome and sang some beautiful songs to us, we were truly touched by the bravery of the children.

St Joseph's Orphanage

Bolo making

In the afternoon we saw how to make Bolos (knives) and how the local people use gemstones found in the river to make ornamental trees. We then went for a carabou ride (a carabou towing a cart) which was different! We then had an hours rest before presenting at the rotary club of Antique in the evening, we all thoroughly enjoyed today, and will sleep well tonight!!

Carabou ride

Antique!

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Fellowship!

Another early start today, up at 6am to catch the 8am ferry to Iloilo, the journey was a fairly bumpy 1 hr ride across the water to the new island of Panay. We were met by a member of the Antique rotary club for the 2 hr drive to Antique, we stopped at a few sights along the way, including a beautiful church. Upon arrival we were warmly greeted by the other rotary members and we then had a few precious free hours with our host families. We were then scheduled to watch the sunset from the beach, but unfortunately the weather continued to be stormy and the sun was hiding! This didn't spoil our evening, we spoke to lots of the local people and rotary members and had an evening of what the Philippines call 'fellowship'....usually meaning singing and dancing! This time it was karaoke, and once we got hold of the mic, there was no stopping us! We started off conservatively but wrapped up the evening with a bit of Blue, 'All Rise' and 'Pump up the Jam'!!! With Sarah being our rap specialist we can truly call ourselves a band now!

Beautiful church on way to Antique

Antique at sunset..!

Touring Bacolod city

Monday 26th March

Today began with a visit to Negros Showrooms, a tourist gift shop owned by a group of Rotarians who collect goods from across the Philippines, not wanting to go home empty-handed but already struggling with our luggage weight we only bought a few small momentos, but the store was great!

From here we went on to visit the Governor of the Negros Occidental region, who is the next in line of politics above the Mayor's of each city.  We were once again thrown into the spotlight, taking part in his weekly press conference.  The majority of the questions we were asked included what the similarities and differences are between our two countries and what our first impressions were of the Pilipino people.  Overall, we believe that the Philippinos are friendly and very postive people, truly the land of smiles, similar to the Welsh in their love of song and sharing culture around the dinner table.

with the Governor during lunch

After a sumptuous lunch at a nice hotel, hosted by the Governor we had pushed to fit in a visit to the local Catholic home for Girls, a project which many of the Bacolod Rotarians support.  We were astounded as soon as we got there, the girls having prepared a song to 'welcome us with love' to their home.  They did a dance and then showed us around the orphanage, they have a very strict schedule, waking at 5am and bed at 9pm. 

enjoying our time with the young girls at the orphanage

We were moved with the attention and closeness we shared in just a short space of time, the grils being provided with all of life's necessities but craving the love and attention which is in short supply, although they do have a hard working house mother who take care of the 30 girls.  Hopefully during our visit we were able to do some good and hope to help further in the future.

It was a busy evening with a collective meeting of the 10 Rotary Clubs in the Bacolod region, over 100 people were there to hear our presentation on Welsh culture, it seemed to go down well and the evening ended with at least 20 minutes of photos... we sure feel like celebs here now!!

Sunday 25th March

We couldn't quite believe we had only been in the country one week and had hit our first day off, we have seen and expereinced so many wonderful things and met many wonderful people.  Give the hard work it was time to relax by the pool at Sarah's host Ben's brothers house. 

Gemma, Helen and Sarah, with Sarah and her mother Ching

After a lazy morning (we have worked hard we promise!) it was time for lunch with Ben's wife, Ching and daughter, Sarah before a trip to the mall... still soaking up local culture as we have been told many people visit the mall to take advantage of the free air-con and wander around.



Snack time! Gemma and Helen enjoying a local desert, Halo Halo.

Cultural tours

Saturday 24 March,
Today we visited the Mambucal Mountain resort, in the mountains near Bacolod. A beautiful place, based around hot springs. There are lots of waterfalls in the area, and a guide showed us to the 7 waterfalls, a series of waterfalls all leading to the same pool, we made it up the very steep steps to the 3rd waterfall before surrendering to the heat!

Climbing the rocks to reach the waterfalls

At the 3rd waterfall of 7

Then in the afternoon the members of the rotary club of Silay took us on a whistlestop tour of Talisay City and Silay City. Our first stop was the 'ruins' which was a very old house which was destroyed in a fire, and only the structure remains, it is a beautiful spot and the ruins are now used for functions and as a tourist attraction.

The Ruins

We then had a tour of one of the oldest houses in Silay, supposedly haunted! And then onto a small fishing village for some freshly caught seafood in a restaurant called Edge water. All in all, a really fun and interesting day!!

TV Stars?!

Friday 23rd March was an early start, getting up at 5am ready for our TV appearance on the morning show of ABS-CBN TV Station. After some interesting make-up application (to make our tired eyes look a little brighter) by the resident make-up artist, we were ready for the big appearance. We performed a rendition of 'Calon Lan' before answering some questions by the hosts regarding our experience of the GSE trip to date.

Relieved to have our rendition of 'Calon Lan' over with!

Chatting to the hosts on live TV!

After a tour of the studio, we spent a few hours exploring the Chinese temples in the city. We then met the Mayor of Bacolod, before being treated to lunch by the ladies of the Rotary club of Bacolod West.

Meeting the Mayor of Bacolod

We then had a tour of a bank where one of the rotarians worked where she explained the micro-financing schemes that they run here. We then visited the High School of St. La Salle where they were preparing for their graduation ceremony. After what was already a jam-packed day we then attended and presented at the Rotary Club of Bacolod East.

the end of the first leg... Kabankalan to Bacolod

Thursday 22nd March

Today began slowly, we met at the Zaycoland Resort with our hosts, said a farewell to our wonderful GSE Coordinator Jundad and drove around 2 hours to our next stop, Bacolod City.

Bacolod is very different to Kabankalan, not only is it more commercial and Americanised with one long street that the city is based around, malls and KFC, the Rotary Club also seemed to be more formal.  That  is until after our introduction and meal we were suddenly invited to join in with their signature activity - dance aerobics!!

We were then treated to a rendition of the local traditional dance, the Maskara.

On Weds the 21st our fun packed day ended with a 'Barrio Fiesta' given in our honour.  We were treated to music from 30 school children and wonderful local dancing from Southland students.  There were lots of Rotarians, including DG Mel, who had travelled all the way from Antique to spend the evening with us... this would have taken him around four hours of driving and one hour of sailing!!

Here's a couple of pictures of the event, sadly for our resident vegetarian Helen, they had also roasted a pig for the fiesta.

Here's a snap of us in the local celebratory dress which our hosts kindly provided us with:

The heavens open!

Wednesday 21 March
Today was our first taster of a proper Philippine breakfast, and we all have different experiences, mostly involving rice, fish, mangos, and eggs! The philippine people like to have a hearty start to the day! Today we went to Southland College to talk to the students and to have a Q&A session. It was great to see the college and the college's emphasis on vocational skills, they are focused highly on ensuring that students have the opportunity to study subjects that will help them to get a job, including catering and hospitality and midwifery, the facilities at the school were great and the students were really impressive.

Southland College

We then went to Mag-Asu falls, and on our drive into the mountains the skies began to darken, and as we reached the water falls, the heavens opened! We made a dash for cover and had lunch whilst it dried up, then headed down the 100 steps to the impressive Mag-Asu falls, despite the weather, the falls looked beautiful and after a little coaxing, Helen and me took to the water for a swim! The water was very powerful after the rain, but a great experience to see the falls from the water!

Me and Sarah at Mag-Asu Falls

After the falls we made a very interesting visit to the Negros Occidental Electric Co-operative where we met the staff learned about the electricity system. The Philippine people like to find a way to inject a bit of fun into everything, and after a formal introduction, coffee, and a slideshow, there was a break for one of the talented staff at the company to give a Barry Manilow rendition to the group, very surreal but entertaining!

The visits begin!

Tuesday 20 March
We were greeted in the morning by our rotarian hosts who welcomed us into their homes for the next 2 days. We were all with different families in different parts of the city and were excited to learn more about the way of life in the Philippines. Shortly after arriving in our first homes, we were on our way to meet the city Mayor of Kabankalan City, City Mayor, Hon. Isadro Zayco. We had a tour of the staff offices and the chamber where the councillors meet. We also wre the traditional headresses for a photo!

Sarah, Helen, City Mayor of Kabankalan, Gareth and Me.

Traditional headdress

After a lunch in a local restaurant, we headed for the SONEDCO sugar mill for a tour of the milling process. The Island of Negros is the largest supplier of sugar to the country (and what makes the people so sweet!) and it is common to see sugar canes being grown in feild upon field, they are harvested once a year and turned into all sorts of sugar. We were lucky enough to have a tour of the mill and once we were close to the factory we were met with a distinct 'farmyard' smell, which was actually the smell of the sugar! The factory was huge!

Me at the SONEDCo sugar mill

That evening we joined the rotary club of kabankalan at their open air meeting place and made a presentation to show our personal interests and the sights of Wales, this was followed by a karaoke session, where the GSE team sang 'It's not unusual' for a bit of welsh input! This was followed by dancing and more singing, the Philippine people really know how to have fun! We are going to really like this place.....

Settling into Philippine life in Kanbankalan

We were lucky enough to get a day of rest on our first full day, and after intially settling in to get over our jet lag by the pool we got chatting to a young school girl who had the afternoon off after finishing her class project.  Diarene gave us plenty of information about the area we were staying and what life was like for her, explaining how her family live and her feelings on the recent earthquake.  We then invited her to join us for some lunch and she returned the favour by taking us to the local mall so we could stock up on essential toiletries. 

Walking to the mall almost everyone who drove by shouted hello, with Diarene explaining that we were famous as they only get tourists to the town about once a year. Walking back to the hotel we bumped into Jundad leaving work at the hospital.  He was very suprised to see us as people dont walk around much here, a tricicle (motobike with sidecar), costs around 20 pence per trip and so far we have counted over ten people riding in a single one!

Kabankalan City

We landed in Manila luchtime of Sunday 18th March, and we received a fantastic welcome and tour by Mike Saavedra, a GSE team member that visited District 1150 South Wales in 2010. We managed to fit in a whistle-stop tour of Manila before catching our connecting flight to Bacolod. Many Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Kabankalan came to meet us at the airport, it was the warmest welcome we could have wished for. After some photographs we were taken on a two hour mini-bus journey to Kabankalan, and checked in at the lovely Zygoland Resort. We managed to stay awake for a welcome dinner hosted by the Rotarians of the club, including GSE co-ordinator Jundad Legislador... a great introduction to the Philippines cuisine. It was then time to get to bed and recover from the long, but very worthwhile journey!

 Gemma & Sarah after arriving in Manila

Me with the welcome banner at Zygoland!

Dinner with Kabankalan Rotarians on the first night