This is what they call a "Jeepney", an old remnant from the time of American governance. "There's always space for one more!"

One of the streets in Lanuza - actually, the main street. I live on the left hand side of the street, just out of sight on this picture.

Getting a haircut! This is the only barber in Lanuza - and it's open air!

Because my place came with only the most necessary furniture, I ordered a hand-made closet. It was delivered on this trike, from a carpenter more than an hour away. The trikes are really unique: they're built from steel and a boat motor - talk about making the best use of resources!

Me in front of my house! I rent the left hand side of this place. It has two storeys; the bottom has the kitchen and the bathroom (cold water shower only), and the top has my bedroom, a guest bedroom and a kind of dining room, although I don't have a table so there go my dinner parties!

This is one of my uninvited houseguests! There was only one (so far), but I got him. For a fair size comparison, I put him on a DIN-A4 piece of paper and put some keys beside him. A pretty big bug!

Bats! There are literally hundreds of bats in the cave near Lanuza. They fly around, but, contrary to common belief, don't get in your hair - or at least they didn't get in mine.

This is where Campamento cave got it's name. Apparently, this stalagtite looks like a bell. During spanish reign, the cave was named accordingly.

Besides bats (shown in another picture), Campamento cave also houses some pretty funky crickets. The size of this one doesn't come out well in the picture, but the antennae are about the length of my arm from my elbow down. Pretty amazing!

Another picture of me in Campamento cave...

This is me in Lanuza's Campamento cave. The cave is accessible with tourguides, houses bats and is almost untouched by human hands. It was really an incredible sight - these stalagtites have been around for many hundreds of years.

My favourite picture so far! This is just beautiful... A shot taken between Cortes and Lanuza, you can see the pristine beauty of the area.

This is a panorama shot of the beach behind my house. I kept the size small so it would fit in your browser, but the full-size picture is awesome...

A georgious sunset on the beach behind my house...

This is the beach behind my place. This is literally a half-minute walk from my front door.

Getting used to life in the Philippines

Dear friends,

It’s hard to believe it’s only been two months since I’ve left Germany to pursue my six-month pro-bono engagement here in the Philippines. This project and the new surroundings have proven both challenging and rewarding, and I feel that I’m learning tons of new skills every day. As you know, I’m working with the Lanuza Bay Development Alliance in an attempt to improve living conditions and generate sustainable livelihoods for the people here in one of the Philippines least developed areas.

My stay here has already proven to be rewarding in so many ways. The Philippines is, unfortunately, quite poor and underdeveloped (especially my area) – it has a lower HDI (human development index) than, say Armenia, Lebanon, Chile or Suriname. But if you compare the friendliness of the people, their spirit (the second-happiest people in the world right after Nigeria, according to one study) and their hospitality to countries in Western Europe, I’m not sure who’s “underdeveloped” here. I can’t begin to count the times I’ve been greeted by name by people I swear I’ve never met before in my life.

That’s not to say that my stay has been without challenges, of course. The people here certainly have a different sense of privacy, with people I’ve never seen walking in and out of my place all the time. Also, in all the time I’ve been here, I’ve not seen a single man-made object that is at the same time new and complete. It seems everything here is either under construction or has broken down.

But of course I’m adapting. Just yesterday I caught a rat the size of my head in the office and I’m still trying to decide if that’s disgusting or just plain cool. During the recent power outages (and there’ve been a few), I’ve gotten used to showering in the dark, and am a bit surprised by how little I care (mind you, my shaver has a battery). But some of the things I encounter are still a bit hard to get used to. In the mornings, when I go running, people look at me like I’m from a different planet, and I still find the language (Cebuano) extremely difficult. For example, the word “siguro”, depending on how it’s said, can mean anything from “certainly”, to “possibly”, to “no” (if said unenthusiastically enough).

I do feel as though I’m slowly entering the community, though. In the spirit of ‘I’ll try everything once’, I sang Karaoke with the mayor, and was even able to convince people that they don’t need to worry about me living alone (“What do you mean you don’t have a companion?” and “Aren’t you scared?”).

So, in summary:

Personal lowlights:

• Being invited to day-long meetings without an agenda, a defined purpose or even an action plan in the end (definitely some things I can change during my stay)
• Not being able to get any milk products (no cheese, no milk – it’s just rice, rice, rice three times a day!)
• Still getting confused faces and blank stares when I try to answer questions in Cebuano

Personal highlights:

• Being named the ‘Ninong’ – the godfather of a baby of a neighboring family
• Overwhelming feeling of nostalgia when hearing typewriters used in the Municipal Hall, while working with the mayors
• Learning elementary Cebuano (the local dialect), and getting the biggest grins when people hear me use it (correctly, that is)

That's about it for now. In my next few postings I will upload some pictures I have taken.
Take care, and please keep in touch with me!

Martin

This is a picture of the sunset as viewed from my bedroom window. No, I'm not kidding, this is real! What a beautiful place!

This is Oliver, my predecessor, and me in the entry of Oliver's place. What a cool house, right on the beach. Too bad I wasn't able to get it after him. But my place isn't bad either! :-)

This is the first meeting I went to. They had a goodbye-party for Oliver, my predecessor ('Depidida'), and a welcome party for me. In the center you can see mayor Algerico Irizari and a plaque that was handed over that day.

A view from the plane travelling to my placement in Lanuza

Me at the local market in Manila