Election time is so silly!!

I think we can all agree that election time in the US is pretty damn annoying. You have to hear about it on the news, the TV is full of horrible ads accusing people of being un-patriotic baby killers, and it goes on for like 3 years. Somehow, the Philippines has found a way to ratchet up the annoying factor. All day long, up and down the streets of Calapan, trucks drive around with loud speakers attached to them, blaring music and/or talking. But it's not just any music, it's current popular music that has been redone locally in Tagalog with ELECTION THEMED LYRICS! There was a horrible, god-awful song around Christmas time called "Boom Tarat Tarat." It was created on the enormously popular daytime game show "Wowowee." I am not making this up, these are the titles of these things. Anyway, since everyone in the country watches this show, this song caught on like wildfire and for the entire month of decemeber and many months after, we've had to hear this song being sung by everyone, all the time. The refrain of the song is "Boom tarat tarat, boom tarat tarat, la dada, la da da, bom bom bom." There is also an inane dance that goes along with it. Anyway, the point is I hate that song with a passion. We all do. And now it's being broadcast from a pair of very cheap quality loudspeakers all day long, with local election lyrics added into the song. Maybe you have to be here to understand it... As bad as that one is, I think my personal favorite is the truck for another candidate. There's an old song here that's a classic videoke song called "Totoy Bibbo." This guy's truck plays the music to that song and occasionaly throughout the song a man yells "Paul Luna!" So it's music, music, music, PAUL LUNA! music, music, music.

Also, other than these boom trucks, the other tactic is the good old campaign poster. Thousands of them. Millions. All stuck to every available surface in the entire country. Trees, bus stops, power line poles, people's houses, cows... They are everywhere, and you just know after a few months they'll slowly fall off and soon we will be drowning in a sea of weather-worn campaign posters.

The other upside to this is that elections are notorious for violent altercations, so we've all been warned to stay far away from rallies, and on the actual election day they basically told us not to leave the house. Or we could go to Manila and hide out if we were worried. I haven't seen any evidence of this so far, but it does add a little spice to the campaign period.

No happy endings

It's been in the news, so I'm sure most of you have heard, but last week about this time they found the body of our friend, the missing PCV Julia Campbell. There was a really great, very emotional memorial service for her on Saturday and on Sunday we officially got the autopsy report: she died of blunt force trauma to the head. They have some leads and a prime suspect, so hopefully they do a good job and don't just jump the gun and pin it on someone because of all the pressure to make an arrest. As hard as the news of her death was to hear, the idea of her being beaten to death, all alone, was even harder for me to deal with. We're ok now, safe, not in any danger or anything as this was an isolated incident. I hope her family is doing ok. That's about it for now, hopefully next time I update there will be something good to share.

Missing volunteer

A fellow volunteer went hiking last sunday and hasn't been seen since. There's a huge PC/Embassy search party looking for her, but it's already been a week, that can't be good. We're getting occasional updates but everyone is super freaked out, mainly because of the uncertainty of it all. I hope she's ok...

A photo tour around Calapan

I thought some people might like to know what our town looks like and what our daily lives look like, so this past week I went and took some pictures of the various places we frequent and spend our time. This isn't everything because that would just be boring. You can click on any picture to see the larger version (as is true of every photo on the blog).

This is the downstairs part of our apartment. Abby just finished tiling the bathroom because she wants to be on the Filipino version of "This Old House."

Here is the front of our apartment. It used to be just a boring slab of concrete until we turned it into a kick ass outdoor seating area.

This is Block 1, our street. It's generally nice and quiet, lots of families and kids and whatnot. What I left out of the picture was the vacant lot/garbage burning area.

Now to the untrained eye, this may look like a vacant marshy field. But no! It's so much more than that. It's a playground, a kite-flying area, a tricycle driver urinal, a grazing place for your goat/cow/water buffalo, a place to get firewood or look for edible leaves...

Signs like these are in every town in the Philippines. They may be encouraging you to avoid drugs, keep an eye out for crime, to recycle, or in this case, to keep the barangay clean. It roughly says "Let's band together! My dedication! My clean!" The sign next to it says "Don't throw your trash here." Good luck with that one buddy!

This is just a little welcome sign to our barangay. It listed who the captain and council are. They have these for every barangay, who knows how old this one is.

My favorite Filipino invention, the sari-sari ("everything") store. Your average block with have anywhere from one to twenty of these things, and you buy all sorts of stuff from them. Chips, vinegar, cigs, beer and booze, soy sauce, shampoo in single use packets, a single hard candy, candy, text load for your cell phone, sometimes veggies and eggs... I love 'em!

I know what I'm doing for my next birthday!

Tricycle drivers all lined up and waiting to yell at me. I mean, pick up passengers. These dudes will just sit around and wait forever for a fare. Behind them are awesome home-made kites for sale. It's summer, so it's also kite-flying season.

This is the gate that leads into the Capitolio complex, where I work. My office is down the left side, way in back.

Jose Leido National Memorial High School, where Abby works. Also known as "JJ" and "Lemnahis." Abby said this photo sucks, but tough, I'm using it anyway.

This is the main street through Calapan, Jose Rizal St. It's where most of the shops are, and traffic.

You think this looks bad, it's three times more crowded after school and work let out. I avoid this street like the plague from about 3pm-7pm.

A Filipino once asked me if Calapan was a big city. I said I didn't know. He then said, "Let me ask you this, is there a Jollibee in your town?" It's a fast food place, but in addition to burgers you can also get fried chicken and rice, taco hotdogs, spaghetti, something called a "tuna pie" and ice milk topped with purple yam and cheese. Awesome!

Citimart is kind of like a department store. We never go to that part of it, but they do have a sweet grocery store.

The market is a big complex, part inside, part outside. The fruit vendors are all outside and you can get some killer oranges and mangoes in this country. On the other side are the bootleg dvd vendors.

This is the main street by the market. It may look busy, but it's not. This was taken at about 2pm, and the market is really bumpin' around 7am.

This is the indoor wet-market. You can get fish and seafood, meat and veggies in here. Behind it is the dry market where you can get a ton of crap that was made in China.

An average veggie stand: japanese eggplant, tomatoes, bitter gourd (ampalaya) and a ton of stuff I only know the tagalog word for.

This meat sits out all day, so if we buy it, we make sure to get here early. In the heat of the day at 3pm, this place is enough to make you a vegetarian for life.