Brushing up on my animal husbandry... or maybe duck midwifery...

I have been enjoying my new responsibility of looking after the animals for the last few mouths. I wake up at 6am every morning to feed them before our 6.30 breakfast. A few days ago 18 duck eggs hatched, so there are now loads of little ducklings to look after... they are very cute.

   One mother was sitting on the eggs of several ducks. It was amazing... I was there right when they where hatching – I even helped the mother pulling off some of the pieces of broken shell from the wet and slimy newly-hatched babies! It was a lovely experience... but I must remind myself that at least half of them will be for eating when they grow up...

   Click on the pic and take a look at some pictures of me with the animals – they now know that it is me that feeds them and when its time for their food, they all crowd around me and follow me everywhere I go in a big flock of chickens and ducks! There are 12 chickens, four geese, 18 ducks and now the 18 baby ducks.

   But it's not all hard work... the other day I went with the Kellards to a beautiful resort for the day. It had one of those amazing swimming pools right by the sea, so you can swim to the edge and look out over the ocean. And it was cooler than the sea as well which is lovely, because the sea is really very warm.

After the storm.. life carries on

After the storm we had here (I think we had the edge of what later hit Manilla), it's been very hot and dry here - so we have had none of the problems that Manilla had. Thanks everyone for asking about me.
   There is a new volunteer here for a month - he is a Filipino but from Manila. Thankfully he speaks good English, but we talk as much as possible in Tagalog.
   Recently the grandfather of three of the girls that work here (all sisters) died and in this culture they have some very interesting traditions. The body stays in the house on display for about ten days before the funeral. Every night, lots of people go there to pay their respects – but its not all sad. In the corner is the open coffin and a few people praying quietly... but everyone else is playing games and drinking having a great time with lots of laughter and fun!
   I was invited along and spent a few evenings there over the last week and had a great time... it's a fascinating tradition. Even though I was the only foreigner, the people were all so welcoming and took great delight in including me and watching me play the games. There's normally some fun forfeit for making a mistake, like having lines drawn on my face with charcoal. So I've had some late nights returning looking like a marine, but I have enjoyed it. I try to throw myself into everything about the culture here and accept every invitation that I'm given. Its the Filipino way that even a funeral is great fun!
   Angels have been busy holding up trees here... the other day while we were having meriender (the whole group takes a snack break), a large papaya tree fell for no reason (there was no wind and nothing was touching it, although we now know it was rotten inside) – and it landed exactly where I had been working about 20 minutes before!

Power down

We had a big storm here that lasted a few days until early this week. So for several nights there was no power and no internet until now. There is no landline here so I think the internet works from mobile networks and even the phones have had very little signal recently, so I think the storm must have taken out phone masts.

Next week Katie Kellard leaves with Jenny (her nan) but her brother Josh is here for the next six weeks – I've been looking forward to some more male company.

I passed my Philippines driving test and have been doing a lot of driving which always leaves me tired because the trafic is crazy – there are no rules and everyone just pulls out without looking and weaves in and out of each other. It's dificult... I have to be very alert always looking everywhere but I'm starting to get used to it now.

I am happy here and get along with everyone very well but sometimes I do miss home and feel lonley because it's so hard to understand the conversation in tagalog.

My tagalog is coming along well but sometimes it is very difficult, so I am spending some time twice a week with Louchie (one of the girls) to help me with my learning and prenunciation and that is very helpful.