went to Narra

Blog 2
Earlier this month I went to visit a Mayline in Narra. We had a nice time. Even though puerto is not really big city, it sure felt different to be out in a more rural place. The picture of the sun rise was taken as we waited on the side of the road for a ride to the hot springs for a morning soak. (I was amazed that the hot springs were so good even though the air temp gets me sweating at the best of times) The man on his carabo also past and posted for my picture.
I also spent some time at the market - fish, fruit, veggies, close, almost anything you can get at walmart. Well I do get a bit overwhelmed in markets and unless I have someone to take me to their regular vendor, I tend to just walk on by. I'm not use to choosing from 10 to 20 different sales people for a few bananas, it's overwhelming to say the least.
Another thing that I haven't got use to is seeing heavily armed guards, police, military guys. They all seem to walk about very casually with a huge gun over their shoulders. Happily they posed for me and asked me to show their pictures to any of my single friends that might want a friend here (it still amazes me how many people I meet that want to immigrate).
Mayline and her little boy were great tour guides. Although Dodoy, the little boy was very scared of strangers and spent most of his time hiding from me, I did get a great typical Philipinno pose, smile included when the camera came out!
My latest hobby is drawing. I am taking lessons with a great artist, in a wonderful location. The pictures with the trees and pathways is the grounds of the art gallery I go to. If I'm not inspired here, I wouldn't think of trying anywhere else. The place is called Kamarinkutan and is a wonderful setting for viewing native art and having a sip of coffee. The place was recently featured in a travel magazine. It tells the story about the founder and shows some great shots. (I'll try googling it)
I have many pictures of flower but I thought I would post this one of the Papaya tree. It's kind of an original shot because the flower is about 15 feet up a tree. I was able to get this shot because the tree was beside a lookout platform and so

Blog
This is a bit of a late entry but it's the best part of my trip to Cagayan de Oro. On the last day before going home some of us stayed to do some canyontreking. The pictures kind of show how beautiful the valley was, much better in person (minus the fact that there were snakes, see the yellow one, the guides didn't really answer the question as to if there were many poisonous snakes around. I put it to faithe that I would survive). I t was an easy enough trek along the river with places where we had to jump, rapel, or slide down to the next level. The guides were great and for those that had to overcome fear of heights, it was a great challenge to jump 20 feet and rapel about 60. I realized that my fears were not so bad as some. I did have to take a big breath and mentally push myself to jump off the cliff. You can see in the picture where we are all on the ledge, what the view was like before jumping (if you looked down). The picture of the tracker shows the transport we took to the river. The guides were very good at giving the story of the forest plants and the history of the place. Some pretty big trees as you can see.

take care and I'll be updating soon (at least sooner than since my last post, oops too busy with my art lessons, and just lazing about, and work!!)

Cagayan de oro

Hi these pictures are only a month old now, time goes so fast. I was in Cagayan de oro for a conference. You can see how tough it is out here!! The sun set picture of the tree is from out room, the little cabin on the hill is our room (the upper one), there's also a picture of the harbor over my shoulder, the pool was great. We did some nature walks, and had a horse ride. Great place to go. Also got a shot of the real hard work happening in the conference room! I was thinking of work back home because we had lots of stairs to do to get from the room to the meals. (although the stairs were all natural rock surrounded by different plants, and in the fresh air; I was thinking of all you coworkers at home taking the 6 or 7 flights of stairs at the Mis. I better keep my stair climbing strength up)

(IN August) I had a visit up north on the island and saw some very interesting sights.
We visited some patients in their homes, went island hoping (I love being on the ocean; were is Edmonton again?), and enjoyed the fresh mountain and ocean air. It was a good way to recover some strength after feeling unwell.
I was amazed to find out that the birds nest soup, a specialty, is made from boiling the swift birds nests to get the bird saliva. It sounds very unappealing to me. I'm trying to imagine how this became a food item. One chef talking to another, I have a great idea for making soup. Lets boil a birds nest so we can get the flavor of the birds saliva into our soup. Other chef says, sounds like a great idea, I'll go get some birds nests!!
Well as amazed as I am with the whole thing about bird nest soup, I was even more taken a back by where we found the birds nesting. We came across the birds nest "in" the Taytay hospital. You will see in some of the pictures that Taytay is a great place to visit, just don't get sick. The part of the hospital has been neglected and next thing you know, bird nest soup on the hospital menu (if it had a menu). The whole state of the medical system here sure makes me appreciate what we have at home even if it is in the prairies.
Along the way we also stopped to see the project of Mylene. She is a social worker that advocates for persons with disabilities. She has been very successful in creating employment form a joint government and school project to provide chairs to schools in the rural areas. She has a work shop that employees persons with disabilities (PWD) to make the desk chairs. I really admire these dedicated people that are working hard to support a cause and make a difference. Even if it is a small scale local effect, it is the dedication and persistence of people like Mylene that is to be admired. In one picture you will see Mylene with the new chairs. The other picture is the old chairs that students had to make up for themselves before this program. The school doesn't have books, that's usual out in the rural places, I imagine the teachers get creative. (again we are lucky at home). There are 505 students and 14 teachers at this place.
If you look at the scenery pictures you will quickly see were life out here can be grand. I really enjoyed the little town of Taytay with the small homes on the water, a historic fort and a friendly welcome in the streets.
The picture of Ime on the white beach (Ime is an OT that works for Bahatala in the rural areas) was taken at a little island that was wonderful, no inhabitants, beach, trees, great rocks (worth contemplating selling the house and car in the prairies; for a moment on a sunny day).
Also on that boat trip we stopped at a resort for a tour of the facilities (Club Noah). The Resort is very posh so a day trip to see it was all we really needed. The island is limestone and in the bay the horizon is dotted with these grand island of different shapes. It is great to travel with a geologist (Dr Soc first had a geology degree before taking up medicine) and get the history of island formation and development. We stayed at the resort on the mountain overlooking the bay. It's called Casa Rosa and although it was a bit of a climb to get up, the view was well worth it (picture of me with the bay behind is from this place). The last picture of the little hut is a place we stayed on the way to taytay. It's on a little sand island. great to wake up in the morning and swim out a few feet to find all kinds of corals and fish (even nemo!)

I will say by for now. All is still well.

still Here

I've really slowed down. I see my last note was a month ago! Well August and first part of Sept were busy. I continue to struggle with getting pictures up and I'm at a bit of a stand still this week. I do have some great pictures from the last month and hopefully I can get them up soon but in the meantime I thought I'ld update my adventure stories.
I was able to do little travelling for work and play in August and this brought me close to the sea. Swimming, island hopping, and waking up to a beautiful beach was all part of the fun. I really enjoyed the boat rides and fresh Ocean breeze. I even have a tan now. The swimming and fresh air also helped to get over whatever illness I had been suffering and I feel very healthy again. I have missed my weekly runs and soccer so I can't promise to be in great shape at the moment.
Last week I was at a conference for volunteers and part of the activities was a bit of hiking and even horse riding. They were quite small for horses but the ride was well worth the effort and we ended up with a great view of green valleys. After the conference a group of us volunteers when canyon trekking. I have a fear of heights so I wasn't sure how cliff jumping, rappelling and rock water slides would all go down but it was great. (pictures to come at some point).
This week I was back to work after a week off. Work continues to be very enjoyable with lots of variety. This may only be interesting to my PT friends but I thought I would share the story of the most unusual shoulder contracture. This patient was in a cast with external fixator for a year for wrist fractures and as a result had decreased shoulder extension (unable to bring his arm back or even to his side) to at least - 35 degrees. When he lay down on his back his arm just stuck up in the air. He is from Manila and was hoping to get surgery so I wont get a chance to follow how therapy may help him, but I was wondering if Charlies ever seen pecs this tight. I'm sure I never have or will.
Back at work and into my regular activity; hopefully will be sailing again this weekend. I have to admit (but don't tell anyone) that I really don't miss soccer !! shocking for me to realize this too. I'm sure when I get home and acclimatize to shoes, I will be excited as ever for Friday night soccer. It is the getting use to shoes that will be a challenge. In the last month I only put on shoes for the canyon trek, I was very happy they still fit. I even ran 5 k's with flip flops because I met up with some running friends but forgot my shoes. I was very impressed that I could run with flip flops but I must admit I was pretty slow. I went on a big shopping spree and came home with 2 new pairs of flip flops (for variety).
With no big plans for the next while I will have time to get my computer working better. Till then, take care :)

odds and ends

Hello I am just updating with a few odd pictures and activities. I went to the east coast a month ago for the day and had a bit of hiking in the mountain and swimming in the waves. It rained for part of the day but it was still warm. It is very beautiful country. The trip up involved some pretty ruff roads, and with the splashing in the waves I was very worn out by the end of the day. Rose is my friend that took me. A little bit of rain and the true Filipino is under cover!!
A few weekends ago I had a variety of events. The picture with the pineapple on my back was from my trip home from a soccer game. I bought the pineapple and had to bike home with it on my back. I usually have a lot of remarks when I bike down the street but the pineapple increased the entertainment value of me for the local kids. The smiles and laughs were bigger than usual.
That evening I went out for a very nice home made meal made by some local x pats that bring in the foods like real cheese (a real rarity). I went all out to blow dry my hair (under my rotating ceiling fan). It was very interesting meeting people from many parts of the world that had now settled with Puerto as their main home.
The following week I spent the evening visiting my local friends down the street. The kids get very excited so I need a lot of energy to visit them. They are trying to help my tagalog but it is a challenge for me still. I can pretend that I understand thing quiet well but really very little sinks in!!
I also installed a hammock in the living room. It is really relaxing and when I spot the critters late a night it is the only place I feel comfortable sleeping.
I also included a picture a Erinn and Greg from Calgary. They were here for a month; it really is amazing how reassuring it is to run into someone close to home when you are so far away.
All in all my company has been very varied and pleasant.
Still enjoying sailing. The other day I even had wind. Enough to get me into trouble and capsize the boat. My little friend that was helping me (I think he was about 10) enjoyed watching me get into trouble and then he would get me turned around and give me the controls again. Like most city bay water, not the best place to go swimming, but at least the water is warm.
take care back home

less than fun week

Well I thought I would share with you my down time, as so far my experiences have been so positive. I had my first spell of something (NYD not yet diagnosed!!) Being overseas does not change a persons ingrain habits. I deal with sickness over here pretty much like at home. I assume nothings wrong, I think I can sleep anything off, and then when I don't, I think what I have is the worse possible thing in the world and that I am suffering like no one else has. At the moment of most pain I can possibly endure I finally, like some test against illness breakdown and take something for pain. (does that sound about right Rick and Michelle?)
Well I did get tested for Malaria and Likely had a flue. My past week was spent crawling out of bed to the hammock, then getting restless with he hammock and crawling back to bed. Well today I am functioning almost normal (for me). I can actually be up for hours at a time and can walk down the street to my usually email place. some early signs that I was not myself was early this week (when I was still walking) I was walking so slow that the local people were passing me!! I got feeling very weak, weaker than a Kitten! (that's for you chianta's girls that remember my spell last summer) at one point I was struggling to turn over in bed.
Well I am working my way to going to work and hopefully I will be walking and running in no time. Take care.