We ran out of gas. It was a lot heavier on the way back. I gave the driver a little tip for helping me lift the bottle. I’d say we had a blast, but I’m very thankful that we didn’t!
What’s in a day?
I usually get up between 7 or 8am, have a glass of fruit juice, have some breakfast (usually some small local rolls), heat up some water for a bucket bath, get dressed, fill up a flask with tea (there’s no kettle or fridge at the office) and get ready for work. Somewhere in between there’s usually a fight against the crappy internet signal to try and check Facebook, Twitter, and tennis scores, with varying degrees of success and/or swearing!
It takes less than five minutes to walk to the office, down a dirt road (when it’s dry, down a mud road when it’s wet), up another one, and then I’m more or less there. [Read more…]
The fires of hell
If someone offers you coconut oil with chili extract as a mosquito repellent, just say NO.
The Volcano Diaries (Part 1)
My First Glimpses of Bulusan and Mayon
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had a minor obsession with volcanoes. I guess it all started with the eruption of Mt St. Helens in 1980, which regularly made the evening news.
Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge National Park
A few hours up river from the small town of Basey, on Samar, are the Sohoton Caves and Natural Bridge Natural Park. I recently took a trip there with some friends. It’s a lovely day trip and a great way to see something of the rural Philippines and get a glimpse of what the forests that once covered much of the country would once had looked like. [Read more…]
If you don’t mind my asking, ma’am…
is there any hope for us?
This is the question I was asked by the polite young man at the check-in desk of the minivan company when I checked in for the van to Tacloban at 7:40 in the morning.
He might as well have asked me the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.
It was not a question I was ready for. Not three weeks into living here. Not at 07:40 in the morning. And not after the comedy of errors that was my journey to the minivan company, [Read more…]
Where does all the sh*t go?
The next time you’re relaxing in a posh hotel or an ‘eco-resort’, the question you need to ask yourself is “where does all the shit go?”. This is inevitably the hurdle where all but the truly cleanest and greenest fall.
I don’t just mean what you flush down the toilet, but all the waste from the kitchen, the leftover packaging, the little bottles of half-used shampoo and soap wrappers, the cigarette ends and chewing gum and bottle caps. Where does it all go?