Bananaflowers, a "bibssprinkhaan", bats and Edward

Last Weekend Davao

After my graduation in the Maryknoll Language School, my family in Doña Asuncion made something extra for dinner. They prepared loempias, cheese rolls and roasted tuna, delivious! After that, together with the people from the boarding house of Pieter, with Frithtjof, and the son and daughter of Arnold (from Broederlijk Delen, my “boss”), we went partying in Rizal promenade. In a club called 183... The music in the clubs are the same music I heard in clubs in China, or even worse. One commercial song after the other, making it impossible for me to dance. But still I had some fun sitting outside, drinking some beers and listening to a live (cover) band. My friends from the Alternative Center will give a Reagge festival on the Island of Samal, but that will only be in June or so... Being in Asia again did me realize again how good we have it in Belgium for partys, concerts and festivals!


The next day I went ziplining with my family close to Digos (an hour and a half or so from Davao) in mount Apo park. Ziplining is going with a cable from a higher point in the mountain to another point while you hang in superman position. A nice thrill and a nice view.


Later we visited the “Agong house” by ???, a famous artist from Mindanao. It was a nice, small house, based on the original builing style of Mindanao indigenous tribes, with a very nice garden around it with lots of flowers and statues in the mountains.




So my stay in Davao is almost at his end, and on Wednesday, Arnold will take me to Don Bosco in Makilala where I can start my real work... Although I still do not know what I want and can do there, I look forward on being there again, amongst those nice people in mountains.

My speech at the graduation ceremony

For the people interested in how Cebuano/Visaya looks like, I wrote down my speech that I made for my graduation on Friday 24^th April. I am officially graduated form my language school, but that does not really mean that I speak fluently Cebuano now. I have a base and I know how to construct sentences, now I need to practice and learn more vocabulary so I will be able to communicate better.

Maayong buntag sa tanan,

Kini ang adlaw sa akong graduation. Kinahanglang kong ihatag ang pakigpulong, ug gusto kong mogamit niining higayona sa pagsulti sa akong pasalamat, una sa akong mga magtotudlo ug mga estudyante sa MILC. Bisan gitudloan nila ako sa basic Cebuano, malisud gihapon kaayo ang pagsabut sa mga maguuma sa bukid sa Makilala para kanako, sige lang kay makasulti man ako sa basic feelings. Pananglitan, makasulti ako sa pulong nga “Gigutom ako”, “Gisip-on ako, hatagi ra ako ug habol”, ug, mas importante, nga “Walay problema kon Moro ka o Kristiano alang kanako, silang tanan ang akong mga higala”. Nakatonan ko sab ang basic understanding sa Pilipinong cultura. Nakatonan ko sab nga ang mga Bul-anon ignorantihon, apan but-an gyud. Nakatonan ko sab nga walay pulong sa Cebuano para sa “sweet” para sa mga lalaki kay dili sila magtext sa ilang trato nga “Gimingaw kaayo ako nimo” ug dili sila kanunay maghatag ug bulak sa ilang mga trato. Ug nakatonan ko sab nga mas importante sa mga Pilipino ang S.I.R.

Ikaduha, gusto kong magpasalamat sa akong pamilya sa ilang pagatiman kanako. Bisan nga gikambiohan nila ang ilang pagdiet ug pagkaon tungud kanako kay vegetarian ako. Ug bisan sab nga usaka adlaw niana nga gimingaw gyud ako sa akong nanay, giatiwan gyud ako nila pag-ayo. Sa Doña Asunsion sab, nakakaton ko ug daghan.Una, ang secreto sa taas ng buhok nga “It's all in the ends”. Ikaduha ang pagmabinantayon sa iho tunud sa ilang pagpadako sa ilang utok. Ikatulo, wala mamakak kanako ang travel guide sa Pilipinas nga “Prepare yourself to be interrogated by everyone you meet (...). Filipinos will want to know where you are from, why you are in the Philipines, how old are you, wheter you are married, if not why not, and so on and so forth”. Pero wala magbakak ang guide sab ang “They pride themselves on their hospitality and are always ready to share a meal or a few drinks”.

Sa katapusan, gusto kong magpasalamat sa akong kauban sa Broederlijk Delen, nga akong NGO sa Belgium, para sa paggiya kanako sa mga bulohaton bahin sa mga routa sa jeepny dinhi sa Davao ug sa pagatiman kanako.

Sa tanan nga nia dinhi, daghan kaayong salamat.

Daghan na kaayo ang akong gisulti, busa tana magmeryenda nata.

My visitors!

Classmates, teachers and Pieter.

Getting my certificate!!

My house in Davao, for one more night...

Lake Ako

My Holy Week

Two weeks ago, during Holy week I took a break from school (I only skipped two days) and went to the Don Bosco farm in Makilala where I will be working the next ten months. It was really great to be away from the city for a while and be in nature. I was invited by my “boss”, Betsy, to join a seminar about anthroposophic healing and alternative harmonization techniques. To be honest, I really did not know what that was going to be all about. The seminar was given by two anthroposophic doctors and a nurse. Antroposophy is basically the teachings of Rudolf Steiner during the first half of the 20^th century. It is, as far as I know now, the scientific teachings of the spirit and spiritual world, that is based on our current modern world. It compromises philosophy/theosophy, health care, education and agriculture (bio-dynamics). This anthroposophy is about initiation in the higher worlds, thinking-willing-feeling, our physical body, astral body, spiritual body and the I. During those three day seminar we learned about healthy lifestyle, meditation, we gave foot baths to each other, we made a healthy salad with wild plants, fruits and flowers, we did art therapy (making paintings with self made paint out of earth and flowers), I was been harmonized etc.. All these things are quite new to me and at first I felt a bit uncomfortable about this subjects, but Betsy promised me that I will be given time to study anthroposophe/esoteric/occult teachings so I can understand what it is all about. Currently I have no judgements about all these “higher” subjects/truth because understanding have to come before judgement.

There was another guest at Don Bosco, Troy, from Manilla. Togheter with him we did yoga every morning for one hour. In the end, I will have to learn more or less how to teach yoga, because I will give some initiation classes to the local farmers. Exciting!! Troy also introduced me to inner dance, a kind of traditional shamanistic “dance” which allows you to ground with yourself and, after practice, can be able to express blocs/traumas stored inside of you. It was a strange experience, Troy, who is able to connect consciously with the cosmos/chi/prana/life-force starts to press some points on your body and, if you think about nothing, your arms and legs, head start to move spontaneously, expressing emotions deep inside us. They told me that in this way it is possible for us to find out how we were connected in with each other in our past lives. I did not reach any catharsis or past life experiences, but I was surprised how spontaneously I started to move. I am, again, very excited to learn more about these practices, because I think it could be of good use in our materialistic western world to bring in a bit more spirituality.

Aside from all these “weird” practices we also did some sightseeing. We went to Lake Ako, which is a, rather big, boiling lake. Really quite bizarre to see a lake that is literally filled with boiling water coming from a hot spring. Next to is they installed a natural sauna and a hot pool. We also went up the mountain, through the rainforest to see two waterfalls, one of them a sacred place according to one of the indigenous tribes living up the mountain. Close to the Don Bosco farm there is also a hot spring with a pool installed where you can bath in the natural hot water, how nice!

For the rest of my time I helped a bit with Mattias, a german volunteer, in his garden, next to the river, in front of Don Bosco. And Betsy gave me a short orientation into the different projects in Don Bosco so I can figure out in which of them I would like to cooperate. Right now I still do not know exactly what I want to do, I think I would like to work in all of them so I can learn a bit about all their different projects. The have a seed program, a extension service for farmers, the do laboratory work, they help woman to develop off-farm employment, they have a micro-credit service, they have give seminars to farmers how to convert to bio-dynamics and also seminars for other ngo's who like to know more, they have a dairy farm where the make mile and yoghurt, they have, i believe, 4 shops spread over the island Mindanao so marketing is also one of their occupations... Lot's of things to learn, many of them I used to know some things about in theory form during university.

I went there on Sunday and the next Sunday I left again to go to Davao, because my language school is not over.

some pictures of the rainforest mountain, story later...

Razor attack

Last night, on Aprils fool day, I was brutaly attacked by razorblades...

They said I did not look like that 'florissant' anymore.. I said I did not understand, they said I looked like a flower before...

Greetings and love!