Subic Bay~ Last town in the tour! NOOOOoooo….

So, finally, the review of the last town in the trip: Subic Bay.
As expected, this town was amazing! I mean, every city is unique, but with tropical beaches and a jungle in one, this place is simply great xD
I even got wild monkeys in the backyard one day! =D

Anyways, with this being the last week, you would think that everyone would be in this down-kind-of-mood. However, this didn’t seem to be the case, and everything looked like this whole experience would go on forever! (And although it felt like the time was coming, I would have loved for it to go on a little longer)

This week, again, I was roomed with my brother and friend Ouray from the Native American Navaho tribe! You remember him from my blogpost about Cheyenne, Wyoming, right? (If not, go read it now!) Well, we were roomed together again. Our host dad this week was Josh, also originally from Wyoming! It’s a damn small world!
He is a teacher that, like, travels around and teaches at schools all over the world. Every year (or two, three, whatever years), he moves to a new place. He lived in this house, and all his neighbors are also teachers at the same school! (Hey, place to stay was included in the job) And even better, two houses next-door was another teacher dude “sam”, who also hosted some Uppies (Dave, Anika and Marion). So, we had some half-sisters and a half-brother too!

CI this week was spent on just one site for me: Preda. This is a place where a priest (Fr. Shay Cullen) build a foundation to create a better life for children. In the Preda-house live girls that from young age have been forced to work in the prostitution, and young boys that were put in jail for no good reason. Fr. Cullen helps these kids by giving them a new life.
So, I got to spend some time in the boys-section of the house. The girls of UWP got to work in the girl-side. The first day we got to see an introduction-video about Preda and Fr Cullen. We also got a “tour” through the complex, and we discovered that they even have their own “Fairtrade”-shop. It’s really cool! You should take a look at the link I will put up under the post.
What the girls did this week was mainly painting a few walls, but with a cool design! I got to take a look at the finished work, and it looked amazing! But apart from lunch, we didn’t really see the girls.
The guys were working on a different location, uphill. So, we got to climb this steep stairway, up a hill! Wow, heavy! In the blazing sun! Aaargh!
So, once uphill we got to meet the guys. From the way they looked and acted… one would NEVER guess that these boys were put in jail! I highly doubt most of them even ever thought about stealing or whatever… Most of them were high-spirited guys that were just awesome to work and play with.
So, on the first day, we played some games and got to know them. Good kids =)
Second day that we were supposed to be in Preda was the only day during the tour that I was sick! Aaargh! Let’s skip this.
Third day. Totally cool! We offered the people from Preda to do some labor-work. So, we got to “even the ground”, since the place had a lot of hills. We did this, so the boys could start their own vegetable-kind-of-garden! You know, teaching and all!
But man, in the sun, this was some hard labor! Not normal for someone with my temperature-range… Anyway, we got to even a big part of the area, and the boys wanted to help all the time. The second you took a rest to wipe of the sweat, they would reach for the shovel and take over.
The people of Preda were amazed. Never before had volunteers worked “this hard” for them. Most of them just “walk around” for a day and leave again. For us, this was the right thing to do. It’s good to leave an impression.
The boys learned me how to crack nuts with stones, and which ones are edible. Good! Knowledge +1

The last day with the guys just was the best, best CI day we had on this entire tour! First, we got in this little bus/jeep thingie. All of us, singing songs and all!
Anyways, we were going to this neat little place in the jungle. This is the place the boys go every week to do their laundry. You expect a river, you get a waterfall!
We had such an amazing time, swimming, jumping, diving! Jumping of a waterfall from a height of a 3 story building. Oh My God! Soooo scary, but way too addicting! The waves you create when doing a “bomb” from that high are just too big! And when you hit the bottom of the lake because you went down way deeper than everyone expected, and feel the fish crawl around you, it’s such a good feeling!
It broke my heart to say goodbye.
On a side note: To get to the place, we had to take a few jeepneys and more public transport.


This week was unique in some ways. We got this “gallery” kind of activity. It was a “tour” with all important aspects of our trip in a gallery. Pictures everywhere, big posters, guidelines, everything. During this gallery, people could give “presents” to other people. But, you had to give the present to someone else. There was a requirement on each package to whom you may give it to.
I got: “This person challenged me” from Scarlet and “This person knows the true me” from Jordan. That was the time people told everyone you could only receive 1 present, so I was feeling guilty for not knowing. Anyway, I got both of them, and gave the next one “A person you shared a special moment with in Mexico” to Anthony AG, because he was the first one I got a good talk with for hours in Mexico. The other one was done (so I was the end of the line) and I got to keep the present. It was a little box with 2 chocolates in there. I gave one of them to Jordan (it was her present) and we decided to put the box in the “Time Capsule” (more info later).
Anyway, then Zach came up to me, asking if I got a present yet… I had to say “yes”, so, yeah… end of the line!
This was a good day. We got a lot of dances that day. You had to find partners in advance for song #1, #2 etc. etc. but you had no idea what song it would be. Loads of fun. I got this “sexy” dance with Vitor. Imagine that ;)

Well… almost done, I guess…
Leaves us only the final banquette.
On the last day of the tour, we got this almost-gala-like meeting, with loads of food, awards for people, etc. etc. It was a good but sad day. I was crying almost the entire time, and you know.

I have never had so many girls crying on my shoulders in one night, saying things like “You have no idea how wonderfull you are” and “You are such an amazing person”. Good for the ego, but that didn’t matter… The only thing that we all could do was cry, hope…

I have no way to describe the feeling of this moment… when you are sitting in the bus, and half of the people staying (taking another flight), running after the bus… Tears in everyone’s eyes…

Well, sad ending…

I will update this blog in the future!
Not feeling well right now… it’s still too deep…

See you later,
Thank you for following the blog.

Love,
Freddy


Promised links:
Preda Fair Trade: http://www.preda.net/
Preda Foundation: http://www.preda.org/index.htm

Double blog III: Last US city “North Platte” and the last of Manilla!

What did you say? You haven’t heard from me in a while? Well, that’s because I got home, and some events happened to happen… So, now that things look like they’ve calmed down, I will inform you once more about all that has happened! I might be a bit off-balance, but please forgive me =D I’m just a humble servant of your time.

Let’s start off with the last city in the United States: North Platte, Nebraska! Loads of things happened! This would be the last city where we would be in the US, and of course, that all struck us like lightning! We would not be back in the US as “this group” ever again in our life… Even more bold, “this group” would never be the same again, since we had to say goodbye to some of our friends we’ve been traveling with since the beginning: Kirk (US), Catherine (Denmark) and Gwen (Switzerland) all decided to go home, instead of going to the Philippines with us. This was a hard decision for them, but it was a health-matter…
You bet, this was an emotional departure for all of us…

But, hey, that’s the end of the week, let’s start at the beginning again!

My host family this week was actually just one guy: “Chuck” (not Norris). He was an elderly guy, but with a good, strong heart. He does his own kind of volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity. He’s decided to host two people in his house for the benefit of his town. Also, he remembered UWP from when he was young. Really cool no?
I was roomed with redhead James “Opie” Pennington, and we got a good time with Chuck. We also met Chucks family (read: Daughter and grandchildren) and we went to this cool restaurant with them (Fort Cody, which had Dutch flags on top of it!) where you could throw the peanut-shells on the ground! Wow, I’ve never seen that in a restaurant before! Weird but cool xD

So, guess what NP is famous for? You betcha! Their railroads!
So, for “regional learning” we didn’t really go out… instead, we watched a 2 hour documentary about the “North Platte Canteen”. This canteen made NP famous, back in the days, since soldiers that would be on trains and stop here, would be welcomed, no matter what or who, with a lot of volunteer-prepared food and meals. Apparently, the soldiers would remember this canteen until their last breath, just for the hospitality that they received.
Also, for the “exploration crew” that I was selected for on the last show day went to went to the current North Platte railroad-center, thingie. Really cool, railroads as far as the eye can see! I even saw kids there I met earlier that week in their classrooms. That brings me to my next part.

This entire week, I feel like I’ve been doing Stand for Peace and “Country Introductions”. I think I’ve been in 20 schools this week (or at least 20 classes), and all of them were totally awesome. Well, that was also pretty much all the CI I did this city. So, not much to tell, although I made some cool pictures…

About pictures, I plan on making a special post full with pictures as soon as I’m done with telling everything I want to tell =)

So, this week went by in a rush. I drank the last Mountain Dew in my life (that’s what I thought at the moment), said goodbye to friends for life, and send a big box home again. (I just wonder how it’s possible that a suitcase can gain 20 pounds in 2 weeks :S And then…
The Philippines!


So, let me do the last part of Manilla!
Actually, there’s not so much to tell… I told a lot already, at least the most impressive things…
But, there’s always more. Let me see how far I can get.

So, for the last few days, someone else got roomed with me. Guess who? Colin, right! The guy I was roomed with in Culiacan! Hehe, loads of fun!
Well, guess what, our family (now it’s “our” instead of “my”) took us to a hair-barber- thingie, where the hairdudes oiled our hair. For more glow and stuff xD Yeah, we looked like damn princes! (the prince of retardia)

Ooh, the shows here involved a new song! “Tuwing Umuulan at Kapiling ka”. Or “I love you every rainy season”. Let me see… I can’t find the original song we practiced on, but I think I found a decent replacement. (Don’t watch the movie, it’s the song that’s good.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqyR8QTA62w&feature=related

Yeah, we performed twice in Manilla. Big shows, yeah. Very emotional too, having all the people you worked with in the slums, sitting in the room, watching probably the first show in their life… Man, emotional… no words…

And that might very well be the end of these cities.

So, the only city left is Subic Bay. Again, another interesting city with loads of tears.
But that’s a bedtime story for another time!

Love,
Bubbayz!