Hyenas

I went for a MRF gathering on Saturday, which is held at Marina South. The purpose of the gathering is supposedly to celebrate Keng Soon's birthday but at the end of the celebrations, I am not sure whether we are celebrating Keng Soon's , Guo Bin's or whoever's birthday. Anyway, the main aim of the gathering is just to catch up with each other so I don't think it really matters whose birthday it is. I do not know why I ended up talking about hyenas during the gathering. Maybe it is because I had watched an episode of 'Wild Sex' in the afternoon where they talked about sexual behaviour in animals. The hyena was featured in the episode I watched and I find them really amazing. The female hyenas have higher levels of male hormones than the male hyenas. As a result of this masculinization, females are a third larger than the males, have more muscle mass, are more aggressive, and have masculinized genitalia. Their vulva is fused to look like a scrotum and testes, and their clitoris is large and looks like a phallus, and can be erected just like a penis. The vagina runs through the pseudo penis. This makes it hard for them to mate and give birth, since they do so through this pseudo penis. It is really up to the imagination how they mate and give birth through the pseudo penis and about 20% of female hyenas die while giving birth to their first children. Below is a graphical representation.

I am constantly exposed to oldies as my parents keep listening to them. At the expense of being accused of being old, I shall introduce one of my favourites from Teresa Teng. The lyrics in this song is seriously powerful and I don't think any modern song comes close to it. I don't quite understand the lyrics as well but I still like it.

Philippines Photos

My TRY camp group



Bago City market
Some impoverished village

Painting the day care centre

Going to Kipot Twin Falls
The view from a tricycle
The dangerous walk

Black sand beach

My host, Jaypee, singing
Market day

Helping out with cooking

By the river
The chickens in my host's backyard
The gigantic pizza

Pictures from education camps
Juggling a capteh made from leaves

BHBH3 Buddhist Society
Baccolod Chicken Gang

Eating cheesecake in Manila
Jeepney

Cecilia can't wait to get married

View of Manila river

Shameful

I am too lazy to post the Philippines photos now but I will try to do it soon. Anyway, I read in the papers today that there is going to be a public campaign soon to educate people not to assault our bus drivers. I think it's quite absurd to have such a campaign and reflects really badly on us as a nation. We pride ourselves in being a first world country yet our bus drivers cannot work in a safe environment and live in fear of being assaulted. I feel sorry for the bus drivers who work irregular hours to make sure all of us get to our destinations. I have an uncle who works as a bus driver and I know their hours are really hard. They have to get up very early in the morning if they are working in the morning shift and get home very late at night if they are working the night shift. It is not an easy job, given that they have to keep their concentration at all times and deal with traffic jams, rude commuters and having no toilet breaks in the bus. We should respect their profession and cooperate with them. Assaulting them is really a barbaric act and it saddens me to see some highly educated people doing it. They should be punished severely as a warning to the rest. Hopefully, in that way, we will not have to see posters being put up telling us not to beat up our bus drivers. It's a big disgrace.

Updates

I haven't been doing anything productive these days. I am still waiting for the job agency to call me. Meanwhile, these are the things that I have been doing to pass the time.

Doing self-reflection (especially on how to be more friendly)

Some housework and keeping my room tidy

Reading (mostly Time magazines)

Training my pull-ups since IPPT is coming and I want at leasr 200 dollars.

Playing winning eleven with my cousins and it is a big thing because pride is at stake.

Watching all the VCDs I bought in Philippines (Zathura, Fun with Dick and Jane, Letters from Iwo Jima)

Watching cable TV (realised that they actually broadcast carrom matches on Starsports)

The filipino children performed this song once and I thought it was very meaningful.

The True You

You want your girlfriend or boyfriend to be more open with you. With respect to money, you save for a rainy day. You think good luck might come your way, but if it does you'll be so surprised you'll burst out laughing. The hidden side of your personality tends to be a little selfish. You only do what interests you. You are tend to think about others' feelings a lot, perhaps because you are so eager to be liked. When it comes to finding a romantic partner, you will search and search until you find your perfect match.

Who's The True You?

You Are 30% Normal

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all You think on a totally different wavelength And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

How Normal Are You?

Last few days

This should conclude my posts on Philippines. After our G.E camps, we had a visit to the geothermal plant in Northern Negros. It's something that Singapore will never have but the visit there wasn't noteworthy because we were not allowed inside the plant. The only thing that struck me was that they had the money to build such a plant but do not have the means to provide basic education for all the children. The main problem with the Philippines is not a lack of talent or resources. It's poor governance that is to blame for their plight. My host family kept telling me that during my homestay. The highest paid employees of the state are the soldiers because they are afraid the soldiers will revolt. There is a popular joke in the Philippines that goes like this: In other countries, they use crocodiles to make wallets, belts etc but in the Philippines, they use them to make politicians. The Filipinos are actually very educated people and some of their English is better than ours. It's a shame that, with such high levels of education, they are still one of the poorest countries in Asia.

We did some more shopping at Baccolod before heading to Manila. It was boring so I shall not say anything except for the fact that their snacks are good e.g the New York fries.

Over in Manila, it was pretty chaotic. I was assigned as the taxi i/c by virtue of my gender and was stuck with 3 other girls. Taking a taxi in Manila is very stressful as you need to bargain for the fare and endure through a series of near-accidents to get to your destination. The Filipinos' driving is exciting, to put it in a nice way. Their style of driving is offensive and they rely on their horns to do the talking. They are very skilful drivers and it's amazing that in such chaotic road conditions, they still manages one of the lowest accident rates in Asia. We did shopping on the first day but the mega mall was packed as it was a Sunday. It was not enjoyable at all. The next day, we had a guided tour. It was very expensive and totally not worth it. We had a visit to a volcano but it was actually just viewing from a restaurant. Then we had visits to a church and the old city. The church was grand, which reflects their religiousness as a Catholic country. The old city was so-so only, the only interesting thing is that there is a golf course just outside the walls of the city. The day was quite disappointing and only the tour guide was good. For the last night before we depart for Singapore, we went to explore the nightlife of Manila. Our hotel was situated in a red light district but I didn't see many prostitutes around. There were only a few and they all look ugly. We headed to Manila Bay in search of some alcohol and live band. However, the stretch of pubs was quite quiet because it was a Monday. We settled down in the pub with the best band and had some drinks. The alcohol in Philippines is cheaper than water and we had our money's worth of drinks. However, we went back to the hotel quite early because the live band was over. I didn't really get to see the real Manila nightlife. We went back to Singapore the next day and although there were a few hiccups along the way, we still got back home safely. Manila wasn't the nicest place to be in because the people there are not exactly friendly. I think urbanisation makes people cold. Also, it is not a safe place to be in. The cabbies are not honest and the streets are full of homeless people. There are also security checks everywhere we went which got a little irritating. We have to go through bodysearches even when we go into shopping malls. It's still good to be back home.

Some things I will miss:

Talking with friends on everything until the wee hours of the night

Cecilia going on and on about everything in her life

Ruth waking us up every morning with her cutesy voice and of course, disturbing her big face

Krystle's laugh out loud

My homestay host

The stupid Chi Chong cheer

Our driver and fly catching master Jun

The endless sugar fields and the magnificient views

Yung Chuan's shaking

The banana game

The friendly people of Bago City

Create your own Friend Test here

Pinoy ako Pinoy

I shall continue where I left off. After the homestay, we had dinner at a pizza restaurant. The specialty of the restaurant is ultra-big pizzas. The pizzas are really from another planet. They measure about 32 inches across. I think only pictures can convince you that there really are such big pizzas. I will post them later on.

After our homestay, we had our general education camps for 4 days. It's a 2 days programme and we conducted it in 2 primary schools. We played games with the kids and had some lessons incorporated as well. Because of the language barrier, the lessons conducted did not really had its desired effect. For me personally, I didn't think that these camps were helpful to the community because it is only 2 days long and it's mainly play as well. Throughout the camps, as well as the whole trip, I've been asking myself whether what I'm doing is beneficial. And I conclude that I gained a lot more than what I'm giving. The most beneficial part of the camps is the feeding programme and it's also the part which makes me feel the saddest throughout the whole trip. The programme is designed to feed the schoolchildren lunch. They are as old as some of my cousins but they are all very small-sized. They look malnourished and their BMI chart shows that a lot of them are below normal. When I saw them wolfing down their lunch and asking for second helpings, I can't help but feel sad that these children have to go through such a life. Our funds will help them sustain the programme for a year and I think that's the most practical part of our project. I don't know how effective the programme will be one year from now as I do not intend to take part in BHBH4 but Glynsen, our group leader, said that he saw the same girl shrink from one year before. I really hope our programme will be able to make a difference and they will lead healthier lives. The schoolchildren are really energetic and they just kept on running and dancing. I gave up trying to keep up with them after lunch. Their dancing is really good and even at such young ages, they can dance better than most of us. And the funny thing is that their school cds are all disco cds and they were all dancing to clubbing tunes. They were also very enthusiastic about taking photos. I think part of the reason is because they had never seen digital cameras before. I don't know whether it's a good thing that we are exposing them to such technology. I left feeling just a little sad because I did not allow myself to get too attached to them. However, these children left the greatest impression on me this whole trip.

I think I will end here and leave the next few days to the next post.

Philippines trip

I ended my 3 weeks stay in the Philippines on Tuesday. It's been a great adventure and a one in a lifetime experience but at the end of the day, I'm still glad to be back in Singapore. We went over to Bago City to do our community project. It's a small town located in Negros Occidental, an island an hour away from Manila. For the first 4 days of the trip, we took part in the TRY summer youth camp. It was totally unexpected for me to take part in the camp as a member and it was kind of like an orientation camp. We were divided into separate groups and mixed together with the Filipinos. It was weird in the beginning as they are not comfortable conversing in English and they were all 16 or 17 year olds. However, they were all really friendly and we all ended up being friends. I was very impressed with their creativity as they made use of a lot of things found in nature to create beautiful things. I can never imagine having a candlelight stand made up of leaves and twigs. There was also a cooking segment which put all of us Singaporeans to shame. The Filipinos were really great at cooking, starting a fire from firewood and expertly preparing all the ingredients to create a few delicious dishes. We were more of a hindrance than a help to them. They also had a beauty pageant which left a big impression on me. They were all very daring and open about the pageant. It's part of their culture to have a lot of fiestas and pageants. They were all very comfortable with wearing little clothing and they were not shy at all. It's really a big culture shock. We continued to be in contact with our Filipino friends throughout our stay in Bago City.

After TRY camp, we had a few days of visits to various high schools as well as government offices. There was also some time allocated for shopping. The high school visits were pretty boring though it was an eye-opener. They certainly did not have the kind of facilities that we enjoy and they did subjects that we do not have e.g. agriculture. It was quite sad to see their libraries stocked up with the books that were donated from Singapore. The books they study depends on what kind of books we donate. The shopping wasn't really good for me. Maybe it's because I'm not an avid shopper but I can't find much things to buy. I bought mostly food stuff over there. Our favourite food there is the Baccolod Chicken which is chicken leg or wing skewered and barbecued. It costs roughly about 1 sing dollar which is really cheap. We bought it whenever there's an opportunity. A group of good friends were also made through those chickens.

After about a week in Bago City, we had our homestay. I was allocated to quite a rural place which was the farthest away from the rest. It was my best experience throughout the whole trip and I still recall it with fond memories. My whole theme for the homestay was adventure and me, together with my homestay buddy, Karin, were brought to the outdoors everyday. My house was located in Ma-ao and it was a very different experience from my life in Singapore. My host family had a really sad story to tell. My host family consisted mainly of my host, Jaypee and his mother. Actually, his 'mother' was his aunt because his mom passed away because of cancer when he was young. His aunt had 2 daughters but they died during a flood in 1991. We visited the cemetery in the first night and it was really sad. When we got back to the house, there was a blackout, and we ended up having dinner by candlelight. My host family reared chickens in the backyard and they were really noisy throughout the night. The next morning, we went to the waterfalls. It was really fun as we negotiated the rocks and dipped in the water. We went over to Jaypee's friend's house for lunch and there was this really scary disused waterway. The covers were absent and the waterway was elevated so we had to walk on the edges of the openings and if we miss our footing, we will fall from quite a height. It was a real test of nerves. We headed to the "Black Sand Beach" after lunch. The sand was black in colour which is really unique. The view was also very good as we can see the whole horizon. The next day, we headed to the river and did nothing much by the river. It still felt great just relaxing by the river. When the time came for us to leave, I felt really sad. Our host's mum was really nice to us and her cooking was superb. We did contribute a little to the cooking, barbecueing fish and wrapping popiahs. She made some sauce for us and it goes really well with the fried brinjal that she made. I'm not a fan of brinjal but I ate almost one whole plate of it. Their whole family went to send us off and their hospitality was touching.

I shall continue on the next post because 3 weeks is too long to be condensed in a single post.