Hitting the ground running...

Work has now started properly, as my Filipina counterpart Maris and I have transported all the volunteers to Hagonoy. We’ve left the rest of the VSO staff behind in Manila, and are now in the town that we’ll be spending the next 11 weeks in together. The volunteers have now just spent their first few days in their own host homes, and have been getting to know the local area. We’ll be having a few days of in-community orientation, and then they’ll all be starting in their work placements. Hopefully they’ll all have a great time in the weeks ahead…

Street parties and street collections – our introduction to Hagonoy has been great so far. I experienced my first street fiesta, and was quickly dragged into a dance with a group of elderly dancing ladies. My dancing skills were so good/bad [delete as appropriate] that now many people stop me in the street saying “ah yes, you’re the British guy who was at the fiesta”! The streets were awash with colours, and the usual big floats with various saints stood proudly on them. I guess these street fiestas are part of the legacy of the Spanish colonial rule, but everyone seems to enjoy them.

Having had a good rest, I went the next day with the volunteers to an early morning street clean-up. The local head of government, Major Angel “Boy” Cruz, invited us all to join in the group of local people who go regularly to clean up neighbourhoods of the town. Armed with brushes, dustpans and rice sacks we headed off to the streets to clean, clean, clean! It was a hot day (it always seems to be a hot day at the moment, temperatures are usually around the 38C mark), but this didn’t stop us having a good time. We all felt satisfied afterwards, as we could really see the difference we had made to the neighbourhood.

But why are such street clean-ups needed? Well, unfortunately it’s quite common to see Filipinos dumping their rubbish in the streets or on the area near their house. I guess this is probably due to a mixture of cultural and practical reasons. The result: lots of rubbish lining the streets, and an unhealthy and unsightly environment to live in. The local mayor has made “solid waste management” a big focus of his term in power, and so has initiated a number of street clean-ups and recycling drives. Three of our volunteers will be assisting the local people in their solid waste management drives. Fingers crossed they’ll be able to encourage more people to deal with their waste responsibly.

I’ll write again soon. For now, love from the hot and sticky Hagonoy,

Robert