Welcome to Hagonoy!

I’ve just had my first taste of place that I’ll be spending the next three months in: Hagonoy. Hagonoy is about an hour and a half away from Manila – far enough to escape the busy traffic, but not too far as to be disconnected (many people commute from Hagonoy to Manila). It seems like a nice town, full of friendly faces. There are approximately 130,000 inhabitants, with about 42% who live below the official poverty line. Houses are crowded next to each other, forming the various “barangays” (sub districts) that the town is made up of. All of the barangays are named after the saints, so one can live in Santa Monica, San Augustine, etc. 

Travelling around the town through the different barangays is easy, as there are plenty of tricycles (motorbikes with large sidecars attached) around. Indeed, it is very rare to see a private car around – the vast majority of people just rely on the tricycles to get from A to B. Most tricycle drivers seem lovely, and if their English is reasonable they feel confident enough to start up the usual conversation of “where are you from?” and “what are you doing here?”. I use the tricycle every day, and have already got used to the daily squidge of having to cram myself into the small sidecar with another Filipino. 

There are many unemployed people here, so there always seem to be people just milling around, taking in the air (which incidentally, is so much cleaner than Manila!). We also got the ubiquitous fast food restaurants that Filipinos seem to love, so “Jollibee” often makes an appearance to kids. Another noticeable thing about Hagonoy is that it is very prone to flooding. Being close to the sea, one has to carry a tidal calendar around at all times, so as to be able to judge when certain areas will be easily accessible. I’ll write more on that subject in a future blog post...

My host family – Throughout my stay in Hagonoy I’ll be staying with the lovely Villaflor family. Mama Angel is my Filipina mother, who will have to put up with me over the coming weeks! I’ll also be living with her son Jess, her daughter in law Jen, and their three children (who are all adorable). They have all been very welcoming to me so far. I’ve been introduced to most of the extended family, and we all had a welcome party last Sunday by a public swimming pool. It was great to meet so many kind people, and the combination of food, brandy (one of the main local spirits), karaoke and swimming was a lot of fun!

The volunteers have arrived – The British volunteers have arrived, so now all are present and are undertaking their in country training. The volunteers will be looking at a variety of topics, including cross-cultural working. Sensitivity to other cultures will be key for the volunteers, as they’ll be working in counterpart pairs (young Filipinos will work directly with young British people). We stay together in Manila for a few days, and then begins the great adventure...

That’s it for this entry. I hope all is well with you, love and many best wishes,

Robert