Year in Photos

"Security Wall" around Bethlehem

 As we get older we all seem to comment how the time flies and how the year passes so much faster than it did when we were younger. This year has reminded me how big changes do have the tendency to make the time feel like it moves more slowly as now looks rather different than 12 months ago. Saying that I did get back to the UK for Christmas thinking what a long year it had been only to be shocked that a whole year had passed since a neighbour of theirs had died since that only seemed like a couple of months ago to me. Our brains do funny things with time.

And so for a quick overview of the more unusual bits of my year in photos, since photos seem to be largely more popular than text and anyway if you want more text I have a whole 6 months of blog posts to follow!

March and April (Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica)

• A week of training on industrial automation for work in Costa Rica, still delighted I could learn something new and in my second language. 
• A whistle stop 24 hour trip to Panama for work, a new passport stamp and a stop by the famous Panama Canal on the way back from site. (Would have been better without having the sun in my eyes for the photo)
• One and a half day women's retreat immediately after arriving back from Panama, beautiful location on the Nicaraguan Pacific coast and an opportunity to make an unexpected new friend - Dawn.
• One of many tasty cook-ups of foreign food with my friend Lisa, her family and anyone else we could rope into eating adventurously! 

May and June (Nicaragua, UK, Israel and Palestine)

• More food from other foreign places with Lisa and co!

• First visit home to the UK for the year. Two days sightseeing in London with mum as a belated birthday present for her.

• As always lots of fun with niece and nephew.
• Another new passport stamp as I joined a group tour for the first time in years and made my first visit to the Holy Land with lots of opportunity to learn about current events as well as seeing historical religious sites.



At Temple Mount, Jerusalem

• Also managed to catch up with Jenny, a school friend I haven't seen for almost 20 years and meet her husband and baby daughter as well as meeting up on the same day with some university friends Krish and Miriam and their growing family who I hadn't seen for about 10 years.

Bethlehem

Dominus Flevit, Jerusalem

July to September (Nicaragua, UK, Malaysia)

Leaving dinner with friends in Managua

• Made it back to the UK twice, once for my niece's 2nd birthday and the second time for my nephew to start school - this time I was in transition to Asia.
• Sadness at leaving Nicaragua but lots of great goodbyes and I was finally worn down into joining Facebook which has turned out to be a good way of keeping in touch over long distances with friends in different countries.
• Moved to Malaysia but within two weeks had agreed to move another three and a half hours flying time more eastwards to the Philippines, but managed to see the Petronas Towers and the Indian night market in KL before I left as well as finding a church I would have liked to be part of.

Colleagues from Nicaragua

Birthday celebration with friends from work, Managua

Petronas Towers, KL

Photos from market, Little India

Masjid Jamek, KL

October to December (Philippines, Hong Kong)

• Moved to Manila, Philippines for about 6 months to finish a new water treatment plant. Moved from a hurricane and earthquake zone to a typhoon and earthquake zone, but nice to be able to manage in English as the working language in almost every encounter.
• Weekend trip to Hong Kong for visa renewal purposes. Found flying over the South China Sea seems to involve more turbulence than I would like.
• Made it home on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with the family.

Trying to partake in one of Filipinos favourite pastimes - karaoke

Taal volcano

Tagaytay boat trip, Philippines

 

Cable car in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Faith

Looking through this years photos today trying to pull some together for an end of year summary my eye was caught by the following that I took on the shores of the Sea of Galilee earlier this year.

Migration Economics Filipino Style

Yesterday's newspaper heralded that in October the Philippines received a record high in terms of remittances sent back to the country by Overseas Filipino Workers. In one month is was US$1.78 billion so about US$20 for each man, woman and child in the Philippines. The destinations for the more than half a million Filipinos who have decided to try their luck overseas responding to formal jobs are mainly the Middle East, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

However the scale of how the Philippines is impacted by this exodus of its people (9 million work overseas as OFW) isn't really so remarkable in the headlines in the Business section of the newspaper but more by the everyday conversations that you have. Every family seems to have a relative that works overseas that it is almost unremarkable. Driving with 3 Filipinos that I work with the other day. The first spent 25 years working in Saudi Arabia as an engineer and manager, only returning to visit his family once a year, now his daughter in turn is in the USA and they have been unable to see her for the last five years. The second is a 28 year old electrical engineer who is planning to work "over" (local terms for overseas) sometime soon before he marries. Two of his sisters graduated in Business Administration but then discovered it was hard to earn enough money in the Philippines so they work on the production line in a car parts factory in Korea. The third who is also an electrical engineer but a bit older has just returned with his family to the Philippines after a few years working in Brunei, we spoke of his sister coming in the country for Christmas from her job in Singapore. I doubt anyone I work with here has all of their family based in the Philippines.

In the UK it saddens me that we have a tendency to vilify immigrants but for most it is simply a chance to work hard for more reasonable money so that they can support their family back home despite the hardships of separation.

Christmas Carols: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Every shopping experience in Manila since mid-November has involved Christmas carols and to my surprise most of them have been carols as opposed to Christmas songs like Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman. Joy to the World and Hark the Herald Angels seem to head the charts.

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

I had the privilege to visit Bethlehem earlier this year to see the town where Christ was born, but to do that I had to pass through military checkpoints since the Israeli's through fear have encircled the town with a 30 foot high wall.

For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth

Needless to say the experience for tourists is surprising but fairly straightforward, however for the few Palestinians who have a permit to leave Bethlehem the experience is far different, like entering and leaving the "open-air" prison that they are subject to. The young Israeli soldiers who man the checkpoints and towers on the wall do not "watch with wondering love" the people of Christ's birth community.

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

Palestinian Christians point out that if Jesus were born now the military restrictions would mean that Mary and Joseph could not make the journey from Nazareth (in Israel) to Bethlehem (in the West Bank). Fear is real and injustices many in the Holy Land and yet God is not disconnected from this pain, grief and anger. Jesus entered a world of sin, along with occupation and injustice. He did not enter because he had to, he entered because his love gave him no alternative. He was born in Bethlehem due to the occupying powers decree for a census for taxation. 

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel  

Pinoy: Happiest People on Earth

In the same way that the term "pinolero" is used in colloquial Nicaraguan Spanish to mean a Nicaraguan, the word "pinoy" is used in day to day Tagalog/Pilipino to describe a Filipino. Both are terms of pride and not derision.

Christmas shopping this afternoon in the huge department store in the local mall and trying to get inspired on only one of the immense five floors for appropriate gifts for my local colleagues I came across the Filipino made section. Among the various mugs, bags, hats and clothes that were emblazoned with "I LOVE MANILA" and the like was a T-shirt that read "PINOY: HAPPIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH."

Although I've only been here a little over two months I suspect this may in fact be true and if it isn't Pinoys must be close to the top of the league and probably sincerely believe they are the happiest. Only yesterday a British friend/colleague and I were sat outside our site office at work feeling fairly fed up by recent work related events and moaning amongst our sarcasm as the British tend to do, when my colleague saw some of the Filipinos laughing and joking together and commented how he wished we were more like them - able to be always cheerful regardless of the circumstances.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post Filipinos know how to be sociable, spending time with other people, sharing food seem to be at the heart of their culture. To a Filipino the idea that I and my other British colleagues actually relish the rest and relaxation that comes with spending some time on our own (individually not as a group) I suspect would seem totally alien, rest and relaxation to a Filipino comes from spending time with others.

It reminded me of a conversation with Mel, the local Project Manager from our construction partner here in Manila about a month ago when he was explaining to us how All Souls and All Saints Day's were spent. Having lived in Central America and acquainted with "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) I was not surprised, as I would otherwise have been, that the day involved going to the cemetery and having a picnic under temporary awnings set up at the graveside of loved ones. It is two days of family gatherings and celebrations in cemeteries.

To a British person this is strange to macabre, since death is not something that we really discuss despite the fact that of course it is inevitable. The ease with which death and mourning can be discussed and accepted in some other places that I have lived has really impressed me. It is one of the things that I think other cultures I have been exposed to handle better, although it is worth remembering that the belief in God is still more widespread and talked about too in those places.

However Mel rightly pointed out with pride that Filipinos know how to take something sad and make a celebration out of it, adding that the Philippines has the lowest suicide rate in the world. Whether or not statistically it is actually correct that the Philippines has the lowest suicide rate, it is undoubtedly low and what struck me was the fact whilst there are so many indices that make the Philippines look far less desirable, yet with the sense of optimism and fun that Filipinos have the statistic quoted to us was the one showing their resilience and happiness.

Sanitised Sacrifice

Have been mulling over this blog post for a few weeks now and finally decided to put fingers to the keyboard! As I mentioned in a previous blog last month was the Muslim festival of Eid ul-Fitr and whilst the Philippines is a rare, majority Christian country in Asia in respect to the minority Muslim population Eid ul-Fitr was declared a national holiday. Needless to say none of the non-Muslims were unhappy about getting an extra day off work, myself included!

Whilst I learnt the basics about the "Five Pillars of Islam" in religious education classes in secondary school I had heard nothing about Eid until I lived in Guyana, where due to the diversity of the population Hindu, Christian and Muslim festivals were celebrated as national holidays.I have learnt there are two Eids - Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha and was interested to hear a conversation between my Muslim boss and a colleague who has spent a lot of years living in the Middle East about how different countries view one or the other as the Great Eid as opposed to Little Eid.

Eid ul-Fitr is the celebration of the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting and it seems only appropriate to me that that would be celebrated with a great feast and as I watched the regional news from Hong Kong the coverage was about the trade at livestock markets in the days running up to Eid. It is also the start of the Haaj, the pilgrimage to Mecca (Ramadan and the Haaj being two of the five pillars of Islam if my memory from all those years ago still serves me well enough).

In Guyana I was surprised to discover the basis of Eid al-Adha, which is the celebration of Abraham being willing to take his son Ishmael up the mountain to sacrifice him in obedience to Allah. At the last moment Allah instructs him not to sacrifice Ishmael and instead provides a goat. I remember being stunned how closely this matches the Biblical story, only that as Christians we believe that it was Isaac the second son of Abraham but the son of the promise of God who was taken to be sacrificed. Until then I had viewed Islam as an alien faith so dissimilar to Christianity. After that I found I could feel much more comfortable in Muslim celebrations, unlike the Hindu ones. Allah is simply the Arabic word for God, used even before the birth of Mohammed.

At Eid al-Adha a Muslim family buys a cow, sheep or goat according to their means. It is then slaughtered remembering the sacrificial goat that God provided to Abraham, the meat is then divided into thirds - a third for family, a third for friends and a third for the poor (giving to the poor being the third of the five pillars).

Having just finished reading of all the sacrifices required of the Israelites in Leviticus and Numbers in the Bible and how important the blood was I am struck by how as Christians we have forgotten what a bloody system of sacrifice we have been saved from. The week before Eid and the TV coverage of livestock markets I had almost seen a sacrifice at a work site not far from where I work in Manila. It was strange to see a tied up goat being dragged out onto the construction, I even glimpsed the knife in the hand of one of the workers, but it wasn't until an Asian colleague explained to me the goat was to be slaughtered for good luck in the work that it really dawned on me. I'm pleased to say the process was delayed once the guys caught sight of me, deciding for whatever reason that it would be better not to have an outsider for a spectator.

When as Christians we talk of Christ coming as a baby at Christmas and the purpose of his life being to be sacrificed as an offering to pay the price of justice for our wrong doing, it seems just like words, it seems sanitised not the bloody mess that it really was. Both those of faith and those of no-faith have a tendency to talk of sacrifice in a very understated way, instead of a "small inconvenience" it is a "sacrifice" that we are making - very rarely are our sacrifices, even our living sacrifices much of a sacrifice at all.

Christmas Lights

Many of us who live outside our "home" countries comment that it's hard to feel like Christmas is coming in our new country since all the things we associate with the build up to the Christmas festivities are different. The temperature is one of the biggest obstacles to those of us from the cold northern climes. I remember how strange it felt the first Christmas away from the UK in Guyana eating ice cream in Demico's with the air conditioning turned on full as a contrast to the the heat and very out of place snowmen stuck on the windows.

Christmas is a big deal in the Philippines and I have already had Christmas carols blaring out of shops and public areas for more than a month. I've only been here 2 months but even as a newbie I know Christmas is a BIG DEAL. Traffic is always bad in Manila but now it is worse than ever, today I spent over three and a half hours in the car going to 15km each way to work and back so we never went above 10km/h average! In some sections there is no doubt it would have been much faster to walk. If I ask why the traffic is SO bad I get told that now it's December it will be even worse than normal.

However what has really impressed me in a positive way are the beautiful Christmas lights that go up, in people's homes, shopping malls, residential areas and most impressive of all is the free public entry light display at the electricity company's, Meralco, premises about 15 minutes walk from my hotel. Manila may have only been ranked 128 out of a survey of around 200 cities on which were the best to live in, but it has managed to do something no other place I have lived in out of the UK has achieved, it has given me an excited anticipation for Christmas - and not simply to reduce the amount of traffic! On Wednesday night I walked through the Meralco display with a colleague commenting how much my dad and niece and nephew would enjoy it. My photos don't really do it justice but they are the best I can manage.

Converted to Blue

One of the things that Westerners living in or visiting poorer countries tend to comment on is how pristine school children look dressed in their uniforms coming out of areas which look like it should be impossible to keep anything clean and that running water is not something to be relied upon or taken for granted. I remember the shock I first felt seeing school children in some areas of Guyana and it is no different in Nicaragua or the Philippines. Each day as I'm driven to work we pass very poor communities with children coming out in beautiful white shirts and even going home looking as pristine, or as a friend put in his blog recently looking cleaner than his kids did when they left for school in the morning (Krish's impressions of Haiti).

In Guyana many of my local friends used "blue" a laundry soap which you'll be amazed to hear is coloured blue! However coming from a land of washing machines I felt it must be much better to use laundry powder to wash my clothes even by hand than a bar of soap. Of course I should have known better: that it's normally worth following the local way of doing things as there is a reason why it's done that way, but I never ventured to try. That was over ten years ago.

On moving to Malaysia a couple of months ago and not having yet found my well hidden washing machine in the apartment I thought I'd have to resort to hand washing again and stumbled across "blue" in the supermarket so I thought I'd give it a try. I have a great propensity for spilling things on my clothes or getting mess and oil stains from work and I've never found a good way to get the stains out, not long soaks or scrubbing nor Vanish, so I finally decided to try "blue" and so easily the stains scrubbed out. I am converted and could have been over 10 years ago if only I hadn't subconsciously felt my ways from mechanised, developed countries must be best.

Value of education 2

The church I am attending CCF Ortigas is in the process of finishing building a new nearby complex including a worship centre and school in Pasig (a municipality of Metro Manila) just up the road from the existing location in Ortigas, which will mean that sometime next year it will probably be moving from its current location on the top two floors of a local shopping mall. I was impressed a couple of weeks ago when a new programme was explained that the church are encouraging all its members to get involved with some how.

CCF leadership had met with the local government of Pasig and asked them what they felt were the most pressing needs of the area and how they could be involved in trying to help with these needs. The councillors advised that the greatest concern was the quantity of out-of-school youth - apparently around 60% of Filipino youth do not graduate from High School. In a nation of 92 million people and where according to UN statistics more than 33% of the population (ie about 30 million people) is between the ages of 0 and 14 that is an awful lot of under-educated young people.

The church in conjunction with the local government has set up the Uplift Pilipinas Movement (God of this City - Uplift Pilipinas Movement video)   to H.E.L.P in the areas of Health and nutrition, Education and values formation, Livelihood and jobs and finally Peace and cleanliness. The immediate goal is to set up a programme for 1200 Out-of-School youth to enable them to achieve a High School Diploma equivalent through an Alternative Learning System (ALS video) and members of the church are being asked to sponsor around US$10 a month towards the costs of running this programme.

Having been involved in a small church of mostly foreigners in Nicaragua it has been a change to be attending a massive church made up almost exclusively of Filipinos here in Manila, but I am thrilled to see the local church under local leadership so involved in trying to address the many needs in their nation in such a constructive and collaborative way.

CPS Test

Last Sunday the speaker at church introduced us to the CPS Test as a way of evaluating our Christian lives. It sounded like a complex model such as the Briggs-Meyer test but actually turned out to be very simple, simple if you understood Tagalog at least.

The CPS test stood for "Christian pala sya!" which by listening to the context, explanation and then looking in the dictionary all confirmed this was whether someone who knew you would be surprised if they learnt from someone else that you were a Christian "S/he's a Christian, really?!" I thought "pala" just meant spade like in Spanish and it is one of the words that is the same in Spanish and Tagalog in that definition but "pala" also means "an expression of surprise"

The question was would anyone notice that you had faith in a living, loving and holy God as you lived your life day to day? Or would they only know if they saw you "playing" religion at certain hours on a Sunday. Not a false, superior, holier than thou, religious speak faith but a real one that effects every part of our lives.

Value of education

I've lived in other countries where a significant number of people either aspire to migrate and work overseas or depend on other family members who have done this, however in the Philippines there is a whole industry built around this - at immigration there are three lines, one for Filipinos, one for foreigners and one for OFW Overseas Filipino Workers (Filipinos who work overseas).

Apparently almost 100,000 women head overseas from the Philippines to work as domestic workers each year, most from poorer backgrounds and many from rural areas. As a result the government has instituted a one month compulsory course called Domestic Duties 101 so that the women can be trained in the use of different types of vacuum cleaners, washing machines, how to clean air conditioning units and other tasks and cultural domestic norms and cuisines they may meet in their new jobs. The two most frequent destinations are Singapore and Hong Kong where they are likely to earn US$400 per month. As in many other parts of the world people are willing to work hard and live far from their family in order to send money home for their loved ones in a hope for a better life for them. As one women interviewed in the article I read in The Philippine Star said,

I want to help my mother and younger sister. They need me to support them adding that her mother had no work and her sister earned US$2.70 a day as a waitress.

 However the part of the article which really struck me was the 25-year old domestic worker trainee, Janet Quiron who had a college degree and was a trained teacher but had decided to apply as a domestic worker overseas as she only earned about US$120 a month as a teacher.

It is painful to have a college degree and then apply as a domestic helper. But I think about my family. I am the one sending my brother and sister to school.

How does the situation exist where it is better to be separated from loved ones to be a domestic worker overseas than to teach the young generation in your own country? Sadly this is not unique to the Philippines.

Having recently visited Hong Kong, even with my relatively untrained eye to the racial differences between Far East Asian countries, it was easy to spot the overwhelming number of Filipinas there. It was most obvious on Sunday when being such a sociable people they congregated in public areas for picnics and social time together on their one day off and with no home that they could invite people back to.

Day of rest for foreign workers, Hong Kong

Given the number of Filipinos in Hong Kong I was pleased to see that St John's Cathedral had services in Tagalog/Pilipino as well as English, Mandarin and Cantonese. I was also pleased but saddened to see that as part of the church's outreach to their community they run Helpers for Domestic Helpers and Mission for Migrant Workers to help the foreign domestic workers in cases of abuse to which they are open. Working abroad as a domestic worker does open some financial doors but at a great cost but it also incurs many risks and this is not just limited to work in Hong Kong and yet it seems the best option for one trained school teacher from the Philippines.

Filipino Street Life

I took these video clips yesterday afternoon on the road close to work Payatas Rd, Quezon City. Obviously not all of Manila is like this, there are also several very plush areas but these clips represent many peoples lives, especially close to where I work.

Time for some Tagalog

Magandag umaga: Good morning

Since so many people speak English in Manila, ranging from functional to perfect, I am struggling to find any need to learn Tagalog or Filipino. It seems PC to call it Filipino but no-one I have spoken to in Manila who is from here calls it anything but Tagalog. When I went out to lunch with some of my colleagues a few weeks ago they tried to teach me a few things but I wasn't a very brilliant student. What I did learn was that Spanish would get me a little further on some things that I would have expected, no where close to understanding but enough to recognise a few words and more words than I would have expected - numbers I can do in Spanish, almost all the days of the week and months and they will be understood as Tagalog.

So now for your test in Tagalog - 10 words and phrases to see how you do. Those who speak Spanish will have a good head start in most of the words I've selected

Tagalog
1. Basura
2. Pasahero
3.Yelo
4. Elektrisidad
5. Turista
6. Oo (po), siyempre
7. Hindi (po)
8. Salamat
9. Anong oras?
10. Kumusta!
11. Ebanghelyo (a bonus one, I know 11 isn't 10!)

Answers below - gap left to try and avoid inadvertent cheating - those who really want to cheat will do so even if I put this on a separate page!!


English and Spanish equivalents
1. Rubbish/trash (En) or Basura (Sp)
2. Passenger (En) or Pasajero (Sp)
3. Ice (En) or Hielo (Sp)
4. Electricity or Electricidad
5. Tourist or Turista
6. Yes, of course or Si, claro
7. No
8. Thankyou or Gracias - OK no similarities in English and Spanish it's simply my first Tagalog word
9.What time? o A que hora?
10. Hello or Hola but you can see the Como esta? How are you link? If you just say the word.
11. Gospel or Evangelio

It seems Tagalog doesn't have the multiple forms of you but if you want to show respect to someone, especially if they are older than you, you add "po" to the phrase. However I was warned this can cause offence if someone isn't enough older than you as they might think you are saying they are old, one of those things you decide as a foreigner if you try and get it wrong you hope the other person gives you lots of grace in your execution as a ignorant Banyaga (foreigner).

Map reading

I love maps and as such it has become a pleasure to be living in a country where good quality maps are easily available. I have enjoyed accumulating a number of different maps over the last few weeks - street maps of Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, national political and economic maps of the Philippines and Asia.

Perhaps it is strange that someone who has always been interested in other countries dropped studying geography as early as the UK school system would allow (aged 13). Maps give me a sense of bearing of knowing where I am relative to other places and whilst they can't really tell you what to visit or where to go they do tell you how to get there once you've decided where to go and give me plenty of ideas on new places to research. Having lived in Nicaragua for 5 years simply the existence of street names with street signs is exciting and gives a sense of ease. GPS is amazing when you are driving and need immediate directions but having a map in hand allows me to explore without actually going anywhere.

The maps of the Philippines designed mainly for students I guess that I have bought for about 25 pence (35 US cents) in the local bookstores have also taught me a lot more than simple geographic location, with information on local economics and other statistical data I am starting to understand a little more that helps me when I read the newspaper. Mindanao one of the largest and most troubled zones of the Philippines, the heartland of the rebels and religious based conflict (as I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago) is also the home to most of the mineral wealth of the Philippines - gold, silver, copper and chromite, sadly something that often seems to be a factor in conflict zones in a country.

It also needs to be remembered that whilst we as westerners see Christianity as the older religion, and of course historically that is true, in the Philippines Christianity in the form of Catholicism arrived in 1565 but the Islamic faith had already been moving through the southern islands such as Mindanao and Sulu  for more than two hundred years. The Spanish Christianisation by dispelling Jews and Muslims "Moros" worked in the other islands of the Philippines but never in Mindanao or Sulu during their 300 years of rule. Then under American rule even the "Moro Wars" did not totally overcome or pacify the Muslims. It is not therefore a surprise that conflict and strong feelings still are very prevalent in this region. The current President of the Philippines wisely refuses to be drawn into all out war and seems to be trying to seek a more peaceful settlement which I guess is part of the reason that Eid ul-Adha last week was given as a national holiday even though the percentage of Muslims in the whole of the Philippines is quiet small.

What are we waiting for?

As I walked by a public art display of scenes from the ferries in Hong Kong by Lewis Lau my eye was drawn to the following painting. I was struck by its title "Waiting for Nothing".

Most of us don't like waiting and I am certainly no different. Some waiting comes with eager anticipation: for a gift to arrive, for a special holiday, to see a loved one after time apart, for the long winter nights to end and the summer to come, for Christmas morning as a child.

Other waiting comes with anxiety: the results of important exams, feedback on whether you've got that much needed new job, the doctor's diagnosis after medical tests.

Waiting can also be frustrating: for a flight after weather causes mayhem, being stuck in a traffic jam not knowing when it will end, being put on hold on the phone whilst a recorded message tells you, "Please hold the line, your call is very important to us, we apologise for the delay due to an unusually high volume of calls." over and over and over.

So what are we waiting for? It sounds like a call to action rather than inaction, as if waiting is just a waste and sometimes it can be that, waiting can just be procrastination and an excuse not to face our fears or change. We can always be waiting for the "right time" whilst secretly hoping it never arrives.

However waiting is not all bad, some waiting is even beneficial. Waiting at a red stop light not only is the safe and correct thing to do, but at a busy junction actually gets everyone through faster than if everyone tries to go in all directions at the same time. For those of you, especially in Nicaragua, who've ever experienced traffic lights without their power supply connected you'll know exactly what I mean - chaos prevails and you long for the red light that eventually turns green or the arrival of the traffic police.

But what if we are waiting for nothing?

Books fight guns

With a sister and brother-in-law who are professional librarians and with a personal interest in what unites and divides Muslims and Christians the following article caught my attention in The Philippine Star on Thursday. Mindanao is one of the southernmost islands of the Philippines where there is still areas where “rebel” activity is frequent against the population and particularly the army, much is based around the desire for an autonomous Muslim state.

The following is a shortened and slightly modified version of the article.

Teen cited for fighting gun culture in South with books

Amid the fighting in Mindanao, the National Commission for the Culture and Arts (NCCA) and the National Library of the Philippines (NLP) has awarded a 17-year old freshman at the University of the Philippines and Oblation scholar for building libraries and countering the culture of guns with books and education in southern Philippines.

In a ceremony marking the 21^st Library and Information Services Month, the NCAA’s National Committee on Library and Information Services (NCLIS) awarded Arizza Ann Sahi Nocum, administrator of the Kristiyano-Islam (Kris) Peace Library, “for her exemplary and invaluable contributions in the field of library and information services by building libraries, distributing books and promoting reading to under-served children.”

The Philippine Librarians Association Inc (PLAI) joined the NCAA-NCLIS and the NLP in giving the certificate of recognition to Nocum for playing a key role in her Christian-Muslim parents’ advocacy to distribute books, grant scholarships, provide free use of computers and build libraries in conflict areas of Mindanao since 2001.

In presenting the award, NLP director Antonio Santos noted how three of the five Kris Peace libraries are built in conflict areas in Moro Islamic Liberation Front strongholds in Zamboanga Sibugay. “Young Arizza is not a professional librarian, but she is a role-model for all librarians,” Santos said, recalling a picture he saw at the Kris Library website www.krislibrary.com where Nocum was shown giving a speech to kids during a book-donation program when she was seven years old.

In her acceptance speech Nocum said, “This event has been an eye-opener. What the youth needs today is to hear something like this. To hear that libraries are important, that books are important; that reading, that learning is essential to progress.”  

Hungry anyone?

Found food in Hong Kong last weekend very photogenic but not very appetising. Tried one meal but was unable to finish the vegetable curry and faro dumplings, the taste of the dumpling was all wrong as was the texture of the curry. Then I really struggled with the concept of picking my fresh seafood from an on site aquarium.

Food is often one of the biggest challenges and can be one of the greatest pleasures in living in a new country. Not only are you confronted by all sorts of new foods and simply trying to figure out what they are, how to eat them and whether you like them or think your taste buds can adapt to them, there is also the challenge of working out how to buy the raw ingredients, what they are and how to cook them. I remember cooking revolting calaloo before I learnt you had to cut the stem out or appalling a friend in Guyana when I cooked squash without peeling it first. Of course western style supermarkets in Manila mean I can choose to stay with only the known foodstuffs but that doesn't seem very adventurous.

I do think that adjusting to Chinese cuisine and cooking would be a real challenge for the Westerner, it's perhaps the hardest cuisine to get enthusiastic about. Meanwhile, I get a desire for gallo pinto or nacatamales (Nicaragua) or chicken curry and roti or salt fish and bake (Guyana) about as often as I crave fish and chips or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (England) showing the ability to adapt.