Monday 15th August

Hey guys, so this is the first (and possibly last) time I will blog. And it’s going to be about all things Monday-the-15^th…

15^th August 1769 – Napoleon Bonaparte is born
15^th August 1969 – Woodstock festival opens
15^th August 2011 – Work (fun) begins for PP11! WOOP

My first breakfast at Fuente Oro suites consisted of some yummy pork, rice and egg. This was soon followed by an orientation for the project given by our leaders. We were assigned or volunteered for various roles e.g. team medic, wake-up monitor, fun-day organizer, blogging etc.

Moving swiftly on to the next meal – grilled chicken, unlimited rice, unlimited soup and very limited chilli (they were tiny). With but a moment to spare in the mall, we journeyed to a pizza place in order to have a light dinner close to UP high. There we played a few rounds of Chinese whispers ( / “telephone” or whatever it’s called in the States).

Despite our enlarged bellies, we managed to waddle over to UP High in order to watch a performance. There was a little bit of waiting first, though – time, obviously, for more games (yay) and more deet and an exploration of the school. The feel of the place was deliciously tropical: palm trees lining the paths, low buildings with metal rooves, patchy puddles, murals and painted benches. It was great to also meet a few current SEALNet high school students and a few that had already graduated; they were incredibly friendly and took time out of their hectic pre-performance kafuffle to say hi to us. Shifra, if you’re reading this: you looked amazing - I lurrved the costume (i.e. the Spanish dress)! Even before it started we all knew that the performance would be incredible because the outfits and make-up were so well designed and constructed.

And with a cloud of dramatic smoke the show began….

The story revolved around the history of the Philippines and was told through music and dance. It depicted the conquest of the country by the Spanish, the Americans, and the Japanese. What I didn’t realize during the performance, but what became apparent at the end, was that on the two halves of the stage there were in fact two separate performances of the same story happening alongside one another. The two performances were created by two separate classes who were competing for a prize.

Although I liked the music, I thought the dancing, in particular, deserved very high praise. The dance-floor was tough, chipped concrete. However the dancers were somehow able to ignore this and move about in an elegant, passionate and sometimes violent way. This passion, I guess, was an illustration of the tumult and turmoil of parts of Filipino history and I found it fascinating.

The main show was then followed by several group dances which were loadsa fun! I particularly liked the ‘tinikling’, the traditional Filipino dance involving two people beating bamboo poles on the ground in coordination with dancers who step over and in between.

After the performance we tried some sweet rice (more food J) and then headed back to the hotel, with songs and images of the night dancing about our brains.