i've arrived safely

Flying over the Northwest Territory and Alaska was really something to see, very white, icy, mountainous, cold. So many lakes, some of them huge, I could hardly believe my eyes. And, of course, there were lots of pipelines crisscrossing the ground. On one river, we could see the trail of snowmobilers going down the center. Everything was frozen solid. Flying over Japan was rather like looking down on our Calif. mountains. Now we are burning up, it is HOT and HUMID. They have taken us to a hotel on the bay, and right across the way you can see the reason Peace Corps comes to the Philippines, great poverty exists here. At midnight last night as the bus brought us in, the streets were very busy with street vendors, and traffic all bustling about. We have spent all morning filling out forms, (Joe, you would go crazy.) and our official address is LONG: c/o U.S. Peace Corps,6th Floor Bayside, PNB Financial Center, Diosdado Macapagal Ave, Pasay City, Philippines - we had to write that at least 8 times, maybe more, I have writers cramp. This is my first trip to an internet cafe. We took a jeepney in to the mall, two other teachers and myself. The jeepney trip was interesting, the lady in front of me was putting together small bags of dried fish to sell somewhere. I keep hearing that the people of the Philippines work at a slower pace, but watching someone use up their bus riding time to make things to sell seems very industrious to me. The mall is a big 3 story building, very noisy, crowded. One lady, Ada, needed a pair of sandals so we went into McJim department store. There are clerks everywhere! They all dress in uniforms, too. We found some Merrell sandals for 3,800 pesos which works out to be in the neighborhood of $75-$80. Then found some Fila for P999, about $20. School is out right now, since summer is beginning here, summer vacation began about two weeks ago for elementary schools and high schools are having graduations this week. They get two months off and begin again in June. Classes sometimes have 50 or 60 kids in them, it is very crowded. And President Arroyo has just decided that instruction in Math and Science will be in English. This is a problem because most of the kids don't speak English and the teachers only have a limited ability. I am staying with a family right now, they have what is called a compound where about 6 different families all live together. Four sisters one brother and one son with all their children all live in this compound.

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