Tag Archives: 2014

From the Philippines to CAR…

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Well, my holiday is officially over, and there’s no more time to dwell on the post-holiday comedown, as I’m right back into the swing of things again!

I got back to the Philippines a week ago, and had a couple of days with my manager in Manila, before travelling to Ormoc via Tacloban. I had a nice couple of days catching up with some peeps in Tacloban over the weekend, and generally getting back into work mode. The night I arrived there was a fantastic torchlight parade through the streets of Tacloban to celebrate World Water Day, complete with fire-dancers and all sorts of fun performances.

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It’s very hot and humid now, and still pissing with rain most of the time. Apparently this is the “dry season”, and by that I mean that it’s generally a bit less wet than the typhoon season. Or as several colleagues have informed me, there are two seasons in the Philippines, Wet and Very Wet. So this would be the Wet Season.

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Happiness, and other YouTube videos…

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So, while on holiday I had plenty of time to fall down an internet hole and trawl the web for fun and interesting things…

This brilliant video, courtesy of UNDP and Pharrell Williams, shows perfectly the fantastically upbeat spirit of the Filipino people, always ready to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start rebuilding, with a smile on their faces. I’ve already watched it about 8 times and it still makes me smile. The perfect antidote for the post-holiday blues!

While we’re on the subject of YouTube videos, here’s a few more that caught my eye.

This equally brilliant but far more depressing video from Save the Children tries to show people in the UK what it would be like if something like the situation in Syria happened to us, through the eyes of a child. Depressing but incredibly moving and sadly a stark reality for thousands of Syrian people in the last 3 years.

And on a more cheery note, this hilarious video of Things Cats do that would be creepy if humans did them. Cracks me up.

While we’re on the subject of funny things, this list of poorly chosen book titles made me laugh out loud too.

And how could I forget the fantastic Philomena Cunk’s Moments of Wonder? Genius.

So, those are a few of the things I found on the interwebs this month that made me laugh, smile, and think.

Now go watch the Happy video one more time to cheer yourself up!

 🙂

Holiday Hiatus

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Sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve just come back from 3 glorious weeks on holiday, which I spent in Leura, Sydney and Perth, hanging out with friends and family, drinking wine, eating cheese, and generally having a lovely time.

Of course now I’m back in the Philippines, hidden under the smog of Manila, and suffering from a rather epic attack of the post-holiday blues, so I thought I would post some pics of my holidays to cheer myself up….

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Hair-raising…

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Am back in Cebu, about to go on holiday to visit some friends and family in Oz.

Crashed out at 9pm last night, and slept for 11 hours solid without moving, woke up in exactly the same position.

God I needed that!

Here’s what happened to my hair while I was sleeping though….

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I’m not impressed with the direction my hair seems to be taking – so far it’s mostly vertical….

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Life in the Hub…

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Well, so much going on around here!

I’m still pretty tired and grumpy at the moment, so not much has changed there.

Life in the UN hub is interesting….

Last weekend we got invited to a UN party, which I get VERY excited about (my first official aid worker party since I got here). Was all excited, and even borrowed some make-up from a colleague on the off-chance that there might be lots of young hot things there. Sadly I was extremely disappointed. We arrived at the “party” which was about 6 or 7 guys, plus a couple of girls, sitting around very quietly outside under a really bright fluorescent light. They were all middle-aged, mostly leathery Norweigians, plus a mildly sleazy frenchman attempting to be suave. Continue reading →

Sleeping Beauty…

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Monday 10th February

There are thankfully a very small number of you out there who know precisely how grumpy I can be when I’m tired. Lack of sleep does not make me a chirpy, happy bunny, and I have been known to just grunt at people when very tired, especially when I’m not yet fully awake in the morning.

So it is a great shame that since coming back to Eastern Samar, I have slept very badly every night for a wide variety of frustrating reasons, which is slowly wearing me down and making me feel grumpier and grumpier….

The last time I was here for the EMMA, there was a tropical depression passing through, so it was very wet and windy, but lovely and cool. My colleague and I both slept well, although the mosquitos were out in full force, and I had to put up my mozzie net over the bed. However this time round, when I returned for 2 and a half more weeks to support some cash programming, it’s hot as hell, and very, very humid and sticky.

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Maya’s comedy hour…

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Well I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have plenty of ridiculous comedy moments while attempting to go about my business and appear somewhat professional along the way….

You can read the highlights of my comedy moments here, but since then there have been a few additional things that I thought you might all appreciate!

A couple of weeks ago I went to a meeting at the Department of Agriculture, where they were bringing in all 40 of the Municipal Agricultural Officers for a big meeting on rice seeds, fertilisers and discussing recovery plans for farmers. So there I am sitting at the table surrounded by important people, rooting around in my bag for a pen, and out flies a tampon and lands pointedly in the middle of the table. Rather awkward.

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