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 With a few sea kayaks, several jugs of water, and a surprisingly large supply of graham crackers Kris, Kristen and I set out on a multi-day traverse of the Bacuit Archipelago. Each night we slept on deserted beaches with no tent and prayed that it wouldn't rain. We didn't see any rain clouds, and on the third day (into the five day trip) we had reached the South China Sea and decided to explore one of the more remote islands. Within an hour the winds were driving from the west, churning the sea with huge open water swells that crashed ominously against the jagged limestone cliffs that were the only scaps of land available to us. Chalk it up to another lesson in my ongoing education in having a greater respect for the power of the ocean. Luckily we were rescued by a passing fishing boat--who happend to be Kris and Kristen's neighbor. You sure do meet some great people through the Peace Corps! (Click
here to see the photo essay--47 photos) |
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 Kerwin
called one of his friends at Silliman University's
radio station, Killer Bee 95.1 to ask if our band
Frying Nemo could play live on the air. Luckily for
us, they agreed to let us play in the studio during
DJ Akhmed's two hour Sunday night radio show from
6 to 8 p.m.. We all set up in the dee-jay booth with
our instruments, and played eleven songs live in the
studio. If you want, you can even download
a copy of the radio show for yourself to hear
what we sounded like. (Click
here to see the photo essay--17 photos) |
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 Every
year in October Dumaguete hosts the enormous Buglasan
Festival for the province of Negros Oriental. The
event lasts ten days and included everything from
a rodeo to a fireworks
contest to an enormous outdoor food bazaar to my personal
highlight: a performance by our band Frying Nemo on
the big stage at the Capital in front of a crowd of
more than 5,000 people. Needless to say, this was
one of the busiest ten days of my entire time in the
Philippines! (Click
here to see the photo essay--42 photos) |
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 Standing
next to the dusty corral I thought to myself if I
blurred my eyes and couldn't see the palm trees I
might think I was back in Montana instead of Dumaguete.
As a part of the provincial Buglasan Festival in Dumaguete
there was a real rodeo with cowboys, bucking bronco
riding, a whip cracking contest, and as an added bonus
a friend of mine even taught me how to throw a lasso
like a real cowpoke. (Click
here to see the photo essay--23 photos) |
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 After
two months of playing and practicing around Dumaguete,
Frying Nemo was starting to gain some momentum, although
at the end of August Steve De neef our lead guitarist
had to return to his home in Belgium to study jazz
guitar. Luckily Ace Descuatan was back in Dumaguete
and had September off because he was getting ready
to move to Kansas to get married. The month that we
had Ace playing with us went by really fast, though
we managed to play at Hayahay every Wednesday night
with him and also record
Kerwin's song "83" before he had to
leave Dumaguete. We are planning a reunion tour with
Ace for some time in the future.
(Click here to
see the photo essay--39 photos) |
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 After
we had played at Hayahay on Wednesday nights for about
a month and written about five original songs we decided
to record several of them for a demo cd. Nowell is
friends with Bryan Arzaga who has a small recording
studio in his basement, so early one morning we all
went north to San Jose to record three of our songs:
"Awaits", "Common Name", and "Wind
Singing Over Our Song". Kerwin couldn't make
the first recording session, so Gerard Locsin from
Enchi played the drums on that first recording. In
September we set up a temporary studio in Kerwin's
living room to record the song he had written called
"83". This photo journal covers these two
recording sessions and if you want you can download
mp3's of our semi-finished songs.
(Click here
to see the photo essay--25 photos) |
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 It's
always great to have visitors from home stop by, and
in July my friend/mentor/former boss Kenny Mendez
from Trout
Unlimited came over to the Philippines with his
family to visit relatives on the island of Luzon.
After a week of unwinding on the resort island of
Boracay, Kenny, Liz, Nick, Will and Theo caught a
flight to Cebu and then the Ocean Jet ferry to Dumaguete
for a quick visit to Apo and tour Dumaguete. We covered
a lot of ground in two days, and you can see some
photos from our adventures here.
(Click here to
see the photo essay--36 photos) |
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 Dumaguete
has a great live music community thanks mainly to
the excellent music program at Silliman University.
There are a few venues that specialize in live music
such as Hayahay by the sea, and musicians in the area
play music from most genres. I've played for years
in a band with my brother Preston and friend Matt
Armstrong back home in Winchester, Virginia. When
I arrived in Dumaguete and saw all the live music
I was hoping that maybe I'd get a chance to jam with
some musicians while I was here. One night I was talking
to saxophonist Raul Limbaga about which bands he listens
to, and found that we liked a lot of the same music.
Before I knew it, Raul had recruited the band that
we all named "Frying Nemo". This photo essay
covers the beginning of the band in July 2005.
(Click
here to see the photo essay--27 photos) |
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 At
one of the provincial tourism meetings I've attended
in Dumaguete I was asked to be an escort for Santacruzan
Parade in May. I was surprised to be invited, so I
said "yes" right away. After getting my
traditional Barong
Tagalog pressed (a going away present from
my friend Kenny Mendez) and borrowing a pair of black
dress pants from friend JM Aguilar I was set to go.
Once I arrived at the City Hall, I was paired up with
Maila Hermosa, a nurse from Dumaguete. Walking the
parade route as a quasi-celebrity has to be one of
the highlights of my time here.
(Click here to
see the photo essay--21 photos) |
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 In
early May some fishermen from Sibulan, a small community
north of Dumaguete, brought a small hawksbill sea
turtle to the Marine Lab. The turtle was in generally
good health, though it had possibly been raised in
captivity. After about two weeks of rehabilitation
in one of the sea water tanks at the lab, the turtle
was ready to be re-located to the Apo Island Marine
Sanctuary. As it turned out, Kris and Kristen Kerecman
from my Peace Corps batch were in town visiting Dumaguete
and Apo with their friend Emily from home, so we volunteered
to take the turtle out to Apo.
(Click here
to see the photo essay--23 photos) |
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 After
a visit to the Balicasag
Marine Sanctuary in Bohol, Kris and Kristen came
over to Dumaguete to see Apo Island's famous marine
sanctuary. Their friend Emily from back home was traveling
through SE Asia, so she met up with us in Dumaguete
the morning that we left for Apo. Also Pam from my
Peace Corps batch came over as well with her mom,
sister and Alex from the batch that arrived a year
before ours. (Click
here to see the photo essay--35 photos) |
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 The
nearby island of Siquijor is famous for its faith
healers and shamans (some call them witches or witch
doctors). During the Holy Week festivities this year
I went over for a short visit to see the Stations
of the Cross on a mountain on Siquijor, the famous
haunted Balete tree, and also paid a visit to one
of the local shamans with Rosanna
Brillantes-Meyer, a Fulbright Scholar who spent
a year working on a documentary film about the shamanistic
healing practices still in use on Siquijor.
(Click here to
see the photo essay--20 photos) |
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 Preston
and I took a short overnight trip to nearby Siquijor
Island. We got in a visit to the cliffs of the Salagdoong
Beach, played several games of "horse race"
courtesy of Kyle and Melissa from my Peace Corps group.
Preston even found the swimming pool he was looking
for at the Coco Grove where we stayed for the night.
(Click
here to see the photo essay--28 photos) |
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 After
leaving Palawan, Preston and I headed back to my Peace
Corps site in Dumaguete. It was fun to show him around
some of the highlights of the town here since he's
the first family visitor, and I had to make sure his
report back home was good. We hit most of the highlights,
even if we rushed a few of them a the end of his visit
here. (Click
here to see the photos--24 photos) |
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 The
last stop in Palawan for Preston's visit was the UNESCO
World Heritage site of Sabang and the Underground
River. After an eight hour ride on the "dust
bus", we lucked out and caught the last jeepney
for the day in to Sabang. We woke up early the next
morning to hike the "jungle trail" and arrive
at the Underground River where we learned how to tell
which rocks looked like Bart Simpson. Kind of like
a geological Rorschach test.
(Click here to see
the photo essay--37 photos) |
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 After
our adventure to Dilumacad Island, Preston and I decided
to paddle around in Kris and Kristen's bangka
boat for an afternoon without the gear that we took
on the overnight trip. We pointed the little craft
towards "Monkey Point," we gave it the name
the first morning we were in El Nido because we spotted
a monkey perched in the twisted branches of one of
the trees leaning out over the South China Sea. It
is unlikely that anyone else calls this place "Monkey
Point". (Click
here to see the photo essay--6 photos) |
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 Kris
and Kristen bought a small traditional Filipino boat
known as a bangka to take on short trips
to the islands surrounding El Nido. Preston and I
borrowed their little boat one day to take an overnight
trip to Dilumacad Island which is located about 4
or 5 miles from El Nido. We didn't have a tent or
sleeping bags so we just put sarongs on the sand and
went to sleep. Unluckily, in the middle of the night,
it poured rain on us. (Click
here to see the photo essay--19 photos) |
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 One
of the most popular things to do around El Nido is
an island hopping day trip. Kris and Kristen put together
a "best of the best" island day trip from
all the spots they had visited near El Nido. The highlight
for me had to be the incredible "Secret Beach"
that you had to swim through a narrow crack in the
sea wall to get to. It wasn't even visible from the
outside, and I have no idea how our guide spotted
it. (Click
here to see the photos--37 photos) |
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 My
brother Preston came to visit the Philippines this
February, and I decided that a nice introduction to
the country would be a trip to the legendary El Nido
in Palawan. Kris and Kristen Kerecman from my Peace
Corps group are in the enviable position of being
assigned there, and rolled out the red carpet for
our visit. This photo section has photos around the
town of El Nido to give you an idea of what the place
is like. (Click
here to see the photo essay--35 photos) |
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 My
old friend Kurt from my hometown in Winchester,
Virginia was working in Manila for a few months in
late 2004. Just before he was due to return home to
the States, he got in a quick weekend visit to Dumaguete.
Although we didn't really hang around Dumaguete very
much because I met him at the airport and went directly
to Apo Island to stay at Liberty's and do a dive with
my friend Mario. (Click
here to see the photo essay--27 photos) |
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 Siquijor
is only a short boat ride from Dumaguete, so I've
found myself going over there quite a few times to
see a new island and visit Kyle and Melissa from my
Peace Corps group. They live in a traditional nipa
palm hut just outside Larena, one of the larger towns
on the island. This photo journal includes a few highlights
from several trips to Larena.
(Click here to
see the photo essay--32 photos) |
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 Nearly
every photo I've posted on the site here came from
my Canon digital Elph. While I've been really impressed
with the detail and quality of the images that it
produces, I still shoot 35mm slides with my SLR for
really high quality photos. Unfortunately, it's really
hard (and expensive) to get a high quality scan of
a slide here, so you won't find all of my favorite
photos on the website. I did have a chance recently
to get two of them scanned recently by a pro photo
lab in Manila, so I've posted them here in this section,
hopefully I'll be adding more in the near future.
(Click
here to see the photos--2 photos) |
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 Dumaguete
is my new home for the next two years, so I have put
together a few photo journals to show what it's like
here. Dumaguete is the capital of the province of
Negros Oriental in the Visayan island chain. Approximately
75,000 people live here, and many of them are students
thanks to the numerous universities here. While Dumaguete
is known primarily as a college town, the scenic stretch
of Rizal Boulevard along the sea is the symbolic focal
point of the city. It is lined with expansive acacia
trees and is often the center of festivals and community
gatherings. (Click
here to see the photo essay--20 photos) |
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 Buying
fresh food is a part of daily life in Dumaguete, and
the local produce market is the best spot to pick
up the ingredients you need for breakfast (pamahow),
lunch (paniudto), and dinner (panihapon).
The Dumaguete Public Market (in the local dialect
called the tsangi - pronounced chung-gee)
is a hive of haggling, strange smells and brightly
colored fruits and vegetables.
(Click here to see
the photo essay--20 photos) |
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 In
an attempt to answer the questions I've received about
what my daily surroundings are like here in Dumaguete,
I've set up this evolving section to try to give you
an idea what life here is like. You'll find some typical
sights from around the city, and also catch a glimpse
of a famous landmark or two. Dumaguete is home to
several universities, so as a college town it is buzzing
with activity at all times of the day and night. I've
even heard it described as resembling a Southeast
Asian Berkeley, California! (Click
here to see the photo essay--25 photos) |
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 Since
my friend Steve is the first visitor from home I've
had to my site in Dumaguete, I wanted to be sure he
had good things to say about the place when he got
back to the States. Apo Island is pretty much my favorite
place to go visit nearby, so I booked us at Liberty's
Apo Island resort, a community based hostel that has
loads of character and is built beside one of the
fishing villages on Apo that is filled with friendly
islanders. Aside from hanging out on the island with
the friendly residents, we also got in a couple
of scuba dives at the incredible Apo Island marine
sanctuary and the Coconut Point.
(Click here to see
the photo essay--27 photos) |
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 For
most Peace Corps volunteers, a trip to Manila is something
to look forward to (because of the food) and something
to get over with (because Manila is not a really pleasant
place). Coming from a small city like Dumaguete where
I feel like I know a lot of people, becoming a regular
nobody in Manila can be a shock sometimes. Even so,
I always look forward to hamburgers, pizza and corn
dogs that come with a trip to the big city.
(Click here to see
the photo essay--30 photos) |
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 Fiestas
are a huge annual event for every community in the
Philippines. The timing of the fiesta varies according
to the patron saint of each city, town, and village,
but they all have a few qualities in common. First,
you'll find that the ads about pork being the "other
white meat" didn't run over here; the centerpiece
of every household fiesta is a cooked pig (called
a lechon) the color of a candy apple with
a crackling brown skin. Because the pig is the guest
of honor during fiesta time, the early morning hours
of fiesta day are pierced by the screeching cries
of pigs being slaughtered for the occasion. I had
the opportunity to visit the Ramos family house during
the Tagbilaran fiesta this May, here's the story of
that trip. (Click
here to see the photo essay--24 photos) |
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 Just
because we might be out of the U.S. doesn't mean we
don't celebrate the usual holidays. A Fourth of July
celebration just wouldn't be the same without baked
beans, hot dogs, hamburgers and all the usual backyard
cookout staples. Luckily, Pete Geiger, a volunteer
from my Peace Corps group who is assigned in the village
of Bilar in the province of Bohol put together an
authentic American Fourth of July cookout for the
volunteers in the area. How could I say no?
(Click here to see
the photo essay--14 photos) |
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 Just
a short jeepney ride from Dumaguete in the mountains
separating Negros Oriental from Negros Occidental
there is a 70 foot waterfall called Casaroro Falls.
I went there one afternoon in June to get out of the
city and see what the mountain life had to offer.
After a short hike down a path into a narrow river
gorge and hopping across slippery rocks, we came to
the falls plunging into a sheltered pool.
(Click here to see
the photo essay--7 photos) |
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 Mangoes
might be my new favorite food. Back in Virginia, I
used to eat an apple a day for lunch, now I eat at
least one mango a day. So when I heard about the Mango
Festival held on the island of Guimaras about five
hours by bus north of my site in Dumaguete, I knew
I had to go. Guimaras is renowned throughout the Philippines
for having the sweetest mangoes, and since they're
managed to eradicate an invasive fruit fly it is also
one of the few locations in the Philippines that exports
mangoes to the U.S.. Sheila, one of our Peace Corps
language instructors is from Guimaras and graciously
hosted us for all the best events during the festival,
including my favorite; the "Eat Til You Drop
Mango Eating Bonanza". (Click
here to see the photo essay--31 photos) |
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 One
afternoon towards the end of our Peace Corps training,
Daniel Simon and I took the jeepney ride over to Jun
Reputana's guitar workshop for a visit. Most visits
to Jun's workshop usually ended with an impromptu
jam session on Jun's porch, and this one was no different.
Jun and I started out by dusting off a few of the
songs we played at our Peace
Corps swearing in ceremony, then Jun's son brought
out his keyboard and things really started to rock.
I'm hoping to get back there for another Reputana
neighborhood jam sometime soon.
(Click here to see the
photo essay--12 photos) |
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 Dave
Matthews needs a guitar well beyond the average because
it is his tool for making a living, and not a bad
one at that. I too dreamed of owning a guitar that
would knock a few ceiling tiles from Carnegie Hall
with it's room-filling sound, but now that I am a
Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines and my weekly
living allowance is equivalent to what some might
spend on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer dvd box
set I realize I must be more resourceful. This is
the story of how I downloaded Dave Matthews' guitar
from the internet. And you'd be surprised that I didn't
need DSL, I did it with a crackling dial up connection
and an amazing guitar maker named Jun Reputana in
the province of Bohol. There's even an mp3
sound clip from the guitar that you can download.
(Click
here to see the photo essay--25 photos) |
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 At
the end of March, our Coastal Resource Management
training group took a trip to the Loboc River watershed.
The Loboc River runs through the steep, forested mountains
of the province of Bohol where we were training for
our Peace Corps service. In the afternoon we took
a slow boat up the river en route to a series of dramatic
waterfalls cascading from the densely forested hillsides.
That night, we stayed at Nuts Huts, a quiet group
of nipa palm huts huddled on the bank of the brown
river. The following day, we traveled to Bohol's favorite
destination; the Chocolate Hills.
(Click here
to see the photo essay--24 photos) |
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 However
we may feel about cock fighting in America, it is
a Sunday tradition here in the Philippines for many
of the men in the community. Women generally do not
attend, but despite the brutal and bloody main event
the cock fight is certainly an interesting look into
Filipino culture. I found myself watching the intricate
ways that bets are placed, how roosters are sized
up for the fight, and the gamesmanship and bluffing
that go on both inside and outside the arena. In fact,
to me watching the people was much more interesting
than watching the roosters. (Click
here to see the photo essay--17 photos) |
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 Sometimes
things that aren't supposed to be funny turn out to
be hilarious. Maybe it is the neighbor who builds
a 30 foot tall mural of himself in front of his house
completely obscuring his otherwise nice view, the
mall mannequin that refuses to conform, or the products
that have either unfortunate names or bewildering
advertising campaigns. (Click
here to see the photo essay--44 photos) |
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