come sail away

it is that time of year again... another group of people off to Laos for a summer of study and fun.  (also known as the sail program... which aptly stands for "summer abroad in Laos.") i always feel a tad bit jealous that i never took a whole summer off when i was a younger to do something like this.  well... head to the Lao studies website to check out their bios, aspirations and aspirations...  there should be some links to their blogs as well - so stalk them as they do what all of us wish we could do. 

http://www.laostudies.org/2012-sailers

10 things i hate (& love) about louisiana

so i am back in seattle again. why do i do this to myself. well, in memoriam of this past trip home for christmas, i composed a list of things that made me sad while in louisiana. and then i thought, what the heck... there is a ton of stuff that made me happy, so i should really intro each one of these bad things with something good. so here it goes, my list of ten things, happy and sad...

1. no need to tell yall, but one of the best things about louisiana is the food!!!! zapp's potato chips! gumbo! po' boys! cane's! jambalaya with beans and shrimp creole on the side! biegnet's at cafe du monde! wooo hooo! really ain't nothing like it:

2. nothing can live forever, but i don't often think about that in terms of trees. well, my home in baton rouge has lost a lot of trees over the years, and this is one of the most recent, knocked down during a storm. i liked this one a lot. raccoons used to live up inside it. sad:

3. look at this thermometer! temperature right about 74 degrees just 4 days before christmas. that is a reason to love louisiana right there:

4. along with trees dying... a lot of stores and shops and malls and what-have-you have shut down. economic downturns, shifts in the population of the city... a lot of reasons. but none is sadder to me than this one right here. the broadmoor theatre. i seen so many movies in this theatre. my mom would drop us off on a saturday and we'd spend the afternoon watching re-releases of jungle book or song of the south. and that little old lady that worked there - i miss her too, may she rest in peace... well here it is:

for more on this, see this blog:
http://abandonedbatonrouge.typepad.com/abandoned_baton_rouge/

5. we went to new orleans the friday before new years and had a great time. street performers were everywhere, and i got a kick outa hearing this very loud band in the french quarter right under the nose of the st. louis cathedral with it's no noise sign:

6. i'm sad to see the crime in new orleans still going up and up post-katrina. and not just in new orleans, but baton rouge too. and with all the convictions of police officers for unjustified shootings after the hurricane, trust aint very high, as you can see from this graffiti. there was another one that was much more succinct scrawled on the pavement by this one; it had much courser language, so i'm posting this one here:

7. of course, probably the best part of a trip home to louisiana is when you get to see family... so here are my nieces right here:

8. and of course, the worst part of a trip home is that you have to see family... so here are my nieces right here:

9. something else i loved about being in louisiana - seeing real rain and real thunderstorms - like this one brewing to the west. don't see nothing like that in seattle:

10. but the saddest part of all... leaving. here is the view of my plane out the lobby window, readying itself to take me to atlanta where i got a connecting flight back to seattle:

so until i make it back there again, i have this blog post to look at. louisiana: you're the best. and the worst, apparently.

hanging in the treme

dis is where i'm at! nuff said...

biggest elvis & some final thoughts

manila really did light up big and bright for new years. it was like nothing i have ever experienced. if i was in a war zone, would it have been any different?

well, now for some final thoughts on the philippines and i will lay this trip to rest. well, first i will say that i am glad that i waited till the end of my stay in the philippines to begin reading “biggest elvis,” one of the books i brought on the trip. the book is told from the perspective of numerous different (and mostly cynical) characters, and each of them have something to say about the philipphines.

for example, one embittered american says this about the traffic: “this wasn’t a traffic jam, that would be like calling a lump of coal a dead plant. this was hell and we were all going to die here in the poisoned air because everything was burning coffee grounds and the visibility went as far as the side of the road, where i saw a line of stores, places with pots of food on tables, stacks of retread tires, wicker furniture, signs advertising bed spacer to rent and go-go dancer wanted and goats for sale. and there were people along the road, kids and dogs just watching us not moving, like they were fishermen on a riverbank, casting a line out into the traffic, pulling in an aerial or a rusted muffler…”

and then this: “i saw high-rise buildings with cranes on top only you couldn’t tell if the buildings were going up or coming down. on the beach side, on low swampy land that stuck out into the bay, there was a bunch of shacks that were worse than anything i'd ever seen, acres of shacks, laundry, mud, and babies.”

unlike the guy in the book, i actually really like a bustling city where the rigidity of sterile american customs do not apply. and maybe it's somewhat ethnocentric on my part to stare at the other and just say “wow,” but it’s maybe it's a step in the right direction, especially when you are sharing space with others that see the country like albert lane (the character i quoted above.) so thus was my trip altered somewhat. but as much as i enjoy drowning in the differences of another country, i can also sit back and appreciate the clashes of culture that i feel within myself and that i observe in the people around me.

for example: i needed a pair of socks – so i went to sm market (this big department store chain found all over manila). i figured i’d find my socks in the underwear department, at least it made sense to me. so i approached the section and about 2-3 sales reps approached me, “hello, sir? do you wear boxers or briefs?”
“uh… where are the socks?”
“oh… socks! they are over in the middle of the store.” i left the section (but not before another woman asked me the boxers/briefs question while holding a package of underwear up for me to look at.)
well, I found the sock section – and it really was just that: a section with just socks. i approached cautiously, noticing the abnormally large crowd of sales people in the section. i was swarmed. i had 3-4 sales reps in front of me and equally as many to the back and sides. they were all holding up different types of socks: dress socks, crew socks, sports socks, and what-have-you.
“hello sir! these socks here are very beautiful.”
“may i help you, sir?”
“what are you looking for, sir?”
i actually started laughing… “uh… socks?” i tried to move into the sock display racks so i could find what i was looking for (ankle socks to wear with my slip-on crocs, even though that may be a bad fashion decision to some of yall) and the crowd moved with me, still asking their questions, and holding up socks to my face with some intensity, finally blocking my path so i couldn’t move.
finally I had to plead: “can i just get some socks, please?”
one of the sales reps took the lead: “oh, okay! shhh everyone! be quiet and let him look!” the crowd fell silent and moved back to form a path into the inner-sanctum of the sock section. i walked in, immediately found what i was looking for while the reps looked on in silence. when i moved to leave, the clamoring started up again: “sir! sir! what about this one?”
i know i shouldn’t feel the need to say this, but i really am not exaggerating. after my escape, i stood about 30 feet removed so i could count the number of sales reps: 19. i was so completely disbelieving of my own count that i counted again: 22. i don’t know which count is most accurate. was somebody hiding behind a sock display the first time i counted or did i just happen to count the same person twice?
but this is illustrative of every store: there always seems to be more people working than what the business needs. (but considering the unemployment rate is high, it can’t be a bad thing, right?)

so spending time in the philippines with other americans, i tried to allow myself to absorb the culture of the foreigner in a place that doesn’t quite agree with them. and the opinions people have are amazing… maybe something like this, (to quote albert lane from the biggest elvis again):
“the country was a dump, let’s face it... what ever happened here since world war ii that mattered? …when was the last time anybody said, hey, let’s all go to a filipino restaurant? what's your favorite filipino movie?”





and so this is part of the experience as well… I can look at traffic in new dehli, or chickens on a bus in Laos, or a guinea pig on my plate in peru and just say “wow.” well, observing the observations of americans in a strange land aint no different. i can just sit back, say wow, and see the world through their eyes for a bit…

but in the end, i need to give my own description of manila: it is a truly amazing city. crowded, polluted, gray – yes, it is all that. but when i sit in a taxi weaving in and out of traffic – i still get that feeling of awe. the cityscape is really something to look at; this may sound weird, but it’s the billboards! they are so huge – skyscraper size, i swear – and they line both sides of the streets, so that when driving through the traffic they tower over the car, growing and changing shapes as they pass by, like some crazy illustration in a dr. sues book. and especially at night: they’re lit so brightly that i really could believe in all the capitalist dreams they promised me: if I drink that soda, or if I buy that watch or that pair of pants, i will be happy, smiling, and attractive, and I will too get that skeezy-looking blonde girl to stand next to me for a photo shoot.

manila and corregidor

the most prominent national hero of the philippines is jose rizal. because of his push for social reforms and calls for revolution, rizal was captured and executed by the spanish colonial government on dec 30th, 1896 (which is now a national holiday.) his execution sparked the revolution that led to the ouster of the spanish. his story is fascinating and well-worth a closer look. here are some pictures of fort santiago where he was kept and some of the memorials built to him.





the following are two picture of the american cemetery in manila. see their website: http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ml.php. of the american soldiers that died while fighting in the philippines, the remains of 60% of them were returned to their families. the other families requested that their remains be buried in the philippines, and some were never identified. my uncle art's remains were returned to the us, and he is buried in iowa.



and these are pictures from the island of corregidor, right off the bataan peninsula. (see my previous post.) this is where general douglas macarthur staged the war against the japanese before fleeing to australia. the barracks were heavily damaged by japanese bombing, and in one picture you can see the tip of bataan peninsula. i've included a map.

death march

i’m almost finished reading one of the books i brought with me, tears in the darkness, the story of the bataan death march and its aftermath, by michael norman and elizabeth norman. the book is amazing. the authors follow the story of ben steele while detailing the historical and cultural factors of world war ii in philippines.

the story is personal for me because my dad’s two older brothers, art and ralph (my uncle who I was named for) served here during that time. here is a bit of the history that i've been reading about:

on april 9th 1942, general ned king surrendered all of the american and filipino troops on the bataan peninsula, on the island of luzon, to the japanese. bataan had been the staging ground for the fight between the american-filipino force and the japanese during the war, after the japanese bombed the philippines within hours after bombing pearl harbor.

the americans abandoned manila to the japanese, and they hunkered down in the jungles and mountains of bataan. initially, the us-led troops fought off the japanese soldiers for about a month, even completely wiping out some of their regiments due to the japanese belief that surrender was not an option, but with no possibility of having their supplies or troops replenished, the americans and filipinos quickly began to show the effects of privation. they were put on half-rations from the beginning, and with the sweltering heat, cold nights, malarial mosquitoes, and no potable water, the troops were not able to withstand the second attack by the japanese at the end of march 1942.



the peninsula is infamous for the death march where tens of thousands of american and filipino troops were forced to walk 66 miles from mariveles on the southern tip of the peninsula to the town of san fernando. during the march they were deprived of food and water, and thousands of troops were beaten, tortured, or killed by the japanese.

read the wikipedia article for the death march for a good summary.


after arriving at san fernando, the troops were loaded into tiny box cars, and they were sent 30 miles by railway to camp o’donnell. countless more died from suffocation during the 4-hour journey in the 110 degree heat of the box cars.
my uncle art, the older of my dad’s two brothers, walked the length of the death march, and he was brought to camp o’donnell where he became one of thousands who died there daily from dysentery, malaria, and starvation. my uncle ralph escaped into the jungle until he was finally captured by the japanese. he was brought to a prison camp where he escaped again, hiding in the jungles with the help of the filipinos until he was finally rescued by the americans.




we drove along the route of the march, and went to the monument created to honor the filipino and american soldiers that fought in the war. on the wall of the memorial they'd engraved the names of those who died there, and I found my uncle’s name, (but not till after i did some searching - i couldn’t find it at first. it was to the side of the memorial; he had been added later along with another 100 or so names.)
I was moved by the care they took to create the memorial and the beauty of the countryside surrounding it. although the fall of bataan was almost 70 years ago, it didn't feel that long ago when i was standing there.


kone helped me make a pencil engraving of my uncle’s name from the wall.

luang prabang 2

here are the other pictures i wanted to post but couldn't get the internet to work. well it is finally working again - after a week of it being down...



justin and jerry made some new friends in luang prabang...


my favorite thing ever (well, this and coke zero and mcdonalds french fries and padek)