WALKING WATER

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock, 6:30 am. I threw pillows at my dad until he got up and got dressed. I got dressed too, then i grabbed my 3 gallon jug. My dad and I drove up to Rocky Nook Park and were welcomed by Emma Millar. "You ready Lily?" "No, you ready Emma?" i said putting my jug on the picnic table. "Bye dad!" he waved bake to me and drove away. At least 20 minutes passed by until everyone was there and we were ready to go, then we did a puja and took off. Anya, Bella, and I decided that should stay together the whole time and If one of us stopped we all did. We weren't out of the parking lot yet and are shoulders aced from carrying the water on our heads. Dia, Oli, Me, Bella, and Anya took a break when we got out of the parking lot. "Jeez, that was hard" i said already sweating. "Ya, we are not even half of a quarter there!" Anya said resting her water down and panting. " Lets keep going guys!!" Bella said. For a most of the walk i but the water on my head, with a jacket under the jug. Bella would hold the jacket mean while Anya and I lifting up the bucket on too my head. Anya lifted her bucket up all by her self and the towel she had on her head, only fell once. "Bella, Bella, Bella!!' i screamed to her as my jug slipped on the ground with a big boom. " Oh my god, Lily, are you ok??!!" Bella put her bucket down and rushed to me. This was at the beginning of the walk and i dropped so many more times. When Anya and I saw a down hill we decided to role our jugs down the hill. Anya made sure that her jug stayed on the same beat as her walking, and made sure it did not go to far a head of her. On the other hand mine was way ahead of me. "No, no stop!!" i cried "Anya watch out!!" Anya stopped, forgetting that her water jug was a head of her, she stopped with my jug on her foot. Her jug flew up over a rock and hitting a bush violently. "Sorry" I said feeling really bad. Bella had lost half her water by the middle of the walk. When we finally saw school we all rushed across the street and put our jugs down in the parking lot "We did it!!" We all said as if we planned it. "Lily, Anya are you going to roll the water down the hill?" Bella asked. "No way" Anya said. I thought about it for a while then said "No, I think that it will get ahead of me, and beak." "Ya". I tired to put the water down for just a second to get my balance when it rolled down the hill fast i could not keep up. "CRAP!!" I yelled as it smashed against a bush bouncing around, the cap almost flying off. I finally cought up to the jug and stopped. Anya and Bella started to laugh and almost falling on the ground they were laughing so hard. When we got to school i open the half open cap and drank a lot of water. That was one of the hardest things i have ever done, how do they do this everyday twice as much more water and twice as much longer!

Kiva blog 6

 

I woke up this morning feeling sad, i'm going home today i thought to my self. "Mangadang umaga po Lily" said Nenita. "Good morning Nenita" i replied. "Today is my last day, i will miss you." i said "I know. It was so nice having you here." she said with a pleasant smile. I reached out to shake her hand put she pulled me closer and hugged me. "What will we do today?" i asked. "I thought we could take the bus out to town, it is your last day." she said grabbing an old brown coat. Cool i thought, shopping!! I grabbed my gray sweat shirt,  ran out the door, and hopped over the steps. Nenita ran after me, but i ran strait to the bus stop and waited for Nenita. The whole bus ride I looked out the window. Nenita and I did not really talk. We said at least 4 words to each other. I was sad that i had to go home late that night, but i was excited to go shopping. "Last stop, Bacolod City" Said the bus driver. "That's us" Nenita said hopping out of the seat. The bus driver had dark skin, a round belly, and a pleasant smile. He waved to me as i walked out of the bus, I waved back. Suddenly we were surrounded by monkey looking people dressed in bright colors like lime green and hot pink. They had big masks that had huge smiles on them. "The city of smiles" Nenita said. No wonder i thought to my self. Nenita pointed to a stand with colorful bags with beads and sparkles on them. I walked over, i held one of the bags in my hand. "It's very pretty" I said. I walked away and put it down. In the corner of my eye i saw a giant teekee statue with bright red lips, pink eyes, and Palm for the hair. "Look" I told Nenita pointing to the statue. She laughed. "Let's eat. There is a place on the side of the beach." "yeah, lets go." We walked to the beach until we came across a restaurant with no name. "It looks nice." I said walking on the steps. "How many?" a girl by the door said. "2" said Nenita. When we got to our table she handed us the menu's. "What is the best here?" i asked Nenita. "I like all the fish." I was not a huge fan of fish, but I am here to try news things, new adventures. "What would you like to order?" said the waiter. "Surpirise me!" i said feeling very nervous on what i would be getting. She brought out a blue fish, that looked burned.  i tasted it and it was good, when Nenita and i was done we walked out. "We have time to look at one more shop before the bus comes." I looked around, There was a shop that had bright masks like the people we saw earlier. "Here?" I asked hoping she would say yes. "Yes" she said grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the shop. I walked up to the stand and picked up a bright pink mask with big feathers on it. "You get that to remind you of the time we had together." Nenita said. "That is a great idea." When we walked out of the shop, i stopped. "Nenita can you help me put it on?" I asked holding up the mask. "Of corse." She put the mask on my face and tied it in the back. "Thank you." They bus drove up next to the store. We hopped in and went back to Nenita's hut. "Good bye Nenita." I said packing the rest of my stuff. "Good bye Lily." A tear started to run down my face. "I had so much fun here. I will miss you and I will never forget my time with you." i said wiping my eyes. "Thank you for coming Lily, it was so fun." We hugged. I walked to the bus one more time and waved to Nenita, she waved back. The bus drove away and tears ran down my face. Good by Philippines, I will never forget you.

Kiva blog 5

This morning i woke up early, Nenita had not even woken up yet. I did not want to wake her up so i stayed in bed and started to think, I wonder where she keeps her livestock? How does she care for it? How does she sell it? Nenita woke up and started to shuffle around the house. "Good morning Nenita" "Magandang umaga po Lily". She replied. "Today we are going to sell some livestock and milk." Perfect i thought. We walked to the back of the house where there where 4 cows, 3 pigs, and 2 horses. "Wow, i never noticed all of this." "Well it is in the back yard. You have never been back here." she said grabbing a bucket. A cow stood up on a metal table, Nenita put a bucket under the black and white cows utter. She started to milk the cow, she squeezed the utter in a special order, milk started to shoot out of the pink otter. In 5 minutes the bucket was full to the top. Then she did the same thing with 3 other cows. When she had three buckets full. She poured a little bit of milk in my hand, i tasted it. It was warm and kinda sweet. "Yum" i said liking my hands. She picked up two buckets and handed me the other two. "Put them by the house." "ok" i said walking slowly. I put the buckets down by the house and ran to back to Nenita. "Today we have to sell one of the pigs." "how much are they?" i asked. "3 pesos". We walked out of the back yard and into the village. We walked up and down the village and did not sell the pig until it had gotten dark. My feet hurt a lot that day but i still had a great time!

 

kiva blog 4

Nenita was not ashamed that she needed a loan, in fact she offered to tell me how she makes a living. "Well my stand is not popular. If i only relied on my stand, i would not have enough money to buy food. I sell livestock on the side for more money, and right now i am saving up to send my four children to collage." she told me. Today we had too restock Nenita's stand. "Where do you get the bananas and the charcoal?" i asked. "I get some of the bananas from the farm across the village and the charcoal i order." she replied. A car drove up to the stand, A man with tan skin, white teeth, and a mustash hopped out of the truck. "Here are your bananas and charcoal." "Thank you" Nenita replied. The man smelled like old spice and new car. I lifted one of the 6 crates of bananas and put it on the ground behind the wooden stand. I slowly put the rest of the 5 crates behind the stand. I open one of the boxes and took out to big bunches of bananas, i put them on top of the stand. I repeated that for an hour until i got all the bananas out of the crates and on the stands, by that time the sun had set and it was so beautiful. It was a great day.

kiva blog 3

Today i woke up late, Nenita was already outside running her stand, I went outside to work. "Magandang umaga po, Nenita" i said walking behind the stand. "Magandang umaga po, Lily. Today we go to the market, to get food for dinner." she replied. We went to the market when the sun went down. We walked by lots of little stands just like Nenita's. It was not really a market it was more like a little village, with lots of stands with delicious looking foods. Nentia pointed to a stand selling pork. She handed the nice looking lady a peso (Dollar). The day was fun. We Spent the rest of the day buying stuff for the Sinigang Baboy, it is a soup. When we got to Nenita's hut, we made the soup. We had fun cooking in her house. When the soup was done we walked outside to invite her neighbors, to eat with us. The soup was very tasty, the  tamarind leaves, and ginger were my favorite. All of Nenita's neighbors came over and enjoyed the delicious soup with us. "So nice to meet you all" i said to all of her nice friends, they all smiled at me. That night i went to bed full and happy, with a good feeling of meeting new friends.




Currency 


American  Philippine

1.00       42.68


5.00       213.40


10.00     426.79


20.00     853.58


50.00     2133.95
    
100.00   4267.90 

Kiva blog 2

Today i woke up excited to see Nenita, again. Yesterday i met her at her banana stand, I told her who i was and that i was one of the 5 girls who loaned 25$ to her. She gave me a big hug and told me all about her stand. Then she invited me in her house, and showed me the place where i will be sleeping. She pointed to the ground. "Are you ok sleeping on the floor?" she asked sounding concerned. I thought back to all the places i have traveled before and said, "Of corse i am".  "Magandang umaga po" she said wiping her eyes. "What?" i said. "Magandang umaga po. It means good morning here." You learn something every day i thought. "Well, Magandang umaga po, to you too." Nenita lead me outside of her small house and brought me to her banana stand. "Magandang umaga po" said Nenita, to a woman walking up to her stand. She had very tan skin and long black hair. She pointed to a some bananas that were tied together by string. Nenita handed her the bananas and traded for the money. "Salamat po" "what does that mean?" i said thinking out load. "It means Thank you." Nenita told me. Until the sun went down we sold bananas and charcoal. "That was fun!!" i said sitting next too the fire. "Yes". She said laying down to sleep on the ground. That night i had a really great sleep.


Good evening:  Magandang tanghali po
How are you?:  Kumusta po kayo
Please come in: Tuloy po kayo
Yes: Opo
No: Hindi
What time is it?: Anong oras na po
What is your name?: Ano po ang pangolin nil a
You are welcome: Wala pong anuman

Kiva blog 1

I woke up on a early tuesday morning at 3:30 am to go on a train to get to the airport in LA.  I am going the Philippines, to visit Nenita too see how her stand is going after i lended her the 25$. My flight took off at 5:15 am. first destination Taipei, Taiwan. Then once i landed there at about 12:00am, so so so tried! Then i went to Manila, Philippines. By the time i was on the plane too Manila, I was really excited to go to the Philippines and to see Nenita. On the plane i slept,  read, watched movies, and listened to music. When i got to Manila i hoped on a bus to Negros, Occidental.