Adventures of Isabel

So, now that I’m back stateside, with regular access to technology, I’m going to start posting some of the photos and notes I’ve been accumulating over the last weeks. To begin, here are some photos from Mindoro, where I spent the 4 days of actual vacation that I took this summer, waking up and swimming, [...]

Back in Manila once again, this time after a trip up north to the cordilleras. It was definitely the most beautiful part of the Philippines I’ve seen so far, but that experience was totally overshadowed by interviewing political prisoners in benguet province. I’ve been working on transcribing and translating horror stories of torture [...]

Hopefully, this will work now. As with many things here, internet access is a bit inconsistent, although this connection seems quite good. I’m back in Manila now, or Quezon City to be precise. I find myself surprisingly happy to be here again. Even though people stare at me like I have [...]

So, I decided it was time to leave Manila for a few days. It’s almost indescribably dirty, hot, loud and crowded there and it was definitely starting to get to me. For just a few dollars, it’s possible to get a boat to a clean, quiet place with a beach, which is what [...]

Having a moment of self-hatred about how self-absorbed I’ve been getting these past few weeks. I’ve been being treated like a child, so I’ve responded by acting and thinking like a child, but I should do better. I’m ashamed of complaining about food when there are people that are literally starving in this [...]