As we continued our trip around Samal Island, I was eager to visit the bat caves on the northern part of the island. I read an article about the lady who is taking care of and protecting these animals and it seemed an interesting place for me to visit. The bat caves are north of the ferry terminal. After we got some lunch in Babak, we headed north for the caves. I was riding on the back of my Honda motor with by brother-in-law Alray. It took about a half hour to get there.
I’m still learning how to use iMovie but I think I’ve got the basics down. I also now have all the video on my mini DV cam on an external hard drive. This is a bid advantage because I can scan quickly for the parts of the video I’m interested in. Many parts of the video I am talking to my wife so she can see what it looks like. She was not too keen on riding on the motor and decided to stay home and watch our daughter.
Last summer, the summer of 2008, I took my wife and daughter back to Mindanao, Philippines to visit our family. It was my three year old daughter’s first trip back since she was born there in 2005, and my wife’s first trip back since she came here to the U.S. We planned to spend time with the family and to get out and see more of Davao and what are options are as far as retiring there in the future.
We visited Davao and Mindanao Bob showed us around town. We also took a day trip to Samal and fell in love with
The class did a density lab where they change the density of water by adding different amounts of salt. The hard part is to decant the solution so the different densities don’t mix. We used food coloring to show each different density layer. The bottom layer has 2.5 teaspoons of salt. The middle layer has 1 teaspoon of salt, and the top layer has no salt, just yellow food coloring. We used 100ml of water for each layer. Put a piece of cardboard on top of the red layer to decant. The class did a great job.
We are visiting family here in Mindanao, Philippines and I’m amazed by all the colorful flowers that grow almost everywhere. Right outside our fence, along the side of the road, are many different kinds of flowers. One flower in particular caught my interest as it’s very large and brightly colored. This flower has a deep saturated red hue with a hint of orange. The height is about 1.5 meters and the flower’s diameter measures about 20 centimeters. The seeds are very small black round dots. I’ve never seen anything like this back home so I was curious about knowing more.
I tried asking around but nobody seems to know the flower’s name. I googled it but couldn’t find anything. I also searched many images on Google but nothing close came up. I finally asked my sister in law and she asked around at work and thinks she has it identified. It’s common name is Palong Manok. The scientific name is Celasia coccinea Linn. According to the Philippine Medicinal Plant website it has a variety of common names such as:
The Palong Manok gets it’s name because it looks like a rooster. The Bisaya word manok means chicken, or rooster. It is not used medicinally in the Philippines, but some other countries use it for medicine. With more time this winter, when the snow and cold are with us, I’ll remember walking around Mindanao smelling all the flowers.
Written on August 1, 2008 by Kevin in Uncategorized
Here are some random thoughts of what I’ve been up to here in Mindanao, Philippines.
I continue to take Bisaya lessons from my teacher Bebe. I am now up to lesson nine. Their are a total of sixty lessons and I plan to continue my lessons online after I get home from the Philippines. My vocabulary words number about 160. The last lesson was on changing the time of the given verb, such as past, present and future. Miadto or Niadto is I went or I am going. Moadto means I will go. More details coming.
This week, I’ll be going to an island called Samal where there is a large bat cave. The cave has over 1.8 million bats. I’ll report on this next week. I also had a chance to have tasted a very different kind of coffee. This coffee has passed through the digestive system of the Asian Palm Civet. Details later. I’m still trying to identify some of the local flowers but not having much luck. Not many books at the local library. I’ll just post some pictures another time. Have read some interesting articles on how the universe may be electrified, and how this helps explain the observable universe.
I’ve got the internet here, but it’s at an internet cafe and other people around. Too many distractions, so I’ll just make small posts. Till next time…
Written on June 27, 2008 by Kevin in Uncategorized
Hello from the Philippines. It was a long flight, actually three flights in total, but we made it here safely. We are in the southern Philippines, on the island of Mindanao. Everyone was happy to see us as it has been almost three years since we’ve been here. I took video of our property and our new fence here. As you can see, we have some banana and abocado plants inside the fence. Mom planted some colorful flowers on the outside which gives the property a pleasing look.
We don’t have internet access in the house, but we do over at my sister-in-law’s home. She has a Smart Bro wireless connection which is ok, but not as fast as I like. I’m looking into the possibility of connecting my laptop into the network of the local internet cafe because they have a DSL connection. If I can get a fast connection, I would like to teach the Peg System class over at Wiziq. Stay tuned as I will also introduce my new Ning network for science teachers.
On a different topic, I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Martin and his wife Feyma over at the SM mall in Davao the other day. He’s got a really nice magazine blog over at Live in the Philippines. We talked about many things and it’s good to have someone near who knows the ropes for living here in this area. Check out his site, I read it all the time.
Written on June 15, 2008 by Kevin in Uncategorized
Yes, school is done till next school year. The Mars habitat went smoothly and the rest of the end of year activities were completed on time. I am now in packing mode as my wife and I and our three year old daughter are getting ready for out trip to the Philippines this week.
I’m taking my laptop and I hope to continue to post here at Siyensya. I am planning to teach a few science lessons in an elementary school in Mindanao. I’ll repeat the lab on how to change the density of water and keep them separated. I also have a few other science lessons ready. I bought QuickTime Pro which will allow me to post using video from our cell phone. I think school activities will be easier to record with small camera phones than with my digital cam. I’ll experiment and see which is best under the circumstances.
We will be gong to Moalboal, Cebu to take some time off and get our feet wet and go swimming. I want to do some scuba diving and introduce my daughter to fun and excitement of learning about the ocean. While in Digos, I hope to find a small apartment to rent for our shelter and see who may be interested in helping us there. I’m also looking forward to some tasty mangoes and other Philippine foods. Have a great summer and check back again. Till next time…
Written on April 10, 2008 by Kevin in Uncategorized
Here is some video of when I taught the three color density lab while in the Philippines. I did this with over 100 students. To change the density of the water, we added different amounts of salt to create different densities and gave each layer a different color using food coloring. We then decanted each layer into a plastic cup. We did this outside the school under an overhang on a very hot day. As you can see, many of the students did very well.
