My adventures in the Philippines: Almost 8 weeks in!

Wow, can you believe I have been here for nearly 8 weeks where has time gone!
And things have been going pretty well! Work has been pretty busy with continuing establishing positive relationships with both the university and of course the teachers and students I work with. I have also established an Individual Education Plan that will help support learning outcomes. I have spent two days observing the elementary classes and have begun to grasp an understanding on the education system of the Philippines. I enjoyed watching the 40 students in each class as they stood up to welcome 'teacher Zoe' into the class and as I was leaving stood up to say goodbye. I love the fact now that I can walk around the school and hear children jumping up and down calling out 'Teacher Zoe, Teacher Zoe' across the yard! I also found it quite amusing as each student during a break came up to me to ask if they could use the CR (comfort room) and when I said yes, half the class would laugh at me! I'm not sure whether the students really needed to use the comfort room or whether it was my strange accent that they wanted to hear!
After six weeks of emailing to get sponsorship, I recieved my first donation from an Resource for the Blind in America - they have donated some picture story books for the children written in braille!
I have also just recently finished interviewing the families at the centre and the stories they have told are amazing. With the two teachers, we have updated all the children's information and assessed the students level of independence.
This week has seen the first week of holidays - it is there semester break so the school is closed for three weeks, however I am busy working as I have lots of work to get done before I head away the weekend after next!
I have also been busy being a 'tourist' around the Philippines as I have started to travel out of Cebu City.
A couple of weekends ago I decided to test my new underwater camera at Apo Island just off the Island of Negros. I stayed with a friend in Dumaguete and went out to Apo Island on the Saturday. Although I was the only one snorkelling, the rest were diving I still had a ball watching the fish go by! The coral was amazing and even better I got to see my first turtle! It was a little disappointing that I only saw one but one is better than none! This trip has made me consider getting my diving license so will be doing my first discovery dive this Saturday and will decide then whether I can go ahead and get my certification.
Last weekend saw me head to Bacolod to visit some friends but also to see the big Masskara festival. Masskara means 'Multititude of Smiling faces" as the story goes the town back in the 80's experienced a crisis with a boat that collided with another boat killing about 700 people from Bacolod which cause a very depressed feel around the town so the local government decided to throw a festival. It was a big couple of nights with lots of street parades, street parties, lots of crazy food and mixing with fellow volunteers. It was really good to catch up with everyone. I also had the opportunity to visit some of the heritage houses and see the Ruins. It was a very short trip but well worth it!
Next weekend will be a quite one (apart from my dive) but then for the next couple of weekends/weeks I will be away seeing many islands in the Philippines! We also welcome the next lots of volunteers in the first week of November and our intake have the job of organising and running some of the sessions!
Apart from travelling and working, I have started to enjoy a regular lesson or dance out of Belly dancing as well as running and swimming!
With the typhoon up in Manila we have been getting alot of rain and many thunderstorms but apart from that all is going well!
Hope everyone is going well back home!
Lots of love Zoe