Lantern making

Check out the gorgeous star lantern which I made yesterday. It took more than four hours of cutting, pasting and gluing but I am pretty proud of the final product!

I was guided through the lantern making process by Ferdi, my Tagalog teacher. Being from Pamapanga, an area famous for its lanterns, Ferdi was not only well qualified in the art of lantern making but could also fill us in on some of the history and significance of them. According to him the lanterns were originally used to light the path to midnight mass at the local church. The star shape symbolised the star of Bethelehem.

Now just in case you want to make your own Star latern here is how it is done:

Materials you will need: Bamboo sticks, rubber bands, sheets of tissue paper, sheets of cellophane, glue, scissors, blade, lots of patience and a dash of creativity!

Assemble ten pieces of bamboo into two identical star shapes and secure with rubber bands. Stretch bamboo and insert another short piece of bamboo to make a three dimensional star. Glue to secure. (As you can see from the picture stretching the bamboo takes quite a bit of strength!)

Step 2: Choose either tissue paper or cellophane to cover the sides of the lantern. Cut out and paste onto bamboo. Once the glue dries, trim the excess paper.

Step 3: Choose paper/cellophane for the front and back panes of the star. Cut out, paste and trim. (modelled here by Sarah)

Step 4: Cover up your mistakes and add gorgeousness with a gold trim


Step 5: Make the tails for the latern....cutting intricate pattern from tissue paper and attaching with string.

Step 6: Cover up mistakes and add more gorgeousness with "booties" and fans.

Step 7: Ooh and aah at your deft handiwork!

Building fences

On Saturday I headed to Los Banos to help build a wall at "Bahay Tuluyan", a centre for abused and exploited street children. I joined a bunch of other Aussie volunteers as well as children from the centre hauling bricks, mixing concrete and watching our wall get higher and higher. It was a great day- so much fun hanging out with the kids even if I did get beaten many times at arm wrestling and thumb wars!

Festive school

Last week I visited a school in Quezon City which like the rest of the country was very much in the festive spirit. Check out some of the gorgeous decorations the kids had made... The star lanterns are a favourite in the Philippines and my Tagalog teacher is teaching a group of us how to make them on Sunday. Will report back.

Storm brewing?

Over the weekend another typhoon hit the Philippines. This time it was further south passing though the Visayas areas and thankfully causing a lot less damage than the Typhoon Durian.

Interestingly, the Government used the storm as an excuse to postpone the ASEAN summit scheduled to start in Cebu City on Sunday. Officially the President said that the summit was being postponed because "The Philippines, as this year's ASEAN chair, is responsible for the safety and well-being of the participants in the face of the approaching storm"....But many commentators think that the real reason for the cancellation may be the travel advisories issued by foreign governments on Friday warning against a terroist threat AND the fact that venue in Cebu City had not been finished (!)

MTV Summit

Last night was the MTV Staying Alive Summit; a concert to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. The event attracted a crowd of 40,000 with perfomances by 20 local bands. It was fantastic to see so many people enjoying the music and at the same time learning more about HIV. I was pretty blown away that such an event could happen here- were lots of messages about condom use and safe sex which are often taboo subjects in this very Catholic country. I spent some time working with enthusiastic volunteers and also enjoyed the privileges of VIP area where I got to rub shoulders with lots of bands I had never heard of before...a very interesting night!

Disaster fatigue?

Over the weekend I had a lot of phone calls from family and friends worried about the typhoon and mudslides in the Philippines. While it seems that the disaster is big news at home and internationally, here in Manila the event seems to have hardly registered in the public consiousness. Of course there is media coverage but people here are hardly talking about it. Certainly it is not nearly as big a story as the recent win in the boxing ring by a Filipino (Manny Pacquiao) in Las Vegas...

Could it be that the country has disaster fatigue? With so many natural disasters happening here (this year alone there has been more than 10 typhoons that have caused widespread damage, two volcanoes that have erupted) perhaps the population just can’t cope with any more bad news?

Phew

Another typhoon hit the Philippines last night. The awfully named typhoon "Durian" was supposed to hit Manila but changed course at the last minute....phew!
But other areas of the country were not so lucky. News is just coming through that 146 people have died and many more are injured in the Bicol region south of the capital.