Kumusta, friend!
Welcome to the homepage for
the Philippine Immersion Experience (PIE)! The first PIE group has
returned from the Philippines, and we are excited to share our stories with
you! We invite you to turn these memorable pages with us.
Maraming salamat po!
PIE
Picture of the Week
PIE at Philippine Congress
This picture is in our first week into the Philippines.
G thought that it would be wise not to push us too hard physically at the
beginning mostly because we needed to adjust to the fifteen hour time different
(I certainly did; It also helped me recover from stomach problems that I had
immediately by the time I stepped off the airplane! It lasted for about a
week.) On this particular day, we ended up visiting Congress.
Unfortunately, they held their meetings later in the evening, so we were unable
to attend. We were given, however, our own personal tour of the place! In
this picture, I think we are posing in the office of the Speaker of the House.
For those interested in a tidbit of trivia, the U.S. Speaker of the house today
is Dennis Hastert (of course, I had to google that information). Probably
a more well-known one in our past is Newt Gingrich. It was interesting for
me to learn how the structure of Philippine government is based on the structure
of U.S. government mostly because of the U.S. occupation a while back. This form
of government was adopted in 1987 when Corazon Aquino came into power following
the end of Marcos' Regime (did you know Corazon Aquino received an honorary
degree from Seattle University about five years ago?). One difference is that
they elect the president for only one-term who serves for a six year period.
If any of you have been keeping track of the news, there was
an attempted coup a month ago on the President and a state of emergency was
declared. You can read about it by going to this link http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/article/0,9754,1167191,00.html
Let us pray for peace in the Philippines during this time of
political unrest and for the safety of all involved.
~ Ryan
Rallanka, PIE 2005 Volunteer
