Last year I went to the Philippines to study at a filmschool in Cebu for one year, it was perfect since I am half filipino and wanted to see the country my mother is from. I took alot of pictures during my stay in asia and here I want to share a few that I took with a small russian automatic film camera called the Lomo LCA. All these pics were taken on the way to the studio by foot and tricycle (small moped with extra seat on the side).

The Philippines is the biggest christian country in asia this little church was right in front of the place I used to stay, right in the middle of nowhere. I used to see some people holding a mess while walking by even at night sometimes.

Right next to it was this little factory where a few filipinos made hand crafted furniture and art all made out of wood and recycled products. Some of their works looked really interesting at this time they made chairs and some kind of figurine that looked like a mix of a swan and a dog to me.

Here you can actually see one of those tricycles I usually gave them around 10pesos to take me from my place to the studio when I was in a rush and if it was just to hot outside to take the walk. I remember that I was one of the very few white people living in this area so all the people just stared at me,  it felt really uncomfortable.

There was a middle / junior high school on the way to the studio, you could see all the kids in the morning in coming to school with the “Jeepney” the local bus which is some kind of transformed G.I. Jeep leftover from WW2 times but most of the traditional ones were driving in the inner citys and in Manila so they had those Suzuki Multicabs transformed which were a little more modern. If I remember right the first 3-5km or so cost you 6 pesos in Euro thats not even 1 cent! unbelievable. To get out of a Jeepney you had to knock your money on the ceiling haha.

The walls at the school were painted with bible verses and stuff like peace signs.

This is the street to my place, in the back the white little minivan is one of those multicabs but I think this one was the water delivery guy.

Barangay comes from the spanish word “barrio” which means your area or neighborhood.

This is a “Sari Sari Store” you can compare those to your local kiosk, a small store that sells you snacks, drinks and cigarettes mostly owned and operated by a family a bottle of coke costs around 5 peso. Tanduay is the biggest brand of Rum in the Philippines got a little to much of this stuff a few times pretty strong but tastes alright with coke :).

People sitting in a Jeepney.

Finally at the studio, this time its me sitting in front of the camera talking about global warming on a hot ass day, guys had fun shooting a little mockumentary.  I had a fun time in the Philippines, alot of new experiences, met interesting people and I kinda miss it too even though at the end I couldnt wait to go see new horizons.

Chrishimself

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