Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I Warned You All I Was Bad At Blogging

Since it has been so long since my last blog post I figured that I needed to give ya'll an update. Things have been quiet busy here in the past few weeks so this is a highly condensed version.

Masskara:

The Filipino version of Mardi Gras. This a huge festival that our clusters attended through the kind invitation of the DepED department in Bacolud. The festival itself dates back to the "Filipino Depression" times when the sugarcane industry was in tatters, so the people put on smiling masks in defiance and went out and party'd it up in the streets. All of the schools in the area create elaborate dance routines and masks in hopes of joining in the final dance performance, alas only 11 schools were chosen, 7 elementary schools and 4 high schools.

Because we were invited guests, and we're American, we were given awesome seats to watch the performances from, and the performances were equally as awesome. I don't think I've ever seen a dance that well choreographed from 6-15 year olds, or ever for that matter. The costumes were beautiful and the enthusiasm the dancers had for the festival was blatantly obvious. The only downside to this whole experience was that the judges wanted to rule out the chance that the music choices for the dance might affect their scores, so we listened to the same song being played for 6 hours straight. Now don't get me wrong, the song was catchy the first or second time you heard it, maybe even the third, but after the 50th time it started to grate on my nerves.

After the dancing ended we ate at a street restaurant and enjoyed some truly spectacular chicken inasal and spent the remainder of the night visiting with our own cluster mates, and all of the current volunteers who came for the festival. It was an event that I look forward to coming to again in the future.

Mail:

My cluster mate Andrew recently received a package from back home, in this magical box of wonders was miniature electric fans for everyone in our cluster..with Florida Gator logos on them; thus (even if I don't watch football) he has made me a Gator Fan, score a point for Andrew!

I Also received a letter from my old roommate in college, Leslie, shout out to Leslie everyone, she's the only letter I've received so far!

Also, I found out that my parents sent me two packages containing much needed supplies...what could those be I wonder......books and yarn! duh! Very much looking forward to those!


I want to take a moment to encourage everyone reading this to send their Peace Corps volunteer a letter from home, emails and Facebook are nice, but there's nothing quiet like opening a handwritten letter from home, and boy does it notch the enthusiasm and happiness over here up a few levels!
Our training is starting to come to a close now with our LPI ( Language Test) next week, and then our counterparts conference the week after that. So with that we're starting to pack our things and say goodbye to our current host families. I will really miss my family here, they have been nothing but kind and generous by having me here. I know without a doubt that I will be visiting them in the future and hope to repay their kindness in anyway that I can.

That's all for now folks!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

And so the smiles continue

Last week we headed to Bacolud for our Supervisors Conference, in which we would meet our supervisors for the next two years and find out where we would be living for the next two years. Continuing the Peace Corps tradition secrecy, we were not told what our eventual site would be until the end of the day, and even then only by hearing out names one by one and then going up to find out picture on a giant white board and placing it on an equally giant map of the Philippines.
Throughout the rest of the conference we listened to endless talks and speeches, given by both the current PCVs and staff. Finally when we were done with the bureaucracy that is a government agency we ventured forth unto our sites.

Our drive to Kabankalan was uneventful but full of questions about both myself and my site mate Kelsey. When we arrived we were swiftly taken to our respective schools and greeted with full fanfare. I found myself exiting the car to the sounds of a band playing their drums, and looked to see the baton corps twirling away. I walked past them to through the school and throngs of screaming teens to continue onto the basketball court and in between a line of ROTC like students on either side of me standing at attention. What a feeling! And the smiling continues.

The school had a wonderful welcome program for me which included performances by the students in their traditional folk dances and the senior boys break dancing to the song "Solo". I was then asked to get up in front of the school and say a few words....ooookay..and I did..and they screamed...honestly i'm not sure that they understood a word that I said.



After the program the school had a welcome luncheon with the other teachers and members of the PTA. The luncheon was just as wonderful as the program..and filled with just as many questions...and so the smiling continues.

Whisked away after that we performed our courtesy calls to the superintendent and mayor's office, and so on and so forth.

It wasn't until around 7pm that I met my host family and saw my future house, 8 hours after my initial arrival into the city. My family consists of my mother (Geralynn, 34), father (Ricky, 39), brother (Karl,9), and younger brother (Clark, 6). Armed to the teeth with gifts for the family I distributed them soon after my arrival. The two yo-yos that I brought for the boys went over extremely well, Twister and Uno, not so much. I learned that the father and Karl live in one house during the week because there are no boarders so the house sits empty, while my host mother, Clark and I will live in another. The house itself is very nice, and my room is double that of my room back in California!

We ate dinner and the typical questions we discussed, and my host mother learned that I don't eat fish, quickly told me that if I ate fish I would lose more weight, and that I would learn to love it. And the smiles continue...

After dinner we had a brown out and the house was pitch black. Poor Clark was just sitting at the table with his head on his arms waiting for something to do. So I gave him my Ipod Touch to play on, figuring that because he and Logen are only weeks apart in age they would like the same game, boy was I right.He played until he had almost drained my battery and I had to pry it from his hands to go to bed. Early the next morning he barged into my room, just in the nick of time because I had barely finished dressing, and we had an exchange:

Clark: (Hiligaynon)
Me: Indi ako inchiyendi, hini hini lang ( I don't understand, slower)
Clark: ( Hiligaynon)
Me: English!
Clark: (points with his hands like he has the ipod) "screech, vroom, crash crash"
Me: Oh! you want to play light bike? the game?
Clark: yes!
Me: Okay

On Saturday we went to the beautiful Mag-Asa falls that the city is known for, and beautiful they were. The water was so blue that you could see to the bottom. Both my supervisor and counterparts were so excited when they heard that my dad had gone to Mag-Asa while he was in the Philippines, they insisted that I take dozens of pictures to show him, and so we did, and the smiles continued.

Later at dinner with Kelsey's family we discussed my lack of want for fish and my weight and Kelsey's weight, and how they are all going to find us boyfriends so that we will be more mindful of our weight, and so the smiles continued, they all meant well really.

Later that evening I found out that Clark likes to play chess so we sat down and played a few games. Again the conversation went as follows:

Me: Ikaw (you)
Clark: (moves)
Me: You can't do that with the horse! Isalang kag duwalang ( one and two)
Clark: Si pwede ( yes I can)
Me: Wala (no)
Clark: Indi pwede ka-on (no you'll eat it)
Me: Huo pwede ka-on (yes I can)
Clark: (Hiligaynon with gestures)
Me : ( English with gestures)

and so we would continue arguing in Hiligaynish until one of us eventually moved :)

Upon our departure Clark was very sad to see me go and I received a phone call earlier tonight with a sobbing Clark on the other end asking when I would be back, if only he knew how my family stateside must feel.....but in six weeks I'll be back to arguing with him in two languages, watching Dora and Yu-gi-oh and unsuccessfully teaching him to play Twister.

Six weeks.

* For pictures see my facebook page



Monday, August 23, 2010

Ma'am survives a minor heart attack

We ended staging with a group activity and the appointment of group leaders, and as any of you who know me already have guessed, I volunteered for the job. Yay me! We got up at the brisk hour of 4 to pack everyone in the bus and be on our way to JFK. I can now honestly say that I have driven through the heart of New York City, right past Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building.
As we arrived at the airport it was my job as the group leader in charge of checking in to determine how 81 people were going to check their luggage in an orderly fashion;and after much confusion involving kiosks that wouldn't work and broken baggage, everyone was checked in and we made our way. Off we go! We boarded the plane after getting our seat assignments and I settled into my seat for the international flight. Very plush I might add, I had emergency row seating right next to a window for 12 hours! what more could I ask for! And then it happened. My heart attack began.

Another Peace Corps volunteer came up to me as I finished settling into my seat and said " you're in my seat"
"No, I'm in my seat"
"See, my boarding pass has this number"
" See, so does mine"
At this point the flight attendant was asked to come over and we looked at the boarding passes, only to determine that they had the same name on them, and it wasn't mine.

I walked off of the plane nd to the front desk to be told that I hadn't even been check in for the lfight in the first place, somehow I was checked in under another name. I could feel my heart seize under my shirt. "I'm not going to get on this plane" I thought "I'm not going to make it to the Philippines, all of this work will have been for nothing".

My guess is that upon seeing my face turn a nice shade of milky white the gentleman at the counter assured me that I would indeed be checked in and make it on the flight. Thank God.

I was placed in the bulkhead seating with nobody else in my row, maybe the fiasco was a miracle in disguise.

We arrived in the Philippines to a nice crowd of Peace Corps volunteers and taken to our hotel for the week. This hotel is beautiful and the weather is humid. One thing that I cannot seem to get over though is the idea that every pinoy calls everyone else Ma'am or Sir. "Please Ma'am" the gentleman says as he reaches for my water glass in the morning, "Good morning Ma'am" the lady walking down the hall says, "how are you Ma'am" the man says as he opens the doors for me. Ma'am?? I'm too young to be a Ma'am! My mom says she's even too young to be a Ma'am. Ma'am?

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

And we're off!

And so, ladies and gentleman, begins my epic adventure that is sure to be the Peace Corps.

I said my goodbyes to my family at the early hour of 7 am this morning while trying to stifle both the upwelling tears as I realized that I would not simply be going away to college within driving distance, and the nausea rising from an eclectic mixture of fear and excitement.

As I was about to board the plane, not knowing a single fact about who I would be serving with or what they would look like, I hear a conversation in front of my that remarkably resembled the subject matter of many of the emails I have received recently from the Peace Corps. Gathering all of the courage that I had left in my body I asked " Excuse me, are you guys part of the Peace Corps?" and as if the heavens broke open with a choir of angels; their answer was yes. I had met my first friends in the Peace Corps, Thank God!
As we were getting ready to depart the terminal one of the ladies very kindly came back to my seat and asked if i would like to sit next to them, as nobody was occupying that seat, and while i meekly responded that I was fine where I was, my fear and anxiousness about this trip began to trickle away one drop at a time. " Okay" I thought, "this isn't going to be as bad as I thought it was going to be".

We landed and my new found friends were nowhere to be seen until they found me at the baggage carousel, and my nerves were back. But as quickly as they came, they were gone. Suddenly I was surrounded not just by two, but five other peace corps volunteers! "Hey! Are you a volunteer??? Yes! I didn't know anyone else!" and so on. I quickly realized that I was not the only volunteer who was nervous and hadn't slept at all the night before, but somehow we formed an odd group of somehow sure but not so sure volunteers.

After we all checked into our hotel we left for dinner and spent a busy 2.5 hours at a nearby restaurant talking about a plethora of subjects. I no longer feel as though I am the only quirky volunteer left out of the loop, just a member of a far larger group.

These kind people who have accepted each other will surely be one of the most fascinating adventures of my life....let it begin.


* Anything expressed herein does not reflect the thoughts or opinions of the United States Peace Corps, they are my own.