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