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