Monday, February 13, 2012

My Library Project: How Far Can Your Donation Go?


The Library Committee with all of the books.
The Library Committee showing off the books.

Some of you may have seen or received various messages from me about the library project that I have started here at my school for the students. Currently our school (of approximately 1600 students) doesn't have a library...and when I say that I don't mean a shelf of books that sits in a corner not counting as a library, I mean nothing, no library what-so-ever. The Peace Corps provides help for funding projects like these through various programs, one of which is the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP), this program posts my grant online and gives people like you an opportunity to donate your money towards my project while at the same time receiving a tax break for next year.

Our project needs about $3000 to move forward. These funds will buy shelves,books, an air con for the library, a copier for the teachers, and furnishings for the room. $3000 to help students read and escape their everyday lives. So! Just how far can your donation go? Below are some examples:

$1-- 4 Books
$5-- 20 Books or 400 copies of handouts
$20-- 80 Books or 1,200 copies
$50-- 200 Books


If any of you would like a complete copy of my 16 page grant (with the background information, budget, and breakdown of how the project will be completed) please let me know and I would be more than happy to email it to you.


I would also like to include pictures of our library committee in this post. The Library Committee is entirely made up of students. During the past two months they have been collecting money through a Piso for the Library Drive and by holding a Valentine Gram Drive. Through these fundraising activities the committee had raised enough funds to buy 245 books for the library.

Here is the link for the donation site:


Monday, January 23, 2012

New Place

Sometime during the Christmas vacation I decided that I wanted to move out once and for all. After the break I started looking for a new apartment (at the time one that would accommodate Gaya) and soon found one that was way out of my price range :) The Peace Corps came and checked it last week and I will only have to pay a little out of pocket which is nice. After packing up all of my things and having one teacher and two of the fourth year students help me move I was all set.
I love this new place infinitely more than I can say. I forgot what it was like to be independent. To not have to worry about whether or not the gate would be locked at the seemingly normal time of 7pm. To not have to sit there as the smell of fish permeates every inch of the house. To not have to listen to two young boys fighting and then inevitably crying when one of them gets into trouble. This new place is my sanctuary. Only I get to say what happens here, when it happens, or if it even happens at all. (Well me and the ghost that I'm pretty sure I have)

This new place is only two rooms but it's all tile and I have an actual shower which is invaluable here to a volunteer. I also have a remote control aircon in my room and a ceiling fan (a dangerous combination I know). It's quiet and everyone there is used to having foreigners live there for short times so they speak a little English and are friendly but at the same time respectful of independence and privacy.
The first night is the worst (as with any place). I was sleeping on the floor (having not yet traveled to the big city to buy foam) and around 3 in the morning I heard the unmistakable CRASH of glass breaking...Quickly thinking to myself, I only have one glass thing and that was on the other side of the counter tops, far away from where it could have easily fallen and broke...So either I have a ghost who likes to throw glass or someone is breaking into the apartment...and if that's the case I'm going to lay here in my bedroom and wait for them to leave (my bedroom door is solid with 3 locks and a window with steel along the outside. When I woke up though it was just the glass on the floor....I'm going to say it's a ghost instead of rat...they're less frightening.
Other than that everything is going well. I started a small fire last night by trying to make popcorn on the stove top and heating the oil too quickly....but my mom taught me never to put water on an oil fire and it quickly extinguished itself...no big deal. I'm excited to have more visitors come and hang in the wonderful wonderful nothing that is Kabankalan.

Let the visitation begin!

Friday, January 6, 2012

R.I.P. Gaya

I came home from vacation excited to see my dog. When I got to my counterparts house to get her she was kind of lethargic and they told me that she didn't eat her breakfast that morning..probably because of her skin disease...what skin disease? I took her home and she started to vomit and have LBM so I took her to the vet the next day. The vet said she had hook worms again (despite being de-wormed at the beginning of December) and a bacterial infection. So I got antibiotics and anti diarrhea medications for her.

Next Day: Still not better, okay. Sometimes it takes meds a little while to work.

Two Days Ago: Still not better. So I took her back to the vet. She got an I.V. for dehydration and I.V. antibiotics.

Yesterday I went back to the vet to get a refill for her I.V. Fluids and went to work. I came back two hours later to give her her medication and sad to say she was dead.

It was a very heart breaking experience because I had to go to my school in tears and ask one of the few teachers who I consider to be my friend to help me get rid of her. He asked me what I wanted to do and, being in tears, I said I had no idea. What did they do with dead animals in this country?

He told me I could bury her in the school and I said that would be great.
So he took two students to my house and got her and then they buried her in the math garden at my school while a little ceremony from my other friend teachers. One of the students is painting a sign now that says "Gaya's Garden".

All in all it was a surreal experience. The teachers at my school went like this - (Friend teachers)- Oh Megan I'm so sorry, I'll get you another dog, one of my neighbors have them.

Non- Friend Teachers- Oh she died because you (insert excuse here). For example, you left her in your room so she suffocated.

One of my FT also "sponsored" me for five beers last night :) Leanna also came down to spend the day with me and help me house shop.

SO all in all of course I still feel horrible, I had the dog for a little over a month and she's dead, how do you expect me to feel? But this experience really solidified what I've observed about the Filipino culture and how they treat animals in this country. I'm going to try to get over it in the next few months by throwing myself into moving, the Sinulog festival, my library, and my mom's visit.

Thank you all though for your well wishes.

Meg

New Years Eve

Written on January 3rd, 2011

This year’s New Years Eve was a fun event all around. Our Christmas group went up to El Nido to visit another volunteer’s site and house. It was really really nice. Our activities included island hopping in beautiful water, SCUBA Diving (which admittedly wasn’t as great as Apo Island) and TONS of fireworks. No. Seriously. It was what I would expect a warzone to be like. The streets were dark and smoky from the fireworks. You couldn’t walk anywhere without having to thoroughly search the area for a lit fuse, children ran screaming in every direction, and even then you had the occasional lit firecracker fly your way. The climactic event of the night was when we were all sitting on some steps on the beach waiting for the countdown to end. These two men came up with a string of firecrackers….no big deal. And by string I mean a four-foot long string connected together…which they lit…still no big deal. And then it happened… some tourists sitting next to us had a big box of fireworks that they lit… you know the ones I’m talking about. About the size of a small moving box, they shoot lights up into the air about fifteen feet and go on for 3-4 minutes…well they lit that ( in front of the crowded restaurant where they were sitting) and it went off….and then fell….and starting shooting EVERYWHERE! Into the restaurant, into the beach, and most especially at us. Poor Matt actually was hit dead on by one of the lights; luckily he wasn’t hurt at all.

Now I’m sitting the airport writing this and looking up activities for when my mom comes to visit.

ALSO! I’ve decided to move into a place of my own. Being at Leah’s house just reminded me that I really do love having my own independence and I’ve been missing it. Now that I have Gaya I have a legitimate excuse to tell my host family I want to move out. I didn’t realize how unhappy I was living with my host family until I started thinking about what I would need to get for the house and it made me extremely happy. Weird huh?

Song of the Day: La-Da-Di by the Beatles.