Monday, June 26, 2006

Here in the Philippines when you take the
students on a field trip you always
take the National form of Transportation
The Jeepney!
Equally as rowdy as its American counterpart.


Waiting for the others...

Some of the fine teaching staff at Jorge M. Padilla National High School.
Speaks for itself
....

Here we are at swear in with our Bagac cluster mates Crystal n Aaron. Aaron is on a tiny island called Busuanga and Crystal works on Marinduque just south of Luzon.


Fellow PCV Keith and I enjoying a few cold ones. in Tarlac City.
Kate and I on a trike somewhere in the Philippines!

Friday, June 23, 2006

Oh my God! Are you guys, sick of me saying how HOT it is?!! To make matters worse the women here dress conservitively for work and wear pants with no air con! I am so glad when it's time to go home so I can change into shorts and a tank top. But that just means more laundry. I have literlly broken my skin open washing clothes by hand. Have you ever washed a weeks worth of clothes for two people, including jeans, bed sheets and towels? I am getting a serious work out, or should I say "we", Pat does the laundry with me, and the women and men laugh at seeing him wash clothes. They say he losses a little machismo every time he does the washing with me. Men do not do help with the laundry here, or cook dinner, or wash dishes.

So to back track a little we had our Swear in Ceremony on June 1st. It was HOT ( go figure) and so much fun. Two other HUB's from Northern Luzon and from Bicol were there ( we were located in MIMAPA 3 region) , so it was like a little reunion as we had not seen the other volunteers since our first week in country. After some interviews and the actual ceremony most of us went to Manila for a few nights before we left for our actual sites. Manila was great, as we got to eat some foods that were more familure to us. Back in the states we would go to local places for pizza and pasta and "American food", but now we all go to the American chain restaurants like Pizza Hut and TGI fridays, just for the sheer factor of knowing we will like it. The Burgers and Fries are a popular choice at TGI's. But ther perils of Manila would be that you have more places to spend your PC allowence and it can go really fast. Too fast. When we only receive a little over 7,000 pesos a month and a meal at TGI's can cost you upwards of 800 pesos, and that's only one meal...it dissapears. However sometimes it's just worth it.

We left Manila on June 5th and got to our site, Laur later that day. Our host family is super nice. Ate Dory and her husband Kuya Cecil are wonderful people. The family consists of them with their youngest son, Arnell (25 y.o.), and their grandson, Carlo (7 y.o.) who's mom works in another area of the province. On the same land, there is a nippa hut and there lives their oldest son, Allen (30 ish) his wife, Hilda ( 28ish)and their son Arron (3 y.o.). We have a great time with the kids and their family. I help cook dinner with Ate Dory, so I get to learn how to make Pinoy dishes. They hardly speak any English ( although I know they understand it) so our Tagalog is improving quickly.

I work at a Home for Girls who have been sexually aboused by a family member or been forced into prostitution. Myfirst day there, I walk in and say my few Tagalog phrases that I know and it's all a flurry of greetings by the girls and staff members ( minus my supervisor as she is not in that day). I am told that the Center is in the middle of an audit, so that's what they will be doing "What will you be doing today?" they ask...So I ask for a desk as all PCV's are supposed to have one and they say they don't have one for me, I ask for a table. They find a plastic outdoor table and set it up for me. The fan does not reach me, so I am panting like a dog and sweating horribly. I read some files and then go talk to to the girls. Of course my tagalog is horrible and their English is better then my Tagalog, but they are too shy and embaraassed to speak to me, except for a select few girls. It actually ends up being a fun day, but not sure I would say "productuve" in the American sense, where it's more goal oriented and outcome based. The next day my "desk" is missing...I ask for it and it was outside as they used it to play games on it the night before. I had papers on the table, but those are missing as well. So again I hang out with the girls and try to communicate with them. We talk about favorite Tagalog songs, favorite videoke songs, etc. They ask about things in America, like are "women liberated Tita Kate"? So I know what they mean, but I ask them to explain what they mean by "liberated". Of course we end up talking about their idea of American women having "lose morals" and having sex with any one. We actually end up having a good cross- cultural exchange (a goal in PC). And to think that in America "liberated" can be so positive! They next day it is pretty much the same thing, desk is missing, have to go find it and I hang out with the girls. I am going to give up on the desk I think...although I wonder if it is actually a test...

We have almost been at site for three weeks and sometimes I feel like the day could not get any longer and then sometimes I feel like the day flew by. I have a feeling it will be like this for the next two years. At the swear in Ceremony PC showed us this graph that charted the average PCV's emotional state during the 27 months of service and we all kinda laughed at it. The first three months of training it climbs to a great peak and then at month 3 when you arrive to your site the line on the graph just plummets to below the baseline into a big ditch and it's like that for the next three months...then it rises out of this horrible low into a a gradual peak again...we can see what they mean by that graph now. We miss our other American friends, our chance to vent to one another every day. We had a rountine down in Bagac while in training and now that's gone. We had our day dictated to us and now we have to create our schedule. We had our first host family "broken in" so to speak with what we liked and disliked, now we have to do that again...it can be a hard adjustment. Pat and I are lucky to have each other at least. The single volunteers are seriously alone at their sites.

All in all though it has been great, some days are just better then others.