damo salamat pilipinas

Well this post is long long over due. I'm not really sure if I want to say everything I have to say.
Things in my Peace Corps service didn't end quite like I wanted them to. I kind of shut down, and just wanted to come home. I did what I could, but can't help I could have done better. But maybe considering it all I was just lucky to be being as put together as I could be.
As I've mentioned several times, my town always made me feel warm welcome and safe. That being said, I did have an incident one weekend (about the time I stopped posting). I've always been a light sleeper, and the rat situation I had didn't help with this at all. I heard the sound of a plastic bag in my room in the middle of the night, and kind of snapped my fingers like I always did. It didn't stop. Finally I sat up and turned on my flashlight, and there was the rat. But this time, the rat was a boy. A kid of maybe 16, in shorts no tsinellas. Going through the things on my chair. I'm super embarrassed to say I kind of panicked   and just started screaming bloody murder, "LALAKI!!" Over and over again. But to my defense, while screaming, in this split seconds I did realize I was so much bigger than this kid and knew that if he came toward me I'd straight up pummel him. Luckily he was just as afraid as I was and scurried off to whatever whole he came in from. Most likely the kitchen, where the walls don't reach the ceiling.
It changed everything. I started hating that I stuck out like a tall white girl in a short brown country. I hated how targeted I felt. I'm not rich, but I'm American so might as well be. I know that that kid just wanted things, but it still feels awful to be the target of that.
Honestly, my service after that is a major blur. I know my library opened. I know I had a really hard time saying goodbye. I know I felt so loved. I know these things, but all I felt was just not knowing how to feel. If that even makes sense.
Luckily, since being home, I've been able to see slowly and slowly beyond that night to what I just did.
I just completed the Peace Corps. That is huge. That is amazing. That is just more than I'll be able to get a concept of for years to come.
The journey still continues, but I think the blog has come to an end.
Thank you Philippines. Thank you so much.

all shook up

The end is coming. I can see it. This is kind if heavy thought on so many levels. Lots of things have been happening lately, but nothing has had me quite as shook up as the earth quake we had this past weekend.
I know some of you heard of it from the emails and messages that were waiting for me Monday morning. Oh the love.
This one was a big deal and we're pretty lucky.
It was off the coast of the other island in my region, Samar. It was pretty strong and lasted quite some time, even here quite a ways away. Things were falling over and my little room was swaying. Not to get my natural disasters confused but my thoughts were slightly Wizard of Ozish as I sat on my moving bed. I thought of getting in door way, but figured who has the time. I didn't know the earthquake would last forever.
Luckily it was based almost in the Philippine trench, and luckily it was more horizontal than vertical. We were out under tsunami alert (which me being in land doesn't affect) but nothing happened.
Quite and adventure.

extra behaved

Fact: third graders are wild and crazy, unless they aren't actually in your class.
The other day these boys came and joined my remedial reading class because there class was canceled. Best behaved pupils I've had.

table, schmable....

I never know what I'm going to get with this remedial reading program. Somedays we don't even have a table, so the kids make do.

beware the wild things, they'll melt your heart.

I've mentioned before how this school year a remedial reading program was going to be added to my tasks. It started in July and it has been one struggle of an adventure.
First, the room. I'm in a huge conference hall maybe the size of a small gym. I have one long table. No desks. No chairs. One small chalk board that was brought in later. Two of those round florescent bulbs, and windows for lighting this big space. And two ceiling fans, which I could do a whole blog post on which fans are best. Hint, not ceiling fans. So, not the most conductive to learning environment.
Second, how education outside of the elite class of the school works. It's ignoring the kids making a mess in the CR. Its ignoring the kids not in your class coming in and running around. It's ignoring your own kids running in and out of the classroom. It's ignoring the kids going to the window and yelling across to their classmates in their rooms. It's ignoring the kids trying to throw their tsinellas onto the spinning ceiling fan. It's ignoring the kids hiding in the curtains on the stage. It's ignoring the millions of kids looking in the windows at the class. It's ignoring everything you learned in any educational psychology, classroom behavior, management class you took for all those semesters in college. I'm not quite there yet. The best part is when I tell other teachers, they really don't care.
Third, the pupils. The rotten, naughty, energetic pupils. I love them so hard. they are 8 and 9 year olds. I love their age group. Any and all attempts to figure out what their reading level's are got stuck in the fan with their paper airplanes. So we just do the best we can. They love taking notes, they love reciting, and love me. It's not as vain as it sounds, these kids are all about me. They wait for me at the gate to the school. Class goes until 3:00 because I have Grade 6. They know this, and yet everyday we barter. Teacher can we have class until 5? No, 3 la. 4? I have class at 3. Pout. They come to class when their teacher cancels their class. Yesterday morning I was with grade 5 when one of my students came peering through the window. His teacher cancelled class so he came to hang out with me. He sat for awhile outside, then told me when he was leaving. My grade 5 students wrote papers on their friends and thy kept using the compliment 'small but terrible', I love it. These rem readers are small but terrible and I love it. I'll try to post weekly anecdotes on them.
And really, who cares if they learn anything beyond all the lyrics to Down By the Bay? I'm leaving soon. Joke! But this approach does seem to be most successful here.

pardon the absence

So I realize I've not posted anything in what feels like forever. I'm working on it.
This whole time here I've felt like I've been busy but not really done a lot. A very common Peace Corps feeling I think. However, this last month or so I've felt busy busy. Which is why I've not been the best at updates, but also why I really need to update.
So, heads up, blogs to come!

watering hole

Across the street from my house is a pump that gets a lot of use. I'm not sure if it's more public than other pumps or the water tastes better, but it's busy.
This evening these girls were filling up buckets to take home. They came over and talked to me about school. Eight of them lined up and giggling. Eight of them sisters. Eight, and the oldest is in grade 4. Sounds like the makings for a musical.
I'm going on a major limb of assumption but I doubt their mother is that much older than me, 26 and no kids.
When I came back from getting my camera there were only the five, but still five is a lot of sisters.

back to the polyester

School started this week and I am so pumped about it.
This is the beginning of the end. Once school gets into the flow I'm pretty sure my months here will fly.
English is now only 80 minutes. I love this. One hundred minutes was a beast for everyone involved.
I've been given a bigger space for the library. I love this. The other space would have been fine, but I feel like they are extra pumped about it this year.
We've got huge plans for fundraising.
Starting in July I'll be helping with a reading program for slow and non-readers. I kind of forced myself into this, and I'm stoked.
Lots of good vibes going on and lessons haven't even started yet, and that's my favorite part.

brass monkey, chunky, that funky monkey

More photos of the evil monkeys.
They probably wanted to give us Ebola.

that time we were attacked by monkeys

As kind of the last hurrah for summer I went and visited L in Baybay (pronounced bye bye). Baybay is on my same island, about 2 hours away, but is quite different than Alangalang. They have a bit of a different weather pattern than we do here, but similar enough. They also speak a different language, and really no one knows Waray.
Another big difference is tuba consumption. Here they drink it because the sun was or was not out today. There they need a special occasion. It was fiesta so we stopped at her neighbors and they had some that was extra Coked down and insisted on us drinking. They thought it was a big deal, and now love that L is a tuba drinker. They also acknowledged for us in the northern part it was no big deal. While we sat there drinking there was a bunch of young twenty-somethings who just stared at us too shy to even try to talk to us in English.
We didn't just party and get stared at, we used Saturday to raise our endorphin levels. She'd heard of wild monkeys near her, so we wanted to see. They. Were. Scary.
When we first saw them we were all alone and it was obvious by the way they hissed at us they didn't like us. Then Filipinos came through and the monkeys had no problems. We walked on towards the top of the mountain and there were monkeys on the trial. They hissed and showed us their scary flesh shredding teeth. We managed to go through and get to the top where the zip line was.
Poor L. She's afraid of heights, but was more afraid of going back through the monkeys. We got strapped into the harness an flew down to the bottom. It was amazing, and thy view was spectacular: mountains, forests, ocean.
A great day. A great weekend.

my security detail

Every month I have to call in my higher ups and give a report on what i'm doing, how school is going, the like. Just a way to talk things out with my regional manager.
Another key part of monthly calls in is to make sure everything is going smoothly. This includes making sure my phone works and I have service, making sure I have a way to travel in and out of site. And the key one to this rigmarole safety and security.
Thanks to my mini PNP I've always been able to answer-nope, no safety and security concerns.

we speak happy

I've got some great neighbors. Today I spent the afternoon with them sharing tuba and stories.
They were digging deep to 'tackle' English as they put it and I was doing my best to speak Waray. One neighbor was kind of translating, but we were communicating. As best we could considering how much they'd been drinking.
As they put it the dialect was happiness and that's all you really need for a Friday afternoon.

gone in a flash

Last night we had an amazing thunderstorm and it was welcome relief. I love thunderstorms, and I love how last nights thunderstorm made life more bearable. Things got cooler and I slept well for awhile.
It reminded me off another thunderstorm I wasn't so stoked about. I'd just got here to site and was home alone. In the middle of the night a storm rolled in and lighting stroke so incredibly close, and I was just certain it was a bad omen.
Well here we are a year and half later with many more miles under my belt than that storm had me thinking i'd manage.
I've been trying to be reflective of this latest installment of my time here. How have the last 6 months been? It's been hard because right now summer makes life more stagnant.
I love my community here and realize more and more just how much it spreads out. I'm always bumping into people I know at the mall or on a jeep. It's common fact that I go running, and they don't even notice when I've been slacking for a couple months (ya, I need to work on that). Total thumbs up on that front.
I've not been teaching in awhile, something to do with summer break. When I was teaching I was loving it. I for sure chose the right thing to pursue in life. I'm glad I'm not looking down the next 6 months thinking what next. I know what next. So, barring summer, I'd say thumbs up on that part.
As for the rest. A little more hesitant with the thumbs, but as ever optimistic. I've spent a lot of time at school this summer nagging and working on other projects. I've put myself out there to help other parts of this awesome town. So maybe one thumb up, one to the side. I'm very ready to come into the school year guns-a-blazing!
We'll see where those thumbs are 6 months on when all the miles are logged. As far as this marathon of my life goes I'm rocking about 10 more ks to home. I so can do that.

where are the may showers?

May has been hot, and rain has not been as prevalent as I'd like. So, needless to say I've been seeking a lot of sanctuary at the mall and other places with aircon.
This last weekend I met with C and M and went to Rafael's Farm. It was a nice shady and breezy escape from the heat. We had a nice lunch, went on a quick boat trip, and really talked things out. I'm glad for the proximity of these two wonderful people. It's crazy to think we once were six strong.
Earlier this month I got a little something awesome from home, and by a little something awesome I mean 6 giant boxes of books. My parents did an amazing job at wrangling books together. They shipped them in March from Vegas. The guy who ran the shop grew up in Manila, but his grandmother was from here! So he put a bunch of books in the shipment also! Now they are here and my school is so ready to get them used.
They are getting ready for school to start in general. This week is Brigada Eskwela. A week dedicated to clean up and registering. We met early Monday for canvassing, which involved all the teachers piling into giant trucks and driving about town and out to the far flung barangays on the high way. We met at 7, and we were sitting in the truck waiting to start and I was just sweating. Too hot.
That's really been it for summer. It's harvest time and there for fiesta time. The streets are lined with rice and parties. Not too bad a life, just needs more rain.

tudlo mindanao

May 10 In April I had the amazing opportunity to help out with an English language camp Peace Corps does called Tudlo Mindanao. I feel so blessed to have had the experience, and here I'll put some highlights. You can email me if you want more details. -For most of the participants it was their first real seminar and they were so overjoyed to be a part of it. They came from such humble places in Mindanao and I think it meant a lot for them to have this opportunity. -The camp had an English only policy. At first participants were so quite but you could see their comfort levels increase and more English come out. -I was doing ICT and the excitement these teachers had with just being able to actually touch a computer was incredible. Very fun. -The camp wrapped up with a cultural show. The facilitators were taught some traditional dances that we performed in front of everybody. Then we also got to watch all the different regions perform for us. This experience was for sure a high light of my time here.

adventures are best when waterfalls are included

May 8 Last week was L's birthday so we had a bit of girls weekend. For her birthday dinner we went and ordered so much food at Ocho, which is a really nice seafood restaurant. Then we just enjoyed the city. The next day we headed to Biliran which is a third major island of Region 8. We wanted to go island hopping but had missed the tide. A nice Filipina at the resort helped us arrange a waterfall trip instead, and even went with us. This waterfall was amazing. It was super tall and kind of in the corner of two cliff faces. It opened up into a space that was maybe 75 meters wide and the top was all over grown. So the space was so calm. I loved it. The next day we went back to the resort early and took a boat out to a small island. It was beautiful. Great views. Great water. Nice get away from the heat. The next day we headed back to Leyte. I hadn't been feeling so good and was stoked to ride in a cramped over heated van back. Luckily H was on one side of me and this adorable little boy was on the other, so I didn't feel too cramped. The boy stared at us with the biggest eyes ever. He was so cute, and I can just imagine he'd have been more fun had I not felt so fragile. At one point, before his mother knew what was going on he reached up and touched my nose. She grabbed his hand real quick like, and I could hear him in his tiny voice tell her about how long my nose was. Love it. The next part I don't love as much, luckily he fell asleep and wasn't watching because I got sick. My original plan was to go to Tacloban and pick up laundry (including my sheets) and head back. But when I got sick we were just approaching the outer barangays of Alangalang, so I jumped ship and continued to spend the rest of the day puking. When I woke up yesterday my legs were covered in red bites that just got itchier the hotter it got. I picked up my laundry and saw Avengers and spent today avoiding heat and recuperating.

bangkok or bust

I'm finally in Thailand via a lot of waiting. I was sitting at the mall when a teacher from one of the school in Alangalang told me to take my time because the flights were delayed. I had no idea how delayed!
My 1:40 flight didn't leave until 3:40, but I was lucky. We took off right behind the 11:55 flight. It of course made me anxious for no reason. It was standing room only, and people for the 4:05 flight were waiting also (the planes just go back and forth, so their plane was the 11:55 flight). Luckily I knew someone there who let me sit with them. She was a teacher at the high school and ha worked with my site mate. She was there along with most of Alangalang. The Lingganay Dancers are performing at nationals on Saturday.
I got to Manila about 4:45 and then had to wait some more. This time I was all alone. I had some pizza. I wet through security. I had some noodles. I found a convenience store and had snacks an watched a movie with the staff. I took the rest of my snacks to the gate. I was told the plane was delayed. I watched some basketball. I was told to move to another gate (they moved lots of flights). Then I got on the plane and waited.
And here I am! I went through customs, and security and or my bags and went looking for my friend. She lived with my family about 12 years ago and I've not seen her since. We found each other ok and met her sister. We are staying at their house in Bangkok.
I'm here!

wat are you looking at?

Yesterday was amazing. My friend took me to see some of the temples in Bangkok.
First we went to a Hindu shrine. She showed me how to do what you do at one. We lit a candle and incense. Then went to all the four sides and asked for something, left incense and flowers.
After that we went to where the wats are. We took the train and then a boat. I had my first in Thailand Thai Tea. Which is my favorite. Then I had my first noodles. Which is my favorite, but I have a feeling it will all be my favorite.
We tried to go to the palace, but it was closed for the cremation of a princess.
So, on to Wat Pho. Um... Wow! Wat Pho is one of the temples with a huge leaning Buddha (I think the guy said 3rd largest). It was amazing, check back with me in 6 months for pictures! Then we had coconut ice-cream (Philippines, we need this) and buko juice. Then we had battered and fried jackfruit. Then we went and had Wat Pho foot massages, which I guess is a big deal. I wasn't brave enough for a Thai massage.
From there we crossed the river to the Temple of the Dawn (I can't recall it's Thai name). This is the Wat that is most associated with the Thai skyline. It was amazing. We were able to climb up and look out. Very calm place.
From here we went to the mall, mainly for the aircon. Felt like home. We met her sister and her boy friend and went to a sea food restaurant. We had a fried fish, Thai fried rice with prawns, a really spicy soup, noodles with prawns, squid curry and some sort of shellfish on ice. It was enough for 6 and we had to do a doggy bag, which I guess isn't that common here. I think my favorite was either the curry or the noodles.
Then home where I slept like a champ.
Favorite part of day: the feeling of smallness (maybe) when I first walked in and saw the leaning Buddha.

witness the wetness

On Friday I met one of J's friends and we went on a little road trip. Her friend has a friend who's family is opening q resort next month. Guessed who got to stay there? We did! It was an amazing suite along the river ( I'm not sure the name of the river, but it's what happens where the rivers Kwei merge).
On the way to the resort we stopped for amazing food. Again they ordered for 6 people: Thai fried rice, prawns, river snapper, and crab curry.
In the town where this all was (if you are dying to know names of these places email me, I have them but I can't reach right now) is a floating market. A floating market that has boats that do firefly tours. We wandered the market, ate random things J bought for me to try, had foot massages, and then went on the tour. It was nice.
The next day we woke up and they had an amazing breakfast spread for us, even though we were the only ones there. Then we went to a Wat in the trees that has a real name. Then back to the city.
We kind of chilled for awhile, then strapped on water guns and headed for the heart of the city. There were millions if people all ages just having fun. Some water was warm, some water was a little hotter, and some people straight up put ice water in their water pistols.
After, soaking wet, we went to the mall to eat. We went to the food hall and I had duck and noodles and shivered through the aircon.
Favorite part: For sure the crab curry.

markets and malls, oh my!

Sunday we went to Jatujak Market, or the JJ Market, or the weekend market. The venue was huge and crowded, and I'm told that maybe 10% of the stalls were open. We looked around and I bought some great stuff.
Then we had Thai Tea. This time it came with a fancy stirring show. A man poured the tea back and forth between to pitchers while spinning and dancing. I was impressed and it tasted extra frothy good.
For dinner we went to a sticky rice place near J's house. We had sticky rice, spicy pork salad, spicy raw prawns, spicy raw crabs, spicy soup, and really good grilled pork shoulder. Not as much food, but I'm still full.
Yesterday we were going to go on a road trip, but decided we'll go today because of traffic. So we tried to see the palace again. We were able to get into the Wat to see the Jade Buddha but the palace is closed on Mondays. Then we went and looked at the main plaza. It was still being used for the Princess's cremation so I was able to learn some more about the culture.
Then we went to Pad Thai. It was so good, a little sweet but fixed that with some chili flakes. It came wrapped up in the egg like a present. I finished and then had another.
Back to the mall! We met up with J's boyfriend and her sister and her boyfriend and wandered the mall and ended up seeing a movie, when in hot humid Asia this is what you do.
After the movie we went to a local favorite for dinner. We had rice soup, spicy soup, duck tongue, some sort of greens, some sort of fish, an egg dish, and sweet snails. So much food.
Favorite part: having so much down time to just hang out with J.