something to gobble about

December 1, 2010

Thanksgiving Peace Corps style is quite an event. Here is just the quick recap of what went on.

 On Saturday we took a Jeepney, two vans, a pedicab, another Jeepney, and a pump boat to this amazing island in Northern Samar (havenoffunbeachresort.com). I started with me and my site mate, picked up three more volunteers in Tacloban, and met up with three more for the last two legs. I may or may not have got sick on the way, but that is all part of the adventure. When we got to the island plenty more volunteers welcomed us. Then we waited for the feast, and what a feast it was. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, native root crops, gravy, chicken lechon, apple pie, mango-lime pie, pumpkin spice bread, cranberry bread, birthday cake and I think that is all. Then we partied it up the rest of the evening.

On Sunday we had a beach day, which turned rainy and ended up being a playing games at the resort bar/restaurant area day that went long into the night. We basically did nothing, and it was so good.

Monday we repeated the journey, more or less. We all piled onto a pump boat, almost forgot a volunteer, turned around for her, started over again, said goodbye to some before hopping on a trike for the next leg. Said goodbye to some more at the Jeepney terminal and then 12 of us loaded onto a Jeepney that got a flat tire along the way, fixed that up and went flying again until, we got another flat. We were not too far from town so we got in another trike, went and had lunch, said goodbye to two more and then took a van back to Leyte. Got some bad advice (given with love) and ended up semi-stranded at a terminal, took a trike to the mall, had dinner, then found our way back to site via an autobus and van.

Yesterday was not only my ‘Monday’ but also turned out to be my ‘Friday’. I got to school and found out that grades 5 and 6 were cancelled for the rest of the week. This is my first of what will be many days of school that are just up and cancelled. So instead I did some laundry, went to the mall to avoid an all day brown out, and as well as other things I’ve just not had time to do.

Bring on December!

how many thistles did king thistle stick in the thistle of his hand?

December 8, 2010

So this blog is going to be a bit of a potpourri of everything that has happened since, well Thanksgiving.

Last week there wasn’t any school for me. So nothing really happened until the weekend. I went to Tacloban to go shopping and spend the day with some volunteers. We had pizza at this really nice place then did some browsing around. Then that night I stayed with a volunteer’s host family in Baras. It was a nice change of scenery.

Sunday was UN International Volunteer Day and one the CYF volunteer’s sites had arranged a river clean up. I’m not really going to go into much detail about this one. In all my years of janitoring and living I have never done anything as gross as that. I’m very proud of the volunteers who were way more hardcore than I was. They will get extra rewards. I managed to find a way to help thought and it was a good experience. It was good to have the children helping and seeing that we don’t want all that garbage in the river.

After that we went back to Baras, got cleaned up, took a nap then hit the mall for Harry Potter.

We had a little bit more school this week, but not by much. Monday was a prep day for the English Month Culmination. I worked on my first lessons.

Tuesday was English Month Culmination. I had no idea what this was going to be like and thought it would be a spelling bee and some monologues and things like that because that is what had been practiced on Monday and the weeks before. It was, but other schools were there. It was a district competition and kind of really neat. In the morning they had academic competitions. This is when the spelling bees and writing compositions took place.

Then in the afternoon they had the non-academic competitions. A couple weeks ago my teacher asked me to coach her kids in a reader’s theatre. The example she gave me was bad, but we did some editing and made it work. Then my students worked it. They took first place.

You win some you lose some. The teachers had asked me a few weeks ago to be part of their tongue twister. I did having no idea what it was for. It was for the teacher tongue twister competition. So we’d been practicing for weeks and weeks, but no one told us we could do choreography (heck I didn’t even know what it was for). We took third place, out of three. Hahaha.

Wednesday I finally did some co teaching. For grade 5 we had a lesson on words that can be adjectives or adverbs. All these are things that as an English speaker I’m aware they exist but don’t really know about it really. Luckily the English teachers here are whizzes at grammar rules. The teaching style for them is very much rote memorization. So it was fun to add an activity or two a little different. My first activity I did was interactive and the kids did really good at it, but then for the next activity when they had to actually think for themselves they kind of bombed. They are not use to that. When you ask them follow up questions they assume the first answer was wrong and change it. Going to have to work on that, it was only my first day of teaching.

For grade 6 I was suppose to help teach a lesson on writing application letters, but at the last minute we did a lesson on haiku so they could get poems put in the biannual school paper.

Thursday school is cancelled for all but those that paid to participate in a science day and Friday is a teacher day. So no school really on either of those days . Just another week in the life of a volunteer.

one, two, cha cha cha

December 10, 2010

Science day was really cool, but still it humors me that only certain kids were involved. It was a presentation on astronomy, complete with stargazing.

Teacher day was something else. They told me to show up to exercise at 6:00. So I left my house at ten after, was the first one there. Some one had to be there to set up the projector and Jane Fonda work out tapes, but I didn’t see them wherever they were. Then around 7:00 teachers started to show up, but none of my teachers. I waited and waited, and they restarted Jane Fonda 3 times. At about 7:45 they started checking blood pressure and doing blood tests, and even piercing ears. That was my cue to say I tried and then go home and have some breakfast.

Then my day was free until 3:00. Mass was at 2:00 but they told me to come at 3:00. So again I left at about 10 after, got soaked on my way, showed up and they are still doing church, and I am not only drenched through but also in a more casual then any one else. It is amazing how they were more dressed up in jeans than I was in slacks. Then we waited and waited and waited and things got started around 4:15.

They rewarded the retiring teachers. Announced the nominees for best teacher in several categories. Gave the prizes to the actual best teachers. Had some speeches. Ate some really good food, even the fruit/macaroni salad, don’t worry there wasn’t any mayo. Then each area had a performance and mayor gave everyone mugs. Then they had raffles. I won another mug. That takes mugs in the Philippines count to 5! Played some games for raffles. Then I was forced to cha cha with the mayor. No one else on the dance floor. Things were going fine until I started to get confident in my dancing skills then I totally missed a step and everyone laughed and laughed. Luckily it was good laughing and not ha ha pointing finger laughing.

Next week some school and more parties. Maybe I’ll be able to keep my dancing in check.

just another manic thursday

November 25, 2010

I thought I’d feel kind of alone on Thanksgiving, but I didn’t think I was going to be alone. However, things being what they are I had dinner with me, myself, and that annoying cat I just can’t seem to keep out of the house.

First, the lay of the land (better be on your toes here, it gets confusing). In this house it is me, an Auntie in her 70s as well as a part time Atay in her 50s who is my Auntie’s niece. She splits duty between her aunt here and an aunt in Tacloban (my Auntie’s sister). Next door is my Auntie’s sister and her husband (or maybe it was the husband that was the brother, not sure) and her son and wife, and then their daughter who is in her late 20s with her two young sons (the husband is in Canada). The daughter is a teacher at my school.

Second, arriving. When I got here it was just my Auntie and her poor cooking skills. My Atay was with her Auntie (sister of my Auntie) in the hospital. She had been there also but had come back to Alang Alang because I was moving in (a de facto guilt trip ensued, but nothing on purpose). So I spent the first part of that week eating reheated burnt rice and cold leftovers. Then last Thursday my Auntie left for Manila for some sort of something or other (I never was sure what was going on, but did know about it on my visit). So for the weekend I had the house to myself and the helper (a cousin somehow) bringing me food and the sister (oldest generation next door) coming over to check on me. And did she really check on me, but that is a blog in and off it self. Then for a bit on Saturday my Atay came, and it was nice. She can cook, and I was able to explain what is going to be going on with me while here. You know get down to business finally. My Auntie said she was coming back Sunday (but I think she meant Monday, or had the dates confused or something). The family asked me to go visit the Auntie in the hospital (which is awkward because I don’t’ really have the communication to say, “No thanks, I don’t do hospitals all that well” yet), and it was looking pretty eminent that I would have too, but thanks to communication gaps I was able to stay home. About dinnertime the helper came over and explained in her broken English that I’d be home alone again. So that was the first week.

Now, on to week two. My auntie came home while I was attempting to shower (I’m still being a pansy about that) and was saying a bunch of stuff to me while I was in the shower. Then when I got all dressed for breakfast I was made to understand she was going to Tacloban, and that was the last I saw of her. Tuesday morning at school the one my age told me that the Auntie had passed. That is awkward anywhere (even more awkward than going to the hospital to meet a dying person).

I’ve been home alone since, every one has been gone somewhere, but I don’t know where and for how long they will be gone. The helper girl keeps bringing the meals and every day or so they buy a new loaf of bread (I think they’ve purchased 10 loaves in the 2 weeks I’ve been here) and more jars of peanut butter (today they brought the 4^th one in, and no I’ve not been eating peanut butter sandwiches 24/7 they just do that, my Palo family did it also).

So, here I sit, my first Thanksgiving in the Philippines and it is just like any other awkward Thursday. I think it is actually good that it is not like I’m here alone on thanksgiving while everyone else is celebrating with their families. To them it is quite literally just another Thursday.  I’ve tried explaining Thanksgiving to people at school, but they just want to talk about Christmas as soon as I say holiday. It is exactly a month away you know? That’s kids for ya!

Happy Thanksgiving All

thankful for it all

November 19, 2010

This week I got rocked emotionally! It was without a doubt the hardest one yet. I blame the lack of distractions. I was just sitting watching most of the week. I moved in with my new family and had to adjust to new people. Also had to adjust to the new house. The facilities have been a bit of a shock (it is really hard to will yourself to throw cold water on your self every morning). Of course, it does calm the nerves some after the hours and hours of constant crowing. I really miss my 10-rooster house in Palo. Plus being so close to the highway, and the rice store room (after seeing the process of rice I’m even less of a fan of it), and the metal shop my ears are shot. Then there is the new school, where I’m not really set to jump in too much until after Christmas (there are just too many fiestas and such to really get anything rolling).

Which means I’ve had a lot a lot of time to sit and think. Think about how dirty I am. How much I hate roosters. How lonely I am. How long two years is. But I also thought, how fast is this time going to go. As of today I’ve been part of this whole Peace Corps Philippines thing for 3 months. How did that happen already? As of today I’ve also been a real deal volunteer for a whole week! Today is huge! I also got to thinking, I chose to do this. I wanted to do something good, and step outside my comfort zone and experience something new and different. Another thing. I know how to read. I can read all day long if I wanted (or was tired of thinking about the giant spider on my toilet seat). All my favorite foods are just going to taste so much better after this. I miss the cold, but I’m not going to have to shovel or scrape windows for the next two years. People are jealous of me. They wish they had done this.

So darn it, I am going to do this! I’ve only got 2 years, and that is so so not long at all. I’ve got to make them proud!

what a long strange trip it has been... and yet it is just beginning

November 11, 2010

I feel like, what with this being the week I become a volunteer and all, you deserve a blog. I also feel like you probably really don’t want to read about my going to conferences all day starting Sunday at 1:00 to Thursday night at 5:00. Here is the gist of things, and then we will move on to more blog worthy things. Sunday and Monday were some business type PC things. Monday night I met my counterpart, and the rest of the sessions were basically training for when we get to site next week.

Now, for something you’ll really like. The stuff to blog about:

• This week has left me with some very mixed feelings. Not that I hated training these past 12 weeks (but it was in fact training) but boy am I glad to be over with that part of my life. It was sad to leave Palo, and really too bad that it was too early for me to be showing the proper emotion, let alone any emotion. I really liked being there and loved the way our Barangay just took us in and showed us the ropes.
• I also loved the people I got to go through this experience with, not just my cluster but the other clusters as well. I loved that we had the type of relationships that spending nearly every waking hour with each other was just not enough. And after this week we are being scattered about. Some of us here, some of us there, and others just staying right put. Because of that, we’ve been spending nearly every iota of free time that we have here together. At dinner we do whatever we can to get all 14 of us around the table. I’m so terribly sad to part ways with them, even though in 2 weeks we’ll see each other again, and then probably not too long after that.
• Then there is worry of next week. I. Am. Going. To. Be. A. Volunteer. (let us just process that for a moment) I’ll be at site doing my Peace Corps thing. The first few months will be observing, and talking, and eating meryenda, and figuring out what I can do outside of teaching. I’ll be doing what I came to do, and that is wonderful, and scary, and wonderful because it is scary. I’m shaking in my heavy, heavy boots!

So that is where I am in life. I  soon to be sworn in official volunteer fixing to hop on a plane and fly alone to my site!

ceiling wax, cabbages and things

November 5, 2010

So apparently some things did stick.

I took my LPI yesterday, and it wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be. It is set up as an interview, and mine was administered by the LCF for the CYF cluster. We’d heard stories about how… well we’d heard stories about his particular interview style. So of course that had my nerves. And the fact I was severely congested and had a lot of other things on my mind going on my head was swimming.

Luckily during the interview I was able to calm down, and somewhat successfully could talk about myself. I can say who I am, where I’m from, where I went to school, what I studied, what my parents do, if I have siblings, about the cold climate at home, mashed potatoes, teaching in Palo, my plans for Alang Alang, and kind of sort of ask questions about Leyte landing. I never got myself into the position to discuss movies and literature and the like. It was choppy, but I did enough to get myself passed.

There are 3 levels novice, intermediate and advanced, and then 3 levels within those. I placed myself right smack dab in the middle, and you know what? That is ok with me.