day in the life:5-8

I am not a morning person.

All those social graces don’t exist before 8:00. However, I’m not one of those not a morning person people that can sleep the morning away. But, before coming here I was totally a roll out of bed and head out the door person. Not here though. Here I’ve got a nice slow leisurely morning with a crazy thing called down time.

The alarm goes off at 5:01 (hey, ain’t that quirky?) but usually I am more or less awake and being serenaded by minions of roosters. I lay there composing myself enough to get up and say good morning as I shuffle to the bathroom. Then I troop back upstairs get dressed for a run and head back down to shove my shoes on. Then I go go go, by the time I get back I’m in a much better mood. Let’s here it for endorphins! I go upstairs get out of the sweatys, grab my towel and head back down. I brush my teeth and turn the hot water on on the water cooler to make tea later, grab my pot of hot water and head to the bathroom. Yes, my Auntie boils water for me. At first I felt super guilty and like a bad volunteer for taking a semi-warm bucket bath. Then I figured out my Auntie always boils her water for her baths. My site mate has hot showers. Other volunteers boil their water.

After my shower I still have an hour and half before school. This is when I drink my tea  (recently I’ve been rocking some tea sent to me from Boston!) and eat my mango (my favorite part of the day, for sure).  This is when I blog, or write emails, or journal, or do a crossword the whole time while having a bit of a dance party. Around 7:45 I get dressed for school and head out the door at 7:55 to walk down the street to start my day, always showing up right on time for class.

day in the life: 8-10

Being that I’ve been here just about a year (whoa) I figure I’ve finally got an idea of what a typical day is like here.

So first, my morning at school. I show up to school right around 8. My first class is Grade 5 Sped English. Ma’am Hazel starts the day with spelling. She does the spelling, mostly because, as an educator I’m not yet sure how I feel about spelling lists. I’m sure there is a way to do them right, and I’m sure that that way is not giving Grade 6 pupils bourgeois, cadaver, cachet, cachou, cabriolet, caddie, calaboose, callus, camaraderie, and canthus on a spelling list, even if English is their first language. But I’m in the Peace Corps and have to pick my battles, and this is not one of them. Besides, the kids really like spelling. They are perfectionists and super competitive, both of these things are easily fed with spelling lists. Then she will give a pronunciation drill that we all go over together. Usually I’m informed I’m pronouncing all the words wrong, or that I may be right but in the Philippines they say it differently. I wish I could think of a really good example. Then Ma’am will review a topic and introduce a new topic. Filipinos know grammar rules, and they know about crazy grammar things I never ever heard of. So I learn a lot at this point. Then I’ll get up and do three activities with them applying these grammar rules. I usually end up combining the three, which I figure is fine as long as I cover the goals. One activity that is teacher focused, one that is material focused, and one that is student/group focused. I love this. Every once in a while it is on the topic that I actually prepared, but usually I get thrown under the bus topic wise. I’m starting to be ok with this. Then after my turn Ma’am Hazel gets back up and gives the students a quiz and an assignment. This class is supposed to be 100 minutes. Which is a long time for one class. However, my class is not 100 minutes. In a very untypical Filipino fashion it is two solid hours!

I love when the recess bell rings and it is time to eat, because at this point I’m exhausted.

*Note: On Tuesdays the students have catechism class from 8-9. 

day in the life: 10-3

I only have one class in the morning, the rest of the morning I spend doing school focused work.

But first we recess. Ma’am Hazel always buys my meryenda. At first I offered like crazy to buy it, or buy my own. She buys meryenda. I’m finally getting over the guilt, and try really hard to like some of the choices she makes. Usually we have hot cakes (which are like thick crepes, with butter and sugar), ice candy (think popsicle in a plastic bag, no stick), and banana-que. It use to be we had turon also, which is a personal favorite, but this year they have not made it a lot. Sometimes she’ll buy pansit. Which is awkward. Pansit is one of my favorite foods, but I really don’t like my schools’ pansit. They put the nasty pink hot dogs in it, and teeny-tiny shrimp still in the shell with the super long antennae still attached. Not my favorite at all, but she knows I like pansit. Sometimes we eat in the classroom, which I like, we discuss what it was like for her to grow up in Mindanao or we discuss lesson topics for the week.  Sometimes we eat in the canteen, which I also like, we get to sit with the other teachers and just talk away.

After recess I go talk to Ma’am Vivian for a bit and do some library stuff or go home to work on some lesson things. If I really have no idea what to do for the lesson I’ll go to the where the Internet is and do some research.

Then I go home and eat lunch. Nothing fancy, usually tuna fish and crackers or a fried PB and J or oatmeal. Depending on the day and how hot it is I’ll take a quick nap or read and hope for an afternoon shower to come.

If the shower does come I go to school around 2:30, if not I’ll go back to school between 1:00 and 2:30. I never know when Ma’am will come back from lunch or what she will be working on. We discuss lesson topics and usually I learn that that lesson I worked on during break will not be taught that day (or probably ever) and instead we’ll probably teach Grade 6 something that is very similar to what we taught Grade 5. I’ll buy us sodas if it is super hot. We wait for the teacher to come tell us it is our turn around 2:35 and we talk with her for about half an hour (our class starts at 2:40).

Then I put out the hint to go to class by going to class, subtle I know.

before my day even begins

August 30, 2010
did you know the creator of netflix was a peace corps volunteer? well he was, and it all makes sense now. i’m sure he came up with the theory all before 6 in the morning. for those who know me, you know just how big this next statement is: i think i may leave here a bit of a morning person. not once since i got here have i slept past 5:30 and i’ve never actually gotten up out of bed past 6:30 (that is the big thing, because i really enjoy the slow get up out of bed).
there are a lot of factors at work here:
• by the end of the day i am exhausted, i think i’ve been asleep by 10:30 every night
• the roosters in the back yard, they crow hours before sunrise, don’t let the jimmy dean commercials fool you, oh and it is not a once and done ordeal—all morning long!
• the sun comes up early here and will always come up early
• since arrival in the philippines I’ve been peeing like a race horse (in fact last night was the first night i made it to 4 with out the morning urge
     o part jet lag, part of my extreme efforts to drink lots of water and also
     o i’ve not been feeling good. in part a new diet and also my malaria pill gives me stomach cramps and an overall just not feeling good feeling
however there is not much to do between the 5:45 shower (more on that in a different blog) and leaving for class at 7:45. there is breakfast, but that doesn’t take 2 hours. if I was either flexible or could focus and sit still i could yoga. i’ve been reading (a lot, not just in the morning). running just is unthinkable (it is so hot, blog on that also) and i am not quite too the point where i should be walking around by myself yet. i could sleep in, but to be right good and honest i don’t want to get into that habit. it would be hard to break when i got to site. and soon enough i will have a language to study. so for now i will blog away and experience the world before 7:30 a.m. for a change.
maúpay gna ága (good morning)!