And the envelope please...

Finally, a destination. I learned last night I will be assigned to a high school in Donsol in Sorsogon on the southern Luzon peninsula known as Bicol. (Get those maps out!) Donsol is a small rural fishing village on the coast (Yes!) It is an hour each from Sorsogon City and Legaspi, small cities in the region. I don't know much about Donsol, other than it is famous for the prevalence of whale sharks (relax, they're vegetarians!) and it gets groups of eco-tourists and scuba divers. It is fairly close to Mount Mayon, one of the Philippines' most dangerous but beautiful volcanoes.

The plus side is the beauty of the area and the nearby ocean. Volunteers in Bicol love the place. The down side will be the sleepy nature of the village and I will have to get used to that. Perhaps there will be weekend trips to the big cities! I also have to learn another language in addition to Tagalog. They also speak Bikol, a local dialect. Lots of studying the first few months.

My job will be to help the teachers improve English teaching and to work with the school journalism program. If you're curious, check out the local tourism web sites: http://www.sorsogontourism.com/ and http://www.wowbicol.com/basic_facts_sorsogon.htm and http://www.sorsogonweb.com/

We still have another six weeks of training before I get to Donsol, but I will be visiting the site within the next couple of weeks. So more to come...