Julia in the Philippines

Buhay Pa Tayo

2007-01-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

One of the most familiar phrases people say here when you ask them how they are is "Eto" (here) or "Buhay pa" (still alive). Never has it had more meaning than in recent weeks here as we recover from one of the worst typhoons to hit the Philippines in decades.

I have written much in my blog lately - mostly because I've been busy, sometimes because I just don't know what to say anymore. When Typhoon Reming struck us on Nov. 30, 2006, hitting Legaspi (my new home) dead center, we all experienced a brush with serious injury, if not death. For a few minutes there, as the flood waters rushed inside my little apartment on Marquez Street, I wondered, 'Is this the way it's going to be?' I'll drown right here inside my tiny apartment far away from my family and friends? Thankfully the water stopped rising at my waist and the pressure was off.

But there were others here who were not so lucky. In a freak of nature, Typhoon Reming dumped what some say was 40 years of rain in one day. Heavy winds helped send torrents of water from the top of Mount Mayon crashing down on Legaspi below. So many times I've looked at Mayon and thought, 'How beautiful.' But now I look at her and think, what will she do next? As many of you know from news accounts, Mayon sent tons of volcanic mud, rocks and water barrelling down on homes below, killing hundreds in the path. Though I live much farther from the base of the volcano, the water and mud came tearing through my little neighborhood too, in a flashflood, carrying cars, refridgerators and rooftops before our eyes. But we, of course, were the lucky ones.

Just today, I went to visit the people of Padang. They have been relocated to a safer place now, but are living in a tent city with few latrines and no good potable water. The walls of their temporary shelters are made of tarp and their floors are mud. This, after surviving a massive lahar that wiped out their village and took with it more than 200 of their family members. In the days after the storm, myself and other Peace Corps volunteers went to Padang to help the people there. We met some new friends and became celebrities to the hundreds of kids there. After a short break, I returned to teaching at my local college but decided to visit the evacuees at their relocation site this morning. "I thought you had forgotten us," said one woman, as many came to say hello. I don't think I could ever forget them.

But it is hard to visit people you know are suffering and yet there is little you can do to help. Peace Corps as many of you know is not a relief organization and does not necessarily involve itself in relief work. For those of us affected by the typhoon, we are trying to do what we can to help. Thanks to those of you who contributed in December, we were able to give them a little cheer at Christmastime. With your generous donations, we gave each child a pair of flip-flops (tsinellas) and at T-shirt, plus some give-away toys. We also bought hundreds of household gifts and held a family Christmas raffle. One of our volunteers, Alvin, who is big and jolly, played Santa. We all had a lot of fun and it was good to see the kids laugh again.

I'm trying to think of a way to help, even if it's just to visit the kids and say hello and lend support. There is a great little new American relief group here now, Hands On, based out of Boston. It's a funky little group that just gives people a chance to volunteer all over the world when there is a disaster. They will be here for three months at least and I'm hoping I can work with them on helping out those in need here. Come join us! Or donate, if you can...

From the Province to the Big City

2006-10-24T01:50:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you who are wondering out there, I'm still here. It's not that I haven't thought a zillion times a day about leaving, but I'm still here. It's been two months since my last posting and I must confess that it's been a rough too months.

Just when you think you've adjusted, things start happening. I was forced to leave my nipa hut after my host uncle was accused of a crime. He wasn't punished for the unmentionable crime, but Peace Corps moved me temporarily to a local resort for safe keeping. While there, I got to bond with Ate Sylvia Amor and her wonderful family, including the sweetest little Yuri, 3, at the Amor Beach Resort. I lived in Cottage A for several weeks, ate delicious food and tried to weather the gossip and myriad of questions back in Punta, my old neighborhood.

As the neighborhood continued to fight over the alleged crimes of my host uncle, I hid out at Amor. While there, I braved one of the biggest typhoons to hit the Philippines in years. Typhoon Milenyo was strong. Talagang malakas! I ended up huddled alone under an umbrella while the walls shook and rain poured inside my hut. The hut and I survived to tell the story many times over. Thank God I'd remembered to buy a bottle of red wine the week before in Legaspi, the nearest city.

During my stay at Amor, I learned that Peace Corps was transferring me altogether to Legaspi, about an hour away from Donsol. I am now assigned as an English teacher at a local college and will begin classes in early November. While I did not have a choice in the transfer, it will offer some new opportunities in my last few months in the Philippines. My regrets are that I leave behind a really great project -- the marine ecology center -- and good friends and counterparts I've made in Donsol. It wasn't easy to say good-bye -- there were a few tears shed -- but maybe it will be all that easier to say those good-byes when I really leave for good next June. And I am leaving, knowing that Linell, the librarian at my school, will carry on the library project. And that Tess, my counterpart at the eco center, will do the same. They are both so capable, they hardly needed me in the first place.

Last week, I left for good and moved to Legaspi. Actually, I am living in a small studio apartment in Old Albay in a quiet, clean neighborhood. I rent from a very sweet lola (grandmother) who worries about me. She giggles when I speak to her in Tagalog because she thinks it's so amusing. I can already tell city life will be different. For one thing, there are new volunteers nearby, including Page, a volunteer in Legaspi. I will have access to Internet, malls and the movies! Who could ask for more? It's almost like being home in the good old USA. Sort of. One thing for sure is that I can get wine and cheese (real cheese!) and that will make me happy for a little while.

I am working now on planning to teach the college students at a small Catholic college within walking distance to my apartment. I will be teaching research and writing, speech, American and British literature, job skills, journalism as well as doing some training in English for the professors. So, it's a new challenge and will definitely keep me busy for the next seven months. Seven months!

It's hard to believe that I have only a seven months to go. It's been a rough road and I am hoping to finish but I would be lying if I did not say that everyday is a struggle. I miss home and my old life. I miss being there for the things that happen in the lives of people I care about. But seven months is just seven months, diba? Time will hopefully fly quickly.

To get me through the last hurdle, I hope to spend a week in Hawaii for my 40th birthday. Yes, magfoforty ako! Yikes, where as the all the time gone? How did I get to be this old and why do I still feel like I'm 20?! A big thanks those of you who have stood by me all these years. I love you all! :)

I'm signing off for now and hope to update you all a little more frequently.

Ingat.

Mabuhay Mom and Dad!

2006-08-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

The Parental Units arrive today just in time. Mayon Volcano is about to blow. Habagat, or the Southwest Monsoons, are in full swing. And to top that off, they flew to the other side of the earth on the day of the biggest terror warning since Sept. 11.

I've got to give a hand to my parents, Ron and Linda, for being good sports. It's not easy to come to a Third World country and now they will face flood and lava just to come see what I've been up to for the last 17 months.

But they will be greeted warmly. After a couple of days touring Manila, we'll head to Donsol, where the school has planned a special program -- and merienda (snacks), too -- to welcome them. They will be in much demand, from making courtesy calls to the Mayor to greeting the families in my little neighborhood in Punta, Dancalan. They will eat strange things, not understand a word of the language and sleep in not so comfortable beds. Sound familiar?

But it least they will get to experience a slice of my life here...

Wala Na...Siguro!

2006-07-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

Talk about a humbling experience. Or maybe a horrifying one? But, suffice it to say, after several doses of deworming meds, I think Fred and his friends have all left my intestines!

I will leave much of this story to your imaginations, but the little ones exited, alive and dead and dying, and it wasn't pretty. We'll call it a "Baker's dozen." Suffice it to say, it's not an experience I'd like to repeat!

But after talking with people in my neighborhood -- yes, everyone knows now that I had worms! -- I began to wonder why we live in a world where so many people are exposed to such unpleasantries. Yes, there are parasites worse than roundworms. And if you're hearty enough, the worms won't kill you. But it makes me think about all the kids in my neighborhood who get them regularly, mostly because they don't have clean water to drink and because the lack of toilets in their huts makes sanitary conditions in their immediate environment deteriorate quite rapidly.

Think about how often we take clean water for granted. I buy bottled water -- a luxury people here can't afford. Most people in my neighborhood pump water from a "fresh water deep well" but the water is contaminated with all sorts of parasites and pollutants. And though they are told to boil water before they drink it, often people won't take the time to do that. Mostly it's because they lack the education of why it is important to do so. Or maybe it's just not a priority as they try to scrape together a few pesos for the food that day.

Whatever the case, it does make you wonder: Why do we live in a world where we allow this to happen? Especially to kids. It is heartbreaking to see the poorest little kids in my neighborhood with skinny arms and legs and big bellies full of worms. They are malnourished from the infestation and usually get dewormed only when the public health nurse delivers deworming pills house to house -- usually twice a year.

I know this question is a big one and a bit esoteric for those of us who are just living our daily lives, but Fred and his friends sure brought it home.

Meet My New Friend, Fred!

2006-06-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

Bathroom humor is all part of being a Peace Corps volunteer. You get to a point where you and your fellow PCVs openly discuss bowel movements over dinner.

For a year now, I've been joking about Fred, a worm that lives inside of me. Though I didn't really think I had a worm, it was good enough to explain the weird stomach ailments, weight loss and general malaise in the digestive tract. Call him an imaginary friend. Whatever. But he typically surfaced in conversation. Just the other night, I was telling some other volunteers how I was feeling a little queasy because Fred was acting up a bit.

Turns out that Fred isn't imaginary at all. In fact, he's very real. And he might have friends. Yesterday, after giving a few, um, samples, I got the diagnosis that I have roundworms. Not the tiny little worms you can't see but under a microscope. But the big round ones that grow as long as 15 inches. "Amazingly, up to a hundred worms can infect one person," says one bit of research. Uh, amazing. Unless it's your gut!

Roundworms are common when you live in a tropical country, especially one like the Philippines with poor, unsanitary conditions. Not a big surprise that most people get them here at one point or another. Perhaps I should consider it a badge of honor in the Peace Corps. Does this mean I'm a real volunteer?

I guess I'll chalk it up to experience and hope they don't come back. For now, I'm off to the C.R. (bathroom) to clean out the system....

Makinig Kayo Na (Listen to Me!)

2006-05-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

Americans are closet singers. We sing in the shower. We sing in our cars. Maybe you whistle a jingle while walking the dog. But how many of us belt out a tune on the city bus? The subway? Uh, huh.

Well, in the Philippines, singing is done everywhere and every event gives you an excuse to sing. It's not unusual to ride a jeepney, cheek to cheek, and have the 20 passengers break out into song in unison to whatever is on the radio at the moment. Last year, when a popular singer, Nina, had a hit "Love Moves (in Mysterious Ways)," there wasn't a mouth on the jeepney that was silent. Including mine!

I confess that in my heart I love the schmaltz of it all. It feels good to belt out a tune in public, even if you are sometimes offkey. The beauty of it all is that no one here cares if you can't sing ... as long as you sing.

This week, I joined two other Peace Corps volunteers for a night out of videoke. Videoke is karaoke sung to cheesy videos in the background. (We've been in Cebu all week training teachers from Mindanao in a program called Tudlo Mindanao. The program brings teachers from Mindanao to Cebu because it is too dangerous for Americans to travel to Mindanao.)

The hotel staff recommended a really nice (expensive) videoke place, which we rejected, in typical Peace Corps fashion, for a little hole in the wall across the street.

It was a place without a name. In fact we initially weren't sure if it was actually a bar or someone's home. The owners of the establishment -- the kind of place where you would not be at all surprised if a rat ran across your toes -- were thrilled to have us. I suspect they don't get too many foreign girls in the joint.

Erin McNeff set the tone with a rendition of Madonna's Crazy for You. Then all eyes were on us. I've taken a liking to singing videoke, mostly because I'm a closet singer, too, and miss my nights in the hot shower at home, belting out my tunes. But here in the Philippines, it's been a great way to practice Tagalog.

I have a couple of current Tagalog favorites I sing, which as you can imagine, thrills the locals. Each time you sing, the machine judges you and gives you a score up to 100 at the end. Jen Austin and I sang a duet of one of my favorite videoke songs -- Pagdating ng Panahon -- and scored 100. Who says I can't sing?

Pagdating ng panahon (At the right time)
Baka ikaw rin at ako (Maybe you and I again)
Baka tibok ng puso ko'y (Maybe the beat of my heart)
Maging tibok ng puso mo (Will be the beat of your heart)

Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. ~Voltaire

Isang Taon Na? (One Year Already?)

2006-05-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

In just a few weeks, I will have just one year left to go here on assignment in the Philippines. Hard to believe that I have been here more than a year already. Time has moved quickly overall. And the veterans say the second year flies.

I'd really like to say that I am one of those volunteers who just loves the Philippines. I don't. There are things I love, things I hate, but mostly I think that it isn't really possible to totally adjust to life here. It is just too different and it's too much pressure to be different (white) in a culture that is not diverse. It's funny, but next week I will speaking to the new batch of volunteers (Yes, I am a veteran now) about adjustment issues.

As I've been planning what to say to them, I have been thinking about all the things you are forced to give up. Independence. Privacy. Personal space. Anonymity. Toilet paper in public C.R.'s (bathrooms), etc. You get used to the little things. You learn to carry sanitizer, toilet paper and other bathroom essentials. But it's the big things that cause you the most anguish. The things that Filipinos least value -- independence, privacy, personal space and anonymity -- are the fundamentals of American values. We couldn't be any different in this regard. Baliktad, as we say here. Or inside-out, topsy-turvy. Of course, there are Filipinos who value these things, too. But culturally speaking, these are generally not at the top of their list.

I have also been thinking lately about how it feels to be different. One of the things I don't like here is how much I get hassled just because of the color of my skin. How often a taxi or tricycle driver will try to cheat me just because they see my skin color and automatically think I can afford to pay more. The more I settle in here and try to make the Philippines my temporary home, the more it grates on me. The Philippines is not a diverse country. It's just not. And in brown skin countries, whiteness is always equated to richness. I understand it, but it's not always easy to be the recipient of this mentality. I have a new strategy. Instead of acknowleging people who treat me this way, I ignore them altogether. Maybe they will get the point?

Okay, enough commentary. It has been a long time since my last blog, mainly, because I went on vacation. Vietnam and Cambodia! Both countries were awesome. Vietnam was so much different than I expected. It's progressive, the people are nice and the food and shopping is hard to beat. Catherine, my friend from home, and I went to Saigon, traveled up the Mekong Delta with a odd tour guide named John Wayne, and later went to Hanoi. We saw awesome 11th century Buddhist and Hindu temples (Angkor Wat, etc.) in Siem Reap Cambodia. Cambodia is not really all that progressive yet, but it's countryside is beautiful and the temples were stunning. Highly recommend the pilgrimmage.

Now I am back to reality again and back to work. This month, I will be participating in a teachers' training program in Cebu. We'll be working with teachers from Mindanao, one of the poorest areas of the Philippines and off limits for us because of the terrorist organizations based there. Many of the teachers are Muslim and have very little training for their jobs. Mary Owen and I will be doing some journalism trainings. After that, I've organized an ambitious two-day reading seminar at my school to train teachers in reading strategies, skills, etc. We're expecting 130 teachers! Two other volunteers will join me in facilitating.

We are just waiting on the funds now for our Marine Ecology center, which will be built near the beach in town. I'm excited to start that and know it will keep me really busy for the next few months.

The library project continues to move (dihan, dihan -- slowly). The school has cleared out a room for a teacher resource center and other small renovations are being done to the library space. Many thanks to all of you who have contributed to the project. The kids will definitely appreciate your efforts. It's the kids, afterall, that keep me going here. They're amazing and I only want that they have a fair chance at a future.

That's about it for now.

Until next time....

Saan Na Siya? (Where is She Already?)

2006-03-23T23:39:00.000-08:00

Whoa, I didn't realize I had fallen so behind in the blogging, folks. Forgive me, my faithful readers (All 3 of you!) :)

Yes, I am still here. By the Grace of God, sometimes, it seems, but I am still here. Quite a bit has happened since I last left you with the image of me in a little black dress, but nothing of great import, only that I shook hands with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the President of the Philippines. (Picture to come soon). GMA, as she is known in these parts, came to my site recently to see, what else, the whalesharks! I was part of the VIP group that gathered to greet her at the beach. All I can tell you is that she is short. Other than that, didn't have a great sense of her. But she was nice enough to me.

Time seems to go by quickly now, which is a good thing. In a week, I will have been in the Philippines for one year! Wow. It's hard to believe a year has passed. While the days pass quickly, the time does not. Getting things done continues to be a challenge, but slowly, if not surely, things do happen.

Our library project is continuing though we have been in a lull recently while we wait for shipments of books and funds to build bookshelves and renovate part of the flooring (so the kids don't fall through to the ground floor!) We will be cleaning, painting and reorganizing the library this summer to get ready for the start of the school year in June. (Our summer months are April and May).

The environmental project, a marine ecology learning center, is also coming along in planning stages and seems for now that everyone is working together to make it happen.

In the meantime, I am busy planning summer seminars. We will do a two-day seminar at my school for a 100 teachers in May called Read First. Me and three other PCVs will be teaching reading strategies to teachers and giving them information on how to teach remedial readers. Also, in May, Mary Owen and I will be giving a journalism seminar in Cebu as part of a program called Tudlo Mindanao. This is Peace Corps' program to help teachers in Mindanao, (off limits for travel because of the terrorist activity there), by bringing them to us in Cebu. I'm definitely looking forward to that because it's a chance to help some of the country's most needy teachers. Some of them have very little education themselves and come from some of the most impoverished areas of the country.

And recently, I attend a seminar (I know! Lots of sems!) in Tagaytay on HIV/AIDS education. This one was really great, and I brought a rural health nurse from Donsol to attend the seminar with me. Julie Hernandez, the nurse, is very cool and works hard and wants to do a lot to help people in Donsol. Last week, we did an HIV/AIDS seminar for some of the graduating seniors. We are also planning to reach out to some of the transient sex workers who come during tourist season to give them some information about HIV. While in the Tagaytay, I met a really cool woman who is on the National HIV/AIDS Council and who is going to help me fund a camp for gay teens. Another PCV and I drafted a proposal for a leadership and self-esteem camp for the gay teens here and are now just looking for funding...

Life at home in the hut is good. I finally got some furniture, made out of, what else? Bamboo. It's not the most comfortable, but better than nothing at all! The kids still swarm my house and recently were excited to meet other Peace Corps volunteers who came to visit. I had several different volunteers recently and it was good for them to see that Americans come in all shapes, sizes and colors. I got a lot of questions, like, "that one, there, is she a real American?" Well, yes, as a matter of fact, we're all real Americans!

Oh, and how could I forget this. Just last week, my barangay of Dancalan celebrated its fiesta. Every village and town in the Philippines picks a patron saint and then celebrates that saint once a year by having an all-day eating and drinking fest that starts at breakfast and can go til dawn. Our saint is Joseph, but I don't think that is really the point of the fiesta any more. It's more about the pig. My "family" spent the last nine months or so fattening him up for the killing. A guy -- the hired "killer" -- comes around the neighborhood to kill the pigs. He sticks a sharp knife in the juggler and the other men hold the pig down as he struggles, then slowly dies. Okay, a bit macabre, I know.

Last Saturday, I hid in the CR (bathroom) during the killing, though I could hear it pretty clearly. The pig squeals painfully loud. But for curiousity's sake, I did come out to watch the cleaning. (Pictures to come). It was sad. I happen to think pigs are cute, even if they are dirty. Plus, I'd been feeding the damn thing with my leftovers for months so I felt a bit culpable. I made him fat, too.

About four men cleaned -- by pouring hot water over the dead pig to take off his hair -- gutted and cut up the poor beast for the next day's feast. The good thing about all this is that not a part is spared. All of that pig, down to his little piggly toes, was cooked and eaten the next day. The men even wash the pig intestines inside and out with soap and water to prepare them for cooking.

The idea of fiesta is that you make a bunch of food and people go house to house eating. The men drink Ginebra gin and Imperador brandy and sing videoke all day, and the women, sorry to say, stay in the kitchen, cooking and serving for the men. Women don't join much in the drinking circles in my little neighborhood.

I made vegetarian food -- lumpia, mongo bean balls, fruit salad and a rice dish -- and it's safe to say, I had very few visitors! I had two PCVs, Dan and Cindy, come to visit and hang with my family so that was just fine. The three of us celebrated fiesta early that morning by taking a swim with the whale sharks. I swam a ways with some really big ones this time! Gorgeous sila, talaga.

So after all of that, I am taking a vacation. Ang best friend ko, si Catherine, and I will be taking a trip to Vietnam on April 5. I am very excited to see her -- it's been a year! -- and to see another Asian country. My apologies for being remiss on the blog. I'll try to keep up as I go along here.

Hello to all back home. Miss and love you guys!

Marunong Ka Ba Sumayaw?

2006-02-24T18:16:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to the prom. It's been a long time in the waiting, since I didn't attend my senior prom in high school. But at the age of 39 (yes!), I got dolled up in a black dress and heels and rode a tricycle to the ball.

Filipinos apparently take their proms seriously. Last night, there was four hours of prepared dances and promenades of class beauties -- and that was before the real dance actually begun! Samba, Pantomina, Waltz, Cha Cha. You name it, these kids knew how to do it. Of course, they lost about two weeks of school practicing for the thing, but, eh, you only have one prom, right? Hmmm.

Anyway, I forgot my camera. I would have liked you all to see the image of me dressed up and riding a tricycle over a bumpy dirt road to get to the town basketball court for the dance. Not your Madison Avenue affair, mind you. Just when I was feeling guilty for spending about 600 pesos ($12)on my semi-formal dress, I learned that some of the girls are spending 3,000-plus pesos to buy or rent a formal gown for the night. That is more than many families in my town earn in a month! That is 75 percent of the tuition for one semester at Bicol University!

But as I've quickly learned, appearances are important in the Philippines. And families will sacrifice a great deal just to put on a good party. Though I am trying to understand the logic of it all, I secretly wish sometimes that there would be this much expense and excitement devoted to, for instance, a reading program. Sigh.

Books, Books, Books

In other news, we are continuing to work on the school library. Many of you have asked whether I am still collecting. We definitely are. Please continue to contribute if you can. Dictionaries and simple reference books with pictures would be great. We can also use teacher resource materials -- guides for the teachers on all subjects. Plus, audiovisual materials -- learning CDs/DVDs -- are also needed. Again, please send to Linda Campbell, 4213 Whitacre Road, Fairfax, VA. 22302.

The librarian and I will spend some of the summer months -- April and May -- reorganizing the library, acquiring new shelves and equipment and getting things ready for the new school year in June. Thank you again to all of you have already contributed. I see the kids reading the books every day and I know they appreciate them and are learning a great deal. Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!

Buhay sa Donsol

2006-02-15T00:14:00.000-08:00

It gets harder and harder sometimes to express in words the things I experience here. Kind of silly for a writer, eh? But life becomes somewhat normal once you live in a place for a while. Even if you are living in a hut. Without running water. And your evenings are spent hauling your water by da bucket, gutting your fish and picking the bok-bok bugs out of your bed!

But I will attempt to update and share a bit of the not so mundane. I feel like a proud momma today. I have mentioned that I have a secondary project outside of the school. I am working with an environmental group and the Donsol Mayor and some other folks to build a Marine Ecology Learning Center called Bahay Kalikasan (or Nature House) at the beach in my barangay (village). Yesterday, we finished the proposal...18 pages in all...to submit to Peace Corps for review and release of funding. We have a donor -- Salamat po, Bob Waters, with the Thomas P. Waters Foundation! -- and 25 percent of the project will be paid for by the local community. Ito ay maliking proyekto, talaga! (It's really a very big project!)

In short, if realized, we will conduct seminars on environmental science for children, solid waste management seminars for adults and we will create livelihood programs for the local fishermen who live in my neighborhood. The hope is that we can bring a whole community awareness to the pressing environmental problems here in Donsol. And there are many! You can start with the families dumping trash into the mangrove swamp behind my hut. The center will act as a community center for people to work for the preservation and protection of the local environment.

But yesterday was the first big accomplishment for the Filipinos involved. They met and finished a proposal to receive the funding through the Peace Corps Partnership Fund. For one reason or another, things don't always get accomplished here. Deadlines are missed, the money disappears, politics get in the way. And the process of meeting deadlines, making decisions and writing proposals is new to many folks here. But they did it and I am very proud of them. Now, we await panel review from Peace Corps...to be continued.

In other news here, our reading program at the school -- Read First -- a program for remedial readers in the First Year of high school was finally approved by the principal. We've been discussing it since last August. Like I said, things don't always happen on time here...if at all! We will do a training for the teachers in May and implement the program in June. More than 70 percent of the students at school can't read English or are well below grade level in English. You might not think this is unusual because it's not their first language...but Filipinos are required to learn English and study it beginning in the First Grade. Plus, their math and science courses are taught in English! Kind of hard to learn math and science if you don't know English....

The Punta English Club (in my neighborhood) is alive and kicking thanks to Jerrold "Tong" Lopez, a 16-year-old high school dropout who is helping me teach the younger children English. He is very smart and very excited about the club. As president, he has started the kids on a number of projects, including writing Valentine's letters this week in English. Very cute! We meet on Sundays and Tong was elected the group's president. I am hoping Tong will go back to school in June. He is sooooo smart.

On the homefront, I'm enjoying my nightly "usap-usap" (chats) with Ate Basing even though it means sometimes I am not alone. They are all still worried about me being alone in my own house so nobody dares leave me until I am ready for bed. Sometimes it gets exhausting, but it's definitely helping my Tagalog! We talk and she helps me with new words and I help her with some English, so works out just fine. Although, I must admit that sometimes I really don't understand everything she says...sigh! I have a sometimes pet, Pretty Boy, a cat, who comes around every now and then to sleep in my bed and eat my leftover fish. He doesn't however like the rats in my house.

I have made a few home improvements. Queer Eye guys, watch out! Painted my "dirty kitchen" a bright apple green! It was so, well, dirty, and dark. I have ordered some furniture made of bamboo to be delivered in March. And the house will actually be connected to water next week. The hauling is cute but my back is aching....

Other exciting news in the neighborhood is that fiesta is next month. Everyone is getting their pigs big and fat and they will kill them all on the same day. I don't think I'll be around for the squealings! But every barangay has a big fiesta once a year for their patron saint. Ours is St. Joseph. Don't ask why. But basically, it's a big party for a few days. Everyone eats meat and drinks gin. I will offer vegeterian food and see if I get any visitors. Probably not. There are singing and dance contests, and a Miss Gay competition. Yes, Miss Gay!

Oh, so recently, I went to my first cockfight. I was avoiding it but figured I should go eventually since is such a huge part of Filipino culture or at least the male side of things, for the most part. It was as dreadful as I expected with blood and guts spewing everywhere, a bunch of sweaty screaming men and a dead or half-dead rooster in the end. Lots of money changing hands though. Wonder where they get the pesos for the betting when most here have trouble just putting food on the table.

The other thing that is changing in Donsol is that a lot of white people keep showing up in town. It's the strangest thing when you are not used to seeing white people and then you see them walking down the street. I have begun pointing and staring just like my Filipino friends. Tourist season has begun in Donsol. People are coming into town to see the whale sharks, of course. I met an Australian guy teaching English in Taiwan and a Canadian girl. Today, I met a couple of Swedes. This could get fun. I am expecting 15 Peace Corps volunteers to visit one weekend in March. My neighbors might be overwhelmed. I mean, there's me...then, there's 15 of me!

Mahirap ang Buhay

2006-01-29T19:36:00.000-08:00

Or life is hard. Yesterday, I learned of the passing of John Heinberg, the father of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Susan Heinberg. He was 68 and died after suffering for seven months from a rare form of brain cancer.

John Heinberg was kind, charming, witty, smart and so many things anyone could wish for in a father and a husband. He will be sorely missed.

I dedicate this simple entry to John. May he find peace in the next world and may his family find some comfort and peace here on earth.

Bagong Taon (Happy New Year!)

2006-01-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

After an unreal two weeks back in the First World, I've returned to the 'Pines for a some more fun and games. It was difficult to come back -- I got used to the good food, hot showers and a comfy bed. Since my arrival in Manila on Jan. 10, I've been staked out in a single bunk in the dorm at Pension Natividad. It's sort of the Peace Corps volunteers' home away from home. I was placed on "medical hold" for the week in order to undergo some fasting and then a rather invasive test, pareho Si Katie Couric. But all is well, I'm pleased to report. I feel fine anyway, but it didn't hurt to have a week in Manila to ease into life back here.

Today, I enjoyed the relative peace and quiet of the pension, sitting on the lanai and eating a curry tuna sandwhich, while chatting up two street kids, Monica and Palo. (I offered to buy them lunch, of course, but they had already been fed by the pension owners) Monica and Palo are two of a number of kids who live just outside the pension gates on the filthy streets. Their mothers are "glue" sniffers and I'm not sure where their fathers are. They are cute kids and very polite and sweet. Monica, 7, is in the second grade but hasn't been to school in a while. She likes to read. Palo, 5, is pasaway (naughty) and was fighting with Monica over some cookies I gave them. Such is typical life here in Manila where thousands of kids and their families live in the streets.

Tomorrow, I will travel a couple of hours south of here to Tagaytay to attend a conference on Project Design Management with my co-worker, Linell Jacinto, the school librarian. We will hopefully be learning ways to get funding for our library project, which, thanks to many of you out there, is slowly and surely moving along. We have more than a 1,000 books donated so far and people continue to give. Thank you all so much. At the school, there is some movement happening to fix the leaky roof and give the existing library space a new coat of paint to get ready for the arrival of all the books in a couple of months. It is a painfully slow progress...but, eh, there is progress. I have been overwhelmed by so many of you who have been willing to give -- from those of you I know well, to people I don't know at all. Please know that you are making a worthwhile contribution.

It looks like I will be very busy in the next few months. I am working on a proposal now for my secondary project, a Marine Ecology Learning Center, to be built near the shore in Donsol. I am working with local environmentalists who want a place to carry out environmental planning and activities, hold environmental education seminars and trainings and teach little kids an appreciation for the environment. We have been promised a generous offer from the Thomas H. Waters Foundation and now must go through a rigorous approval process under Peace Corps to have the money released to our project. If approved, we will build the center out of native materials...just like my hut! I will let you know as things go along, but if anyone out there has any ideas for the center, please send them along.

Things should be changing in Donsol when I finally get back to site. I got a text from one of the local environmentalists who says the whale sharks are back! They have returned to feast on the plankton abundant just off shore in town. That also means lots of foreigners and I'm interested to see all the people who will come through town. It will definitely change the character of the place for a few months, until the butanding leave again in May.

Salamat sa inyo lahat for all the support. It gets easier, but is still incredibly hard to do what I'm doing and your support is appreciated more than you know.

Ingat kayo!

Maligayang Pasko sa inyo lahat!

2005-12-22T01:02:00.000-08:00

For those of you were patiently awaiting another blog entry, here it is. I just left the Philippines today for the first time in almost nine months. That's the longest I've ever lived in a foreign country and leaving it makes me realize how familiar it has become to me, how it has become somewhat of a second home.

I boarded a Korean Airlines flight this morning bound for Seoul and am now awaiting a flight to Honolulu. Being on a plane where lots of people don't speak English or Tagalog was a jolt to the system. But my instinct now is to try to speak Tagalog with anyone who doesn't speak English and often it just comes out. My teacher says that is a sign that I'm moving along in the language. But how funny that "salamat," not thank you, is the first thing I think of. Or that I have to urge to attach a "po" (Sir or Ma'am in Tagalog) to every sentence, English or otherwise. Luckily, I met a nice Filipino woman from -- where else? ... New York City -- and we chatted in Tagalog. Now, that was a relief! And I couldn't have imagined that nine months ago...

Siguro, this means I am assimilating or adjusting or something like that. But whatever it is, it feels strange to be torn between two worlds and two languages. So as I make re-entry into my other world, I'm excited to see how different it will be or maybe even how the same it will be. In Hawaii, I want to see if I will recognize all things Filipino, things I may have seen before but never realized were distinctly Filipino. But most of all I'm just excited to be home again, even if only for two weeks. To have a little taste of home, of comfort that I miss out on in the Philippines. To see my family again and catch up on things that can't be said in a cell phone call or email. And to hit the beach, some sun (it's been non-stop rain in the Philippines) and just eat some good food.

Before I sign off here, just wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas or Maligayang Pasko! Have a bagong taon, too!

Ingat kayo,

Julia

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

2005-12-13T04:40:00.000-08:00

My true love gave to me: 12-hour flight to Hawaii! Yes, it's true, in just one week, I am leaving the Philippines for a little R & R in Hawaii. Honestly, I can't wait. What will I do first? I'll soak in a hut tub, siguro? Eat a little sushi? Swim in a clean ocean...take a breath of fresh air! So many things I took for granted will now be mine again, if only for two weeks...

So people say its hard to adjust when you reenter the U.S. after time away, but it's hard to imagine that I will have a hard time. But I do wonder whether I will speak funny, or make those funny Filipino expressions -- like letting my mouth drop wide open when I can't hear someone or pointing my lips to give directions. Will my family think its funny that I now have a hard time eating with a knife and a fork? That I am attached to the Filipino way...fork and spoon? Will I miss my bucket bath with a tabo(scoop for bathing)? My three-times daily intake of rice? Will I miss the crowded Filcab, the Jeepneys and the endless replay of the pop song, Pinoy Ako? Will I miss being asked daily if I am married? And why not? Will I miss the rat in my nipa hut and Pretty Boy, my new cat, who doesn't like to catch rats?

Whatever happens, it is a much-needed break from the stress of everyday life here and I can't wait. Mag-eenjoy ako! So for now, folks, happy pasko and stay tuned for more blogging in the New Year!

Ingat po kayo. Maligayang Pasko!

Good days, and Not So Good Days

2005-12-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

Because you never know who is reading this blog, I am careful about the kinds of things I write about. Obviously, I can't give the complete picture of my experiences via the Internet.

Today was not such a good day and I thought I'd share it to give a little incite into the culture here. I have been working with Donsol's local nutrition council to try to acquire weighing scales to properly weigh children in the municipality who are malnourished. Donsol has one of the highest rates of low and underweight children in the region. The council asked me to help them acquire the scales.

It took some letter writing and phone calls and an in-person meeting in Manila until I finally came across a doctor at Unicef that agreed to help us acquire the scales. The only requirement: Donsol needed to put together a proposal requesting the scales and detailing their purpose, etc. Seems simple enough. So after relaying this information to the officials and explaining what needed to be written in the proposal and giving a deadline...wala (nothing)! No proposal. They missed the deadline and the budget year for the Unicef request. No weighing scales this year!

I'd like to say this situation is unusual...but I have encountered this issue many times over. Many Filipinos live on what they laughingly refer to as "Filipino time." (Important meetings always start half-hour to one hour late!) Unfortunately, I think it is the very reason they are falling behind the rest of the world...they are living in a different time zone, operating on a different frequency. I find little interest in planning, preparing, setting and making deadlines. Perhaps this is the glaring clash of American and Filipino cultures...but I really think it is holding people back here. But I also wonder how much people here really want to move ahead. Maybe they don't and we are trying to push them into a world they don't want to participate in. It's hard to tell from my prospective sometimes.

Of course, it is hard to stereotype a whole group of people. There are some very hard-working, good people here. The school librarian on the library project, for example, is very motivated to bring improvements to the library.

The essential question, I suppose, then, is how do I motivate others to help themselves? It might take me two years to figure that out.

Turkey Day

2005-11-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

It is usually around the holidays when you start to miss the things back home. I mean, how do you explain a holiday that revolves around stuffing your face and sitting around watching football all day?

Filipinos know a lot about eating, so that aspect of it it wasn't so tough. This year, we had an unusual gathering of 40-plus people for Thanksgiving dinner on the beach at Katie and Anthony's house in Catanduanes. Fifteen American volunteers, give or take. A British retiree. A Filipino-American family with two small boys. And a jeepney-full of teachers from Katie's school!

Katie and Anthony were generous enough to open up their home and refridgerator to our crowd. We had a candlelight dinner on the beach -- and yes, there was a turkey, donated by the Mayor of Tobaco, where one of our volunteers is stationed.

We then spent a couple of days in a remote resort on Catanduanes. A much-needed break in a beautiful little spot:

This is a little surfing beach called Puraran

It rained but we went swimming anyway!

We stayed in these sweet little cabins

Blessed Event?

2005-11-15T21:49:00.000-08:00

Well, you can rest assured that my house is free of evil spirits...unless you consider a rat an evil spirit. Apparently my successful House Blessing persuaded a rat that it was okay to enter my new home. He scurried away though and I am hoping that he prefers the hut nextdoor. Ayaw ko!!!

So, yes, the house has been blessed in the local practice of a service, sprinkling of holy water and tons of eating! More than 60 people -- not including about 50 neighborhood kids -- attended the blessing last Saturday. Father George, one of the local priests, did the blessing. We all lit candles and followed him from room to room while he sprinkled holy water on the walls and floors. Even the bathroom got blessed. Phew! And just in case the rat comes back, the priest has agreed to throw in a cat for free! :)

Check out the party pics:

Father George is doing his thing during the blessing of my new hut in Punta, Dancalan.

Father George is sprinkling holy water around the hut during the blessing.

Kain Tayo! Let's eat. A Filipino House Blessing is not complete without a ton of food...6 kilos of Bihon noodles, 100+ lumpia rolls, 100+ sandwiches, 100+ puto muffins, etc.

Kanta Tayo! We sing. And of course, no Filipino party is complete without karoake....

Ma'am Jacinto (the librarian) and I yuck it up at the party...

Pictures of my new neighbors, hanging out at home:

This is the sweetest kid. His name is
Gerald "Tong" Lopez and he's really smart but his parents don't let him go to school because there is not enough money to pay registration fees and they want him to cook and clean and take care of the other children while they work, fishing and selling fish.

My new "sisters" -- Grace and April, 14-year-old twins, and Shyrell, 7 -- live nextdoor to me. Their parents, Ate Basing and Kuya June, own the hut I live in.

Ate Basing and Tong hanging out in the new hut...pretty classy for a hut, eh?

Punta English Club

I've started an English club in Punta for the kids who live right around me. It's especially good for the kids who do not attend school because of lack of pera (money). Last Sunday, I read a Filipino folktale in English about a girl who falls from the sky and the animals find a way to make a safe landing for her by building the island of Bohol out of soil from the bottom of the ocean. The little ones had a hard time...but the older kids enjoyed:

Me, explaining a story to the kids in my neighborhood class.

The members of the Punta English Club, ages 6 to 15. Some of them do not attend school because their parents cannot afford to pay a yearly fee of less than 200 pesos (less than $4) and daily transportation fees of 12 pesos (less than a dime).

Life in a Hut

2005-11-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know all of you have been sitting on the edges of your seats awaiting my very next post. So here it is. But I apologize in advance that it has to be short. I am in town just for a bit and have a long lists of things to do and buy for my upcoming House Blessing.

Yes, House Blessing. Complete with crucifix, candles, a lay minister (the priest is out of town), six kilos of noodles, 100 lumpia (egg rolls), 100 white bread sandwiches with sandwich spread and the entire population of school teachers and my new neighborhood, including maraming bata (many kids). Phew. But I am informed that a blessing is essential or something bad will happen to me. Okay lang, you only get blessed once, right? Oh, did I mention a live band? Kuya Benji, the security guard will bring his band to place for us. And Tong, a local kid, is going to sing my favorite Tagalog song, Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang? A good time will be had be all -- just hoping the typhoon headed this way holds off for a bit!

So da hut is great. Takes a bit of getting used to. The gagamba - spiders -- are meyshadong malaki (too big), the cockroachs crawl on posts above my bed while I hide under a mosquito net, and I was recently told that centipedes are fond of Anahaw roofs (just like mine!) Fun.

Aside from the creepy crawlers, the hut is refreshing and the wind blows through the bamboo, which is really cool. I've got my own CR now (bathroom) though I don't have running water. Buckets lang. So I have to haul water to fill up for washing myself and the dishes but I get some help from the neighborhood kids, who by the way, can't stop staring at me and my every move. Tong, the boy who will sing Saturday, helped me wish my clothes yesterday. So I have lots of help at the house and the neighbors are very friendly. It definitely feels safe even though the teachers (of a much higher class of folks) are concerned that I am living in a poor neighborhood. Hindi bale! (Nevermind!) Just cause your poor, doesn't mean your dangerous...

I will posts pics soon, possibly after this weekend's House Blessing. Stay tuned and sorry so short. And send those books!!!

Ingat always.

Life Or Something Like It

2005-10-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

As I am busying myself carving out a life here in the Philippines, I sometimes think of the little things I experience every day that are difficult to pour out in a blog or emails.

Little details, like riding in a Jeepney with 24 other people and several hundred pounds of long silver fish that look like eels, water sloshing out of the buckets. Sitting around chikka-chikka-ing (gossiping) with the soon-to-be neighbors when one (Ate Buehl) volunteers to show me how to weave nipa leaves into pieces that will be used for the roofs of huts. (Many hours of weaving will help her earn just over a dollar for the day). Like meeting the Lopez family...and their eight kids...and realizing after the fact that they live in a hut half the size of mine. Or taking pictures of the workers on my hut with my digital cam and have them ham it up and then get excited to see if they look guwapo (handsome) enough in the instant pics...or stopping work on the hut so that we can mag-meryenda or "take your snacks." Never underestimate the resolve of a Filipino to eat at the appointed snack times! In this case, 3 p.m.

Life here doesn't resemble at all my life back home. But in some ways it is becoming a life all it's own. Soon I will be independent, living in my own hut, in Barangay Dancalan, a community close to the beach. Most of the people there make living by fishing or selling fish. Some, like Ate Buehl, eek out a living by doing small crafts or selling prepared food in makeshift turo-turos. (Turo-turo's are like Filipino fastfood cafeterias where you point -- turo -- at the food you want!)

The hut is coming along. Okay, I promise pictures soon...I expect to move in on Nov. 5. It took a lot longer than they said to build the house but then I should have added a couple of weeks anyway for "Filipino time." Can't wait to settle in and get to know the new neighbors...already, they are curious and come by to stare at the very large hut that is being constructed in my honor. It seems a bit funny now that I will live in a big hut alone when the Lopez family crowds into their small, dilapidated hut down the road...

BOOKS AND BUCKS

Thanks again to all of you who right away have started to contribute to my Book and a Buck Drive. We are getting books and money in the mail. Please tell your friends, your family about the drive. Thank you again for your help!

I'm signing off for now...Ingatz.

Book and a Buck!

2005-10-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

First, thanks to all of you who have already shown interest in our BOOK AND A BUCK DRIVE! I know you will all help me make it a big success, and that in the process, we'll enrich the lives of a lot of kids in Donsol.

The kids here don't get much in the way of literature. The teachers are used to teaching grammar, not reading, and there really isn't much in the way of resources, even if the teachers wanted to teach about things like poetry and all those great books we read as kids. It's hard to imagine a life without those things, without Shakespeare, for example. ("Knowing I lov’d my books, he furnish’d me
From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom" -- The Tempest) Or how can a kid go through life without reading The Diary of Anne Frank? These are the things we take for granted.

I sometimes wonder whether introducing kids to great literature is worth it. But then I think of the doors it opens for them...a chance to see a place, a sense of hope and a sense of belonging to something bigger out there.

There is a bigger world outside of Donsol, right? Sometimes I forget. World news is hard to get here. The paper comes a day late, and well, the little international news on television is in Tagalog and too fast right now for me to catch the full meaning. I am vowing to pull out that emergency world radio I got for Christmas and listen to the BBC every now and then.

I saw some of the kids in the library the other day looking at a recently donated world map and pointing out a place in China. The old map was literally unreadable! And now, presto, they can see the world in front of them. This is so important in my world here, where I have had many adults ask me if England is on the same continent as the United States. (Sorry, Tony B!) It is really amazing to be living in such a sheltered place...at the end of a road, literally. It really turns your sense of self baligtad (upside-down, inside-out)!

In other news...for those of you keeping up with my hut construction, things are moving along rather mabilis (quickly). I should be able to move in by the end of the month. In the Chinese tradition, we will place coins -- American and Filipino -- in the doorways for good luck!

Signing off for now.

Ingat kayo.

Camp G.L.O.W.

2005-10-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

On Oct. 1 and 2, we held a mini-G.L.O.W. camp at Donsol's high school. G.L.O.W. stands for Girls Leading Our World. The camp was started by a couple of Peace Corps volunteers in Romania in 1995 and has since been repeated thousands of times in countries around the world.

I didn't re-invent the wheel here, but this was my first big project at the high school. It took weeks of organizing, begging for funding and a lot of help from my fellow Peace Corps volunteers and co-teachers. The camp helps young girls to gain confidence and to understand what it means to be a girl and to be a leader in our world today. There is some great material that we teach in two-hour sessions over the two days that includes information about leadership, self-esteem and body image, the environment, girls' health and community development. Plus, the girls just get to have fun!

We had 67 girls attend from my high school and from schools in the outer barangays. Some girls took a boat to come to the camp! Enjoy the pictures below:

The girls are performing an environmental song they wrote for a session on saving their environment.

For an exercise in teamwork, the girls must work together to keep a bucket of water in the air with their feet -- and take off and put back on their shoes in the process!

These girls are participating in the Trust Walk, teaching them how to be both a leader and a follower.

These girls are defining what leadership means to them.

For a session on body image, the girls draw two pictures: How they think others see them and how they see themselves. Some interesting results!

Another teamwork exercise. In the "human knot," the girls work together to try to untangle themselves.

The girls decide together how to use three boards to cross an imaginary river of alligators.

BOOK AND A BUCK DRIVE!

2005-10-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is the point in my stay here where I will ask for your help, specifically, your money!

From now until Christmas, I will be conducting a BOOK AND A BUCK DRIVE for my high school. Here's how it works. You send an age-appropriate book and one single dollar (for mailing costs) to one of the two addresses below. Simple, eh? You get a tax write-off and a kid across the world gets to read a book!

WHAT'S AN APPROPRIATE BOOK? Our students are ages 12 to 16 and many of them have difficulty reading books in English. Please donate books that are appropriate for American kids, ages 10 to 15. We would like literature, art and music books, philosophy, science, biography, fiction, non-fiction. Books with a multi-cultural perspective are great! (I.E. Not just an American perspective)

I only ask that each of you send one book. If you want to send more, we will take them! My partners in the book drive (Linda Campbell and Catherine Quayle) will then forward all books to the Philippines. I recently acquired some donated books from Scholastic, Inc. (Thanks to my former editor, Elizabeth Ward) and the kids are checking them out and loving them. But we need so much more.

At school, we will work on a program to raise funds to renovate the library -- it has a leaky roof and faulty wiring -- and a plan to build new shelves to house the books. All you have to do is send the books. This will make a true partnership.

So in this upcoming holiday season of thanksgiving, please open your wallets and hearts and give to our library! Maraming salamat sa inyo lahat!

Donsol students check out China on the new world maps (donated by Linda and Ron Campbell).

Check out the new reading corner I set up with the help of the librarian and a few newly donated books. Think we can fill these shelves up and then some?

Okay, so these kids look happy! But wouldn't they be much happier if they had more books to read?

A view of the existing library. Behind the camera view, there are some shelves of books but the librarian was too embarrassed to show them -- they are old and the shelves are falling apart.

Donsol girls studying in the library.

This picture shows you two things. That, A, there is a librarian who cares about having a library and is trying her best to make it effective; and B, the library is in desperate need of help -- look at the leaky roof!

My Bahay (house)!

2005-10-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like my new hut is looking, well, very much like a hut! It has a frame and partial walls and part of the C.R. (bathroom) completed already, in one week. I am visiting the place almost daily to check on the progress and it looks like the guys are hard at work and doing a good job. Magaling magtrabaho!

The hut will be much bigger than I thought -- pretty spacious as huts go. I hope it won't be too embarrassing to live in the house by myself in neighborhood where whole, large families live in the same sized huts. But I think I will find it comfortable for me and while I have made a lot of sacrifices, it will be comforting to have my own private space.

The walls are made partially of cement and then bamboo. Kuya Jun, my new "host father," says that he is making the bamboo walls in a diamond pattern. Sounds nice. I decided to leave the inside of the house open -- a la New York studio-style, even though I think they thought I was crazy for not wanting walls around my bedroom. The interior will be perhaps a little bigger than my studio in New York and have space for a "bedroom," living area and eat-in kitchen, plus CR. There will be no running water, except if you count the garden hose I will run from Kuya's house to mine. I will tap into his electricity to have lights and outlets. I was a little disturbed to find out that garbage disposal is a pile in a marshy palm area a short distance from the house. But maybe that's a neighborhood project I can work on...Proper disposal of garbage is not a big thing here. They don't understand, really, the long-term effects on the environment by simply throwing garbage in a big pile and letting it float into the nearby riveR. Hmmm. I do have a septic tank. Though not sure how environmentally sound that is either.

Construction should be finished about the last week of October. Yeehaw! Here are some pics I took yesterday to give you an idea of my new bahay....

Kuya Jun, right, is supervising one of the workers who is finishing a cement wall inside my hut.

A worker is cleaning off a strip of bamboo. It's pretty labor intensify. You have to cut the bamboo and then strip it clean of splinters, etc. No machines!

A view of the front entrance of my new hut. About 3 1/2 feet of cement and then bamboo for the rest of the walls.

Another view of the front of the hut. Ate Basing is inside, helping with the construction.

My street! Many streets don't really have names here and even if they did, no one would use them. It's all about barangays (villages)! Which barangay do you live in? This is the view on my street, walking out of my little neighborhood.

Some kids in my neighborhood who followed me down the street the other day. Cute na?

Reality Sets In...

2005-09-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I just returned to Donsol this week from a two-week training near Manila with my fellow PCVs. It was a fantasy world. We ate good food, enjoyed a beer or two with our Americano kaibigan, swam in the resort pool and shopped and spa'd (Yes!) in Manila. We even spent a small fortune for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen in a fancy Manila mall. Dinner cost a third of my monthly rent!

Now, reality is setting in. I returned to site and it took me a couple of days to readjust. Well, still readjusting...but hanging in there. I realize how much I miss contact with Americans and how much I miss speaking English and having a normal conversation with people who "get" me. Isolation is hard. I am surrounded by people everyday but it is still possibly to feel lonely and isolated in a place where you really don't speak the language or understand the culture. I have moments of understanding and sometimes breakthroughs...where I think, I really get these people. And then something happens that throws everything askew. Such is my real life here in the Philippines.

But with the downs, come a few ups...or long slopes, rather. I just plunked down some serious pesos to build my native hut. Kuya Jun is buying the materials as I write this and construction will hopefully start next week. It is supposed to take three weeks, which, in Filipino time, probably realisticly means 5 to 6 weeks. Still, the thought of finally having my freedom and my own space, my own home, gives me inspiration to hang on.

Things are okay at school. I am busy planning the final touches for my GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp next weekend, Oct. 1 and 2. I am expecting about eight American volunteers and two Filipino friends from Peace Corps to join me in facilitating the camp. I am also hoping for local cooperation, but you can't put too much stake in people following through here. It's a tough reality, but I've found it's really difficult to get people to commit to something. But I am not giving up on them and I am hoping they will come through in the end...

While in Manila, we had a chance to do some sight-seeing and playing around...Here are a few pics:

Mary Owen (Detroit) and I are sitting at the top of Taal Volcano. We took a hike through some tall grasses and found a little bird sanctuary.

We had to take a boat to get to Taal Volcano. Here's Mary and Kelly "Bunso" O'Brien(Pittsburgh). "Bunso" means the youngest sibling in Tagalog...Kelly was our youngest cluster member in training.

Dede Sandler (New York City girl!) and Kelsey McMillan (Cleveland, Ohio) helped train us this time. They are part of Batch #262 and are own their way home to America. Sigh. These girls were also part of the Bicol crew and helped welcome me to town. Miss you guys!

Vania: We'll Miss You, Girl!

2005-09-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Peace Corps lost a good one this week: Vania Land, a fellow city girl from Chicago, who has returned home to happier pastures. Vania is a social worker with an accomplished record back home who came to help abused girls here in the Philippines. She made an impression on all of us, Filipino and American alike, and we will miss her!

Vania decided to return home to pursue a more active role in development in the U.S.-- and will likely open and operate her own home for abused American kids someday. Wish her luck! :)

Bye Vania! We'll miss ya back here in the land of Jeepneys, frying pork and Crazy Fils. Check out classic Vania. We will miss you and your silly little laugh!

The Road to Pangpang

2005-08-28T00:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am not the best at keeping up with the Blog. For those of you who are anxiously checking it each day...I apologize!

It's not that I don't have much to say. It's that I have too much to say and the nature of what I experience day in, day out, is sometimes too much to put into words for public viewing. Some of it can't be written down as the PC sensors may be reading.

But here goes. I road my bike the other day down the road that leads to the beach, where there is a small nipa hut resort for touristas who come six months out of the year to see the whalesharks or butanding here. Beyond the gate of Woodland Beach Resort, the road continues and is sometimes so muddy that it becomes impassable and you must take a boat to get to the communities that lie beyond. Last Sunday, my beach bike was a perfect match for the muddy road (it is only paved in patches) and I followed it, not knowing exactly where it would go.

Up over a hill. Okay, I had to walk the bike a bit! And then a cut through a mountain, around a curve and down a steep hill. I had the sense that it's not a place foreign tourists venture to often, if ever. At the base of the hill, I came upon Pangpang. The tiny barangay of nipa huts on the beach and fishing boats moored just off shore. Coconut trees dotting the shoreline. Men looking up from their drinking circle to stare. Children shouting "Americana, Americana!" and following along on foot or bikes as I passed through the village. A man grinning at the scene from his Sari-Sari store, where he sells candy, cigarettes and 30s of San Miguel beer and bottles of bourbon. A cool breeze blowing at my face and the tiny little waves lapping on the shore.

I felt a bit like Dorothy landing in Oz. Pangpang is not that far away, but it might as well be. No stores or tricycles or Jeepneys. Just little huts and simple people, passing the time of day on a Sunday afternoon. I stopped to talk to a woman and a group of children after one of the kids proudly asked in English, "What's your name?" I'm not sure they even know what they are asking half the time, but it's one of the sentences some kids here seem to know. That, and "Where are you going?" The woman didn't speak English and I used my limited Tagalog, but we ended up having a conversation somehow. She wanted to know if I was a tourist and explained that many tourists didn't come to visit Pangpang. When I explained I was not and that I lived in a nearby barangay, she wanted to know more. We spoke for about 20 minutes and laughed and the kids listened and giggled. And I rode off, back home, down the road to Pangpang.

There are moments, days like that, when I feel this is all worth it. To stumble across a charming fishing village in a foreign land and come out of it having made a new friend. It's the simple life here, on the off the beaten paths, where I find the most solace, the places where I feel most at home. It's the little things too that make me laugh when I'm feeling homesick -- like watching two men pull a goat behind a motorcycle. Slowly, of course. Our the thought that I am regularly eating squid, eyeballs and all. Or when the house helper, Edna, starts belting out "Nobody's Perfect" by Madonna in very imperfect English.

Okay, back to reality. I am working a lot at school these days and juggling about as many things as I used to try to juggle in my old life. So much for the laid back Peace Corps, right? I am busy and preparing to leave for two weeks of training in Manila later this week. We had a clean-up day at school today to try to get rid of some of the garbage. The kids have a bad habit here of throwing trash everywhere but in a garbage can. Much of my other work is planning for future workshops and projects. I have a girls' leadership camp when I return from training and some journalism workshops to conduct in the Schools' Division Office in Sorsogon, about an hour and a half away. I am also trying to make time to get the library project up and running. I was pleasantly surprised to receive two big boxes of books and books on tapes from my old editor at Scholastic, Inc. Thank you Elizabeth!! The trick now is to find places to put the books. We need to get shelves built, etc., and will have to fundraise locally to make that happen. I will write more on the library project once our local committee meets and has a plan. Stay tuned.

Nasaan Si Julia?

2005-08-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks. I've been on the road again. This time, no volcanoes. Just a trip via jet plane to the big city of Manila. I have been selected to be a warden for my Peace Corps Batch 264. Basically, it means I am in charge of safety and security for my area should there be any need to, well, evacuate. You know, just in case there is a big typhoon or a political coup. Both of which are entirely possible!

In any case, it got me to Manila for a training session and a couple of days roaming the filthy streets of the city. Also got my cell phone swiped from my backpack. A typical day in Manila!

It was great to be back in a city. I miss New York sooooooo much! And while Manila is no New York City, the smells and sounds reminded me a bit of home. Like the rest of the Philippines, Manila is a city of great potential but lacking in so much. On one hand, I got a glimpse of how the rich live in Makati City, a wealthy section of town. We visited the complex of mega luxury malls there -- stores which I can no longer afford! And all the expensive restaurants and wine bars. I stared through the windows in envy. Again, I can no longer afford such luxuries! Then just blocks away, there are shanty towns again. This country is like that, stark contrasts everywhere you turn around.

I am back in Donsol again and trying to put my head down and get to work. Though I realize that is a very American way of thinking. It's tough to get things done here and sometimes you have to give in to just doing nothing. But I push a little bit each day -- to organize a workshop, the girls' camp I'm pulling together and chipping away at my long-term pet project -- the library.

Speaking of which, I will be organizing some sort of library program in which all of you and your friends can get involved. Looking for a tax break? Or just want to do some good? Find a place to put your extra pocket change? Stay tuned. Mom and I will organize a way for you to help build up the high school library. I want to develop the program slowly -- It doesn't do us any good to receive books and then have nowhere to put them, right???

I am working with our librarian, Ms. Linell Jacinto, to figure out what to do. We will form a committee on our end and probably one there at home to work together on book drives, donations for a new library, etc. Our dream is to renovate a historic building on campus into a new library! This is big dream. But it doesn't hurt to try.

This weekend, I spent some time speaking with the folks who may become my new neighbors. I am thinking of building a nipa hut -- or actually completing a nipa hut a local family had started and can't finish because of lack of funds. They are a very sweet family. The "Ate" is head of the local fisherman's association; she sells fish in the palengke. "Kuya" is a fireman in the nearby town of Pilar. They have six kids, three in college. The neighborhood is mostly all nipa huts and there are lot of kids around, chickens, cats, dogs, and a few carabao. As we were snacking on merienda, a few evening shrimpers walked by with these huge nets reaching to the treetops. And Ate says if she will teach me how to "dance" for muscles in the sand at the beach at four in the morning. (You apparently just dance a bit in the sand and uncover lots of muscles. Yummy!)

Anyway, they are good people and I hope they will become my new neighbors. We talked about plans for the nipa...they teased me that I will need a really big C.R. because they know how Americans love their bathrooms. The hut will be simple, living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom -- about the size of my studio back home and made with bamboo and nipa leaves on the roof. Total cost of new home: $500. No running water but we do plan to string electricity in there somewhere. I will have to haul water to the house. Just awaiting approval now from the PC....so cross your fingers.

Ingat!!!

Julia and the Volcano

2005-07-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

So while trying to save the world, I'm also trying to save my sanity.
One way to do this? Climb the Philippines' most active volcano!

I joined five other Peace Corps volunteers -- all girls! -- this past weekend for a hike up the "perfect cone" of Mount Mayon, one of the most beautiful volcanoes in the world. It sits just about an hour from Donsol in the province of Albay and I marvel at it every time I ride the Filcab or Jeepney into the big city of Legaspi.

I got a chance to see it up close in personal this weekend as we climbed up halfway, camped out and continued nearly to the top. It's a steep and rocky climb and steamy at the top. No worries though. The last eruption was five years ago...but it's still smoldering in there, nonetheless.

We were led by guides, climbed up a sheer face of volcanic rock and through jungle paths. We braved downpours and even a flash flood. But we pulled through it with only a few scratches and a little soreness a couple of days later.

Here's a couple of links to photos (you have to sign in to view them on Kodak Gallery) and a few of my own:

View Dede's photos

View Lisa's photos

It's a long way up from here!

Me, soaked on the rocks at Mount Mayon

Another gorgeous view

After a downpour, the trail got a little flooded

Me, taking a rest on the second day

She's Been Swallowed By a Giant Whaleshark!

2005-07-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, just kidding. But I just saw that it's been almost two weeks since my last blog. I have a number of excuses. First, I live at the end of a long road to nowhere, uh, well, Donsol, Sorsogon, and Internet is more than an hour's ride on a "Air Con" (Yeah, right!) van with 12 of my new Filipino neighbors. Two, I escaped to a remote island called Catanduanes last weekend and was again far from the Web. Three, well, I'll think of it in a bit.

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lapse in writing. It's hard to believe that I have almost been at site nearly five weeks. While the days sometimes move like molasses, the weeks seems to fly by. That's what they say about Peace Corps experience: It's over before you know it.

I get busier and busier as things crop up at school and ideas are coming to me by the dozens. The real challenge is to figure out how to get things done on "Filipino time" (whenever it happens, it happens time) and within the system. The struggle is to throw out most of how you function as an American and begin to think like a Filipino. You don't deal with people directly. You whisper your idea to someone who might plant a seed in the right person's head. You don't expect that people will show up on time to meetings. They won't. You don't worry about the outcome. Bahala Na. It eventually happens, one way or the other.

As I mentioned, I traveled to Catanduanes last weekend to participate in a Peace Corps-sponsored girls' empowerment camp called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). It was really cool. We spent two days with about 40 girls, ages 12 to 16, and did a number of activities that encourage them to speak their minds and be leaders in their community. The camp was conceived by a PCV in Africa a few years back and now is being conducted in some form or another all over the world. Really inspiring to see these young girls really blossom. (Filipino students are often very shy and the camp seems to really break them out of their shell). I assisted with sessions and conducted my own yoga class for the girls. You should have heard them "Ommmmmmm!" Needless to say, I am now planning on one in Donsol -- hopefully to happen in late August, early September.

At school, I will conduct a workshop July 15 on activities teachers can use to get their students speaking up in class. I am planning and developing other programs to address a number of English skills the kids are struggling with -- comprehension, vocabulary, etc. In two higher level English classes, I am reading a novel to the students called The Secret, written by a Filipino writer for high school-aged kids. Because I have only one book, I am using it as a "listening" exercise and giving them vocabulary words and worksheets to test their comprehension. But they seem to understand a good deal and to be enjoying the story, so I'll just see how it goes.

I am also beginning long range plans for a library project (I will be soliciting help with this later on), in addition to planning that GLOW camp.

More later. Will try to post more pictures, soon.

Ingat kayo.

Settling In...Or Something Like It

2005-07-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

One of the things I set out to do in joining the Peace Corps was to turn my world upside down. Just to see what it looked like from another vantage point. I'm certainly standing on my head here in the Philippines.

Not much looks like it used to anymore and sometimes it can be confusing just to navigate your way through a culture that is so different from our own. There are many things about the Filipino culture I find charming: The closeknit families, their friendly nature, a fondness for eating good food and their love of a good joke. Or "joke, joke, joke lang!" (only joking!) as my new host mom is fond of saying. I sometimes don't know when my new friends are being serious or just trying to see how I will react.

For instance, I attended a town meeting the other day on nutrition. The health coordinator introduced me to the others and than announced that I'm single and pointed to the town doctor and said. "He's single, too!" Wink, wink. A harmless joking had by all? Well, not exactly! I've since found out there is a plot to marry me off to Dr. Owen!

There are times when I think I might not ever understand this culture, too. One of the most tiring things -- nakakapagod! -- is the questioning. Everything I do is cause for interrogation. Why are you eating that? Why are you cooking that way? What are you doing? Where are you going? Whose going with you? When will you return? One of my co-teachers explained the other day that this is simply the Filipino way of showing interest and making conversation. But, egads, it can get to you!

And because of the language barrier, I feel I'm only catching on to about 25 percent of what is happening around me. I thought the other day that it must be a lot like how it feels for someone who is deaf. I catch a few words, phrases here and there, but for the most part, I just smile and nod. Sometimes it's not worth saying you just don't understand.

I'm an oddity here too, of course. So I'm shown off in meetings or parties or gatherings. My jaw hurts from smiling and saying hello to people who greet me even though I have no idea who they are. I'm waiting for the day my celebrity-status wanes a bit.

I am making baby steps at school. I'm still observing classes and trying different activities to see what works and what doesn't. In the English Club I started with some of the more advanced students, we're putting on a program July 4 after the school flag ceremony. They learned and will sing the Star-Spangled Banner. (Okay, so I know this is a bit American-centric of me!) But the day is also Fil-Am Friendship Day here and a way to do a little cultural sharing. Only I didn't realize how difficult it is to hit those high notes...what was Francis Scott Key thinking anyway???

I'm also in the midst of planning a series of workshops -- activities teachers can use in their classrooms to improve English skills in reading, listening, writing, speaking, etc. These will be weekly teacher-enrichment sessions for English teachers only right now. Later, I'll be doing workshops for all teachers to improve their own English skills.

I'll soon be helping the kids work on the next edition of the school newspaper which comes out in October. Right now, the journalism students are decorating a bulletin board in the office near my desk where they will post news, student literary works, etc. Next weekend, I am traveling to a remote island -- Catanduanes, known as typhoon alley! -- to attend a Peace Corps run program called GLOW camp -- Girls Leading Our World, an empowerment camp for teen girls. It will give me a chance to see another part of the Philippines and get a little training on how to put on one of these camps in Donsol.

Okay, I'm putting myself to sleep with all these things. Just wanted to give some of you an idea of what I'm working on out here in the boondocks.

Ingat para sa lahat.

It's a Text World Out There...

2005-06-28T02:28:00.000-07:00

Some of you might not know this, but the Philippines is the texting capital of the world! Here, people don't use their cell phones so much to make calls. They text. Not only is it the standard of communication in leisure and business...but it is the chief mode of communication for romance here. They're called "text mates."

During training, me and my fellow PCVs sent texts to each other to keep in touch, share experiences or commiserate. This may be too much in-country humor for you state-siders, but here's a sampling that we presented at our swearing-in, with one of our PCVs, Josh, playing guitar as background music!

There was a frog in my shoe dis umaga (morning)!

Chika-chika: Tink I have a mild crush on one of da actors on Darna (a local superhero TV show)!

My host sister and her husband just brought out a stingray tail, used for fighting off the Aswang, a half-man, half-bird creature.

How much does a fishhead count toward your Recommended Daily Allowance?

Will you eat my dogs if I kill them?

Oh no! de caribaw (a large moose-looking creature) is loose and I'm the only one dito (here). Wat 2 do?

Ever try BBQ'd chicken blood B4? Masarap (delicious)!

Ugh. Just had an ant doing rounds in my ear. Ayaw ko! (I don't like it!)

Hahaha. The only thing I regret about 2day is not hoping on that carabaw.

Aaah! Bed bugs in my bed. Lots. I'm seriously going insane.

Oh My God. Not sure I've ever seen dis many bugs. Saan (where)? Sa aking kama! (In my bed!) No jokin. It's like sum one skejuld a bug convention without telling me.

Chances of death or dismemberment? 43.7 percent.

Can I just tell u how much I stink right now? I haven't done laundry since before we left and I'm just wearing the same dirty clothes over n over! Gross!

Roger dat vector niner. This chicken is about 15 minutes from flying the coop. What's ur destination?

Got the tears out of the way. I have no idea what I'm doing.

The house is dirty. The TV is on loud. Mother, dad away a work. No food.

Will watch kneeling carabao at church 2nite.

Would you believe they are doing circumcisions on 7 to 10 year olds?

I have no blood left in me: The mosquitoes have taken it all.

A series of texts:

Volunteer: Myles, a kid puked on the jeepney on the way home.

Trainer: What! That's twice today.

Volunteer: I know, it's crazy. It's a bad sign.

Trainer: What kind of sign could it be?

Volunteer: Maybe I'm next to yak on a jeepney.

Trainer: You'll not do that with us around.

Volunteer: If I do I'll stick my head out the window.

Trainer: Ur whole thing will fly in our faces.

Volunteer: Then you better bring an umbrella.

Trainer: And a raincoat...And do it silently so no one will notice you.

Volunteer: Oh yeah, I'm sure no one will notice a vomiting white girl on a Jeepney.

End series

I better get credit for naming your new straing of illness -- Jengue fever. (After Dengue fever acquired by volunteer Jen Austin) Are you still alive? Text once for yes, twice for no.

Even though my standard of living is lower, I don't think my standard of life is.

Have a great time. Things went well here. I will head to my site 2moro. Here's to the next phase in our journey. Let me know when it's official for you.

It's official!

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

2005-06-28T02:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted any pictures so I wanted to give you a sampling of some I've taken recently. I will post more as soon as I can!

New friends: Jean, Sam and Ma'am Del (left to right) pose for a quick pic before dinner of Laing, rice and more rice! Jean and Ma'am Del are my co-teachers and housemates in Donsol

Two of my students at school -- oops! Forgot their names

One of my host family stray cats. We've got 12!

Another view of Mount Mayan volcano. Continues to amaze me!

Me and Ate Julie during a party for local teenagers back in Bucal

Me and little Colleen, my former host family's granddaughter

Here's me shucking a coconut!

From left to right, my training cluster at swearing-in, Kelly O'Brien (Pittsburgh), me, Kehl Mandt, (Arlington, Va.), Myles Liquigan, our teacher, and Mary Owen (Detroit).

Move Over, Julia Roberts!

2005-06-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

It seems that I am now a celebrity. I have arrived and Donsol has rolled out its red carpet. Everywhere I go I am greeted by name, by people I've never seen before. Word has spread quickly that I am the new American in town, the new teacher sa Donsol High School. And they call me "Julia Roberts." I have been compared to Dianna Torres, a former Filipina Miss Universe and actress in the Philippines. Everyone tells me how "maganda" (beautiful) I am. A girl could get used to this! They like my white skin and tell me to use an umbrella in the sun so I don't get too dark. The children greet me on the street, one after another, and in groups, with 'Good Morning, Ma'am.'

I have moved from my anonymous life in New York to a place where everybody will know my name. Such has been life for me in my first week in Donsol, world famous for our whale sharks.

I have started school and I've have realized that there is much to do. The school grounds and buildings are crumbling but there may be nothing I can do about this. On the inside, there are few books and supplies. The teachers must pay for supplies out of their own pockets. There are few teacher guides and materials so they must make it up as they go along. There are no visual aids, no CD-ROMs, no maps, no nothing. This is basic education with people power. What a challenge to step into. Still, the children are very bright and many in the third and fourth year classes speak English well. English is their third language, after Bicol and Tagalog. They are eager to learn and to speak to me and to learn about life in America. Most of them dream of getting a visa to move to the states someday and many of them already have relatives living in our country.

While I am supposed to spend the first three months observing and assessing the situation, I have found that sitting around just won't do. There are not even enough teachers to teach the students so I have already stepped in to teach some English classes. It forces you to be creative right away and I recently divised a couple of games to get the students speaking and using vocabulary words. Most of the kids have learned by repeating and reciting so one of my goals is to move them to a more interactive type of learning - group tasks, speaking activities, etc. I will be helping the teachers develop these kinds of teaching methods by doing workshops for them and demonstrating techniques in the classroom. You might ask me what makes me qualified to do this? I ask myself that every day. But the needs do become apparent when you sit in a Filipino classroom. The students are obedient and will tell you they understand even when they do not. Many of their answers are yes and no and many students lack the ability to think critically -- a skill that is so stressed back home.

It's difficult to know where to begin. There are endless possibilities and sometimes I get overwhelmed by what I could do and knowing that I have my limitations. I also want to improve the physical materials at school. These kids need books and more books. Most of them never read a book outside of a textbook -- and any of the textbooks they might have are mostly outdated. During a quick run through the textbooks and reference books in the school's tiny library, I could not find a book printed after 1978! Also, there are 10 computers at school for 2,000 students -- donated just last year. They are kept in a windowless, non-airconditioned room and are sure not to last long.

So, you can see I have much to do. Now I've got to get to work. I have to run to catch the last bus back to town -- my Internet access is an hour's ride away. Ingat kayo para sa lahat!

A New Beginning, Bicolana-Style

2005-06-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

It's official. I'm sworn in and officially now living at site in Donsol. I suppose there is no turning back now. How strange to take the beautiful winding road to Donsol and know that this will be my home for the next two years. As we drove the hour from Legaspi city to Donsol, I wondered how many of you will someday see what I see. The perfect, but simple huts along the roadside. The men sleeping on benches under the shade of bahay kubos. Naked toddlers bathing in buckets. Huge carabao sticking their massive heads out into the road, inches from the car. The large puno (trees) that hang over the road, making an archway for a good portion of the trip. The white, crumbling crypts of an old cememetery just before you enter Donsol. And finally a welcome sign for Barangay Awaii -- which I just noticed yesterday is awfully close to "Hawaii." Coincidence? :)

I spent at night at home with my new host family, the Ysogs. Kuya Rene is a seaman who works for Disney cruise lines and is home with an arm injury. Ate Susan runs the household and is mother to three children, Pauline, a nursing student at a university in Legaspi, and Lloyd, a 10-year-old who is very shy around me. Ate Susan also has two "helpers" at home who do the cooking and cleaning. They are a very nice and laidback family and the accommodations are very nice!

I managed to escape Donsol for my second night and travel to nearby Sorsogon City, where Dede Sandler, a volunteer from New York who has been here for two years already and has a nipa hut on the beach! Dede and two other volunteers -- all of whom will leave the Philippines in September -- and I spent the afternoon at a beach, wading to a small island, snorkeling and floating in the pretty bluegreen water. Dede's got the life in her sweet little hut! Can't wait to build mine. We took our "showers" under the pump of a nearby neighbor. (She has no water). The owner of a little sari-sari store down the street made us "international drinks" for happy hour. It was a nice break after the grueling training and good to know that at least for now there are fellow Americans within an hour to two hours away.

Today, Monday, is a holiday. So no school today. Tomorrow, I will officially start at the school and be introduced to students and teachers. I'm not sure what to expect other than this week will be a lot of meeting and greeting.

To all who have been reading my blogs, I have to tell you that I will not have as much access to email as I have in the past. I hope to make it to email once a week but the trip is an hour away and I may not always make it to the city. If you don't hear from me in a while, please know that I think about you all every day.

Wish me luck in my new home.

Saying Goodbyes

2005-06-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

This week I said Goodbye to my host family, the Alcasids. Though I have only lived with them for two months, I have become attached. It wasn't easy to adjust, I'll admit that. My surroundings were like none I had ever experienced. The culture was entirely different and most of the time I couldn't understand a word they said. But sometimes, when it comes right down it, people are just people. They made me feel welcomed in their own way and included me as a member of the family.

Jason, my host brother, is an ambitious young kid on his way to college to study nursing. I got to know his friends and recently helped host a teen dance with his youth group in the street in front of our house. As customary in the Philippines, the kids slow danced and the adults hit the drinking circle. I shared Matador (brandy) shots with Tatay (dad), the youth group adviser and Mary and Kehl (my fellow cluster mates). Like I've mentioned before, drinking is serious business. Shots and water chasers. Ugh. But it was a fun bonding experience with Tatay and I think it made him feel at home.

Nanay is a sweetheart and she gets after me to learn my Tagalog, gently correcting what I say and always speaking to me in the language, whether I understand or not. I appreciate this about her. Plus, her cooking is so masirap! I will miss that.

My sister, Aubrey, and her husband, Michael, are newly married and expecting their first baby in September. They've asked me to be a "sponsor" or Godparent at the baptism in December or January. (Filipinos love to have American Ninangs --Godmothers). So now I will be the proud (God) mother of three -- Mitchell, Nikita and the baby, which they are thinking of naming Julia if it is a girl!

I will also miss Colleen and Dazzel, Nanay and Tatay's grandchildren. Last week, I helped do Colleen's makeup for a little formal pageant she was in for the Santa Cruzan festival -- a fancy parade through the neighborhood after a Mass. (I will post pictures soon -- lost my USB cord). As I was packing the other day, Dazzel -- we call him Put-put -- stared at me with a somber face the whole time. Saan ka pupunta? Bakit? (Where are you going? Why?) He was so darn sweet I wanted to cry. And it was difficult to explain to him -- with my limited Tagalog -- why I had to leave.

On my last day, nanay and tatay went all out to prepare a special meal of my favorite foods -- grilled Tilapia and calabasa (squash). They surprised me with the elaborate lunch after class that day. They also gave me a small gift -- some hair pretties and a case for my cell phone -- and apologized that they couldn't spend much on it. Very sweet.

Later this week, I will also say goodbye to the Americans I've gotten to know in recent weeks. Though I will see some of them again, I will be essentially on my own once I move to site on Saturday. Our swearing-in ceremony is Thursday night in Manila and I will be official then. And while I am ready to move on now and get to work, it will be an adjustment to be out there on my own.

60 Days, But Who's Counting?

2005-05-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

It seems some days that time just doesn't pass quickly enough. Other times, I can't believe the time that has passed. I've now been in the Philippines 60 days! I've managed to survive (I have 13 more days to go until I am officially sworn in) living on this bubble we know as training. The cramped confines of my temporary home. The family of Ipis (cockroaches) that lives in my bathroom after 9 p.m. Dodging Jeepneys running across a national highway each morning to get to school. The pollution. The smells of burning plastics in the back yard garbage pile. Summer temps hovering at 100. Barking host family dogs. The TV at full blast, always.

Though they are a lot harder to see right now, there have been good times, too. The children who greet me in the neighborhood when I come home from school. Especially little Julia, who likes to call out "Tita Julia, Tita Julia." The man who yells "Taho" and carries two large metal cannisters balanced on a pole. (He stops at our house to sell Taho - a bean curd breakfast, sort of like a tofu yogurt - to us for five pesos. It is 'Oh so masirap!'). Cooking Tortelloni for my host family and having them discover the cheesy surprise in the middle of each pasta for the first time. The half-English, half-Tagalog chikka-chikka (small talk) over the dinner table with my family. Discovering new Tagalog words every day. Eating a daily lunch for only 25 pesos (about 50 cents) at our favorite local eatery at the host family cantina of my language instructor. Escaping the heat in the AirCon room of my fellow cluster mate, Kelly O'Brien. Yes, she has air conditioning! A midnight swim with fellow PCVs at the hot springs pool at a Los Banos hotel we use for training.

In less than two weeks, I will swear to God to defend the Constitution of the United States and officially become a volunteer. And in many ways, this will be just the beginning of my journey here. I will no longer have the comfort of fellow Americans within reach. (The nearest volunteer will be an hour away). And I will be left to my own devices in a strange place with people and a culture I barely know. Though it is both terrifying and exciting, I look forward to finally starting what I came here to do: to immerse myself in a foreign culture, speak the language and try to do some good in the world. Let the games begin.

Half-Man, Half-Bird

2005-05-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

Lest you think I have lost my mind, I will tell you upfront that I am in fact still sane. But my host sister told me the wildest story last night with a straight face. Some Filipinos believe in the Aswang, half-men, half-bird creatures that swoop in the dark of night and steal the fetuses of pregnant women! They also like to eat little children! Aubrey and her husband, Michael, of course assured me that we were safe -- they have the skeleton tail of a sting ray to protect us. No joke. Garlic works, too, I'm told!

Akin to our vampires, the legend of the Aswang was born in the Visayas region in the southern Philippines. According to the folklore, Aswangs have bloodshot eyes from staying up all night looking for their prey. Aubrey says they also have fangs and like to suck blood. Sound familiar? The cool thing is that they can change from animal to human form and back whenever they want so as not to be discovered. Pigs, dogs and black birds are popular disguises for the Aswang. Aubrey says she's never seen one...but claims one was flying outside her bedroom window recently! Is it time to call in Mulder and Scully?

And in case you wanted to know more about these elusive monsters, Hollywood has kindly provided a horror film called, appropriately, Aswang (1994). Check it out!

In the Land of Butanding

2005-05-13T22:32:00.000-07:00

So there I was, ready with fins, snorkel and mask. The spotter yelled, Go, Go, Go and I slipped off the skiff and into the waters of the South China Sea. I opened my eyes to stare in the face of the biggest fish I've ever seen! The butanding (whale shark) had a mouth more than four feet wide and a body perhaps 35 to 40 feet long! What an awesome sight. They are big, lumbering, sweet creatures. They are brownish-gray and covered in white spots. They look like sharks but are the size of whales. We swam close enough to touch them and followed them until they swam deeper under the surface. They seemed not to mind too much having a bunch of crazy tourists (me, three other PCVs and two German tourists) swimming by their side.

The butanding are my new neighbors in Donsol, Sorsogon, which will be my home for the next two years. The butanding were discovered off the waters of Donsol in 1998 and the Philippine government moved quickly to declare the area an eco-tourism area to prevent poaching. The whale sharks put Donsol on the map. The town is only one of a few places in the world where you can swim with the whale sharks. Their presence makes my new home a special place. I'm already comtemplating making them my secondary project at site - perhaps an environmental education program and mass cleanup (badly needed) of the beaches near town. Anyone have any ideas about how to get the kids excited about cleaning up the environment, please send them along.

I flew from Manila last Sunday with a fellow volunteer, Pauline, and landed in Naga, in the Bicol region of the Philippines, on a single landing strip in the middle of rice fields surrounded by beautiful mountains. A three-hour bus ride (including time to fix the flat tire!) later, Pauline and I parted ways in Legaspi City, the closest city to my rural site. She headed north to Bucacay, I, south to Donsol. My new supervisor picked me up at the airport and was eager to show off one of the regions most magnificent sites, Mount Mayan volcano. They call it the "perfect" volcano...and it is! Stunning. We took in the view from an observation point halfway up the volcano before heading to Donsol.

The road to Donsol winds up and over hills and is shaded by trees along the route. An old cemetery with family crypts sits at the edge of town. The "downtown" has two main thoroughfares, San Jose Street and Tres Marias Drive. My host family lives on Tres Marias Drive, just down the street from the high school where I will work.

The rest of the town has small little streets lined with mostly bahay kubo, native Filipino houses (huts) made of bamboo. Very simple homes. There is a new, grandly built Catholic church in town, St. Joseph's, and a dilapidated public hospital at the top of a hill with very little equipment, medicine and no bed sheets!

There is a palengke (market) in the center of town with lots of fresh fish and veggies. There is a pizza joint called Nanay's (Mother's) and a karoake bar called the Whale Shark. There is a simple concrete pier with street lamps that runs along the waterfront, where small bahay kubos stand on stilts in a couple of feet of water and surrounded by mangroves. There is garbage everywhere though I did see a group collecting some trash in one swampy residential area. A good sign?

Donsol is a gold mine waiting to happen. A local congressman managed to get some infrastructure put in -- a bridge from town to the beaches, where two modest resorts with huts are operating to cater to tourists who come from all over the world to see the butanding. The road to Donsol was also paved a few years ago. You used to have to hike in when the weather was bad! A river runs under the new bridge headed north to an area where you can take a skiff to view thousands of fireflies at night, another tourist attraction trying to take off. Much of the future of this sleepy little town rests on its potential as a tourist destination.

Here are some more pictures of my new hometown:

A welcome sign was hastily posted while I made my first visit to the high school.

Local kids in Donsol clowning for my camera

A shelter at the local beach. The sand is gray and a bit dirty-looking. Residents burn trash on the sand.

Here's a street near the palengke in the center of town

From left to right, teachers Muriel, Marilyn and Marla were my tour guides for the day

This is a little "harbor" area near the town center

Another view of the harbor. The house in the back is typical of the bahay kubo in town.

A view from the bridge of the downtown waterfront

Pupantang Sa Donsol

2005-05-06T02:23:00.000-07:00

PROGRAMMING NOTE: I will be on the road this week and finally getting a break from training. I will be flying to Donsol, my permanent site for a visit with my new host family and the people I will work with over the next two years. Very excited to finally see my destination!

The downside is that I am not likely to have access to the Internet for a week. So I hope you will all be patient and wait for my return and a new blog post!

I stay a night in Manila on Saturday and then fly out Sunday morning to Bicol. Another volunteer and I are going to an apparently popular restaurant in Manila called The Hobbit. The staff is entirely made up of dwarfs! (Seriously, no joke).

I'll be returning next Saturday. Sorry, no emails or posts until then. Text me if you want!

Ingat,
Julia

Drinks on the House

2005-05-06T01:56:00.000-07:00

All you residents of 112 Willow, take notice: This is about drinking. Filipinos have this thing called barcadas or drinking circles. Not unlike the U.S. but a bit more organized and instead of binges, it's more of constant thing. Days at a time, instead of a one night bender. Men drink openly in circles outside, while women often hold their drinking circles inside -- in the kitchen and out of sight. Gin and San Miguel beer are the drinks of choice.

Here's how it works: Someone is selected to be the "tandero." That person pours the shots. There is one shot glass that is passed around the circle. The tandero pours shot after shot for his barkada, or drinking buddies. All of this cannot happen of course without eating food. Pulutan -- which includes delicacies like dog meat, chicken feet and fried beetles -- is only eaten while drinking. Our version of cheese and crackers? The drinking and eating continues until the last Filipino or Filipina is left standing.

I've exposed to this bit of culture with my host family though I have not yet been invited to join a circle. I am told it will happen some day and it's a delicate thing to refuse. (No smirks from 112 Willow, please). It's a practice that is deeply embedded in the culture and refusing to take part upon invitation and without a good reason could alienate you from the group. Talk about peer pressure! Wish me luck.

Here are some additional pics I haven't posted. More to come.

This is Myles, my language and culture teacher. She is just 23! The guy next to her is Kehl, a bit of a nut.

Here is the view from a nice restaurant on the water in Los Banos.

Kumusta kayo???

2005-05-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who read my blog religiously (and that's what I expect!), you may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. I could dream up some romantic reason...but actually not much has happened in the last week. We have been busy studying and enthusiastically doing our "Community Entry" tools!

I realized I haven't shared a lot about where I live. I am staying with my host family in a subdivision (yes, they got the idea from Americans) called Vanessa Homes. It is a mix of big homes and little shacks. Fires to burn the garbage (there is no collection service) are a daily occurrence from house to house. We had a brush fire behind my house last weekend - but apparently that's no big deal. I asked if we should call the Fire Department and my family looked at me funny: What Fire Department? Okay, then.

Roosters crow, ducks waddle in and out of Mary's kitchen. Cockroachs dive bomb me while I study and listen to videogames at the same time. I say the word "mainit" a hundred times a day. That means it's hot outside. I sweat and brush away the flies. I try to speak broken Tagalog with my family and the neighbors. The kids greet me on my way home each day. "Hello Tita Julia!" They want to speak English and I speak back in Tagalog.

I live with my host family in this house on Tackawanna Street. My friend Mary lives down the block. We have two dogs, Obit and Geppetto. This is my tatay (host father). This is my nanay (host mother) and a neighbor. This Ate Julie and Jason (host mom and brother) at the pool.

Today at school, a bunch of the summer school kids were helping me study for my Tagalog test (yes, I passed!)

Okay, more later. My teacher is calling me. Ingat kayo.

A few mouths to feed

2005-04-26T21:50:00.000-07:00

I apologize in advance for the schizophrenic nature of my blog entries: from wine drinking to water safety to starving children. But I'm learning that such is life in the Peace Corps, a bumpy roller coaster ride in a strange land.

So here goes. One of our tasks during training to is to make a presentation to members of the community about a particularly pressing local issue and try to engage them in ways they might help the situation. After speaking with several officials, my little cluster decided to focus on malnutrition and how it affects children in school.

More than 30 percent of school-aged children in the Philippines are malnourished and our little barangay is no different. Today, we saw how true that really is. We joined a public health nurse as she made house to house visits to children targetted because they are severely malnourished. The barangay tries to help and has a feeding program -- rice, bread and sometimes milk -- for the poorest of the poor. The nurse also tries to educate the moms and offers free health care -- though she says the families rarely take advantage of the health care. They used to just deliver the meals to the homes until they discovered the fathers would come home and eat the food meant for the kids. So now they stay and watch the children eat and take pictures to document their work.

We visited a 6-year-old with cerebral palsy, another boy with a heart condition, and the nurse explained that both were severely underweight and stunted. The 6-year-old was no bigger than a 1-year-old in the U.S., weighing far less than a typical toddler. Our next house call was to a squatter home -- these are makeshift huts crowded together on illegally obtained land. (Of course we have squatters in the U.S.) In my barangay, there are many squatters living along the railroad tracks that run through town and in the back of a subdivision near the rice fields. Whole families live in a single, tiny shack. Sanitation is a huge problem. It makes my host family situation all that much brighter.

At one "home" we stopped to check on an 8-year-old girl the nurse is keeping an eye on. She was about 20 inches long, and perhaps about 10 pounds. She had sunken eyes, a distended belly and bones for limbs. She can no longer sit or stand on her own. There is a right angle in her spine -- she was dropped and it fractured and remains bent. She had bruises on her thighs and back. The nurse said she was a "lost cause" and would die soon. She lives down the street from me in the barangay. I'd never seen a starving child up close like that. We stroked her hair and she cried and shook. The rest of the family seemed like they had been well-fed -- her aunt was even chubby -- so it appears to be some weird case of abuse.

The hardest part is to walk away and not do something. Either there is no money to look after the girl or there are too many children like her to do anything about just one child. I couldn't get a straight answer. So she will die there -- and the nurse says it will be soon. I so badly wanted to call someone and have them swoop in and take her away to a hospital. My language and culture teacher said there was no one to call. There is a social services department but it is apparently too overwhelmed to deal with individual cases. So the kid is doomed.

She is perhaps the saddest case here in the barangay and I imagine there are many more like her. But there are other children living with varying degrees of malnutrition. They will live but will be stunted intellectually and physically.

We have to give a presentation so we decided to present to a sixth-grade summer school class and their parents and talk about nutrition. Just really an educational seminar. It seems like not much and it feels insane to have a discussion about eating more vegatables when an 8-year-old girl is dying down the street. But perhaps it will do some good. The very fact that they are in school means they are much better off than many kids. Only 7 out of 10 kids here make it to the sixth grade. The rest are elementary school drop-outs.

Some of us feel guilty about using this community for training. There are certain things we are required to "practice" or learn without really delivering any substantial benefit to the community. I find it strange but we are trying to do as much as we can while we are here. Some say the Filipinos don't expect much from us and are just happy to talk to us. I don't buy it.

Water Safety training aka Beach Day!

2005-04-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

To teach us how to be safe in the water, we had to go out 100 yards in a skiff, jump out, tread water and climb back in the boat. That was water safety! The rest of the day (last Thursday) was spent hanging out at the beach at Porto Azul, a nice resort south of Manila. The sand was brown but the water blue and there was a view of the Taal volcano in the distance. It was the first time I'd scene the coast since arriving in the Philippines nearly a month ago. It was a nice respite from our hectic training schedule and from my small polluted barangay, where I spend most of my days now for training!

Check out the pics:

Volunteers Mary Owen (Detroit) and Erin McNeff (Connecticut) hanging on the beach
The view from the Beach: the active volcano, Taal, is across the bay from Porto Azul
The beach at Porto Azul resort
My Peace Corps friends: Josh (Alaska), Kelly (Pittsburgh), Erin (Connecticut), Mary (Detroit), me and Kate (upstate New York, near Rhinebeck)
Me and Ate Dolor, our hub site manager

A Day at the Market

2005-04-23T20:17:00.000-07:00

Mary, Kelly and I toured the open air market in Los Banos yesterday. Lots of flopping fish, hanging body parts and flies on chicken. A pretty hectic scene. Check out these pics:

Pig anyone? Hooves hanging at the Los Banos market
These fish have seen better days!
A woman filets at live Tilapia

And the envelope please...

2005-04-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

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...

The American Dream

2005-04-20T03:10:00.000-07:00

Jason has a dream. He's 17 and a high school graduate with good grades. He wants to go to college and study nursing - the one course of study that will give him the best chance of finding a job in America. It is his American Dream, Filipino-style.
He's bright, articulate and driven. He will make it someday.

On this day, though, his future is uncertain. The government-sponsored college savings fund his aunt has been contributing to since he was a child is bankrupt, another product of Philippine governmental corruption. His plight is shared by thousands of other young aspiring Filipinos today. Jason discovered the lack of funds only yesterday, in the same week he was to enroll in a private college specializing in nursing studies. The dream he was about to embark on this June -- to be the first in his family to attend college -- will have to be put on hold. There is no money to send him to school.

Jason is my host brother. Just last week, we spoke about how important it was for him to go to college. At 17, he knows his goals in life. He is wise beyond his years. Because of the shortage of nurses in the U.S., Jason knows a degree in nursing could land him a job and a ticket to America. The money he makes there can be sent back home to support his family. It's a lot of pressure on a 17-year-old kid. He understands this, too.

This somehow seems so unfair. A right of passage many Americans take for granted is so elusive to kids like Jason. Yet, it was within his grasp and a government plagued by corruption and debt snatched it away. And yet I'm sure I will encounter many more stories like Jason's along my way here, each one as heartbreaking as the other. Perhaps someday it will make some sense.

Barangay winos!

2005-04-19T01:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it didn't take me long to find the wine! Mary (one of my cluster mates) and I stumbled upon a liquor store in our little barangay. And what do you know? They carried a bottle of Yellow Tail shiraz for 385 pesos! Gotta love the Aussies.(That's roughly $7.50, a fortune here. For example, that money would be me a large meal a day for a week or more at local restaurants.) We broke down and splurged and hid the bottle in Mary's bag. Felt like a couple of teen-agers sneaking liquor under our parents' noses! It is rare for women in the Philippines to drink -- outside of Manila. We're not supposed to order alcohol at restaurants, etc. We're trying to respect that in public...but the Yellow Tail was a bit too tempting to pass up.

So we snuck the bottle into one of our other cluster mates' host family house -- Kelly was placed in a "mansion" here in the barangay when the Peace Corps got desperate for another host family. She has a large bedroom and air condition and a flush toilet and a shower!!! We hate her! :) Anyway, it's not the typical host family stay but the Peace Corps needed one last family and couldn't find one, so Kelly lucked out in getting a "rich" family. We used her spacious bedroom as a study hall last night and shared some wine. Sneaky.

Don't get me wrong about the host families. It turns out that mine is really nice and they have been more than hospitable to me. (Ate Julie even insisted on doing my laundry for me this weekend!) I only share my thoughts about the living arrangment because it is so shockingly different from our own back home. I feel bad complaining because they do have so little and as the son-in-law, Michael, told me yesterday, 'We are poor, but none of us is sick and that is all that matters.' I also feel guilty that I have my own bedroom in the house when my host mom and dad sleep on the floor in the sala (living room). It doesn't make sense except that the Peace Corps wants us to live at the economic level of the people we will be helping and that means living with folks who don't have a room to spare. The tradeoff is that they sleep on the floor to host a PCV and hopefully earn a little extra money to feed the family and get some experience from living with an American. Just thought I'd throw that out. I don't want you to think I am not aware of their sacrifices, too, to have me here.

I had my first Tagalog test today and it's a relief to be over. It was tough but beginning to understand a little of the structure of the language. I think I passed but will find out soon. We'll be learning more verbs this week so hopefully I can start saying more than I'm hungry, let's eat and I have to go to the bathroom! It feels like we're in the first grade. We had to describe our families using Tagalog and I'm sure I sounded like a moron! Oh well. By the way Ed, my teacher asked me what you did for a living as part of my test! Rocket scientist, siya. :)

We took a "field trip" this afternoon to the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos. It was a really pretty campus and nice museum, etc. The center is dedicated to researching better ways to grow rice to feed the world's ever-growing population. It's supported by many nations, including the U.S., and was actually really informative. I had no idea how many people eat rice as the main staple of their diets -- about 3 billion! I know you are all thinking...fascinating. But I can relate now that I eat rice three times a day. For example, almusal (breakfast) was one egg, rice and fried bangus (milk fish). And kape. Instant kape. God, what I would give for a nice grande skinny latte. Michael, got any Starbucks cards left??? Instant kape (coffee) is the rule of thumb here. I'm adjusting to it. Better than no kape.

On Thursday, we are traveling with our large group to somewhere outside of Manila -- a beach day. They are calling it "water safety training" but it sounds like a day at the beach to me. Can't wait. We haven't had a chance to do any swimming and the nearby bay is polluted so the beach trip is our big chance. Our barangay actually is known as a resort location with many hot springs. We're going to try one out one of these days but not sure how a hot spring is going to feel in 90-plus degrees. We'll see. Thursday night, we'll find out our permanent assignments. Please keep your fingers crossed that I am assigned to a beautiful beach area somewhere. I'm hoping for Bikol or Palawan.

Okay, off to get a pedicure for 99 pesos or $2! A splurge on my Peace Corps salary...but hey, you gotta treat yourself sometimes. I need a little pampering these days.

Ingat for now,
Julia

Saving the Birds

2005-04-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

One of the common sites in my little barangay is a little old man who tries to sell live birds -- Tikling -- on the side of the road. He catches the pretty little things in the rice fields behind our village and strings them up by their legs (sorry, Catherine) and hangs them from a pole. Those who cannot afford chicken buy them from him for supper. He sometimes catches boa constrictors, too, and sells those for food. My little cluster met him the other day and rescued the birds. We paid him 150 pesos or about $3 for them and used our medical scissors to set them free. I am happy to report that they all lived, but sad to report that the man just went out and caught more birds! Our host families thought we were all silly and it became the talk of the neighborhood. Hey, at least we tried.

Such is daily life in my little barangay. On Wednesday, we will spend about four days at the hub site in Los Banos with the rest of our bigger group. I'm looking forward to some time away from the barangay. Lakeview Hotel looks like a four-star set-up now! They have flushing toilets and showers there. Toilet paper, too. Yippee!

Last night, I cooked dinner for my family. I cooked Hawaiian chicken and they liked it but then told me that they had something exactly like it in Filipino cooking, minus the pineapples. Oh well, I tried. Anybody have any ideas for good "American" recipes that don't have to be made with an oven (we don't have one!)? They family wants to try American foods and I hardly ever cook American dishes. All ideas welcome! I think they were surprised that I cooked. They think Americans really don't know how to do things like cooking, cleaning and washing clothes. They were surprised I knew how to wash dishes and that I would actually do that. The perception is that we are all rich, which of course is true compared to most Filipino families. One of my family members said he was surprised that a rich American could do these things -- don't we all have cooks, maids, etc.? Hmmm.

To prepare dinner, Ate Julie took me to the palengke, a market in the nearby town center. It was very cool. Live fish flopping about on tables. Veggies, fruits, a mango shake stand...chicken and pig heads. Very hectic, with tricyles rushing through the little alleyways, spewing exhaust all over the food. Yum. Ate Julie was teaching me how to bargain and how to ask for things and how to pay. I've got a lot to learn about doing simple stuff like this. I really need to practice my Tagalog. I'm having trouble remembering things. Alas....

Ingat (take care),
Julia

Maligayang Kaarawan Catherine!

2005-04-15T02:06:00.000-07:00

It's April 15 and the day Catherine Quayle was born. So first, Maligayang Kaarawan to Catherine! :) Have a wonderful birthday. Wish I was there to help you celebrate.
This will be a someone short note kasi pagod na pagod ako -- that's "because I'm very tired" in Tagalog!
I'm learning a little Tagalog each day -- we have four hours of classroom instruction in the morning and my 38-year-old brain is fried from all the new language. But it is a fun language to learn and relatively easy to understand. It's remembering all the new words that is a bit tough. I have a very good teacher, Myles, who is also a lot of fun. This afternoon, we took a field trip to UP Los Banyos, one of the state universities near here. It was a nice respite from the pollution to be on a college campus. It's not quite what we think of in terms of pretty campuses but it's large and spacious and there are very few Jeepneys! We're going to be observing some summer school courses there in the next week or so and we needed to meet with some of the department chairs -- all part of our afternoon training. We went to the dairy there at the College of Agriculture and I bought some blue cheese. The Filipinos think cheese is Cheeze Whiz. Uh, Tracey, are you sure you don't have any Filipino ancestors??? Anyway, I've been craving real cheese and the college students make it there as an experiment. I'll let you know how it tastes!
Coleen, 4, and Dazzel, 6, (see their cute pictures below) celebrated birthdays this week so we had a little party yesterday. Ate Julie cooked spaghetti and the kids had birthday cakes. We sang Happy Birthday (in English) and the men sat around and played Tong-its (like poker). Kuya Deo (my host tatay or host dad) said he couldn't break out the booze because of the kids, but I heard he's fond of gin and orange Tang! This Sunday, I believe, Deo & Julie and the kids and I are going ice skating. Sunday is my day to spend with my Filipino "pamilya." I have school six days a week from 8 to 5!
I usually wake up around 5 each morning when the "host dogs" start barking at each other and the neighbor dogs. I'm not sure what the purpose of these dogs are...they are chained up outside 24/7 and don't seem to make good pets and the bark like crazy every evening and early morning. Hmm. They eat our leftovers but basically survive on a rice diet -- like most Filipinos!
Did I mention I eat a lot of rice? Yesterday, Ate Julie fixed chocolate rice or Champorado? Sort of like a soupy chocolate rice concoction. You eat it with dried fish that's then fried. Don't ask me why! Something about the salt and sweet tastes together. Not sure how I feel about the dried fish but the chocolate rice was tasty.
Okay, to those of you sending notes, emails, thanks so much. I will do my best to answer them all.

Me in a Tricycle!

2005-04-12T22:42:00.000-07:00

Watching the sunset in Cavite, near Manila

2005-04-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

To view more pictures, click below:

Mary, a fellow volunteer, sits with schoolchildren in our barangay
The view from our neighborhood, Vanessa Homes

Mabuhay!

2005-04-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

Mabuhay from the Philippines! It's Tuesday, April 12, in a small barangay outside Los Banos, Laguna, south of Manila. I'm writing from an Internet Cafe where the kids play video games and blast pop music. Today is the fourth day of living with my host family, the Alcasids. After the initial shock, we are getting along fine. They are happy to have me and to cook for me -- even though I'm a vegetarian! (Filipinos don't like to eat vegetables!!) Nonetheless, Ate Julie is a good cook and makes sure I am eating well. Rice at every meal! All seven of us live in a small cement house with two bedrooms -- one for me and one for them! It feels very strange. I am spoiled. I sit down and they move a fan to cool me off. Ate (honorific) Julie does all the cooking though she is starting to let me do the dishes. I plan to cook them dinner one night, too. Maybe something like my famous vegetarian chili -- though I'm not sure if they would like it.

I've learned all over again how to take a bath and go to the bathroom, Filipino-style. Bathing consists of cold water, a big dipper and a bar of soap and squatting. And let's just say the toilet doesn't flush by itself. It needs a little help from a bucket of water! :) Oh, and did I mention, no toilet paper?

At 6 this morning -- I get up early here because of the barking host family dogs and roosters running about the neighborhood -- I washed clothes - an hour-long chore -- squatting, scrubbing, rinsing and hanging to dry. Ate Julie had to show me how to rinse well -- I think she was worried I wasn't quite doing it right.

We live in a small barangay that is pretty urban in feel. There are Jeepneys -- half-Jeep, half-truck -- equivalent to New York's yellow cabs -- everywhere. You can take a Jeepney or a motorized Tricycle -- it's a motorcycle with a little cab on the side to sit in. Fun! But you have to be prepared to inhate fumes up close and personal. There are no sidewalks so you also must dodge Jeepneys and Trikes in the road as you walk along the main street of the barangay.

My family has two adorable children at home -- Colleen and Dazzel. Here they are: Me and Dazzel and Colleen. They are sweet and wait for me to arrive home from classes each day and hug me and call me Ate Julie. It is heartwarming to see there two little faces. So cute! I will post pictures soon.

Since this is my first post, I will end it here and try to update on a regular basis with more journal entries.