I totally heard about your trip to the beach…

Peace Corps Philippines batch 267 started off with 69 trainees. We now have 68. From what I’ve heard from other returned volunteers our group is doing well. There isn’t really a formula, but maybe 10% of trainees leave in the first few months.

The fact that one person went home really isn’t that exciting on the whole but it highlights how starved we are for things to talk about. The 68 of us are spread out between 3 islands and hundreds of miles, but because of our handy PC funded cell phones we can know exactly who left, who is dating who, who got bitten by what animal (a rat), who has a triple ear infection, and who has amoebas (all true, P to the S). My training group has so far has managed to steer clear of hook-ups and major sicknesses. In many ways it’s like going back to high school: rumors flying, overprotective parents, can’t drive, and new things happening to our bodies.

This past week my group was also visited by three current volunteers. One helped us to understand more about our jobs as teachers and some of the challenges to expect from that. The other two helped us with a special water safety training that we did at the beach. Water safety training was a two part activity. First we were loaded onto a boat that would be used to transport us from islands that are about 1 hour apart. We took the boat out to sea and then jumped into the water--with life vests on. We then had to pull ourselves—with vests on—back onto the boat. Then jump back out of the boat, swim to a smaller boat pull ourselves onto that one, jump back in, swim to the big boat, and finally climb back in. Two of my group members can’t swim so that made it a slightly stressful event. They made it through very well despite their disadvantage and passed handedly. After we got back to shallow waters we learned how to drag a floating body through the water—I guess in case we feel the desire to save someone. Overall it was a lot of fun. We didn’t get any sun because there’s a typhoon messing up the weather here currently, but it was still nice to get a day at the beach and away from school and class.

Going back to the gossip though…

I hosted a little get together at my house where a few of us made chika-chika (Hiligaynon for chit-chat) with our swimming instructors. We got out the PC “yearbook”—a book with all our pictures—and talked about all the drama from batch 266 as compared to 267. In such a captive population I suppose that this is the inevitable outcome. Makes me wonder if this is unique to PC Philippines or is a universal PC past time.

On Sunday I will be learning where I will be teaching for the next two years. Rumor has it that I may be staying here in my current city, but again that’s all rumors. I know that I’ll be moving up to a college level position, but that’s about all I know. I’ll fill you all in next week when I know more.

Calen-Daring

A lot of this past week has been spent thinking about the daily lives of Filipinos. I'm a little out of the ordinary, but here's how my day goes:

5:30am Get up to jog--on those ambitious days.
6:30am Get up on those less ambitious days to prep for the day
7:00am Breakfast--Usually eggs, corned beef, rice, and maybe a fruit
7:45am Off to Hiligaynon class
8:00am Class with my clustermates
12 noon Lunch--again rice, maybe chicken or pork
1:00pm Teach at my school
3:00pm Finish teaching a walk home
3:30pm Get home, change, and fill the void. I've spent a lot of time just waiting. its hard to know what is going to happen from day to day and so after I'm done with my responsibilities I usually just hang out and wait for something to happen. I've already read 4 books in this time--I only brought 6!
7:30pm Dinner. This is the only time where my whole family is together. Usually 7 of us eat together with the TV on. Because we eat late, we also have to make sure we don't miss shows like Pinoy Dream Academy (like American Idol) and Dyosa--my least favorite show. Its the idiotic adventures of a girl who has god-like powers. There's as lot of crappy special effects and faux-cgi.
8:30pm We finish dinner and then hang out. Sometimes I drink with my host father-always just two bottles (PC Rules)! We also do a lot of videokee. Filipinos love to sing, so of course they love kareokee. My mother is a very good singer and likes to rub it in that her score is always higher than mine, even though i have a "master's in music".
9:30-10 Bed. Its sad to say, but if I'm up past 10 I'm pretty much useless the next day.

And that's how it goes. As you can see, life is fairly uneventful. If i want to spice things up I can take the 30 minute jeep ride into the city and go to the mall or see the americans who live in the city. I love where I live because I have the relaxed country lifestyle, but the city is close at hand. Life is simple right now and I'm certainly relishing in it. Something more interesting and topical for next post. Promise!

As soon as you stepped off that plane you instantly became a rock star. Just remember you're not actually hotter than you were in America. -Host PCV Grant


I am two days away from being away for a full month. To think about the changes that I've made to myself and my habits in the last 4 weeks I get a little dizzy. One of our main goals as volunteers is to integrate as much as possible into local culture. There are some obvious obstacles to meeting that goal like being taller than 5'4", not having black hair, not wanting to eat rice at every meal, and my skin. This week though I have started "getting my tan".

I didn't really take notice of the difference until people began to comment on it, but I am getting tanner. To my Filipino colleagues this is a sad state, because my beautiful white skin is being destroyed by the sun. Despite several "cultural moments" where I explain that tan is better in American they still say a little prayer for my complexion.

I had a cool experience yesterday when one of the ladies who ownes the store that is connected to my house said hello to me.

Her: Oh Justin? Is that you?
Me: Yeah! How are you doing?
Her: I'm good. I didn't recognize you. You look so slim and tan. Like us!
Me: Thanks!

Clearly the tanning is not enough to make me one of them, but it is a visible sign of the devotion that I have for my new position.

At home this has made me my host father's favorite toy. He loves to get me to try new foods. I've kept my mind open to any and all foods...even the ones I know that I won't like. So far I've tried:

Balut- A Filipino delacacy where an egg is allowed to be incubated for 16 days and is THEN hardboiled. The result is a hardboiled egg with crunch bits. Not horrible as long as you don't look at it.
Sisig- Chopped up and seasoned pig head.
Coconut- Not only do you drink the juice but also scrape out the meat.
Fish for Breakfast- Not my favorite

Generally the food is good. We eat a lot of pork and chicken. At every meal there is rice. Filipinos eat all the time, and could eat a meal's worth of food, but don't consider it a meal unless there's rice. Okay my hour is up. Hope all is well with you too!

Getting My Tan

As soon as you stepped off that plane you instantly became a rock star. Just remember you're not actually hotter than you were in America. -Host PCV Grant

I am two days away from being away for a full month. To think about the changes that I've made to myself and my habits in the last 4 weeks I get a little dizzy. One of our main goals as volunteers is to integrate as much as possible into local culture. There are some obvious obstacles to meeting that goal like being taller than 5'4", not having black hair, not wanting to eat rice at every meal, and my skin. This week though I have started "getting my tan".

I didn't really take notice of the difference until people began to comment on it, but I am getting tanner. To my Filipino colleagues this is a sad state, because my beautiful white skin is being destroyed by the sun. Despite several "cultural moments" where I explain that tan is better in American they still say a little prayer for my complexion.

I had a cool experience yesterday when one of the ladies who ownes the store that is connected to my house said hello to me.

Her: Oh Justin? Is that you?

Me: Yeah! How are you doing?

Her: I'm good. I didn't recognize you. You look so slim and tan. Like us!

Me: Thanks!

Clearly the tanning is not enough to make me one of them, but it is a visible sign of the devotion that I have for my new position.

At home this has made me my host father's favorite toy. He loves to get me to try new foods. I've kept my mind open to any and all foods...even the ones I know that I won't like. So far I've tried:

Balut- A Filipino delacacy where an egg is allowed to be incubated for 16 days and is THEN hardboiled. The result is a hardboiled egg with crunch bits. Not horrible as long as you don't look at it.

Sisig- Chopped up and seasoned pig head.

Coconut- Not only do you drink the juice but also scrape out the meat.

Fish for Breakfast- Not my favorite

Generally the food is good. We eat a lot of pork and chicken. At every meal there is rice. Filipinos eat all the time, and could eat a meal's worth of food, but don't consider it a meal unless there's rice. Okay my hour is up. Hope all is well with you too!

A little more on what I do

I've just started my third week of PC training here in the lovely Philippines. On a typical day I get up early, run, go to a 4 hour language class, have lunch, then do educational stuff in the afternoon. My evenings are filled with eating, chika-chika (chatting), "sing a longs" (videokee), and relaxing. Today was my first day in a Filipino classroom. Of course there are some very big differences, but in teaching these children I have taken on a much bigger task than I originally thought. Much of my time is going to be spent jazzing up pre-packaged lesson plan and firguring out how to make people comprehend English, YIKES!