I Will Trade Your Picture for a Chicken

I just got back in from a 10 day conference in Cebu. During the conference I got to catch up with many volunteers and find out about their projects and adventures in the Philippines. There were volunteers who were doing a lot of great things already in their first 5 months, and others who feel underused and unneeded at their sites. I feel somewhere in the middle. I haven't done a whole lot, but my site needs me. I took my first 5 months slow on purpose and am now ready to hit next year full throttle.

Our first two days were spent in language camp where we just reviewed what we learned months ago in training. After that we had two days of sector-based seminar where I learned a few new things. The last few days were spent in a project designing workshop that I attended with my counterpart. By the time she got there I was pretty much ready to be back at home. For her though it was an exciting experience and so I felt like a bit of a Debbie Downer. Throughout the workshop she was taking pictures of anything she thought might be worth remembering. I asked her what she would do with all these pictures of me and her filling out worksheets on needs assessment. She told me directly, "I will take the ones of you and trade them for a chicken in the mountains."

I know she said it in jest...but I'm still a little worried my picture's going to be posted on some mountain-girl's wall, while my teacher will have one more chicken.