Filipino Time at Work

“It's island time, man!” This is going to become the moto here during these next 2 years. Coming from the States where you're on time if you're 5 minutes early and you're late if you're on time, this change of pace has definitely required some major adjusting. Filipinos even have a joke where they say at least Filipino time is better than Indian time (people from India that is, not Native Americans), because while Filipinos may be really late to everything, Indians just never show up!! Not sure how true that is, but it's what they say.

Now, when I say that Filipinos are late to everything, I'm not talking about a few minutes here and there, I'm talking a couple hours at least. And this isn't just referring to social events like being “causally late” to a party. It's referring to work schedules, business meetings, church services, concerts, and transportation schedules, in addition to social events. The Methodist church I sometimes go to is supposed to start at 9am Sunday morning, but it actually starts sometime between 10 and 10:30, so people don't even show up until 9:45 at least. And for the concerts and shows here, let me tell you, it's a miracle if all the performers show up within the hour AFTER the show was supposed to start. The concerts and shows I'm talking about are usually dance concerts or beauty pageants (which are HUGE here). Every time they're scheduled to start at 8pm, and every time they start around 10:30 or 11pm. So those of us hopeful enough to think it'll start relatively on time are left sitting there for a couple hours while sound checks, lighting, and outfits get finalized. And then the shows run for a few hours at least and don't get over until 2am! (Side note: Filipinos wake up super early, like 5am, every day so I don't know how they can manage those early mornings after these late nights.) The only event I've noticed being an exception to this rule is school. From what I've been able to tell, all the schools start on time in the morning and after lunch. So it really puzzles me how Filipinos can be raised to be punctual for the first 16 years of their lives and then lose that skill completely!

And just for clarification, I'm not saying any of this Filipino Time stuff as a complaint. I'm just explaining how life works here because it is completely different from life in America. It's something I've had to adapt to and something I'm gonna struggle unadapting to once I get back to the States. So looking way into the future, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for all my tardiness. It will be inevitable.

I relate this Filipino Time to my day-to-day life also. On paper, my work day starts at 8am, lunch from 12-1, then off for the day at 5pm, Monday thru Friday. I abided to this my first week and found myself the only on in the office most of the time. Now my work day starts at 8:15/8:20, lunch from 12-2:15/2:20, then off at 4:30 if there's nothing to do. You may ask what it is that I do with these work days, and I would ask the same question. I've only been at site for about 3 months now, and that's a relatively short amount of time when you look at the big picture. During training we were constantly warned that we would have very little to do the first few months at site and may not even get a project going until 6 months at site. So far I've gone to a few high schools in the area and done a few IECs (Information, Education, Communication; basically lectures) on CRM and why it's important, but that only accounts for a few days. Mostly when I'm in the office I'm reading (both work and fun related things), working on language, doing crossword puzzles, using the internet, working on different Google Earth tasks for the office, or writing these wonderful blogs. It hasn't gotten to the exciting part yet. I go to Fishermen Association meetings at different coastal barangays when the transportation works out, too. I'm starting to get ideas of different projects I could work on and the politics involved in them, but that doesn't mean I can really do anything yet. I have to wait until I've been at site for 6 months before I can apply for grants for projects and the timing also hasn't been right to start anything. Now that it's December, the schools are closing for the holidays (which means no more IECs) and work motivation around the office is lessening even more than usual, and then you add in the different barangay Christmas parties that we have to attend. So this is a very laid-back month.

A couple projects I hope to eventually start working on are establishing MPAs (Marine Protected Areas) and training the Bantay Dagat (basically a barangay-level coast guard) to perform assessments on the MPAs already established. There's a scientific paper entitled “No-take Marine Reserves and Reef Fisheries Management in the Philippines: A New People Power Revolution” by Angel C. Alcala and Garry R. Russ that explains what MPAs are and the proven benefits of them if you're curious. But basically, MPAs create a no-fish zone that protects a healthy marine habitat and gives fish time to mature and reproduce before spilling over into the fishing area. Siaton has 3 MPAs established already, but it has the potential for a lot more.

(Side note: Dr. Alcala, the author of the paper, works at Silliman University here in Negros and I got to meet with him!!! He helped start the idea of MPAs in the Philippines, so he's a really big deal here! Little nerd celebrity moment there. And it was the alumni from Hope College who's lived here for 30 years that set up the meeting for me. I'm tell you, Hope College did me good!)

Hopefully I can start working on these projects within the next few months, but don't expect any exciting breakthrough blogs for a while because Filipino Time is contagious and leaks into every little project idea's pore and slowly poisons it until nothing is left but a vague idea of what could have been, until along comes a strong and guapa Peace Corps Volunteer to save it from a sure and painful death and raise it up to be a life-changing and powerful idea that will improve the lives of the Philippine people forever! Or at least, that's how the story's supposed to go.

Filipinos from a Western Perspective

I've now been in the country for about 5 months, and I'm finally starting to get used to cultural stuff. I've tried to share what some of those differences are, but I found a blog that explains things beautifully, and I agree with everything he says. I know it's kinda long, but it's all true! So enjoy!!

http://www.idreamedofthis.com/2013/11/27/what-i-really-think-of-the-philippines/

Yolanda

As many of you are aware, typhoon Yolanda (as it's referred to in the Philippines) touched down about 2 weeks ago. I was not directly hit by it, just a heavy wind and rain for about 5 minutes, but quite a few close volunteer friends of mine had been consolidated to Tacloban City (the city hit hardest) and other areas in the path of the typhoon. This happened Friday, November 8. On Saturday, all communication lines to the affected areas were down so there was no news about how bad the storm had really hit. Communication being down isn't a completely unusual occurrence since Philippine power lines and cell towers are kind of all over the place. So since there was no news, the country just went on with life like normal on Saturday.

On Sunday, we saw the first news stories, and it was devastating. Peace Corps had been sending us texts keeping us informed about our fellow volunteers as news came in. Sunday and Monday were the most emotional days for me. First not knowing if my friends had survived the horrors the news was showing us; then knowing that they were physically okay, but not knowing emotionally how they were handling everything; and then finally hearing what they had seen and experienced. I later heard their hotel had been flooded to the second floor by the storm surge and the wind had blown all the windows out. They had to search for food and water since supplies was low and had been soaking wet and without sleep for 2 days. They had no means of communicating with the outside world, and therefore no way of knowing if they would be rescued. Survival mode in its finest. Early Sunday morning, the 12 that were consolidated at the hotel trekked 3 hrs through the destroyed city, past dead bodies and rubble, to get to the airport where they were crammed on a military C-130 with other refugees and eventually flown to Manila.

I can't even imagine what they've gone through and what they will have to live with the rest of their lives, but even from a bystander's perspective, I have changed. In the past whenever there are natural disasters and victims shown on the news, I've been able to stay emotionally detached and not feel too burdened by the trauma shown. Now I will have something to relate it to and will always feel the desire to help in some way.

On Sunday, when the news was showing us the trauma of Tacloban, I wandered the market in Siaton, trying to find some way to help. I couldn't find anything and was very disheartened by the fact that no one in my community seemed to care that half their country was suffering. However, in the next couple days I began to hear of more and more relief efforts from Siaton and surrounding areas. It hadn't crossed my mind that it would actually take time to set up relief efforts. So many people were either helping make relief packages or donating money or food, the communities were really standing together. This past Monday I was able to help pack relief bags of rice, water, and other food with some of the other volunteers in my area. Together with some of the Philippines military and other Filipino volunteers, we put together more than 2,000 relief packages of food to send! And this was just one group in one city. I've heard of so many people helping and giving, it makes my heart warm.

The impression I've gotten from those in the States is that this typhoon was pretty widely publicized, and I'm so glad this happened. The world needs to understand all the natural disasters the Philippines puts up with on a regular basis. Since I've been in the Philippines I've experienced 2 flood-worthy typhoons, one super typhoon (Yolanda), and a 7.2 earthquake; and it's only been 4 and a half months! Also, take note that Yolanda starts with a “Y.” That means by this point there had already been 25 typhoons in the Philippines THIS YEAR!! I honestly don't know how Filipinos can handle the huge beating Mother Nature gives them. There's a reason why Filipinos are known as resilient. If anyone's looking for a good book to read, check out Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines. I just started it, but it's a really good eye-opener for everything that's affecting the environment here.

Also, if you haven't donated any money to help the recovery process here, please consider it!!! The American dollar goes so far in the Philippines!! I don't know any rates for how far donations can go, but just imagine this: I can go SCUBA diving for a little over $20 (which is 1,000 pesos). So really, if you just gave $10 you could probably feed a family for a week or two (I'm probably way off on that estimate, no idea whether it's high or low so don't quote me, but you get the idea). PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!! Okay, I'm done asking for money now :)

Filipino Transportation 101

I realize I'm beginning to gloss over the things that have become everyday to me. I'll try to do better with that, and start by explaining modes of transportation here. I can't say much about transportation island to island since I've only flown from Manila to here (and flying is a pretty universal experience), but I can explain transportation on my island.

First off, there are 7 modes of transportation that I've observed so far: personal car, motorcycle, bicycle, public bus, public jeepney, pedicab, pod-pod, or randoms. I'm going to try to explain each one, but since I'm not the most automotive-savvy person in the world, I'm not really down with the whole automotive lingo, so bear with me please.

• Personal car: These are usually manually operated SUVs. I've seen a few automatic ones, but this is rare and usually limited to the wealthier of the wealthy (it's very rare for a family to have its own car).
  
  
• Motorcycle: The city here, Dumaguete (about an hour away from me), was named as the city with the most motorcycles in the world a few years ago. They are everywhere!! And they fit as many people as possible on them. There's a saying here in the Philippines: “There's always room for one.” I've seen motorcycles with as many as 5 people on them, including babies that can't be more than a year old, it's quite scary. They get pretty creative also; I've seen a motorcycle with the man driving it, and a woman sitting behind him somehow holding 2 medium-sized dogs, 1 in front of her and 1 behind. And I have yet to determine the motorcycle driving age here since I've seen kids as young as 13 or 14 driving them.
  
  
• Bicycle: Pretty self-explanatory. Although, I've seen quite a few one-speed bikes here that are really old and rusty, and I cringe every time I think of having to peddle them uphill.
  
  
• Public bus: The main public bus here is the Ceres Liner and it goes all the way along the coast on the 2-lane highway, through all the municipalities. It takes a little over 2 hrs to go from Dumaguete on the east coast to Bayawan on the west coast and there's only one designated stop the whole trip which happens to be in Siaton :) But that doesn't mean that people can only get on and off in Siaton. All you have to do is stand on the side of the road and wave the bus down when you see it come and it'll stop, let you board, and continue on its way. It's the same with getting off; you just tell the conductor when you get to your stop and he'll have the bus stop to let you off. The tricky thing is, if you don't know where you need to get off, you'll miss your stop. To keep this running smoothly there are 2 workers per bus. One is the driver and the other is the conductor. The conductor deals with the tickets and making sure the driver stops when people need to get off. The system works really well. And the best part is that it only costs 50 pesos (~$1.14) to go to the city, although on my living allowance this isn't as cheap as it would seem. Anyway, back to the bus, I've seen some interesting things on that bus, including 2 live chicken being transported in a plastic bag with their heads poking out; a mom changing a baby's diaper; and one time, an old woman tried to spit a huge wad of spit out the door, and it dangled from her mouth before dropping on the step...she looked at it and then returned to her seat. Welcome to the Philippines.
  
  
• Public jeepney: These run the same way as the buses but aren't as consistent (a bus goes by every 10-20 minutes), they only go a couple municipalities over, not the whole coastline, and are usually cheaper than the bus. They can also get way more squished. I've seen jeepneys with about 25 people in them (this density would mean people are sitting with one butt cheek on a seat and then other on their neighbor's lap) with an additional 4 hanging outside on the step and bumper and about 7 or 8 sitting on the roof. It's really quite a site to see.
  
  
• Pedicab: These are trikes (motorcycles with a side seating area attached with an additional wheel) except with a bicycle instead of a motorcycle. These only go short distances (only around the main part of Siaton or other municipalities), which is understandable since the bike is a one-speed. These cost about 9 pesos on average (~$0.20) for any distance. And Filipinos take full advantage of this since they are unwilling to walk more than 2 blocks to anything. They always give me strange looks when I tell them I'm fine with walking.
  
  
• Pod-pod: Exact same thing as a trike, with a different name. These are mostly in the city and also cost 9 pesos for any distance. They work the same as a taxi in the states where you wave it down and get door-to-door service. The only difference is that here you pay 9 pesos per person. So sometimes it's difficult to find a driver willing to take just you across town since he'll be going all that way for only 9 pesos. But if you have more people with you, he's more willing since he'll get more money. One of the things they do is actually wait for more people who need to go to the same place you want to go. So at the bus terminal in the city when I get off the Ceres Liner, I go to the pod-pod pick up spot, tell the driver where I want to go, get in the cab, and then wait for him to find more people that need to go to the same area. It's an interesting difference sharing a ride with complete strangers, but hey, that's how it's done here!
  
  
• Randoms: I really don't have a technical name for this, but it's basically just random vehicles that people crowd into to get a ride somewhere. This can be anything from a truck that's used to carry livestock to the roofs of other vehicles. Filipinos are really inventive with how to get from one place to another.

That's all for now! I hope I was able to educate you on the common modes of transportation in the Philippines!

Siaton Monthiversary

Tomorrow I will be celebrating my 1 month anniversary in Siaton. This time really is flying by. It seems only yesterday that I arrived here, not knowing any faces or names, having no idea what I'd be doing, and ready for an adventure. Well, really the only thing that's changed now is that I know most of the faces of people I interact with and maybe 1/8 of their names. I still don't really know what I'll be doing exactly and I'm still ready for adventure.

One of the professors at Hope College has legitimate face-blindness, and I'm beginning to understand how she feels. All these Filipinos look alike with their black hair and tan skin! One day I was introduced to a new coworker and had a really nice 20 minute long chat with him. I really liked him and his English was really good so that also sat well with me. I thought for sure I'd have no problem recognizing him. The next day I went to an organic produce celebration in the city with my LGU (local government unit, aka my office) and as soon as I stepped out of the truck a guy yelled over to me and was waving me down. I had absolutely no idea who he was (I later realized he was the guy from the day before). Nothing about him looked familiar, but he obviously knew me and thought I knew him, so it had to be someone I had spent some time with...but I was drawing a complete blank. I went over to him and tried to fake recognition as well as I could, giving him a great big hello and smile. But it didn't work. He looked at me with such a torn expression and said, “You don't remember me, do you.” I kept playing along though and said, “Of course I do, the different color shirt just threw me off!” Such a lame excuse now that I think of it. But luckily then he said his name again, and it totally clicked and I felt terrible, but he was nice enough about it. He was my kauban (companion) the rest of the day and I really hope I'll remember his face the next time I see him.

The challenge with Filipino names is that there are so many nicknames! It took me about 3 weeks to realize that every young girl is called Day (pronounced die) or Inday (Pronounced in-die) and every young boy is called Dong or Do-Dong. I was so confused when everyone was being called that, I thought for sure it was just a super common name. Then there are the traditional Filipino names that sound really strange (I have yet to remember one of them so I can't really give any examples). And most of these names have their own nicknames, and the same person could be called 5 different things! And it seems like a lot of Filipinos like to mumble, so even if the name is simple enough I could remember it, I can't understand them, even if they repeat it 5 times. Then, as is always the case with a new person in a group, when I met people on the first day they all told me their names, and of course I promptly forgot them since I met about 100 people the first day, and they just assumed I knew the names ever since. I'm slowly learning them one-by-one now, but there's always an awkward moment when I'm asked if I know someone and I say no, but it turns out I sit next to that person every day....It's a work in progress. One exciting discovery I made today, though, was that there are actually albino Filipinos here and they look like pale red-heads!! It's really quite interesting.

Onto more exciting news, I've made a pact with 2 other volunteers to do a half-marathon next year! The three of us ran together a lot during PST and needed some motivation to keep it up at site, so this is it! I've never run more than 6 miles at a time though, so this'll be a challenge.

I'm working here in the Department of Agriculture in the Local Government Unit of Siaton (that's the DA, LGU-Siaton on my address). From what I've been able to tell so far, this office deals with all the livestock, crops, and fisheries concerns. The livestock include mostly pigs, carabao, goats, chicken, and turkey and I've known some of my coworkers to do artificial insemination and assist in the birthing of calves (both things I'd really like to try some time). The crops here include rice, corn, and sugar cane, though I'm not sure of the specific tasks the employees do. And the fisheries, my area, deals with the fishermen organizations, maintaining the MPAs (Marine Protected Areas), and writing the policies that govern them. Right now the office needs to write an updated CRM plan for Siaton. This includes naming the coastal resources present in Siaton (the mangroves, corals, and seagrass) and the condition they're in (which means doing surveys which equals snorkeling and diving!!!), discussing the improvements that can be made, and how we plan to achieve them.

So now my work, as I said before, I still don't really know what specifically I'll be doing project-wise. I'm assuming I'll be working on the assessments for the CRM plan, but that won't happen for a while yet. It's still relatively early though and we were told during training that the first 3-6 months at site are ridiculously slow with nothing to really do. I've mostly been sitting in the office either working on language or reading up on materials given to us during training. Occasionally there are fishermen meetings to go to or other LGU meetings that are all in Vasayan, so I don't understand any of it, but I'm just trying to get out there and meet as many people as possible so they know I'm here.

As some of you may have heard, there was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake here this past Tuesday (the 15^th) at 8:13am. It was my first one ever and actually really exciting! Here's the story: That day was actually a Muslim holiday so everything was closed down (schools, offices, etc.) and this was really a blessing since some schools collapsed in some areas. Anyway, I didn't have work that morning so I was still in bed, just between the conscious and sub-conscious stages. When my bed started shaking I thought I was dreaming someone was shaking my bed, which was really rude. Then after a few seconds I woke up and thought I was hallucinating, There's no way it's possible for my bed to be shaking this much without someone actually pushing it, and I don't think I'm really pushing it that much just lying here, so it can't be real. Then I fully woke up and realized what was actually happening. I got out of bed and got in the doorway, they do this in the movies so it's gotta be what you're supposed to do. I think it lasted for about a minute, though it's really hard to tell since it took me a while to actually realize what was happening. Anyway, I later found out the earthquake had originated in Bohol, an island a few islands away from me. My island didn't have any major damage that I've heard of, but there definitely was damage in the islands closer to the origin. One of the Chocolate Hills (a geological structure in Bohol) actually split! Or so I heard. We've had to deal with quite a few aftershocks even 30hrs after the initial wave, but nothing major. It was definitely an experience, but I'm fine and no need to worry!

That's all for now!   

Siaton Vacation

I've been in Siaton about a week now, and it's definitely starting to feel like home. My house is a beautiful assortment of buildings with the main house where my nanay, lola, and cousin live, the kitchen building, and the patio area with my room and bathroom underneath. I have my own area of the house, which is pretty nice because it gives me an escape when I need it. The courtyard has 2 tilapia aquaculture ponds (one of them literally being on the opposite side of my bedroom wall) and an area for washing clothes. The first weekend here I did the laundry I had been gathering during my week in Manila, and it took me an hour and a half to wash everything by hand. My knuckles were raw afterward and I still have battle wounds 4 days later, it's pathetic, I know. My house is about 1 mile from the beach, which makes for a nice run there and back with a little running on the beach. Sadly the beach has none of the dunes of Lake Michigan, but it's a beach in the frickin' Philippines. I can't really complain.

Arriving in Siaton last Thursday I was welcomed with a huge tarpaulin with my name in big, bold, beautiful letters, and a surprise courtesy call with the vice mayor of Siaton. It wasn't totally awful and I was decently dressed to make a good impression, but this was before I even got to see my house! Talk about throwing me into it.

This first week my counterpart has been out of town at a training exercise so I've pretty much had the week off, and it's been pretty nice. Apart from the courtesy call right off the bat, I haven't done much work-wise this week and I'm okay with that. It's been nice to relax into this new life and get comfortable with my family. The first weekend I went to the beach with my nanay and the kids in her bible study class, and we had s'mores on a bonfire. It was pretty awesome. My nanay just came back from America in May this year, where she'd been living for the past 15 years. She actually lived in Chicago and has driven through Valparaiso (my hometown) on a number of occasions for work. She actually knows more of my hometown than the other volunteers here that are actually from America...crazy.

Story time: So one evening I was feeling the need for some American-ness and decided opening my hidden jar of peanut butter and a couple epsidoes of Friends was the way to go. So I pulled out my swiss army style spoon-fork-knife and went for the peanut butter, only to find ants everywhere! Around the jar, inside the jar, climbing on me and my bed coming from the jar; it was crazy! So I sadly put my jar away and started smashing ants, thinking it wasn't worth the effort and Friends would have to be enough for the night. But then I started watching and kept staring at my jar of peanut butter across my room, desperately wanting it, and finally decided it was worth the effort. I opened the jar, smashed as many ants that I could and just accepted that I would be getting some extra protein. And it was totally worth it! The lesson I took away from this: ants are everywhere, there's nothing I can do about it, and I can always use a little extra protein, it's always worth it.

A couple of things I've grown used to:

• Being the only American or non-Filipino person around. Whenever I see another Caucasian (which does happen on occasion) I actually stop and stare at them. For an embarrassing amount of time. The other day in the store I saw a pale red head (pale by American standards even) and I literally did a double-take and followed her into the next aisle. It's a problem, I know, but it's so weird to see them here.
• Always being offered a seat. Even if I'm only in a room for 2 minutes I am offered a seat and practically forced to sit down.
• Eating food I don't really like. And I'm not talking about the weird delicacies like chicken liver and intestines and pig's blood (even though I have eaten that), I'm talking about chocolate, pop, and spicy food. And if you know me, this is a big deal. I eat chocolate with a smile on my face and say it's the most delicious thing I've eaten (this is actually super difficult for me to do, no joke). But hey, it's all for integration sake, right?
• T9. The old form of texting? The phone I have is less advanced than my very first phone, but it works, and it's my lifeline to the other volunteers. But T9 has become second nature once again, it's so weird.

Well that's all I have for now. My next blog should have more details on what I'm actually doing here in the Philippines instead of living a dream. Internet is still not consistent, but letters are always there!!!! So please write me!!!!  

The Next Chapter

I actually wrote this a week ago so it's a little out of date, but bear with me.

I'm finally an official Peace Corps Volunteer!!!  Tomorrow morning I will be leaving Manila and traveling to Negros Oriental with 6 other volunteers who I'm sure will become my lifelines for these next 2 years.  I'm completely stoked but also super nervous.  My host family in Mabayo was practice for this, and that was comforting because I knew that I'd be leaving in 2 months so if I messed something up completely it wasn't the end of the world.  Well now that's not an option.  I will be in the same community the rest of my time in the Philippines, so I've gotta make this good.

I've been in Manila the past week and a half for target language (Cebuano) lessons and some last minute sessions on dealing with our allowance and how to get to site and stuff.  I have to say, Manila is very different from Mabayo.  For one thing, it's the most densely populated city in the world, which means it's super crowded, busy all the time, and everything else that goes along with crowded cities.  Also, the driving here is crazy. We've learned how to use the public jeepneys, and that is definitely an adventure.  There are no actual stops the jeepney is supposed to make, the driver just stops when you wave him down, you climb in the back during the 10 seconds that he stops, and away he goes. These drivers are pros at multitasking too. Once you get on the jeepney you have to pass your money up to the driver, and he will find your change while driving through the crazy street of Manila (where street signs and lights are more of a suggestion than a law) while looking out for other people on the street who want to jump on the jeepney, or just looking out for the jaywalkers in general, while listening for passengers telling him to stop because he's arrived at their stop. And one of the jeepney drivers was actually texting while doing all this. It's no wonder why Peace Corps won't let volunteers drive here. When I was riding in a jeepney the other night I swear I was riding the Muggle version of the Night Bus from Harry Potter, complete with practically smashing my face on the windshield (if it had actually been in reaching distance I would have hit it). Public transportation is definitely an adventure here.

This whole week in Manila has been very bittersweet. We get to spend time with everyone in our batch, but at the same time, we have to say good bye to everyone for a few months. It's just like graduation all over again, but slightly worse because we're not leaving each other to go back home with our families, but to go to a completely new place with new people and slightly different cultures than we've been living in for the past 2 ½ months. It's a weird feeling. This group has become really close and it'll be weird going from being completely surrounded by them, to having no one around. But I'm hoping people at my site will help fill the void and welcome me with open arms, which I'm sure they will.

My Mabayo host family threw me an early birthday party before I left.  I'm gonna miss them.

The front of my Mabayo house.

Permanent Address

I now know my new permanent address!  Both packages and letters can be sent here.

Sarah Colton
DA, LGU-Siaton
Negros Oriental, Philippines 6219

So pleeeeeeeease write!!!!!!

On a side note, we went diving for the first time yesterday and it was completely awesome!  I've never seen so many fish before!  And they weren't scared of us or anything; many times I was within 3 feet of fish and they were as interested in us and we were in them.  It actually reminded me of the animals on the Galapagos Islands.  Anyway, the definite highlight for me was when we swam with a school of about 200 jack (a type of fish).  They were huge fish; at least 2-3 feet long!!  I got within a foot of them multiple times.  I would just swim right at the school and go slowly through them and they would form around me and just encompass me; I could then turn in circles and see jacks on almost all sides of me!  It was crazy awesome.  There are pictures, but they'll come later.

But ya, just had to add in that little story real quick.

Adapting

I am currently in the province of Batangas for the Supervisor's Conference. And I just learned that I will be moving to Siaton, Negros Oriental on the island of Negros on September 19^th, and I just met my counterpart for the first time!!!! I'll also have to learn a new dialect (Cibuano/Vasayan), which is only slightly similar to Tagalog. Ya, this is getting real.

My counterpart, Nick-Nick!!

The hotel they have us in is probably equal to a 4 star hotel in the US (so pretty nice), but this feels like complete luxury compared to the last month and a half! I got to take my first actual shower with actual hot water since I got to the Philippines (it's been all bucket showers with cold water)!! I honestly am kind of resenting the shower though because the water is too hot (even with barely any hot water on) and I'm wasting so much water! I've never been so conscious of how much water I use, but with bucket showers, I use maybe 2 gallons of water per shower, and I definitely use way more than that in regular showers. It's interesting to notice. But...the hotel also gives us cotton towels!!!!! I've been using my quick dry towel that barely covers half my body and is super thin; the cotton towel feels like a dream! And another crazy thing about this hotel.....the bathrooms have TOILET PAPER!!!!!!! AND PAPER TOWELS!!!!!! AND SOAP (like soap that actually foams, not that watery substitute stuff)!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't seen paper towels since being in country and tp is also super rare to come by. To give you an idea, I went to a hospital and the bathrooms didn't have toilet paper OR paper towels (they did have soap though)....but a hospital!! I was definitely shocked.

I have now been in the Philippines for more than a month! There are some things that I just don't really feel like putting in paragraph form, and I'm very fond of lists, so here comes one of the little differences in everyday life here.

• For instance, seeing geckos on the walls of the house no longer causes me to raise an eyebrow, and the cockroach who lives in our bathroom (who I've named Alfred) is more of a comfort now.
• I've become very used to always being wet in some way; either from sweat, rain, showers, or just humidity.
• Roosters cock-a-doodle-doo at all hours of the day and night...nonstop. I can now give first-hand knowledge that it is only a myth that they only call out when the sun rises (sadly).
• I eat my food with my hands 70% of the time now. That wouldn't be weird in the US, except this includes eating rice with vegetables and sauces. I'm definitely not pro quality, but I'm getting there.
• Bringing my umbrella wherever I go. I can rain here at anytime.
• Meriyenda (snacks) have become a daily routine and my stomach is on the schedule of being hungry at 7:30am, 10am, 12pm, 3pm, and 7pm.
• Bringing TP everywhere. It's guaranteed no where.  And then throw it away in the trash can...never the toilet.
• Accepting there are no mirrors and there's nothing I can do about it. It's always a surprise when I see pictures of myself now.
• Stray dogs and cats are everywhere and they are not to be touched. They actually don't even want attention since that's the way they've grown up.
• Eating fish bones is unavoidable.
• Having regular, unsweetened peanut butter is a delicacy.

Some things I've gotten to experience here so far/some stories:

• Videoke. I'd say this is by far the favored past time of Filipinos. It's exactly the same as karaoke in the States, except it's called videoke. I've lost count of how many times I've done it so far. At least a couple nights every week involve videoke in one way or another. Almost every home has a videoke machine here, and it's become a thing among us trainees to compare different components of the videoke experience between the different places. We've identified the microphone that makes you sound the best, the best location mood-wise, the most high-tech machine, the most organized song book (it's unbearably annoying when you have to flip through thousands of songs in both English and Tagalog and the songs aren't even in alphabetical order), the location where we also get free snacks out of it, and I could probably go on forever. Basically, it's the thing to do. It's also necessary to have a few “go-to” songs as back-ups just in case the locals force you to sing before you've been able to sort through the songs. Mine have become “Mamma Mia” (or really anything from ABBA) and anything by Shania Twain. These are plenty others of course, but those are my go-tos. I've also learned the Tagalog song “Pusong Bato.” You should look it up. As a presentation for the Supervisor's Conference, we CRMers made a music video for Pusong Bato, and it is crazy good, if I do say so myself. I'll add a link to that eventually if it ever gets put up on youtube.
  
  
• Opening coconuts with a machete. I wouldn't call myself an expert by any means, but I would definitely put myself in the intermediate level of ability. A couple nights ago we made pina coladas with freshly poured coconut milk and meat, drank them from the coconut while watching the sunset on our beach. It was definitely a textbook perfect tropical evening. I do have one interesting story I have with opening coconuts, though, and I would like to start out the story by saying that everything is fine now and I'm perfectly okay. So Jess, another trainee, and I were learning how to open coconuts for the first time together. It was really hard work and frustrating, but we finally got it! Jess cracked open the coconut and the milk started pouring out, so she held it up so it would drip into her mouth. Well it was dripping from multiple parts along the crack so I wanted to get in on it too. I got under the coconut to get my drink (unbeknownst to Jess) just as she decided she'd had enough and brought the coconut down right on my nose! And I'll tell you, those things are as hard as rock!! I've been hit plenty of times in the face/nose with volleyballs and such over the years, but never has my nose bled because of it...and this caused a full fountain of blood. And to make matters worse, there were about 20 children around watching this unfold along with the other trainees, so there was a full audience present for my graceful performance. To cut to the chase, the bleeding eventually stopped and I was left with a little scrape and slight bruise on my nose for a few days. Nothing more exciting though :( I would have liked to have a better battle wound, but alas.
  
  

  

  Before the accident

  
  
• Local transportation. I've been able to experience trike rides (motorized tricyles), jeepneys, and buses so far. I have yet to experience a ferry, but I'll get my chance. A group of us took a public bus and jeepney to get to a nearby mall for our weekly internet access a few weeks ago. It was definitely an experience. We waited for 30 minutes at the bus stop outside Mabayo and the bus that arrived had standing room only (the mall is 40 minutes away) with a roof that was only 6 ft high (there was a guy that was 6'4” and a guy that was 6'1” with us). We got on the bus and the entire bus started laughing at our tall entourage. I wasn't too uncomfortable during the bus ride, but I can't say the same for my companions. On the way back from the mall we ended up walking in circles for 20 minutes trying to find the right jeepney and finally found it just as it was about to pull away. We squished the 5 of us into an already full jeepney and ended up having 25 people total in there, which I thought was a pretty impressive feat. I was actually sitting on someone's lap for a little bit of the ride.
  
  

  

  My first trike ride with my host family and all my luggage!

  
  
• Dreaming in Tagalog. This was more comical than impressive. Earlier in the day I had seen a kane spider for the first time (a relatively big and creeping looking spider) and then preceded to dream about one being in my room. In my dream I was with 2 other trainees and they were very casually informing me that this terrifyingly creepy spider was “right over there.” I was having a little dream confusion where I wasn't sure if “here” was talking about at school where I had seen the spider earlier in the day or if it was in my room currently. So in my sleep I spoke aloud “nandito o dyan lang?” (here or over there). There was complete confusion on my part linked with fear of having a huge spider right in my room, and this led to a very restless rest of my night.

After this supervisor's conference I will have 10 more days in Mabayo before leaving it for good and moving to Siaton! We'll be finishing our technical training and taking our language proficiency interview (LPI), basically the Tagalog language exam, and doing our community projects. I realize I haven't said much about what we're learning for technical training, so here it goes.

The first half of PST (pre-service training) we were learning how to survey and assess seagrass beds, mangroves, and coral reef ecosystems. This was pretty awesome because it meant we were actually snorkeling around these reefs and had the great Philippines outdoors as our office for the day...a pretty hard life if you ask me. Below is a picture of the little cove we went to for seagrass and coral surveys for class on a Saturday (I would complain about class on a Saturday at 7am, but I really don't have much to complain about). The fishermen that boated us out there caught fish while we did our surveys and then cooked it right there on the beach and served it to us as a snack! They also found spider conchs from the reefs there, cooked those, and taught us how to crack open the shells and eat the muscle right there on the beach! Definitely the freshest sea food I've ever eaten.

Our office for the day....ya....life is hard.

 The second half of PST we've been learning how to do community assessments and collect socio-economic data to help us get a better idea of our community's profile. It's been really interesting because we had to interview community members like fishermen and barangay council members to get first-hand accounts of the community. We're also going to be doing a youth camp next weekend where we will teach kids about the importance of environmental conservation and everything. I'm pretty stoked for it.

Well, this is all I have to report now! Below are some pictures of Mabayo that I meant to put up a month ago...

My room, complete with mosquito net.

Our school/pavilion where we have our sessions

The Mabayo cove and the view right outside our pavilion gate

And at sunset....GORGEOUS!!!!

Host Family Transitioning

Well I've survived my two weeks with a Filipino host family! There are 9 of us Trainees in this baranguy and we live no more than a 6 minute walk from each other. It's really nice. I am in the barangay of Mabayo, which is in the municipal of Morong, in the province of Bataan. For those of you too lazy to look it up on a map, it's located on the southwestern coast of Luzon (the biggest island in the Philippines). And when I say on the coast, I mean literally on the coast. Like I'm looking at the ocean through the houses I pass on the main street with gorgeous mountains just inland. Ya, be jealous. And Mabayo is the cutest little Filipino village around! The barangay (village) consists of one main road with thin, little dirt paths leading off the main road acting as extended driveways for the houses lying behind the houses on the main drag. Oh, and the length of the main road is less than a mile! If you're walking really slow you might be able to stretch a walk from one end of town to the other to 10 minutes. It's that small!! I love it!!!! My host sister says she knows everyone that lives here. It's crazy to think that this whole village is maybe a quarter of the size of my neighborhood back in Indiana (granted, I do have a really big neighborhood, but still). I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the closeness here.

Of course, it's not all fun and games. I'm in language lessons from 8-12 Monday thru Friday and technical training (like how to survey seagrass, mangrove, coral reef sites, etc.) from 1-5ish and on Saturday from 8-2ish. They are very long days. But our “school room” is a pavilion literally on the beach with a stone fence about 5ft high surrounding us and a little gate leading to the cove that Mabayo encompasses. It is, without a doubt, the most amazing school room I could have never imagined! And we always have an audience of kids watching us from the gate or climbing the trees outside the fence to look over and call to us every now and then. The kids are all obsessed with the visiting Americans and follow us everywhere whenever we're walking in groups. The thing is though, they were really hard to get close to at first. Or at least they would always run away whenever we approached them. They actually remind me of little isda (the Tagalog word for fish). They're really curious and all crowd around to look at you from a distance, but as soon as you start approaching them, they dart away in every direction. Then if you stay still once you've made your advance, they'll slowly start trickling back, curious and interested, but very cautious. But if you make another sudden movement or advance toward them before they reach you, they'll dart away again and you'll lose any progress you may have already made. It's a very slow process to get near them. I did find that showing them my camera helped speed up the process, though. I would take pictures of them and then show them what the picture looked like. And then I let them take pictures of themselves. My observations have shown that this refined technique significantly speeds up the process of getting in with the kids.

Now on to my host family. I love them! I have 4 new siblings, two boys 16 and 19, and two girls 14 and 2½, and a few cousins whose ages I don't really know. They're between the 2 and 14 age range though. I know that much. Everyone in the family speaks at least a little bit of English, which eased some of my anxiety upon arrival. Of course after I get comfortable I'll ask them to speak as little English as possible to help me learn Tagalog, but it's a nice comfort to have. My first day here most of the family and their cousins helped teach me different parts of the body, like a list of about 40 new terms (arm, leg, foot, face, teeth, etc.). In less than an hour. It was a little overwhelming, but really fun too, and they were so patient with me. And the little girl, Gabi, is very shy around me, like she doesn't know how to act around me, but she's very affectionate and touchy with her other siblings. Each day she warms up a little more to me, and a couple days ago we made real headway when she actually touched me! The downside to this the fact she touched my legs, which hadn't been shaved in a few days, meaning that they were pretty prickly. Well she just found that so fascinating and stood next to me for 5 minutes just running her hand up and down my prickly, unshaven legs. Greeeeeat beginning to the touchiness I think...not. Needless to say I shaved my legs that night during my bucket shower. It'll be a good 10 weeks here.

This leads me into my next topic: the CR (comfort room/bathroom)! There is no running water in the house so it all has to be brought inside from the spigot outside. This water is used for bucket showers and washing clothes and dishes. The purified mineral water, which we get in big 2 gallon jugs, is used for drinking and brushing teeth. No running water means that I am now a pro at brushing my teeth without running water (although summers in Wisconsin also got me pretty good at that), bucket showers (no hot water I might add), and flushing the toilet by pouring water in, not pulling the little handle thing. These are definitely good life skills to learn.

The food here has been really good. Every meal there's rice, of course, and then some kind of meat. I've had fish quite a few times, but it's prepared differently than in the states. Instead of cleaning the fish beforehand and removing the meat, the whole fish is cooked after gutted (I think/hope), complete with head, tail, fins, and scales. And then they take the meat off the bones as they eat it, and they eat the skin too. Sunday my host mom is going to teach me how to cook, and I'm gonna ask to cook fish, just because it's such a staple food here. And I've achieved an intermediate level skill of eating rice, fish, and soy sauce with my hands. I haven't quite mastered the technique of getting all the rice in my mouth instead of around the side of my mouth though. We'll just say that I'm glad there are no cameras at dinner.

I'm gonna try to start mentioning some interesting differences/cultural facts in each blog. So here it goes:

• To them, the finer a person's complexion, the prettier they are. I've been told this is because they have so much American television here and are being influenced by our looks. They strive to become pale like Americans, which I find totally ironic since every American's goal in the summer is to get as tan as possible. I've noticed that on every ad I see on billboards or TV or whatnot, the models are all unnaturally pale for a Filipino (or at least the Filipinos I've seen). I have yet to see a complexion on an ad that could pass for an “American tan” kind of complexion. They are all lighter, some even as pale as American pale. And you know how in America there's “dying” lotion that steadily darkens your skin? Well here they sell skin care that whitens a person's complexion. Ya, it's weird. I actually saw one girl whose face was about 6 shades lighter than her arms. I'm pretty sure she's someone who uses the whitening cream.
• And another little fun fact: they call “black outs” “brown outs”. I have no idea why we have different words for the same thing, but we do and it's weird. I experienced my first brown out last night, and it really isn't any different than in the States. It wasn't as exciting as I would have hoped. Although I did get to take a bucket shower by candle light.....great mood setting.

Well that's all for now! Pictures to come. Eventually.  It's kind of impossible for me to get internet right now and will be for the next 2 months probably...so bring on the letters!!!

First time for Everything

I'm alive!!!

Despite it being the rainy season here, we have only seen it rain/sprinkle twice in the 4 days we've been in country.  This is boding well for me :)  The place I'm at right now is more like a camp/retreat setting than anything else.  We're staying in either cottages or dorms (I'm in a lovely dorm...no getting away from college life yet) and have a huge meeting hall, cafeteria, smaller meeting rooms, swimming pool, volleyball court (made of bamboo poles right next to the pineapple field), and basketball court. Our days are very structured with breakfast from 6-8am, meetings from 8-12, lunch from 12-1, meetings from 1-5ish, then free time the rest of the night.  I honestly feel like I'm at camp again, complete with doing the occasional camp song to get us "energized."

The purpose of putting us in this place was to ease us into the transition of moving to a foreign country.  The food they've been giving us is supposed to start easing us into Filipino food, like serving rice at every. single. meal. They've had chicken, beef, and fish options at every meal, served as local dishes.  The food is actually really good, so I'm not completely stressing about that anymore.  I am stressing about the A/C though. But I'm stressing because they have it here, and it's been my refuge from the heat, and the reason why I can stand to abide by their dress code of super modest clothing with pants.  So once they take the A/C away, I'm dead.

Our volleyball court with the pineapple field literally right next to it, along with palm trees and banana trees.

These first few days have been a whirlwind of firsts.

- I've survived my first, second, third, and fourth bucket shower!!  And I'm still clean!  Or at least, I don't think I smell any worse than anyone else here.  These really aren't as bad as I thought they'd be.  And the water isn't heated at all, but that's actually a relief with how hot/humid it is here.  Then with the bucket portion of it, it's actually like being in a waterfall!!!  Or at least that's what I tell myself.  You should try a bucket shower some time.  On a hot summer day.  When there's no sign of relief.  It will be so amazing, I promise you!

- I've become a morning person.  Not like 8am kind of morning, but a 5:30am kind of morning.  The sun sets here at 7 and there's really not much energy left to stay up past 10pm after a full day of meetings and stuff.  Also, the mornings are the coolest time of the day - not to say that I'm not sweating uncontrollably after being outside for 10 minutes, but it's better than at noon.  It's become a routine for most of the active Trainees here to get up early, 5:30 or 6, and go running, do yoga, swim, or whatever.  It's awesome that there are so many active people here.

- I've tried balut for the first time.  This is a Filipino snack of fertilized chicken eggs.  You can pick your choice of age of the embryo and then chow down!  I believe the one I had was 12 days old.  The egg was cooked so that the egg white was kind of like a white paste, once you slurped past the liquid surrounding the membrane, and then the embryo was about the size of a pencil eraser.  I thought the whole experience would be more traumatic than it was, but the whole thing really just tasted exactly like a hard-boiled egg with a softer texture.  The embryo wasn't even anything special :( Sad day.

Balut!!!

- I took my first jeepney ride!  These have the same purpose as cabs in the US, and they're even made from old US military jeeps, fancy that.  But these are awesome!!  I'm sure I'll become completely used to them soon and won't even raise an eyebrow, but at the moment, they're kind of the coolest thing around.  We had to fit 17 of us in the back to go to the mall, and half of us were sitting with half a cheek on our neighbor...very cozy.

Oh, and a side note, I had mentioned in an early post that I was going to be in CYF (Child, Youth, and Family).  Well this turned out to be a lie.  During my one-on-one meeting with the country director, he said that when he was reviewing my resume, he was slightly confused as to why I wasn't put in CRM (Coastal Resource Management) and asked if I'd like to switch....ummmm.....YES!!!!!!!  CRM is basically defined as fun in the sun/water and is filled with awesomeness!!!  So I'm completely stoked about this reassignment.  The basic job description is "managing the coastal resources" (duh) in mostly fishing communities to help them sustain their environment and livelihood.  Yay!!!!!!

So that's all for now! I'll keep you posted!

Address

Here's my address for the next 3 months (this will probably change after that time):

I've been told to use USPS and NOT FedEx to ship stuff, fyi.

Letters and packages:

Sarah Colton, PCT

c/o U.S. Peace Corps

6/F PNB Financial Center

Macapagal Blvd., Pasay City

1308 Philippines

Letters only:

Sarah Colton, PCT

U.S. Peace Corps

P.O. Box 7013, Airmail Distribution Center

NAIA, Pasay City

1301 Philippines

Wow, that's a lot of lines.  Thanks in advance for all the mail!!!!! (only a slight hint there)

Final Countdown

Well it's down to the final countdown.  In 2 days I'll be going to LA for my staging event (which will consist of me sitting in orientation lectures for 5 hrs, bleh) and then the next day flying to Manila!!!!  This is coming up so fast and it's starting to get real.  A few days ago I was looking at the weather online for Valpo and it kind of hit me then when I didn't care what the weather would be after 5 days.  Normally I glace at what the always-wrong weathermen say for the 10 day forecast just to get an idea, but it didn't matter to me anymore....BAM....wake up call!!  It's just so difficult to wrap my head around how long 27 months is.

I've had an amazing jam-packed last month seeing friends and family every second possible and enjoying the summer with only my departure looming over my head.  Of course, departing will be no petty task.  My head's been spinning the past few weeks with all the items on my to-do list, the most ominous of which is packing.  Writing this is actually one of my many breaks from packing today.  I never realized how difficult it would be to pack the next 2 years of my life into 2 checked bags, each weighing no more than 50lbs, and a carry-on......trust me.....it's a nightmare!  It's really the weight limit that's killing me because I'd like to organize my stuff between the 2 bags but that's not looking completely possible now without one bag being about 70lbs.  So it's back to the drawing board!

A moment of seriousness:  I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for all the help and support I've been given these past few months.  I have felt so loved with all the well-wishes, advice, and promises of care packages (that I'm definitely counting on!!).  This has been a time filled with transitions for me and I could not have done it alone, so thank you.

Welp, I think my packing break is over!  Hopefully I'll know my new address soon so I can pass that along (please write me!!!) and I promise my next post will actually have some exciting stories in it, or at least something more exciting than the struggles of me packing.

Expectations

Obviously I haven't started the Peace Corps yet, but I think this website represents a pretty good idea of what I can expect in a very comical way.  So these are my expectations; I'll let you know if my expectations become reality!

http://whatshouldpcvscallme.tumblr.com/

What am I doing????

Okay, so I am completely new at blogging and have only a vague idea of what to do, so we'll see how this goes.  This is a blog that I will hopefully keep somewhat up to date while I am a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines (!!!!!!).  I leave July 5, 2013 and will return September 18, 2015 and I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.  I will be put in a Family, Youth, and Child sector and, from what I've read, I will be working with at-risk individuals (I'm hoping mostly children).  I won't know anything more specific about my assignment until I go there for my three months of training and the Peace Corps gets to know me personally.  It will be the experience of a lifetime (as cliche as that sounds, it's completely true) and half the time I'm actually questioning my sanity when I think about how long 2 years will be halfway around the world.  Oh well!  Too late to back out now!