The Ultimate Volunteer Story: Kids Edition

I know it's been a while since my last post, but there really hasn't been much going on. However, I started a new routine a couple weeks ago that has rendered a good story. I'm registered to run a 10k this Sunday (which I realize now is Mother's Day so Happy Mother's Day!!). I've never run a 10k distance in my life, so my goal is to simply do the whole thing without walking. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, the last few weeks I've been training and got in the routine of running after work at the Oval (aka track). I'll set the scene: the track is packed dirt with a few rocks here and there and in the middle is a basketball court, volleyball court, a small soccer field, and a tennis court (basketball and tennis court at either end of the track with volleyball and soccer in between). I'm actually very lucky to have this area – not many volunteers have a site with a track.

So most days after work I've been playing volleyball until dark (which is at 6-7 pm year-round) and then I run. I've been doing this routine for just a few weeks now and already everyone in the Oval knows my name (not because they necessarily know me but because I'm the strange foreigner and one of the few girls doing something athletic, so why wouldn't they be curious as to what my name is?). When I enter the Oval many people shout out greetings and it feels nice and welcoming. There's also a group of about 10-15 kids (maybe ranging from 8-12 years old) who hang out around the tennis court shagging balls for the players. My story centers around these kids.

The first few times I ran, the kids would just stare at me every time I went past the tennis court. After a while they started shouting my name and waving at every passing, and it continued this way for about a week. Then one evening they started getting more enthusiastic with their waves and would even run to the track for a close up view of me running past (after being in this country for 10 months I'm very use to this fishbowl-everyone-staring-all-the-time stuff). A couple laps later they actually began spreading across the path and holding hands, forcing me to charge them and break through their barrier with them laughing and squealing at my snarling growl (and I tell you, after a few laps of this it got exhausting having to muster up the energy to do this every lap, but how can you refuse those hopeful looks and squeals of laughter). Then one lap, instead of forming a line across, they were all congregated in a blob right in the middle. As I neared they opened a small opening for me to go through and as I got in the middle of them they started running with me! I was swallowed up by 15 kids running around the track! It actually felt to me like having a swarm of gnats surrounding me, in a good way of course (if that's possible). The little ones didn't even make it half way around the track though; they decided to stop a quarter of the way, cut through the middle, and wait for me on the other end to finish the lap with me. The older ones made it the whole way and some of them even tried to race me (although this was towards the end of my run so I had very little steam left).

So for the last few laps of my run the older kids (the younger ones were tired after that first lap) would run with me for one lap, then rest, then run, then rest, and it was a nice little pattern. I did my last lap with the older kids, finishing on the opposite side of the tennis court. We walked my cool down lap and picked up the younger kids as we walked past the tennis court and headed over to the stands where I do my stretching and crunches after every run. I figured the kids would go back to the tennis court once they realized I was pretty much done with the exciting stuff, but nope! They stuck with me and counted to twenty while we did stretches, crunches, push ups, jumping jacks, more stretches, and anything else I could think of to entertain them. At one point we were even copying the moves of a Filipino exercising on the other side of the stands (not sure if he realized a foreigner and a bunch of kids were copying him, but it worked out okay).

Since that day there are still a few kids who have joined me for my running and stretching, and one kid in particular who seems particularly devoted. It's quite cute, really. But I think this is one of the experiences I'll take with me and think back on during the hard days because everything is so much more fun and enjoyable where there's a laughing kid there with you!!

Prom Filipino-style

So I admit, I've let this whole blogging thing slide a little, and I wish I could say I'll get better, but to be honest, it probably won't happen. There haven't been many new developments to report, just the ongoing battle to find my place in the LGU, find projects to work on, figure out my life outside of work, learn the language, and continue adjusting to this completely different culture.

One thing I deemed worthy of a blog post, though, was the Siaton Science High School prom I just attended. And when I say “just attended,” I mean “just attended,” as in 20 minutes ago I was there and now I'm writing about it so I don't forget any bizarre details. My host family aunt here in Siaton is the principle of the high school so I got to experience the event from the observing teacher's perspective. I'll start with the logistics:

WHAT: Siaton Science High School Junior and Senior Prom

WHO: Juniors and seniors in attendance of course (maybe 30-40 in each grade), teachers and parents, freshmen and sophomore students observing, and any random passers-by who happen to walk past the venue and feel like stopping to watch (it's a very public event)

WHEN: Thursday, February 13, 2pm-6pm approximately and continuing into the night

WHERE: The gym/dance/pageant/event hall located in the center of town with open walls and a stage (very nicely decorated, though)

ATTIRE: Juniors and seniors in expected prom attire with boys wearing suits and girls wearing prom-style (and also some homecoming-style) dresses and too-tall high heeled shoes (like only the kind it's possible for super models to walk in). Teachers also in prom attire, if not just fancy Sunday-best. Parents mostly in fancy Sunday-best but some just in nice t-shirts and jeans. Freshmen and sophomore students in their school uniforms. Passers-by in regular street clothes just like any other day (because to them, it is any other day). Me in jeans and a black polo with my draw-string bag (I came straight from work and had no idea what to expect. I mostly stayed in the back though so it wasn't too embarrassing.)

SIMILARITES TO AMERICAN PROM: Fancy outfits, a catered meal, dancing to the latest hits, prom king and queen (called Mr. and Mrs. Science High here), guys not asking the girls to dance when prompted, announcing couples on stage (not sure if every prom does this last one, but my prom did)

DIFFERENCES: Prom is a graded event (!!!), ballroom dancing, parents in attendance, speeches, a program

Now I'll go into the story:

To get you in the right mindset, you have to understand this is more of a ceremony than the “fun dance” American proms are like. It has the fun dance part too, but you have to get through the ceremony first. Since the majority of the prom happened in the afternoon and I had work, I wasn't able to see the entire event, but there was a program so I was able to see what I had missed. The program included speeches of thanks and recognition, the history of the school, the students saying their dream jobs (some were Apples engineers and others were fashion designers or political ambassadors), and choreographed ballroom dances. The dancing was what really caught my attention. First off, they were ABLE to do ballroom dancing, nothing too extreme mind you, but still, in the States that's not a very common thing to see high schoolers doing. The juniors have dances they do and then the seniors have a ~15 minute waltz they do. I thought that was crazy enough until my aunt told me they were being graded on the dancing and had choreographed the whole thing themselves in 2 weeks! And since there were more girls than guys (like in almost every setting in life), some of the dance couples were girl-girl. It was interesting watching couples of girls doing these dances in high heeled shoes neither of them could really walk in. There was also the handing down of the “key” and “book of knowledge” from the senior class to the junior class. Not really sure what the significance was with those, but it seemed important.

Only after the 3 and a half hour program was over did the dinner start, followed by what I like to call the fun part. And you could definitely tell when that started. I began recognizing prom stereotypes: cameras coming out and everyone taking a million pictures, guys and girls no longer dancing one-on-one but rather in groups, music blaring and making your chest pound, and girls showing the obvious pain their feet were in because of their shoes. Up until this point I hadn't been sure if the two cultures' proms had anything in common, but this eased my conscience. However, another curve ball in this event was that this “fun part” only lasted about 30 minutes. Then there was a break so everyone could go home and change into more comfortable clothes only to return later and continue the fun. I actually really like that idea, if only for the sake of high-heeled-tortured-feet. I think the States should adopt this part.

But ya, this sums up the Filipino Prom! So, until next time!

And quick update on my volunteer life, this weekend I'm leaving for my batch's 2 week long IST (In Service Training). This is the first time in 5 months I will have been able to see most of my batch so I'm really excited. We've been at site for 5 months now and in the Philippines for 7 and a half months. The time is going by so fast but there is still so much time left, which is definitely needed. I've barely begun to scratch the surface on what I can do for my community.

The decked out gym

Fancy tables and setting

Ballroom dancing

Seniors' waltz

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!