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!!!!