It finally happened today...the long awaited horror. The Balut
and I met face to face. For those of you who do not yet know, allow me to
enlighten you. Balut is a Filipino delicacy that consists of an unborn duck
fetus or fertilized duck embryo to be politically correct. Popularly believed
to be an aphrodisiac, it is slurped up right out of the shell, soggy feathers,
eyes, beak, and all. I knew it would happen eventually, and just so happened I
was invited over to my neighbors to try it. The hosts affectionately call it a
“chicken abortion.” Two other PC volunteers were brave enough to partake, 82
year-old Carl, and my good friend, Hillary. We made quite a spectacle and many
a photos were taken, but it actually was not as bad as it sounds. I have eaten
my fair share of strange things, but this was the strangest, even though it
tastes mostly like a hard-boiled egg…besides the slight crunch of things I
choose not to thing about. They are sold on the street all over the place, but
it is not likely I will be eating another soon.
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| BALUT |
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| Proof of Balut Ingestion |
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| Hillary and Carl share experience with me |
On a more serious note, it is getting pretty rough out here.
I know this blog is joyous, but there have definitely been hard times out here.
It is not easy at all living so close to extreme poverty. Street kids come up
to me every day begging for money, beautiful big brown eyes, dangerously skinny,
and rags for clothes. If you give one something, you will have dozens running
after you tugging at you and crying. There is no possible way to help them all,
so I just have to ignore them like everyone else, and it is the hardest thing
ever to do. Especially when they are sleeping outside right down the street. Starving
and diseased dogs are everywhere you look, I saw my first dead one today being
eaten up by insects. Sooo many smells and never ending stares gets annoying (to
think I actually thought I would blend in here), but it is indeed a fascinating
place. Hot hot hot, and it is never possible to dry here due to humidity, so
there is a constant film of sweaty stickiness that returns the second dry
yourself off after a “tabo” cooling bucket bath. The hottest place by far is my
school, Subic High, since almost 70 students are packed into an American size
classroom, piled on top of another sharing desks with no air con and only a
single fan. I have no idea how anyone learns in this environment, but hopefully
I figure it out since my first day of actual teaching is tomorrow. Another
thing, toilet paper is like gold here, Filipinos have there own system for
potty that I will not go into quite yet, but basically, no once uses toilet
paper here, so we have to carry our own around with us at all times. Privacy is
also non-existent here, but I am getting use to that. I am also feeling very
glum now because one of my best friends here went home to the states yesterday.
We are getting weeded out here I suppose. So enough with the downers, it is
classic Peace Corps life, but even in a place that appears to be struggling so,
I have met the most friendly, curious, and hospitable people of my life, and it
has not even been one month! It has been amazing becoming part of a 20 + family
who has lived in the same place since birth. My nanay Alma is teaching me how
to hand scrub/wash all of my sweaty clothes tomorrow! Also, my tita Evelyn helped
me make dinner last night, stuffed whole “bangus” milkfish with onions and tomatoes
and pork wonton thingys. Lots of work, but now I can make pork siomai from scratch!
I also am just getting over a throat infection, but PC has
pumped me full of antibiotics. We have had such a jam-packed schedule, and I
have never been so overwhelmed and run down in my life. I am quite physically and
mentally drained, so for the first time since getting here, I will get to sleep
in past 5 AM since tomorrow is Sunday/rest/church day, YAYYY! I have lost quite
a bit of weight since leaving the states, probably due to sickness, different
food, walk/sprinting everywhere, sweating everything out, and no more weekly
Oreo Cakesters or burritos (SHOUT OUT to Mackenzie, Rachel, and Chelsea who I
know read this...pretty sure I had a Big City Burrito wet dream last night...don’t
judge me) Others, please excuse the graphicness. I also got an amazing
head/neck massage from my tita today because she thinks I am overworked and it
would help my sickness. Another funny thing, my Filipino family thinks I got
sick because I go to bed with my hair wet at night, they think it attracts
demons who wish to harm me…they have many amusing superstitions here.
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| I took a Tabo rinse off with my flips on ONCE and now EVERY time it rains, they suds up...embarrassing but efficient self cleaning mechanism??? |
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| Dan with Froggy Friend found in Classroom |
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| Jeepneys - My social transport for longer distances |
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Trike - My standard form of transport
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On another tangent, today, a few of the education volunteers
partnered up with the community development volunteers around Subic to put on a
Literacy camp for out of school youth ages 7 to 12. It was organized chaos
because we expected 100 kids and 200 showed up, of course we could not turn any
away, but overall it was a big success. We had tons of four colored dot stickers that
we used to split up the masses, and then had 4 classrooms with 2 of us in each,
so the kids would rotate each hour and play a variety of games and exercises. The
games my partner and I thought up worked so well with the different ages and
English levels because we tweaked it a bit each time, and it was also prime
Tagalog practice for us. The kids were a little bit more difficult to wrangle
than most since they are not used to being in school or listening to authority,
but they were all excited to meet Americans and to play our games, hope they learned
a little something by the end. This week my schedule is finally more regular
with mornings teaching at Subic High (2nd year = 8th
grade for us, English class) and afternoon language lessons. Site placement
interviews are happening Tuesday and this will be the only time when we can
express our preferences on where we want to spend the next 2 years, who knows
if these preferences weigh at all…but honestly I will be happy with wherever,
even if I don’t get to sleep right next to the big bug-eyed tarsier monkeys.
Oh! That reminds me, I saw my first monkey a few days ago! I was not sure there
were even monkeys here, but indeed, I spotted a big ole brown baboon looking
thing strolling down the street like he owned the place.
So more information, the “barangay” or village in Subic that
I live in is called “Mangan-Vaca” which literally means “Eat-Cow.” (Chick-fil-a
would have a fit, haha) Wow did this crack me up when I realized it, not quite
sure why, besides that I am in a constant state of slap-happiness here, or
maybe I am just losing my mind. We all are. I think it is because we need to
laugh to keep from crying…ha. My group here of 10 volunteers have gotten very
close since we spend soooo much time together, but 2 have also dropped out so
far, it is essentially a Hunger Games to Staging (end of training when we
become official PCVs and get our 2 year site assignments) Haha not really, but
we have acquired a fair number of entertaining inside jokes. I wish I could
explain them, but I do not think they would translate. Okay okay, I will try to
share a couple. I guess to start off, when we first met the principal and
faculty of Subic high, the principal said randomly to us all “We all got
problems, but you think you got problems? Mary here’s got problems” Then, they
each faculty member went down the row bringing up another person who’s “got
problems” with everyone shaking their head and “Mmmm hmmming” and “I hear
that.” All in broken English, gosh, I had to swallow my sobs of laughter, but
of course, as I look back on it written out now, it is not nearly as funny. Oh
well... So now when things happen and we
tell our friends we start with this. True story like today as I was talking to
my friend Dan, I said quote “You think you got problems? I poured the last of
my cereal into my powdered milk bowl, looked down, realized it was full of
ants…ate it anyways…more protein…I got problems” Okay I will leave you all with
that. There is also a very funny/depressing site for Peace Corps blunders around the world. Warning...sometimes explicit content! Click
here if enticed...
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