Randomness

Americans are known for being discreet...

Time here is ticking away fast, next week we have the Supervisor’s Conference in Batangas where we meet each of the principals of our individual schools for the next 2 years! They let it slip that this year they are placing more volunteers from different sectors very close to one another so they can work on projects together. I expressed in my interview that I would like to be placed near a Coastal Resource Management volunteer to team up to work on coral reef degradation prevention and awareness, and of course I love my Education buddies. It will be an extremely more difficult experience if I am not close to people I can laugh with and who appreciate my weirdness. So, I am more nervous about which volunteers I will be close to than the location!

A lot and more crazy nonsense has happened since my last entry. I am finally over all of my sickness issues, my ear infections went from most pain in my head ever…to blood on my pillows in the mornings…to when I thought I was healed and I used a Q-tip and it came out neon green chunks on each side (I took a picture of this alien like substance, then I deleted it because I was embarrassed at how gross I am) …to finally back to normal now! Quite a process of festering healing. Also, I woke up yesterday to a frog trying to cuddle with me in bed. I felt something on my leg, opened my eyes, and all of the sudden see the sheet below pop up, don’t know how or why he maneuvered himself through my mosquito net and under the sheet, but it was a quite a movie moment, and shockingly I did not scream this time. Frogs are fascinating, so I wanted to make him my pet, but decided he would likely prefer to be set free back to his little froggy friends, so I swallowed my sadness and we said our goodbyes. Another thing, MOLD. There was a point when half of the clothes hanging in my room were covered in moldy mossy substance. It is so hard when things do not dry here because of the humidity and rain rain rain so my room is turning into a forest!

Me and Lolo Aeta the Elder

Speaking of forest and jungles and monkeys, we had one day this week for a field trip, so our fearless leader TCF, Sam, took us on this jungle hike with an indigenous Aeta for our guide. He showed us how to make fire and how to make all of these cooking devices out of bamboo. I could be on Dual Survival now with my man Cody Lundin, my brother would be so proud. The Aeta people actually trained the U.S. Marines on how to survive in the jungle during the Vietnam War, it was all quite fascinating. We got to visit some other volunteers in the beach province of Morong after. Dan, Hillary, and I went swimming and sadly got caught in the scary rip tide. I had a brief moment of freaking out and preparing for death, when I remembered to swim parallel to the shore, and we got out and back just fine. When we got out of the water later on, the other group of volunteers told us people don’t swim there because it is called “Beach of Death” because so many people have drowned…would have been good to know before we got in! Lesson learned now though, short glimpse of stupidity and lack of judgment…we were just too excited to finally get in the South China Sea for the first time. Another thing, my Tagalog is progressing more and more! I can sing the National Anthem now, so Skype me to see and hear, it is so catchy too!

Best Engrish ever, from cell phone bejewel sticker

So much SPAM! No kidding, 12 varieties here

I was so spoiled last weekend, for a host family members birthday, Tita Puying took all 15 of our family out to a Japanese restaurant for sushi and tempera, it was a huge treat and so delish! Videoke at home came after of course, and I decided to take on my first Tagalog song. The videoke scores appear to be totally random, and never under 70, but I scored a perfect 100 on “Hwag na wag mong sasabihin” love song and everybody went wild. Most people have never seen 100%, so now my family here always tells strangers about it, which is funny because all of you know that I cannotttt sing, but I guess Videoke machines like my accent and are on my side or the more likely case, there is just no method to the madness that is videoke! For our language teacher’s birthday, 6 of us volunteers were singing videoke, and Chris found a song called Imagine by Manny Pacquiao…if you know any celebrity from the Philippines, it is Manny the Pac-Man, he is a phenomenal boxer and also trying his hand at politics. So, we were intrigued by seeing him as a musician as well, we clicked on the song, and low and behold, the video is Manny and Will Ferrell singing Imagine by John Lennon on some stage. We have no idea what this is from since we are displaced from pop culture for the time being…but anyways it was a hilarious and amazing at the time and very weird surprise.

Chloe, Me, and Tita Puying or "Flor" with BENTO

A Handful of the Family

Today, I helped Tita Puying blow up over 1000 balloons of all sizes for a big 18^th birthday extravaganza that she was working (as you can probably tell, my Filipino family is more well off than most around here. I got to attend this party, and the famed whole “Lechon” roasted pig was there and delicious. Funny cultural note, it was a pool party and all of the girls swim in all of their clothes… No swim suits, just their regular shorts and t-shirts…when the boys walk all over town in nothing but boxers and it is totally acceptable. Gender equality is a little behind on the times here, but it is interesting. I also got to observe a lot of the “mano.” This is a sign of respect where younger people place an elder’s hand onto their head for a “blessing” of their wisdom. A couple of students actually did this to me at school, and I was very honored. Something else really cute, my little sister here, Chloe, told me she was in love with me today. I quote, “Ate Allie, please don’t back to America, I miss you too much, I am love with you.” Then, she drew the word LOVE and some hearts on my hand. This was probably one of the sweetest things I have ever experienced. I am so sad to only have a month more here with my Subic fam!

Crispy Lechon

Scary things: Four total volunteers now have Dengue Fever, so PC Medical Staff are freaking out on us all. If you don’t know, Dengue is spread like Malaria by mosquitos and nicknamed “Break bone Fever” because it literally feels like all of your bones are breaking, and it is supposedly one of the most painful diseases. I counted 32 mosquito bites on my legs/feet last night, so I am crossing my fingers. Most everyone recovers after the pain and being treated, so not too too scary. I also ate pig’s blood tonight or “Dinuguan” for dinner, my sneaky host momma told me it was chocolate before I tasted it. Surprisingly, it tasted really good, cooked with vinegar and spices. Dan ate DOG with his family for dinner. He said it tasted “like barbecue sauce and sadness.” I am staying away from dog/puppy as long as I can…but bat is still on my list!

Fun things: With all of the flood madness, most all of the 60 or so volunteers in our batch 271 were within 30 minutes from each other these past weeks, so we have all gotten together a few nights for pow wows with major chika chika, bonding, and Red Horse (the best beer here, tastes a bit like Dos Equis but is 8%) We definitely need those nights with everything we all go through each day. Hillary and I found a crab trying to cross a major danger road on night. So we picked him up, named him Sebastian, told him to stay while went to meet some friends, he was still there alive and waiting for us a couple hours later, so we found it our duty to take him home to his family in the ocean. Our navigation skills are not the sharpest, so we ended up at a pond that we thought would suffice, where I am sure he is still happy right now. During this adventure, we stumbled upon the coolest nook of an outdoor covered bar/restaurant with a live band playing. We took our 6 other Mangan Vaca buddies the next night and had such a great time. The band played all American covers, which was amusing and we got a special welcome message from the band, I guess because we are white… (band is called Accento from Cebu, like them on Facebook!) We drank blue scrumptious margaritas (that costs like a week allowance but so worth it) also got free shrimp tempura from the owner, I am kinda liking this celebrity feeling still. It was just so crazy that this amazing and snazzy place was tucked in right besides all of the poverty, and it made us feel like we were in “posh corps” for a night. Our celebratory occasion was our last day of work at Subic National High School. I do not know how it went by so fast, but now we just have to finish up our community project. We are making video and binder full of resources for our 12 partner teachers on different learning styles, internet navigation, pronunciation/phonology, and teaching ESL vs EFL. I also have the project of designing 8 huge tarpeline posters with common grammar rules for the teachers to have available. We also are painting the second floor of the school. It was so sad saying goodbye to my students here, and I cannot imagine how attached I will get to the kids I am teaching for 2 years!

The other night, the 6 of us went to play basketball at the Barangay Hall. A crowd of the gangster Filipino older boys combined with tons of children gathered around to watch how white people can’t jump. They were especially amused by girls playing with boys. Everyone plays barefoot and the rain makes the court slippery, even though it is covered, and I had a Matrix like fall at one point. I was running dribbling the ball and felt myself slipping, and somehow went down in slow motion into a yoga pose on my elbow and side of one foot as not completely collapse on the filthy court. The whole spectacle got a roar from the crowd, and I was slightly mortified/proud of myself. The whole barangay of “Mangan-Vaca,” where the 11 of us volunteers live, knows almost all of our names and life stories at this point. Strangers yell out my name often when I am walking to and fro, but back to the celebrity thing, people still stare at me like I am an alien every single day.

Dan and his little brother

Love.

Good Times in the Ilog

A few of us have wanted to hike up the “bundok” or mountain, where Dan lives for a while now, so we finally got a day of sunshine and made it happen. It was amazingggg! The adorable host siblings of Dan (Siegfried and Wilbert) and Chris (many little girls) accompanied us literally over the river and through the woods to some gorgeous mountain sites. I had a surreal moment with myself when the kids were the only ones if front of me and they were all holding hands and arms around singing this cute Tagalog song. Oh to be young and not a care in the world. These kiddos don’t speak any English, unlike my little Chloe who will only speak to me in English. So that is why Dan and Chris have the best Tagalog! The bundok is also where all of the Aeta (pronounced eye-ta) indigenous people live. There were about 20 naked boys playing in the river when we walked by. It is actually really sad because these people are completely segregated in schools and very much prejudiced against. They look like a mix between African and Islander with black skin and coiled hair, stunningly beautiful. I have much more to learn about them, and we are visiting a special school for them up north next week. I leave this Sunday for Batangas to meet up with all the other 60 or so volunteers left from our batch to find out our site placements, we have gotten a wide array of chika chika hints, but nothing is credible. I am so nervous, and don’t know how I could get a better site than Subic or family than I have here…and everyone keeps reminding me how spoiled I am to be the only person with Wi-Fi! So, I am really lowering my expectations because training has been so amazing for me. I really do not want to be separated from my wonderful PC friends tight knit group here especially my favorites, you know who you are. What will I do without them making my tummy tickle with laughter each day? Sad. Our official oral language level interview is two weeks from now too, then on Sept. 19^th, we head to Manila to be officially sworn in as Peace Corps Philippines Volunteers. It is all happening so fast! By my next post, I will know my new home for the next two years, and if I am lucky enough to be placed by my favorite PC peeps! Bahala na! (It's up to God!)
Continue to stay tuned.

The Giant Gutter Abduction

Sorry for the delay loyal followers, as you might have heard via CNN, the Philippines is experiencing extreme flooding due to Typhoon Gener and the torrential monsoon rains, all of our training site barangays have been seriously devastated, and over half of PC volunteers had to be evacuated to higher ground. Please keep our host families in your prayers for their many losses. In some areas the water is too deep even for the trucks bringing relief goods. I am doing okay, there were only 4 from my group of 10 who had to be evacuated. My house lost electricity and water for 2 days and only flooded a couple of inches inside, so we were lucky, even though right outside the door the road had turned into a raging river. It is very close to being all dissipated now, so everyone is in clean up mode and trying to get back to their daily lives, even though schools and most everything will be closed for a few recovery days. This might be my hippy self talking, but I can’t express the compassion and sadness I felt for the hundreds of scared and stranded stray animals during the flood, some of the saddest sites that I have seen yet. All of the street children I saw were having more fun than their normal troubles, floating and playing, and they are resourceful enough to find a dry place to sleep, but sadly, there have also been a number of drownings and my heart goes out to the families affected. If you want all the final statistics and more of the sadness, click here. There is also the CNN article on Manila here. Now enough of the depressing stuff! Below is the novel of a blog that I wrote a while ago but never posted! Enjoy.

As most of you have already heard…I fell into the gutter a few days ago. It all happened so fast! The drainage gutter deceivingly appears as the exact image of the sidewalk when full of filthy water. So to start from the beginning…we are living in the middle of Typhoon Gener right now and the downpour, wind, and flooding is quite frightening on a daily basis. However, not frightening enough to fend off my weekly mango craving or desire for an adventure. So, I dragged my kasama, Dan, to the palenke to satisfy both of these wishes. The journey was pleasant in spite of folding umbrellas, begging children, and the eventual incident. Good golly did it all starting going downhill on our way home. I had the bright idea of walking instead of cramming into a trike again, and turns out the only way back was through a very high flooded street. I was content with my sturdy rain boots on, but I felt so guilty for poor Dan, who had to take off his work loafers and roll up his work pants. We are trudging along, enjoying some good under umbrella convo despite the downpour, I am in front, when out of nowhere…I walk straight down into the drainage system on the side of the road in deep dirty water up to above my waist. The only thing badly hurt was my pride, since many people on the other side of the road saw everything including me struggling/almost crying/out of control cracking up with laughter, and dumping out my boots in the aftermath. Word of this incident got around the village so fast that my Nanay mom was waiting outside for me to get home to clean me up (everyone is a text maniac here since it is so cheap, and I think for the most part people look out for us silly Americans). Surprisingly, my phone and camera dried out and still work like charms! I will probably never live it down, but as long as it gives people a laugh I don’t have a problem with that! My saint of a host mother washed all of my clothes and bag while I showered off all the Philippines yucky street souvenirs. Of course the next Peace Corps medical session was on common worms and water parasites that enter through skin. Wish me luck with that, but also, I in all actuality, I haven’t slept for a couple of nights because I have an intense ear infection in both ears from who knows what, even before the gutter swimming. It hurts to chew food because my ear and jaw are so sore and swollen on the left side. I wake up every couple of hours with extreme head pounding pain, no fun at all. Luckily my PC friend, Hillary, loaded me up with Advil PM today and I plan to sleep until school on Monday. Peace Corps also put me back on more antibiotics, I have never been so pumped full of pills in my life!

Loveliness

My Adorable Neighbors

On the other hand, school is going along splendidly. I have my routine down now, teaching my English class every day from 8 AM to 9AM.  Ages range from 13 to 16 (8^th grade.) My students are amazing and so engaged and energetic. I was quite nervous after observing the chaos of a few classes, but I think the initial excitement of having a young American teacher is still keeping them interested, but we will see how long that lasts! I was quite tickled the other days because one of my girls told Hillary that I was the best teacher she has ever had. So cute! They also keep trying to buy me snacks, give me presents, get my phone number, and friend me on Facebook, but the teacher boundaries are up! My partner teacher told me the first time she observed my class, that she had never ever before seen 100% class participation (even from the rebel/hoodlum boys in the back) until my lesson and activity. Keep in mind, we are in a typhoon now, so school basically has half of normal attendance, so my class of 62 was mostly in the 30s this week, but it was still really nice and encouraging to hear. We also had a dance party get to know you welcoming shin dig with the Subic teachers the other day where “Call Me Maybe” played on repeat 12 times. Dancing and singing are a daily activity for everyone here in the Philippines (along with hearing random American songs in Jeepneys and by people just strolling and singing). Sadly, the teachers left their classes alone to attend the party, things like that happen all the time. Of course, there are a few criticisms of the teachers at Subic High and definitely the Filipino Education System, but that is why we were asked here to try to work together to make the system better. More specifics coming soon, but I definitely see the students as what will keep me going here.

My Teacher Helper, Jo, and 1/5th of my English Class

My Stomping Ground... Subic National High School, 2000+ Students

If you noticed from pictures, I got my haircut! It was just getting way too long, heavy, sweaty, and sun-bleached blonde on the ends, so I wanted to chop it off. My Tita Evelyn took me to a salon (8 out of the 10 employees were transvestites – including my flamboyant stylist) So, I told her in Tagalog to do her thing but make it short. She washed, cut and straightened it for only 50 Pesos (a little more than 1 US dollar) Not too shabby! I also hand washed all my clothes today, Tita Flor took 36 pictures of this one event and put them all on Facebook…pretty sure I de-tagged myself down to 4. Sorry Tita, just too many! This has become an often occurrence of needing to de-tag half of the fb pictures of me doing normal daily activities. My Nanay’s friend came to our house today to do our nails, and we got a lovely mani and pedi with designs each for a total of 280 Pesos (about 7 dollars). I can get used to this cheapo pampering, especially when my ears feel like they will explode any moment.

MORE RANDOM FUN FILIPINO FACTS: ~ Bathroom is called CR everywhere, short for “Comfort Room”, even though the comfort aspect is essentially lacking since there is no toilet paper or flush, the key is to pour water continually down until it clears out. ~ We have several “Brown Outs” here every day. This is when the power in the whole Barangay goes out from anywhere between 2 minutes and a few hours due to weather or a multitude of other factors of a developing country. I had some awesome family bonding the other night by candlelight. ~ Gossip here is called “Chika Chika” and it rules all of our PC lives. If a male and female are seen together by themselves it is automatically assumed that they are a couple. Us PC kids actually do not have a problem with this because it makes the women safer and keeps the masses of Filipina green card seekers off the boys. We also get so giddy whenever we get good Chika Chika from the other PC sites concerning actually PC peeps drama, fights, hook ups, drop outs, tears, couples, funny poop/host fam stories, and much more. All of this and more comes with throwing 70 mostly like-minded, outgoing, opinionated/obnoxious, and extremely different people together 24-7. It keeps us entertained and somewhat feeling like we are in the same world as back home. I hope we can all stay in touch this much once we get shipped off to all of our separate individual sites where loneliness is guaranteed. ~ I have also seen the funniest television shows of my life here. There are game shows galore and singing/dancing extravaganzas on all the time. The Philippines spits out so many talented people! More on this in the videoke section down a bit. There are also Telanovelas or Tagalog Soap Operas on each night. I don’t watch much due to daily shear exhaustion, but I have seen “Luna Blanca” a few times and talked it up with the other PCVs. I wish I could explain how wonderfully strange these shows are. In Luna Blanca, the main character is the child of a smoke demon sort, and she is in straight up Black face inappropriate makeup throughout. So much weird racist nuances around here. Also, I cannot find soap here that does not have some sort of whitening agent in it…Filipinos think pale and fat is perfect. I could write a whole book on Filipino TV, there are also a confusingly high number of midgets in children’s TV shows. My 5-year-old host sister, Chloe, says it is because they are the same size as her…so many other just plain weird characteristics, but as you can imagine, I can’t get enough of it! Also, the term “sexy” here is used all the time as just meaning looking good or well put together, 5-year old Chloe gets called it by the fam all the time and she also calls me it often…kinda funny.

VIDEOKE: Videoke cannot be adaquetly explained in words, but I will give it a try. It is so fantastic and mind blowing. It is the most common pastime for Filipinos, whether it is at a celebration of some sort or an average day to fend off boredom. The more well off families own their own machine; sometimes even with colorful lasers and disco ball accessories. Videoke is karaoke as you would imagine, but just with close friends, and completely random videos playing behind the most often incorrect lyrics of all sorts of songs. The videos to accompany the songs that I have witnessed so far have contained naked body painting, American Girl dolls commercial, National Geographic like animals killing one another, old NBA highlights, motocross, races, sea cucumbers just floating about, and so much more. If you are not laughing or confused already you should be. It cracks me up every time and I absolutely enjoy not having a clue as to “why!?!” All of us PC women got together the other night for a videoke sesh, and just to give one amusing example, I was singing Ricky Martin’s “Livin La Vida Loca” of course, and the lyrics actually told me to say “woke up in a sheep motel” while African safari images flashed on screen. I could barely hold it together and almost peed my pants. Hilarious things like this most definitely make the terrible times here worth it. The thing is though, videoke is not funny to Filipinos at all, it is just something fun to do! Also that night, we found out that Jo, the 76-year old volunteer (amazing woman cyclist who used to work at NASA sending apes to space…seriously), secretly has the voice of an angel. Her rendition of “I’ll Be Seeing You” almost brought me to tears. I am missing my loved ones back home so much, but it is nice being with new best friends here who are in the same boat. Literally…some people have to take boats to school because of the flooding, ha.

To end this one, I have never experienced the phenomenon of emotional goose bumps so much before living in the Philippines, in sheer happiness and in utter sadness. I count my blessings each day to be placed in such a captivating country where I am learning more about the world and myself than I could have imagined. Until next time…Ingat (Take Care)!