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.