Almost a REAL Volunteer

So it is official, I am moving to Dauin, Oriental Negros in the Central Visayas region in one week! That likely means nothing to you, as it did to me when I first heard, but turns out that once again I got amazingly lucky. Fortunate enough to be riding solo in one of the best small town beach dive spots in the Pines, right across from Apo Island. I am also only 30 minutes from the bumping city of Dumaguete, which is full of college student/fun interactions/a mall/the airport, so best of both worlds.  AND get this, I will be only a hop away from the island of Bohol, where my obsession of the TARSIERS live! If you don’t know, the magnificent creature at the tip top of this blog is a tarsier and they are only found on this one tiny island in the Philippines. Peace Corps made it pretty fun/mentally painful the way we found out our sites. The suspense was insane as all 66 of us (numbers still dwindling down) awaited hearing our name and to place our picture up on the map on our new location. Mostly big smiles, but sadly a few tears were shed as well. There are many volunteers who are clustered pretty close together, but on my island, we are all really spread out. Luckily again though, one of my best friends, Chris, is the only one close to me (2 hours away). Hillary is a 6-hour bus ride on my same island around the mountains (she has many PCVs in her same city), and Daniel is a couple hour flight since he is up north in Libmanan, Bicol, Luzon region (we will be speaking different languages which is kinda cool.) It is going to be really different/lonely finally being the only American around! Especially since our little foursome has gotten so tight knit. There will be many visits taking place since flights are fairly cheap within the Philippines, and there are bankas, boats, and buses galore. I will now need to learn my new site’s language, Cebuano also called Visayan, after I place at a certain language ability for Tagalog. Overall, Supervisor’s Conference was amazing. It is always madness when our whole batch gets together, but oddly enough, I hung out with Chris, Hillary, and Daniel pretty much the whole time, when they are the kids I see everyday in Subic! Most everyone got to meet the principals of their new schools, mine sent another teacher in her place, but I got some info on Dauin National High School. Also, everyone got a lot of info on the new families, but they are still looking for one for me!!! That is the only thing that makes me a little nervous. The week was full of monotonous meetings, a few informative activities and lectures during the days, but dance parties and pool shenanigans at night. We all enjoyed the air con and showers for a brief three days. Now we are finishing up all of our work in Subic for our last week. Funny thing, a girl in our group got a package in Manila that was duck taped around a whole corner, and someone had written “Eaten By Rats” in sharpie. I guess they ate her gummy worms…damn leptospirosis carrying Manila rodents!

The Luzon Region Board...which I am not on...

Just Being matchy Cool at Sups Con with Hil and Dan

A few of us went into the bigger city of Olongapo last night to see the star of “Walang Hanggan” Filipino soap opera, Coco Martin, make an appearance. We waited a couple of hours in a mob of people as you could imagine it would be in Asia with anything concerning celebrities. I also ran into a couple of my students from Subic High, which was a pleasant and funny surprise. Subic National High School had their Sports Fest a few days ago. This is the event of the year for the students and the school divided into four groups to compete in all sorts of sports and activities with their “muses” as beautiful girls who lead their team. There is actually a whole beauty/popularity contest with these girls. Truthfully, it was a little disturbing seeing 14 year olds, who look 20, strutting around their stuff in tiny clothes, also being physically judged by the principals of other schools. We got to sit right on the stage, another one of the many ways we are treated like royalty around here. The coolest event by far though was the dance number. Each section performed for about 10 minutes in awesome costumes and really great choreography, one group even had a contortionist guy like from whatever American talent show those guys were on. Sorry if this blog is a little spacey…I am at that point. I am also grumpy because some bastard of a mosquito macgyvered his way into my mosquito net and has bitten me 4 times sneakily out of site. Grrrr.

I ate chicken feet today. Yucky and crunchy as expected…

The indigenous people here, the Aeta (pronounced I-ta), are fascinating, and we got to visit an Aeta village the other day. We took a jeepney deep into the woods where their special school and tribe are located. A pretty traumatic event happened though, as we were beginning to cross this giant bridge, the person in front, Nancy, disappears through the bamboo. She fell through the bridge and our leader, Sam grabs her hands as she is literally dangling over the rocky river, I was just standing there like a gumba in shock as Daniel maneuvers under the bridge to brace her from the bottom if she couldn’t hold on. She was pushed/pulled back up and was just a little shaken up with a few bumps/bruises. Thank God it was the very beginning of the bridge, so there was still an arch of land, and Sam and Daniel were fast acting. Surprisingly enough, we all agreed it was worth it to all cross the bridge one by one because we travelled so long to see the Aeta. It was worth it, and no other chaos ensued. The kids were the cutest I have ever seen, and it was a totally different atmosphere that what we have been used to teaching in. Also, it is amazing to see people still living off the land in the middle of nowhere. I realized I have not written at all about our technical leader, Kuya Sam. He is quite the character. One of the smartest people I have known, and he is also a vegan Buddhist, which is a very rare find in the Philippines. I do not even have time to write all of his hilarious and inspirational quotes and life stories, but I did want to mention how lucky our group is to have him. He has taught us so much about Filipino culture and life in general. Wise wise Kuya Sam. Also, I apologize that this blog is not clever and entertaining…I am feeling lazy and unity.

Silly Old Me with the Aeta kiddos

So, nicest part of this story, my amazing, super, caring, beautiful, and overly generous family here in Subic threw me a surprise going away party last night. I cannot describe how much I felt like a celebrity superstar and so blessed. I get home from an exhausting youth camp in another barangay, and I see a giant fabric poster tarp with my face on it saying “Allie Nunes in Subic, Zambales” with the dates. There were balloons all around it and even a cake saying goodbye we will miss you. I was very close to crying, but I held it together for now. My family here prepared all of my favorite foods and invited Daniel, Hillary, and Chris, along with our language instructors. I felt so special and it blows my mind how I got the best family possible, and I get to stay in touch with them forever thanks to facebook! They gave me all sorts of trinkets and gifts and told me they loved me so much. My even more wonderful blood family in Texas sent me a care package with perfect gifts that I requested to give the fam here in return. Little Chloe asks me every day not to leave and tells me that I am her best friend. It really does break my heart a little bit, but I gotta head out to my permanent site and too soon…no choice in the matter. However, a few of us are planning to be back in Subic for the fiesta in January, so I hope that all works out to see the fams again. So, now it’s just tying things up here, preparing for Tagalog interview/test, and practicing our goofy skit for swearing in (hint: I am a lizard). We bus it for the big ceremony in 7 days. So close to becoming PC Volunteers and leaving our Trainee titles in the Subic dust!

My Peeps at My Party

The Whole Gang

A Little Eery...with Nanay Momma Alma