Fainting at a Wedding

I had a moment the other day when I saw my school working as a pretty well oiled machine…but then I thought of a few gears that need some oil. First of all, more teachers! There are not nearly enough, only 3 English teachers for over 1000 students, which means certain classes are just left alone without a teacher (of course the lowest performing students). Also cheating is a huge problem, they don’t see anything wrong with copying their neighbors paper. The students actually say, “Cheating is an art.” Then there are tons of errors in the lesson plan book issued by DepEd, so I have to re-create almost every lesson to actually make sense to my students and be correct information and grammar. No wonder the students struggle when they are getting information that contradicts itself, and the teachers do not know any better, so they just ready straight from this overcomplicated and wrong book. Depressing… Anyways, I am working on a solution, if everything was functional I wouldn't be here! I am beginning to really enjoy teaching and seeing my students perform well and try so hard. A few other cool things like the “your trash is your problem” motto and how environmentally friendly Dauin is. The school is extremely clean because students are all assigned to do certain things at the end of the day like sweep, water plants, wax floors, the whole 9 yards. Last week my town launched our Dauin Anti-smoking ordinance, so the whole school was required to make hats with unique slogans for each advisory class and a poster competition. There was also a jingle competition, a student-made MASCOT competition, and a 2-hour parade in the sweltering heat. People who know how much I adore mascots and any oversized costumed silly creature, even more so on little kids, would understand how that was my favorite part. They were so good too! Once they were all judged, the announcer said alright thanks and moved on, but the mascot kids all just stood there confused in their costumes for about 10 more minutes until some woman went and tugged them along. Very funny to me. I am still trying to figure out Filipino humor, but the story of my life here is me cracking up constantly at things and my co teachers or students smiling awkwardly confused. Actually, who am I kidding, that has kind of always been the story of my life…I am weird. Anyhow, It would have been all roses and pansies if the parade were not sooo long in suchhhhh sweaty weather. It was slimy gross and luckily no one collapsed. There must have been thousands of students and teachers in the parade because all of the schools around were a part of it. We had cool matching t-shirts and hats to make us feel better, and the students seemed to never lose too much energy while singing gangnum style and chanting my name for a good minute. I have never had hundreds of kids chanting my name before…I admit I felt pretty cool and had to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of it. I also spotted a private residence near my town named “Casa Alexandra” with a pretty sign…how curious…I would like to meet the inhabitants…

THE MASCOTS!

There was a music festival going on in Dumaguete city a few nights ago, I went with my host parents (who are really only in their mid 30s, they are definitely more of my friends than parents). It was a good time. Most of the bands just played covered American songs with a few lyrics changed to Tagalog. I ran into a few of the Australians who have been staying at Harold’s. It is funny how I know almost every white person around Dumaguete at this point. I have also become quite good friends with Golda, a Filipina who is a girlfriend of a Peace Corps volunteer. This is an all too common phenomenon, but these two are so cute together, and it is quite sad that he is going back to the states in 6 months (they have been together the whole 2 years he has been here and he extended his service). We usual make fun of dating locals, but I approve of this pair. It was also fiesta time in Dumaguete, so my family dragged me around to 4 houses of their family members to eat more whole roasted pig lechon and rice rice pork fat rice rice rice! I also got thrown up on by lots of flies all day…is it true they throw up every time they land? Jeff Goldblum doesn’t lie…but Sci-Fi?

So, GLEE CLUB! I made a bunch of cool flyers with the logo I had designed, for glee club try-outs! It was an exciting time, and so many students kept coming up to me asking questions. I was nervous that there would be way too may students to be able to control, so I decided for try-outs, each student would have to sing or dance for 1 minute without any accompanying music, this scarred away a fair number. So, the day came when I was in front and ready to start try-outs, my partner teach, Cathy, also is all about it, so she came to help out. A GIANT crowd of students is standing right around the room from all angles, trying to peek in…we get about 40 something brave souls. Some are really great and others not so much! A 17 year-old boys rendition of Tom Petty’s “learning to fly” while playing the guitar almost brought me to tears. Students were literally attacking the windowpanes and crawling on top of one another trying to peak in. I guess they are not used to exciting activities because their reaction was truly insane. Also, there were a small number of students who just wanted to dance, and since I said no music, they had their own knock off iPods in their ears and went all out dancing just from that. It was veryyy amusing for us just watching with no music. I was also impressed by their fearlessness. I decided to let all of the kiddos brave enough to try out into the club, even though everyone will not perform, but I posted the results alphabetically without numbers, so as I posted the sheet of new members the next day, another giant crowd formed, and students screamed with excitement when they saw their names on the list. Insanity again kicked in. It was the cutest thing ever though how happy they got when they saw their names. We now meet once a week on Thursdays after school, and next week they will perform songs of their choosing in groups of 5. Should be interesting/ awesome! I am prepared for constant insanity to ensue each meeting. Cathy and I are also planning a remedial reading program for a number of students who are very much behind, we will have it every Friday afternoon, and I am supposed to start coaching basketball too. I already founder into bed each night at 8 exhausted, I don’t know if I can handle more, but we will see! Bring it on… I also am wearing the teacher uniform now, different color and style for each day of the week, I feel like I look pretty intimidating, but the pink Thursday is definitely the most cutesy and innocent looking.

Advertisement at my favorite Dumaguete coffee shop...you can see why!

Thursday Uniform

On to the big event now…

I went to my first wedding in the Philippines on Friday…and guess what? It was between a male Peace Corps volunteer and a Filipina local. We PCVs joke a lot about this subject, and I could not help but edit video shots in my mind for “Four Weddings” on TLC, like when the mangy street dog scurried across the aisle (I added the token boing funny sound,) but it was a nice ceremony…besides when I passed out. Yes, I have never fainted in my life, and of course it has to happen in the middle of a wedding ceremony to keep my life exciting. Luckily, it was during a song and only a few people noticed, not the bride and groom. I awoke from being unconscious for about a minute to Chris holding me and 4 Filipinas pushing water, smelling salts, and pinches all over me. They seem to be always prepared for anything. I had been pretty sick for about a week and I guess the hot church was too much for me, or maybe I just got possessed by the Holy Sprit! Chris caught me as I was heading down, so I did not end up banging my head. He also carried me into the Peace Corps van with my Peace Corps Manager, who was at the wedding too and demanded I go to the emergency room. That was unpleasant, we saw a man have a stroke, then vomit and die there. Then we waited for a few hours with the doc telling me she wanted to admit me since I had a bad fever, but there were no available beds, so instead she prescribed me 4 different sets of meds and it was agreed that I would leave for manila with my manager the next day. Chris texted Daniel about the incident when I was incapacitated, and Daniel got on an overnight 12 hour bus to meet me in Manila…that was the silver lining. It was so cute, he packed all of his giant heavy dictionaries in case he had to talk to the doctors and translate. However, it was actually a joke, because Peace Corps left me to fend for myself in Manila until I was asked to have tests done on Monday when I got there on Saturday. So, I basically got a free weekend hangout with Daniel, which would have been lovely besides that I felt like death the whole time. We managed to feel like a normal couple for once though, went to eat at an amazing Korean restaurant, and strolled around the city (except that I almost passed out again from heat exhaustion and starvation) then we went on to watch some of a Filipino drag queen dress up competition…so actually I don’t think we will ever have a “normal” date in the Philippines… and I am totally okay with that! They ran all the blood tests on me at the Peace Corps Office in Manila, and turns out no dengue as suspected, just a respiratory infection…so I got 2 more bundles of meds. Pretty sure I just freaked out my manager since she saw me faint, and she just wanted to be sure everything was okay. Funny thing is, Daniel and I planned a meeting in Manila 2 weeks later, so we still get to have that too! I saw tons of other volunteers in the Peace Corps office and around manila since they have us all stay at the same hostel. I heard so many host family horror stories, and it really made me grateful again for all of the luck I have had here. This one poor guy, his first family got a hold of his journal and read all of his personal thoughts and complaints about him and the teenage daughter ransacked his room, then his second host father sexually harassed him every day, but he got past that all and finished his 2 years and is now heading back to the states before he extends for another year in the Philippines! He also gave me the best peanut butter I have ever eaten in my life, so that made him a good friend. I also think my taste buds have just lowered their standards since being here for a few months. Things that I used to find bland and unsatisfying…like plain white rice… now are delicious! So I will take it!

When I arrived home, my entire hut had been turned upside down cleaned of the millions of spider homes and decked out in Christmas decorations! There was also the adorable note below in a stocking on the door. I know I complain about these girls all of the time, but fact is It is going to tear me apart when I leave them, especially since I plan to stay in their compound for the whole 2 years. I really know now what it is like to have sisters, and they completely idolize me. I have fully accepted that I will be drenched in their sweat smeared into my own at all times since they are constantly hugging and climbing on me. It is still weird for them to be so fascinated by every little thing I do, but it is pretty cute, and more cute than annoying on most days. I have made it to the point where I really feel like part of the family, if only I was fluent in Cebuano! That is what I am working on now…

"Get Well Soon, We Decorate Ourself from Nicole, I Love You Allie Nunes"

Random funny: When I asked one of my classes to write down one of their main goals in life, this was a humorous answer I got…“when I sick a dengue the nurse always get a blood to my hand and I always crying. I said to the nurse if I will be a medic someday, I will get your hand and get a blood! Now I study hard to become a medic.”

This is such a fun filled time with all the Manila excursions, first GLEE performance in December, spending Christmas with Daniel and the tarsiers, all the coolest Peace Corps peeps coming to my hood for New Years, then visiting my old host family in Subic for the Anti-Atihan Festival celebrating baby Jesus and the Aeta tribe in January! I also feel like I am making such progress with each one of my classes. No matter how depressed I might have been on Thanksgiving (actually had the worst dinner here yet consisting of rice and only chicken bones?) I feel like I am here for a reason. The homemade family photo with my surprised skype face and foods made by bro helped a lot. I am definitely having way more good days than bad here now, and to be sentimental for a moment, I know this is where I am meant to be at this time in my life…