All of the Corners of the Universe

Host Charlie's Host Family and the Crew for DINAGSA

Okay, time for me to vent a little bit on the struggles at school. The most exhausting thing right now is just yelling/sweating profusely in front of the class 6 times a day from 7AM to 5PM (there is very loud construction happening right outside to prepare for the “Palarong Pambansa” humungous sports event featured at our school in April, hosting athletes from all over the Philippines. And to think, it is not even the hottest time of year yet. My body actually doesn’t realize when it is drenched in sweat anymore, guess that means I am acclimating? Everything at school seems so rushed and forced together last minute, regardless of if it will even work. Most teachers only care about what gets written down and submitted to Dep Ed (Philippines Department of Education), whether the plan is actually enacted or thought out in depth, is irrelevant. For example, our remedial reading program, the English teachers were given only an hour to plan this all out and all that got done was a few fancy words and unrealistic goals put down to be sent to the big office. I shared my ideas and revision with the other teachers and principal, they loved it at the time, but now it seems to be forgotten about together as so many other things are now happening at the end of this school year. I guess it is my job to keep pushing. Another issue, all of the students cheat. They have grown up seeing it as being helpful and joke around with “cheating is an art.” It is such a culture of sharing that if you do not “share” your answers, you are very selfish and cruel. I am still figuring out what to do about this, because I don’t want to scold them from my ethnocentric point of view that cheating is just wrong, but I do need to give positive reinforcement when they answer on their own. Have I mentioned how delighted I am to be teaching only 4^th year seniors? The idea of this initially terrified me since the students ages range from 16 to 28, and I really really wanted to be at an elementary school, but I have so grown to love it, and I know this is what is best. The random days when I do need to teach the youngest at school, Grade 7, it is a nightmare. Granted, it is also the lowest performing class, which needs the most attention, but they are incredibly rambunctious and always yelling or punching each other and have an about 5 second attention span. There are a few troublemakers in each of my senior classes, but of course, those are just the ones who need the most attention, but it is so hard to not just ignore them and focus on students who are paying attention and trying to learn. That of course is the all too common struggle for all teachers.

I will spend hours planning out a lesson that I think is exciting and awesome and make intricate visual aids, then some of the boys will just walk out of class whenever they feel like it. I suck up my water eyes, and keep on keeping on. As long as one student gets something out of it, I am satisfied. I have my lowest level class first, which is definitely the most difficult to manage with the hotshot boys/men, then my best class very last period, which leaves me feeling somewhat useful at the end of each day. I am so happy it is not the other way around. My classes names are Ruby, Pearl, Opal, Jade, Emerald, and Gold. The students in Jade are by far the most well behavied, hardworking, and motivated (also seem to be the most well off since they are the only class that submits their assignments typed out) Then again, that is not who I am here to help, they don’t need any help. My main challenge right now is reaching these certain boys and keeping them engaged and in school, I have succeeded with a couple of my activities, but I never really know what will work or not. It is also common for a teacher to just not show up to class. No such thing as a substitute here, and the students just run around the school causing a ruckus if their teacher does not care enough to show. From all that I have witnessed, most students really want their teacher to show up and really want to learn. There are fewer students and teachers at school during the frequent fiesta days, and nothing can really be done about that, their priorities are set. I am finding that the staff cares way too much about appearances, and just that everything looks right for when supervisors visit. This was made apparent the day before the Division Superintendent was scheduled to visit, all classes were cancelled so the students could clean/sweep/paint/etc.; of course the Sup did not even end up coming to visit. Big surprise. Hello Filipino schedules. We even have “display only” trashcans in every room! Since our school motto is “Basura Mo Ibulsa Mo,” “your trash your responsibility”. Another pet peeve of mine that I am finding common to most Filipinos is their tendency to speak while others are speaking…basically just talking all of the time and repeating the same things. This is infuriating during class, when a group works very hard on their presentation and kids are talking amongst themselves throughout the entire thing. No matter how many times I ask them to shush up, it never lasts more than about a minute, except when I really yell, but that is too scary for everyone. This was even a problem at Supervisor’s Conference when our Country Director was speaking, he had to address the Filipino Sups to stay quiet several times. They just love to chat/chika chika…. Just things to get used to. I still can’t help but think of how un-qualified I am to teach high school seniors English. I am for sure learning each day as I research for my lessons. I hope I am doing well. A few students have told me what a great teacher they think I am, and that my class is their favorite… but they are probably just sucking up… brats. Haha, joke lang! (joke lang is said every other sentence here, just a phrase meaning “only a joke, kidding!”) Seriously though, the English language is insane. Grammar does not make any sense, spelling is absurd. Idioms!?! Come on…

I guess I also have to talk about the D.O.M.s. So, this stands for Dirty Old Man, which is used countrywide to call old, white men, visiting/living in the Philippine for sex tourism and young Filipinas, they are a dime a dozen around here. This gets very tricky and sad when things are assumed, because there are indeed many normal men who fall in love with Filipinas and make families here, but it has to be admitted that there are many more of the latter. Disturbingly, I see at least one almost every time I go to Dumaguete, it is somewhat of a hub because of the college campus. Prostitutes are all over, some are college students, and can be taken home for around 2000 pesos or $50 USD. The interesting things is they will basically act like a girlfriend all night/ day doing whatever is desired, going to dinner, going dancing, whatever, which is a huge appeal for the foreign men because this makes it feel less like they are paying for sex. It is still illegal here, by the way, but GROs or “Guest Relations Officers,” code name for prostitutes, somehow still slip easily through the cracks. That is all I will say about that for now.

Enough with the downers and complaining, moving on to the splendid stuff, I went to visit Hillary’s site before the big Dinagsa paint throwing festival. I got to meet her Filipino boyfriend (our age, very very sweet and shy, spectacular cook), stay at her crack hole of an apartment (it really is disgusting even for peace corps, but it is temporary), witness giant rat road kill (literally the most repulsive thing I have ever seen), and created a new verb, “studdling” (def: standing awkwardly while your friends are all sitting.) Our friend Dave is a coastal resource management volunteer, who lives at the same site as Hillary, Sagay City. He has many fisherman connections, so we got to go out on one of the boats for really cheap. Our destination was “Carbon Reef” for snorkeling and to see the giant clams. So when I heard “giant clams,” I was like “eh, no big deal” thinking they were going to just look like clams but be tad bigger. Boy, was I wrong! These guys were probably the coolest marine life I have ever seen up close (but still not as cool as swimming with the turtle and Daniel at Apo Island last month). They really are GIANT CLAMS, and they are all sorts of fluorescent colors and designs. They are about the size of a Filipino 5-year old, and I was entranced. We also ventured off to this tiny island where Dave is working on helping the sustainable eco-tourism through their awesome mangrove forest. It brought us back to thinking about what we are hear for and we got to play with the adorable island kiddos who never see Americans besides Dave.

Splendid Snorkel Shot

Pulling Up to Dave's Island

The Adorable Island Inhabitants

THE GIANT CLAMSSSS

That night, we headed to the city of Cadiz, where Charlie and Karla volunteer, for the much anticipated paint festival of Dinagsa. It did not let us down! We were exhausted from a day in the sun, so the street dancing and bumping music till 4 AM was a hindrance to our beauty rest, but the next day was well worth it. It started out with an awesome dance performance contest from different tribes around the island. Each told a story, and they were fascinating, even while standing in the scorching sun, with Hillary and Chris begging me to leave to hit up Jollibee fast food. A few moments after the parades, the painting ensued.  It was probably just as you are picturing it, tiny cups of paint were being sold for dirt cheap all along the street, and anyone around was fair game to attack. It got messy, real fast, with thousands of people gallivanting slapping each other’s faces with paint, shooting paint out of water guns, dumping paint on heads, and much more. It is actually surprising that we actually looked so cool splattered with all the different colors, when I imagined it would all together create a yucky black/brown. We got especially a lot of attention since we were the only white people around. It actually got a bit aggressive towards the end and the streets got too crowded to move (quite dangerous) and a few of the volunteers got grumpy and had had enough, which seemed to lead to them getting paint slapped in the face all the more by rowdy revelers. But come ‘on! That is what we came for! I have wanted to go to “Holi” in India in February for the longest time, the colored powder throwing festival, and this came damn close to quenching that dream.

Dinagsa Dancing

Dinagsa Cuties

The Aftermath

The Guy Who Made It All Happen! Host Charlie

So after the fun fun fun, and major chika chika since getting so many volunteers together again, Chris, Michelle, and I needed to start our long journey home in order to get to school the next morning. It also just so happened that our Peace Corps Education boss was visiting Chris that day. Of course, since it was festival, the bus station was a circus. Every bus going everywhere was completely packed, and so many people that the buses struggled to get out of the station. We eventually mushed into one going to a city on our way. Then had to take another hour bus to get to a bigger station, then we finally got to the station that goes to Dumaguete around 8pm, only to find out the bus does not leave until 1:45am… and it is an 5 hour journey. Blahhhh we slept like hobos at the skeezy station still covered in paint looking like fools. I forgot to mention how hard it was to get the paint off. I washed my face off, but near impossible to get so many layer off using only a bucket tabo…Chris did not even attempt, which made it all the more hilarious with him getting to his site right as school started, so people saw him getting off the bus looking haggard and still drenched in colors. I luckily snuck back without too many onlookers and made it into school on time. What a weekend! I should also mention that this bus was the most ghetto yet, with seats fitting about one butt cheek but meant for 2 people. It also ended up being the most crowded, literally no open space even in the aisles, and bouncy. At least when you are so squeezed between people, you don’t really bounce…so all in all, our journey started at 6pm and I walked into my hut at 6am. I also had bits of paint in my hair for the next 2 weeks…ouch.

Since this is the loveee month, I thought it would be cute for the Glee Club to do song dedications. They absolutely loved the idea, but the students are so shy, I am not sure how many will actually sign up. 4 for you Glen Cocoa, you go Glen Cocoa! We also have JS or Junior/Senior Prom coming up, but it is very different from American Prom that you are imagining. Students get paired up with a partner and it happens at 3pm during school. I am also looking forward to Visayan Language camp for intensive language instruction at the end of this month, then I will finally be visiting Daniel’s site way up north in Bicol region. So, I have to add this in since it is happening right now! A cat is having kittens in my nipa hut! She has claimed under the table for the miracle of birth! It is slimy and soggy and patchy fur and squealy and BLAH YUCK. Rough night for Daniel and I both, just got off the phone with him, he tripped into a latrine of pig poop trying to hop a fence to avoid a Filipino family fist fight. WOW. Now, I have to share my home with new kitten heathens… if only they were puppies…Oh well, maybe I will fall in love with one of them... not likely. Oh Philippines, always full of surprises.