Bicol Birthday Bonanza

Finally, a 100% happy blog post! Kinda…here we go! My old roommate from training, Karla, came to visit my site last weekend. We did a whole lot of beach bathing and girl talking… then we went to a cockfight, haha. I asked my host mom to accompany us since we would stand out like sore thumbs. We were the only women in the place, hard to describe this experience, but it is probably how you imagine it. A jam-packed stadium full of sweaty smelly smoking men, shouting bets incoherently at each other while 2 roosters battle to the death. Each rooster has a knife tied to its foot, and each round turns into a bloody feathery mess. PETA would pee themselves. The men raise these roosters as their pride and joy, spending all their money on special food and vitamins, and then they die within seconds in the ring…quite sad and embarrassing. The roosters are paired together by size and intimidation factors beforehand. We left early after seeing 7 rounds of 14 roosters, that lasted 2 hours, but they tend to last all day and into late night because more and more roosters keep showing up in the arms of motorcycling arriving men. The men hold their roosters at first and let them peck at each other’s faces to get them riled up, then they are released and the men scurry out of the ring. Jumping, fluttering, and stabbing ensue, leading to an ending of one limp and croaked rooster. Yuck. Definitely an interesting part of the culture to see, but I don’t think I will be going back any time soon. Brought me back in the day when I saw a bullfight in Mexico and started sobbing for the helpless thing until my feelings turned to enragement as the matador threw me a rose at the end. I know it is cultural…but I think it should be at least a fair fight… at least the roosters are evenly matched…. Just my personal thoughts…

Here We Go!

Rawrrrrr!

Pepper and I... Out on a Limb in my backyard

I went to language camp at the top of my island a few weeks ago. It was suchhhh a blast, and I feel so much more confident with the language now. Firstly, because all of my favorite Peace Corps friends were there, minus the most important, Daniel, who was at his own camp up north, we already had 3 different languages at ours. We were put up in this awesome nature resort with an organic farm, ducks, and even two scrawny horses. It might not be a snazzy place to you, but after sticking with cold bucket baths for the last few months, it was quite a treat for most of us. It helped out so much to finally get formal instruction on Visayan (or Cebuano) grammar. I will hereby refer to my language as Binisaya, the proper name for the language of the proud people of my region. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but there is actually hostility in the Visayan Region against the National Language of Tagalog because of more people speaking Visayan and competition of where the capitol will be... but of course the people with the money win. This posed a problem since that was the only language instruction I received before moving here… Oh well. We had a guitar/ harmonica jam session one night, then the next night, Hillary and I planned an epic beer pong tournament. We found these weird toy balls that would suffice and bough cups from the big mall in town. Hillary and I went all out with team names, brackets, poster, even surprising the crowd when we made our first shot, ripping off our tee shirts to reveal matching colorful tanks and a short dance… then we lost the first game, fitting haha. It was a really fun American reminiscing night, complete with shaky face photos… if you don’t know, you shouldn’t ask.

I finally made the long journey up to visit Daniel for his birthday last week. Since he is the sweet man that he is, he took the 8-hour bus to meet me at the Manila airport, surprising me with my favorite buko (coconut) pie and panther energy drinks.  No matter how many cool things I have done and seen in the Pines so far, seeing Daniel standing in the NAIA waiting area after we haven’t seen each other in a while have been the highlights and best tummy tickling feelings, hands down. I guess that is love huh.  We hung around Manila for a day and ate at the brand spanking new IHOP. I almost had an aneurism from the 8 cups of coffee I drank, all I get at site is instant sugared crap, and so brewed coffee gives me thrills. We also checked out the giant water fountain map of the Philippines, rubbing in how far away we live from each other. Next, we took the overnight 8-hour bus back to Bicol, Daniel’s home region.  Rice terraces, colder weather, volcanoes, and mud were waiting for me. He lives in a judge’s mansion overlooking his school. His school is really struggling with finances and falling apart a bit, quite an interesting contrast with the fancy mansion right next door. I fell in love with his host family though; they have more animals than even me! His backyard is full of 6 new puppies, a cat, 2 big pigs, uncountable ducks, a diseased chiwawah, a turtle, a rabbit and I think 5 dogs. Not to mention the 6 cobras ordered in for birthday festivities, we will get to that later, such fun. The kids run the house, 3 year old Jester (not kidding, this rambunctious strong willed adorable brat is named “Jester”) and 2-year-old Judelle. Both have the most heart melting laughs. The host mama also had a brand new baby on the day I left! Daniel and I got to go to the hospital and meet the hours old baby TJ. Neither of us had seen a baby that fresh before! I felt so lucky to be a part of that very personal experience, and it shows how much Daniel has become integrated and part of that family, quite touching.

Judelle and the Jester

Unlike my site, Daniel’s place never sees foreigners. It was a real trip getting the stares all over again tenfold. His co-teachers kept talking about how everyone was “star struck” by me. Just because I look a little different and stand a little taller…it is a weird world. We got even more stares and hollers when we rode bikes to the town center. I hadn’t been on a bike in about 5 years, always wished I had one in boulder, but got used to walking and busing everywhere, but before I knew it, we were off, for the 8-mile sunset ride! The scenery was gorgeous, and Daniel calls it “untouched.” Rivers, hills, and rice fields. We went into the market to get ingredients for an Indian dinner. Right off the bat, we got a posse of little boys follow us all over, and nearly every person we walked by turned his or her head. I am a little used to this in my place, but in my city center, the kids who follow are begging street children who want my money because I have lighter skin, but the people here were just plain innocently fascinated. Being on the other end of that is a feeling that can’t really be explained, but go visit a rural area abroad where you look different than the people to find out! I really did believe that I would blend in here in the Philippines, damn you schnozzle and long legs! It was basically pitch black on our ride home, which was quite a dangerous fright, but we survived, and it added to the adventure.

Daniel's Family and I... Filipina wet hair.

The next day, our plan was to go surfing a few hours away, but our laziness took over our original intentions. Daniel had made scrumptious Indian cheese paneer the night before, of course, I intended to help cook, but babies and puppies are the biggest distractions! Daniel also made Pad Thai for his birthday party. In this country, the birthday person makes all the food and does all the work and cleaning for guests of their own party. There are also no birthday presents… yes. I tried to help stir something, got yelled at when spilled a little, so babies and puppies called to me once again. My dad never allowed me in his kitchen either… I can cook, I promise! But I definitely don’t mind being cooked for either. I can’t show off my superb baking skills here because there are no ovens! We traveled into another city and ate lunch at the place where Daniels’s host parents used to go on dates before they had any money. We ate beef Mami, deliciously sweet cow face in soup. This particular eatery did not have the pig brain sauce that is usually paired with.

That night we went to the family’s gorgeous beach place an hour away and I met the pet monkey, not as exciting as I hoped for. She is old, and tied up next to where the men tagatay (drinking circle), which would rightfully lead any female to be angry at the world. Hopefully, I can get a monkey snuggle at some point in this life. The Sumatra orangutans of Indonesia are calling to me. I am such a huge fan of Daniel’s host family, this is not the original family, but the family he choose to move in with after the 3 months, other relatives. The father and uncle crack me up, and the kids so adorable, no matter how misbehaved they are at all times since discipline is non existent in the Philippines, so tantrums are rampant hourly. I was woken up one morning by a gun shot, later to hear the story from Tito Totoy that they shot the big duck, but a while later “it was risen! Like a zombie!” Gosh, I laughed all day about those comments, later it got graphic, with duck blood splattering the white puppies, and I helped pluck the feathers. It is probably really bad how unaffected I now feel from animal deaths if people are going to eat all of it, nothing I can do about it, I will never be a vegan, that is for sure. I will probably cut it out with the pork once back in the states since that is every meal here, but a good hamburger... grrrr my mouth is watering just thinking about it. This has actually become a regular occurrence when talking to other volunteers, almost every occasion the subject of foods we miss comes up, and it becomes one big embarrassing slobber fest. We have problems…

Previously Alive Rubber Chicken/Duck!

Moving onward, Daniel’s 25^th birthday! He said it was his best one yet, which tickled me to the core, but when else will you be served fresh warm cobra blood and a giant feast (it was toddler Jester’s birthday too)! I had made him a cutesy homemade crossword with stuff only we would know, and I stumbled upon these unbelievably amazing shirts. You will only appreciate them if you are as weird as both of us, and that is not likely. The shirts are black with a vintage picture of a couple, but an animal face covers their faces. Mine is a llama and Daniel’s is a freaky cat, of course. Don’t judge. He laughed uncontrollably for a good 5 minutes after opening them. His host dad, Kuya Budie, ordered 6 live cobras to be sent to the house. The birthday boy was first to partake in the freshly slit cobra blood, squeezed out bile, and brandy swig. He says it tasted like red wine, but mine just tasted like blood and bile! Pretty sure I scarred all the men by my boldness to try, but meh! What an awesome experience to share, and yes we have it on video.

The Blooooood, Bile, and Brandy

Dance Cobra Dance!

After saying goodbyes, we were off to the town of Donsol to swim with the famous gentle giant whale sharks (or buntandig). Alas, we went on the tour and boated around for a few hours and the guides could not find any whale sharks... nature calls the shots! I was actually expecting this since it happened to other volunteers and the week had already been too good to be true, so maybe I doomed us by not believing enough! We did however see an awesome pod of around 20 dolphins. Luckily, Daniel had gone with friends the weekend before on the same tour, and they found 2 whale sharks, including one that was 8 meters long! He says it was an incredible experience and that the glistening coloring of sparkly spots was the best part (of course the one thing I can’t tell when watching other people’s videos). So, I guess that means I will try again to see one some day. Bicol was a long overdue trip, and I am so happy to have now seen Daniel’s site, such a great week.

That's Us

Up next is Holy Week here, Daniel is off to visit a friend in Vietnam, Hillary and some peeps heading up to check out the cooler north, and other volunteers and me are off to the Healing Festival on the exotic and witchcraft filled island of Siquijor, right next door to my island! Mischievous potions and sleeping in tents on the beach, another adventure for sure. School is almost out, World Map being completed tomorrow, GLOW girls camp in the making, GLEE Club summer musical, giant Palarong Pambansa national sports competition coming to my crib next month, and another Peace Corps group training with project development, where all of Batch 271 will be together again for the first time, looking all different, skinny, bearded, or fat in our glory. The next blog will be a good one! Oh yea, and it feels like I am in a furnace at all times, melting from the inside and sweating out my soul. Ok bye.

Furry Friends

I am getting worse at this whole blogging thing, but here goes nothing…a.k.a. my random rambling thoughts that I guess you find amusing. My little chubby sister, Mariz, has gotten a new haircut. I really cannot stop myself from laughing every time I look at her. She is so cute and this hilarious bowl like haircut makes her look like a fat version of Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka from the newer Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. That is literally what I think of every time, no idea why. Her mom now calls her Dora the Explorer, which is also fitting. Recently, I will be having really bad days, then something random and weird will happen, and it will make me laugh uncontrollably… these are probably “had to be there” moments and quite manic depressive, but really any time Mariz walks into my hut dancing, or when the cat one time ran straight at my chair jumping, really looking like it was flying with its ears back and so fast to snag the fish bone on the floor behind me, most songs by Tiny Tim, or when a student turned in her persuasive speech on how moles are signs of beauty and youth, calling people who she was talking about “Moleys”. These weird little moments are innocent sheer pleasure for me, and really keep me going here. I made tacos for my family the other night, and spent too much money on cheese. I miss real cheese. Everyone here just uses this yucky cheese wiz spread. Mmmnnmmnm mozzarella, yea right. They were a big hit for everyone except the little girls. They pretended to like them, then took one bite and asked where the rice was.

I did have the roughest weekend here yet though. I was just sad. I stayed in bed from Friday night to Sunday night, only leaving once to retrieve a peanut butter sandwich, when my host mom planned a mall walk around outing of intervention. I am homesick, school is ending, and I am not satisfied with my time with my seniors, I wish I had done more, and if I would have known the last month of classes are just test taking and dance practice for graduation, I would have spent way more time and energy on my final lessons. I can only take so many bugs in my food, biting, and crawling on me, and the weather is getting to that unbearable, scorching, and inescapable heat. Daniel has been having a way more difficult time with school and traumatic experiences, and I feel so far away and useless in comforting him. That is the hardest struggle right now. I am also sick of seeing dead dogs on the street… very disturbing.

Valentine’s Day here was a circus. One of my students, Kevin, gave me a dead bat corpse. Since, it is culturally disrespectful to deny anything given to you, I stroked it a bit, then told him that I was afraid my puppy would eat it (we will get to the puppy later), he gladly took it back and threw it around school for the rest of the day. Ma’am Cathy and I made this big “Love Board” where students could post anonymous notes outside of my classroom. To our surprise, the whole school wanted to be a part of it, and we will make it much larger next year! It got completely covered by poems, anonymous love ballads, quotes of sorrow and loneliness, mixture of Visayan and English, very fascinating! The Glee song dedications were also a big hit. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off all week, since they went on during recess every day and there were over 40 requests, but I was so proud that it all worked out. I like to think a few new couples formed because of it. A competition of some sort has started with the two most popular/tallest/oldest senior boys at school with attempting to “woo” me. I repeatedly tell them no one can woo me more than my loving boyfriend, but sadly they always reply with “but he is not here for you?” Cathy says it is all harmless, and I don’t really know what to do about it. One of them is actually the biggest troublemaker from my lowest level class. He used to drive me crazy by disrupting every single class, distracting students who were trying to pay attention, and doing whatever else he wanted for attention, but now he is actually trying to impress me by coming to every class and staying relatively quite. He also very shyly gave me ribboned up roses on V-day, I like this side of him much better. While Glenn, the previous anonymous love letter writer, gave me some handpicked flowers and a very sweet note about how “I am the only girl who has ever made his heart flutter this way.” However sweet, it is pretty inappropriate, but the other teachers do little to discourage it. I tried my best to hide and blend in during the JS PROM last week, but my height and nose were not on my side. Both boys requested a dance, but I had to politely refuse and joined a slow dance group-hugging circle with my favorite girls and Cathy teacher. The girls were all so cute and excited to take pictures. I need to stay on the teacher side more then a friend in order to keep their strong respect, but I sure enjoyed gushing with all the girls about their prom outfits.

The Love Board 

PROMMMMM: Prom was so much fun! Completely different from the U.S. version. The students had been rehearsing these choreographed ballroom dances all week, and of course, it was pouring down rain almost the entire time, but the dancing went on. It was adorable, and I had a special moment with myself as the rain was trickling down and I got to watch my students in such a different setting than I had ever seen before. Quite romantic too, too bad the couples were prearranged with no say from the students. They were such troopers with their fancy dresses and hair getting all soggy and crumpled. Our prom was combined with the special science school next door, with students who are a bit better off, and their attire definitely showed. A few girls had absolutely gorgeous dresses and giant trendy heals. All of my students looked so beautiful and grown up outside of their school uniforms! I really cannot reiterate enough how much I love teaching the seniors. They also had this ceremony of passing down the “key of responsibility” to the juniors, and an awesome foreshadowing speech of what all of the seniors will be doing as adults, very cute.

The A-Team Teach

My Sensi and Best Teacher Friend, Cathy

Whoa There! 

I saw Vagina Monologues on Valentine’s Day night. It was actually extreme reverse culture shock. I have read the book the seen the play in Colorado… but to see it being performed by Filipinas and the crowd in the city outside of my hometown cheering and loving it…it was something else. If you have not heard of it, it is a number of women’s monologues about abuse and empowerment that are very liberal and shocking, and you should look them up! One poem actually consists of a woman acting out on stage all of the different kind of ways women have orgasms. This happened, and the Filipino audience could not have cheered louder. The Australia boys who came with us were definitely scarred for life. It was shown at Silliman University, the American run college in Dumaguete. The theater had really awesome artwork displayed, and I felt like I was back home in Boulder a little bit. I still feel a little strange about the whole thing. Many of the poems about abuse are very sad and moving, but the audience was just laughing because they heard the word vagina, another example for the generally lower maturity level. There was also a prayer over the loudspeaker beforehand… we pray before everything here “let what we are about to do be for the grace of God”… it was a very strange experience overall, but I am ecstatic that I got to attend. My friend was part of the “One Billion Rising” event on violence against women, and they performed their cool dance at the end.

Believe it or not, I got a dropkick puppy.  My brother, Adonis, asked his friends if we could have one, and we got the cutest black and white speckled one! I am slowly becoming Ace Ventura…and I love it. My compact nipa hut is now home to me, a papa cat, mama cat, another pregnant mistress cat, 3 brand new baby kittens (I watched them all pop out into this world), a tiny gecko, a medium-sized gecko, a giant Tuco spotted lizard, more then 100 spiders of various sizes, some visiting frogs, rats, bats, insects, and now a new addition to the family, the 2-month old puppy I named Pepper! IT’S ALIVE, IT’S ALIVEEEE!!!  It has actually gotten pretty rough though. I cannot sleep more than an hour without getting woken up by the noise of some creature. Pepper slept with me a few nights, but she pees all over and whines for me to wake up. My family took all the kittens out because they are starting to stink, then sure enough, in the middle of the night, the mom brings each kitten back one by one treacherously over the roof of my nipa hut and knocking over my bookshelf and more things each time. All of the animals are a nuisance, but everyone except for the cats get away with it because of cuteness. Cats just plain freak me out. Come on, they make the sounds of hell and act like they are better than everyone else, I do not see any appeal. I am also not usually a little dog person, I have always been more partial to big wrinkly faced pooches, but this little Pep is pretty durn cute. Stumpy little legs, running around out of control, I am enjoying her for the time being.

My Favorite.

PEPPER PANDA PEPPER!!!

I had the absolute best day at school today. It was “recollection” day for the seniors. Everyone kept telling me it was a religious event that makes everyone cry, so I was not exactly looking forward to it, but since all of my students were included and I was bored, I asked to sit in. A young priest was in charge, and he started out with talking about all of the different kinds of love. This whole presentation was a mixture of Tagalog and Visayan, and I feel like I understood most all of it! It was all about how high school graduation is a crucial time in life to really figure out what is most important to you and thank those who sacrifice so much for you. (around 2/3 of all seniors will not go to college because they do not have the money, and student loans do not exist in the Philippines. He went on to talk about how teenagers often take their parents, teachers, and friends for granted. He mentioned a lot of what ifs about those people not being around the next day, life is short and forgiveness is essential. Sobbing began to fill the room. Literally every single student was crying. A few stood up and crossed the room to hug friends and apologize for former wrong doings. It really was one of the most moving experiences I have ever been a part of. When he began talking about teachers, 2 of my favorite girl students got up and climbed over people to come hug me and said “thank you so much for being here and caring so much for us.” That sure did it, I began bawling along with the rest of them! That also led to others coming over and hugging me, then they played a song about how parents raise their children to climb mountains and conquer anything, and I got so homesick and teared up even more. It was such an amazing cultural experience, and I was so touched by the whole thing. It was not overly religious in any way, and I really wish I had gone to something similar when I graduated. Sadly, I think American seniors are too spoiled and arrogant to take something like this seriously, thinking of myself at that age. I absolutely adore the Filipino genuine sensitivity and protection of the feelings of others. The students are also so hardworking, they are the ones who do all of the school manual labor, cleaning, construction, ect. Always willing to help.

Coming up next week is language camp with all of us Negros kids, then right after that, I am going to visit Daniel’s site in Bicol to see how they live up north, maybe even spot a humongous whale shark! Then, before I know it, school is out, Glee Club original summer musical planning in the making, finishing of World Map Project and project planning conference in April, MOM, DAD, AND MATT VISITINGGGG, and Girls Leading Our World weeklong camp in May, then school is back in session June 1^st! My 19-year old brother, Matt is going to try and volunteer in Dumaguete for the whole summer break from college and live with me, I am so excited!!! This summer is going to fly by and will be HOT HOT HOT …literally … permanent profuse sweating.

Just for Matthew