Guano Galore

Time is whirling by and it is almost summer! Good thing about that = break from school, fun camps, travel to the hanging coffins and rice terraces, bad thing about that = sweltering heat with no chance of escape. I am finishing up the school year with a few cool activities... not literally cool… I wish. Thanks to you all, I now have the funds to run the Girls Leading Our World GLOW Camp at my school with 80 girls from all over Dauin… looking forward to that in April, but boy is it a lot of work and chaos planning everything for it, Hillary and Jen will be my only PC helpers, because I want DNHS teachers to do most of the facilitating, so they know how to run it next year when I am long gone!

I also took a few of my students on a successful field trip last month. Have you heard of “One Billion Rising?” It is a global event to spread awareness and stop violence against women and children. I remember hearing about it back in college when I saw Vagina Monologues on Valentine’s Day, since then, people all over the world have been participating in gender empowerment on V-Day each year. After cutting through miles of red tape and writing a bazillion letters to Dep Ed, I finally got the approval to take a few of my female student leaders on a field trip to attend the One Billion Rising event in Dumaguete, the city not too far from us. We left around noon on V-Day decked out in our pink and ready to dance for a good cause! The girls and I had practiced the flash mob dances several times at my house a week before the event. Good thing too because we got our own stage in the park! Probably just because we looked so darn cute and knew the dances, but the girls really loved it. Bangon babae bangon! I also had each of the girls make a poster of what they wanted to “rise” for, and they had some great thoughts.

Glee Clubs song dedications were also a big success this year. These kids are the best. Cute cute, young love. Prom was okayyy, my shoe breaks on the way over, my purse breaks once I arrive… I am pathetic. Also, it’s frustrating that I am still not used to teachers calling me fat and telling me that I am lonely just to start conversations… but that is the Filipino way! I have been having crazy stress and heat induced dreams too, like murder mysteries (probably due to watching 3 hours straight of True Detective) and running around this giant mall that my brain created to escape some psycho, only to find a small corner that morphed into Robin Williams’s secret office, and there he was just lounging and talking on the phone being his wacky self… so strange.

I went up to see Hillary for a mental health weekend a while ago, if you could have guessed, the 8 hour bus ride did not rectify my mental health issues. A man was throwing up… people kept sardining themselves in and flinging stray vomit off their own hands… luckily I snagged a seat early on and out of the splash zone. No one would give up their seat for this really pregnant lady, and I was squished back too far to help out myself. The way she was standing though, her big belly was actually on top of this guy’s lap who was sitting down… very weird looking, and it got even weirder when her other child starting rubbing the belly slowly. Oh Philippines. Once I arrived in Bacolod though, the journey was well worth it. Hillary, Dave, me, and Filipina Tif bouncy jeep rode to a natural hot springs in the mountains. It was a tad smelly but actually nice since it was raining. There must have been thousands of giant bats flying around above us…  guano galore on the floor. That sounds like a good song title… guano galore, on the floor, on the floor! We also ate Indian food, drank wine, and played cards against humanity with roaring laughter. Very good times, and just what I needed to cure my perpetual grumpiness and detestation of all human existence… well the cure should last for a few days more anyhow.

Sayang = Sad                    ...but tasty

Yes, those are BATS... hence guano galore on the floor.

Yes, this random stuffed creature gave me nightmares.

Two of the new newer volunteers, Rocky and Charlie, got Negros Oriental tattoos. The first regional themed tattoos that I have heard of, maybe a little impulsive, but just another thing that proves our island is the best! The tattoo is very cool. It is the periodic table symbol for Nitrogen (which is what we breath when scuba diving,) which has the atomic number 7 (the number of Negros oriental volunteers in their batch) and the atomic weight of 14. somethin somethin (the number of all of us here in neg ori) and a nice ORIENTAL inscribed under the symbol, worked out pretty nicely.

I though up a “create your own society” group project with my students, they had to choose members, write laws and punishments, make a flag, sing a national anthem, etc… some funny things came from it. One of the groups named themselves the “Neuter Mcees,” I asked if they knew what neuter meant, and one boy yelled “without sexual organs!” Okay…little weirdos. Another was named “Marlarky Baloney,” and an all girls society were “BTCHES” for Break The Cassanovas Heart Elite Society. Some of the funny rules: “We don’t bully each other, we bully other people together.” “No Korean fans allowed.” “Punishment for breaking news” instead of breaking rules. Other punishments included the electric chair, and being put in jail with a frog or another annoying animal. These kids kill me.

Lovin this book right now! "Brevity is the soul of wit.'"

This was the final page of a student's dream scrapbook. Sneaky.

I was asked to write about my host family experience for the Peace Corps website, here is what I wrote…“Who would have thought that at age 24, I would have 3 great families, one American by blood, and two Filipino by heart. I have been beyond blessed by becoming a part of both my training host family and my permanent site family, who I am still living with after 1¾ years. Both families have blown my mind with hospitality and love, but my first made the biggest impact back in my culture shocked and overwhelmed state. My host siblings lived in Manila for school, so my host mother, Nanay Alma, took me in as one of her own, who just had not yet flew the coop.  She taught me all there is to know about living in the Philippines… how to wash my clothes by hand, how to make coconut milk (every step from plucking down the coconut to grating the meat with a special tool, to squeezing out deliciousness,) how to use a tabo to bathe, cultural interaction advice, and so much more.  She was my mother at the times when I needed it the most, like making me herbal remedies when I got sick, teaching me the language, constantly looking out for me, and giving me a much needed daily hug. The biggest highlight was on my last night with that family before moving to my permanent site. The whole family threw me a surprise going away party with all my favorite Filipino foods, and they sneakily invited my 3 best Peace Corps friends and my PC language teachers. Still the biggest surprise of my life was walking into the kitchen on that night and seeing a giant homemade tarpaulin with a triple life-size picture of myself and about 15 other pictures of me with the family along with an adorable message. I felt like a movie star… it was even better 10 months later, when I brought my American family to visit my original host family… and guess what? Yes, another surprise tarp, this time with all of our faces superimposed on animations. Those tarps are fantastic remembrances, but the memories from that family and my current family are what really leave the true impact, prove that I belong here, and continue to make my Peace Corps experience unforgettable.”

Next up: Dauin GLOW Camp and other summertime sweaty adventures!