Dauin GLOWs!

Hello old friends! Sorry I have been neglecting you, but things have just now calmed down since school has FINALLY let out for the summer... cue Twisted Sister. BOOOM BOOOM boom booooooooboom! A big thanks again to all of the GLOW Camp donors, it was a huge success last week! It drove me nearly insane until the very last minute, but totally worth it. We covered the topics of leadership, gender stereotypes, body image, self-esteem, healthy relationships, adolescent health, and HIV/AIDS. 70 amazing girls + 9 untiring facilitators + 6 teacher cooks = AWESOME/ CRAZY/ FUN/ UNFORGETTABLE & EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE! I had invited girls from all of the 6 schools of our Dauin District, including the High School on Apo Island. Of course, a typhoon came on our first day, which led to a very rainy welcoming, boats being delayed, and a few girls not showing up, but I texted a few of my other students who live nearby, and they were co excited to join, even at the last minute, so we filled up! That was really the only issue we ran into, everything else went super smoothly. I am hoping my co-teachers noticed that… the fact that when you actually plan ahead and organize, few things end up going wrong! Unlike our usual school events where nothing is ever planned until a few hours before, then everything turns into a Lewis Carroll nonsense novel. The last night of camp was my favorite memory though. My Red Team girls asked me to play “spin the bottle” with them in the classroom we were sleeping in… I was shocked and confused until I learned that Filipino Spin the Bottle is actually American Truth or Dare… (dares included a girl having to run around the room oinking like a pig, another doing 5 push-ups, another dancing, another kissing the poster of a human circulatory system.. it went on and on, I chose truth every time J) What did I get myself into? Anyways, we stayed up until 2 AM playing silly games like that and telling ghost stories.. then they woke up at 4 AM just like they had on the other 3 mornings… killed me a little bit each time. However, the feeling after everything was cleaned up and everyone went home was MAGNIFICANT, such a weight off my shoulders to be done with that camp, and even better to know how much the girls enjoyed it and learned! Now I can actually fall asleep at night and grow back the tooth parts I have grinded off… Don’t even get me started on the crazy stress dreams I have been having… ok I will give you a little preview, once I was saving an newly discovered rare dinosaur, next I was flying around with freedom from building to building, but stuck in this giant ice cube which would not let me breath easily, next I tried to make popcorn with the “maiz” corn mush we eat here.. the weirdness goes on and on… but hey, it is quite entertaining! Like… more entertaining than the real world!?! I might have issues…

Jen and her girls gettin it.

My RED TEAM! A.K.A. the best team.

La Ti Da!

Classroom Slumber Party!

Wacky.

Graduation went well, it was sad to see the students that I have had all year grow up and out into the real world. My goodness, they are not ready for it. I actually missed my students’ graduation pictures because I was waiting in the blistering sun for 2 hours at the elementary school to see Mariz and Nicole dance to “Hot Stuff.” Again though, typical Philippines schedule, things never start until hours after scheduled, so I had to run off to my own students’ graduation and I missed the dance. Anyways, I helped them get dressed and made-up and saw a private showing earlier that day, it didn’t disappoint.  Our final GLEE performance was a nice acappella mash-up. Glendale, my favorite star singer who graduated last year, surprised me and showed up to join the performance! I love surprises. I also had a few nice heart to hearts with some of my favorite students who were graduating now. Most all of them were asking for love/future advice… like I am an expert? It was quite adorable though hearing this one tough boy talk about how he doesn’t care if the girl doesn’t love him back, he still wants to do anything nice (like spending all of his money on snacks for her) just to see her smile because “momata ko para kana kada adlaw” (that is what I wake up for every day.) Whew! Yanking on my heartstrings and making me even more lonely myself! Just a few more months until I get back to the states and maybe can try to have a normal relationship… then again, normal relationships are not very exciting right?

Glee Club 2014: Serious Smiles

One of my favorite graduating students is really interested in animation, so I asked Rocky to come down over the weekend and show this sweet kid and his friend how he had made his own cartoon and give the boys the software on a USB. They loved it so much and now actually have something to do over the summer! THANKS ROCKY! My day was also brightened by picking up a care package from my Colorado Snowflake, Kenzie. She found me awesome seahorse earrings, which I love soooooo much after losing my seahorse necklace to the deep blue sea last year, a sweet letter, and many other useful trinkets. THANKS MACKENZIE. You really can’t even imagine how something like that brings my mood up just when I need it the most! I am extremely jealous of the many Peace Corps peeps showing pics on FB of their recent Easter Girl Scout Cookie care packages. Bitches. Yea, I am talking about you Michelle and Hillary! I might murder for just a little taste of that coconut caramel one or a peanut butter patty… or to squish an actual peep between my teeth. Who am I kidding, who actually likes Peeps? Sick.

Rocky teaching the kiddos how to make their own ANIMATION come to LIFE!

The only thing cats are good for...

Allow me to run you through one of my worst days a couple weeks ago, it was rather painful in so many ways for me… which of course will make it rather entertaining for you! So here we go.  I come home to find my once innocent puppy, Pepper, stuck to some stray who is sticking half-way out of the fence...stuck in the fence and still in my precious Pepper. If you are not aware… dogs sometime get stuck together after sex… I won’t go into detail, but it looks ridiculous and it a very common site around here, they are all still on 4 legs, just trying to run away from each other but still appear butt to butt. Ouch. Keep reading though…Even worse.. was that this stray heathen was actually Peppers fully blind white-haired brother. Not even kidding. Game of Thrones Doggy Style shit. I was very disappointed in her, but what am I to do? I also heard form Mariz, that Pepper’s boyfriend is the old man dog at our house called “Budoy,” what they call people with down syndrome,…Aye, but lecturing her on her slutiness would only lead to more sexual rebellion, we saw that backfire on True Detective. Gosh, I watch too much TV… but I do admit, torrented TV on my laptop is my savior. On a typical bad mood day, I get home, can’t breath because all of the burning trash all around and my hut full of smoke. I bathe myself with water that smells like poop. Summer is good for hot bucket baths, summer is bad for sweat drenched clothing within minutes. Anyways, I have told you my routine before, but sometimes I really need to shut myself in from the world and drool over Cupcake Wars or go into a laughing fit from Workaholics. Also…the other day a cockroach fell and bounced right off my head to safety running to a dark corner. For some reason unknown to me, my hut cockroaches are randomly just now trying to mutiny. I doused my place with poison, and right when I sprayed, I could see the squirming from all corners of the room! They smelled their impending death! A little sad… especially since I then feel guilty and couldn’t remove their corpses from all around. When Rocky came over, he took care of them… actually throwing 6 roach bodies into a grave I prepared for them outside. My sister, Nicole thought this was hilarious… she now calls Rocky the Roach Man.

Last weekend, we had the annual Peace Corps Warden Conference, for those of us who are in charge of keeping the Peace in times of emergency. There are like 20 of us by region? Rocky and I are in charge of the now 14 volunteers in Negros Oriental. It was such a great conference, great discussion, lovely air-conditioning, and hot showers! Snazzy to the MAX. We had some intense conversation, since a few of the wardens shared their experience in Tacloban, the city that was most devastated during Typhoon Yolanda. I cannot even process going through what they did. PC also gave out a bunch of satellite phones to the people in more remote regions. Besides the work of changing/implementing policies and consolidation points, we found time to do what we do best together! That’s right, get a little responsibly as a U.S. government representative tipz! We found this grungy bar one night and played King’s Cup the drinking card game, but instead of a mixed drink in the middle, we had a balut, remember that duck fetus? So the last king that was drawn had to eat the balut, but the guy who drew it loves balut anyways…weirdo, so it turned out to be not as amusing as we wished.

Picture Perfect Cebu City Warden Conference Coolies

Dun dun dunnn!

I went to Cebu a couple days early to hang out with Sam, who went to that Sinulog Festival with us and lives in Cebu, and eat yummy food. We went to this adorable French place where you choose your wine from the cellar and fill up your cute little basket with bread and cheese, then the server brings it all out to you in this beautiful garden with trees all full of purple lights. Then for our actual dinner, we took a taxi up to this Filipino restaurant high on a hill that overlooks the whole city. Quiteeee the romantic night, but Sam and I are just friends, it was so great though talking to him because he started dating another PC girl the same time I started dating Daniel, and they broke up around the same time we did, and she is now right away dating a Filipino, like Daniel, so that was nice to bond about. The next night we went to this fantastic little Indian Place where you sit on pillows on the floor, I found it randomly wondering earlier that afternoon. I love things like that! I definitely did nottt feel like I was in the Philippines the whole time I was in Cebu, gosh I love the city life! Then to hang out with lots of awesome Peace Corps peeps for the Conference after all that to stuff our faces with cheese and beer, another fabulous escape.

I wanted to get away from the hordes of strangers invading my host family’s house for the holidays, so I went to Dgte on Easter. You try to get away and the Peace Corps moochers flock to get in on the aircon and cable of a hotel room. So, a handful of us volunteers spent Easter watching 8 hours straight of TV in bed… not regretting it one bit! Hillary’s GLOW camp is supposed to be this week, but it is in shambles and probably will be postponed, so we are most likely heading off on another adventure that you will hear about next time! Like watching the Cebu prisoners do a choreographed dance and diving with black tip reef sharks in Leyte. I will end on something so sweet that Nicole randomly said to me the other night. She said that when I go back to America, she will pray each night before bed to have a dream about Ate Allie to seem real again. Whaaaa, she is so adorable. Also, watch this video here, it was made by residents/survivors here living in Tacloban, Philippines, the city that was devastated most by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). It was intended to thank donors of relief programs and uses a current popular song, "Happy," but it also perfectly shows the "Bahala Na" mindset of Filipinos and their indomitable spirit... needless to say, brought tears to my eyes... If people living and recovering from that insanity can be so happy... what is our excuse to ever be complaining or unhappy ourselves? I needed this reminder! HAPPY SUMMER!