Week 9 : Leyte Landing, Singing on Stage, 48th Death Anniversary, PYA Youth Camp

Mark, Chris, Me, Jenna - My cluster-mates, whom I spend almost all day with.
We're the smallest cluster in our batch and I'm pretty lucky that I really like all of them.
They've been laughs and support =)

I have been incredibly busy here in the Philippines. Today marks nine full weeks that I've been in this country. My days have been filled with class, fiestas, reading, celebrations studying, homesickness, and of course, food and karaoke. I started this post below a full week ago:

"Week Eight : Post Street Immersion, Supervisors Conference, Site Visit & Life Skills

The Filipino sun was beaming down hard as I was riding my bike down Baras' main street to get home for lunch. Today is officially eight full weeks since I have arrived in this country, and I'm two thirds way through my training. The last two weeks have been eventful; filled with activities, traveling, meeting people, and getting information."

Unfortunately, I haven't had much down to time to sort through pictures and blog. If I do have down time I spend a lot of it just resting. This entry going to be a messy mish mash'd one... To sum up the last number of weeks leading to this last one:

Street Children happy as ever to learn and play games at the park in Manila. 

Street Immersion, Week 7: Flew to Manila and spent the weekend with ngo's in Manila out on the street meeting and learning about the abundance of children who spend their lives literally living on the street with their families.

Day 2 of Street Immersion with a different organization
Kids in the heart of the city (just next to Chinatown =)

Manila was filled with busy intense days seeing the poverty in the communities, but it was also refreshing to see fellow trainees and volunteers to compare stories and get advice. Here we're at a really good Indian restaurant. Delicious and varied food - yum. 

Supervisors Conference: We finally found out where our permanent work/volunteer site will be. Mine: Tacloban, the capitol of Leyte! My supervisor is wonderful. I'm close to my current host family. And, my new host family is sweet.

My supervisor, Lili, who brought me a t-shirt to match! She is an amazing woman who has worked for Tacloban City's Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) for over 20 years. I'm excited to be working with her and her team. 

I flew back to Tacloban City with Lili and met my new host family that I will live with
from Nov - Feb (possibly longer). We were equally excited to meet each other =)

Rainy season is coming and I love it!
Here is Chris looking cute on our way down main street of Baras to class. 

Usual Friday nights after a long week with each other at the B. Kaptain's house.
San Miguel is the, very good, local beer. 

 CSWDO Center for Street Kids at our Life Skills Day.
I'll be working with them once/week.
These are the boys gathered around their 'expectations tree'.
Kyute hin duro, eh? (Very cute, eh?)

My trainer, Edward, with a few of the street kids.  

Of course it's not all work. This week was the 66th Anniversary of General McArthur's Landing in Palo, Leyte which marks the beginning of the end of the Japanese take-over in the Philippines during WWII. It's been interesting to compare the overall friendly relationship that Japan has with the Philippines with that of China and Japan.

Can you see the butterflies and song notes in the air?

A few of the boys got asked to perform a few songs for the celebration and I decided to crash the party. We sang You Are My Sunshine & Country Roads (I'll find a link from the news to put up soon). It was scary to sing in front of so many people, but exciting. (http://tfcnow.abs-cbn.com/index-tvpreg.aspx - Oct. 20 videos) Everyone loves to sing and dance here. KVT/karaoke/videoke is as common as beer at a party.

Lou with the Palo mayor lighting a mini hot air balloon
into the night's sky, after the performances. 

What else has been going on... Training has turned up a notch. Each week my language and cultural facilitator (LCF), Edward, has been interviewing us and marking us on how our language is coming along. Waray-Waray is a challenging language to learn. I may have said this before, but you can conjugate verbs about a dozen ways.

Day 2 of the Landing celebration. Sail boat race from Palo to Tacloban.
The sails were beautiful. 

Last night my host mother's father's 48th death anniversary. It's a very common practice to get family together on the day of the death and have a dinner. We went to a low-key restaurant that sat right on the water of Tacloban and had dinner under the moonlight - pleasant to say the least.

Finally, in a matter of four days we planned an overnight camp for the youth leaders of Tacloban. I'm excited 'cause it should be fun playing ropes course style games and we're going to the next island, Samar. I hear the water is clear and the sand is white.

Sorry for the scattered, overloaded blog. But, in short: I'm busy, I'm getting fat from food, I'm happy (okay, I get really homesick some days), and I'm healthy.

Me, just before I went on stage. 

This is the first time I've ever really done a blog for anything. Give me some feedback! As in, what do you want to know about and read about? More tid-bits of the culture? More specific stories? Want more focused blog entries? Less words, more pictures? Sige, baybay (okay, bye bye)!

Transitions Through Training

The rain is drying on the streets of Manila outside. This morning was one of the first warm showers I've had since I've arrived in the Philippines six weeks ago. I'm staying at the unofficial peace corps pension (hostel) and had a very homelike omelet with wheat bread and a cup of coffee. The simple things really make my weeks.

I'm here for our supervisor's conference to find out where our permanent sites will be after our three months of training, and who are supervisor within our centers will be. It's refreshing to be with new people (current volunteers who've been here for a year, and other trainees on a different island), and to be in a big city. Living in Baras, my small town,  is really pleasant, but more and more I realize I love city life. Especially given most of my life has been spent in SF and LA.

This last week has been a bit rough. (Continued two days later). Last week's pressure of constantly not knowing threw me a new one. I also had a few rough moments with my trainers that I didn't agree with. Being here during training I am in a constant state of waiting and not knowing. I typically find out where I'm going the day before it happens, and I have no control or say in how things happen. I knew this is what is would be like, but it's different to life it each day and have to just accept the broken-record saying, "be flexible, be patient". It's true, though.

I have been in Manila since Friday morning with a few more youth trainees and volunteers who have been here for a year now. It's been wonderful to have a change of pace, and meet a new community of people who have gone through the same process and who keep telling me "it's awesome; it's okay if it sucks right now; there are some golden moments to look forward to".

Today I meet my work supervisor and find out which city/island I'm moving to permanently for the next two years after training. Excitement and some anxiety. We're walking out the door. Manila is amazing and I've gotten my sushi and burger fix since I've been here. Until next time - tubtub sunod!