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My Grandma!
Can anyone teach me how to un-sideways
uploaded pictures on this site? |
Happy Holidays to all my family and friends! It goes without saying, but, I wish I were with them in California! It's my first Christmas and New Years away from home. Things I miss: Chinese food, dim sum, shopping with Suzy, drinks with friends who are all visiting home for the holidays, and my whole family milling about in one house.
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Girls dancing in the center of the basketball court before
the start of the barangay Cmas party in Baras. |
This week has been really good though. Christmas season in the Philippines goes from Sept - January. I successfully finished my shopping all this morning, and finally found delight in the Christmas songs. It's been a week of Christmas parties in the barangay (neighborhood), office and at the house. I've actually had a cold this entire week that started after my night out last weekend for my birthday, so I haven't made it to any dawn masses. The 9 days before Christmas Catholic Filipinos go to church everyday at dawn, commitment!
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| Boys leaning on our 'vip' table listening in on the English. |
There are a million thoughts and experiences that make up my days here, but some notable experiences from the last few weeks:
Thanksgiving in San Antonio, Samar
Most of the volunteers from Samar & Leyte traveled to a small island resort and spent Thanksgiving weekend snorkeling, laying on the beach, and cooking. It was my first trip traveling unorganized by peace corps itself. It was really exciting to get out of the city, and be on our own as volunteers. I traveled 7+ hours to get there each way which was made up of multiple forms of transportation: 1. Jeepney 2. Van 3. Pedi-cab 4. Tryke 5. Boat, and some of those multiple times!
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| Thanksgiving dinner with 32 people! |
Highlights from the weekend: snorkeling for the first time! Thanks to Mark D. for sticking it out with me and making sure I wasn't drowning out in the ocean. I'm not much of swimmer, but if I wanna get dive certified here I gotta get more comfortable in the open ocean. This country has some of the most rich and beautiful aqua life in the world, so I have plans to get dive certified. The white sand, and late night swimming was also amazing. As was the return trip when our hour long jeepney got two flat tires, and finally breaks down! Fortunately, a few trikes came within minutes to take us to our next town.
Low from the weekend: My Canon PowershotD10 leaked!! I jinxed it, after raving about how much I love it. Hence, I have no point and shoot to capture the small moments that make up my days. I have an old dslr (Thanks Cousin Derek!), which is cumbersome to carry around, but I've gotten better at using it!
United Nationals International Volunteer Day
This was my first project as a volunteer, and it happened so organically. After sitting bored to tears observing my first day (Nov. 15 See picture below), I brought IVD to my counterpart who suggested we do a cleaning in the city. The rest of the week my supervisor took me on courtesy calls (those are exactly as they sound, visiting people for the sake of introduction and networking) to different offices and local NGOs. One meeting after another things came together for one successful morning of cleaning and celebration of volunteerism.
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Boys from the neighborhood in knee deep.
Yes, that's the river. Yes, it's black. |
Okay, it wasn't that easy. There were so many meetings, letters, text messages, phone calls, and maybe's. It was a good crash course in how business is conducted in this country. I met multiple times with different organizations that said they would attend with so many volunteers and bring xyz materials. I met with the head of the environmental office many times, as well as the mayor, the barangay captains, youth leaders... and I spent a lot of time waiting for meetings to start and what have you. I did have my first few lessons in the art of patience, networking, and a proper Filipino introduction.
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"We're here to promote
volunteerism and environmentalism..." |
That can include, but is not limited to "Ako hi Mei, Taga San Francisco, CA Ako. Peace Corps Bolunteer Ako. Nagtratrabaho ha CSWDO sulod duha ka tuig. Baynte Cinco anos na... Waray asawa, may uyab na. Americana Ako. :: My name is Mei, I'm from San Francisco. I'm a PC Volunteer working at CSWDO for the next two years. I'm 25, not married, but have a sweetheart... Yes, I'm American"
It was a really successful day. Roughly 300 volunteers, both local and international, young and old came out and made a small dent in the polluted Mangonbangon River that lies at the heart of the city. It's disheartening that there is so much trash, and not a good system set in place. Realistically, it's one of the poorest areas of the city. Many of the street children that I am trying to get to know and work with are from that area.
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Mark, Celia, Jenna, Lou, Me
(Kudos to Mark for the pics & blog!) |
How can families and parents make trash and pollution in their river a priority when they cannot eat and send their children to school? Sigh. Realities of development work. The upside: 300 volunteers came out. People care. Social workers, university students, out of school youth, volunteers from Japan, America, Norway, Australia... were there promoting the Save the River Campaign. Many of the barangay residents and children came out to help. Sustainable development work = baby steps and lots of community building.
Handog & Swearing In
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Me, Nanay Toni & Tatay Effren.
My Baras host family who show me endless love. |
Handog, not to be confused with hotdog, is a banquet and presentation of gratitude. All the pc trainees put together a program on our last day at our training site, just before we flew out to Manila for our Counterpart's Conference and Swearing In aka our last week of training! At the time, it was an exciting point of transition going from training to sworn in volunteer. The actual handog was fun too. Me and Kelly MC'd, there was dancing, singing, videoke and games...
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Barangay Capt & host families dancing
Kukaracha [sp] to raise money,
went to our bonfire that night! |
I was freakin' proud to swear in as a pc volunteer. I remember in high school when I first thought 'I'm going to do that!' Two graduations, and two years of nomad'n around Cali, over of year of waiting and applying, three full months of training, and sometimes I asked myself why I was doing it. Now, I'm doing it. It's hard, and it's great.
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Peace Corps Philippines
Child Youth & Family Volunteer! |
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| Palo, Leyte Training Cluster. I swear, we're not that cliquey. |
Quarter Century, My Birthday!
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| PCVs and host parents dining at the Italian restaurant. |
It was my birthday last week. I'm 25! My cousin, Fanny, said to me last year "Mei, you should be married when you're 25" She said that to me with all good love, but I'm definitely not on that track! Last week was a low for me. I felt homesick, and stress between my host family situation and lost at work, but alas, all things pass and work out.
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| Only other picture from my birthday celebration. Love her face. |
Overall, I'm so happy where I am in life right now. I've been thinking what I want out of this next year: Personally, I wanna keep doing what I'm doing and indulge in each moment as much as possible. Professionally, I wanna give to my job and the people I'm working with as much as I can. How to accomplish those two things, well, that's always the tough part, eh.
Adlaw Adlaw, The Day to Day
Week 18 in country completed as of today. Week 6 as a volunteer completed - that's six of 104! So, what has my day to day life been like here? Some are busy, some are boring, some are long... I've been quite happy, especially being able to get out and explore this city. I like learning the bus/jeepney routes, and finding new roads to bike along. I went ballroom dancing once, and I'm hoping to take some classes.
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My lifetime membership to Bukid,
the indoor climbing gym! |
Almost all afternoons are spent getting to know my co-workers over meryenda. I jog or yoga in the mornings. I go to the small climbing gym in the evenings, and I just found a few people my age who play ultimate frisbee in the city. I started meeting with a language tutor, and I still stare out the jeepney windows invigorated by the faces and scenes of this country.
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| My new room, before I unpacked. |
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| My shower bucket, freshingly cold. |
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| Nanay Melicia in front of the house. |
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My first day at the office!
That sign is still up six weeks later =) |
Pagasa Youth Association of the Philippines
So, what is it exactly that I'm doing here? A month and a half later, it's starting to become more clear to me. I'm working with out of school youth in different neighborhoods throughout the city to start PYAP chapters. The goal of this organization overall is youth development. Vague, I know. My office has 56 programs, and I think I'll be focusing on two: PYAP and Street Children Outreach. I'm still learning what that means, but so far I've been attending and assisting different pyap meetings and events. I've also gone out at night to meet, feed and get to know some of the begging/working street children.
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PYAP Youth leaders training
new members at a 3 day leadership camp. |
These kids from the barangay were playing in the back of the red truck during the training. They had nothing to do with the training itself, but they represent the kids that PYAP (and I) are trying to work with... so much life and potential, and so many obstacles and choices ahead of them. Youth Development; just trying to empower them.
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| Four kids, One Red Truck |
I know less is more, and I should update short sweet blogs instead of these epic long ones. I saw a really funny t-shirt (after my camera was broken). It said: "NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BLOG" so, meh it doesn't matter anyways, right? I love and miss you all from home. Leave a comment. Happy Holidays!
