In high school, my best friend and I used to write our top ten moments for the year down in our yearbooks. It kind of helps remind you why you are the way you are now. Today marks the one year point of being a Peace Corps Volunteer. Here are this year’s top ten:
Top 10 Moments of Peace Corps: Year 1
10. Singing Hanson songs with Willard and MariBeth. No judgment, all Mmmbop.
9. Seeing my first movie in Ormoc. It’s like a 2 hour bus ride to Ormoc, which is the closest large city. After probably a month at site, I told my host family I was going to visit it on my own. The ride there gave me this awesome feeling of independence. A day trip by myself into uncharted territory was nothing short of amazing. I explored the city, found a 50 peso theater, and watched Twilight in the air-conditioning. Aahhhhh.
8. Dinosaurs at Jesus’ birth. Last Christmas, I looked down at my host mother’s manger scene she had displayed and saw where the house helper’s son but a stegosaurus next to the sheep and cows. It made me laugh.
7. Riding a bus with Jasmine and watching a guy offer our bus driver beer. Don’t worry mom, he declined.
6. Cooking lessons at Dovie’s. Bananque, fish, buko salad. I’m one step closer to diabetes, but at least it was delicious getting there.
5. Digyo. Inopacan is known for having 3 islands off its coast, and the very last one is named Digyo. It’s beautiful, with white sand beaches and a marine sanctuary for snorkeling. Definitely a cool place to go camping…you know you want to come and visit it!
4. Valentine’s Day. I really love my students.
3. Watching any type of beauty pageant or dance routine. Have you ever seen the movie Little Miss Sunshine? You know the part where she does her dance routine for the talent competition; it’s kind of like that.
2. Friends. Some are still here, some have gone back, and some I’ll be seeing super super soon!
1. Library. I love the fact that the books inside of it came from people that I love back home for new people that I’ve come to love here. It truly has made a difference for a lot of kids, and helped me get through my first year here.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Advanced Happy New Millenium
Mark it on the calendar. Today I got my first "Advance Merry Christmas." A student told it to me during class this morning. I just laughed. Dude, it's the first week of November, but thank you very much!
People are always saying "advanced so and so" or "Happy belated whatever." It's kind of nice, like they want you to think of them later on, and they really do wish you that extra happiness. I'll get other sayings from students, like "advanced good evening," when all I'm doing is walking back to the house for lunch.
But by far, my favorite advanced greeting has to be the one that followed today's Merry Christmas. Not to be outdone by the eager wisher, the kid next to him followed with, "and Advanced Happy New Year!"
People are always saying "advanced so and so" or "Happy belated whatever." It's kind of nice, like they want you to think of them later on, and they really do wish you that extra happiness. I'll get other sayings from students, like "advanced good evening," when all I'm doing is walking back to the house for lunch.
But by far, my favorite advanced greeting has to be the one that followed today's Merry Christmas. Not to be outdone by the eager wisher, the kid next to him followed with, "and Advanced Happy New Year!"
Sunday, November 1, 2009
candlelight
November 1 is celebrated as All Saint’s Day. Tomorrow is All Soul’s Day. Last year at this time we were leaving our training sites about to be sworn in as volunteers, so this year is my first year at site for the holiday. My host mom has been busy getting the family mausoleum retiled and in shape for the big day. She and her brother have taken a lot of time to prepare to celebrate their relatives and the saints that have passed away.
Tonight, we had a big dinner at her house with all of her family and then at 7 there was a mass held in the cemetery. When I say big dinner, I mean BIG, and with lots of people. I usually end up sitting next to my host uncle and his wife during meals like this. He has a tendnecy to make sure I try everything on the table. He'll even go as far as to crack the crabs for me and just place the crab meat on my plate. I don't know if he doesn't think I can do it myself, or if he's just being really helpful...either way, yum.
The mass at the cemetery was really like nothing I've ever been to in America. It is at this old cemetery packed with adults and kids, candles of all sizes burning on headstones or ornate candle holders. Everybody listens to the service and then most will settle in to spend the night among the graves.
Probably the one snapshot memory that I'll always keep in my head was a group of men and boys sitting on top of a double stacked vault, playing cards, with a sidewinding palm tree and the full moon in the packground. Seeing the place lit with candles was amazing, and made it a special memory.
Tonight, we had a big dinner at her house with all of her family and then at 7 there was a mass held in the cemetery. When I say big dinner, I mean BIG, and with lots of people. I usually end up sitting next to my host uncle and his wife during meals like this. He has a tendnecy to make sure I try everything on the table. He'll even go as far as to crack the crabs for me and just place the crab meat on my plate. I don't know if he doesn't think I can do it myself, or if he's just being really helpful...either way, yum.
The mass at the cemetery was really like nothing I've ever been to in America. It is at this old cemetery packed with adults and kids, candles of all sizes burning on headstones or ornate candle holders. Everybody listens to the service and then most will settle in to spend the night among the graves.
Probably the one snapshot memory that I'll always keep in my head was a group of men and boys sitting on top of a double stacked vault, playing cards, with a sidewinding palm tree and the full moon in the packground. Seeing the place lit with candles was amazing, and made it a special memory.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
so, i'm open to suggestions for topic ideas...
I think it's official, October may have been the lowest blogging month so far in my 14 months of Peace Corps. Lately, the questions that have been filling my mind are: Why does October have to have 31 days in it? How long till I get to come home for Christmas? and How can I live in the Philippines and STILL be so pale?
Answers: Who knows, 40 days!, and maybe I really am albino?
November starts tomorrow, which makes today Halloween. I kind of forgot about it. My sister called to wish me a Happy Halloween and I realized my mental calendar was a day behind. YAY! So, anyways, I wore my orange pumpkin shirt and ate some extra pieces of candy. They don’t really celebrate the holiday here, but tomorrow will be All Saint’s Day, then followed by All Soul’s Day. Wait, wait, yep. Those sound like future blogging topics. Perhaps the blogging dry-spell has finally ended; we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Answers: Who knows, 40 days!, and maybe I really am albino?
November starts tomorrow, which makes today Halloween. I kind of forgot about it. My sister called to wish me a Happy Halloween and I realized my mental calendar was a day behind. YAY! So, anyways, I wore my orange pumpkin shirt and ate some extra pieces of candy. They don’t really celebrate the holiday here, but tomorrow will be All Saint’s Day, then followed by All Soul’s Day. Wait, wait, yep. Those sound like future blogging topics. Perhaps the blogging dry-spell has finally ended; we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
stop. drop. and i should have brought my ipod!
What do you do when you get a phone call from your warden that gives instructions to drop what you're doing and go to your safety consolidation point? ha, first you complain. SERIOUSLY? I got plans man. I had to leave my school's Math/MAPEH Month presentation. I mean, really, I had to walk out during their opening number of girls dancing to Lady GaGa while holding meter sticks and protractors. I may not have a chance to experience something like ever again in my life... or at least not until the next DepEd sponsored month festivities...
Second, you ask, is anything wrong? Answer: Nope, just a safety drill, but you got to leave NOW. Ok, I'm out the door, grabbing the passport and cell phone charger and dramamine for the cruddy 2-3 hour mountain drive it takes to get to our checkpoint; in other words, DUDE, IT'S LIKE THE AMAZING RACE! I totally could have won it too, if it hadn't been a non-elimination round.
So, for everybody who wonders (MOM, plus all my church lady looker-outers), what do you do if there's an emergency? That's it. No worries :)
Second, you ask, is anything wrong? Answer: Nope, just a safety drill, but you got to leave NOW. Ok, I'm out the door, grabbing the passport and cell phone charger and dramamine for the cruddy 2-3 hour mountain drive it takes to get to our checkpoint; in other words, DUDE, IT'S LIKE THE AMAZING RACE! I totally could have won it too, if it hadn't been a non-elimination round.
So, for everybody who wonders (MOM, plus all my church lady looker-outers), what do you do if there's an emergency? That's it. No worries :)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Word of the Day
I was walking back to school after lunch today when I met one of my students half way. His name is Alfie. He's a really sweet kid. He's always kind and fun-loving, just an all around good kid. As we were walking, I reminded him that he has a vocabulary test tomorrow. In response, he took out his vocabulary notebook and I quizzed him as we walked.
Each week they get ten words that are from stories that are in their textbooks or other sources that we use. A few from this week's list are: glimpse, cumbersome, arid, humid, and ferocious. Those words were all taken from their textbook.
Anyways, back to Alfie. We had just about finished our walk, and were approaching the hill that the school rests on. Just as we were about to start the trek up, a motorcycle zoomed by us with one of the other teachers riding on the back. You could hear the strain of the engine as the bike made its way up the hill.
Without missing a beat, Alfie turned to me and said, "Sir George is cumbersome!"
Each week they get ten words that are from stories that are in their textbooks or other sources that we use. A few from this week's list are: glimpse, cumbersome, arid, humid, and ferocious. Those words were all taken from their textbook.
Anyways, back to Alfie. We had just about finished our walk, and were approaching the hill that the school rests on. Just as we were about to start the trek up, a motorcycle zoomed by us with one of the other teachers riding on the back. You could hear the strain of the engine as the bike made its way up the hill.
Without missing a beat, Alfie turned to me and said, "Sir George is cumbersome!"
Friday, October 2, 2009
End of the Week... Super Tired
Thursday was my site visit by not only my regional manager, but also a pcmo and our Philippine country director. They came for a couple hours to chat, observe me co-teaching with my counterpart, tour the school, and eat lunch with my host mom. It was great to have a break from the norm, and they brought Tootsie Rolls, which is always a plus :)
They were all really positive about the library. I introduced them to some of the students who have helped organize books and have taken an interest in the project. It was amazing to watch one student, Denise, describe what she got from reading the teenage edition of Three Cups of Tea. The fact that she a) read the story from cover to cover b) could summarize the accounts c) tell her reaction and thoughts and finally d) do all of this in front of foreigners made me so incredibly proud. She is one of the students who came during the summer to help organize and also comes on Saturdays to help with the little kids.
Friday became our first day of "Reading Buddies." This is what I love/sometimes don't love about my site. I say something or think out loud, and then BAM it's somehow made reality; usually with me running to catch up. So earlier this week I said we need to get high school students to go to the elementary school and read them stories. So now every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I've got to get 30 high schoolers to Central Elementary by 4:15. It's going to be great, and the elementary school is really excited about it, but getting the routine of it down is a little rocky at the moment. Today wasn't a disaster though, so I have hope that it'll be smooth by the end of next week.
Another fun thing, my counterpart's daughter's pre-school class is planning to visit the library for a field trip! FIELD TRIP!! I'm so excited!
They were all really positive about the library. I introduced them to some of the students who have helped organize books and have taken an interest in the project. It was amazing to watch one student, Denise, describe what she got from reading the teenage edition of Three Cups of Tea. The fact that she a) read the story from cover to cover b) could summarize the accounts c) tell her reaction and thoughts and finally d) do all of this in front of foreigners made me so incredibly proud. She is one of the students who came during the summer to help organize and also comes on Saturdays to help with the little kids.
Friday became our first day of "Reading Buddies." This is what I love/sometimes don't love about my site. I say something or think out loud, and then BAM it's somehow made reality; usually with me running to catch up. So earlier this week I said we need to get high school students to go to the elementary school and read them stories. So now every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I've got to get 30 high schoolers to Central Elementary by 4:15. It's going to be great, and the elementary school is really excited about it, but getting the routine of it down is a little rocky at the moment. Today wasn't a disaster though, so I have hope that it'll be smooth by the end of next week.
Another fun thing, my counterpart's daughter's pre-school class is planning to visit the library for a field trip! FIELD TRIP!! I'm so excited!
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