Goodbye!

My host siblings, Rachel and Ryan, have now left to move back to Manila for work. Here is the four of us. Elvin, Rachel, Me, and Ryan.  

My Bike

Here's my bike. It's a little BMX bike. I took it for a spin around the neighborhood, and it is fine. I don't think it will really hold together for 2 years on these rough roads, but we'll see. So far I haven't ridden it anywhere, but my host dad thinks that this Saturday I will be getting up at 5:30 and taking a long ride along the coast. I tried to tell him how out of shape I am, and physical activity in this climate is hard on me, but I don't think I convinced him.

Weekly Theme

We have weekly themes at school, which as far as i can tell, are just bulletin boards put together by the teachers, and don't really have anything to do with the lessons of the week or activities. Aug 7-13, as you can see, was family planning week. They have this bulletin board out in the main school yard. The Philippines is in a big push for family planning, because, like many developing countries, the parents have more kids than they can feed. It's hard to see in the picture, but there are 5 or 6 kids and only one fish, and one of the little girls is crying cause she's hungry. Although it seems a bit strange to see these at an elementary school, nobody else is bothered by them, and the message is important. Oh, and in case you're wondering, this past week was Coconut Week. Not sure what the message is there. Eat coconuts, i guess. I saw a sticker at a store the other day, on the credit card machine, that said 'Buy Things'. Sometimes I guess the most straightforward approach is best.

Frisbee kids

Last weekend, our cluster site group (Erin, Anna, Allan, Ross, Tim, and I) went home to our trainins host families. Here's some pictures of the kids playing frisbee. It's so nice to spread the culture of frisbee to other countries. Pok was pretty good with it too, and he's only 4!

Birthday Blowout

If I thought my birthday this year would be no big deal (and I did), I was very much mistaken. My host family and co-teachers and principal made my birthday a big deal. They threw me the first surprise party I’ve ever had! I’ve mentioned before that birthdays here mean you cook for everyone. So I agreed to make a big batch of mashed potatoes and take it to school for the teachers to try after school on my birthday. I labored all afternoon in the hot kitchen making mashed potatoes, showered, and headed to school. What I was expecting was my big empty library, a table with plates and spoons, the bowl of mashed potatoes, and a basket of sweet rolls I picked up at the bakery. When I arrived at school, however, the teachers had decorated in Filipino birthday style, which includes a centerpiece, and ‘Happy 25th Birthday Laura” on the wall. They even got me a cake. The thing that made me laugh was that they picked pink everything - especially for me, because ‘that’s how much we like you!’ If they really knew me, they would know pink is my un-favorite color. But it was a really nice little set up. And they brought some more food so people wouldn’t have to rely on just my mashed potatoes. Which I think I can know say are world-renowned.

The amazing thing was the words on the wall were hand-cut by one of the teachers. I thought, ‘so that’s what my name is supposed to look like in cursive!’ and she CUT that out of paper! So the food was all set up, and we were just waiting to get rid of the students. At the end of school everyday, all the classes line up in the courtyard for Flag Retreat. They sing the national anthem. Well, today, after singing the national anthem, the directing teacher said ‘left face turn!’ and all 1,100 students were facing me, where I was standing in the door of the library. And they sang Happy Birthday to me. I was so embarrassed, I forgot to take a picture, but it was certainly something I won’t forget. Can you imagine, that many school kids singing you happy birthday?
The students were dismissed, and the teachers gathered in the library. First, my principal, Mr. Oberes had some remarks. They were mostly about how birthdays were a celebration of God creating us, and how they didn’t have time to prepare a proper party for me. Apparently a properly planned party would have included a dance number or two, firecrackers, and singing. When he was finished, he called me to the mike for my response. Response!? I am so not a public speaker. I don’t do well when I have everything written down to read off of. So I got up and said how surprised I was (which was true!) and thanked everyone. I thought I was done, but one of the teachers shouted ‘more!’ so I said how even back at home I wouldn’t have had this big of a party (also true! And fine by me!) and I asked everyone to enjoy the food. Then Mr. Oberes said a prayer.
We didn’t get to eat yet. First they sang Happy Birthday again, which goes like this in the Philippines:
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
Happy Birthday to Laura

Yes, it sounds as funny as it looks. At least to my ear.
The teachers had pitched on a couple of presents for me, and wanted me to open them right then. They told me you have to rip the paper off to bring good luck. I was worried, opening the presents, because I’ve gotten the impression that most gifts here are chintzy, useless, and/or tacky. But they got me 2 things I actually like and wanted! I was very amazed. They got me a Philippines flag, and a lamp made out of a conch shell. I can’t believe they got me the lamp, I have wanted to get one because all the lights here are fluorescent and that kind of overhead light drives me nuts. I’m a big lamp person. I love lamp. But I never said anything about it to anyone. So the presents were really nice.
Finally we could eat. And I made sure they cut into the cake, so I didn’t have to take home a whole cake just for myself. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, and I had to take pictures with everybody who came, and then the party was over and we got to go home. I was pretty tired.
But too bad! Because at home was an extension of the party. Another pink cake, more food, but thankfully, no presents. This cake I managed to get Ryan to help me eat some of, but my host mom said it’s just for me, and I will eat cake everyday until it’s gone. Let THEM eat cake, I say. Har har. Sorry.
One birthday tradition I learned about too late is that you should wear red on your birthday for good luck. But I got noodles for long life, and cake so I can be sweet. I suspect Ryan is making up the sweet tradition, but whatever.
So it was a very memorable birthday, and quite excessive. But the whole time, everyone was saying it was a simple birthday, and they were sorry, and it would have been better if they had more time to plan. I’m just thankful they didn’t have more time to plan, or it would have been way over the top.

The pictures are having a hard time uploading, I'll post them next week when I'm at a different computer.

I barely escaped with my life!

It was an eventful and traumatic Saturday here in Cadiz City. It started out innocently enough, playing scrabble with Ryan, waiting for the power to come back on. Then, walking through my room, I swiped my foot against the bed, and a deadly splinter got lodged deep under the toenail of my baby toe. My host brother Elvin is a nurse, so he looked at it for me, and him and my host mother decided I had to go to the emergency clinic, since we couldn’t remove it ourselves. We dashed to the clinic a mere 8 hours after the terrible incident. Walking into the emergency clinic made me a bit nervous, especially at the first mention of an injection, and the not-entirely-sterile conditions of the room. There were five beautiful young Filipina nurses waiting to greet me, and they asked me to sit at the doctor’s desk while they prepared the instruments of torture. The doctor quoted English poetry to me, Whitman and Emerson, and was most offended that I wasn’t familiar with Thomas Grey, a contemporary of Shakespeare! And Keats! I covered up for my ignorance by saying I was more familiar with American poetry. He showed me a book of poems by a local author and encouraged me to meet him. The last place I expected to meet a soft-spoken poet was in a free clinic in the Phlippines. I have never been so glad that this country speaks English, though, when the Dr. Homer (really his name!) told me they would give me one injection for the pain, and one for tetanus. I was able to quickly tell him that I was totally current on my tetanus shots, and I really really didn’t need one. (Some of you may not be aware that I am a huge baby about getting shots. Well, now you know. Yes, I cry like the little girl that I am whenever I have to get one.) After a bit more poetry, they put me up on a table and I stuck my foot out and never looked at it again. One of the 18-year old nurses came over to talk to me and distract me, and she did a pretty good job. I experienced two moments of awful pain, which I assume were the injection and the removal of the ‘foreign body’ from my toe. They wrapped my baby toe up in gauze, and I put my flip flops back on, and we were on our way back home.