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!
o 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.
ok 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?
lled 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.
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.
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.
nutrition month, and so every Friday, the students cook a dish for themselves. Here’s some kids in the schoolyard cooking. They have very little supervision, because they all know how to cook. The teachers mostly just sit back and watch and chat with each other. They use wood to make the fire, and so every Friday it smells like camping at school and it makes me want to go camping. I asked one of the teacher what the theme for August was, and he said ‘language’. I thought, great! I can put together language activities, and do projects with the kids! A perfect theme for me! Then he said, ‘Yes, the whole month, the students try to speak nothing but Tagalog.’ Sigh.
to the teachers, so I went to the public library and checked out 2 of the very few suitable books and let them circulate around the 1st grade. But they only let me check out books for 5 days, and only 3 at a time! And the public library has so few picture books available anyway. Still, it’s better than our library, which has no picture books, and when we get them, you will only be able to check out one book at a time, for one day at a time. That’s the decision the library committee agreed on.
As far as Filipino families go, theirs didn’t seem that big; Eley family get-togethers have more people at them. But there was tons of food! The only person in this picture that I really know is the girl at the end of the table, that’s my host sister, Rachel. If you’re interested in the food we’re eating, I’ll tell you what each thing is, starting at the top. You can hardly see it, but there’s a tray of ‘barbeque’, which is grilled pork on skewers. It tastes really good, but more than half of it is pure fat, so I have a really hard time eating it. Next are two chickens stuffed with lemongrass and seasonings. In the white bowl is the rice. On the tray is lumpya, fried lumpya on the left, fresh lumpya on the right. Lumpya are basically egg rolls. They’re pretty tasty. Then there’s a bowl of some variety of sud-an. Sud-an is the general term for the food that goes with the rice. I’m sure this dish has it’s own name, but I don’t know what it is. To the left is the spaghetti that is prepared for every special occasion here. I don’t know what the origin of special-occasion spaghetti is, but I’m willing to bet it has to do with American troops that used to be here. The Filipinos have adapted it though, so the sauce is much sweeter than the sauce we’re used to. I can eat it, but it’s not very good. Most of the other Peace Corps Volunteers can’t stand it.
them that for next week’s meeting, they need to bring in labels for the shelves, and telling them to hurry up with the posters, etc. After she left, the kids asked me what they were supposed to bring to label the shelves, and of course I had no idea, and no intention of labeling shelves yet. So I told them not to worry about it.
he said his mom and his aunt ganged up on him and made him cut it. HMM sound like anyone we know?
was the high school marching band and the white girl walking with the teachers. Everything else in the parade is just different groups walking togeter, carrying their banners. No floats, buskers, bands, anything like that. We walked forever, and then the teachers decided to take a shortcut back to the park, so we didn't actually do the whole parade route, which was fine by me.
you about Filipino birthday parties some other time.
m. He's a pack leader or something. 
d hand clothing that sells for really cheap. The problem is, I've heard, that the clothing comes from the U.S., Japan, and other places as relief goods for very poor people. But somehow it ends up in the hands of vendors. It's still really cheap, but I guess it's supposed to be free for some people. Well, here is a pile of ukay-ukay clothes, 10 pesos for any item. (about 19 cents).
There was a Ferris Wheel, which I went on. It was fun, but a little scary. No, I'm not scared of heights, but I am scared of rickety, acient ferris wheels in the Philippines. But I am still alive, and it didn't fall off it's axle.
The most incredible thing that came to town was the portable McDonalds. Two trucks pull up and park, and there you have a McDonalds. They only had about 5 menu items, but it was a big deal in town. I got an ice cream there one day.
This is a picture of one of the girls in first grade. 
hought "what did I just put on my oatmeal?" I opened the canister and tried the red sugar. And found out it was iced tea. yum, iced tea oatmeal.
I took the bus from Cebu city, onto a bus at Toledo, across to San Carlos, then up to Cadiz City. I got off the bus while it was on the boat, and sat in the boat cabin. It was a pretty cool thing.
And these are two little boys that came in to the library to make faces at me and laugh one afternoon. Aren't they cute? Usually i have about 20 kids standing around staring at me after school, so lately I've started closing up early and going and chatting with other teachers instead of sitting there talking to kids in ilonggo and they don't answer me, they just stand there. Soon I'd like to start doing read-alouds after school, so they have a reason to come and stare at me and not say anything.
This is the fun party cabin on the overnight ferry from Iloilo to Cebu for swearing in. The Farvers on the left, Anna, and Eli. 
Here is Erin, me, and Anna, all spiffied up for swearing in.
And this is Erin and Anna testing our makeshift 3-person bed to see if it will roll apart in the night if we thrash around a lot in our sleep. It moved a lot during their test, but when we actually slept on it, we didn't trash around nearly so much, and the beds pretty much stayed together. It was way more comfortable sleeping three across this bed than taking turns on the cot from the spanish inquisition each night.
