Hot Times in Victoria

From last Sunday to Friday, Scott Farver and I went to Victoria, Laguna, about 2 hours from Manila, to help facilitate a teacher's workshop with Keith Solle, another education volunteer from our batch. For four days we did various sessions with the teachers from Keith's school district. I taught some sessions on grammar games, and student-centered learning, and other fascinating topics. It was really hot, but it is summer, after all. Here are some pictures from the week. Scott is the guy on the left in the blue shirt and Keith is on the right. The teachers call him Kuya Keith which means 'big brother keith'. We have a shot of Kuya Keith doing an energizer game with Filipina teachers who are all a foot shorter than him. There are some teachers working on grammar dominoes in my grammar games session. And then we have a picture of none other than Albert Einstein, 1905-1915, which is painted on the wall of the classroom we were teaching in. We knew he was a genius, but discovering the theory of relativity before he was 10 is truly amazing.

It was a really good experience for me, because I'm not a very confident teacher trainer, and this was good practice for me. I also got a lot of good materials from Keith and Scott and we had fun.

Holy Week in Sipalay

This weekend, for holy week, (Wednesday to Saturday) I went to Sipalay, a town about 6 hours south of me, with some friends. Tim and Ben are the other two volunteers in my province, and NC and Renee are two of our friends from Bacolod. We all rented a beach cabin on a white sand beach in a strip of beach resorts. We ate very well, we played in the ocean, we spent a lot of time napping and laying around reading. It was great fun. The only major down point was when we went snorkeling. We went out on the choppy ocean in a tiny boat and the boys went snorkeling. Renee and I stayed in the boat because the water was very strong. It was incredibly windy and then NC stepped on a sea urchin. We went back to our resort, but we couldn't do anything like take him to a doctor. He soaked it in vinegar and didn't complain too much about the pain. We finished our vacation, and when he got home he went to the doctor who just gave him some antibiotics. He's alright now. Besides reading and swimming, we played ping-pong, checkers, jenga, cards. We didn't get too sunburned, and we almost got enough sleep. It was a very relaxing holiday.

I went swimming

On Friday, I went swimming! In the ocean! It was okay. I tried Ben's snorkel and saw a blue fish, and a tree stump underwater and lots of algea, and a sea urchin. It was a really hot day, so swimming was nice. When we left, we saw three boys tumbling in a pile of coconut husks which was soft and springy. We stopped to play and watch them. They even did back flips off a 7 foot high tree stump!

Wedding

So this weekend I went to my first Filipino wedding. Even though it was in Cadiz, it was about 40 minutes away. Cadiz is a big area. It was pretty much like a wedding you would see in the states, except of course, hotter. And at catholic weddings here (I don't know about back home) the bride and groom have sponsors. Sometimes up to 60 sponsors. A lot, at any rate. It's kind of like being a godfather or godmother at a baptism. So one of my co-teachers, Mrs. Sarabia, was a sponsor, because the girl getting married was a former student of hers. Mrs. Sarabia isn't catholic, but i guess you can be a sponsor anyway. This girl had about 20 sponsors, 10 bridesmaids, and 10 jr. bridesmaids and flower girls. I learned two things in the church service, which was held in Ilonggo. Higugma means love. That's a funny word to say, higugma. And they said it a lot, obviously. Another thing i learned is that when you're texting, 143 is short hand for I love you. Because I is one letter, Love is 4, and You is 3. So if you're texting your sweetheart, you just put in 143 and they'll know what it means. So I learned two new things about how to say love. Yes, the priest talked about 143 in his sermon, texting is really a part of the culture here.

So after the ceremony, we all got on tiny scary boats and took a 20 minute ride to an island where the bride lived and had the reception. It was incredibly hot. We ate lunch, and then the couple had their first dance. At the first dance, the sponsors and guests pin money on the couple. Then they had their first drink of wine together, their first bite of cake together, etc. Then we left. Even though I had never been to a Filipino wedding, I have learned enough in the last year to know 2 things about events like this: Jeans are dress-up clothes, and we will leave the minute we can. There's no dancing among the guests or toats or anything. When it's over, it's over. So yep, I was wearing jeans and a tshirt, and fit right in, and the minute we could, we left. Besides me and Mrs. Sarabia, her daughter Divine was with us, and another teacher at our school, Liezel. So the four of us walked around the little island, which was where Mrs. Sarabia used to teach. She showed us her old school, which only has 5 teachers, and the teachers live in the classrooms. They go 20 feet to the beach and go swimming when they don't have class. But she said it wasn't as nice as when she had taught there. We also walked over to the beach resort, and sat in the shade and watched some foreigners sunbathing. Crazy foreigners. A Filipina would never choose to sit in the sun for no good reason. When we were done sitting there, we went back to the wedding site and caught a small scary boat back to the mainland, then a tricycle out to the highway, then a bus back into town.

Balay Alibangbang

On Saturday I took a field trip with Jonica’s kindergarten class to the Balay Alibangbang. Any guesses what that is? It’s the butterfly house! Alibangbang is ‘butterfly’ in Ilonggo, which I think is great. It’s pronounced like ‘long’ or ‘song’. So Balay Alibangbang isn’t anything like the Butterfly Pavilion in terms of education or exhibits or numbers of butterflies. But it was really pleasant, pretty, and still educational. And it was just ten minutes from my house, not far at all! I had no idea it was so close.

On the grounds they have a really nice playground area, a bigish butterfly dome with screening, a swimming pool, a lecture hall, picnic areas, gardens, and a big beautiful house that the owners live in and might be a hotel as well (I didn’t really get that part.) We had about 50 kindergartners (age 4-6) and each one had a parent. The kids played on the playground and the adults sat under the trees when we first got there. There was a nice breeze and it was cool and peaceful. Then a guy took us into the lecture hall to talk about butterflies. He turned on a video about butterflies and moth that was really nice (taped off TV) but I knew right away the kids would not last long. It was in English, and long, and I know what teaching 5 year olds can be like. But I was very impressed with the parents. In most situations like this, the parents would sit at the back and talk among themselves, leaving the children up front. But these parents watched the video, and when the guy stopped it, they asked questions about butterflies and everything! Go parents! The lecturer guy spoke half in English, half in Ilonggo (they call it Ilongish…seriously.) Then the kids got to go in the butterfly dome. Parents had to pay an extra 30pesos to go in, so none did.

After the learning, the kids went swimming, and we had picnic lunch, and then relaxed under the trees for awhile. Then we went home. It was really nice. The kids in the picture of me with the butterfly are Jonica in the middle, and her friend Bony, on the left. Also on the tire swing, Jonica on top, Bony on the bottom.

Guard Duty

Most businesses here have guards at the door. A uniformed man, often with a gun, who guards the place. But they do a lot more than just stand there. The guard at the bank helps old ladies work the ATM. The guard at WiseMart gets things off the high shelves for you. The guard at Novo checks your bags at the bag counter on your way in, and checks your receipt on the way out. The guard at Jollibee will help clean off tables if the staff is busy. Guards open doors, hail taxis, answer questions, watch your things for you.
The library gets chaotic at recess, so I recently put some of the regular library goers to work as my assistants. I have kids to do the library cards, kids to straighten the books, and two guards. One of my favorite fourth grade boys, Ervino, and whichever friend he gets each day, guard the library door. They enforce the rules of the library, and Ervino is very serious about his job. He doesn’t let anyone in with food or drink. He makes sure people aren’t playing or goofing around in the library. One rule I made was that if you’re in the library, you need to be reading. Otherwise go outside. I did this mostly to keep the kids from standing in a half circle a foot from my desk and staring at me, but it’s also good for kids who are running around or just doing nothing.
The other day Ervino was guarding the library in the late afternoon, a time when not too many kids come in. When he comes to me with a problem, it usually takes 2 or 3 minutes for me to figure out what the problem is, because of his terrible English, and my awful Ilonggo. It’s really hard not to laugh when after 2 minutes of back-and-forth, I finally figure out he’s telling me a boy kicked (probably accidentally) the bookshelf. It’s okay, I tell him, the bookshelf will be fine.
Some of the problems Ervino came to me with that day: Those three boys are not reading, they are just sitting. That boy kicked the bookshelf. That girl has food. Should we let students bring their bags in here, because what if they put a book in their bag without checking it out? (not all students have library cards; and that problem took at least 5 minutes to understand.)
Ervino came up to me and said, “that boy is magpamoyayaw.” I have no idea what that means. I look at the boy. Nothing out of the ordinary. “kaintyende ka?” (do you understand?) he asks. No. What does magpamoyayaw mean? Ervino looks pained. Then he leans over and whispers a cuss word in my ear. Oh! He is cussing? Yes, yes, he is cussing. Okay, so I have no idea how to pronounce the word that means cussing, and I would feel like an idiot telling a child not to cuss when I can’t even say what I don’t want him to do. I also don’t want to tell Ervino to reprimand the kid, because he is just a kid himself and it’s just a cuss word. But Ervino asks me if I want him to tell the kid to stop cussing, and I say yes. He tells the kid to stop, then spells the word that means ‘to cuss’ for me. I still can’t pronounce it.
But I really like having the boys around to keep a (very close) eye on things, and they love their job. It’s an important, grown-up job. (Ervino is the one in the back)

Picture Website

If you just can't get enough of my pictures, but have had more than enough of reading what i write, check out this picture website i set up. i'll try to get it more complete and organized in the future.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lauraeley

Regular Old Weekend

So this weekend, I didn't travel. I didn't do anything. I did what many Filipinos do on the weekends. On Saturday, I varnished my bookcase, because tiny little bugs (not termites) have been eating it and creating massive amounts of sawdust all over my books. They told me varnish would take care of it. So i did that Saturday. Sunday we had an all-day power outtage and so I sat outside i the street with my neighbors. It was too hot to sit inside. We sat around outside for hours, just chatting, and doing nothing. It's almost impossible for me to imagine doing nothing for hours in the states. Here are the kids that live in the compound, Bulilit, Jonica, and Sheena, and they are drinking coconut milk through a straw in the top.

Dumagete

Last weekend I went on a trip to Dumagete, a neat college city on the other side of my island. I met a bunch of other volunteers there, and we walked around the city, ate good food, and hung out. We went on a beautiful hike up to an amazing waterfall. It was a really good trip.

We're Back!

So there was an earthquake in Taiwan more than a month ago, and it disrupted our internet service. Remember the days of dail-up? The internet was slower than that - when it worked at all. I wasn't able to even log in to work on my website here, much lest post things. But either today is a good day, or they fixed the cable under the ocean, because it looks like blogger, email, and the internet are up and running again! Whoo hoo!

Ati-Atihan, Day Two

The highlights of the festival in Cadiz were on Sunday. During the morning is the street dancing competition. Different groups of mostly youth practice for months to create an interpretive dance with costumes. Then, one by one they perform them for the judges. The place was packed, but i got me, Ben, and NC into the better viewing area because the guard saw i was a 'tourist'. (In other words, white.) We watched the competition for about 4 'tribes' and then went to get lunch. In the streets, where there are all kinds of booths for food and carnival games and junk to buy, people were everywhere. And on this one day, anyone who wants to can bring out a can of paint and put it on other people's faces. I got a lot of paint, on my face, arms, and in my hair. It was fun. It's mostly teenagers with the paint, and some would come and ask me 'isa pa?' ('just one?') and then put a little paint on my face. Some run past with a handful of paint and just smear it everywhere. There was also live bands at night, and a beauty pageant, and a big street party with fireworks the last night of the festival. Monday was of course a holiday, to recover from the party.

Ati-Atihan Festival, Day One

Our city is celebrating the Ati-atihan festival all this week. The opening ceremony took place at my school, and students from other schools came and performed. Here are some kids playing the Rondallia, which sounds neat and has FOURTEEN strings! I sat on stage with the Mayor and other important people. There are booths set up around our school courtyard, promoting things like the environment and natural resources and native species. Then, along the main road of town are about 50 booths, all made out of native materials (mostly bamboo) and selling native products and produce. Every school in Cadiz has a booth, and some other organizations do too. It's really neat to walk back and forth to school past all the booths. I buy a lot of fresh fruit and some other handmade products. We are also having a food festival at night, and there is music and carnival rides and things like that. The highlights of the festival, will be this weekend

Animal Planet

It's been raining a lot lately, and I think it's making the wildlife do crazy things. I saw the rat again in my bathroom the other day, and chased it out, but i felt kind of bad, cause it was basically a flood outside. Like that Winnie-The-Pooh movie where water is just everywhere. This morning, at 5am, I heard a loud and distressed meowing coming from very nearby. I checked out my house but couldn't find the cat. I eventually concluded that it was stuck in the ceiling, but I didn't know what to do about it. By the time it got light out, the cat I think got itself unstuck from the ceiling.

The rain was so heavy for more than a day, that I didn't even go to school. My little friend Jonica came over, and she left her flip flops outside the door like always and they floated away. The leak in my living room turned into 3, then 4 leaks. There is also a couple in the kitchen. Fortunately, my bedroom is still dry. I like the cooler temperatures right now. It's actually, truly, cool.

Snow!!!!

Probably the only post I'll ever make about snow during my Peace Corps time. But here I am with my brothers in our (their) snow fort during my Christmas Vacation. whoo!

At Anna's House

Tim and I went to visit Anna in her genuine Nipa hut in Capiz, on Panay. This is the traditional Filipino house in our area, and it's really cool to live in one. This one was custom built for Anna.

Peace Corps: Where Nightmares Become Reality

For years now, I have had a recurring nightmare. I’m asleep, and feel ants crawling all over my bed. I’ll jump out of bed, throw the covers off, and turn on the light. Then I see there are no ants in my bed, and I go back to bed. That was before Peace Corps. Now there really are ants in my bed. There’s nothing like facing your fears, though. For one thing, the ants in my nightmares are big, and all over the bed, everywhere. In real life, they are usually the tiny red ones, although sometimes the bigger black ones find their way onto the bed. And they are never ALL over. I’ve gotten used to just flicking them off my sheets, and it hardly even bothers me anymore. Not that I like it, but it’s not the stuff of nightmares.

But I suspect that when I go back home I will have new material for my nightmares. For example, I’m sleeping, and I’m awoken by the sound of something like a plastic wrapper or plastic bag being crunched on, or maybe, chewed. I go into the next room and turn on the light, and a rat the size of a house cat dashes off into the CR (bathroom), leaving behind a bag of snack food taken from my kitchen table. That could come up in a nightmare sometime.

Or I might have a nightmare where I’m eating dinner with my host family, and I take a piece of pork from the bowl and put it on my plate. It’s hard to cut, and I feel stupid working so hard at it. I flip it over and realize I am trying to eat a pig snout, hair included. That one has nightmare potential.

I just hope that the good experiences I’ve had come up in dreams too. I could handle a recurring dream about lying in a hammock under some palm trees.

Thanksgiving 2006

This was a very memorable Thanksgiving. About 15 Peace Corps Volunteers went to Kevin’s house in Pandan, Antique, on Panay. We planned Thanksgiving dinner for Saturday, so we wouldn’t have to take vacation days to get there on Thursday. I left my city Thursday after school and stayed with our Filipina friend, Renee, who lives in Bacolod. Friday morning, Tim, Renee and I got on the boat to Iloilo and met Allan, another PCV, and the four of us got on a bus up the coast. Allan and I got off at Lau-aan, where we stayed the night with our friends, Ryann and Eli Heller. The next morning we got our stuff together, Eli picked up a turkey, and we caught a bus to Pandan. We were on the same bus as the Farvers and Ian, so the 7 of us showed up at Kevin’s together. Everyone started preparing food. I helped Ryann make an apple crisp. Some people brought pies, some of the boys started preparing the turkeys, and there were vegetables and stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy to make. Kevin’s house is on the beach, and is about 10 feet from a German volunteer’s house, so we used both houses to prepare our feast. They built fire pits on the beach to roast the turkeys on. It was a lot of fun to see everyone. The food was ready about 4pm, and we dug in. It all tasted great. You kind of expect a Peace Corps thanksgiving to taste wrong. But everything was just like home! I think this is probably because we have some really good cooks in our group. All I did to help was cut apples, and you don’t really have to be a good cook to do that right.
So we all sat around under palm trees on the beach eating our thanksgiving dinner, and we all felt very happy and thankful that we could be together. It was pretty cool.
After dinner, some people went swimming, I went on a walk, and we all just hung out. Later I played hearts, and we had a bonfire on the beach, and the Farvers had a Christmas trivia game with a grand prize of a CD of Christmas music. And I won! It was a great victory. I am putting this on my resume to give Alex Trebek when I get home.
Most of us stayed that night in Kevin’s house or the German volunteers house. There were a few beds, and I lucked out and got to share one, so I didn’t have to sleep on the floor. The next morning I got up too early (6:30) and went to visit my old host family in Oton, Iloilo. That was really nice too, I spent the night there. Finally Monday morning, I headed home. I got back to Cadiz about 3pm and had to clean my house and take a long nap. It was an excellent weekend.

Successes

Well, little things are happening, but the important thing is that things are happening. Here’s some good things that have been happening recently:

We got a shipment of books from America, and I went to one of the most interested teachers and gave her class a demonstration on how to take care of books, and gave each of them a library card. So now they come pretty much every day and check out books. It’s great, because they are excited, they like the books, and the teacher is encouraging them to read. Two of the students, Elaine and Ervino, love coming to the library, they ask me if they can sweep and straighten books on recess. Ervino likes to be the bouncer and stand by the door so no one comes in with food or drink. It’s hilarious, and I love it. Students from all grades come in to look at books on their breaks, which is good, but I can’t give everyone a library card because we only have about 100 books, and there are about 45 kids in each class. So 2 classes could wipe out all the books every day, and there would be nothing left for kids to come in and read. I’m trying to work out ways to get around this until I can get the rest of the donated books here.

I also have finally started the kids working on the World Map Project. I got one of the social studies teachers to do it with me, and we’ve got some of the motivated, top students working on it. So far we’ve painted the background blue, and played some geography games. I hope we can hold it together to finish this project by the end of the school year. The map is about 10 feet long by 6 feet high, so it’s a big undertaking. But I really think it will benefit the school if it’s done right. Some of the teachers have asked me if Canada is part of the United States. The teachers. They could use a map.

Another cool thing is that I have been matched up with a class for the World Wise Schools program. This is where a teacher requests to have a correspondence with a Peace Corps volunteer. The class writes letters to the volunteer, and the volunteer shares the culture of their host country. Any teachers can request a volunteer, so if you know any who might be interested, have them check out the PC website. Anyway, so my class is an 11th grade English class in Texas. The teacher was a volunteer in Paraguay in the 80’s. I think it will be neat.

My teacher’s English class has now completed 2 sessions. The first session was not good. It was pretty awful. I worked hard on the 2nd session, and it came out MUCH better. The teachers had fun, they paid attention and participated, and they practiced their English. We have 6 new student teachers at our school, and they are going to start attending too. I’m excited about that, because I think it’s much easier to impart teaching techniques and strategies to teaching students than to teachers who have been doing things their way for years. I just hope I can keep the sessions interesting and relevant. The teachers are terrible students. They come late, they don’t have paper or pens, they talk, and they complain if we keep working even one minute past 5 (even though we didn’t start until 4:30) But I can handle all that, as long as they are participating and trying the activities.

So hooray! Oh, and I also made fried rice that was not just edible, but actually good! And I did it on two separate occasions, which I think means I know how to cook something! Hooray for that too!!

My House

Some of you have seen the pictures of my house already, but here they are for those of you who haven't. It's a fine little house, even though it's not real nice. This morning a really incredibly loud roll of thunder made the plaster flake down from the ceiling. After that the rain came inside, but just in one spot, which is better than before, when there were four leaky spots.

Life is a Highway!

Here are some of the government-posted signs along the highway from Cadiz to Bacolod. Made me laugh. We need to tell people not to text while driving??

Avoid Texting While Driving

Slow Down

Driving with Liquor Don't Mix

Hands on the Wheel
Eyes on the Road
That's the Skillful Drivers Code