The initial stage ends

If you read my last post, you’d notice I promised pictures. I do have them, but it’s late where I’m at now, and I leave 5am my time, so I’m going to save those for a later time.

Some Quick Facts

·         Getting the runs in the Philippines is not fun. You live and die by the bathroom and have to take rehydration salts, which taste awful

·         Though the Peace Corps doesn’t pay me that much, they cover a lot of things from travel, to medical, to training, to all sorts of other small things

·         When you’re in the tropical rain forest, you learn to live with some bugs around. It’s not worth trying to kill every last one when there are uncounted billions just outside you door and in the trees beyond

Something Deeper

So before I depart for my main training area, I’m trying to reflect on what I’ve seen so far. The Philippines, or at least the few parts I’ve come across, are a mixture of the bright and dull, the glamorous and the downtrodden. The bus rides we’ve taken pass an endless river of Cocacola signs were a beautiful Filipina woman’s auburn hair slowly shifts into the carbonated beverage, but just over the bright red signs I can see several layers of open shanties. Just across from the Jollibee fast food restaurant is a whole section dedicated to shelters for differing groups of the underprivileged. Although it is easy to spot the glaring differences between these two extremes, I can only wonder if they’re not just as out of place in many of our own communities.

A lot of what the Peace Corps has done during this initial orientation is not to just give us an overview of what’s to come (though in all honesty, most of what’s to come is dependant upon my final placement), what seems to be the most important thing is the bonds the volunteers have made in just a week and a half. The hours have felt like days, and the days weeks as the change in environment, the constant presence of one another, and the common pledge to the Peace Corps have brought us together. Wherever my placement is, I’ll probably be only a few hours away from the next couple volunteers, and chances are I’ll depending a lot on them as well as the other way around when times get rough, and let’s just cross our fingers that it doesn’t hit us all at once.

Our last activity for our initial orientation for the 28 CYF volunteers (one of us did decide to go back home) started with us writing our names on a piece of paper and taping it to our backs. We then went around and wrote one compliment on each other’s sheet of paper. The vast majority of people wrote funny or something akin on mine. In some ways I would’ve wanted a few more words that alluded to the questions I asked, or covering some of times I was serious, I think it’s a good thing being known for my humor. First of all, it might mean that I’ve finally figured out a way to be funny (perhaps a comedy tour is in my future? [no, it is not]). More importantly though, I think the thing that’s brought we trainees together the most is the times we’ve been able to laugh together, and I know some of the moments that stick out in my head the most is the funny comments and games my peers have come up with.   

Tune in sometime later, and I’ll try to get those pictures up, and I’ll talk about La Trinidad and the northern Philippines.