An Update

La Trinidad

I wake up in the morning to the sound of a hundred roosters crowing incessantly, broken up by the sound of wild dogs, and the vendor who cries out the kind of bean he’s selling. I have to walk for a little over five minutes along a twisting path to get to the nearest road, through the maze that is my neighborhood of Bayabas in Baranguay Pico of the city of La Trinidad. Beyond the sea of houses is a city dealing with pollution and poverty. Though cleaner and better off than the parts of Manila I visited during the initial orientation, and despite constant efforts of the local and municipal governments, there are some things that simply take time to fix.

Jeepneys, vibrant (and often as not gaudy) public transportation vehicles made from old World War II jeeps fill the streets along with trucks, SUV-taxis, and the occasional privately owned car. There seems to be a seller of cheap candies, fruit, or instant coffee packs everywhere I look, even outside one of the windows of my room.

Beyond La Trinidad I can see green, lush mountains whose peaks are covered in fog and cloud. Though the streets and main thoroughfares are devoid of all plant life, the neighborhoods are rife with what is to be exotic trees and vines.

 The neighboring city of Baguio is the summer capital of the Philippines because of the temperate weather, in fact  I have hardly sweated since I’ve come to the north (with the exception of my work out time). It is however, the rainy season that lasts from June to October most of the time, and most days have seen heavy rain. I put my rain jacket and rain boots on, and with my umbrella in hand I go about my business.

I have found the people here to be a wealth of knowledge. My host family in particular have helped me understand what I see every day, and make sense of the rumors and stories I’ve heard. These helpful hints range from anything to telling me the dangers of Kalinga (a province where we Peace Corps volunteers are strictly prohibited from going to), to how the community has reacted and responded to the new mayor’s push for a more ecologically friendly city. The answer to the first was black magic (aka, they put one of any number of poisons in your food, each with its own purpose from giving amnesia, to making you lethargic), the answer to the second was that about half the people now recycle, the other half still going about their old habits.

What Am I Doing on a Daily Basis?

I get up in the morning around six. I bathe with rain water mixed with boiled water which I dump over my head using a dipper. I eat breakfast which, like every other meal, is composed of rice, steamed vegetables, and some form of meat whether beef, chicken, milkfish, spam, or hot dog.

I am still in training (and my title right now is Peace Corps trainee), so most of my day is studying. In the morning from eight to noon we study language with our LCF (language and cultural facilitator) Ester. There was a statistic I learned a long time ago that most of the world’s languages would be gone in the next fifty to hundred years. I believe my studies in Ilokano have shown me exactly what that statistic meant.

Ilokano is not the native language of most people’s in the north. It is the language they use to understand each other.  The language itself has spattering of Spanish, English, and Tagalog (the main Filipino language) that often makes it seem as much as a combination of languages as much as it is a language onto itself. I am seeing though how Ilokano is taking over many of the other languages that once dominated parts of the northern Philippines. However, it in turn seems to be falling prey to Tagalog and English.

So far I have been finding Ilokano much easier to learn than Mandarin, and I do feel confident that so long as I continue to study outside of class with my host family, that I will be prepared to work somewhere where English may not be widely spoken (unlike La Trinidad, where most people can speak at least some).

I then have technical training from one to five from Ani our TCF (Technical and Cultural Facilitator). These classes are much more varied, as we can do anything from touring a local organization, to learning new activites and skills, to overviewing Filipino law in regards to the rights of a child, to interactive days where we work with local school children or even the community leaders (more on this in just a sec).

After that, I head back home where I generally talk to my host family for a couple hours, sometimes studying Ilokano with them, or going back and forth sharing things about our own cultures or experiences. I’m starting to use more Ilokano with them, and hopefully by the end of August I can hold conversations just in their language. I have several books they want me to read such as “Where There is No Doctor, A Survival to Medical Emergencies in Rural Areas” and “Resiliency”, a book about some Filipino street children who managed to succeed and overcome their situations through different forms of resiliency.

The other trainees and I might start to hang out once a week just to hang out and have some fun and relaxation, but that’s still in the works. We did see the final Harry Potter movie this last weekend, which was fun to watch (would have been lame to have to wait for two bloody years).

Oh, and I’m starting to work out like a champ too. The FitDeck cards I have are a lifesaver, and I fully intend to get amazingly agile and strong through my Peace Corps service. Why, cause I can, that’s why.

So… what things have  you done?

Not much happened at Initial Orientation in Manila. It was a great chance to meet all the other volunteers who came with and to make some bonds that will hopefully last even if we are too far away to see each other during our service save once in a blue moon.

Here at La Trinidad with pre-service training, we’ve actually had the chance to do some meaningful things. Our two main projects right now are the community project and the youth camp. The youth camp right now is starting with a series of tutorials. The five of us are basically thrust into a room with a bunch of kids after school ends and we have to come up with several games and activities to work with the children. One of the activities I ran (and came up with on the top of my head) was having the children name different forms of art. They came up with nine, and we took it away and our next tutorial was all about having the kids pick one of the art forms and present what they did to the whole group. I assisted another trainee in teaching nine girls the Do Re Mi song from A Sound of Music.

There’s also a handful or twelve to thirteen-year-old boys who I need to show up again so I can try to get it in their thick heads to do better in school. Crossing my fingers for that side project.

We’ve also been working with the neighboring Barangay (a Barangay is the smallest level of government in the Philippines, each one encompassing a neighborhood [a very large neighborhood]). With five different influential groups; the Barangay officials, the Women’s Group, daycare teachers and workers, the Senior Citizens’ Group, and youth leaders, we’ve run a series of activities to evaluate their community. Our next time meeting with them will be the community action planning where we develop a project with them to be implemented (or attempted to be implemented). We’ve seen the group dynamics, the resources they have, and perhaps most importantly, what THEY actually want to see done in their community. Crossing my fingers for this one too.

However, all this has been rushed so far, to show us what we will be doing at our individual sites over a much longer period of time where we’ll have the time to build relationships and be patient.

Last notes

As you may have guessed, the internet is not as readily available here. I’m also taking a guess that my permanent location will be the same. So expect less frequent blog posts, but longer ones. All I know right now about my site placement is that it will be community based. As opposed to center based where I would be working at a shelter or residential area, a community based job will still have an office, but my work will entail actually leaving my place of work and to go out into the community.

And just in case what everything said hasn’t implied it already, I am doing very well, and I feel more confident about my decision to join the Peace Corps now than when I did when I was even applying.

I'll get pics up as soon as I figure out the best way to put them on for your viewing convenience.