However, I’ve been reminded of that sacrifice. I sent an
email to my Aunt telling her goodbye. She’s been fighting cancer for years, and
the news from home is that we’re to the point of counting days. I’m thankful I
live in an age where email exists, where I can communicate back and forth with
my family because I know 51 years ago when Peace Corps started they wouldn’t
have heard the bad news until weeks after. Still, it’s closing in on a year and
half in the Philippines and some of those days I could have spent with my Aunt.
Some of those days I could have spent with my two best friends from college,
both of whom have recently been married. There are things I wish I had been
able to do back in America, but couldn’t.
It’s times like these that force me to weigh the value of my
service compared to what I’ve given up. Although I cannot undo the choices I
have made, I can still look back and ask myself if I would have made the same
choice knowing what I do now, because I know there will be similar choices in
future, some of them very soon. And my answer is yes, I’m still glad that I
joined the Peace Corps, because my loved ones at home understand why I’m doing
this, and although I can’t be as close as I want to be to them, I can still
drop a note from time to time. That, and there are people here in the
Philippines who I can make a difference for as well.
Mustaches and Moments
Last October my Batch had its Mid-Servie Training (MST), a
chance to commemorate being halfway done with service, to reassess our current
state at our respective sites, and as it’s last time we’ll see each other as a
whole group until our Closing of Service next year. We all have our highs and
lows, and at MST there were as many different perspectives and opinions about
service as they were volunteers. What we did share in common was a love for the
food, and that it was a chance to breathe.
I had a great time personally, and the highlight of our week
was the time honored tradition of “Stash Bash”. The men grew out their facial
hair, and we had a fun competition. I learned several important life lessons.
First, I can actually grow a decent beard. It took about four weeks until it
filled in well, but I was happy with the results. I did have to stand strong
against peer pressure though. My community loved or hated it along gender lines
with the men in favor and the women against (and my office is almost all
women). I also learned that a glue stick is “more gluey” than a bottle of glue.
When trying to curl my mustache for the competition I tried the bottle of
Elmer’s glue to limited success, but upon the advice of another volunteer used
the glue stick which worked perfectly.
Yes, I’m perfectly aware of how classy I am.
This is my first (successful) beard. Then again, last time I tried was six years ago.
And here is me for the Stache Bash!
Me and two other classy gents.
The Project
As I talked about before, my main project right now is
coordinating a comprehensive series of changes to help the out of school youth
have more opportunities in life, to be able to have more control over their own
destiny. Suffice to say this isn’t an easy project, but after talking to dozens
of people in the community, I have a starting outline as follows.
ORGANIZATION AND REPRESENTATION: At the very heart of this
project is to get a group organized of out of school youth leaders. This is a
group without any core to it, without a strong voice in the community, and
setting up a youth group for them is going to be vital to their future.
LIFE SKILLS TRAINING: Self confidence, self expression,
communication, maturity, hope. These are but a few things which most of the out
of school youth don’t have. There’s a lot of different ways to impart these
values and skills on the youth, and it’ll probably take most of them from
camps, to regular activities, to getting them involved in the other facets of
the project.
TECHNICAL SKILLS TRAINING: It’s difficult for a school
dropout to get a decent job, especially in a rural town where jobs are scarce.
The first challenge is going to be to determine what jobs can actually
translate into getting the youth working, and then to find people who can
assist with the training.
HEALTH: Drug use, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, and a lack
of family planning are all contributors to out of school youth, and making
their situation worse. In regards to family planning, poor families can easily
have as many as ten or fifteen children whom they cannot support, forcing the
children to stay at home and work.
EDUCATION: There is an Alternative Learning System created
for out of school youth, however it doesn’t have enough teachers for the
population. Part of our efforts need to be reintegrating what youth we can
Back into school, and trying to take preventative measures
for current students.
COUNSELING: Many of these youth come from broken families.
Some have suffered abuse. For some of the youth to deal with their current
situation and their past, we need to find better ways to connect them to the
professional counseling the LGU provides.
SUSTAINABLE FINANCING: Some of the youth will need to be
self employed. The organization for out of school youth will need to be active.
They need working capital for both. As I said before, we cannot train the youth
to be tailors if they cannot afford the cloth or fabric. We cannot give them
better farming techniques if they cannot afford the equipment and land. My
first approach will to be to search for sources of income within the
Philippines to promote the sustainable part of it.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: For every adult that helps volunteer,
for every group that assists with the project, that many more people become
invested in the future of these youth. The more people who take action, the
stronger the project will be.
OUTREACH: If this project is successful, it can be
duplicated. I will try to keep extensive notes as I go along, and am already
connected to the Provincial and Regional focal person for youth.
Although I’ve putting it all in my own words, and organized
it as best I saw fit, everything I just listed has come from more than one
person in the community. These are their ideas, which is why this project has a
shot of working. It’ll take slow, gradual work, and it’ll take the commitment
of a lot of Filipinos. As time goes on things will likely be tweaked and
changed as find out more.
Choices
I spoke before about similar choices to joining the Peace
Corps itself are coming up sooner than later. Although I still have some months
left, I have to think about whether I want to extend my service or not. The
project with the out of school youth is not going to be finished in 10 months. I
feel in many ways like I’ve just gotten started. Besides, I think I have
adjusted enough to where I feel I could stay for longer if things work out.
However I am trying to keep my options open. I still am
taking the Foreign Service Officer’s Test this February. I just created a
LinkedIn account in case someone browses my profile and say “I need to give
that a man a six-figure-salary!” (that’s how LinkinIn works, right?) One of my
goals is to have a job ready for me when I return to the states. My student
loans will be taken off deferment, and I don’t want to be kicking myself in the
foot knowing that there’s a lot I can do to look for work over the coming
months, whether I extend or not. Recently our Volunteer Leader (a volunteer who
extends a full year and takes on some staff duties on top of being a volunteer)
strongly suggested that a Masters is important for a lot careers. I really
don’t want two more years in a classroom, and I really don’t want to have to
have more student loans, but I have to respect the advice and consider it.
Strength
So… when tragedy strikes, or days bog me down, how do I
handle it? Well, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I need the extra day off,
sometimes I need to step away and focus on other things until I get my head
wrapped around it, whether it’s dealing with sad news, or figuring out how I’m
going to get things moving at my site with the limited experience I have. It’s
only a temporary solution though.
I’m almost certain I’ve talked about how I try to read (not
doing so well on that right now), exercise (doing a bit better with this one),
drinking hot tea or cocoa (now this one I’m on top of). However, I think the
thing that encourages me the most is learning new things. I joke with people
that I only started to appreciate learning my last semester of college as I
realized for the first time that I wouldn’t have people telling me what I’m
supposed to learn any more, that I had freedom to decide what was important to
know, and that there was still a lot left out there to find out. Here’s a video
I stumbled upon the other day about the golden ratio.
My aim is to try to have a blog post once a month, though
once every month and a half or two months might be more realistic. Next month I
have the second annual leadership summit. I’ll be using it as a stepping stone
for the project with the out of school youth, as I’m hoping over half of the
participants this year will be made up by them. I also am going to go back to
America for two weeks around Christmas time. I’m anxious to see how things have
changed, and to see how my perspective has changed after being gone for so
long.
‘Til next time.
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