So, my number one fan (my mom) has really wanted to see more pictures, so I got most of the good ones (and a couple bad ones) to show off the first six months! Here we go...
First picture! This was back during our Initial Orientation, a 10 day period where all the volunteers were together. Take a look into the IIRR. I think it's just in Asia, but still some pretty cool stuff they do.
And here is roughly half my batch during one of the conferences later. As you can see we're all drinking Red Horse, strong beer that comes in Litros.
This narrow walkway was just one of the many obstacles from going from my host family's house during pre-service training, to the classroom.
This interesting house was also along the way. It's a good representation of a lot of the homes in the area, and the Philippines
"Beware of Dor -She Knows Kung-Fu". The Philippines (like anywhere, really) is full of all sorts of fun, little gems if you keep your eyes open for them.
And here are the La Trinidad "Spice Girls" The three one the left were my cluster mates, volunteers who studied and trained with me throughout pre-service training, and the young lady on the right is a volunteer who's been here a year who helped with our training for a week.
During training, we did a lot of after school sessions with youth.A lot of it was impromptu, including the day I taught the girls pictures the "Do Re Mi" song from
A Sound of Music.
And here is one of my better pictures. I am studying Ilokano, the regional dialect, and my buddy Kels is studying her lunch.
This message was all over La Trinidad, in front of every lot. It seemed to work quite well actually.
This picture was taken on my birthday, and after the roughest day during PST. Not much sleep, two major events that day. News both good and bad from home. Still managed my dashing smile though!
During our Supervisors and Counterparts Conferences during PST, we stayed at a place that had this waterpark. Not sure how my peer got himself turned around so.
And here are the five of us "cluster mates" at Faces, a bar in Baguio City, the "Summer Capital" of the Philippines. Behind us is our Margarita tower.
And here's a better pictures of us sitting together like a family. Honestly, we spent on average around eight hours a days together, everyday, for the better part of two-and-a-half months. Good thing we got along.
Every training site had to do a cultural presentation. Naturally we went for a tradional dance. There's the four of us dashing men in La Trinidad, showing our bods.
Here is quite a few of the pre-service training staff. My two were the second and third from the right. Behind them is Denny, Country Director, head honcho in the Philippines.
I was selected to represent the Ilokano language group to give a part of the volunteers' speech during our swearing in ceremony that graduated us from trainees to volunteers.
Here I am at my welcoming into my permanent site. My supervisor Nereo is on the far right, and my site mate (volunteer who works in the same area) Laura next to me.
I work with the LGU at my site. Here is out Municipal Hall on a bright and sunny day.
Here is our office, which is actually the Motorpool (where people park) as well. We'll move out once the second municipal building is finished which is set for December 2012.
These five lovely ladies behind me are my coworkers, the members of the Social Welfare and Development branch of Dupax del Norte.
Here is the house of the host family I stayed with once I arrived at site.
This is the view when stepping out of the house. Rice field right in front and ahead, and the small mountain in the distance.
This is actually a picture of a bridge in Ifugao (the province north of mine). My area was hit bad by the typhoons, but I didn't think to bring my camera in the rain. So, here's a picture of what happened in an area that got hit even worse.
Speaking of Ifugao, I was part of a group of volunteers, who with some Filipino college students, performed a traditional Ifugao dance for the Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary Celberation in Manila. I'm the tall, white guy.
The Grand Kanyaw is the cultural day of Dupax del Norte, a part of the festival week of its foudning. This year was its 37th Anniversary, 37 years after it was split from not-as-good-as-us Dupax del Sur. As you can see, they gave me a vest, a bag... and a spear. The man next to me in the green in the Vice Mayor, the woman on my other side in the Mayor.
The Youth Leadership Summit! Here we have a picture of the volunteers and staff who helped make it run. Thanks again everyone!
This is a picture after I pulled one of my fast ones over the youth (me pulling fast ones over the youth is going to be a running theme of my time in Philippines). After I assigned their teams and told them to build me the tallest tower they could using the materials, each team built me one. It was at this point I asked them why they built me eight towers when I wanted THE tallest tower. Here they are combining their towers, learning teamwork beyond "teams". See? My pranks are
informative.
One of the numerous activities was the "Icerberg". People put traits above, below, or on the water line depending on whether the personal attribute can be seen on the outside or not. Originally learned this activity during a diversity session in pre-service training, and applied it to my session on observation. I'll touch more on this in my next blog post.
This is Munya. As you can see not only is he running the traditional "blindfold" activity where one partner gives verbal commands, he is actually moving the chairs around, placing them directly in front of the blind. This is why you give freedom to the people you work with, so that they can take your ideas (or activities in this case) and make them even better with their own twist.
Another session was "Having Fun". Honestly, those questionnaires I got back from the youth told me they thought leadership was all locked jaws and commanding voices. One of the activities within that session was having the youth create their own game using the objects given. So yes, this... interesting picture is actually a "game" created by the youth.
Ahahaha! Another ruse by yours truly. I lured the youth to my camp promising it was free. Paid transportation, paid meals, no entry fee. However, in my hand, and theirs, is a packet containing a step by step process of running a service or community project. The purpose is to give the youth a chance to actually apply what they learned at the camp, and to help their community. I may not be charging them money, but they'll pay the municipality back with their time and effort. I gave them until July 1st to complete it.
My good friend Pat from college voted on my latest poll to see sexy pics from me. Sadly, I realized after the results came in that I have none. I'm not a hussy. So instead here is a "shake face" picture. What you do, is (after a few drinks) shake your face right and left as fast as you can and someone takes a picture in the middle of it. This is my best one to date. Don't judge me. It's Peace Corps tradition here.
What's to Come?
The new year has come, and things are revving up again. four or five new projects in the brainstorming stages. I have my own apartment. A lot more thoughts about volunteerism, and about me have come to light. A couple hobbies I'm picking up. Should be a good read.
'Til next time.
