Things Coming Together (For Now)

They say in the Peace Corps it normally takes at least six months to really get things started, a year isn’t uncommon. What happens in all this time? Getting used to the people, the people getting used to you, trial and error, building reputation, taking a week here or there for a Peace Corps training which works as half training, half a chance to catch up with the people you got to know during training and swap stories (and realize that almost all your issues at site are shared by dozens of others). Probably the biggest thing for me was figuring out what exactly I wanted to do for my community, based on their wishes, and what I can provide. I think I’m starting to get a handle.

As for pictures, I’ll save those for when I get up into the far-flung, mountain barangays again. At least, if I can get up there sometime this week or in May.

Three Things I’ve Done

PSK Training

I started my informal training with the Provincial Sanguniang Kabataan (the youth government). Although my site is only one of the 15 municipalities of the province, this project is covering a much larger area, or at least has the potential too. This was the Saturday before Easter (prompting me to cancel my Easter plans). We met in a small restaurant. There was the Provincial SK Chairman, and three others of the 15 municipalities. Four out of sixteen isn’t a lot, but it’s a good start.

I started with learning more about them, their current and previous projects. I also explained who I was, and what my job entailed. We then discussed critical thinking and its importance along with a few exercises such as describing objects without mentioning any physical characteristics. Next we talked about how to determine what project you want to do based on what the target community wants. Finished it off with discussing different leadership roles such as facilitator, mediator, teacher, advocate, etc.

For the coup d’grace, I gave them a task to find one or two community leaders who are not politicians or have anything to do with the local government. Just regular citizens who are helping the community in some way. Hopefully we can build a network of these people to help build a more sustainable support system for the youth leaders.

PACA

Participatory Analysis for Community Action. In English, it means activities that can generate more ideas and more accurate information for community projects than simply asking “What’s the problem?” One of the things my host agency asked for was stress management. It’s not my forte, nor am I particularly good at reducing my own stress when it matters (though getting better), but I don’t need to be an expert to at least run some activities to get a better idea of what the causes of stress are.

At our Monday flag ceremony, I told all the municipal workers about wanting to run an activity. I told them I’d put the signup sheet next to the place we all sign in and out. I did it all in Ilokano (save for the word “2^nd ” which I forgot [it’s maikaduwa]). I was planning on having it done the next afternoon. The next morning came and no signatures.

I was thoroughly annoyed, but decided to keep at it. I wrote on the signup sheet that I’d buy their meryenda (snacks) and that if I didn’t get any volunteers, I’d be sad, trying to egg on their hospitality. Something worked and I got enough volunteers. I moved it to Wednesday afternoon since I only got the signatures Tuesday. The next day came and I found out it was only a half day due to Holy Week. Crap.

So the following Tuesday (we had Monday off too), I finally got it done. I had four groups (women and men, single and married with each) write a normal 24 hour schedule, and write a yearly calendar with all the important seasons and events to them. The hope is to see if there are differences amongst the four groups, and if anything clearly shows why people are stressed in the office.

These activities work for other things as well other than stress.

Language Camp

This was an optional, not-quite-a-week, language training to give us a chance to learn a bit more specific to what we need at site (for example, I needed to learn how to describe critical thinking in Ilokano), and for the Peace Corps to gauge how our language is coming along. It was a regional event with only fifteen of the volunteers doing the northern dialect of Ilokano, or the more common Tagalog you can find around Manila and as a secondary dialect in most places. We had it in La Trinidad where I trained, and it was good to see some of the volunteers again, my old host family from training, and my language trainer, Ester. I also shopped for a blender, and a coffee maker (drinking 3 in 1 can’t be good for my health), but alas I think it’s cheaper in my province.

The highlight of it was getting the chance to talk to several of the volunteers in smaller groups, or even one on one. When all 50 or so of us in the batch get together, we form up in groups of eight and more. Although it’s nice to see everyone, I also relish the chance to talk to people and get to see how they’re doing more personally.

Three Things I Will Be Doing

Lecture at the Universtiy

If you recall, one of the potential projects that fell through in January was working with the nearby college of Nueva Viscaya State University (NVSU). I talked to Carlo, my contact point with the school, a few times on and off. I even visited the school and watched part of a day of presentations about the environment, where we talked some more. The plan was to have me present to X amount of students sometime early June. I discovered this last weekend that I will be giving a lecture to two different classes of education students, each about 75 in number, this Thursday. It’s a pleasant surprise to see something happen earlier than I expected.

Think I’ll cover critical thinking. More on this below.

Seminar on how to give a good Presentation

Poor PowerPoints, long lectures, and technical difficulties have been common themes here in the Philippines. It’s kind of like America in that way. I’ve taken the initiative to start helping people learn better ways to present. It’s set for this Friday for any municipal worker who is interested.

Child-Friendly Municipality

There is a country -wide push for places to be “child-friendly”. This hits its peak in October which is “Child-Friendly Month”, where there is a contest all across the Philippines. It’s a great idea, but the goals are very broad, generalized, and offer little direction. I’m hoping to work with my local SK to create some specific and measureable goals in a couple weeks when we have a small town fiesta. Not sure what the fiesta is for yet.

The Answers are Out There

The more I explore the web, and the more I talk to people in my community, I can see answers to our problems left and right. I’ve started watching a show called Earthrise. I see that the people her in Dupax are very aware and hold the same concerns that I do. I see the projects of other volunteers in the Philippines and abroad.

So why are things still bad?

Well first, consider that we have upped the bar on what’s acceptable and not in recent generations.

Second, think about how there are over 7 billion people now, each with their own set of problems on top of those issues shared amongst us.

This new theory of mine is actually hopeful. I feel now that I don’t have to worry about coming up with the answers to too many things in site, and for my work after Peace Corps. I just have to find out who already has it figured out and learn from them.

So What do I Want to Accomplish?

There are a few common themes I’ve seen that I’d like to help with. One of the big ones is critical thinking. I’ve discuss this with other volunteers, and it seems a pretty common situation where critical thinking just isn’t emphasized. I can get a youth to tell me information, but getting them to apply it, to use it in a different context, to conceptualize new ideas, I hit a wall. I’ve become pretty good at simplifying these things into Ilokano, and I’ve seen a little improvement in the responses. Critical thinking is something I’ll probably incorporate into almost everything I do from now on.

“Ningascigon” is a Tagalog word that describes it when people get excited to do something, but are nowhere to be found when it comes to do get it done. See? The Filipinos are more than aware of this cultural trait, they have their own word for it. This is something else I plan to address again, and again, and again, to try to change minds to make ningascigon as bad a word as I can.

In the Philippines there are a lot of out-of-school youth. It accepted, if not liked, for a child or teen to drop out. Starting with the Child-Friendly movement, and working with community partners, I want to establish a town culture that actively tries to minimize the number of dropouts, putting an effort into it that currently is not there.

Finally, PREPARATION! Cannot emphasize how much I want to push for more preparation.

A Final Story to Share

After language camp, I took a van ride through a winding road back to my province. Had a nice conversation with a bank manager who travels back and forth between home and work. It was dark by the time we got to where my stop was, and I got out… too early.

As the van pulled away, I picked up my bags to see that I didn’t know where I was. I knew we had passed the last town area before my stop, and I knew which direction to keep walking, but wasn’t sure on how far this walk was going to take. My first concern was since it was dark, traffic wouldn’t be able to see me. My second concern was that I was an American carrying a couple bags all by myself.

After five minutes I began cursing my stupidity.

After ten, a friendly young man offered a ride on his motorcycle (riding a motorcycle is a big no-no in the Peace Corps) which I declined.

After fifteen minutes, and realizing the next stretch of road I thought was my destination was not, I decided to call my supervisor and see if he knew how far I was as I told him what was around me.

After twenty minutes, and finishing the phone call, I knew where I was. It only took a few more minutes to get to the junction points where I could ride a trike the rest of the way back.

Lesson learned: Always be aware of my surroundings.

There are still bad days, but they have been becoming more infrequent. Health is up, and my daily routine of working out is getting close to what I want.

Keep you all updated.

Month-and-a-Half Update!

February, the Month of Getting Things Back on Track

Hubris. That is the best word I have to describe what happened January. I had my big Youth Leadership Summit in December, people came to me with potential projects to help with. Although I knew I still had a lot of work to do, I thought I was done being proactive to go after projects, and thought they’d all roll out in front of me.

Head-up-my-you-know-where. That’s another way to put it.

Point is it was a learning experience, and Febraury was not only rebuilding the links to the projects that just didn’t get started, but also developing new projects, trying to find new ways to reach certain groups (for example, the out of school youth in the upland, mountain barangays) and just generally trying to set things up for summer break, which in the Philippines is April and May.

Here are the nine potential projects I now have. Some of these are repeats of what’s already been brought up before. It’s doubtful all of them will pan out in the next couple months (in fact, I’ll get no sleep if that happens), but a lot of what I spent the month doing was making opportunities so that even if over half of them are postponed or fall through entirely, I’ll still have something to do. I’m putting a * by the projects I feel the most confident will work out and will get started soon.

1)      *Stress management in the office. I have the Mayor’s approval, and this is one of the things my site mentioned it wanted when requesting a Peace Corps Volunteer. I’ll start with some interviews and some activities to figures out the source of stress first. Then I’ll consult people who know more about it than I do.

2)      Training within the LGU on facilitation and presentational skills. That seems to be my biggest strength in the Philippines (well, except for being white and “nagwapo”). I can have some semi-formal sessions with anyone in the LGU interested in tuning their skills.

3)      *Applying specific, measureable goals to the municipality’s Child-Friendly, and Character First programs. Both are great in theory, but hopefully the local youth leadership and I can develop some specific objectives to aim at to get some more active participations and results.

4)      Newsletter form the LGU to the barangays. The idea is that if more people can be reached and told out projects from us, more people will support and get behind them. This was actually developed by one of my coworkers during out PDM training (explained below).

5)       Working with Nueva Viscaya State University and their extracurricular activities. This is one that was conceptualized in November, but hasn’t moved forward. Hopefully this summer break we can sit down and discuss exactly what kind of help they’re looking for.

6)      Working with Belance High School to get volunteerism started again. They’re an hour’s drive away, and have been busy with finishing the school year. Hopefully like NVSU, there will be time to get things started in the summer, in preparation of next school year.

7)      *Training the Provincial SK (youth leaders) with project design and management. This is actually a jump up for me. Though my site is only one of the 15 municipalities in Nueva Viscaya, this project is with the youth leaders of the entire province. Upon some discussions, I discovered they haven’t received the training they were supposed to. I’ve offered my services to help get them some training (and to tell them they can do it as many times as I can). Hopefully the motivated members will take me up on my offer whether it’s five or thirty.

8)      Another summit, this one for the out of school youth. Still need to meet them. I’m going on a few different angles now trying to get in touch through the Alternative Learning Systems, the Health department, and might even start through the Barangay Captains too. I don’t want to run any summit until I’ve met them and actually understand a few things such as a) how’s their English, how’s their Ilocano? b) how much schooling do they have? c) how much self confidence do they have? d) what do they want?

9)      *Training of trainers for other municipalities who want to run a leadership summit. There is interest, just need to get a date later this month or April to get it going.

In-Service Training and Project Design and Management (IST and PDM)

At the start of March I left my site for 11 days for a training event that marked six months at site. We started with our IST to cover just a few topics. After that, we had a counterpart come to do a several day “project design and management workshop”. Originally I wanted to bring the Provincial SK Chairmen, in charge of the youth, but sadly her finals were at the same time, so I ended up inviting a coworker. We went through the step by step process of making a project, and the newsletter idea stemmed from it. It was 80% my counterpart who developed the project.

Although the PDM was not designed for the volunteers, it did teach me two things. The first was how to run PDM session of my own. Number seven on my list above is exactly the same thing (I also plan on stealing the materials to we got during the workshop [and by stealing I mean humbly requesting]). The second thing I learned was ways to impart these skills to coworkers one on one. Creating projects and managing them are not easy skills, nor are they simple. However, running through it step by step really helped. It’s something to consider trying out with more coworkers in the future, on my own.

It was also nice to see everyone again. I hadn’t seen over half the volunteers in my batch since last September. It was great to catch on and swap stories both good and bad. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, that culture matters. I continue to find it easier and easier to get to know Filipinos, but I also understand that a common culture and a common work with all the other Peace Corps volunteers will always make them share a commonality that I love. One thing I’m going to be taking back with me once service is finished is a greater appreciation of how much we in America do have in common, both the good and the bad.

The Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC)
As stated before, I’m one of five members from my group of volunteers elected to represent our batch in quarterly meetings to discuss policy, concerns, and initiatives with the staff. I had my first meeting on the 12^th along with the representatives of the previous batch.

But backtracking a bit, I had the opportunity to practice what I’d like to dub… hmm… uh… well I can’t think of a good way to blend the two words “Matt” and “politics” so we’ll just called it Matt’s politics. My first measure what to beg the volunteers in the region I’m representing for feedback. In the title of my first email I including at the end (Pretty please read with sugar on top!!). I further continued my begging tactic in the first short paragraph promising those who read that there was a useful link at the end, and some good information within the body of the email.

My second tool was humor. Let’s face it, policy and such just doesn’t strike everyone as sexy like it does me. At appropriate (and inappropriate) times I threw in a little tidbit, such as references Starbucks in reasosn why we needed our volunteer allowance raised and such.

My final trick was nagging. I did see quite a few people from my region before having the official meeting, and badgered them all for input.

Begging, joking, and nagging. The Matt Hirschinger way not only with politics, but in relationships too.

I’m single for some reason.

So the meeting came and went, and to sum up, it was educational. Being stuck between what the volunteers wanted, and what the staff wanted felt like being between a rock and a hard place at certain points during the meeting, but luckily we all share in common the desire for some good work to be done, and overall I think the meeting went well. There was also yet another reference to staff’s premature expectation for me to extend my service (which is a nice compliment, but it’s still too early!)

Sadly though, I am not VAC President. Although I maintain that I had a lot of success getting responses from my region using the Matt Hirschinger approach, and I did a lot to get to know staff better and listen to their own ideas, I have to admit the other guy is a better choice for the dynamics within the five of us. Somehow, through the elections we ended up with two people in their twenties, one male and female (the male is me!), along with the only three males of which one is in his thirties, one is 60, and one is in his early seventies. They are the only three male volunteers older than thirty in our batch. As the decision was made within the five of us, I think the right choice was made (not that the wrong choice [me]) wouldn’t have been acceptable in my book too.

And Where Do You Stand Now, Matt?

I’m not going to lie, right after the VAC meeting, I was in a slump for a few days. Manila and the surrounding areas is not my favorite place in the Philippines. The VAC meeting, although rewarding, had its stressful moments, and there’s a lot on my plate. Also I found out my electric bill doubled due to my fridge. However, getting back to my site, my home, my mood improved greatly. It’s a good sign when my site has become a place I feel comfortable and welcome too. I’m not looking to getting back to America for respite, nor my pre-service training site, but Dupax del Norte.

I’m content with the way things are moving at the moment, but am being more active this time around. If at least two projects don’t get underway by the end of next week, that contentment will fade really fast, but that’s then, and this is now.

My next big thing is to follow a stricter day to day schedule. My temporary plan is bed at 9:30, get up at 6:00. We’ll see if it works. Basically, I want time to work out and go to market if need be before work at 8:00. Whether or not I have to resolve and discipline remains to be seen. (Perhaps I can use the Matt Hirschinger approach on myself too?)

A Thought on Community Development
There is a method to the madness. I’ve learned a number of tools and activities in the Peace Corps, most of them focusing on how to determine what the project is. After all, I’m here to help the local community with what they want, not with what Whitey (that’s me!) wants. It’s kind of tedious, and lacks the romanticism of jumping into the thick of things, but after trying both methods, the thorough and structured way works so much better. Community development isn’t the only topic like this. I remember my time at the youth shelter in America prior to leaving, one of the workers there used the phrase “What are two things you are good at?” to calm down a young male resident at the shelter. It was a line she learned in the classroom, it was scripted, but it worked. She had doubts about using it, and it being fake, just as I’ve had doubts about going through methods and tools just so people can find out what they want, but if it works, it works.
So the lesson learned here is that there is knowledge already out there on what is effective, in a wide variety of subjects. Whatever your career, whatever your interests, find those sources from those that have done it before. As smart as each of us thinks we are, there were those before us who figured out a lot, and it does no good to reinvent the wheel. Don’t be afraid to tweak things to your own style, and to the situation at hand, but respect what others have come up with too.

What’s Next?

In a few weeks I’ll have another post up. I’m thinking another picture heavy blog post is due. Pics of my place, the community, and maybe some of the projects if they get up and running.

‘Til next time.

Carnival Mirrors

I was once told by a Volunteer Leader (a Peace Corps Volunteer who extends his or her service for an entire year, and takes on extra duties and responsibilities) that the Peace Corps brings out things in people that they never knew about themselves. It was more than just learning a few more likes and dislikes, but more on the lines of what true strengths and inner demons you possess. Having a vastly different diet, being in an unfamiliar work environment, and being surrounded by people with starkly different values then me has made me learn a lot about myself, things I could never have learned in the comforts of my own home and culture. It’s not that I’m a different person than who I was before, but it feels like looking at myself in a carnival mirror, where I can definitely tell it’s me, but things are very distorted from what they once were.

Learning how to Live from Scratch

I moved into my new apartment January 7^th. Got my stuff in, slept the night and… things got more difficult. The most prevalent challenge was that I expected I would be able to have the freedom to live closer to how I had back in America. Unfortunately that’s going to be something I have to earn. I tried really getting into a good, solid workout plan, but then forgot to make a diet to accommodate that new workout plan. Suffice to say I didn’t get too many days in before I crashed. So, taking a step back, remembering to consider my health as a whole (not just the working out part) and I’m going to give it another go here pretty soon.

Cleaning my apartment was another challenge to face and one I’m still getting together. Although I’ve made my initial sweep (as well as a secondary and tertiary), but I’ve got a bit to go before I’m satisfied. In particular, the ants have been a major obstacle. My honest estimate is that I’ve sprayed between 1,000-1,500 of the little monsters. They are starting to appear less frequently, so I’m crossing my fingers.

Oh, and to say my apartment was unfurnished is an understatement. I had a sink, a faucet in the bathroom and one outside, and they gave me a bed frame when I asked. That’s it. No fridge, no stove or cook top, no cabinets, no closet. I’ve gotten almost everything now (and I’m really, really glad I saved my money during pre-service training). Only things left are a mirror, a pot, a non-stick pan (have pan, but it’s not non-stick), a large bucket, a plastic holder for all my dishes and silver wear, and decorations for the wall. Also might need to get something for a guest to sleep on if I intend anyone to come over.

I’m really glad I did spend the year alone my senior year of college to help me get at least somewhat prepared. Though I’m learning how to cook without a microwave or oven. Learning how to do laundry without a washing machine. Learning how to shop at a town market instead of a grocery store.

Getting Sick

One night I felt really bad. My head hurt, and I felt a little queasy. The next day I went out to meet some other volunteers for lunch, and as the day went on my headache turned into a blinding migraine, and I couldn’t even get halfway through my lunch. I went to the doctor, and for the next few days took some pain medication, and had my blood drawn to test to see if I had Dengue.

Luckily it turned out just to be a virus (a nasty one) and it passed. However, it was a bit stressful seeing as my white blood cell and platelette count dropped from one day to the next. Also, as someone who has probably had less than five migraines their entire life, I learned what it’s like to have enough pain in my skull to make even walking really, really hard.

I relied heavily on the Filipinos at my site and was really grateful for their hospitality.

Peaches

When I studied abroad in China, we had a guest professor speak to us during our orientation to Peking University. He told us that the Chinese were like coconuts and that Americans were like peaches. The Chinese are very hard on the outside, and not caring of strangers. However, once you pierce that outer shell they are your dearest friend, will share everything with you. Americans on the other hand are soft on the outside, willing to show compassion to people they don’t even know, but they have that hard core they won’t let anyone get into. We Americans have that “true self” that we protect, that we don’t let anyone into. 

Obviously this doesn’t describe everyone, but I think it’s something which accurately describes me. I’m more prone to say a cheesy joke than to let out my deepest thoughts and feelings. My time in the Peace Corps has challenged this, and I’m glad for it. Recently we had a debriefing where nine of sharing the same sector (Children, Youth, and Family volunteers) and in the same region of the Philippines (northern Luzon) got together to share our experiences and concerns, an event organized by the staff at headquarters. At the end, we went around in a circle and we gave compliments to one another. Never in my life has a group of people so unanimously figured me out.

My fellow volunteers brought up not only things that I had done during service so far, but complimented me on things that I’ve striven to be, yet haven’t told anyone about. One girl who trained with me told me about how I really work on trying to be a better person, that I’m always trying to improve myself. Another volunteer, and of those at the debriefing the one I felt I knew the least, told me that I give off the vibe of ‘we can all get along’, but does so in a way that isn’t patronizing and the she can sort of believe. The ‘why don’t we get along’ sentiment is at the heart of my political and societal views, and to be told that I express it naturally, just giving it off as a vibe, was a very powerful moment for me.

Comparing countless times of when I held back a though because I thought it was too serious, or not interesting, to that debriefing session when I felt that my fellow volunteers had me figured out, I don’t think I want to be a peach anymore. 

Visiting a Friend

This last weekend I visited a fellow volunteer in Cagayan, the far northeast of the Philippines. It’s about six or so hours from my site. In the Peace Corps travelling time is a lot different than back home. America, or at least the American suburbia I’ve grown up in, is about convenience. It’s about short trips to the store, to the movies, to a coffee shop. A friend or family member six hours away is a long, long ways away.

Not so here in the Philippines.

Don’t get me wrong, I have made some Filipino friends. I enjoy hanging out with coworkers, talking to people in the community, but the people I have the most in common with are my fellow volunteers. They are the people I share common problems with, share a knowledge of back home with, shared experiences with during pre-service training, and share the Peace Corps with. Although I can’t take a six hour trip every weekend to see other volunteers, it wasn’t a very hard decision to make this time around. Twelve hours of travel time wasn’t so bad for hanging out Friday night to Sunday late morning.

I hope I can keep this change in me when I go back to America.

Volunteer Advisory Committee

The Peace Corps has several committees and groups volunteers can join on top of their work at their respective site. These aren’t groups like a high school clubs where anyone can join. Everything from the HIV/AIDs awareness group to the Peer Support Network to the Diversity Committee all have a vetting process. Some are the Peace Corps staff selecting the most qualified volunteers, at least one has its new members determined by the members from the previous batch. The Volunteer Advisory Committee, the group that determines policy change and works and communicates between volunteers and staff, is determined by voting.

My batch of now 52 (I think) volunteers had a total of five VAC representatives to pick, one for each sector (education and child, youth, and family) and one for each region (northern Luzon, southern Luzon, and Visayas). I ran for my region (northern Luzon) and luckily enough ran unopposed. The other four races all had competition.

So now I represent 25 (including myself) volunteers as far as letting the staff know our wants and needs, and trying to improve and strengthen the Peace Corps Philippines program as whole. First meeting is in March. I’m really hoping I can do a good job.

What I See in the Mirror

The month of January has been about self reflection overall, and I’m happy to say most of it has been positive. There have been some negative things. I’m not happy to learn how challenging just taking care of myself was right after moving out, though I’m getting the hang of it. Also can’t say I’m pleased with how a bad migraine left me hunched over, sitting down, not wanting to move a muscle (I’m supposed to be a badass who can handle any amount of pain, darn it!).

Still, I’m happy right now, and my recent trip has helped me get focused so this week I’ll be pushing hard on all the projects I’ve been talking about, of which only one so far is now underway.

Whereas the self reflection of January has been great, I’m hoping February’s theme will be something more on the lines of getting things done at my work place, and getting the community active and involved.

Pictures, Pictures, PICTURES!

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.

First Annual Leadership Summit of Dupax del Norte, 2011

As I said I would, here is the rundown of the leadership summit I helped organize and run, my first major project at site. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the obscure.

Where it All Began

Some time ago there was a law written where the youth took charge of the government for a week. Unfortunately it wasn’t implemented. The last time it was done according to my supervisor was 1993, roughly 18 years ago. The leadership summit was not my brainchild, but that of my supervisor and of the Mayor who wanted to get the youth more active again. When I met my supervisor for the first time during pre-service training where we found out our permanent sites, he brought it up to me as something I would be doing. So although it was the will of my site to have it done, I was put in charge of creating the module for it, and organizing it.

One of the hardest things to do for a project like this is to actually build enough interest to get it started, to talk to the community leaders and your supervisor and convince them it’s a good idea. I was really fortunate to not only have a site that was more than willing to be active, but who already had a project ready for me when I started.

First Step: I Don’t Know What to Do

One of the challenges of the Peace Corps is going to a foreign country and a foreign culture and figuring out how I can help. Heck, what do I know about the Philippines or Dupax del Norte? What do I even know about what’s working and what’s not? Well, that’s part of what the two year is for, to figure that out. However, with the leadership summit in December, I didn’t have much time. I tried to talk to one of the youth leaders to get a feel of the leadership capabilities of the local youth, and from that conversation decided the best course of action was to write a questionnaire and distribute it across the different schools. Rather than ask the youth “Are you a good leader?” or “What do you think leadership is?” I went for more round about questions. They were…

·         Think of one or two people you believe are good leaders. What makes that person or persons a good leader?

·         Considering your answer to question 1, what leadership skills do you share with your chosen person or persons?

·         Considering your answer to question 1, what leadership skills do you wish to learn?

·         Do you intend to participate in the Youth Leadership Summit this December? Why or why not?

·         Are there any topics you would like covered in the youth leadership summit? Why?

·         Why are you interested in leadership?

With those questions I was hoping to get some insights into the youth. I also wanted to give them at least some input as to what would go on during the summit. I was ready to send it out first thing October. Then came the typhoons…

Pedring, Quiel, and a Long, Long Wait

Pedring was the first of two major typhoons that hit the greater region. Schools closed down, there was flooding, and things just all came to a halt. When things finally started to get back to normal, Typhoon Quiel came and rocked the area even harder. Though the rain was as hard, the flooding was significantly worse. Flooding got up to six feet or more in some places, there was a landslide on the road that cut off most the mountainous, rural areas, and there was mud everywhere. This led to more school cancellations, and my time was busy helping the relief efforts of putting together bags of food for people, and for being present when we distributed them.

Then came a weeklong break.

Then came one more week of setting it up to give the questionnaires to the school.

Then we finally got them passed out.

By then we were into November, the time I wanted to have the module of the summit finished by. Under my original timeframe, I’d be done with the module by early November, and have the free time to plan ahead into 2012, and would have a lot of time to tweak the summit as need be. That plan fell through. I got about half the questionnaires back around November 20^th or so, and from those created the module.

The Module Itself

                From reading the questionnaires I came to the conclusion that most of the youth had zero experience with leadership, even those who had leadership positions within the schools. There seemed to be a lack of confidence, and an overemphasis on discipline being synonymous to leadership. I made the decision to keep the camp to the basics. The original summit went something like thus…

Day 1

·         Teamwork: There was an activity I ran in late October where I had two set teams and told them to build me the highest tower. When they finished, I asked them why they built me two towers, when I wanted the highest one, which could only be accomplished if the teams worked together. The purpose was to open the youth’s eyes and show them that just because they belonged to a team/school/province/etc didn’t mean they couldn’t work together. It was a success before, so I included it in the summit as well

·         What is leadership: Seeing how some youth didn’t have a solid grasp on the concept I let the first session be a basic coverage on leadership. Who are leaders? What are skills leaders have? Basically the same stuff in the questionnaires.

·         Understanding Yourself, Each Other, and Community: Next I included another simple session where youth wrote to themselves about leadership, learned about and recognized each other, and drew a mural to understand what their community meant to them

·         Self Confidence, Expressing Oneself: Knowing confidence was an issue, I tried to include a session with lots of compliments and getting the kids to shout out their name with pride

·         Roleplaying challenges facing youth: I wanted to get the youth thinking about what challenges they faced and to act it out

Day 2

·         Discipline, Having Fun, Observation, Communication: These four sessions were what came out of the questionnaires, mostly. They wanted Discipline. I added one Having Fun because the youth did not seem to appreciate that aspect of leadership. Observation and communication were also basics to touch upon. I tried to make each session active, but with some downtime in each so that the youth could have breaks during the day

·         Obstacle Course: It was a camp, so why not have an obstacle course to get the youth to do some critical thinking?

·         Videoke: Knowing the second day would have a lot, I wanted the youth to be able to sit down, relax, and socialize with each other

Day 3

·         Evaluation: Both handing out evaluations, and going over the importance of evaluating one’s actions

·         Tree Planting: Something my site wanted, so I included it

·         The How: How to plan step by step to achieve one’s goal. Goal setting is not a strength of the Filipinos.

·         Service Project Packets: My brainchild within the summit, I created a packet to lead the youth step by step to running their own service project. It’s my belief that leadership is gained through practical experience, and I want the youth active in the community, so I set some time to explain it. More on this later

·         Elections: Going back to the purpose of this summit, to get youth ready to get junior leadership positions within the government for a week, we needed elections to pick who the leaders would be.

Recruitment and Challenges

                For the number of youth, I settled on trying to get 100. I decided that I wanted eight groups to do the sessions at most, about 12 youth per group at most. Rounded up it came to 100. So, I asked for eight volunteers, one for each group. For this camp, I tried to keep it to the nearby region. One problem I came across was that I wanted to get some of the veteran volunteers who had been in the Philippines a year or more, but the ones I asked all had Christmas plans with family either in America or the Philippines which interfered with my December 16-18 camp. So, it was exclusively my Batch of volunteers who were recruited. I facebook messaged them to original copy, and all the edits. Speaking of edits…

                Nothing ever goes exactly how you want. The first thing to go was overnight staying. I wanted the youth to stay overnight to avoid Filipino’s infamous problems with punctuality, and so we could stuff at night. Sadly, it was not to be, so I had to drop the roleplaying. I also discovered they wanted to end the summit earlier on Day 3, so away went the session of the “How”.

                Another challenge came when we were starting to expect well over 100 youth. The schools were promising to send a lot more youth than we had allotted. I had designed the sessions with a certain amount of youth in mind.

                Probably the biggest challenge was stress. Boy howdy did I get stressed. I didn’t miss any meals for it, but my portions were about half.

The Summit Comes and Goes

                I won’t go into every detail, but here are highlights of the summit

·         One of the eight volunteers was late due to her obligations at her site, making so I was both trying to facilitate one of the groups, and keep track of the big picture. It went okay… but I don’t recommend it.

·         Belance, a school and barangay (local government unit) from the mountains had the most youth present despite being an hour’s ride away

·         Losing almost half our youth during lunch the first day

·         Combining the eight groups into four for Day 2

·         It turning out that my session I wrote for Discipline went a lot faster than the others, making the two volunteers running those have the improve a lot

·         Losing not a single youth the second day, even during the lunch break

·         Though wanting to start at 8:00 each morning, not getting started until 9:00

·         The youth actually enjoying themselves

·         Overall some good feedback from the youth

·         A girl telling us that we were the first people to sing her happy birthday. She turned fifteen that day.

·         Not having two of the five high schools because we had thought no one had school on the Friday, but it turns out only three of five had the day off

·         Also not having the SK (local government youth leaders) because of yet another schedule conflict I did not know about

·         About 60-70 youth who showed up for at least part of the summit, about 40-50 who were there throughout the whole summit

·         My stress level dropping step by step as the summit went on

Goals for the Summit

                I am a perfectionist, and I set the bar really, really high. I am always trying to think how I can get the most out of something, how I can accomplish the most with what I’m doing when it comes to work. I achieved quite a bit, but other objectives I had fell short.

                One thing that fell short was the numbers. Throughout the summit it was about half of what I wanted, however, it was fine. I told people even getting half of what I wanted would be a success, and I stand by that. Giving a summit for about 40-50 youth is still not bad.

                One major success was the sustainability of the leadership summit. Sustainability is big in the Peace Corps, to make sure our assistance lasts even after we’ve left. The youth, as Junior Elected Officials, passed a resolution to institutionalize the leadership summit as an annual event. The next challenge will be to work with people to get them to be able to create, organize and coordinate the summit, but I have time for it.

                Which bring me up to another goal that fell short, that to have my coworkers work as counterparts to the Peace Corps Volunteers to get more experience facilitating. In the end my coworkers helped with logistics such as cooking, cleaning, doing sign in, helping fix the microphone, and some even had work they had to do during the summit. It was in part my fault because I did not keep my office mates in the loop throughout the process of making the summit, and in part because I underestimated how much manpower the work behind the scenes would take. I’ll work towards getting my coworkers at my office to take the lead for later projects.

                I did get at least some of the youth to learn something. After the elections, the young lady who was elected as Junior Mayor gave a thanks to us Peace Corps Volunteers for helping, and had said that although the different groups of youth didn’t know each other well, maybe after a week as Junior Leaders with the government they would get to know each other better. It was a call back to the Teamwork exercise. From what I heard, the youth lived up to that, and the teenagers who never knew each other (cause they live an hour away) are keeping in touch via texting now, bringing the community closer together. Also, the youth opened up so much from the start of the summit to the end.

                Things did not fall apart. That was also a goal that was met.

                Probably the biggest goal I hit was this being a gateway into more projects for the community. The biggest cause of my stress (other than me getting overly worked up over stuff) was that the success of lack thereof would be a big determination as to how my site saw me. I really wanted this summit to go well to prove I could help, and get more people involved. The Monday after (the 19^th) saw a few more projects land on my desk. They want another similar summit in April or May for the SK who could not make it and for the out of school youth. The teacher from Belance who went with the youth to the summit each day wants me to help them get grants and to get started up on their own school volunteer projects. This is exactly what I wanted, for the summit to drag out opportunities.

Service Project Packets!

                As I said earlier, I handed the youth service project packets near the end. I explained to them that although the summit was “free” they still needed to pay us back. For being given three days of lessons learned, for food, for having the opportunity to be elected as Junior Officials, they needed to utilize the experience we gave them, and give it back to their community. Speaking maybe 70% in Ilokano, the rest in English, I walked through the service project step by step. Whether they absorbed it all, and whether they do it remains to be seen, but I think it’ll work out. Here’s a list of lofty goals I have for these service projects

·         40-50 community projects: Why should I do one service project for my community when I can empower the youth to do scores of them?

·         Leadership experience: As I said, the best way to get leadership is through practical experience

·         Making the youth believe in themselves: I want the youth to know what they are capable of doing

·         Making the adults believe in the youth: Showing the adults of the community what the youth can do given the opportunity

·         Have tangible evidence of youth accomplishments in the form of the filled out packets to show my supervisor, the Mayor, Peace Corps, the Governor, etc

·         Discovering further projects I can help with by seeing what the youth accomplish

·         Make it about the youth, not me: I keep getting congratulated on for MY youth summit. Hopefully the service projects shift the focus to the youth, and away from me

Thanks, and What’s on the Horizon

                Want to give a shout out to the eight volunteers who came: Alex, Amber, Austin, Becky, Chelsea, Ebonee, Kelsey, and Munya! You guys were rock stars!

                So what’s next? I’m nearing the half year mark of my time in the Philippines. Among what I mentioned above, I may do some more on leadership with a nearby university. I’ll be talking to and working with the out-of-school youth. I may also start working with the local government unit I’m with and run a few programs for them to help deal with stress management, marketing, goal setting, and a couple others.

                Next post I plan to get a bunch of the best pictures from my first six months and post them, including many from the summit.

‘Til next time!