This is an excerpt of an update I sent my close friends and family about a week after I got to the site I was assigned. I feel this excerpt will be able to give a more detailed account of my experience more than a fresh post recalling those first few days ever could.
While most people think of beaches when they think of the Philippines, I was actually placed at a site in the mountains. Even to this day, I feel lucky to have been placed in such a beautiful location with such a great community.
Week One
As I write this, I’ve now been at site eight days. Of all that has happened, it could’ve been a couple of weeks.
My host family is Ms. Florence Cosalan (age 63, single, an administrator at my new school). She was living by herself, but has nine other brothers and sisters, most of whom live in the same “compound.” I’ve slowly been meeting all the relatives. I have a nice little room with beautiful mountain views and good sunlight. I have to throw water in the toilet for it to flush and heat up water for my bucket bath. I love how eco-friendly my host family is. We collect rainwater/grey water to flush the toilet and water plants. I only use one bucket of water for showers. They try to buy organic. They also own an organic farm, so we get paco (an edible fern) or squash from the farm sometimes. They compost.
Peace Corps says for the first three months, you don’t do much, just build relationships. So far it has been much different than I imagined. Every day is full of activities and challenges. One thing that is a personal challenge for me is on the spot demonstration of “talent” that Filipinos love to see. In the U.S., we don’t generally perform in front of a large group unless we’ve practiced. Here, they love to ask a bunch of personal questions (e.g. Are you single? What’s your religion?) and then follow that up with “Sample, sample!” which means you have to sing a song or do a dance even if you have no talent per say. I’ve had to sing on the spot in three of the classes I’ve been introduced to. One of those times I had to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" a cappella. Another time, I sang "Amazing Grace," only to find out later that in the Philippines, "Amazing Grace" is traditionally sung at funerals. (Oops!)
The school I was assigned to put together a surprise welcome party for me that included most of the school, which had about 1,300 students. It was very kind of them, but I still cringe thinking about all the impromptu speeches I had to make that first week.
Projects are also coming fast. I’m now in charge of preparing students for an Academic Festival that we found out about this past Wednesday, and the competition is this next Wednesday. Even better, the big event at the Academic Festival is the jazz chant event. I had never heard of a jazz chant until I came to the Philippines. I’ve already gotten frustrated at communication here. Additionally, I’ve been asked to organize the English Festival coming up in December, help a fellow volunteer with her International Volunteer Day event, and do some marketing for ENCA, my host family’s farm.
I have now ridden solo on a jeepney, visited the giant strawberry field in La Trinidad, made a courtesy call to the DepEd division office, gone to all the malls in Baguio City, had Volante pizza (the best pizza in the Philippines), attended my first mass, videoke’d with new friends, saw 13 pigs killed in a traditional ritual, experienced Adivay (“coming together”) Festival, and gave a speech to the PTA and danced the Igorot’s traditional dance in front of them.
Strawberry fields of La Trinidad
This past weekend, I was invited by our town’s priest to a feast day in another neighborhood, where I danced the traditional dance again. Meeting Father Benny has been great for my community integration. It’s led me to meet the Mayor of Tublay twice now, as well as the Vice-Mayor and other municipal officers. It’s pretty cool getting to eat with them, sit next to them during performances, etc. I’m feeling pretty VIP. Haha. Tublay celebrated its Foundation Day (110th year) and I danced in front of hundreds of people again. I still don’t really know the dance moves; I’ve just been prancing around but people seem to be happy with it. Also, the way they feed everyone who attends these festivities makes me think of “Jesus feeding the thousands,” it’s quite a sight.
Attempting the traditional dance, while Father Benny danced circles around me
I hope this gave you a glimpse into my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer. Is there something you're curious about? Please let me know and I'll try to include it in my future posts. Thanks for reading!