Where I've been & the Start of School

It’s been awhile since I posted one of these, but I thought now would be as good as time as any, I’m writing the first part of this on the bus heading back to Olongapo from Baguio.  If you’re keeping score at home that makes 3 times I’ve been to Baguio.  If you’re a fellow volunteer reading this, I’m sorry (giggles) I know I’m lucky.

Ok, maybe writing on the back of the bus didn’t fair out so well, start of school & hand-writing a few letters to some family members are some of the reasons this came out so late.  However, I’m back now & will catch you up on the happenings in my life.

After Mt Pulag, I started work on the Peace Corps Partnership Program for the World Connect Grant Proposal with my counterpart for the Reading Center, but we’ve had to make changes to and it’s in the final steps now. I hope to have this done by the end of this week.  The Reading Center will be my main project and the engineer said this would cost php300,066 pesos ($6,798.00 USD).  I’m crossing my fingers.

In May, I journeyed south to Manila for language camp.  Man, my tagalog sucks.  It took a nose dive after my training last year; having a week of language camp and practicing with my LCF (Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitator) again was great.  I just need to keep practicing, but it’s hard because all my fellow teachers speak very good English, which makes it easy to resort to. 

Then, a week later, I headed up North to Baguio for an HIV/AIDS Workshop with my supervisor/counterpart.  We will be doing a project educating both teachers & students about HIV/AIDS in the fall-very late fall.  We did many activities including going on a street immersion similar to how my fellow CYF volunteers did theirs during their training.  Street immersion for us was going out in the evening and asking a few women about their experience working on the street.  When I mention ‘working’ my priest in the States once put it in his mass reading as “a lady of the night” to put it lightly.  I’ll let your imaginations go where they may.  I was lucky my counterpart was very cool doing this, I was always looking over my back because it seemed like men were walking by staring and gawking at the women we were speaking to.  We were talking to these ladies in the red light district of Baguio, an area you don’t want to venture to alone.  On my last day in Baguio, I attended an International AIDS candlelight memorial at People’s Park in Baguio City to “promote health & dignity together” on the HIV/AIDS.  I was impressed by Baguio City’s set-up and it’s something to emulate in Olongapo City.  They made great use of the small space they had & made 50-75 people seem like over 100.  It was the perfect ending for my trip. 

When I came back I had my first skype talk with a U.S. classroom out of Stillwater, MN and it was pretty cool until I couldn’t hear them anymore probably because it was close to midnight where I’m at.  Before Iost audio connection, I was able to span my laptop camera around McDonalds.  They were surprised to see a security guard at McDonalds.  Yes, you read that right, there is a security guard at McDonalds, and in fact there is a security in about every store you venture into here in the Philippines.  They even check grocery receipts.  Anyway, the students & their teacher asked me some good questions.  One of them was “What are your students’ hopes & dreams?”  I couldn’t believe I couldn’t answer this & told the students that I would make sure I would ask my students this year.  On the second day of class last week, I asked them and most of the boys said they wanted to join the Army & most of the girls said they wanted to be a nurse.  I think most of them just wanted to sit back down, I’ll ask them again six months from now.  However, I do remember one student’s answer from last year and he said it was to see the Great Wall in China.  Another good question I couldn’t answer right away was “What have you learned about yourself?”  Blindsided again, I gave an answer around change, but in reality, I am only halfway through my service, and I am still finding out the answer.  I apologize to the students & their teacher in Stillwater, MN, while adapting to change is important, I’m still finding out the answer.  Other questions were the differences between the US & Philippines and what do kids do on their free time.

Lastly, the day before school started, I went to Ocean Adventure by bike.  It took me nearly an hour & half and was a tough climb especially when I went past Subic Bay International Airport, but fun; I will definitely do the same ride again.  As for Ocean Adventure, it wasn’t bad.  The Sea lion & dolphin shows were great; Walk on the wild side (about the jungle) & the diving show were ok.  After the shows I walked on the beach, but then the rain started to come & I headed home.  I took a different route the ride back to the main road & the tough climb turned into a fast drop.  I was on the main road in seconds; it was great, but I had to ride the break a few times or I would've fallen down.  Once on the main road, the rain started pouring & piercing my body as I pedaled through the floods of droplets caving from the sky.  One weird feeling I hadn’t felt in Olongapo ever was cold.  The fierce rain brought a nice chill that was much needed.  As I came back to the city, I ventured into a Mexican restaurant for a nice meal.  I still like the two Mexican restaurants in Barreto better, but after a tough ride, this meal tasted delicious and a great escape from the rain.

Back to School

First Day of School & Books arrive

After my trip to Mt Pulag in April, I sent a 2^nd request to Books for Peace for a donation and guess what they came through for us again, only this time, it was a class set of multiple subjects including English, Science & Economics, plus an assortment of fiction books including “The Hunger Games, three Harry Potter books, Swiss Family Robinson, four nearly complete years of archived issues of National Geographic magazine, Helen Keller autobiography, two Hardy Boys & two Nancy Drew books & many more, 19 boxes of books & magazines in total.  Yes, I’m very lucky & our school will definitely be ordering another set before it’s all said & done.  All those boxes came on the first day of school, June 4^th.  What a day, meeting all the students & doing inventory on our new material.  I am already teaching out of the new English books.  The first shipment came in February, but was only a sample set of what we want now.

I teach four grade 7 clasess.  Grade 7 is new, last year grade 7 was called 1^st year for the 1^st year of high school, but the Philippines DepEd is making changes & adopting the U.S. grade school system of having students in school from grades 1-12.  In previous years, students only finished up at 4th year, which is equivalent to 10th grade or a sophomore year in the U.S.  Even though the grade 7 students are in high school, they will be here for six years instead of four with the last two years being grades 11 & 12. 

Yesterday, we had our first day off already for Philippines Independence Day.  Since rain season is here now, I bought a rain jacket with rain pants; I'm glad I did.  This morning was the first time I got to use it, plus I wore my rain boots for the first time since my Peace Corps training.  It was a downpour this morning, but I was dry, it felt good.  Finally, let me know what you want to know about the Philippines & I’ll try to answer it in the blog, so I’m not monotonous.  Ingat na.

Like Father, Like Son

Last weekend I spent some time on Mt Pulag, the third highest mountain in the Philippines, but more on that below. Before I left for Mt Pulag, I told my Dad, living in the U.S. to take care of his foot because he has a cyst and now he'll have an MRI on it next week. However, he kept telling everybody and me that it was nothing even though he had to use a cane for a few days and was limping pretty badly according to witnesses.  This stubbornness reminds me of my own ascending up Mt Pulag last week.

We hiked at night and it was a terrific hike, the stars were out, all of us hiking together in the cold, but I slipped on one of the wet rocks while hiking. Although I didn't fall, my ankle felt like it did. Next, guess what happened. Yep, you guessed it, I kept walking. I thought I would walk it off. When our group took a break, I kept moving my ankle thinking stretching it in circles would cure it and I would turn into self-acclaimed Dr. Steve. Nope. As we ascended I did consider stopping and not continuing, but to hike all that way and not go to the top, I had to go for it.  Once we made it to the top, we stayed there for 2 hours.  It was around 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius), but it felt like zero considering the temperature I’ve been accustomed to in Olongapo City is the mid-90s.  After a while all the volunteers bundled our bodies together for warmth to no avail, it was still cold.  However, the sun started to peek out and above is what it looked like, the pic below is what it looked like 20 minutes later.

Yes, those are clouds

The hike down was something I wasn’t looking forward to for obvious reasons and also, the view from the top was breathtaking.  We were above the clouds, and even had a cup of coffee on top before going down from one of our members who brought his big gas stove.  As I started to go down, I just thought to myself one step at a time and at first I was doing well.  Our group had gotten to what I thought was the halfway point in no time.  Then, we started back down and I started to feel the pain in my ankle more.   Next, we arrived at another rest stop to have breakfast and I got to use my backpacker stove for the first time in the Philippines to make coffee and tea.  After that I took off my barefoot sandal and noticed the swelling.  (Yes, I hiked in these thinking if I could run down the street block and climb a small mountain, I could climb Mt Pulag in these, but no cigar.  These particular barefoot sandals aren’t good on rocks for me.)  The one thing I had going for me was that there was no discoloration on my ankle.  One person wrapped a bandage around my ankle and gave me a stick to walk with along with pain reliever.  After breakfast we had a longer walk than I thought heading back down to the beginning.  Some of the areas we walked down I didn’t even remember from the night before. 

Moving on, I took one last shot of the scenery I couldn’t see in the dark (to the left).  Finally, we got back to the jeep and I had my friend re-wrap the bandage because it was wrapped too tight on the trail.  I tried to sleep, but going down the hill was bumpy, which made it impossible to sleep.  Once I got back to La Trinidad, I got plenty of rest.

As for my father, we skyped the other day and he criticized my decision to wear the barefoot sandals and I the same to him for not seeing a doctor soon enough.  I hate to admit, but I can relate to his stubbornness, but I think all of us are a little stubborn at one point or another and will find a way to procrastinate our problem until we can’t delay no more.  Next hike, I will definitely be hiking in boots.  As for my Dad, I only hope he reacts faster next time.  Ingat na.

Graduation

Graduation happened two weeks ago, but I still can't believe how long it was.  The ceremony lasted 5 ½ hours with an extra hour of taking pictures.  It was great to see, especially some of my basketball players walk up to get their diploma.  In addition, witnessing a graduation in another country was great too, one parent walked up with their son or daughter to the stage.  The ladies are on the left side and the boys on the right. 

The night before, the school had what they call "Recognition Rites" similar to an Honors night at some schools in the U.S.  This was to recognize
the students in the 1st-3rd year levels.  This night wasn't as long as graduation, but they did present many awards that might not even be considered in some countries. 

Basketball players: Alvin, Villegas, Rodin

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Soccer Camp

Although summer break officially started, I still have a lot of work to get done.  First was participating in a 3 day soccer camp for my fellow volunteer's site, April 2-4.  We had our camp at the Zambales Sports Complex in IBA, Zambales.  They were long, but fun days.  It would start with an hour & half bus ride to IBA, then we would break into groups (I was the leader of the group (Team Warriors).  Our team won the championship on the last day.  There are plenty of photos of this on my facebook page.

Project Time

Last Saturday I met with my counterpart at her house and we looked over possible grants to look at for our Reading Center Renovation we want to do at our school.  This will take awhile because we are still making our proposal.  We found out the budget for this project and the total amount is PHP 300,066 equivalent to $6,978.00 USD.

Although I'm off these next two months from teaching and will explore Northern Luzon (Mt Pulag), I will concentrate on finishing this proposal because we will need all the help we can get.

Ingat na.



Language Training, HS Prom & Island Cove

Recently, I started taking language lessons in Subic, a 30-40 minute bike ride up & down the mountains.  At first it took a lot of energy at the end of a long day of teaching to start on that hilly trek.  However, I’ll admit it; I do love the route going to tagalog lessons.  I gradually start up the mountain, and then go down like a roller coaster; it’s a lot of fun. 

A few weeks ago, my school had their prom & my teachers told me the morning of prom that all the teachers go & that I should go.  I texted Arleen, the lady I met in Baguio about this, she was our tour guide and jokingly asked her to the dance later that night.  I didn’t think she would hop on a bus for three & half hours to be my prom date.  She came from Manila & arrived there at eight just before I got there.  I was late because Tuesdays are my language days.  I biked as fast as I could back to my apartment to change.  Normally, I would’ve cancelled the appointment, but I was just starting my lessons and didn’t want to do that.  I finally arrived and we all had a good time.  I took other photos of that night, but my camera doesn't take good shots at night.  This was the only good shot I got.

Island Cove

I can’t believe next Monday (3/19) will be my six month anniversary at my site, Kalalake National High School (KNHS).  At that same time, it will be 8 & ½ months here in the Philippines.  Time does travel fast.  Last week my counterpart (co-teacher) & I took part in a conference that got us started on what our main project will be.  Every volunteer has a local counterpart, regardless of what sector they work in; Education (me), CYF (children, youth, & family), or Environment.  Our project will be renovating a reading center here at KNHS and more details on this will come in probably two weeks as we still have to put a budget together, which is going to be tough to do because every single item has to be accounted for.

Back to Island Cove where I only had 15 minutes of internet, enough though to send my VRF (Volunteer Report Form).  That's a report where we have to include everything we did at our site, including the costs of each project.  It takes a long time.  I'm glad to actually send mine when I did (6:15am on a Tuesday, it also helps working out in the morning and realizing no one is in the lobby using the internet.)  I quickly raced up the stairs as if I was five and got my laptop and waited patiently for my computer to boot up, sent my VRF, then off with the internet for the week.

The Project design management (PDM) workshop went well and was a big help for my counterpart & myself.  They're were a lot of details that I hadn't considered such as tasks under each objective and a line by line budget.  We have our work cut out for us in the next 18 months, however just like the bike ride above they're will be ups & downs, but a lot of fun.

Ingat na

For my Grandpa

Just because I’m in the Philippines, doesn’t mean tragedy doesn’t affect me.  Yesterday, I was just informed that my Grandpa, Gonzalo Delgado died.  He was 85.  I’m sad, but I know he would’ve wanted me to move on and was proud of me for volunteering.  Let me tell you about him.

My grandfather was a great person to know.  He loved telling stories, taking me to the barber shop, and driving Grandma & myself to the movies, so all three of us could watch them.  His excitement wore off on me.  When I was little staying overnight at their house, my excitement for getting my haircut grew so much that I woke him up at four in the morning to remind him about our visit to the barber shop later that morning.  I think I remember him saying, “Miho, it’s 4 in the morning, it’s too early.”  The next morning he told my Grandma about his wake up call & they shared a laugh together.

Storyteller

He told some great stories, but one that I remember is the importance of reading.  He told me the story of one person applying for job at the factory he worked at.  All this person had to do was fill out the application & he had the job, but he couldn’t read and he wanted to take it home so a relative could fill it out.  However, the job application had to be completed there in the office.  This person wound up not applying because he couldn’t read the application.  I told this story to my students today, but my English is still too fast for them.  They just looked at me with a blank look, huh?  However, I will translate again in tagalog before their summer break, which is coming soon.

Musician

Before he was a Grandfather and a father, my Grandpa was saxophone player.  As I write this I put on some jazz music, the band Portico Quartet, album Isla.  There are some great saxophone sounds on this album and I know he would’ve loved it.   While I’m in the Philippines I am learning an instrument, the acoustic guitar, so far it’s pretty slow as I have no time to practice, but I hope I have tune or two down before I leave here.  You'll hear more stories about the trials & errors of learning the guitar soon.

Pancakes                                       

“Grandpa you’re a great cook, you & Grandma should open up a restaurant,” I remember telling them. My Grandma was a great cook herself, I have to add.  One of the items my Grandpa cooked were pancakes and I loved waking up to the smell of those delicious cakes.   It’s ironic that in the last few weeks, I found a place in the market that cooks pancakes similar to his, not as good of course, but a respectable second, another place I know my Grandpa would’ve loved.  It’s as if my Grandpa was sending me a message to check this stand out, there’s a treat there for you. If you knew my Grandpa, please post your memories about him below.  You may also post memories at curleyfuneralhome.com

Eating those delicious hot cakes Tuesday.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry Farm, LaTrinidad, Benguet Province

Last weekend I went on a trip 6 hours north of where I am to Baguio City.  For someone who is used to Chicago’s weather at this time of year, this trip was breath of fresh air.  It was 70s, but enough to have a fleece jacket on and at times a ski cap.  Baguio is known as the summer capital of the Philippines and doesn't disappoint.  I went along for the ride with my school along with 100 other students in two buses.  We left at 2 am early Saturday morning or late Friday night for some of you reading this.

The hills and streets of this city remind me of San Francisco because of the way they go straight down one minute and the next you’re climbing.  Plus, the weather is similar there to Baguio as well.  It’s awesome for mountain biking as there are many cycling events happening throughout the year. 

Before we saw the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), our bus made a pit stop and it was there where I tried strawberry taho.  This snack is something that is served quite often from vendors up here because of the abundance of strawberries in the province of Benguet.  Strawberry taho is like a strawberry sundae.  It consisits of Strawberry Syrup with Chunks in the syrup containing Soft Tofu and Sago (seeds of a sago tree) in a plastic cup.

When we arrived at the PMA, we saw a live drill (picture below) by the Philippine soldiers.  PMA is equivalent to West Point in the United States.  Once the drill was over, the students and I walked over to the PMA museum.  Before we arrived at the museum, we saw a wall of PMA accomplishments over the years.  I also noticed that the PMA wasn't the first name of the academy.  The PMA was originally called the Constabulary Academy before the name change in the 1930s for those history buffs out there.  At the PMA museum, I saw many artifacts used by Philippine Military in the early 19th century.

Next, the bus took us to Wright Park and we there literally 15 min to take a snapshot of the President’s Mansion, that is the current President of the Philippines, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III.

After that we drove to Mines View Park where we had lunch, took photos & shopped at the market.  This break allowed us to take in the incredible view of the mountains.  It was at the market where I discovered a shop of Ilocano artifacts and bought the CD I am listening to now on my new CD player that arrived in the mail.  It’s a CD of Filipino locals in the Baguio area playing old favorites from the local culture using the flute, guitar, lovely vocals and other beautifully sounding instruments.  As I am listening to this, I am imagining myself on horseback going slowly up a trail and this music is the soundtrack echoing in the mountains. 

I am in the back and to my right in the purple jacket is my supervisor Mam Juliet Canlas.  Two of the girls in the picture are my students.  The dog steals the photo.

Then, we drove to the Catholic Cathedral Church where everyone visits, but all the students probably spent less than 5 minutes inside the church in order to rush to SM mall. Although they have a mall in Olongapo City, it didn’t open until last weekend.  Here in the Philippines, Malls are a big thing as it’s something they’re not used.  However, not everyone enjoys the malls taking over.  My language tutor’s priest said the malls are “Mountains of materialism” meaning they’re just stuff for people to spend their hard earned pesos on and the Priest is right. Nonetheless, students flocked over there in droves, but luckily for them they didn’t bring much change and only bought fast food as everything was too expensive to buy.  Everything one needs to buy around here, food included is at the market & much less expensive, plus one can tawad with the seller.  Tawad is the same as bargain in the tagalog language.  I can do this at my site in Olongapo City as well.

 

After the long day, we arrived back at the hotel ready to crash except for one thing blankets.  Since I was the teacher chaperone, I let all the students have the blankets; I just slept in my jeans and used my fleece as my blanket. In Baguio city, it’s freezing at night; I was shivering most of the night.  However, to my surprise when I woke up the next morning for my shower, they had hot water for showers and that felt great because I never have hot showers and this was a morning I needed a hot shower.  Then, we boarded the bus and headed to breakfast, which hit the spot (two helpings of eggs, sausage & rice), Masarap (delicious).

After that, we headed to Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad, Benguet, which is 30-45 min away from Baguio City. At Strawberry Farm, I bought a couple of kilos of strawberries, which tasted scrumptious.  The next day I put some strawberries on top of McDonalds pancakes and that made for a mouthwatering meal with syrup and hash browns.  The first photo you see doesn't give this field enough justice, but believe me they're are plenty of strawberries here, they're just well hidden in the fields and they're not all small either.  Unfortunately, this is the closest place to my site to buy fresh strawberries.  This may be the only place in the country to buy fresh strawberries, but that is yet to be determined. Nevertheless, it really does feel like the Beatles song, "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Finally after Strawberry Farm, we headed to Burnham Park where we spent the afternoon shopping or just walking around.  I would compare this to a large neighborhood park with 10x the amount of vendors.  I took a taxi with the tour guide back to Mines View Park and headed towards the Good Shepard shop where I was told by my fellow teachers who weren't able to make it that I had to bring back pasalubong (gifts).  I think I brought back to much, but they loved it.  Plus, by bringing back more this time, it takes the pressure off future times I go back to Baguio, which I am hoping will be two more times before this journey ends.

The bus ride was longer this time around, but I didn't mind as we all had the day off the next day and could sleep in.

View from my hotel in the early morning.

Q & A & My first water bill

Recently, I just answered a few questions from the students of Ms. Damon's AP Human Geography class at Stillwater Junior High School (SJHS) in Stillwater, MN.  Before departing the United States last summer for the Philippines, I signed up to be part of the World Wise School Program.  It's a program where it allows a volunteer like myself to be connected with a school in the U.S.  SJHS is the school I will be in contact with.  Here's a link to the Q&A I answered for them; just scrool down to view the entire Q&A. http://apgeog.blog.stillwater.k12.mn.us/?page_id=741

My first water bill came to me last week and my eyes & ears couldn't believe it when I was told it was over a thousand pesos.  It was p1098, which is pennies in the United States, but I receive my stipend in pesos and I thought this was only going to be p200-p300.  I was lucky I saved and this wasn't a problem.  The reason it was so high is because I had my water pressure turned up.  My landlord suggested that I turn off the water pressure, if I know I am going to be away from my apartment for more than a couple of hours.  Hopefully, this will do the trick. I'll keep my fingers crossed.  Tommorow, I am off to the beach with friends and Sunday, I'll run in another 5k run. Ingat na.