Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The next 2 years

Peace Corps will tell us our permanent sites on Sunday. Then it's off to visit them on Wednesday to see our schools, meet our counterparts and our new host families. It's like starting all over again. Only this time it's for real.

I'm 95% sure I'm going to be in or around Roxas City on the northern side of Panay Island.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

1 month down...


...26 to go!

I know I'm slacking on the blog, please forgive me, they keep us really busy around here. I've added my mailing address (see right) for all of you who have asked - but please don't send me anything until I get to my permanent site (except for letters, of course - they are always welcome). By then (Nov. 8) I'm sure I'll have a long list of things I desperately want and/or need.

Things are humming along here. Language classes are going maayo gid. I'm enjoying the other volunteers in my "cluster". I'm adapting to all the PC rules and regulations (not easy, but I'm doing it - it's been a long time since I've had to be accountable to anyone). My co-teacher is a sweetheart (even though I'm still only feeling lukewarm about teaching). My host family is super nice. I love the food. So overall, I really don't have anything to complain about. But, of course, there are things I miss about home (and seriously took for granted), such as:

Hot showers (no such thing here)
Peanut butter (who knew I'd start craving it?)
Cold milk (another who knew?)
Driving
Project Runway
Certain people ;-)
My laptop (yes, SP, I know I should've brought it)
Cheese

But there is plenty to love about this place, too, like:

All the different types of sticky rice desserts
My host family
Riding trikes and jeepneys
The kids and their smiles
Being compared to a coke bottle (a compliment, really)
The seafood
Dante's internet cafe
Cockfighting

It's been a pretty good first month, I think. There are 2 more months of training and then I officially become a volunteer. Everyone says that at that point things get easier - less restrictive mainly - and I can't wait. It's hard being told what you can and cannot do and having to explain your every move to everyone (part of this is Peace Corps regulations, part of it is the culture here - which I'll get more into in a separate post).

FYI - I started a Flickr account to store my photos, so let me know if you want me to "invite" you to have access or if you just want me to send the link to you every now and then (leave me a message in the blog comments or email me directly).

Miss you all!

(and I was kidding about liking the cockfighting, labcabbie)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Training, teaching, tiring.

We're now in week 2 (or is it week 3?) of training and I wholeheartedly agree with every other Peace Corps Volunteer I've ever known - training bites.

Ok, it's not really that bad. But it is tiring and confusing and overwhelming and frustrating and challenging and did I mention tiring? Or maybe it's just my age showing.

There have been really up ups and really down downs already, which I know is to be expected, but I tell you, I'm already counting down the days until Swearing In (November 7th) when we officially become Volunteers instead of Trainees.

But before any of you readers start thinking otherwise.....I am really, really, really happy to be here. Most of the time.

We started co-teaching this week. I've got First Years in high school, so the students are all about 13 years old. Plus, I have Section 1 and Section 2 kids, which means they're all pretty smart and dedicated and actually do their homework. Some of the other volunteers (pardon me, trainees) have Section 19 and 2o kids (and I think it goes down even further than that), so those classes may be a bit more challenging (then again, more interesting). My co-teacher and I are still figuring out where I fit into her classroom structure, but I think it will all work out okay. Mabuot gid siya (she's very nice) and wants to take me home and teach me how to cook traditional Filipino dishes. Because you all know how much I love to cook.

I'm off to visit my Nanay's sugar cane farm on Sunday (Negros is the sugar capitol of the Philippines, in case anyone ever asks), so will try to upload pictures after that. I keep forgetting to bring my memory card reader thingy to the e-cafe, so for all of you complaining that I haven't sent any pictures yet - relax, I'm working on it!

Kita'ay ta karon.