More All Saint's Day and preview of upcoming posts

I found more photos of All Saint's Day and wanted to share them. Hopefully you get a feel for how massive this celebration is, how many people are involved from vendors to candle and flower merchants. Traffic near the cemeteries is very congested, most folks walk. Look carefully at the photos and contemplate what you see, how you feel. The Filipino's are a very religious people, most Roman Catholic. Whereas in many parts of Europe and America, church attendance is dwindling - not here! Churches are packed every Sunday. There are about 6 or 7 masses each Sunday and the very large church here in my town is packed to overflowing.

Traffic jam, mountain to Lobo in the distance

Father of my host family, 10 children, he died when the youngest was a baby

Mourning the loss of a young motorcycle racer

Wonder who he is calling?

Some have roof top verandas and air conditioning

Camping in the cemetery

Preview of upcoming blogs - I have been very busy!! Gone to the historic town of Taal famous for Barongs and Balisongs (look them up on the internet), mountainous Tagatay overlooking the Taal Volcano, circled massive Taal Lake, gone up and down the huge mountain I see everyday to Lobo to go swimming in the Pacific, gazed at Verde Island and Mindoro in the distance, visited historic churches in Taal, San Juan, Rosario, Batangas, San Jose and Padre Garcia, shrines in Taal, planted trees in a far barangay with a community group, attended numerous school related competitions and events (sports, girl and boy scouts, Jose Rizal local and regional event, home economics, journalism, principal farewell), seen amazing Filipino folk dance presentations, presented my first teacher training session, shopped at local big malls, made a quick day trip to Manila for a birthday, attended several birthday parties for young and old, began looking for apartments and houses, purchased some authentic Filipino crafts and gifts for my family in America for Christmas, learning how to cook new Filipino foods, making great Filipino friends, found a tutor and resuming my Tagalog studies, got a bike! and falling in love with my little first graders who are just as busy and talkative as they are in America.....just to name a few things! I actually gave an oral quiz to the grade 1 pupils in their Filipino class. They laughed at how I pronounced the Tagalog words but they were very quiet!
Think about visiting a loved ones grave site and remembering what they meant to you.

All Saint's Day Philippines

Nov. 1st approached with much anticipation, I had heard many stories about how Filipinos celebrate All Saint's Day. Nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming emotions I experienced on this day. So much love, so much devotion to family. Rich, poor, old, young - the entire town flocked to the cemetery, people drove for hours to visit their departed friends and family. The wealthy have mini-houses where their loved ones are buried above ground with elaborate roofs with gutters, statues, plaques - I even saw one with a spiral staircase to an upper deck. The less wealthy are stacked above ground in what is referred to as "apartments". The "park" has most buried in the ground with flush plaques marking the grave.
Families visit the graves of their departed loved ones, say prayers, light candles, talk, eat, sit quietly, reminisce, visit with friends, some even spend the night in the cemetery - it is a very happy and sad occasion at the same time. When I saw the photographs displayed of those who had died, I got tears in my eyes, the departed became real to me, they were and are still loved. A man who had died over 35 years ago had a graveside visit from an old friend, I imagine this friend has been visiting yearly for the past 35 years. Who will visit my grave?

What began as an awkward occasion for me as a new comer to this culture, ended up as a tremendous blessing and privilege to have experienced this outpouring of love and family. I envisioned my own family sitting by my grandparents grave sites, looking at old photos, remembering the times we all had together, creating new memories. November 1st will never be the same for me. These photos say more than I ever could.

My Permanent Site for the next two years!

This is my new home town! Every morning I "talk" to that mountain in the distance, it is what stands between me and the ocean! I want to go to the top and see the Pacific!

I arrived at my permanent post on Sept. 17, 2011 in Ibaan, Batangas to the sound of a mini-marching band at Ibaan Central Elementary School. They were very good and so very cute to welcome me with song and dance. Many teachers and parents were also there to greet me with a large welcome banner and of course, no celebration in the Philippines would be complete without food! We had a wonderful merienda of pancit noodles and I was introduced to the staff and the education councilor. A tired and very sweaty Amy then went to meet her new host family for the next three months. A lovely home and large welcoming family. Food again and then a bit of rest and unpacking in my new room. I had to write down everyone’s name that I met because there were so many and I was afraid I would forget who belonged to whom.

   Sunday was morning attendance at St. James Catholic church, lovely Spanish elegant architecture, lots of statues and gold, beautiful paintings. While I have not been to Europe, the large Catholic churches here remind me of photos of historic European churches. I was tired and a little spacey from travel, new surroundings and I knew I was not focusing 100%, but during the mass I saw something jump from the gold ornate altar from about 10 feet high to the ground, it was beside a statue of Mary. It was a calico cat, the mass continued as this was a usual occurrence and I had to blink twice to make sure I was not hallucinating, not something I was expecting! The mass is in Tagalog and I heard the words “US Peace Corps Volunteer Amie” and I realized the priest was introducing me! I sheepishly stood up and waved, not sure if this was culturally appropriate or not….(They call me Amie, short ”a” sound, rhymes with Tammy).

The Lola of my new host family is one of 10 children, she had a stroke about 7 years ago and is in a wheelchair. She also had 10 children of her own, one lives in the compound and many live near by or visit for the weekend. One of those ten had 10 children herself (the one in the compound), so need I say more? There is a lot of family here!! It is hard to keep track of who is coming and going but now after three weeks, I am getting much better. There are two “helpers” at the house, one is the cook, and caretaker of Lola, the other is called a “yaw yaw” or nanny, to the 2 year old. His mom works in Manila and comes here on weekends, the dad works about 8 hours away and visits when he can. Many Filipino’s have family working abroad, called Filipino Overseas Workers, or OFW, it is very common for the men to go to Saudi Arabia or Qatar or somewhere and the women to be domestic help in Singapore, Italy or England. Nurses want to go to the US or Canada for big salaries, they have to pass an International Board Exam to even begin the lengthy process of applying. So many people have said to me that they want to go to the US for a better job and cannot believe that I would voluntarily quit a high paying position in the US to come to a foreign country and work as a volunteer. They see that I am happy, I try to briefly explain that being accepted into the US Peace Corps is a privilege and very competitive. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I do believe that God wants me here or else he would have closed all of the doors for me to come. I explain that I sold my car, gave away almost all of my personal belongings and furniture, quit my job to come here, I say that not to brag or make myself seem so “holy” or something, I say it just to explain that I did sacrifice a lot to come here, but I did it so very willingly and I felt very at peace about the whole thing. At the end of the church service when the priest says, “May the peace that passes all understanding guard your heart and minds with the love of Jesus” – I have that peace that even I cannot understand.

My school has about 1500 pupils (they are called pupils grade kinder – grade 6), kinder is half day, first grade has an a.m. and p.m. session to accommodate smaller class sizes and many pupils. Most classes have about 50 pupils, wooden old fashioned desks, fans, blackboards with chalk, many have ceilings that are badly stained and/or sagging from decay and the hot humid climate, windows open and no screens. Teachers wear mandatory uniforms, heavy polyester fabric, different colors for different days; pupils wear uniforms as well.  I am assigned to work closely with one teacher, my “counterpart” who teaches English in two sections of Grade 5, he also works with the school journalism group. I have been visiting and observing many classes to get a feel for the whole school and Filipino education system. Like in the US, there are differences among teaching styles, but my counterpart is excellent! Many teachers did not want me to “observe” at first for fear I was like a supervisor and they were a little shy about their English skills. I have worked hard to try and say that I am here to help the pupils and learn about the education system and slowly they are more accepting. When a Filipino has difficulty speaking English they are very shy, cover their face and say they are having a “nosebleed.” I have tried to also say that when I speak Tagalog, I have a “nosebleed” and so we are the same!



Mini band performing for me as I arrive!



Yes, I am all sweaty and surprised!

Exercises every morning for the whole school under the covered court.

My wonderful Principal!

Every morning the pupils clean the school grounds and classrooms, I really don’t think this would take place in the US! We have a flag ceremony with pledge, national anthem, local anthems and exercises in the morning. The pupils are for the most part very well behaved. Some have excellent English skills, others not so much. Same goes for the teachers, and that is why I am here. No computer lab, no library, no lunch room, no gym, no a/c, no flush toilets. There is a canteen that serves snacks and just recently lunches for purchase, I eat there every day for free as part of what the school can provide for me and I am very grateful. Everyone takes a merienda break around 9:30 or 10 am. There are a very very few computers for teachers, most bring their own laptop if they need one, all  have to bring their own broadband jump drive and of course, pay for that. Teachers seem to be involved in so many extracurricular activities, from scouting to home economics competitions to sports to oratory competitions. They are out of the classroom a lot supervising these activities and many are away on weekends. I have been fortunate to attend several area and district wide events that have really helped me get a feel for the overall education system. There was a very unique home economics-like competition that included painting, cooking, woodworking, plant grafting, flower arranging and circuit board creation. Another was all about journalism and even included the creative usage of newspaper for making costumes. Girl scouts went on a province wide camp out and this week I attended an area sports competition, very similar to a mini-olympics with the torch and everything. The Filipino are so talented, the children do sports, recite memorized speeches, can really really sing and dance, I am enjoying them! More to come later, churches, pigs, fiestas and more.



Parade in town for World Teachers' Day



New teacher friends

Filipino national game is Sipa Takraw, he is holding the ball, I have not seen it played yet.



Cub Scouts doing a sack race, they were great!

Winners of the best costume award for the Press Conference

Goodbye Training, Hello Service

Counterparts Conference and Swearing In

Peace Corps loves to have conferences, so we attended our last one before actually taking our oath and becoming official United States Peace Corps Volunteers Sept. 11-15. This conference was for us to wrap up the very end of our training (since we arrived in L.A. 10 long weeks ago) and to meet our “counterparts” – the Filipino teacher, for education volunteers, we would be working with for the next two years. Many of us were really really ready for training to be over. The actual language classes had been great, I could have easily continued those. The technical part, working in our training school, had been completed and we had said a tearful goodbye to the teachers and our host families. There is a very interesting video online showing us trainees playing musical chairs at our goodbye party and two trainees broke a chair fighting for a spot, one of them is me J. I saw my very first lechon at the party, a whole pig roasted on the table. Anytime a group of people are put together for 24/7 under a bit of stress, cliques and poor personality clashes are bound to occur. I was tired of the petty and flirty games that certain trainees were playing, many people were extremely immature despite being over 30, sometimes I felt like I was chaperoning a youth group trip – I will give all the benefit of the doubt and believe that stress sometimes does not bring out the best in people. Never the less, I am proud of my behavior and can say that I did my best under the circumstances. There is a litany of items written about the PC training experience and I won’t bore you with more details. I made some life long friends who have sustained me during the lonely and culturally crazy times.

     The counterparts conference was very rewarding, I have to say that PC staff read our evaluations of the previous conference we attended and made some welcomed and beneficial changes to this one. My counterpart is a very dedicated male teacher who loves young children, works very hard and is respected by the community. We got to know each other over the few days and had to practice teaching together.

Eric and I demo teaching

I also got to know other counterparts in Batangas Province and they were all so welcoming and nice. My supervisor, the principal of our school, was so considerate that she hired a private van to come and pick us up and take us back to Batangas, she did not want me taking public transportation the first time with all of my luggage.

    The day for Swearing In arrived and my friend Ali and I decided to be brave and take public transportation for the first time in Manila and go to the Peace Corps office that morning. There is a wonderful resource center there and we wanted to see it before leaving for our post. It was a little scary venturing out by ourselves, we managed two buses and a few jeeps, a very long walk and finally found it. Everyone at the office kept saying, why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be swearing in today? We selected some resource books that Peace Corps kindly will send to us to use and then found a quicker bus back to our Swearing In location in plenty of time. The hotel ballroom was nicely decorated and each of four training groups provided entertainment. Our group from Dinalupihan, Bataan sang a medley of Filipino folk songs. 

The Honorable Leslie Bassett, U.S. Deputy Chief of Missions, administered our oath, the same oath taken by ambassadors and I think even congressmen/senators, to uphold the constitution etc……

My life long dream has finally arrived, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer!

We got our official Peace Corps Philippines pin, a much coveted item. They shot off cannons of confetti, it was very exciting, a nice reception to follow. 

My great teacher and friend!

The best was that many of our host families from Dinalupihan hired a private van and drove almost 4 hours one way to come and see us!! Wow, I felt so loved and appreciated; it was so great because none of us had our real US families in attendance. 

Wonderful Filipino family

So we are official United States Peace Corps Volunteers, a very special group of people, a kindred family of thousands since 1961, whom you bond with and you never leave. Even after service, you are forever a Peace Corps Volunteer, although you are called a RPCV, returned PCV and can communicate and join with other groups around the U.S.

    So let the real adventure begin, no more hand holding by the Peace Corps staff, we are set off on our own now (still with many safety and security measures in place) to our permanent posts for the next two years.

P.S. If a 55 year old single mom of three wonderful grown sons can achieve her dreams, then you can too! Dare to dream big and watch what God can do!

In Honor of the start of college football....

 

Well the college football season began this past Labor Day weekend in the Southeast US, but alas, there is no Labor Day here in the Philippines and there is no college football :( 

In honor of all of my fellow University of South Carolina Gamecock fan's, I thought I would share this video of many of my "neighbors" here. The almost non-stop crowing can be tolerated when I think that it means we just scored a touch down!

Whatever your sport or team, enjoy this season with friends and family. 

p.s. I wouldn't mind it if someone taped a Gamecock football game and send the dvd to me, hint, hint. 

Oh yeah, and Go Gamecocks! Fight! Win! Kick ###!

Bataan Journey

We were privileged to be guests of the Governor of Bataan for a tour of this historic and scenic province. We began our tour at the welcome center of Bataan where we viewed a video about the province and a museum about the history. A van and tourguide took us to Mount Samat where the large cross was placed to memorialize the Bataan death march. In 1942 the Bataan Death March was a 65 mile trek in which 78,000 prisoners of war, both American and Filipino, were forced by the Japanese to walk to a Japanese POW camp. As many as 11,000 died along the way, American and Filipino. They walked in the hot sun without food and water and the ones who survived the walk were herded into cattle cars and shipped to POW camps. Actually, the oldest Bataan March survivor recently died at age 105 in Illinois, “Doc” Brown. A book about his life has been published by Kevin Moore, titled “Forsaken Heroes of the Pacific War: One Man’s True Story.” We saw many photos, newspaper clippings, etc. about the death march and camps. We took the elevator to the top of the large cross and the view was breath taking, you could see the entire peninsula of the province. Wild monkeys still exist on the mountain. The Japanese later gave the Filipinos a friendship bell monument after the war to encourage peace.

Our Bataan journey took us across the province, we briefly viewed Corrigidor Island, which had an important role to play in WWII, we arrived at the western shore of the large island of Luzon, on the newly termed West Philippine Sea, at the town of Morong. We were treated to a visit about the sea turtle conservation efforts of a volunteer organization, the Pawikan Conservation Society, we even got to release some baby turtles into the sea. They will return in 25 years, if not eaten by a predator, to lay eggs on the same beach.

My Tagalog teacher, Yoly, and I (I am the tall one)

See the wild monkey?

What about that final caption?

View from the Refugee Camp

Voyage of Refugees to Philippines

Bats just hanging out

We visited a very interesting site that brought back memories after the Vietnam War. I remember vaguely hearing about the “boat people” when I was younger. We got to visit the location of the refugee camp that accepted and processed the thousands of refugees that fled Vietnam and Laos from about 1980-94. Many were relocated to the US. They are in the process of building a museum there, photo also of the Pope’s visit, interesting caption. The view from the camp was magnificent, it was quiet and peaceful since the camp has long been abandoned, but you could imagine the thousands of refugees who lived and awaited a permanent home.

We concluded our tour via Subic Bay, again an important military location in WWII and a former US military base. We saw Filipino military troops training by walking up the steep mountain slopes and then back down again toting heavy packs in the hot sun. We stopped by some trees on the way home that had huge bats hanging in them.

It was a real treat to sight see and learn about the history of the Philippines.

Lumpia, dances and teaching

Rolling Lumpia

My veggie lumpia

Our group in Dinalupihan

National Dance Troop

Orchids, about 12 on a stem

 So much has been happening since we are so very busy so I am playing catch up. I have included a few photos of our language group cooking some Filipino dishes. We had to go to the palengke and buy the ingredients and then prepare and cook at someone’s home. We made lumpia, mine had no baboy, and adobo and fried chicken for others. Yummy sticky rice and pina for dessert. My favorite Filipino dish so far is kalabasa squash, sort of like acorn squash, cooked with green beans in fresh squeezed coconut milk, ginger and garlic as seasonings. Other photo in front of the DepEd logo is our group after conducting a morning session for adults who left school but want to continue their education. We did sessions on interviewing, self esteem and problems with burning trash and littering. We were fortunate to see the National Dance Troop perform and they were incredible, live music, beautiful costumes. Our elementary group did a community project that consisted of a teacher training on reading/library resources, science, math and English. I did the science part and we did several easy but exciting experiments. We all look drenched in sweat, I told you that by 7am I am sweating, hair slicked back. No one came  here to win a beauty contest for sure.

It has been raining for a week, several typhoons have passed close by. An immense retaining wall of a landfill burst due to the rain and garbage spilled all over a town and killed several people. Sad, death by garbage slide. There have also been a  lot of photos of Manila bay with an incredible amount of floating garbage in it from the rains, kids were actually swimming in it scrounging for anything of value, the pictures were unbelievable. Folks here tend to throw trash in the open sewers along the roads, the sewers drain into rivers and then the rivers drain into the ocean and bays. It is sad to see so much trash in such a beautiful country. Floods have wrecked havoc in many towns due to the hard rain for a week, no floods by me, but Manila has a lot, almost waist deep. We are in the home stretch for training, next week is language testing. Tomorrow we FINALLY get to go to a beach, I have three things of sunscreen and have not used any and it is Sept.! Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow. We will do language and technical sessions at the beach. My next blog installment will be about WWII and Bataan Peninsula. We toured all of Bataan and it has some amazing history so I want to do it justice with photos and facts.

We swear in as volunteers soon and then head to our sites, very exciting. We are hoping that the Ambassador from the US will attend (last year they had Hilary Clinton..) I will miss several PC folks, but honestly, some have gotten on my nerves, not unusual when you get a group of leadership folks together 24/7 for an intense training. Sometimes I have felt like I was in a high school youth group…..there is something to say about “been there, done that” – age does occasionally grant you perspective on what is and isn't worth getting upset about,  “ingat” take care.  I will post my mailing address soon, I would love to get some snail mail letters, newspaper clippings from home, etc. Miss everyone!!

Me teaching science