School Supplies

Ok, I’m dating this post back to August of 2012. I never wrote about it and I think it’s something important that I’ve done and accomplished here in the Philippines. I was assigned here to a small school. We have about 230 students in grades Kinder through 6. Something I always thought about was getting all the students their own school supplies in their own supply box. I asked my Mom if she thought it was possible with the help of our church Trinity in Arlington. My Mom said of course we can do it! Side note: without my Mom we would have never been able to do it!

My parents are the ones who actually wrote up a letter to the church requesting school supplies. My Mom and Aunt Cindy made a box to put in the Narthex of the church so people could drop off their supplies. I made a list of things that the students and teachers could use. This included crayons, markers, scissors, pencils, pens, glue, erasers, and rulers. You know the typical school supplies. Many people dropped things off in the box and many people also made some cash donations for mailing and buying more school supplies. My Mom kept a count of all the supplies and what was still needed. Since school was just starting in Texas she was able to get the back to school sales and buy many more of the things we did not have enough of for the students. At home my bedroom was flooded with supplies! My Mom emailed me to show me. At school here I didn’t tell anyone! I wanted it to be a surprise : ) I did tell a few of my PCV friends because I was so excited to make this happen for these kids.

My Mom got it all together in 5 big boxes and got them picked up on August 30^th. The mail service is called Balikbayan. It picks up the boxes from your house, takes them to the shipping yard where they will then travel by boat, and then be delivered to my house. It was a really good way to ship things to the Philippines and the weight is unlimited. Since it is being delivered by boat though, it takes about 2 months. Finally on a Sunday afternoon, November 4, I was sitting at a friend’s house having lunch and got a phone call. The caller was speaking Tagalog and we had trouble communicating so I handed off the phone to the house help. It was the driver who had my boxes and was headed to my house but needed directions. The house help gave him directions and he said he was on his way. I called my neighbor friend and told her and asked her to tell my landlord. About two hours later the neighbor says there’s no sign yet of the boxes and I’m on the jeep home. I get another phone call and pass it to a student’s Mom on the jeep. She talks to the man and all I can understand after their conversation is that he is on his way. Ok, well two hours later, I’m not sure what happened. I got to my house and my landlord is anxiously waiting and so excited about my boxes I will be getting. Yes, I have told her it’s for the school, but of course she is expecting something too. Then, my cell phone rings again and I hand the phone to my landlord. She talks to him and they are almost to my house. When they get there he explains that they had a flat tire and it took a long time to fix.

Once they all left my house, I opened the boxes one at a time and started going through them. The first box had several things for me which I was very excited about. Then each box after that I thought, oh it will just be school supplies, but to my surprise my Mom had packed every box with some things for me! I had given my Mom how many boys and girls in each class. She had packages all the supplies into boxes and put them in trash bags with the grade on them. Very helpful! Not much sorting I had to do! She sent lots of things for the teachers too. So that Thursday night, I spent a couple hours sorting out things to put in the teacher bags. My friend, neighbor, and co-teacher, Dayday helped me sort, which of course she was super excited about too because she was getting lots of stuff! We made piles for each teacher and then put in bags and I brought them to school the next day. My principal called a meeting to discuss a few things and when she was finished she announced I had something to share. I showed the teachers the flier my parents had given at church and told them about what we had been doing back in Texas. The teachers of course were very excited and had so much fun looking through all their new things. They got the regular school supplies plus staplers, chalk, erasers, copy paper, folders, notebook, sharpies, highlighters, and many more things.

The plan for the students was to bring all the supplies to school on Monday. We asked the barangay captain if he could drive the barangay patrol car to come get the boxes from my house and man power to help carry. He graciously helped us. Once at school the principal said why don’t we do it tomorrow after flag ceremony. I was very disappointed because I had the supplies with me that day and wanted to do it then! But then I guess I saw her point that after flag ceremony we would all be together and make it a big deal. Then… that afternoon, she said she would be absent the next two days so wait till Thursday when she was back to do it. I was SUPER bummed about this! The next morning I text her saying how excited I was, as well as the other teachers, and the students. They had seen all the boxes being delivered the day before. So my principal said ok, go ahead and hand them out but be sure to take lots of pictures. We called up each grade to the flagpole and passed them out. I handed each student their box as they said thank you. They went back to their designated areas and starting looking through their boxes at all of their things.

 

I had planned a project to do with the kids after they got their school supplies so they could use them. I had Xeroxed copies of a fish picture and found two Rainbow Fish books. One to read to grades kinder through two and the other I read to grades 3 to 6. After I read the book I had cut up some construction paper they could use as the colorful scales on the rainbow fish and they could color the rest of the picture. Every grade loved the activity and spent time coloring their pictures. They all wanted to know what my art project was going to be the next day… I really should plan another one, but have yet to do it. They are still getting out their supplies boxes to get their colors, scissors, or glue. They use them all the time!

Thank you to all my friends and family who helped make this happen! I wish you all could have seen the beautiful smiles on the children’s faces : ) And thank you especially to my Mom!!! It would have never happened without you!

Christmas Vacay

I spent two weeks at home for my Christmas vacation! It was fast and furious! I tried to do and see and eat as much as possible! When I got back to the Philippines I would remember things I wanted to do that I never got to. I guess next time I’m in the US…

 

The travel to get there and back is so long and exhausting! I figured up that from the time I left my house until the time I got to my house in Texas it took me 36 hours. My flight was at 6 am in Manila and there’s no way for me to leave my house in the middle of the night so I had to get to Manila the night before. I did ok at sleeping on the long flights, but not that great. I watched several movies. When I got to the airport and came out of the gate to the baggage claim my parents were standing there waiting for me! It was so nice to see them and give them hugs! When I got home Joel had a sign they had made at camp for me. It was sweet. I think the first day I just sat around talking with my parents most of the time. I wanted to take a nice hot shower! That was one thing I really looked forward to doing.

 

I think two weeks is too quick of a time for too much of a culture shock, but when I first got off the plane in Detroit and went to the bathroom I was amazed! They had automatic flush that scared me; the toilet seat was so high, automatic soap and water at the sink. All the things that we don’t have here in the Philippines. When I came back I remember thinking in the Detroit airport, man this bathroom isn’t as nice as I remember from two weeks ago : )

 

FOOD: My Mom got me a cake that said welcome home the 1^st night I was home. It was delicious! I ate so much of that cake for the next 3 days. The 2^nd day I was home I went to the grocery store with my Dad. I looked at everything in the store and many things I would ask my Dad, Hey can I get this? He spoiled me and never said no to any of my requests. Some of the stuff was to bring back with me and some of it was to eat while I was there. I requested him to make cinnamon rolls, that has been one thing I’ve been craving. I also wanted chocolate milk and powdered donuts! My mom made me homemade pizza! You can get pizza here, it’s just not the same. I brought back 4 pounds of cheese! I’ve eaten like a pound and a half. I’ve been snacking on lots of chocolates! The ones I didn’t share and kept for myself : ) So…. If this paragraph tells you anything, yes I DID GAIN WEIGHT! I really think I gained 10 pounds. Since being back two weeks now I’ve maybe lost 5 of it. It’s always harder and takes long to lose it! And I’m still eating all my goodies I brought back with me from the states. I want to get back to looking like I did when James and Claire were here to visit! Oh, from this past year and a half, I have learned that a proper diet really is a big part to weight. If I could only control myself and what I eat and how much… It’s just so hard to do!

 

I got to see my friend Andrea! We had fun going to Target and hanging out together. Megan came and got me and dressed me for a party at Jenn’s house. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve worn a dress! It was nice getting to see them! And I got to see Jenn’s baby. After Christmas I was afraid of the weather, but made it up to Oklahoma in 4 and a half hours... I got to see Claire and James, Barbara Beebe, Mary, Caroline, and Diana! Claire and I only went to Target twice : ) At church I saw Bryan, Brittany, and Tyler. It was nice talking to them. It was nice to see many of the people at church!

 

The first night I was home Shon, Sarah, and MaMa came over for dinner. We had my favorites, Italian chicken and potato boats. Then one night Debi had given us tickets to the Transiberian Orchestra. So the 6 of us (Mom, Dad, Shon, Sarah, Joel, Me) went to dinner and then to the show. That was fun and interesting, but I don’t know that I ever need to go see them again.

 

For New Years, Dad, Mom, Joel, Goldie, and I went to Austin. We got to meet Rob and Lindsey’s new baby, Parker! He was two weeks old and so cute and precious. I held him a couple of times, but both times he cried… Hopefully he will think differently of me when he gets a little older : ) I also got to see my Aunt Cindy, and cousins Brandon and Krista.

 

Packing to come back was so hard… I don’t think it was quite as hard as the 1^st time because this time I knew what I wanted to take, I just didn’t have the room to take it all. I filled two suitcases over 50 pounds each. I had just as much as the 1^st time I went. Most of the things were Pasalubong (presents) for my friends and co teachers here. When I got here there weren’t too many things I had forgotten to bring back with me! Oh they did ask me to bring back snow… the snow didn’t make the trip here. It did actually snow while I was home on Christmas Day, but only stuck around for a couple days and then was gone. I took plenty of pictures to show them.

Now back at site for just 7 more months…

Mid-Service

This past week we had our MST (Mid-Service Training) – October 22-25. The venue was at a new place that our batch had never been to before, but both batch 269 and 271 had been there for various things. It was at Lima Park Hotel, just north of Lipa, so about an hour from my house. It was actually kinda convenient to be so close and not have to travel or anything, but also not going any place new. For Peace Corps it’s good because it’s so close to Manila. After our conference we all have to go through our mid service medical which includes a physical exam at the office from the Peace Corps doctors and the dentist. I actually don’t have my appointments until tomorrow, Monday. PC only paid for me to come to Manila for the day on Monday, but I came Saturday just to spend the weekend in Manila with friends. I think MST was the most enjoyable conference for me, the actual presentations part of it at least. I learned some interesting information and hopefully can take some of it back to site with me. It’s a weird mix of emotions going through the week and discussing our accomplishments in being here over a year now at site and having just less than a year left at site. Really makes me start thinking about how it’s really not that much time left at site. I need to get everything accomplished that I want to do and need to get busy working on it on while I still have time. Batch 269 tells us how the 2nd year flies by so fast. I can’t imagine because I thought the first year just flew right by.

I’ve been working on a World Connect Grant now for about 6 months…. I just found out last week that it wasn’t approved the first review, but they gave me 5 revision questions to answer and submit by Oct 31. Once I submit those revisions, more like clarifications, then they will review it again and hopefully my project will get approved! And if it gets approved I feel as though I still have time at site to make things happen and get the teachers and students using the computers and projectors. I think once the teachers learn how to use the projectors; they will be fighting over who gets to use it that day. It can make some things so much easier in the classroom. That’s at least what I hope to accomplish. If (When) I get the grant I will be able to purchase 8 laptops and 2 projectors for the teachers and students to be able to use. Crossing my fingers!

September 28-30 – Karen, Pam, and I went to Marinduque to visit Gina and Catherine. We spent the first night hanging out at Gina’s place and then went over by Catherine’s site and went to a smaller island off the coast called Maniwaya. It was definitely a very small island and not much there. We stayed at a resort that both Gina and Catherine had been to before. We just hung out, walking around the beach, playing in the water, swimming in the pool, and just hanging out. All of our meals there consisted of fish and rice and the few snacks we had brought with us. The day going to the island my stomach had been upset, so was a little worried about that. I bought some medicine at the drug store and seemed to be ok. On the boat ride home, I started to feel a bit queasy. We went into town to get some burgers and I sat down thinking, oh my I can’t eat anything. I tried drinking something though, and then I said, umm where is the restroom, and took off running. I made it to the bathroom just in time for my first vomit in the Philippines! It took over a year… and finally happened. I felt better when I came back to the table, but still wasn’t going to eat anything. Then we went to get the jeep back to Gina’s. Well we missed the last jeep so we had to hire a tricycle to take us. It was about a 45 minute ride. I asked to sit in the sidecar on the outside, just in case. I fell asleep for a little while and when I woke up I was feeling bad again. Pam was sitting next to me and I told her, ok if I hit your leg then please tell the driver to pull over. Well so then I felt it coming, I hit Pam’s leg, and she started yelling para, which means to stop. The driver pulled over right in front of a group of men sitting and drinking on the side of the road. I look around thinking crap where am I going to go. Luckily there was a tree over to the side, so I ran over to the tree and vomited there. The driver told me I needed to take medicine for motion sickness. We got home and I drank a Gatorade and ate some crackers. I don’t know what the deal was, but thankfully I felt fine the next day. And the next day we had to travel back home. Even though I had a few minor setbacks, I still had a great time!

So many people know about this, but I haven’t made it public. My Mom found out when she was here visiting and my friend Dayday told her about it… because of course I wasn’t going to tell her. Ok, it all started back last October 2011. I got home from school and my landlord’s nephew was at the house visiting. I was meeting a teacher to go to her house, so I was in a hurry, but met him, talked for a minute, and then left. Well that night he came to the teacher’s house to walk me back to my house and he asked me for my number. I should have known where this was going when that night he had already text me 3 times and called me twice. So this is fine, a crush or whatever, but the thing that makes it weird is that he’s a seminary student to become a priest. Well aren’t priests not allowed to get married? I’ve asked him about this and his answer was just that just because he’s in seminary doesn’t mean he will become a priest. So in seminary, they aren’t allowed to use cell phones. So the only time I ever hear from him is on his once a month leave when he’s at home, or when there is a break like summer or semester break. I think I have seen him 4 times in person… Twice at my host families house, once we just happened to see each other in town, and he came to my school this summer when we were up there working. I don’t think I’ve returned any of his texts since this summer when he came to my school. I still continue to get his monthly texts and this past week was semester break. Over the break he first text me to tell me he was on break, and then text me at least once a day, normally 2-3 just to ask me how’s my day, tell me good morning, or good night. I never did reply to any of these messages. Then towards the end of the week I got some really good messages…

“Where ever you are, whatever you do, I’ll be right here waiting for you.”

“Imprinting on someone is like when you see her around, everything changes. It’s not gravity that pulls the earth down or something. It’s her. And she’s all that matters.” Twilight

Wow huh?? I still haven’t replied to any of his text messages…..

Claire and James in the Pines!!!

I must be pretty special because Claire and James came all the way to the Philippines just to visit me! And I guess see the Philippines too….

The beginning started off a little shaky, but nothing too bad, it all worked out. They were supposed to arrive Friday, August 31, night. I went to school that morning and left a little early to get to Manila in plenty of time to go pick them up. I’ve been watching the TV show Pretty Little Liars and the last episode didn’t copy right. Karen had a copy of the show, so I decided I had enough time to drop by the coffee shop where Karen was and get a copy. While I was there, I decided I might as well check my email. Good thing I checked because I had 5 emails from Claire! They had a delay in LA and so made it to Honolulu, but missed their connecting flight to Guam.  Since they missed that flight they had to wait till the next day when they had another flight. They got put up in a hotel by the beach and a mall, so it wasn’t all bad. Since I had already packed to be gone, I ended up staying at Karen’s house for the night and watching Pretty Little Liars with her. So, Saturday, repeat my plan to go to Manila and fetch my friends. Good thing I was a slacker and never reserved a hotel room! Worked out well for us. So Saturday we had no problems and I just went to the airport and shortly after, there they were. We stayed up until about 1am talking and finally decided we should get to bed.

Sunday - September 2 – We had stayed at Pension (like a hostel) so Claire and James had a room and I slept in the dorm. The dorm has bunks and a bathroom. Most of the time there are other Peace Corps volunteers there so I don’t mind staying there. I figured with Claire and James jet lag it might be best for them to have their own room.  Yes, indeed, they woke up super early that morning. We had breakfast at pension and then started exploring around Manila at 8am. It was still hot walking around in the morning. We walked down to Rizal park and then to Intramurals, an old fort. We just kept walking and exploring until we were tired and sweaty and walked back to Pension. We got lunch at Pension and then started our journey to Lipa. I had arranged with my landlord to pick us up in town because they have a car. I thought that would be a lot easier than trying to get out to where I live with their bags. Worked out pretty well for us. We got to San Celestino, where my house is, and found out we had a brown out (no power). I had some meat in the freezer so figured I should cook it since it was now defrosted. While Claire and James rested, I made us spaghetti. I cooked dinner with my head lamp and we ate by candle light. Shortly after dinner, the power came back on. A couple teenage girls from next door (Dayday’s nieces) came over and played skipbo with us for a while. I finally let Claire and James go to bed around 9. It had been a long day, especially considering they woke up at like 4:30.

Monday – September 3 – We all woke up pretty early naturally and got ready to go visit my school. We started walking towards my school, about an hour walk from my house, and walked maybe 15 minutes when we passed a tricycle who drove us the rest of the way. Their first experience in a tricycle! Claire didn’t like it much. At school, we went to the office and then passed by all the classrooms and I introduced them to all the teachers and students. Then we had merienda (snack) back in the office. They had lomi, turon (a wrapped and fried banana), and cassava cake for us. They really liked the lomi, it’s a noddle dish of some sort. Then, we walked over to my host family’s house. They had turon, cassava cake, and sintoras (not sure how to spell, and it’s like an orange, but green). We were pretty full from school so they sent home the cassava cake and sintoras. We went home, put away our things, rested a bit, and then went again off to town. We met Karen in town at SM Mall. Claire and James probably went to the mall more this week than they have in a long time. I know I sure spend a lot of time at the mall, which I wouldn’t expect nor would I do at home. They treated us to Pizza Hut and we bought some souvenirs in the store. On the way home we walked through the night market. I think James really enjoyed trying some of the different street foods. Claire was brave and tried it all too, but I don’t think she enjoyed it as much as James. That night we got online and tried to book our boat trip to Boracay. We stayed up trying over and over, which later ended up, it didn’t work and was pointless, but we didn’t know it at the time.

Tuesday – September 4 – We took our time a bit getting ready in the morning, and then headed to town to hang out a bit before we went to Batangas City to go to the pier. We had condensed our things for the trip and once in town Claire realized she forgot her credit card that we had boat the boat tickets with. Instead of all of us taking the 30 minute jeep ride back to my house, I left them at McDonald’s while I went home to get the card. I think by the time I got back it had been about an hour and a half and they couldn’t get the wifi to work at McDo. Once we had lunch at McDo we headed out to Batangas. The papers all said to get there 4 hours early, which we didn’t really think was necessary, but we went early anyways. Of course we were right, but it wasn’t too bad. When we got there they seemed so confused. We had printed our tickets and everything so it shouldn’t have been that difficult. They finally told us that our tickets weren’t in the system, so the transaction hadn’t gone through. We then ended up having to pay cash, but it was no problem because the boat wasn’t full. The boat leaves Batangas at 8pm and gets to Boracay at 5:30am. The boat is just a night boat, so it’s just beds, with a lobby area where you can sit. One room is just a huge room with row after row of bunks. We got a private room, not that much more expensive, that had 4 beds and its own bathroom. We had some fun and enjoyed being on the boat. They have dinner for us and then we went to bed pretty early. It was actually a great night’s sleep. It was very comfortable on the boat.

Wednesday – September 5 – The boat ended up getting to port about 6:30, but really it’s ok to be an hour late, because what else is there to do at that time of day. When we got there we just walked around looking for a place to stay. We had done a little research before we went so we ended up staying at a place that Claire had found online that looked pretty good. It was just across the street from the beach, and it had a swimming pool, but who really needs the pool when you have the beach. We couldn’t check in until 2 so we just asked if we could change our clothes and leave our bags there. Then we headed out to the beach! We started just walking the beach some and so many guys ask you if you want their deal on island hopping, parasailing, or whatever they have to offer. I asked one guy about how much it was to island hop. A boat drives you around the island; you get off at one point and snorkel, another time to eat lunch, and the last to shop before going back. He gave us an offer and we said hey sure why not?!  We just said sure without knowing too much what we were getting in to, but we get on the boat and go. It was fun, we just went to a general spot where they drop everyone off to snorkel, but it was good. There were some pretty and colourful fish so it was all good. We got back to the hotel to check in and they were like wow! You already went island hopping. What can we say, we jumped right in. That night we found a place to eat in D-mall (a place with many restaurants and shops). The place was Lemon something. My Mom would have loved it. Everything had something to do with lemons and I had a really tasty lemon shake. (Shakes here are made with ice, not ice cream)

Thursday – September 6 – We decided to just stay in Boracay for one night, so we got up, eat breakfast, and headed out to the beach! We swam and played around in the water for a while before heading back to our hotel to shower and check out. We then went back to D-mall to buy some souvenirs and eat lunch before heading to the port to get back on the boat. We got to the port way too early, but we had to buy our return tickets home too. Hopefully Claire and James have figured out their credit card charges and what not now! They did charge Claire’s card… twice, and then we had to pay cash. Tried to talk to them at the port about it, but it was getting nowhere, so they decided to take care of it once getting home. The boat ended up docking late. We were supposed to leave at 7, but we didn’t even board the boat until I think almost 8. We still got into Batangas about 6. Then we had to wait forever for a bus to fill to go to Lipa. We grabbed McDo breakfast before heading back out to San Francisco. After cleaning up at home and unpacking our things we headed back to Lipa to return to the mall to buy a few things, met Karen, Edmond, and Rich at Café De Lipa for some coffee, and we planned to have dinner with some friends in town. Plans kinda changed and it started raining, so we just bought some pizza to take home. Dayday came over and had pizza and hung out with us for a bit. I was really glad that she got to come join us because they had just met briefly at school. It’s nice that my friends got to meet each other and learn about who I’m talking about all the time J

Saturday – September 8 (Shon’s Birthday!!!) – We met Karen at the bus stop at 10:30 to eat lomi (I’ve tried to have them experience as much local food as I can find, I don’t really eat it all that much, so it was kinda hard for me to find it) and head out to Tagaytay. We took an hour jeep ride from Lipa to Calamba, where we met Pam. Then we took an hour van ride to Tagaytay. When we got there we started walking and searching for a place to stay. We stayed at the Taal Vista Lodge, which is where I stayed with my parents too. It’s a fancy place and is said to have the best view of Taal Volcano. There’s not a lot to do in Tagaytay, mostly look at the view and eat. They have many different places to eat and most of the places overlook the volcano. We found a family style Filipino food place to eat dinner that overlooked the volcano. It got kinda chilly up there after the sun went down! It’s always such a surprise when I feel cold (cool) in the Philippines, but it does happen every so often. After dinner we went back to the hotel and crashed pretty quickly in our big soft comfy beds! Of course after taking a nice hot shower... I had to take a shower that night and the next morning just to soak in the hot water!

Sunday – September 9 – Claire, James, and I got up and went to People’s Park. It’s a park way up at the top of the mountain that overlooks the town and Taal Volcano. It is very pretty from up there. At the park it just has some benches, places to eat if you brought a packed lunch, and some souvenir shops. We didn’t spend too long up there until we headed back down to eat lunch with Karen and Pam. I was kinda proud of myself because we got a tricycle up to the park and he asked me if he could wait for us and he would take 40 pesos off our round trip. It was a pretty far distance and I think was a pretty good deal. I also asked him if on the way back we could stop at the pineapple stand and buy some. Tagaytay is known for growing pineapple. Some of the hills are just covered in pineapple farms. Claire and James didn’t get to enjoy any of the pineapple before they left, but I did and it was pretty tasty. For lunch we went to a place called Don Juan’s who serves “exotic” food. We weren’t quite sure what exotic food was, but wanted to check it out. Karen and Pam were already there and had made friends with the guy working. Once we got there he had the owner come over and meet us. The owner sent over some free food for us to try. He gave us some horse meat and chicken fingers. He described the horse meat as being like beef jerky, but not quite as tough. I think that’s a pretty good explanation. I kinda liked the horse and thought it was pretty tasty. After lunch we decided to head home. Karen and Pam stayed back to enjoy a little while longer. We were on our way to try and find a van to go back the way we had come. A guy came up to us and asked where we were going, so I told him Lipa. He told us he’d take us down the mountain on his tricycle and then we could take a jeep from there. Sounded easy enough and I do know it’s a shorter way, but people don’t go that way because they say it’s more dangerous. Well Claire was a little hesitant to go down in the tricycle, but we did it! Once we got to the bottom though the driver just kinda dropped us off and left us. Where he left us they said there was the last jeep at 3 and it was exactly three. So they kept asking everyone if the last jeep had come by and some said yes, while others said no, and finally the jeep came by! They had to make room for us, but it worked. Claire and James road up front with the driver. That evening when we got home my landlord Perla and her family had prepared a dinner for Claire and James. They had a big spread out on the table with lots of food. It was good and they got to try some food that they still hadn’t tried after being in the Philippines for a week. I’m sure there are still some things they didn’t get to try, but I tried to find all the different food! That night Dayday came over and got to spend a little more time with us and gave Claire a present. It was very nice of her. It’s a Filipino tradition that you should give visitors a gift when they are leaving, but not everyone always does it.

Monday – September 10 – Claire and James had to fly home L We had tried to plan how we would go about with them getting to the airport. Finally I decided maybe it was best we just go to Manila in the morning and then we wouldn’t have to worry about them getting there later in the day or anything. We went to pension when we got there to keep their bags for the day. We went to Mall of Asia, I think it’s supposed to be the largest mall in the world. We walked and walked around the mall until we couldn’t walk around it anymore and headed back to pension. Once back, we were like well what now?! So then... we walked to the Robinson’s mall that is near pension. I was really craving a Krispy Kreme donut and had talked them up to Claire. I don’t know if in the US they have the fancy donuts like they do here, but the butterfinger one is pretty delicious. So we enjoyed a donut together while saying our goodbyes. I went ahead and came back to Lipa so I could make it home before the last jeep. Claire and James wondered around the mall for a bit longer, went back to pension, and left for the airport...

 I don’t really know about their travels home, but I guess it was good. I got an email from Claire saying they made it home, and it was around the time they should have made it home. Hopefully they are readjusted back to the American life now J Oh and hopefully everyone at home has been told about how big of a hit James was! First off, everyone thought he was Filipino and then they said how pogi (handsome) he is. So many people would look at the three of us and start talking to James in Tagalog. James would just look at me and be like umm Amy help. Sometimes I could understand what was going on and sometimes we just had to say um we don’t speak Tagalog. I was actually impressed with myself and my Tagalog speaking. I think having Claire and James with me, who don’t know the language anyways, was a lot easier for me to try and talk to people because they wouldn’t know if I messed up J

I’m so glad Claire and James got to come all the way to the Philippines and visit me!!! It was a very special treat to have them here for the week, and I really appreciate all the presents they brought me. They have spoiled me and I will be sad when all my American food runs out again. Now the next big excitement to wait for... Christmas at home!

Back to school

Once again… it has been way too long!

May 21-25 – Brigada Eskwela – This is a weeklong Nation Wide project at every school. They hold this event every year. The schools all spend the week doing work around the school, like school maintenance work. At my school one of the big projects was preparing the garden. One morning they had a caribou come and till the land. I wish I had been there for that, but it was at 6am.  We also pulled weeds, painted some of the school, and cleaned the classrooms some. We were at school every day from about 8am to 3-4pm. We also had to prepare lunch for everyone who was helping so the teachers spent most of the morning cooking.

May 28-June 1 – This week I went up to Cabanatuan City to help another PCV, Austin, with a camp at his site. He is a CYF (Children, Youth, and Families) volunteer so it was neat to experience another sector besides education. Austin and 5 other volunteers helped his organization run a camp for youth leaders in the community. We went over leadership skills the first two days. The next two days street children came to the facility and the youth lead a camp for the street children. The last day we had a reflection on what happened throughout the week and the youth developed plans for an activity they could lead in their own barangays.

The new school year started Monday, June 4. I have the same schedule as I did last year. I start off my day in Grade 6 teaching English. After that I’m supposed to go to Grade 5. Some things never change, and I still don’t make it to the grade 5 class that often. I’m ok with that… Then I go to Grade 4 to teach English until lunch time. In the afternoons I don’t teach much, sometimes I do. I pretty much stay in the Grade 4 class. Most of the time, I find some kind of computer work to do or something to work on. I can normally find something to keep me busy. Most volunteers go home in the afternoon. I find it easier to just stay here and I don’t really know what else better I have to do at home. The teachers have a service that I ride with and if I leave early, I have to wait on a jeep to come by.

The first week in July marked a lot of occasions, but I didn’t do anything special for any of them. July 1 makes it a year since I left for Peace Corps. July 3 marks a year that we’ve actually been in the Philippines. Then of course July 4 is Independence Day and also Filipino/American Friendship Day. My principal said that they used to get out of school that day, but they don’t do that anymore. On July 5 one of the teachers asked me why we didn’t do anything special on July 4. I said I mentioned what the day was several times, but I guess I never did plan anything for it. Here if you want a celebration, you have to plan It all yourself. Like for your birthday you will plan a party and pay for it all yourself. So since I didn’t plan anything and pay for it, then nothing happened.

I submitted a grant proposal for my school to get 8 laptops and 2 projectors. Just submitted it two weeks ago and haven’t heard anything yet. Really hope it happens! That would be great for my school!

Since school has started I've been doing my own laundry! That has been an experience, but I'm getting better at it. I still don't know how much I like having to do it, but it's growing on me. I wasn't happy with my laundry situation, so I thought the only solution was to start doing it myself. When I'm busy I will find someone to pay to do it, but right now it hasn't been a big problem. This past week was actually the first week I've done it all by myself. Normally one of Dayday's neices helps me do it. It's more fun doing it together, they say they don't mind, and I feed them when we are done. Seems to be a good trade. Hopefully I'll take pictures of this soon! It's quite a process. I use big bowls, pretty much what they are. I fill them with water and rinse all my clothes. Then I add detergent to a clean tub of water and let them soak for about 30 minutes. Then you take a bar of laundry soap and scrub all of the clothes. There is a technique of scrubbing with your hands. I always have sores on my knuckles after washing from scrubbing. And a day or two after washing my hands peel. After scrubbing them, is rinsing the clothes. I run them through two rinses. I wring out each piece of clothing and put in the rinse water. Then repeat it again so I get all the soap out. After this I soak the clothes in a tub of water and downy. Finally, it's time to hang the clothes up to dry and hope for a sunny day! The first time washing it took about 4 hours, the next couple times it's been 2. Last week was almost 3, but I didn't have any help either. Don't complain when you throw your clothes in the machine, put in the soap, and push a few buttons :)

Sorry not a lot of excitement in this update. Lots going on with school. Keeping plenty busy! Going to work on getting books next from an organization called Books for Peace. Just need to write up a letter and fill out the application!

Summa Vacay

April 22-27 – Pam had a seminar at her school Dayap Elementary School just outside of Los Banos, Laguna. The tv station ABS-CBN has adopted her school and were running the seminar on Student Centered Learning. We were just invited to help out. Pam and Phyllis both live in Los Banos and then Karen, Rich, and I went to help. ABS-CBN paid for all of our food, lodging, and transportation, so we didn’t have to pay for anything. And in Los Banos they have some good food! Our hotel was nice, not the best ever, but had warm water and ac! Those are both big perks. The one thing we didn’t much like about the room was the rats! The first night there I thought I saw a frog jump outside the door. We were on the 4^th floor; I was like how the heck is a frog up this high?  Then Karen thought she saw something, but kind of ignored it. The second night we both saw a rat run by. Then we saw a 2^nd one run by! We had also found some droppings from them. We debated about telling the front desk. We thought, well we are in the Philippines, so they will prob think nothing of it. Which was exactly right. We told them. Two of the staff came up to the room with a broom and dustpan. What were they going to do with that!? When they came into the room they went right to where the rats had run, like they knew about the rats. Then just turned and said “wala” (which means none). They then reassured us that they would come back in the morning to catch the rats. I’m sure they never came back to the room, but eventually the rats did! Surprisingly, we got a little used to the rats being around, but still didn’t like it too much. I feel like we didn’t do too much during the seminar, but we met some good people to know and still had fun getting to hang out together. For two of the days we were responsible for entertaining the children at the school. They were doing mock teaching and using real students so for half the day they got to have fun with us and the other half used as pupils in the mock classrooms. We made a deal with the guest speaker that we would come help him up north in Sagada Thanksgiving week. I think he might actually make it happen which will be an expense paid trip up north. Sounds like a good deal to me! We’ll see if it happens.

Saturday – April 28 – San Celestino Fiesta, the Barangay I live in now. Fiesta is always such a big deal to everything. They are all excited too because of all the food. I guess it would be exciting maybe, if I actually liked the food. But since I don’t really like the food, sometimes it’s more like torture. You have to go from house to house eating food that you don’t really like and if you decline food then that is rude, so you have to eat something everywhere you go. I think I counted that at our fiesta I went to 8 houses. You get a little bit of a break from eating while sitting and chatting for a bit, but not much of a break. Catherine and Gina (from Marinduque) were planning on coming to Lipa on Sunday, so I asked them if they’d like to come a day early and come to my fiesta. They had never seen where I live either, so it’s always nice to show friends around where you live. Karen met them in Lipa and showed them the way to my house. We went to a couple of houses with them and then Karen and Gina went to Lipa and stayed at Karen’s house. Catherine stayed with me the next couple of nights. Sunday we got up and went to town. Catherine lives far from a mall so we enjoyed shopping and just browsing around the mall for a bit. And of course eating at McDonald’s AND Pizza Hut. We bought food at the supermarket to make burritos and bought chips and salsa. It’s a splurge but sometimes you just have to do it. After making burritos we went next door to Dayday’s house to make smores! I had bought graham crackers and marshmallows and my mom had given me some Hershey bars when she was here. Dayday has a wood burning stove so really perfect for making smores. She also had some wooden skewers that we used. They had never made smores before and we had the best time teaching them how it’s done and eating them. It was fun just watching them enjoy it.

Monday April 30 – Saturday May 5 – This week we had language camp. A week for learning and practicing more Tagalog. I really would like to learn more of the language and be able to communicate better with the people, but most people speak enough English to get by so it’s just so hard! And who wants to study… But I signed up for language camp. One big reason to go is the location! We had camp in Puerto Galera, Mindoro. Mindoro is an island just south of Batangas. It took us a 30 minute bus ride from lipa and then an hour boat road to get there. Not a bad trip at all. It’s a very big tourist town with nice beaches. The reason we had our camp there is because it’s one of the volunteer’s sites. He’s a CYF (Child, youth, and families) Volunteer. His organization is the Stairway Foundation and it houses children from Manila. They have a really nice facility with rooms people can rent out too. After language class, the beach was just on the other side of the road. Maybe 5 minute walk. So after class every day, that is just what we did. One night we watched the sun set and took lots of pictures. Another night we rented kayaks and paddled around while the sun was setting. On Thursday we took a trip up the mountain to Trevor’s site. He actually lives and works up there most of the time, but sometimes he stays down at the location by the beach. His site is indigenous people and one of the main things they do up there is run a lunch program. The hike took about an hour up the mountain. Trucks and motorcycles can make it up, but mostly people just walk. It’s quite a trek. The view from the top is amazing though. We helped with the lunch program, played with the children, and bought some handicrafts from the women up there. Camp ended Friday morning. 6 of us decided to stay Friday night and enjoy Friday and Saturday there. Friday we went to the beach for a bit. We found a place with the ocean on both side, a peninsula, and we were the only ones out there. Pretty nice. We came back for lunch and 4 of us decided to go scuba diving! Only one of us was certified. The guy we talked to said no problem and told us a price and said he’d take us there. So we went and of course when we get there, things are not as perfect as he said they would be. He said he thought we were all certified and we’d have to wait on another instructor to get there and of course it would cost more. It wasn’t that much more and we decided to wait the hour until we could go. It’s pretty crazy, we didn’t have that much instruction before just jumping in the water. It was pretty awesome though! I’ve never seen the bottom of the ocean like that before. Saturday morning we got up and went back to our private beach for a while. We came back and cleaned up, found lunch at a really good pizza place and did a bit of shopping in town. Then it was time to catch the boat back home. It was a lot of fun and definitely worth staying the extra day!

This week and last week (May 7-11, 14-18) are my free weeks of summer. I don’t have a lot going on and I’ve just been enjoying. I went to San Francisco and visited my host family there. We went down to the river and went swimming. I’ve gone swimming at the river here in San Celestino a couple times with Dayday’s nieces and nephews. We’ve ran around outside and played in the rain. It’s been raining almost every afternoon, but it’s nice because it cools down a bit. It’s been so hot lately. We went to go try and fly a kite, but the wind was absolutely still. I didn’t think about that before we went to the school. I’ve taught the girls (Dayday’s nieces) how to play phase 10 and skip bo, so we’ve been playing those a lot. The barangay (neighborhood) has been having boys’ basketball for the summer. I’ve gone and watched a few of the games.

Friday – May 11 – My Birthday! I met up for lunch with Karen, Mike, Edmund, Agnes, and Dayday. After lunch Dayday and I went to the mall and hung out until her sister got out of school. Then the three of us had dinner together. After that Dayday and I came back to my house and watched a movie with her nieces. It was a pretty laid back day, but I enjoyed it.

Saturday – May 12 – My landlords daughter’s 7^th birthday was on May 10, so for her birthday they had a big party at the beach in San Juan. Most birthday’s aren’t that celebrated, but the 1^st birthday, 7^th, and 16^th they have a big party. Normally a big party at the house with a pig and videoke. Overnight swim trips are always a funny thing. We left here about 3 Saturday afternoon. It’s about a 2 hour drive there. So then it’s evening and you cook food and swim all night. Then wake up early in the morning and swim some more. Eat some more and go home. The one nice thing about this is that I don’t get sun burnt! They rent cottages at the beach. It’s a little hut with a couple beds and a table with a cooking space. I never know how it’s going to work with only a couple beds but somehow it happens that people sleep. In my bed was me, Dayday, Perla’s (my landlord) 3 girls, they are 5,7,and 8, and also Annie who is 22 or so. I’m not used to sleeping with other people, so I didn’t sleep too well. I kept getting kicked or hit and woken up. I guess they are just used to it, but it’s something I’m not that used to.

Tuesday – May 15 – It was Fiesta in San Isidro. Dayday’s sister Regine lives in this barangay. She invited me to come over for fiesta. Dayday was at her husbands house in Santa Rosa, but I went anyway with the rest of her family. We just ate food and hung out at Regine’s house. That afternoon they took me over to her husband, Rene’s, parents house to eat food there and meet his family.

Wednesday – May 16 – I had planned to go visit Ma’am Lorraine in San Jose. That’s where her house and husband and son are, but she stays in San Francisco with her mother during the school year to work at the school. Then Dayday text me and was on her way back to Lipa and wanted me to meet her at her sister’s house and hang out. So I told Lorraine I’d come and visit the next day (which now it ends up we have to go to school). We just hung out at Regine’s house. One of the girls went to take a shower and bees started flying everywhere! We looked and there were HUGE bee honey combs I guess. I’ve never seen anything like it! I put a glove on the hand, wrapped up my arm, and got some tongs to remove the honey combs. There were hundreds of bees and swarming everywhere, but they don’t seem to sting. I didn’t have any stings at least. I’d take the honey comb and throw it outside in a bowl. Then we sucked the honey from the wax. It was really good. Can’t say I’ve ever had that fresh of honey. I took pictures and will have to post to facebook. I thought it was pretty cool, they thought I was

Couple months past due...

Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 6411178bc9612ff128bf1f14244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 6411178bc9612ff128bf1f14244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 64111Maranda Schmitz
4244 Terrace St #1
Kansas City, MO 641Time really flies when you’re having fun!

Man, I have not intended to let this much time go by before I wrote next… maybe now that school is out for the summer I will have some more time to keep up with it better. Or just get lazy and not want to write J

Seems like time is going so quickly. I’ve been at my site here in San Francisco for almost 7 months now! Only 17 more… I lived with a host family for 3 months in San Francisco and I’ve lived now in my own house in San Celestino for 4 months. I liked my host family a lot and they would do anything for me, but I am enjoying living on my own too. I’m enjoying being able to cook what I want and eat what I want. But that also means I’ve put a little bit of my weight back on. I think I’m still down 20 pounds though, so I’m doing alright. My neighbors and I say we are going to start jogging this summer. We will see if that really happens. Summer here just started. I have no clue what I’m going to do this summer. I’m not quite sure how a summer here works. How much we will have to go into school or if there’s really anything I’ll have to do. I know one thing I don’t want to do, that is sit around at home and have nothing to do! So I will for sure have to find something to occupy my time.

My parents got to come visit me! I know we were all excited about the trip. Even my co-teachers and friends were very excited to meet my parents. My parents flight got in on Friday February 24 at 10:15 pm. I took a bus to Manila, checked in at the hotel, and met my parents at the airport. I did it all by myself! I was a bit nervous going to Manila by myself. It’s a big and crazy city. I wanted to invite someone to go with me, but then it’s kind of weird to have someone with me and my parents in a hotel and everything. I’m sure it would have been ok, but then I remembered that my Dad was worried about having enough room in the car for us and all of our luggage. Dayday was so close to coming with me, but then I ended up going alone. I did fine and actually impressed myself with finding my way around the city. And the car was packed coming back to my house, so I don’t know where another person would have sat. I will start with the worst part of the trip… driving in Manila! My parents rented a car while they were here. I was so worried about how we’d get around with public transportation and I’ve learned that more time is spent trying to travel then actually at the destination sometimes. Just can’t ever rely on the public transportation. So I am very glad my parents decided to rent a car, just wish we didn’t have to drive it in Manila. While my parents were here they got to meet all of my host families I have lived with, many other PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers), all my co-teachers, and several of my Filipino friends. They got to see my school and where I live. I’m so glad that they got to come here and see for themselves where I live and who I’m friends with. Now when I tell them stories, I’m sure they can better understand what I’m talking about. We enjoyed our time together going to Tagaytay, which overlooks Taal Lake and Volcano and had fun playing at the beach in Calatagan. I’ve also posted my dad’s journal which goes into great detail of their visit here.

When I took my parents to Manila for their flight home, I stayed in Cavite, which is just south of Manila, for a week with Peace Corps. After my parents left Saturday morning, I spent the rest of the day with some Peace Corps friends who were also in Manila early. We had fun just running around town, going to the mall, and hanging out at Pension until we had to leave Sunday afternoon to go to Island Cove Resort. Sunday to Tuesday we had IST (In-service training). We just had some sessions reviewing some stuff, discussing pros and cons we’ve had at our sites so far, and some updating from PC. Tuesday night we had our counterparts join us for a seminar Wed-Fri. It was quite an ordeal getting a counterpart to come with me. If I didn’t have a counterpart I wouldn’t be able to attend the seminar, and if I didn’t attend the seminar then I wouldn’t be able to apply for any of the grants through PC. My Dad finally came up with a solution for me to take my neighbor Ison. He is 21 and without a job right now, so why not. It was bad timing to send someone from school because it’s 3 weeks until the end of the school year and there’s testing at school that week. I text my principal to tell her that was my plan. She didn’t like the idea of me taking him, so she agreed that I could take Dayday with me, which is who I asked could go with me in the beginning. So it worked out for us that she got to go, but I felt kinda bad that I invited Ison and then had to tell him he couldn’t go. I think he was a little disappointed but maybe also relieved that he didn’t have to go. The seminar was PDM (project development management). The principal had already prepped us that she wants the project to be a computer lab. Well that’s a lot to ask for. All new computers. It’s going to take a large grant in order to obtain that kind of project. Since leaving the workshop, I haven’t done much work on it. My principal was asking me about it almost every day until school ended. I just kept telling her I’ve been researching online trying to find the right grant to apply for, which is partially true. I think I know what to do, but it’s going to take a lot of work! Now that it’s summer I really need to concentrate on it! The grant proposal is due July 6^th, but the sooner the better. And should do it during the summer when we aren’t so swamped with school stuff. School starts the beginning of June. Dayday and I had a fun time getting to hang out at Island Cove, going swimming, and she got to meet all my other PC friends and some other counterparts.

The last 3 weeks of school was a lot of paper work and testing. The first part was spent just reviewing for the tests, and then the last part was spent actually doing the tests. I did a lot of computer work. Making forms in excel and then inputting all the data. We didn’t really do any more teaching the last month or so. I did get to play some games and have some fun with the kids in our breaks. One afternoon I taught grade 4 how to play duck duck goose. I thought they would know the game here. They know many things like that, which we also have in America, but they were unfamiliar with the game. We had fun playing and they had fun seeing me play with them. I taught grades 4 and 6 a spelling game that we played several times. I also taught grade 4 how to play down by the banks of the hanky panky. They liked the song, but had trouble with the words, so I ended up having to do all the singing part and didn’t really enjoy that part of it too much. Grade 6 and kindergarten graduation was on March 28^th. The day before Ma’am Valencia (the principal) asked Dayday to go run a few errands around town and get all the things we needed for graduation. And this is during the middle of a school day. Haha the way things work around here. There was quite a list. Dayday said ok, but can Amy go with me. Some other teachers spoke up and said I couldn’t go because I needed to stay back and finish typing the programs so that they could be printed. Of course I wanted to go to town with her, so when it was just me and the principal in the office I asked her if I could go with Dayday. I think she’s afraid to tell me no, so she told me I could but kind of asked about the typing too. While Dayday waited on a jeep to get there, I stayed in the office and kept typing. By the time a jeep came I had already finished all the typing, and then it just needed to be printed. So we all got our way. I went to town and helped with all the errands and I finished the typing.

Wednesday - March 28 – Graduation Day! It started with Kindergarten graduation in the morning at 8am. Kindergarten was much less organized than grade 6 and not as big of a deal. Right before it started Ma’am Valencia asked if I minded giving a message and then told me I’d also be sitting on the stage with her. I don’t really like public speaking and especially when I have no clue what to say and it’s in a language people have trouble understanding, but I did it. My message to the kinder was very short and brief but I think it was good. It doesn’t need to be too long anyways, especially for kinder. I had to stand on stage and shake their hands when they got their certificates. The program lasted about an hour so then we had some time to spare before grade 6 started at 2:30. We finished up some of the last certificates and last minute details. For lunch we walked down to my old host families to one of the kid’s 1^st birthday parties. They made me lead the way in and make the entrance so I know the family much better than the teachers do since I lived with them for 3 months. For 6^th grade graduation all the teachers sat in the front, but on the floor, so I just sat with them and didn’t have to be up on stage. We had to do the procession in with the students and they told me to be the leader. I told them no, I didn’t know what to do, so it was two teachers, then me, then two more teachers. That was ok. Lorraine, grade 6 teacher, had asked me to give a message to her students, but make it a little longer than the kinder speech. So the whole time during all the messages I sat there wondering if I was going to get called to come to the front or not. They never called me and afterwards Lorraine said she forgot and was disappointed that she had forgotten. I didn’t mind though J Right after graduation we had awards for all the students at school. Lorraine announced that the Emcee’s Dayday and Amy would come to the front. News to both of us that we were the Emcee’s. We went up there, but it ended up pretty much being a big group effort from all of the teachers. It wasn’t very organized and it was so late in the day that everyone was just ready for it to be over. Afterwards the grade 6 students came up to me all asking for pictures with me. I think some of the other teachers got a bit jealous that they were asking me and not them. I have no clue how many pictures I was in that day. After all of that we went to the office to eat pansit. Every big celebration always calls for merienda (snacks) and most of the time it’s pansit, a noodle dish.

Thursday and Friday, then Monday and Tuesday, all the teachers had to be at school so I went with them too. They had to finish up their grading cards because on Tuesday they had to take them to the district office to be checked. Actually I didn’t go on Tuesday. When we got out of the tricycle on Monday, Ma’am Linda asked if I was going Tuesday and Dayday spoke up and answered no I wouldn’t be there because it was pointless and I’d be bored. Very true, I’m glad she spoke up and said that because it would have been very boring for me. My principal never tells me what’s going on; I guess she just assumes I’ll be told. When I wasn’t there she asked Dayday where I was, but she never said anything to me about it. Wednesday they had a meeting at school, but I didn’t go. I did text Ma’am Valencia and tell her I wasn’t going to be there.

On Tuesday, April 3, my PCV friend Alex text me and asked me what my Holy Week plans were. I had tried to come up with something, but hadn’t gotten anything planned. So he told me I should join him and some others on a trip to Marinduque to their big Moriones Festival for Holy Week. So I made a couple calls (texts, because we don’t call in this country, it’s so much more expensive then texting). Everyone said it would be no problem if I joined, so Wednesday morning I got on a bus on my way to the ferry to meet up with them! I knew most of the people going, 11 total, but I’m not super close with any of them. I had a really good time though and I’m glad Alex text me and I decided to go. We started the trip by missing the ferry, but it ended up being ok because we were still waiting on two more to get there. We stayed at a pension house. It was a big room with two double beds and two twin beds. The first night we looked at it and was like ummm this isn’t going to work, but we made it happen! We just got a little close with each other (which I later learned it can get much closer). We only had 8 the first night and added two mattresses on the floor for the rest of the time. Our room had a cr (comfort room = restroom) and AC! Very important! It was so hot. We expected for there to be lots going on around town because this festival is known all over the country and very popular. It wasn’t as big as any of us thought it would be, but I think that is generally how it goes in this country. My favorite part was a big expo they had set up with vendors from all over. They were selling their local hand crafted goods. I bought a t-shirt, some sandals, and keychains to give out as pasalubong (gifts from a trip) to all the teachers and a few other people. The two friends I went to visit for Christmas both live on that island, but Gina was out of town and Catherine’s Mom was in town. On Friday, Austin, Becky, and I travelled to Catherine’s site, about an hour from where we were, to visit her. She first took us to eat lunch and we had burritos! The best Philippine burrito I have had yet. It obviously had its Philippine flair to it, but it was still pretty good. Then she showed us her house and took us to the market. We had a nice afternoon checking out her site and meeting her Mom. It’s always fun and interesting to see how other volunteers live and what it’s like for them. We all have our own experiences! Saturday we went on a beach trip. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the beach. It’s a small island so you think it would be covered in beaches, but it also has a lot of mountains and some of the beaches are just really rocky. We went about 9 and left around 2. I thought I had done so well with sunscreen and reapplying. I thought wrong! I didn’t think it was that bad until the next day! I got blisters on my shoulders and then my skin all peeled off! A week later I still have a bit of skin peeling. We had a fun time at the beach though. Then Sunday, Catherine had set up a cave hiking trip with one of her friends she has made on the island. It was a lot of fun hiking. The caves were neat, but not that exciting. A lot of bats and cockroaches which kinda creeped most of us out. The day before Austin had said something about wanting to leave on Sunday to make it back to site and then work on Tuesday. I told him I’d go with him, so when we got back from hiking we showered, packed up our things, and left. We knew we’d be close to making the 4 o’clock ferry, but as we pulled up at 3:30, the boat was leaving. So many people had come for the festival and were leaving so when the boat was full, it just left. They told us the next ferry would be at 6:30, but about 5 there was a big commotion and we found that another boat was pulling up. So we followed the crowd and got on the ferry. We were trying to find seats, people were running to get a seat, I made eye contact with a guy, and he said he’d save us the two seats next to him. I threw my bag over the railing, then climbed over the rail and got our seats. They were just stools crammed in the back, but it was better than not having a seat! Many people just stood or sat on the stairs. I finally made it back to Lipa at 11:30 that night and stayed the night at Karen’s apartment. She wasn’t home, but her co-teacher Agnes has a key to her house, so she met me and stayed the night with me. A long adventure, but it was fun.

We didn’t have school Monday and Tuesday April 9 and 10. Monday I didn’t do much of anything around my house. Then Tuesday I met Karen in town to go to lunch and go to the coffee shop to use the wifi. While I was there, Dayday texted and said she was on her way home from Santa Rosa (where her husband lives). She and her sister were meeting at McDonald’s so I joined them there and we ran around the market doing some shopping before coming back to my house and hanging out. Wednesday and Thursday we checked the books at school. They have to inventory every book and everything at the school. It includes everything even like the shovels and volleyball. Wednesday I went and was soooooo bored. When they are working I don’t know what to do. I don’t feel like I can just jump in and help. For one I don’t speak the language so I have no clue what’s going on and when I think I have it figured out, I’m wrong. So I said the next day I wasn’t going to go. Dayday convinced me to go and said what am I going to do if I stay at home. She had a good point there. She promised that she would find things for me to do and keep me busy. So on Thursday I stayed busy all morning, but in the afternoon it got pretty boring again.

Friday – April 13 – Thursday at school all the teachers were talking and decided we should take a beach trip this summer. They wanted to do it a week in April that I will be gone. So they decided, why not just go tomorrow?! So on Friday we planned to go to Laiya beach for an overnight swimming trip. The plan was to go at 3. I went to Dayday’s house at 3, her brother-in-law drove us in his jeep. Lorraine text and said she was running late. So we waited until 3:30 to go pick her up. We still had to wait on her a little, and then we picked up Maan, and then got to Ma’am Valencia’s house. She had gone to town and wasn’t home yet. She pulled up pretty soon after we got there, but then we had to wait on her to get all of her things together. While we waited we picked up Ma’am Linda who lives just a few doors down.  Then we had to stop at the market to buy food. I think we were there over an hour. We finally left the market and headed toward San Juan at 6:30. It’s about a 2 hour drive and then when we get there we have to find a place to stay. We unpack the jeep and go to the “cottage”. I imagined a nipa hut on the beach, but it was more like an apartment or something. A bedroom with bunkbeds, a kitchen, and a cr. We began cooking immediately and finally got to eat at 10. After eating we went out to the beach and went swimming. They always talk about night swimming, but I never was really sure what they were talking about, but it’s just that. They go swimming in the ocean at night. We stayed out swimming until about 1:30 or so and then came in to take showers and go to bed. We had 11 people and the double sized bunkbeds and a double sized mattress to put on the floor. Wasn’t really sure how the sleeping was going to work. When I got out of the shower, Dayday told me where I was sleeping. They had saved me a spot right next to Ma’am Valencia! Why thank you so much! How nice of them. So on our bed it was Ma’am Linday, Dayday, me, and Ma’am Valencia. We laid the opposite way of normal. My feet hung off the end quite a bit and at one point they were asleep and I couldn’t feel them. At some point in the night Ma’am Valencia got up and went to the mattress on the floor with her husband. That made it a lot better. Then we got up at 6, so not much sleep at all. We ate some and then went swimming again. Karen was at the some beach with some of her co-teachers. That morning Dayday and I walked down the beach, but we never did find where Karen was. We washed up and left and got home almost 1. That afternoon Dayday and I just laid at my house and slept while watching a movie on my laptop.

Monday – April 16 – This morning I got up and cleaned the house a bit, it doesn’t seem to matter how much I sweep, mop, and dust, the house is still so dusty! They are also doing a lot of work on the houses next door so I think that adds to the problem. After cleaning, Annge (Dayday’s 16 year old neice) and I went to San Francisco. We always say we will just walk, but then end up getting a ride somehow. Today we walked 45 minutes and had maybe 15 more to go and someone stopped to pick us up. We road in the front of his cattle truck. It’s one of my student’s dads and he is a family member of my host family in San Fran.  We stayed from about 9-12 at my host family’s house. We had a really nice visit. I held my godson Lane Edward, I taught them how to play Uno, they showed me their new computer, and made us spaghetti. We had a real nice time. When we left, Annge and I started to walk home. The road is directly in the sun with no shade. We walked about 15 minutes and then waited on a jeep to come. One was coming so we knew we wouldn’t have to wait too long.