Friday (Aug 5th) - Language class ALL day! Makes for a very long day. We try to play some games and make it more fun so it's not so long. I got home from school and my host mom asked if I'd go to the hospital with her. I hadn't been yet, so I figured it would be nice of me to go. I thought we were headed out at 5 when I got back. At 7:30 we finally ended up going. While I waited I talked with Mhay's friend Divine. She's really easy to talk to and we have some good conversations. We stayed at the hospital for a couple of hours. Wasn't too bad hanging out. The mother is still in ICU so haven't seen her or anything.
Saturday (Aug 6th) - We had assessments of our week in the morning. After lunch I went down to Karen and Gina's houses. They live right across the street from each other. I ended up hanging out at Gina's house all afternoon playing cards. Her Ate Elsa (Ate means older sister) taught us a new game and we taught her a game. Her son Joshua came and played with us too. He's 11 and in Karen's 5th grade class at school. While playing it poured outside and Ate Elsa made us pancakes! And fed us lots of other food. Later we walked over to the neighbors for a birthday party. It was for their grandson who turned 7 and lives in Singapore. It was a huge party and the boy wasn't even there! My family came, because they are relatives. After that we went to the hospital and stayed several hours.
Sunday (Aug 7th) - Got up and went to the hospital and took my clothes to the cleaners. Much easier than washing them by hand :) My host family sends theirs to the cleaners too. That afternoon several of us were going to go to Olongapo. It's just a nearby city with a lot more to do than where we live. Only takes 30 minutes to get there by Jeepney. Ended up being just me and Cristy but we still went. We met up with a TCF (facilitator like Cristy) and going to dinner. We had a good time just being out doing something.
Monday (Aug 8th) - We got on a bus and headed to Manila! Well actually just south in Cavite. We stayed at a resort called Island Cove. We were very excited to be there. We had flushing toilets and toilet paper! Showers with warm water and good pressure! And good food to eat too! We got there and had some sessions in the afternoon. One of them was when we found out where we'll be going. They gave clues to the province and we had to guess what the province was just as a whole group. Then they announced the person or people going to that location. All 7 of the Elementary people are in Batangas and Laguna. Pretty close together. Then there are several high school, college, and CYF (Children, Youth, and Families) people that are really close too. My friend Karen and I are both in Lipa City! The cities are split up into Barangays. So the city is kind of more like a county and the barangay is more like the town. Our supervisors say we are about an hour from each other. I guess we'll find out for sure when we get there. I have googled it and can't find out online. I will be co-teaching 5th grade at San Francisco Elementary School in the Barangay of San Francisco. That night we had a dinner to meet our supervisors. It was kind of awkward. We met them and introduced ourselves and had dinner together.
Tuesday (Aug 9th) - Bummed I didn't feel too great, but glad I was somewhere with a flushing toilet and tp! (and a seat, not all bathrooms have seats). A day full of sessions with our supervisors learning a little more about each other, what to expect in our school, and information we need to know. My supervisor is the principal of the school. She lives in the next Barangay over. She's married and has two children, a daughter 16 and son 18. She said her daughter is very excited to meet me as they were texting back and forth about me. She seems really nice. I think everyone there had a bit of trouble with communication. Even when people know English, it doesn't mean they can comprehend all of it. That made some of the sessions a little challenging to get through. In the evenings after dinner we got to hang out with our friends from back at orientation that we hadn't seen in 3 weeks. We had a good time hanging out.
Wednesday (Aug 10th) - Another day full of sessions. Some of these sessions were split with just volunteers and just supervisors and some were combined. After the sessions, Karen wanted to go to SM (the mall) to buy some new sandals. All of our shoes are starting to really stink and almost no longer wearable because of all the rain. The shoes never seem to get dry! Just the two of us went and got a Jeepney to the mall, bought what we went after, and made it back to Island Cove! We were proud of ourselves for making our first adventure out into the country by ourselves!
Thursday (Aug 11th) - One month until we leave Dinalupihan and we're back to Cavite to swear in and move on to Batangas! This morning we headed back to Dinalupihan at 7. We got here about 11. I ate lunch and hung around for a bit until I had to be at a meeting at 2:15. We had a meeting with our school principal at 3. We discussed what our PACA project is going to be. We took our thoughts and ideas and he (which ended up being him, 6 teachers, and 2 parents) added his input on what would be best. I think what he really wants us to do is develop a better library. Peace Corps is not about the financial support, which confuses almost everyone who comes across Peace Corps. We told him we can hold a training on how to better the library and hook them up with resources of places that will donate books and other things. Then we're also going to have a training on teaching strategies and methods. I think it will be good, but don't think it's exactly what the school was expecting.
It was nice being away and all together with all the Americans, but now back to work and accomplishing our goals and projects at site!
No comments:
Post a Comment