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 :)
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!
