In the Philippines, the way to celebrate birthdays is that you wear red all day so that everyone knows its your birthday, you eat noodles symbolizing that you will have long life, you make mango floats for dessert, and you can go out drinking if you want to after dinner. This plan seemed very unsatisfactory to me, who is used to being treated like a princess on her birthday. My family’s birthday tradition is to do whatever the birthday person wants all day, so the whole family will play all the games you want and go do what you want and mom will cook anything you want. It is a fabulous system. So when I heard that the extent of my birthday celebration would be going out drinking after dinner, I was very sad. (I couldn’t have the mango floats because the eye doctor said mangos are an allergy enhancer so I can’t eat them .) Therefore, I took matters into my own hands and started planning a birthday party for after dinner that did not involve any bars.
I decided that I would bake cookies and have everyone over to my house for games and movies. Little did I know that baking cookies is not something Filipinos do regularly. Because bakeries are so common, most of them do not bake at all and the ingredients for such adventures are not common in stores! Nevertheless, this did not slow me down. In the afternoon, Mackenzie and I scoured the city for white sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking soda, margarine, vanilla, and eggs. At first it didn’t seam like it would be that hard. We found white sugar, brown sugar, flour, and baking soda at Robinson’s (the grocery store in the mall). That seemed like a good start. Then we went downtown to Gaisano (basically Wal-Mart) and found margarine, but they still were out of eggs and told us that they don’t even carry vanilla. We figured that the cookies would be alright without vanilla but eggs were not really an option. It is very interesting how every store in the area here will get a stock of something at the same time, but then they will all be out of the same thing at the same time as well. This happens with eggs evidently. We asked every employee in Gaisano if they knew where we could buy eggs and one girl told us about a market we had never heard of a few blocks away, so we decided to go there. I was getting rather worried because I REALLY wanted these cookies by this point. I had spent my entire birthday afternoon traipsing around grocery stores for them and by golly, I was going to get them! We went to the market, found eggs, bought two of them (because you just grab the eggs out of the giant cartons and take them to the cashier) and headed home feeling very triumphant.
After dinner I decided to start baking so that the cookies would be ready by the time people started coming over at 7. We whipped out the ingredients, melted the margarine on the stove top, and started measuring the sugar. About that time, Don, one of the other volunteers, walked in with Chab’s cousin Shay (he is staying at her house) and decided he would help. When we opened the brown sugar we were surprised to find it had the consistency of the chocolate powder you put in milk to make chocolate milk. By this point though, I was not giving up on those cookies, so our motto became “lets just see what happens.” When we tried to mix the melted margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar, the butter refused to mix with the sugars at all, so we had this rock hard brown stuff at the bottom of the bowl in a pool of margarine. When no amount of stirring could fix this problem we just added the eggs. After that, everything mixed well. . .except that the consistency was something similar to molasses. Now, these cookies were a challenge as well as a treat. I had never made molasses cookies, but we were going to find out how they tasted. We added the rest of the ingredients, made Don stir the mix because we were too weak because it was so thick, and were pleasantly surprised with some dough that tasted remarkably similar to cookie dough.
I was thrilled, we had prevailed against the ingredients. However, we were then informed that our oven is broken. Our family does not bake, so they didn’t really need to fix it. Nanay Pipay was as optimistic as ever though and told us to try the center. On our way there we stopped by Shay’s house to get another pan and picked up another one of her cousins (Mia) in the process. Sadly however, the center’s oven was also broken, so we went to every person’s house in Bliss that we know. Every oven in the neighborhood was either broken or out of gas. By this point we had also picked up Naomi and Amber and were a group of 8 scoping out the neighborhood for an oven. Eventually we decided the best plan would be to go back to our house, cook the cookies in the toaster oven and play cards while they baked. This turned out to be the best decision of the day. While the 5 volunteers sat around and talked, the 3 11-year-olds baked the cookies (by baking the cookies, I mean they sat and watched them bake and I would take them out and place new ones in the oven every 4 minutes). After the first batch came out, we got one giant candle (we had forgotten to buy candles in our hunt for ingredients), sang, and tried our masterpieces. They were incredibly good! They had the consistency of little muffins, but they still tasted like cookies, so I was happy.
We spent the rest of the night laughing and playing. We could only bake 4 cookies at a time, so every time a batch came out everyone got half a cookie. We taught the younger girls spoons and played for at least an hour. It was so cute because Shay would scream every time she had to reach for a spoon, so everyone would know they needed to grab the spoons. They also taught us the Filipino version where you have a partner and you and your partner have a signal. When one of the two partners gets four of a kind they have to signal their partner, who has to see the signal and say “signal” before anyone else realizes they are sending the signal and says “cut”. Therefore, the game changed from focusing on getting four of a kind and watching spoons to trying to get four of a kind and trying to watch every other person so that you could say “signal” or “cut” if you noticed anything. It was ridiculous! I was partners will Chab and Mackenzie was with Shay, but we were sad because Mackenzie and Shay were always winning. At the end of the game we found out that their signal had been to touch feet under the table so that no one could see it and say “cut”! I decided that this behavior was cheating and Don backed me up because it was my birthday so we laughed about it and taught the girls Egyptian Rat, which Don eventually one. It was very late by the time everyone went home and I was very happy. My birthday had turned out beautifully even though it was so different than home. Sadly it wasn’t a very Filipino birthday, but I’m not complaining, I had the two things I really needed to make it fun, friends and small children. It was great.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Battle of the Bugs!
During our first week here, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there were no crazy large bugs. I was afraid that there would be giant bugs because of the humidity and I was thrilled that I hadn’t had to fight any. Well, that all changed in our second week. On Monday night, after everyone in the house was asleep, Mackenzie and I found a giant centipede in the kitchen heading straight for our room. This thing was probably 4 inches long and super creepy as it wiggled back and forth across the floor. Mackenzie and had to make a game plan because we afraid that if we just squished it with a shoe its guts would go everywhere, so we got some Kleenex and put them on the floor so that we could lure the centipede over the tissue. We then wrapped Mackenzie’s show in toilet paper so that all the guts would be contained. This seemed like a really good plan. The centipede was moving very slowly, so we thought it wouldn’t be a problem to catch him while he was on the kleenex.
Unfortunately, the reason he was moving so slowly was that he had no traction on our tile floor, so the second he was on the tissue, he zipped across super fast. I screamed and jumped back. We contemplated waking up mama who was asleep on the couch, but decided we probably couldn’t make her understand why were afraid of this “little” bug. We also cursed the dog for being good for nothing when we just wanted him to eat it. After we collected ourselves again, I put the tissue in front of the centipede again, poised for my attack and smashed him as soon as he got on the tissue. He was so tough that I could see his butt wiggling still, so I put most of my weight on Mackenzie’s shoe for several minutes and when it stopped twitching I let up, collected the kleenexes and toilet paper and went to bed. We were safe once again. The next morning we told Nanay Pipay about the incident and she told us about how poisonous centipedes are and that being bitten by one is as bad as being stung by a scorpion! That would have been nice to know before I put my fingers right in front of it to make it crawl on a tissue, but everything turned out ok and we all had a good laugh at our ridiculous antics.
The next day, when we were in our bedroom, I picked up my backpack to get something out of it and saw an entire army of ants swarming all over it. While not nearly as scary as the poisonous centipede, it was still very frustrating. Mackenzie and I spent the next hour lifting up bags, shoes, and anything else on our floor to find swarms of them. We killed as many as possible, but the fact that you have to “kill” each one about 3 times before it actually dies did not help. We eventually decided that we had reduced their numbers enough for one night and we went to bed. They haven’t been too much of a problem since then, but they are still everywhere in our house, including in one of my bags of breakfast cereal. Stupid ants! I think I prefer the centipede. At least he is destructible.
Wednesday proved to be just as eventful. After Nanay Pipay had gone to bed, Mackenzie and I were getting ready for bed when 2 giant cockroaches attacked me as I was coming out of the bathroom. Mackenzie is willing to take on any bugs with me except cockroaches. I on the other hand, just think they are funny because of a cockroach incident I was part of in
Recently our only critter stories involve geckos and mice. We have two geckos that live in our house that we have become particularly attached to. The first is Joseph, our super tiny lizard who is about 1 inch long and lives in the headboards above the doorway into Mackenzie’s and my room. The other is Ozzy, a purple gecko, who is evidently poisonous, who lives in the shower. I love the geckos and Nanay Pipay said we could grab one (not one of the poisonous ones) and play with it before we leave!
Also, last week at school, a mouse got into our classroom on the one day when Mam Maricar wasn’t there, so Mackenzie and I were teaching 2nd and 3rd grade. Mackenzie had been looking for something in the teacher’s desk when the mouse appeared. She screamed and jumped and all the students jumped up and followed after it while Mackenzie went to get the first grade teacher, Mam Mary Grace. Mam Mary Grace didn’t know how to get rid of the mouse, so the 3rd grade boys grabbed some toy bats that the class has and started chasing it around the room. They eventually chased it into the 1st grade room and then outside. All the children just kept laughing and I was just glad that they were not afraid of it. Our children really have no fear of bugs or animals, probably because they live in the country. One of our boys punched a bug out of the air the other day and managed to step on it while it fell to the ground. I love our kids.
Eye-Tastrophie
So since so many people have wanted updated as to my eye situation, I thought I should finish that story. From my Sinulog post, you probably know that a few weeks ago Mackenzie sprayed 100% deet in my right eye and I ended up in the hospital having it flushed because it can ruin your vision. Well, sadly that’s not the end of the story. After a week of my eye feeling relatively normal, I thought my trouble from the bug spray incident was over. I hadn’t felt any “foreign body sensation” as the doctor called it and my eye wasn’t red anymore, so 2 weekends ago, I went to the beach with Mackenzie, Amber, Naomi, and Davina. We had a fabulous time playing in the ocean, building sand castles, climbing coconut trees (SUPER FUN!) and getting to know each other, but I think I got some sand in my eyes because my right eye felt very irritated afterwards. When this feeling did not go away in the next 24 hours, I started getting worried.
I went to the ER here in Tacloban on Monday, but the eye specialist was not at the hospital so another doctor gave me some antibacterial drops and told me to go see the eye doctor the next day at 9:00 because that is when her office opened. So the next morning, Mackenzie, Davina, and I went to the hospital at about 8 (because you can’t really make appointments, its just first come first serve) and found out that her office opens at 10:30, so we decided to wait. At about 11:15 the eye doctor arrived and when I went in she told me that I had gotten a respiratory infection in my eye because my eye was not producing the protective films and juices it normally does because of the trauma from the bug spray! Therefore, she added some anti-inflammatory medicine to my anti-bacterial and gave me directions to put in eye drops every 2 hours. This seemed like a good plan and the next day my eye seemed rather relieved. I also called my dad and he talked to our doctor so that I would know of any warning signs I should look for in case this started getting worse. He said to go back to the doctor if there was excessive discharge, my vision got blurry, or I became light sensitive.
So for one day my eye seemed fine, but then on Wednesday night my vision started getting a little blurry out of that eye. By this point I started freaking out and wondering if I should go home to have this whole situation taken care of. The next day I went back to the doctor who told me that I was having a severe allergic reaction to something (probably one of the medications) in my eye, so she changed all my medications, added an anti-allergy medicine and told me to come back on Saturday. I still couldn’t believe that all this was happening from the bug spray. Over the next two days I didn’t see much improvement. My eye continued to be very red and swollen and I would also wake up every morning with my eye lashes stuck to my face with thick tacky discharge. Naomi told me it looked like a zombie had attacked me, but only on half my face. My appointment on Saturday really only consisted of the doctor telling me to keep letting the medicine work, to add placing a cold compress on my eye twice a day, and to come back again on Monday.
Monday, however, was the bearer of good news. My eye is evidently going to survive all of this because it no longer looks like cobblestones (that is what the doctor described the inside of my eye as). Evidently the allergy had caused lots of tiny bumps to appear that looked like cobblestones, but now they are flattening out, allowing my vision to repair itself. By now, my eye is its regular white color, my eyelashes are not held captive every morning, and my eye is open almost all the way. Therefore, I think that as long as I can prevent anything else from getting into it, I will be alright. (And as long as I keep Mackenzie’s bug spray FAR FAR away!)
I went to the ER here in Tacloban on Monday, but the eye specialist was not at the hospital so another doctor gave me some antibacterial drops and told me to go see the eye doctor the next day at 9:00 because that is when her office opened. So the next morning, Mackenzie, Davina, and I went to the hospital at about 8 (because you can’t really make appointments, its just first come first serve) and found out that her office opens at 10:30, so we decided to wait. At about 11:15 the eye doctor arrived and when I went in she told me that I had gotten a respiratory infection in my eye because my eye was not producing the protective films and juices it normally does because of the trauma from the bug spray! Therefore, she added some anti-inflammatory medicine to my anti-bacterial and gave me directions to put in eye drops every 2 hours. This seemed like a good plan and the next day my eye seemed rather relieved. I also called my dad and he talked to our doctor so that I would know of any warning signs I should look for in case this started getting worse. He said to go back to the doctor if there was excessive discharge, my vision got blurry, or I became light sensitive.
So for one day my eye seemed fine, but then on Wednesday night my vision started getting a little blurry out of that eye. By this point I started freaking out and wondering if I should go home to have this whole situation taken care of. The next day I went back to the doctor who told me that I was having a severe allergic reaction to something (probably one of the medications) in my eye, so she changed all my medications, added an anti-allergy medicine and told me to come back on Saturday. I still couldn’t believe that all this was happening from the bug spray. Over the next two days I didn’t see much improvement. My eye continued to be very red and swollen and I would also wake up every morning with my eye lashes stuck to my face with thick tacky discharge. Naomi told me it looked like a zombie had attacked me, but only on half my face. My appointment on Saturday really only consisted of the doctor telling me to keep letting the medicine work, to add placing a cold compress on my eye twice a day, and to come back again on Monday.
Monday, however, was the bearer of good news. My eye is evidently going to survive all of this because it no longer looks like cobblestones (that is what the doctor described the inside of my eye as). Evidently the allergy had caused lots of tiny bumps to appear that looked like cobblestones, but now they are flattening out, allowing my vision to repair itself. By now, my eye is its regular white color, my eyelashes are not held captive every morning, and my eye is open almost all the way. Therefore, I think that as long as I can prevent anything else from getting into it, I will be alright. (And as long as I keep Mackenzie’s bug spray FAR FAR away!)
New Volunteers
Since I got here, all of the volunteers other than Mackenzie and I have changed. Nicki, Gabby, Tanya, and Albert have all gone home, but Naomi, Amber, Don, Jo-Jo, Sophie, Tony, and Roy have arrived. Because I am posting several new stories with new volunteers in them, I thought I should tell you a little about them first.
Naomi is an awesome 19 year old from England who decided to take a year off in between high school and college and travel the world by herself. She is here in Tacloban for 10 weeks volunteering with the orphanage and then is spending 10 days in Hong Kong and then moving on to China. She, Mackenzie, and I all get along very well and have spent many nights just hanging out and talking. We have a date to watch Treasure Planet soon.
Amber is one of my favorite people in the world because she is almost exactly like my friend Melissa who I have grown up with since I was 5. She is very excited about everything she does. She is currently teaching in Korea because she couldn’t get a job teaching in the U.S. She has also taught in Japan and plans on teaching in several more places before she returns to the states. One of the other reasons I love her is that she refuses to take any of Don’s crap. She will just call him out on it and keep going. Unfortunately, she had to leave early because she was informed that she had to move into a new apartment in Korea so she left earlier this week. Her farewell consisted of Mackenzie, Naomi, and I hanging out at her house for 7 hours talking. It was fabulous.
Don is a 31 year old guy who claims to be engaged to a Filipino supermodel and has given all the volunteers different versions of what he does for a career. One version involves him being a Brazilian Jujitsu Master, so that is pretty cool. He is one of those guys that I am just taking with a grain of salt. If he wants to come to group events or talk teacher talk with me, that is fine, he is a nice enough guy, but that is where it ends because I don’t really have any idea who he is or what I have heard about him is true.
Jo-Jo is a 19 year old from the Netherlands, but she is the opposite of Naomi. She loves to party, has boyfriends in at least 3 countries, and wears mini-dresses to the orphanage. We thought she was going to be eaten alive by the children there, but surprisingly she is surviving quite well. I can’t really stand her, so I am just avoiding her.
Tony is the coolest old guy in the world. He is a retired Filipino who lives in California with his wife, 3 kids, and 3 grandkids. He was orphaned as a teenager in Tacloban, managed to get himself through college on scholarships, and eventually moved to the U.S. with his wife because her sister lived in Nebraska. Now that he’s retired he just wants to help kids in foreign countries, so he started in his home and is traveling to Brazil next! Unfortunately his placement is in another city, so we won't get to see him very much.
Roy is a middle aged teacher who I don't know much about except for the fact that he seems really nice and helpful and just happy to be here. I'm afraid he feels a little out of place with all of the younger volunteers, but we are hoping that we can still make him feel included.
Sophie is 18 and just got finished teaching in Kenya for 3 months! She is planning on going back to Kenya in September and even though she is glad to be here, I think she would rather be back in Africa. She is super sweet and just wants to help people and spend time together. She is not quite as cool as Naomi, but not nearly as annoying as Jo-Jo, so I think we will get along very well.
Naomi is an awesome 19 year old from England who decided to take a year off in between high school and college and travel the world by herself. She is here in Tacloban for 10 weeks volunteering with the orphanage and then is spending 10 days in Hong Kong and then moving on to China. She, Mackenzie, and I all get along very well and have spent many nights just hanging out and talking. We have a date to watch Treasure Planet soon.
Amber is one of my favorite people in the world because she is almost exactly like my friend Melissa who I have grown up with since I was 5. She is very excited about everything she does. She is currently teaching in Korea because she couldn’t get a job teaching in the U.S. She has also taught in Japan and plans on teaching in several more places before she returns to the states. One of the other reasons I love her is that she refuses to take any of Don’s crap. She will just call him out on it and keep going. Unfortunately, she had to leave early because she was informed that she had to move into a new apartment in Korea so she left earlier this week. Her farewell consisted of Mackenzie, Naomi, and I hanging out at her house for 7 hours talking. It was fabulous.
Don is a 31 year old guy who claims to be engaged to a Filipino supermodel and has given all the volunteers different versions of what he does for a career. One version involves him being a Brazilian Jujitsu Master, so that is pretty cool. He is one of those guys that I am just taking with a grain of salt. If he wants to come to group events or talk teacher talk with me, that is fine, he is a nice enough guy, but that is where it ends because I don’t really have any idea who he is or what I have heard about him is true.
Jo-Jo is a 19 year old from the Netherlands, but she is the opposite of Naomi. She loves to party, has boyfriends in at least 3 countries, and wears mini-dresses to the orphanage. We thought she was going to be eaten alive by the children there, but surprisingly she is surviving quite well. I can’t really stand her, so I am just avoiding her.
Tony is the coolest old guy in the world. He is a retired Filipino who lives in California with his wife, 3 kids, and 3 grandkids. He was orphaned as a teenager in Tacloban, managed to get himself through college on scholarships, and eventually moved to the U.S. with his wife because her sister lived in Nebraska. Now that he’s retired he just wants to help kids in foreign countries, so he started in his home and is traveling to Brazil next! Unfortunately his placement is in another city, so we won't get to see him very much.
Roy is a middle aged teacher who I don't know much about except for the fact that he seems really nice and helpful and just happy to be here. I'm afraid he feels a little out of place with all of the younger volunteers, but we are hoping that we can still make him feel included.
Sophie is 18 and just got finished teaching in Kenya for 3 months! She is planning on going back to Kenya in September and even though she is glad to be here, I think she would rather be back in Africa. She is super sweet and just wants to help people and spend time together. She is not quite as cool as Naomi, but not nearly as annoying as Jo-Jo, so I think we will get along very well.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sinulog!
Sinulog is the name of the biggest festival in the
When we were talking about planning this trip with Eugene and Niki (the director of the Sponsor a Child program) we thought that everything would be pretty easy because they were taking care of the arrangements for transportation and lodging. All we had to do was show up, pay them back for everything, and enjoy the festival. We soon learned that "taking care of the arrangements" meant that they would call some friends when we arrived and make things work. We left at about 9:00 on Friday morning, took a van to Ormoc (a city on the other side of Leyte, across from
We met up with some of Niki’s friends including 2 more Filipina girls, 2 German guys, and Ton-Ton (I don’t know how to spell that) one of the regular native volunteers at the center. We spent our afternoon exploring Ormoc, taking naps, watching Wall-E, and then going out after dinner. We had a fabulous time, as this totally diverse group wandering around a city none of us lived in acting like we were 16 and carefree again. The evening was quickly over and we went to bed.
The next morning we woke up in great anticipation of getting to the festival. Little did we know that the first real disaster was quickly approaching. As Mackenzie and I were getting ready we decided to try to mix our bug sprays. I had brought several cans of aerosol bug spray that refuse to work here, so I had one bottle of regular Off (7% deet) that we were going to mix with Mackenzie’s very small bottle of 100% deet to make a decent sized bottle of fairly strong bug spray. This seemed like a really great plan until we couldn’t get the cap off of Mackenzie’s bottle. We tried in vain for a while and finally gave up. Then, while Mackenzie was trying to put the spray nozzle back on her bug spray it accidentally sprayed . . . right into my eye. I don’t know if you have ever experienced 100% deet in your eyes, but it is not pleasant. It started burning immediately and I ran to the bathroom to start flushing it out. This was made more complicated by the fact that the local water has bacteria in it, so I could only flush my eye with bottled water. While I flushed it with my nalgene of water, Mackenzie ran to the front desk and bought several more bottles. For the next fifteen minutes we flushed my eye, with Mackenzie running back to the front desk every 5 minutes for more water because she kept buying only 3 bottles at a time. The front desk lady probably thought she was insane and really really thirsty. I called my dad, who called poison control, and found out that deet can blind you, so we flushed my eye again (and made one of the German guys go buy us more water this time), chilled it with a cold washcloth, and tried to decide if we should rush me to a hospital.
After much deliberation, we came to the conclusion that there were better hospitals in
At the hospital, the doctor flushed my eye again while it was clamped open (super creepy and uncomfortable) and it felt very relieved afterward, so I thought everything would get better from there. We left the hospital, treated ourselves to a very nice dinner at Pizza Hut after the stress of the day and went in search of the hotel and everyone else. We had to be lead to the “hotel” because we never would have been able to follow the directions to it, which would have read something like this:
Take a right, go past 4 dark buildings
Turn left, go through the very large dark alley with no lights
Turn right, walk a while and on your left go through a creaky door into a rather dilapidated building. Walk past the gate with the fighting dogs and the bathroom with the cockroach into your bedroom where there is a bunk-bed (with no sheets) and the smallest lock you have ever seen. (Literally the kind of lock you put on your luggage bag)
My jaw almost dropped but I was trying really hard to hold it together and figure out how we were going to get a real hotel room somewhere when every hotel in the city was booked solid for the festival. Most of the group decided to go join the massive party that was happening in town but Mackenzie and I decided to stay with Eugene (to try to find another place) and half an hour later Eugene got a-hold of a friend who had reserved two hotel rooms for him (sigh of relief). We got our things together and walked to our new hotel, which was small and smelled a little funny, but it was clean, had 3 locks on the door, and a security guard downstairs. I have never loved a hotel room as much as that tiny safe room. By then we were tired enough to go straight to bed, so we watched a little Filipino t.v. and fell asleep.
The next morning we got up pretty early and got ready for Mass. Sinulog is the festival in honor of Santo Nino and therefore, Mass is an extremely important part of the celebration. When we arrived at Mass there was standing room only and the alter was not even visible, so we watched what was happening on one of the several screens. At that time I couldn’t even begin to count the number of people there. Mass was held in an outdoor theater with stadium seating on two sides and a giant mob at the back (where we were) watching on the screens. After the homily, hundreds of members of the congregation released balloons with prayers tied to them, dotting the sky with vibrant reds and oranges. Then, during communion, there were so many people that no logical order could be established, so the priests walked through the crowd holding Jesus aloft and the people raised their hands if they still needed to receive communion. During this time I estimated that there were over 10,000 people at that
After Mass we went to the parade, which sadly did not start for several hours. Therefore, we waited with the seemingly millions of other people scrunched together close enough that you could feel the person next to you’s sweat. This was probably the hottest day I have experienced here in the
Volunteer for the Visayans Projects
Now that you know what I do during the week, I feel like I should write about some of the adventures we have gotten to have on the weekends.
Our first Saturday here we had an excursion through Volunteer for the Visayans, so everyone met at the center at 9:00 am. (Everyone includes Mackenzie and I; Albert, a medical student volunteer from the UK who is Chinese with a British accent which really threw Mackenzie and I off for a while; Tanya, a volunteer in the orphanage from the UK who is one of those people you just look at and say "wow". She's a dancer; Nicki, also a volunteer at the orphanage, but from Australia who was pretty quiet; Gabby, Nicki's friend from Australia, who is also working in the orphanage, but who is the most easy going, fun loving, go with the flow person. I really liked her; Eugene, the volunteer coordinator who is pretty much our go-to guy whenever we need anything, and DaVina, Eugene's assistant in training who used to be really quiet, but we are getting her to open up.)
From the center we got in a private Jeepeney that Eugene had rented for the day (and the driver was the dad of one of the sponsor kids) and we visited several of the projects that Volunteer for the Visayans works with as well as the touristy parts of Tacloban. First we went to the home of one of their build-a-home projects where they take an extremely run down house and remodel it for about $1000 so that it has a solid floor, roof, and walls, is raised to prevent flooding, and has electricity. As we were walking through the mud up to the house, 5 kids from another very run down house posed for pictures and we all kind of realized the circumstances some people have to live with here. Up until then we hadn't seen a really poor area. This place made our neighborhood look fancy. The gentleman who owned the remolded house welcomed us inside and told us about his 3 children and 2 grandchildren who live with him. He is a pedicab driver (basically a bicycle with a sidecar attached) and he makes about 200 pisos a day (roughly 4 dollars) but has to pay 50 pisos a day to rent his pedicab. Therefore, he makes roughly 3 dollars a day and his wife has sporadic work when she can get jobs washing clothes. It just amazes me how welcoming and loving these people are when they have so little. When we left his kids smiled and waved as if we weren't people who throw away the amount of money their dad makes in a day on coffee or a candy bar.
From there we went to the site of the new headquarters of Volunteer for the Visayans because their organization is getting too big for the current site. Right now they only have the money to buy the land, but they are very optimistic that they will be able to begin building soon. It was supposed to cost 6,000,000 pisos ($120,000) to build the new center, but they got an architect to agree to build it for 2,000,000 pisos ($40,000). Right now the site just looks like more of the tropical jungle with tons of coconut trees and giant flowers, but everyone is so excited for the new center.
After that we went to the two tourist spots in Tacloban, the Santo Nino Shire/Marcos Museum, and the San Juanico Bridge. When you walk into the shrine you see a cross made of tiny lights and everything else is dark. The rest of the building (around the shrine) is a museum dedicated to Ferdinand Marcos, the 10th president of the Philippines who is known partially for how much money his wife spent. Her 3,000 pairs of shoes are now on display in a museum in Manila. We walked through each of their guest bedrooms, their bedrooms (separate because males and females couldn't share rooms), their children's rooms, the kitchen, the ballroom, and my personal favorite, the Alitaptap room (firefly room). In this room there were tiny twinkling lights is swirling patterns across the ceiling. I could only think that this would be a wonderful way to decorate any little girls room. While everything in the museum was absolutely beautiful it didn't fit with anything else we had seen or witnessed in the Philippines. Therefore, it was probably my least favorite stop of the day.
From there we drove to the San Juanico bridge, the longest bridge in the Philippines, that connects the islands of Leyte and Samar. Because we had a private Jeepeney we could stop in the middle of the bridge to get off and take pictures while he crossed the bridge to turn around. We probably looked ridiculously silly taking a million pictures of ourselves and the landscape and the bridge, but the landscapes are so beautiful that we couldn't help ourselves. We also got some really great pictures of our group.
Our last stop of the day was Rafael's Farm, probably the nicest restaurant in Tacloban. The restaurant is an open air, very quiet restaurant with fountains and aquariums like you would see in a resort in Hawaii. It is also surrounded my acres of beautifully landscaped gardens and ponds. If this place was in the US, its where I would get married. We took a million pictures because it was so beautiful and I know that I keep saying everything was beautiful, but I can't even begin to describe how everything looks. I need to get some pictures up so that you can see the perfect green color of everything, the giant flowers, and the millions of palm trees. Lunch there was also amazing because I had ribs (but they still didn't compare to yours Mom!)
On our way back home, the Jeepeney driver let the girls ride on the back of the Jeepeney (which is normally not something that girls are allowed to do because men are supposed to give up their seats in the Jeepeney for women if it is full). However, we were all so excited that he let us. So there we were, 4 white girls (two from the US, one from the UK, and one from Australia) smiling like crazy as we rode down the street. Everyone who saw us either smiled, laughed, and waved, or looked at us with that very confused, tilt-of-the-head look that means this is something they have never seen before. It was probably the most fun ride I've had in the Philippines, especially with how many people we made smile.
Even though we only got to visit a few of the projects of Volunteer for the Visayans, Eugene got to tell us about the others as well. In addition to the volunteers, the build-a-home project, and the center (where they hold tutoring, dance classes, assistance for single moms, and feedings for local kids), they also have the adopt-a-school project where they provide school supplies to poor schools (because the government only provides a small stipend for supplies and teachers have to pay for everything else), a Home for Girls and Home for Boys where children who have had trouble at home, are homeless, or who have gotten in trouble with the law can live, and the Sponsor a Child project which is very similar to WorldVision where for $25 a month ($300 per year) they can provide food, a stipend to help with housing payments, uniforms for school, and annual dental and medical checkups for a child. Many of the students in our class and kids we tutor at the center are sponsor kids. It still amazes me just how much this organization helps its community. I feel so blessed to get to be a small part of it.
Oh and P.S. Mackenzie finally started her blog today, so if you would like even more info about our lives here, visit her blog Adventures in Cangumbang.
Our first Saturday here we had an excursion through Volunteer for the Visayans, so everyone met at the center at 9:00 am. (Everyone includes Mackenzie and I; Albert, a medical student volunteer from the UK who is Chinese with a British accent which really threw Mackenzie and I off for a while; Tanya, a volunteer in the orphanage from the UK who is one of those people you just look at and say "wow". She's a dancer; Nicki, also a volunteer at the orphanage, but from Australia who was pretty quiet; Gabby, Nicki's friend from Australia, who is also working in the orphanage, but who is the most easy going, fun loving, go with the flow person. I really liked her; Eugene, the volunteer coordinator who is pretty much our go-to guy whenever we need anything, and DaVina, Eugene's assistant in training who used to be really quiet, but we are getting her to open up.)
From the center we got in a private Jeepeney that Eugene had rented for the day (and the driver was the dad of one of the sponsor kids) and we visited several of the projects that Volunteer for the Visayans works with as well as the touristy parts of Tacloban. First we went to the home of one of their build-a-home projects where they take an extremely run down house and remodel it for about $1000 so that it has a solid floor, roof, and walls, is raised to prevent flooding, and has electricity. As we were walking through the mud up to the house, 5 kids from another very run down house posed for pictures and we all kind of realized the circumstances some people have to live with here. Up until then we hadn't seen a really poor area. This place made our neighborhood look fancy. The gentleman who owned the remolded house welcomed us inside and told us about his 3 children and 2 grandchildren who live with him. He is a pedicab driver (basically a bicycle with a sidecar attached) and he makes about 200 pisos a day (roughly 4 dollars) but has to pay 50 pisos a day to rent his pedicab. Therefore, he makes roughly 3 dollars a day and his wife has sporadic work when she can get jobs washing clothes. It just amazes me how welcoming and loving these people are when they have so little. When we left his kids smiled and waved as if we weren't people who throw away the amount of money their dad makes in a day on coffee or a candy bar.
From there we went to the site of the new headquarters of Volunteer for the Visayans because their organization is getting too big for the current site. Right now they only have the money to buy the land, but they are very optimistic that they will be able to begin building soon. It was supposed to cost 6,000,000 pisos ($120,000) to build the new center, but they got an architect to agree to build it for 2,000,000 pisos ($40,000). Right now the site just looks like more of the tropical jungle with tons of coconut trees and giant flowers, but everyone is so excited for the new center.
After that we went to the two tourist spots in Tacloban, the Santo Nino Shire/Marcos Museum, and the San Juanico Bridge. When you walk into the shrine you see a cross made of tiny lights and everything else is dark. The rest of the building (around the shrine) is a museum dedicated to Ferdinand Marcos, the 10th president of the Philippines who is known partially for how much money his wife spent. Her 3,000 pairs of shoes are now on display in a museum in Manila. We walked through each of their guest bedrooms, their bedrooms (separate because males and females couldn't share rooms), their children's rooms, the kitchen, the ballroom, and my personal favorite, the Alitaptap room (firefly room). In this room there were tiny twinkling lights is swirling patterns across the ceiling. I could only think that this would be a wonderful way to decorate any little girls room. While everything in the museum was absolutely beautiful it didn't fit with anything else we had seen or witnessed in the Philippines. Therefore, it was probably my least favorite stop of the day.
From there we drove to the San Juanico bridge, the longest bridge in the Philippines, that connects the islands of Leyte and Samar. Because we had a private Jeepeney we could stop in the middle of the bridge to get off and take pictures while he crossed the bridge to turn around. We probably looked ridiculously silly taking a million pictures of ourselves and the landscape and the bridge, but the landscapes are so beautiful that we couldn't help ourselves. We also got some really great pictures of our group.
Our last stop of the day was Rafael's Farm, probably the nicest restaurant in Tacloban. The restaurant is an open air, very quiet restaurant with fountains and aquariums like you would see in a resort in Hawaii. It is also surrounded my acres of beautifully landscaped gardens and ponds. If this place was in the US, its where I would get married. We took a million pictures because it was so beautiful and I know that I keep saying everything was beautiful, but I can't even begin to describe how everything looks. I need to get some pictures up so that you can see the perfect green color of everything, the giant flowers, and the millions of palm trees. Lunch there was also amazing because I had ribs (but they still didn't compare to yours Mom!)
On our way back home, the Jeepeney driver let the girls ride on the back of the Jeepeney (which is normally not something that girls are allowed to do because men are supposed to give up their seats in the Jeepeney for women if it is full). However, we were all so excited that he let us. So there we were, 4 white girls (two from the US, one from the UK, and one from Australia) smiling like crazy as we rode down the street. Everyone who saw us either smiled, laughed, and waved, or looked at us with that very confused, tilt-of-the-head look that means this is something they have never seen before. It was probably the most fun ride I've had in the Philippines, especially with how many people we made smile.
Even though we only got to visit a few of the projects of Volunteer for the Visayans, Eugene got to tell us about the others as well. In addition to the volunteers, the build-a-home project, and the center (where they hold tutoring, dance classes, assistance for single moms, and feedings for local kids), they also have the adopt-a-school project where they provide school supplies to poor schools (because the government only provides a small stipend for supplies and teachers have to pay for everything else), a Home for Girls and Home for Boys where children who have had trouble at home, are homeless, or who have gotten in trouble with the law can live, and the Sponsor a Child project which is very similar to WorldVision where for $25 a month ($300 per year) they can provide food, a stipend to help with housing payments, uniforms for school, and annual dental and medical checkups for a child. Many of the students in our class and kids we tutor at the center are sponsor kids. It still amazes me just how much this organization helps its community. I feel so blessed to get to be a small part of it.
Oh and P.S. Mackenzie finally started her blog today, so if you would like even more info about our lives here, visit her blog Adventures in Cangumbang.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Its amazing what you can get used to in a week!
So now that I've been here a week, I feel like I can accurately describe my life here. So here is a typical day. . .
5:30 a.m. Mackenzie's and my alarm clock goes off at 5:30 (and the next sound I usually hear is a roosters crowing) so that we have enough time to get out of bed, eat breakfast with Nanay Pipay (breakfast is always ready when we wake up, no matter what time it is), get our school stuff ready to go (and probably finish planning our lessons for the day), layer on the sunscreen and bug spray so that we feel delightfully sticky, and go back to the house once or twice for things we forgot.
7:00 a.m. Mackenzie and I leave our house and Mama (the grandmother) hugs us and tells us to be careful and that she loves us and good luck (because we need it!) Then Mackenzie and I get on a Jeepney going to Palo (the next town). A Jeepney is not really like any creation in the US. It is a vehicle that has a long bed that has benches on either side and an opening in the back where you can jump in and out. You hail them like cabs and you tap on the roof if you want off. They are also decorated in crazy colors and have a platform on the back where people can hold on and ride on the back. A Jeepney holds probably 15-20 people comfortably, but I have been on one with about 30 people on it. Filipinos don't have much of a personal bubble when on a Jeepney. We pay our 6 pisos each (about 12 cents) and get off in the Palo market. From there we go to our school which is a 4 room schoolhouse with 75 students from grades 1-3 and 2 teachers.
8:00 a.m. Mackenzie and I are teaching second grade all by ourselves. We had one day where we observed Mum Maricar (their teacher) and after that we have been on our own. We teach English from 8:15 to 10:00 and math from 10:30 to 11:30. English is really hard because the students have only been learning English for about a year and a half. They can read anything, but their vocabulary is very limited so our day consists mostly of charades and pictionary while we're trying to get them to understand the stories they are reading. However, things have gotten a whole lot better in the 3 days we have been teaching. I think we are learning a lot about what they know and they are picking up on some basic English (like directions) that make things a lot easier. Math is easier because their numbers are the same. In fact, I am rather proud of Mackenzie and I because our first day teaching we were supposed to introduce division. While the students haven't quite grasped what division really is yet, they have 3 ways to solve division problems, and I think that is pretty good. In-between English and math the students have recess, but instead of running around a playground for half an hour, they go down to the Baranguy office (a baranguy is the smallest organizational unit of the government, somewhat like a parish or neighborhood system of government) where they are fed a mixture of rice, carrots, and meat. For some of our students that is probably the most substantial meal they get all day.
11:30 a.m. Mackenzie and I leave our school with about 5 kids on each arm where they walk us to get picked up and taken back to Tacloban. We have to say goodbye to them about 20 times each and give them just as many hi-fives before they will let us go. On our way home we often stop downtown or at Robinsons (the mall) to go shopping or go to an internet cafe. If we just go home we usually have lunch and read or lesson plan or nap until it is time to go to tutorial.
4:30 p.m. Mackenzie and I head down to the Volunteer for the Visayans center where the staff and some local volunteers hold a tutorial for 1st-4th grade students. Usually Mackenzie and I do math with 5 or 6 first and second graders for an hour. Sometimes we read or do spelling or, for the really young ones, just drawing for part of it. On Friday I was working with a first grader one-on-one and at the end she drew a picture of me as a princess and titled it "My friend" It is amazing how open and loving these kids are. You can be there one day and they will all learn your name and give you hugs even if you didn't work with them. Every day when I'm just walking around at least 1 kid I don't know says "hello Ate Stephanie!" (Ate is a term that you use for older girls you respect like an older sister or cousin).
5:30 p.m. Mackenzie and I go home and have dinner with Nanay Pipay. Again, it is always ready when we get home. Usually dinner consists of one fish dish, one chicken or pork dish, and something made from vegetables. I usually try to eat a little of everything because whatever is left over is what Nanay Lucy and Mama eat. Usually Nanay Pipay spends most of dinner laughing at Mackenzie and I while we try to eat our fish. I am also rather proud of myself for eating so many kinds of fish, including shrimp (with its head and antennas still attached) and fish that was looking at me.
6:00 p.m. After dinner, Mackenzie and I usually hang out with our family. Sometimes we play Uno or Jenga, sometimes some of Chabel's cousins come over and try to teach us how to dance or we sit and sing on the porch while Nanay Pipay plays the guitar, and sometimes we fall asleep right after dinner because we are so tired. On Friday nights the volunteers usually go to the astrodome for dinner or drinks, but other than that, we usually stay with our family.
9:00 p.m. By 9, Mackenzie and I have usually fallen asleep in the livingroom, so we get up, take quick showers to wash off the sunscreen, bugspray, and sweat from the day, pray together, crawl into our mosquito netting, and go to bed. I know it doesn't sound like that exhausting of a day, but for some reason, by the end of it I am ridiculously tired and sleep so soundly that I don't even wake up to the roosters the next morning.
5:30 a.m. Mackenzie's and my alarm clock goes off at 5:30 (and the next sound I usually hear is a roosters crowing) so that we have enough time to get out of bed, eat breakfast with Nanay Pipay (breakfast is always ready when we wake up, no matter what time it is), get our school stuff ready to go (and probably finish planning our lessons for the day), layer on the sunscreen and bug spray so that we feel delightfully sticky, and go back to the house once or twice for things we forgot.
7:00 a.m. Mackenzie and I leave our house and Mama (the grandmother) hugs us and tells us to be careful and that she loves us and good luck (because we need it!) Then Mackenzie and I get on a Jeepney going to Palo (the next town). A Jeepney is not really like any creation in the US. It is a vehicle that has a long bed that has benches on either side and an opening in the back where you can jump in and out. You hail them like cabs and you tap on the roof if you want off. They are also decorated in crazy colors and have a platform on the back where people can hold on and ride on the back. A Jeepney holds probably 15-20 people comfortably, but I have been on one with about 30 people on it. Filipinos don't have much of a personal bubble when on a Jeepney. We pay our 6 pisos each (about 12 cents) and get off in the Palo market. From there we go to our school which is a 4 room schoolhouse with 75 students from grades 1-3 and 2 teachers.
8:00 a.m. Mackenzie and I are teaching second grade all by ourselves. We had one day where we observed Mum Maricar (their teacher) and after that we have been on our own. We teach English from 8:15 to 10:00 and math from 10:30 to 11:30. English is really hard because the students have only been learning English for about a year and a half. They can read anything, but their vocabulary is very limited so our day consists mostly of charades and pictionary while we're trying to get them to understand the stories they are reading. However, things have gotten a whole lot better in the 3 days we have been teaching. I think we are learning a lot about what they know and they are picking up on some basic English (like directions) that make things a lot easier. Math is easier because their numbers are the same. In fact, I am rather proud of Mackenzie and I because our first day teaching we were supposed to introduce division. While the students haven't quite grasped what division really is yet, they have 3 ways to solve division problems, and I think that is pretty good. In-between English and math the students have recess, but instead of running around a playground for half an hour, they go down to the Baranguy office (a baranguy is the smallest organizational unit of the government, somewhat like a parish or neighborhood system of government) where they are fed a mixture of rice, carrots, and meat. For some of our students that is probably the most substantial meal they get all day.
11:30 a.m. Mackenzie and I leave our school with about 5 kids on each arm where they walk us to get picked up and taken back to Tacloban. We have to say goodbye to them about 20 times each and give them just as many hi-fives before they will let us go. On our way home we often stop downtown or at Robinsons (the mall) to go shopping or go to an internet cafe. If we just go home we usually have lunch and read or lesson plan or nap until it is time to go to tutorial.
4:30 p.m. Mackenzie and I head down to the Volunteer for the Visayans center where the staff and some local volunteers hold a tutorial for 1st-4th grade students. Usually Mackenzie and I do math with 5 or 6 first and second graders for an hour. Sometimes we read or do spelling or, for the really young ones, just drawing for part of it. On Friday I was working with a first grader one-on-one and at the end she drew a picture of me as a princess and titled it "My friend" It is amazing how open and loving these kids are. You can be there one day and they will all learn your name and give you hugs even if you didn't work with them. Every day when I'm just walking around at least 1 kid I don't know says "hello Ate Stephanie!" (Ate is a term that you use for older girls you respect like an older sister or cousin).
5:30 p.m. Mackenzie and I go home and have dinner with Nanay Pipay. Again, it is always ready when we get home. Usually dinner consists of one fish dish, one chicken or pork dish, and something made from vegetables. I usually try to eat a little of everything because whatever is left over is what Nanay Lucy and Mama eat. Usually Nanay Pipay spends most of dinner laughing at Mackenzie and I while we try to eat our fish. I am also rather proud of myself for eating so many kinds of fish, including shrimp (with its head and antennas still attached) and fish that was looking at me.
6:00 p.m. After dinner, Mackenzie and I usually hang out with our family. Sometimes we play Uno or Jenga, sometimes some of Chabel's cousins come over and try to teach us how to dance or we sit and sing on the porch while Nanay Pipay plays the guitar, and sometimes we fall asleep right after dinner because we are so tired. On Friday nights the volunteers usually go to the astrodome for dinner or drinks, but other than that, we usually stay with our family.
9:00 p.m. By 9, Mackenzie and I have usually fallen asleep in the livingroom, so we get up, take quick showers to wash off the sunscreen, bugspray, and sweat from the day, pray together, crawl into our mosquito netting, and go to bed. I know it doesn't sound like that exhausting of a day, but for some reason, by the end of it I am ridiculously tired and sleep so soundly that I don't even wake up to the roosters the next morning.
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