Homecoming

Dear Rylan,

As you grow older, you are going to learn a very harsh reality: things don't always work out. One of my favorite lines is from a Robert Burns poem: "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry." And so my PC plans have gone awry. When I was much younger, this turn of events would have been devastating. But after losing your Papa three years ago, I know that life changes for better or worse in an instant, and there's no way to avoid it. No do-overs in real life.

So I am accepting the disappointment by looking at the good that comes from it: I will be able to return home and see family and friends. I will be able to drink real milk and eat real hamburgers and enjoy pasta that isn't sweet.

Of course, I will be leaving behind a dream of adventure and service. (Of course, I can do both back home.) I will leave friends that I have made during training. (But I will live vicariously through them using Facebook connections.) And I will leave behind my Filipino sister, Tess, and her lovely nieces and nephews. (But I have their phone numbers and address and FB connections, too)

The lesson I want you to really learn from my experience, however, dear Rylan, is not that life changes. It isn't that bad things happen, even when we have the best intentions. It is this: Life is short. Take risks. But take them knowing that nothing ever remains the same. If you are not experiencing highs and lows, then you need to take stock. Life shouldn't be boring. The Orientals believe in yin and yang--life and death, high and low, good and bad. Life is composed of both, and they believe they balance out. As a Christian, I know that it rains on the just and the unjust, but I also believe that at the end of our lives, if we have lived as we should, we will see that in the balance, the good far surpasses any of the bad.

Soon I will be seeing you in person again! That will be a great moment. I have much to tell you and everyone else there. Can't wait to catch up on your life.

Love you bunches,
Mumma

They love a parade!

Dear Rylan:

Another week has flown by. It went so quickly that I spent Thursday believing it was Wednesday. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I had lost a day! I suppose that just means that I have been too busy to notice time.

It is election time in the barangay. Filipinos have a very colorful political process. One day while we were in language class, a parade came through the neighborhood, with music and bullhorns and people carrying signs and waving! We were so excited that we all jumped up from our chairs and ran out into the yard to watch.  It is a good thing that our language trainer, Medy, wants us to soak up the culture. We were forgiven for our spontaneity. Later that same day, ANOTHER parade came through the streets. My next-door neighbor must be running for something because I can hear him next door practicing his campaign song. I don’t understand the words, but it has a catchy tune.  One of the daughters in my host family is running for SK Chairman.  The best I can determine about this position is that it involves organizing the youth in the barangay to participate in community projects. Ariel is only 15, so I think it is great that young people become involved in the political process here.  Another interesting element of elections in this country is how many people want to be involved in politics. I think I heard that there are 67 candidates running for 7 spots? Wow! I don’t know if there are many people left to vote that aren’t running!  Things around here are going to continue to be interesting until October 25. Let’s hope Ariel wins. She is very capable of doing anything she sets her mind to do. I am proud to be associated with her family.

We also visited the Olongapo City Museum. It was very interesting because it was so…well…nice. Even when the information was about the invasions and occupations and colonization, there were no negative comments. Everything was presented as factual. Just reporting what happened. But when we reached that part of the museum that illustrated how the people rebuilt their city once the Americans (the last colonial power here) relinquished control, the pride of the people shone through. Again, at the exhibit about coming back after Mt. Pinatubo erupted, I saw the determination and optimism of the citizens. I asked my host sister Tess why the museum does not address the atrocities and injustices of the past, and she gave me a very Filipino answer: The people today don’t want to blame the people of the present for the things that happened in the past. Filipinos want to achieve and / or maintain friendly relations even with those who may not have treated them well. She said the government does not want to plant hatred in the hearts of the people nor does it want to stir up anger. What an interesting country this is!

Of course, I cannot let this week pass without mentioning the anniversary of your Papa’s death. I have been sad this week. Without my family and friends back home, I have felt burdened. No one here really knows about my past, and I have chosen not to go into detail. But this morning—the day that marks 3 years since I lost the love of my life—two of my Peace Corps friends greeted me at our Saturday meeting with a box of Dunkin’ Donuts munchkins—in honor of my own Duncan. So, you see, even far away from home, God finds a way to show Himself in the kindness of others. I may be far from home, but I am not alone.

And if we are patient, our prayers are answered. I was reminded of this today when my host sister Tess told me that she had wished for something when she was four years old, and that her prayer was not answered until August of this year. I asked her what her wish had been, and she said, "When I was four, I asked my father, if I have a sister, what will her name be? And he said it would be Margaret." Wow! Hearing that gave me goosebumps! So if I have come here for no other reason, it is in answer to Tess's hope for a sister. She and I are as close as sisters, and I am so happy to call her friend. 

Still, I miss you and your parents and your Uncle Caleb. I love you SO MUCH! Please know that I think of you every single day, and I look forward to the day when I can get a hug in person. Until then, accept hugs from far away ((((()))))).

Love you bunches,

Mumma

Supervisors' Conference

Dear Rylan:

Last week the other PCTs and I were in Antipolo, near Manila, for the supervisors' conference. We were very busy, but not too busy to enjoy the beauty of the resort.  We were there to meet our supervisors and travel with them to our permanent site. My supervisor is Ma'am Cora, and my site is MinSCAT, a college in Bongabong, on the island of Mindoro.

Mindoro is beautiful, and the school is right on the beach! My host family is very nice and very happy to have an American living with them. One of my counterparts is the grandmother and lives next door. Ate Sally is very smart, kind and godly.  I enjoyed spending time at the Soriano home.

Bongabong is a quaint little town.  It's really out of the way, so I don't expect to run into many foreigners there, except for the Korean volunteer. I really liked their market--much smaller and quieter than the one in Olongapo.  Overall, it is the kind of town you might find in rural areas of Alabama. EXCEPT it has a rockin' view of the water!  Oh, and the mountains there are breath-taking.  There is a huge lake on the island, surrounded by a beautiful valley bordered by green mountains.

The college president was extremely kind. He learned that I like lanzones and rambutan best of all the fruits in the Philippines. Well, those fruits are grown on Mindoro, and he went to great lengths to obtain many of them for my visit there. It was especially touching because rambutan season is over, so it must have been hard to track those down. But they were masarap!

The ride back from the island was amazing! I cannot describe how beautiful the mountains are rising out of the sea. They shone in the sun, the different hues of green seeming to ripple beneath the wispy clouds.  Some of the mountain tops were shrouded in mist, and I could only imagine how high they must tower.  As we approached Luzon, I saw a lovely coastline with little villages dotting the shore. Then a red and white striped lighthouse loomed over the edge of a mountain on the edge of the sea.  What a view! What a ride! (I cannot post pictures on this blog right now. I will try again or send them to you in an email.)

In Manila, I stayed overnight at Pension House with several other PCTs as well as some PCVs who are COSing (closing out their service and returning home after 2 years). It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and we stayed up late into the night discussing economics and politics and culture with other foreigners staying there.  Before we returned to Olongapo, a few of us paid a visit to the Peace Corps offices and were given a tour by the country director.  We ate lunch at the Mall of Asia, which is too big to make sense. We made our way back to Olongapo and our host families.

It was so good to see the Atayans. They are really like family to me. They were glad to have me back. Tess had cleaned my room and spruced it up. What a great welcome home, along with Mama Nitz's lumpia. Ahhh.

I miss you and hope that you are having a great year at school. Tell your mommy and daddy and Uncle Caleb that I love them, too.

Love you bunches,
Mumma

Mountain Climbing

Dear Rylan:

How are you? I heard that you had a birthday party on Saturday. Oh! How I wish I could have been there, too! I miss you so very much that sometimes I am tempted to give up this crazy adventure and come home. Then I remember that the time will pass quickly, and I will be there by the time you are 6, just as I promised.

This week the Mabayuan group completed our community project using our PACA skills. I think it was a great success. We held a two-hour workshop on strategies for reaching different learning styles for teachers at Gordon College. I think they had fun; I know we all had a blast! Maybe our opinion is skewed a little by the great relief of having it done.

On Wednesday we were able to visit Pamulaklakin, a mountain (bundok) where the Itae tribe lives.  The mountain reminded me very much of the terrain back home, especially of the area around Gatlinburg. Our guide was a member of the Itae tribe. He taught us some survival skills, which I can sum up as the following: 1. Don’t touch anything because most things are poisonous in one way or another, and 2. The Pamulaklakin plant, a thick vine, can be hacked off and drained for drinking water, which we did. Pretty cool!

After our mountain trek, another member of the tribe showed us how we can use bamboo to cook rice, to make chopsticks, and to start a fire. He was the spryest 60-year-old I have ever seen. When he showed us how to make different traps, he jumped into a tree and acted like a monkey! (I wish you could have seen it because I know you would have giggled, and I love to hear you giggle!)

Next week I will travel back to Manila, where I will learn about my permanent site and meet my supervisor. At week’s end, I will travel to my permanent site to make courtesy calls. It is exciting to be moving from the role of trainee to full-fledged volunteer! However, it is also a little scary because it means I will be leaving the friends I have made here in Olongapo City and heading out on my own.  I have come to love my host family, and I really enjoy being in Olongapo. I hope my new  home will be as wonderful as this place has been. Yet, I have learned that Dorothy was right: There’s no place like home. . . there’s no place like home. . .

I love you bunches,
Mumma

Hard Work AND Fun

Dear Rylan:
The past week was a blur! There was so much to do that I cannot remember all that has happened, so I will touch on the major points.  First of all, we were all introduced to PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action). This approach to community improvement seems to be THE focus of Peace Corps service. It's all about changing the communities where we live for the better in a way that will continue after the Peace Corps volunteer returns home. It's a great plan. But I feel a little PACA fatigue after 7 days of it. The best thing about the PACA training was meeting the two PCVs who came to train us--Tom and Maria. Their excitement for their jobs in the Peace Corps was encouraging. On the day we presented our planned program to our community's members, our group was also graced with the arrival of some VIPs: Sonia--the country director--and Helen, the national director for Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia--came for a visit. It was an honor to have them with us.

This week was cooking week in language class. We had to shop for our foods at the market, and once again, I used the ol' "sige na po" to bargain with the vendors. They thought it was so funny that Americans were attempting to speak Tagalog that they agreed to come down. I don't think this technique will work indefinitely. Everyone in the cluster pitched in at cooking time. I cooked Lumpia Shanghai, which is very much like an egg roll. (When I return home, I will be cooking us some lumpia!) We also had turon, which is banana fried in a wrapper. Delish! (That, too, will be on the menu when I return.) Patoh Pat (I know it as suman), which is sticky rice that is sweetened and steamed, and pancit, a noodle dish with vegetables and tofu, were included on the menu as well. Throw in some local fruits such as rambutan and lanzones and you have a merienda (snack) fit for a king and queen!

The same day that we cooked, I received two large packages from my Sunday school class. What fun! It was better than Christmas! I shared the snacks with my friends and lent the DVDs to my language teacher (I have never seen Medy giddy, and it was a treat to see her so excited), but I am hoarding the school supplies just for me. Snacks are pretty easy to get here, but good school supplies are not, so I am justifying my selfishness that way.

Saturday night a few of us went with a friend from the Kalalake cluster to Olongapo City's launching of its 2010 City Fiesta. Steven was going because one of his host brothers is in the Mr. Olongapo City contest, and we all went out of curiosity. Let's just say that it started in true Filipino fashion (1 1/2 hours late), and it was pretty snazzy. I thought it was pretty funny when it started to rain and the entire audience, without blinking an eye, picked up their chairs and crowded around on the stage area, right up to the edge of the show! When the rain stopped, we all just returned our chairs to the original seating area. They also served food to the crowd while the ceremony was going on. One of the selections was hot dog on a stick with a marshmallow. I kid you not! And yes, I ate one, but just because I was dared. The mayor was told that Peace Corps members were in the audience, and he made it a point to acknowledge the Peace Corps, then came to shake our hands at the end. Mayor Bong is one unusual man. He puts American politicians to shame because he is colorful without the controversy. Very colorful!

Yesterday was a stay-at-home day. Ariel was gracious enough to color my hair, and I like the results. The color is darker than usual, but I am, after all, in the Philippines! Everyone here has black hair, and with dark hair, maybe fewer people will stare at me in public. My blonde hair really stands out here, and not in a good way, as far as I am concerned.

This week will be either the worst or the best week yet. I have to teach 2 days and Thursday will be the culmination of our PACA plan, with all 6 of us conducting a teacher workshop on learning styles for the Gordon College instructors. It will be our first official foray into Filipino presentations. I will let you know how it goes. I expect to gain more from the experience than I will give.

I have included on this week's blog a picture of my room here in the Atayan home. It's a nice room, but I have wrecked the place with all of the stuff I have thrown around. I live mostly out of suitcases because, after all, in a few weeks I will be going away. I will miss this place and this family. I have been blessed by these people, and I will always remember Tess, Ariel, Renz, Isa, Bibioy, Ia, and Mama Nitz. I wish you could meet them, Rye.

Love and miss you,
Mumma

Regular life

Dear Rylan

It’s been a hectic week again.  Training in language, training in team teaching, training in community project assessment and planning. It seems all we do is work. But it’s not a bad place to be busy, I guess. 

This week I thought I would tell you more about where I am living.  I live in the barangay (a community that has its own captain and kind of manages its own affairs, even though it is part of Olongapo City proper).  The main artery through town is Otera Avenue, and there are always jeepneys and trikes (motorcyles with side cars for people to ride in, like taxis) and lots of traffic. The red jeepney is the one we take to most places—Gordon College, where we teach; the bookstore and Red Ribbon bakery; and the Smart store, a place I have come to hate as its Internet USB doesn’t work 90% of the time.  The chief’s head is our main focal point in town. I am including a picture of the monument.  Legend has it that the city is named for Apo, a benevolent leader murdered by neighboring tribes who wanted to conquer Apo's people. Apo's people searched for their leader, to no avail. One day a boy returned saying he had found the head (ulo in Tagalog) of Apo in the forest. The people named their settlement Ulongapo (the head of the chief) and to this day it is called Olongapo, and the monument in the picture reminds everyone of the chief's legendary kindness.

This week I went to the post office by myself to mail you a postcard. It was in a very decrepit building in a part of town that seemed a little sketchy, except for the fact that it was right behind Municipal Hall, which I figured made the site safe. At the P.O. I met a women who mistook me for a Tagalog speaker only because I greeted her in Tagalog and introduced myself. From our conversation I learned that we are both widows and grandmothers. She thought I might be part-Filipino since many here are the descendants of American service men who were stationed here when the U.S. had a base at Subic.  It was challenging, but it was fun to try to converse with a native who could not or would not use English.  Good practice for my permanent site.

I walked a few blocks to the Jeepney stop and paused along the way to buy a coloring book for B’boy, then to take a picture of the enthusiastic dancers outside Mart 1. They were dancing with small appliances and, I suppose, promoting some special sale. They were pleased that I had stopped to take their picture. It was fun!

Back in Mabayuan, we Americans are becoming acclimated to our surroundings (but I'll never get used to banana catsup), and the neighbors are getting used to us. The little kids love to speak English to me and ask me my name. There are always kids playing in the street, and the Sari-Sari store owners are cooking food outside so that people will be enticed to come and buy, which they do.  (Mama Nitz has a Sari-Sari store, so I don’t go to anyone else’s.)  I am including pictures of various places in my neighborhood. We are nestled against the base of a mountain and there are houses perched precariously on the side of the bundok (mountain). I am told that the higher one goes, the cheaper the land. But oh! The view they have from up there!

Saturday the Olongapo and Subic clusters met at a nearby beach. We swam a little, then did some team building exercises (such as passing each of us over the group’s heads and over a rope—I’ll try to explain another time). Then we ate. I am including pictures of this outing, along with the pictures of the volcanic rock at the water’s edge.  These rocks were formed back in the 1990s when Mount Pinatubo erupted.  The volcano is in the background of one of the pictures I am posting.  That lava was thrown very far away! Saturday evening a few of us met at a restaurant in SBMA for pizza. Then we had a little time to stop at a local bar and hear one of the local bands. Filipinos are known for having great bands and music. Everyone here loves videoke (karaoke back home), so I guess there are many talents yet to be discovered. The band we heard, Desire, was funny and sounded great! I want to go back there to hear them again. I wouldn't be surprised to see them touring in American someday. 

Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures that I have posted. I will write more later.

Love you bunches and bunches!

Mumma

All Kinds of Rules!

Dear Rylan,
Another week has passed here in Olongapo City. Time here drags by and flies by at the same time.  We are very busy, so days seem to be a blur.  But I miss you and home and so the time drags by, if that makes any sense. It's what happens when one is far from home, I guess. The thought of home is surreal. I dream of people and places in Alabama, and these dreams make me happy and sad. I am convinced that world travel will always produce these juxtaposed feelings.

I have posted some pictures from the waterfront at Subic. There are many memorials there, mostly to events in WWII.  The hellships monument is dedicated to the POWs in WWII who were held on Japanese ships. Their suffering must have been great. Of course, the Japanese held the Philippines for a while, and that period was one of anguish for Filipinos. I have also posted a picture of an American naval ship, here on maneuvers for 3 weeks, I think. I haven't seen any military men and women in Olongapo. We heard they were on restrictions and could not leave SBMA. We here in the Peace Corps have been given rules related to traveling into SBMA. The world is a crazy place, Rylan. World events impact American travels abroad, even if the place where we are traveling is very safe. A PCV was murdered in South Africa; a pastor in the U.S. announced plans to burn the Koran. Both of these events, as far removed as they are from us here in the PI, have resulted in precautions and rules for us. But the pendulum swings both ways, and patience will reward us with a lifting of restrictions soon, I hope. I am beginning to get cabin fever because I cannot just go out on my own and go places that I would like to visit or even place I need to go, like the drugstore or the bookstore.

But I have traveled to the beach, and yesterday the Kalalake cluster and our Mabayuan cluster met at a local bowling alley. It was up a long flight of steps and there was no AC.  I did not bowl, but did agree to videoke. Then we all went to the public market.  I was able to use my newfound knowledge of haggling and said, "Sige na po" to a vendor who laughed and agreed to give me a discount. It was kind of fun. (Sige na po is similar to "aw, come on, please.") We had lunch at McDonald's and it was delicious! Big Macs taste like America! I have also had some pizza here and that, too, was amazing. American food is a much welcome treat.

Of course, Mama Nitz continues to cook great food here at home.  When I returned from McDonald's, I was presented with lumpia, which Mama Nitz knows is my favorite, so I had to eat again. But it was worth it! Lumpia is masarap!

Training is tough. I feel as if I am back in education classes at college. They are sucking up all the time I should be spending on language. The rules for Tagalog must exist, but I can't figure them out.  Except for verb conjugation, which has rules, but I don't know enough verbs to really get my brain around the rules. (At this point, I breathe deeply and remind myself that I have only been here 2 weeks.)

Last Saturday we traveled to Royal, the duty free store again. I bought toilet paper, baby powder, and a BLOW DRYER! I'll need it soon, so I got one while I had the chance. Kind of expensive--P1200, or $30 US. But I have a few American dollars so I convinced myself it was OK. I bought the kids some small packs of M&Ms, too.

Saturdays and Sundays are big family days in the PI, as they are in the states. Every Sat and Sun afternoon, I can count on snack time! Usually we have goodies from the bakery, and we sit and watch the little ones perform. I have been using a few Tagalog phrases, and yesterday I think B'boy mistakenly figured that I could now speak his language. He brought his toys in my room and was sharing with me at full speed! So cute...so disappointed in Tita Mags. But at least he has faith in me, and someday maybe I'll surprise him and carry on a real conversation. Ia is getting used to me, and Angel even comes around me, but oh! I cannot touch! So we play peek-a-boo and I laugh at her love for wearing other people's shoes. She actually gets around in high heels better than I do. : )

The weather has been dryer lately. No typhoons (know on wood). But dryer means hotter. However, I think I am getting used to the weather. I learned this week that drinking lots of cold drinks could lead to a sore throat--after I had gotten a sore throat. So I am now cutting back on the water consumption, and I think it's helping my body to adapt. The things you learn by trial and error! Medical last Tuesday was about tropical diseases like malaria and dengue fever, both from mosquito bites. Oh, and TB is on the rise here, too. I don't worry about such diseases. I feel safe, at least in these surroundings.

Next week we have our site placement interview, which will help the PC figure out where to send me for my permanent post. I am still hoping for a beach area, preferably one that is a tourist area so I can trust that some locals will know English. Oh, and this week we learned to count money and tell time. But they use Spanish #s for money and time here, so it wasn't too hard for me. They use Tagalog #s 1-10 for money sometimes, but most vendors use English #s. Does that sound confusing? Well, it is. Jeepney drivers ask "Ilan?" for how many, and the answer is in Tagalog. While I know that and try that, they seem to not understand me when I respond, "Isa" for 1, or any other # in Tagalog. But I try. And English works all the time, as does the holding up of fingers.

You can learn 1-10, too: Isa, dalawa, tatlo, apat, lima, anim, pito, walo, siyam, sampu. When I learn colors, I'll let you know so you can practice.  Also, you can learn to say your name: Ako si Rylan. 

Mahal kita! (I love you!) Take care of yourself and Mommy and Daddy, and Uncle Caleb, too, whenever he comes around. 

Love,

Mumma