December 2010

After settling into my new placement in Dumaguete I have been starting to get into a routine here. Monday through Friday I head to Negros Oriental High School to teach English to second year students. I really enjoy the openess of my students to try new things that I introduce to them. They welcomed a complete stranger into their lives for the next two years without reservations . After being here for four months I can say that Filippino teachers are some of the most resourceful people that I have met. What teachers accomplish with such little resources, challenges my perception on material things. It seems all we really need is the will to do something and the resourcefulness to use what we are given to accomplish that goal.Class Tose

Three days a week I am tutoring some girls in English at an Orphanage called Little Children of The Phillipines. These girls melt my heart every time we get together. They love the attention that they get and I love spending time with them.

My LCP Girls

One of the other amazing things that can be stated about Filippinos is their amazing singing, acting and dancing abilities.
No matter where you go, you hear these beautiful singing voices. Not only singing though, young men here love to break dance. Its a common sight to see groups of these dancers practicing in the park. Filippinos are raised to possess star qualities, if only Hollywood could come recruit over here. .

I am lucky enough to have five other volunteers living here in Dumaguete. We have been doing lots of dinners and ice cream dates. I have found the presence of other American volunteers very refreshing because it gives me a sense of being at home in a place that does not yet feel like it.

Evelyn, another volunteer and I hiked up to the famous Twin Lakes in San Jose. Not realizing out of sheer laziness, that 13.9km is really 8miles, we began or hike up the mountain. Five hours later we arrived at the famous Twin Lakes too exhausted to walk the last 50meters down to the water. Luckily we were able to catch a ride back to the highway from a nice gentleman who passed us by.After five hours of walking up a mountain we arrive at Twin Lakes, unimpressed.

Bolunter ako sa Peace Corps

Before heading to our swearing-in ceremony on the other side of the island we threw a thank-you party for our training host families. Our program was packed full of stories from the last three months, games for the kids and of course our cluster performing our famous “Waka Waka” dance. With bellies full of Lechon (roast pig), Chop Suey, Rice, Eggrolls and noodles we left for our last nights with our host families.

Ate Babie, my first host mom, and Nicole, my host sister

Two of my cluster mates host sisters

My host mom wanted me to teach her our "Waka Waka dance"

The next morning we headed to Bacolod, Negros Occidental, a six-hour bus ride through the mountains. We went for a 3-day training session with our our counterpart for the next two years and also to officially be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. . The Ambassador of the United States for the Philippine post showed up and swore us in. We were also graced with the presence of many top officials from governmental organizations around the island. The security force of at least fifty policemen sporting huge machine guns walking around the area kept us and the officials safe and a bit scared at the same time.Mr. John, one of my favorite cluster mates.

My training cluster as official Peace Corps Volunteers

My new friends, Sarah and Mindi.

After all departing to our sites for the next two years, I headed back to Dumaguete to move in with my new family, The Sisons. I am now living close to Siliman University (a local Protestant University that keeps this town running), which means that there are tons of young people always around and the downtown area is within walking distance.

The Sisons

I also started teaching at Negros Oriental High School or N.O. for short. I have gotten to be introduced to the kids by playing games with them for the past two weeks, It is a nice transition into being a teacher to them. I am teaching what would be equivalent to Eighth Grade students in the U.S. In the Philippines there is no middle school so my students are considered Sophomores or second year students here. The kids call me Maam here or Ms Mafi and are very respectful. Every time I come into the room the students greet me as a group and when I leave they thank me and wish me goodbye as a group. Its actually really nice and I think if I ever teach in the U.S I might have some disappointments because of the high bar that the Filippino students have set.

It was the Fiesta for the city here on Thanksgiving day. This is a day where people cook tons of food and those who don’t cook go to houses of those who do and eat. I was told this is a good networking activity so I honored all four requests to visit houses. Quesadilla started at 10am in the morning and ended her last meal at 10pm at night. One of these houses was my former host families the Amasulas, who were celebrating the fiesta but also my host mothers birthday.

The Amasula family.

Former Peace Corps Volunteers, Bud and Stella from Texas, who served here about ten years ago invited all the local volunteers to a Thanksgiving dinner with real Turkey! The downside is that this dinner was one the same day as the fiesta so the turkey was not fully enjoyed because of all pf the other food taking up space. Besides the food, this was a great chance to get to meet some other cool Americans who live around here. I got to meet two women who have been sailing with their partners all around the world. They actually know where Tonga is, which is a breath of fresh air.

Bud and Stella, former Peace Corps Volunteers living in Dumaguete.

I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving and I look forward to hearing about your holiday celebrations.

Two more weeks of left training!
We are nearing the end of training and on our way to becoming official volunteers. There hasn’t been many events happening lately, so sorry if I haven’t been posting lately. I found out that my host dad, Caloy is an avid gardener. He gave me a tour of some of the plants that he has growing in his yard, including this pepper plant. After being washed it can be eaten as is, and tastes the same as prepackaged pepper.

We finished our student teaching at City High School and were given a going away celebration by the whole school. There were many dances by the students and the teachers. The principal requested for us to perform a dance so after much debate between “Thriller” and Shakira’s “Waka Waka” dance, we decided on Shakira. The dance was a hit and we were asked to perform it again for the students. After performing the dance twice, we had worked up a huge appetite. To our surprise there was a huge feast waiting for us with roast pig, Chop Suey, Salad, Chicken, Egg Rolls and more. As in true Filippino style after the paper was ripped off the pig the skin of the pig was gone within five minutes, leaving just meat. Even the Catholic Priest who just performed the Mass, did not hesitate at all to jump in the mad grab for pig skin.

Lechon skin rush...notice that they are all different hands.

There is a huge festival called “Buglason” that has been happening this past week (yes, it’s a week long). I was able to attend the Folk dance competiton where each city creates and performs a dance. It was an amazing production with hundreds of dancers in each group, fancy props and great drumming. The best was the little kids who were dressed in bee outfits (maybe next year’s Halloween costume for Malia?) The bees were on these long poles that were supposed to be corn they were pollinating. They would ride the corn to the middle of the stage and wiggle their little tails the whole time.

Check out the cool costumes.

For a thank you project for our training High School we decided to paint a world map mural on the inside gate of the entrance. With a few of the schools artistic students on board we have officially begun painting with great results despite Oceania not being included in the map (we ran out of wall space).

One of the great things about my site here in Dumaguete is that I am sheltered from the Typhoons that come through here every winter. The only effects that we got here were a few days of rain at night, which were nice and cooling. Thanks to those who were concerned.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Nuni, Josh and Malia to Dumaguete this Christmas. My door is open if anybody wants to come to these beautiful islands!

Negros sweet Negros

Weeks five and six of training-

This Past week brought me my first ever win in a running race. Coming in third place running ten minute miles, I was ushered to the winner’s lounge at the 34th National Milo Marathon. Funny thing is that I was chatting away with another runner not trying to race at all. I crossed the finish line and thought that I was one of the last ones, just happy to not have been cut off for time. As I cross the line before even walking ten steps I get a card put on me, my thumb painted a fluorescent color and I am ushered to the results tent. I had no idea what they were doing with me and I was dying of thirst so I walked away to go pick up my bag and head home. After finding me and guarding me so that I wouldn’t walk away again, I am told that I was the third place winner of the women’s 10k. I about dropped on the ground with laughter. After confirmation I am ushered onto stage with the top ten where I am handed a large plaque and get to stand on a podium like the Olympics.



One of our cluster mates, John is back in Dumaguete after having Dengue for the past two weeks. We are all excited to see him come back! Heres a picture of the people that I spend 44+ hours a week with. Clockwise from Left to right are: Myles (our technical teacher), David (he's staying in Dumaguete with me), Dan, Claire, Sarah and Fe (our language teacher).

My cluster mates and I have been volunteering at Little Children of The Philippines and orphanage where we have been tutoring kids in English. I worked with the girls and had a blast! The last two nights of tutoring we took a break from reading books and played charades, did dances and laughed a lot. Here are two of the girls showing off their dance moves.


There is a thing in the PC called Resource Volunteer where a volunteer from a previous batch flies in for the week to answer questions and be a resource to new volunteers. Ema arrives from Samar today and really has been a light to what these two years might be like.



The next weekend brought an adventure to a local waterfall which is the tallest that I have ever seen. It was beautiful and goes on my list of things that I can stare at for hours and not get tired of.
The following day a bunch of volunteers went to Apo Island, which is a top destination for diving in The Philippines. It is about a thirty minute drive and a forty-five minute boat ride from where I live. So consider that an incentive for you all to come and visit me here in Dumagute. Snorkeling revealed some cool varieties of coral, purple starfish, and Sea Turtles.

The view of Negros Oriental from Apo Island

We also ventured to the other side of the island called Negros Occidental to meet our supervisors and find out our sites for the next two years. Turns out I am staying in Dumaguete for the next two years. There are five others staying in the city and three on the outskirts of the city so I am surrounded by a number of volunteers. I am psyched about this because I will not only have a great social network around me but also the possibility to collaborate with other volunteers on communit projects. I will be working at Negros Oriental High School a Provincial High School which means there are about four thousand students. I am excited to start my new post in November!

Jacque and Alanna, two of my favorite volunteers who I get to spend the next two years with!

Moo is the password

This past week’s highlights are nothing short of anything I would ever have encountered in Massachusetts. Starting off with a trike ride home after sunset to a dark road and a questionable lump in the road. As I walk by the hump lets out an angry moo and I realize that the hump is a cow announcing its prescence and demanding that I announce mine. It was so funny to me that I had to go back and try to get a picture.

Thanks to my host mother and father’s involvement with the Dumaguete Rotary club I got to partake in two great events this week. Starting off at 5:30am in the morning the Rotary club and pretty much all of Dumaguete showed up to walk in a procession whose proceeds benefited underprivileged college students. There was a variety of groups ranging from High Schools to Government offices to Senior clubs.

After the walk and posing for pictures, the Amasura’s and I were off to the Valencia Farmer’s market for some seasonal fruit. We scored Marongs, Lansones, and Bananas and a variety of freshly picked veggies. The town of Valencia is the next town up from Dumaguete heading towards the mountains. It is where the electricity (geothermal and hydro) of the whole province comes from, so those living in the town get free electricity.

Filipino fruit going from left to right clockwise: Marong (tastes like pudding), bananas and Rambutan (red fruits that have a jelly like consistency and taste like tapioca balls or Lychee fruit), the rest are veggies.

Then I headed to the beach where I encountered probably the only Bassett Hound in all of The Republic of the Philippines. It was porcelin and hard but thanks Malias love for her hound, I had to give it a hug!

Hi Malia!

Here is another picture of my host family, The Amasulas.

On the left is my host father Caloy, the Architect, in front of him is his granddaughter Ella, my host mother Babie, Ella’s father, Ella’s mother Gloria (B and C’s eldest daughter), and Nicole the youngest of B and C.

The next weekend I got to tag along with Sarah's Peace Corps host family to the mountains of Valencia called Red Rock. There were beautiful waterfalls and pools for swimming. There were also trees bearing lots and lots of yummy Lansones fruits. The cool climate fostered the abundance. The price was just right also and so I bought 4kg worth, and we feasted on this fruit from the gods!Lansones fruit tree.

After the waterfalls a few of us headed to Sarah's host families house for a Videoke (Karaoke) session, where we all got many songs in. Sarah's host mother Lut-lut has four kids including this beauty who towards the end of the evening was singing also. This family was sooo generous, and fed us two meals drove four volunteers up to the waterfalls and then kept juicing us with yummy drinks.

Bam-bam (good friend of Lut-lut) and Lut-lut (Sarah's host mom)

Fellow Peace Corps members Sarah and Claire and Bam-bam.

I also discovered that I have been saying our dogs name wrong since I got here. I thought his name was Gutom which in Cebuano translates to hungry. It turns out that everytime I come in the gate to where I live, I have been greeting the dog saying "Hello Gutom Gutom". When I get inside the house my host mother is always trying to feed me. The dogs real name is Goton, which translates to cotton, named after the consistency of its fur. My host mother has been thinking that I have been saying that I’m hungry when I come home, but really I have been just trying to say hello to the dog.

This week we start co-teaching with our counterparts so stay tuned for lots of stories.