Second Week of training

So we have officially started our second week of training here in Dumagete. We have 9 more to go, mid-November we will officially be sworn is as Peace Corps Volunteers. The day's schedule looks like this: at 7:45, myself and three other volunteers take a trike from our neighborhood named Junob to our classroom, a rented out first floor of a house.

Here is one of the Trikes that helps me get around daily. It cost about 5 cents to ride one way.

We have four hours of language learning in the morning from 8-12pm break for an hour lunch at the local air-conditioned mall and then have four hours of Technical training (how to be teacher). Tuesday and Thursday we go to Dumagete Highschool to co-teach with an English teacher. The students are very polite and as a group say hello to me every class. Class size is around forty students and I am teaching second and third year students. There are no middle school grades in The Philippines so after gradeschool students go right to highschool. College begins at 16 or 17 and by 21 most students have graduated from college. Classrooms are hot because there are no air-conditioners, they cope with electric fans and home made fans when electricity goes out. Here they call black-outs, brown-outs. There is not enough electricity produced to supply the island so many times a week they turn off the electricity in certain areas so others might have.

Here is the highschool where I am doing my training.

Here is a picture of my Host mother whom I call Ate (a term of respect for grandmothers and older women) Bebe.

Here is a picture of a beach about 30 minutes away. This island is full of beautiful places and I am excited to get the chance to explore these next two years.