Summer has officially begun here in the Philippines. Despite prediction for the rainiest season yet, it has been just plain hot here. During the middle of the day it is impossible to go outside with out feeling like you are in a huge frying pan. Filippinos don’t go out during the heat of the day, and if so they are fully covered or under the canopy of a some overhead component. It is not unusual to see people wearing jackets and sweaters in the heat of the day to protect them from the sun.
Besides the weather indicating summer, the end of the school year was another reminder. Graduation for the 657 students took place on April 4th. It was probably the longest graduation that I have been to including that of my Alma matur, good old St. Paul Central High School, which was considered to have many students. Four hours after the start of the program we got to have a complimentary meal thanks to the PTA association.
Larissa and I headed up to Fiesta in Andrea’s town. Basically every town here has a fiesta once a year where people save up money and fatten up their pigs to slaughter for the occasion. Sometimes families end up spending huge amounts of money. Guests are invited to different houses and you just go, eat, visit and then head to the next house and do it again. How ever many invites you get the trickier it gets to say no to food. We ended up going to five houses in five hours. We documented the whole process for you to see our progression from loving food to seeing it as our enemy.
House number 1, Alvin and Chona's.
House number 1, Alvin and Chona's.
House number 2.
House number 3.
House number 4, still going strong.
House number 5, Andrea is happy to be done eating.
April 7th, my birthday, fell on a Thursday this year so it was a pretty low-key day with a nice birthday dinner with Larissa and My language tutor Emi. We went to the best burger joint in town and were not disappointed. Fellow volunteer Evelyn’s birthday was Friday the 8th so we decided to do a joint celebration. Saturday we had lunch, then got two hour long massages that were amazing. We then proceeded to go to my house where we met a few other volunteers, Larissa and Harold. It was supposed to be a potluck but I was too relaxed to even think about cooking so rotissere chicken and rice became the main dish. Besides that there was one other dish and the other volunteers brought cakes. There ended up being more desserts than main meals, which I had no complaints about.! I’ve been on a sugar high for this past week………..
Birthday potluck friends, John, Andrea, Evelyn, me, Larissa and David.
I’ve taken on a few extra teaching gigs, one being a substitute for my friend Stella who took a trip home to the U.S. My student’s are High School students who are working for a year to earn tuition for college. My job is to teach English for one hour a day. Also I have been working at a school about 50 minutes South of Dumaguete with an amazing lady named Diane who built a boat with her husband for seven years and they ended up sailing here to Negros. She started tutoring a local girl in English and before you know it she had started a school for Creative Arts. Seven years later she is trying to ease away from the project and do her own thing. So I have been seeing how I can fit into helping out at the school.
Evelyn and I at Bright Lights Community Learning Center (Dianes school)This summer is gonna bring lots of trainings with Peace Corps. Pretty much for the whole month of May I will be gone traveling. I’m excited to grow more as a volunteer. Hopefully cousin Michael who is working in Cambodia, will come for a visit in July.
I am also anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next member of the Silver-Mafi clan. Predictions from the family is a boy but so far I have not been able to pry the secret from them. I even tried to manipulate Malia but I am no more knowledgeable than before.
