School's out for summer......School's out forever!

Weather forecast…..eighty degree heat with 6 degrees separation from sun. Init Kaayo!

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 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.

After a great visit from the family, I settled back into working a normal work schedule without holiday parties every week. I have been teaching more and more and am now pretty confident in front of the class. As I teach though I realize how little grammar I retained from all my years of living in the States. The English language is tough, there are rules but then there are always exceptions which make no sense at all.

My students studying outside after being kicked out of our classroom.

I have been lucky enough to get free internet from Harold a local neighbor who owns a hostel around the corner from my house. There have been many Skype sessions with Nuni, Malia, Josh, Mara, Uncle and Aunt Julie. If anybody has Skype addresses look me up and we can chat. There is something about seeing people while you are talking that is reaffirming, especially seeing little Malia who has lots to say but not necessarily in conversation format.

Harold and Blessie

I am still tutoring my elementary girls at Little Children of the Philippines twice a week and loving it. The love that these girls share with me every time I see them melts my heart.

Glad to know that I am not the only one with a mustache here.

I got to go to a Rotary Dumaguete social with my old host family the Amasulas. It was a night of catered food, lots of attempts at entertainment and dancing the night away. Caloy and Babie were the stars of the floor with their boogie woogies and cha chas. An inspiration to all to be as healthy and stylish on the dance floor at their age. I also got to sit in the same room as the big Kahuna's here in dumaguete like the mayor, the governor, and all those other important higher ups who would normally not pay me any mind, but since I was with Rotary I got recognized......thank you Rotary! Caloy and Babie dancing it up!

There was also an unexpected trip to Sagay (North Negros) for a family reunion of my current host mom. Evelyn and I were persuaded in a five minute conversation to join Mrs. and Mr. Sison on their trip. An air-conditioned van had been rented and hotel rooms already booked we just needed to pack our bags and we were off. The North of this island is mostly sugarcane fields as their are two refineries in the town we were in. The landscape is vast plains filled with sugarcane and huge mountains towering over them in the distance. Mrs. Sison and I at the reunion.

Summer vacation is fast approaching here in Dumaguete with my birthday, April 7th, being the last day of school. There are a few things lined up this summer like a trip to the White Sand beaches on the other side of the island, around the island teacher trainings, a language camp with Peace Corps to refine my skills, and lots of beach time.

I’m planning on moving to a new apartment this week. I’m psyched to have my own place, cook my own food and not live with any animals (I live with five dogs, one crazy cat, and a few neighborhood rats and cockroaches). I will have an extra room so when you all come visit you can stay with me. I also have a little gardening space to work with and a beach about 300 yards down the road.

The best picture of my new place, dog not included.

I’ve been slowly creating a community here. Larissa is a doctoral student from The University of Illinois at Chicago who is here doing Archeological field work for a few months. I get to help her out on a few excavations here and also with some oral interviews of the Indigenous people here, the Aetas. There is also Andrea a Peace Corps volunteer working in Coastal Resource Management who comes down from her town a lot and stays with me and vice versa. Evelyn is another Peace Corps volunteer who is satying about 45 minutes north of here so she comes to the city to hang out a lot also.

Larissa (Anthropology doctoral student) from Chicago, Andrea (Peace Corps), and Evelyn (Peace Corps)

I took part in a feeding program last weekend with Harold and some of his guests. We went to another Peace Corps Barangay (neighborhood) and brought breakfast. We were an instant hit with the kids. Here are some of our fans.Harold's feeding program, barangay Talay

I hope you are all doing well, much love to you from the Philippines!

Christmas Vacation

Christmas Vacation:
This Christmas I got a much-anticipated visit from Nuni, Josh and Malia. Leading up to their arrival I could hardly contain my excitement, and got few hours of sleep. The morning of December 16th, after a long flight they arrived. Malia didn’t really recognize me until I made my grunting noise that we spent many hours bonding over. She immediately recognized it and gave a big smile, confirming my identity.

We proceeded to my high school where the tired threesome agreed to be interviewed by my students. It took some prodding but eventually questions about American teenagers began surfacing. “What do American teenagers wear?”, “What are dating customs in the U.S.?”, ”How do people celebrate Christmas in the U.S.?” were some of the questions asked. Malia made her rounds winning the hearts of the students, by being her cute self. When it came to say goodbye she was surrounded with students pinching her now deflated (from when she was a baby) cheeks.Visiting class at Negros Oriental High School

After school, a quick tour of Dumaguete during rush hour proved to be not the best choice in affairs for the afternoon. It was motivating to head to the countryside for the weekend. We ate dinner with my old host family, the Amasulas, and were in for an early night.

The following days brought tours to Putang Bato Waterfalls area, a zip line not only conquered but made fashionable by Josh, and a dinner with other Peace Corps volunteers.

Bong, the driver and our own personal jeepney.

Josh rocking the zip line.

Next we headed to the famous dive spot, Apo Island for the weekend. Our journey to get there consisted of a motorized Banca (Filippino style boat) that not only got us to the island but also washed our clothes at the same time. Malia was a superstar on the boat ride and proceeded to fall asleep standing up with her papa holding her head. The following days we relaxed on the island by swimming, eating, sleeping and repeating the process over and over.

The lovely views from Apo Island

For Christmas we headed over to the island of Siquijor, known for practicing Black Magic. This island by far wins the nicest people of The Philippines award. Everywhere you went people would shout “Merry Christmas” to you. Even men sitting drinking with their buddies would put a big smile on their face and wish holiday greetings to us as we passed by. This island has a lot less people living on it then Negros and so the vibe was really chill here.

My beautiful sister.

It was amazing to see the changes little Malia has been through these past four months since I have been away from her. Her language development has exploded, and according to Josh, this trip really brought about a lot of new changes. She is one smart cookie! She knows body parts, who her mama, papa and auntie are, and can sing the Alphabet song. She amazes me.

Then the three headed to Thailand for some more adventuring. It was such a delight to have them visit, and really helped me to put a lot of my life into perspective for the next two years.
Happy New Year!

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.