Wednesday, January 18, 2006

General Update

I thought you might enjoy an update on what is going on in a few different areas of my life. So here goes . . .

Work: Big change here. You may remember our principal, Mrs. Aurora Leon, who lost her son last November. Last week she was informed of her transfer to Regional Science and Math High School in La Trinidad, Benguet . . . effective immediately! So, here it is less than three months before graduation and she’s transferred. It’s a promotion for her but my goodness . . . talk about overwhelming life changes! Yesterday was her last day at our school; it was heart wrenching. She cried. We cried. She said, “It feels like everything I love is being taken away all at once” (first, her baby and now the school that she started six years ago). God must have big plans for her.

Her replacement until the end of May is the head English teacher, Mrs. Jane Ngolab. DepEd assigned her as Teacher-in-Charge. This means she will handle all the Principal’s duties (a full-time job) plus teach all her classes (a full load). And here’s the kicker . . . she gets NO EXTRA COMPENSATION. And a little aside, she’s pregnant!

As for me, I’m working hard and enjoying it. I love teaching the remediation class twice a week. The students are shy by nature and polite by school indoctrination, but they are opening up and talking more all the time. I’m enamored with them. Next week, we will be having a meeting with the parents to hand out evaluation cards and let them view their students’ work and ask questions – a group parent/teacher conference . . . and I’m playing the part of a teacher –Yikes!


I have one more module to write for now. Then I will revise some of the early ones and compile them into a binder, prepare a report on our pilot class, and submit it to the Division Office where it will be made available to other schools in Benguet. Sounds good anyway. We’ll see.

Peace Corps: This week I went with my Regional Manager to assess a couple potential sites in my area for a new volunteer. One was a high school and it doesn’t look like they will get a volunteer. The other site was the Mayor’s office here in Kapangan. A volunteer may get assigned there. That means that come next June, I might have a site mate. I hope it happens. It could be fun to have another American to share this fishbowl with!

Host home: The biggest change on this front is that I had a bookshelf built for my room. A local furniture maker built it out of pine. It’s beautiful and gives me room for all my books, movies, toiletries, etc. It’s funny how much a 4’x6’ shelf can enhance the quality of life in an 8’x10’ room. I’m lovin’ it!

Attitude: Best change of all. I finally got tired of feeling bummed out. I realized that this period of my life is very temporary and will soon end. If I spend my time here feeling sad about all that I’m missing, I will be filled with regrets when it’s over because I missed the unique joy of this experience . . . AND missed everything at home! So, my new year’s intention is to fully experience and appreciate this time . . . so that I will have happy stories to share! And I’m pleased to report that I’m feeling much happier :-).

Naragsak ay biag ya pipiyan da kayo!
(Happy life and love to all of you!)

Friday, January 13, 2006

Lost Blog

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Welcome 2006

So here it is 2006 and I have been in the Philippines for nine months now. I find that I am still grateful for this experience, but have been going through the most intense sense of missing my family and friends that I have felt since I've been here.

I just gotta say . . . the holidays are really a tough time to be away from home.

But I made it through and even had some fun in the midst of it and am feeling better everyday.

I had language camp in La Trinidad from Dec 12-16. On Dec 17th my friend, Tom, and I took a bus and headed back to Nueva Vizcaya to visit our first host families. We were trying to get there early because my host family had told me that they were leaving for Manila on the 18th, so I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. On the way to NV, our bus broke down THREE times! Finally, the last time it broke down, we were close enough to catch a jeep into Solano (our destination), so that's what we did. In Solano we stopped in Bread and Bites to get something to eat. I heard someone knocking on the glass window behind me. I turned around and saw my old host brother. I went outside and the entire host family came walking up. Of course, I was happy to see them . . . I assumed they were excited to see me, too, and had just come to town to check to see if I had arrived yet. Turns out, they were actually on their way to Manila! They decided to leave a day early because they realized the letters on their vehicle tags were coded so that they wouldn't be allowed to drive in Manila on Monday - and they needed to do some things as soon as they arrived - so they needed to go a day early. (The traffic is so bad here that the major cities have restrictions on what days certain vehicles are allowed to drive, according to their tags). So . . . turns out, I saw them for all of 10 minutes and then they were off! Fortunately, I was able to stay with Peyton, another PCV friend of mine who lives in Solano with her host family.

The next day was Sunday, so I went to church with Peyton. Then, that afternoon Tom and I took a jeepney to Lagawe, Ifugao. That's a town near Banaue, where the world famous rice terraces are. We stayed with Amber, a PCV who is posted in Lagawe. She cooked spaghetti and we watched a movie (Dodge Ball) on her computer. Good food and fun. Nice.

Monday morning Tom and I packed our toothbrushes and extra t-shirts into one backpack and took a jeepney to Banaue. There, we met a young married couple from Denver. Together with them, we hiked up and over a mountain into a village called Batad, built in the midst of a rice terrace. There is no electricity there and many of the homes are native nuts. The village is beautiful and because it is so remote, the pollution is minimal. The hike was about 9 km. We spent the night in a guest house where the people were friendly, the accomodations were adequate, and the price was right (100 pesos per night / 55p = $1). The next morning it was misting. Tom and I got up early (5:30) and hiked out. It was an exhilarating, beautiful way to begin the day.

We backtracked to Lagawe, picked up the rest of our stuff, took a bus to Bontoc. There we met up with Teri. She texted me as soon as I got into town and said "Be careful . . . Nellie is here!" Nellie is our PC Regional Manager and I was traveling on the down low (because I didn't want to use up any vacation days!) If I had gotten caught, I would have just been reprimanded and charged vacation days - but I didn't want that to happen. So . . . we had to find alternate transportation out of town (she told Teri she was taking the jeepney to Sagada - which is what WE WOULD have taken, had she not been there!) We hired a tricycle to take us to a junction where we waited for a bus to pass through. It's funny to think that here I am, 45 years old, and STILL bending the rules and trying not to get caught. Oh my!

The next three days we stayed with Teri in Besao, Mt. Province. Her site is beautiful and rural and pretty darn cold this time of year. One day we hiked from Besao to Segada. It's a nice hike up and over a mountain, through the pine trees. Mostly, we just hung out at Teri's place and ate and talked and read books and laughed and enjoyed being Americans and speaking English and making references to things in America that we all understood. It's the little things :-)

A couple days before Christmas Teri, Tom and I all went to Baguio. We spent the night and got up the next day and went to Kapangan. They stayed at my place Christmas eve and Christmas night. The first night we went to midnight mass . . . the church was packed and we had to sit on the front row. The next day my host family drove us up a mountain so that we could see a beautiful view of our municipality and La Union, the province next to Benguet. After that, we went back to the house and fixed dinner. We had chicken adobo and I made a big green salad with Italian dressing. We also had fresh green beans and mangoes. It was delicious. The rest of the day we just hung around the house, watched a movie on my computer and visitied with my host family.

The next day, the three of us went back to Baguio because Teri's little brother was coming to visit and was due to get into Baguio on the 27th. We ate good food in Baguio, listened to some music in a couple clubs, and watched HBO in our room. The next day we met Teri's brother at the bus station. Tom left for his site. I spent another night in Baguio with Teri and her brother. The next day I went back to Kapangan . . . and spent the next several days reading and relaxing.

New Year's Eve was pretty nice . . . we had a big dinner at our place and then had a gift exchange and played parlor games. After that, I went to the community dance with my host sister and her sister. We danced the "Grand March" and a few other dances and welcomed the new year by drinking coffee and eating pancit at midnight. There were a few small fireworks. We stayed and played until about 1:30.

So, here it is January 2, 2006. I am really ready to get back to work and get going on my projects. And I feel thankful . . . thankful for this experience . . . and for my family and friends . . . and thankful for the people here who are teaching me so much about another way of life. I hope all of you are doing well and have a satisfying and joy-filled year.