Ang pusa mo ay ube

We are continuing the process of integration into our community. The more integrated a volunteer is in the community, the more effective their work will be. We are planning a community project while we are at our training site. We have less than two more months here and the equivalent of $40. We have been tossing some ides around and trying to get input from the community, since after all they requested our presence. One is to create a playground for all the kids to get off the street. We were thinking a giant xylophone made out of bamboo pieces, a standup dimensional tic-tac-toe board, a make-shift drum set, and a tire swing. The only problem is finding a place to put it. We were also interested in making a Recycled Materials Facility. Basically people would be able to bring their trash and recycles to the facility to be sorted and picked up, but because people bike around and pay people for empty bottles and cans, there may not be a high turn out for recyclables at the facility. Little individually wrapped snacks are a big thing here. At these sari-sari stores, they sell little packages of nuts with about seven peanuts each or individually packed gum or small candies. It creates a ton of trash causing many people to turn to trash-burning. When I go jogging in the morning I pass through big clouds of smoke created from trash (essentially all plastic) burning. It’s pretty rough on the lungs. The garbage truck does come through, but many houses aren’t accessible, and so these families end up burning it all.




When I run in the morning, I must go with a “kasama” which is the term Filipinos use for companion. Women usually always have a kasama whether it’s down the street to the market or on the way to church. Members of the community usually make fun of us when we go jogging probably because it seems so strange to them since they probably get plenty of physical exercise throughout the day anyways. They will chase after us laughing and waving their arms like a bakla. The kids mock us and laugh at us when we speak Tagalog to them. It’s all in good fun though, you have to stay lighthearted and easy going or you won’t last. Apparently five of the 140 of us have gone home already and not for medical reasons.



I have been attending an independent catholic church on Sunday with my host family. My host brother is in the choir. People are very devoted to their religion here. We just had a meeting at the Barangay hall with local government unit members and local fisherfolk and we bowed our heads and said a prayer before starting. As you can probably guess, people run on a different schedule here. We set an appointment at 1 PM and don’t get started until about 230-300 PM. It’s also expected you bring a merienda (snack) for everyone if you hosting a meeting. The better merienda… the more support and interest you’ll get, hehe.



The pound of coffee I brought has been one my most prized possessions. Apparently I snuck it into the country because another volunteer tried to have a package sent from home only to find out it is illegal to ship coffee here. A nice cup o’ joe is necessary to sit through four hours of language training and then four more hours of technical training. However, we just started conducting assessments out in the field which is much more fun applying the concepts that we have been learning in lectures. On Saturday we surveyed mangroves and seagrass in Barangay Nagbalayong. This week we are surveying the coral reefs here and then I am supposed to give a presentation on the visual fish census methodology. I also want to mention that all of our training is done by Filipinos and we have fisherfolk that assist us in the surveys so we can identify the species by the local name.



I am really craving some dark chocolate here, as everything you find here is made with maybe a touch of cocoa dust, milk, and sugar. And mmmm…. dried figs. It’s funny how much your desire for certain foods changes here. I could really go from a cheeseburger right now so if any of you know me, this probably seems strange. Anytime someone goes into town, they usually bring back a pasalubong, which is like a treat from town. Being surprised with a delicious donut can really brighten up a slow day. I haven’t been too incredibly homesick, I feel it mostly in the morning right when I wake up because I have been having really vivid and realistic dreams about being back home, then I wake up and for a second, forget where I am. Apparently it is a side effect of the malaria medicine we are taking. Then I go for a jog with my kasama and feel much better. If anyone wants to contribute to a care package (hehe) I am going to have sent soon, you can give these things to Nicole. Much appreciated!!



Learning the language has been a little frustrating. There are multiple ways to conjugate verbs and arrange sentences. I learn one thing in the classroom and then go home only to get corrected by my host family. Since there are tons of different dialects within the hundreds of languages, it can be tricky to communicate with people although they are only an hour away. Our teacher is from Baguio City and knows at least five other Filipino languages so some of the confusion may originate there. But I guess it is good preparation because there is a chance that I’ll be placed at a remote site that speaks a unique dialect of Tagalog that is hardly transferable. It’s also really interesting to learn Tagalog while having a background in Spanish. There are many similarities, but many more differences. Many times when I don’t know how to say it in Tagalog, my mind just automatically wants to switch to Spanish which obviously doesn’t cut it. For example, ‘siguro’ here means ‘maybe’ but in Spanish I am pretty sure it means ‘sure’ and ‘derecho’ here means ‘straight’ which is really similar to ‘derecha’ in Spanish which means “right”. Also ‘siempre’ here means ‘of course’ while in Spanish it really means “always”. When the Spaniards colonized the Philippine islands, the Filipinos were not allowed to learn Spanish so many of them tried to learn the language anyway and started using words not really knowing the true meaning.





Anyways, that’s all for now. I don’t have internet access where I live, so I’ll probably be back susunod lingo! Sige, mag-ingat ka. Mahal kita sa inyong lahat.