From 2 days ago....

Today was such a fun day!  We went to Olangapo this morning for our technical session at a place called ‘On the Sea Resort’.  We had high hopes and it didn’t quite turn out to be what we expected (or were hoping for), but it was still really nice to have a change of scenery!  In our tech. session we played and learned some games that may be useful for our upcoming Language Camp.  We just learned today that we’re teaming up with some of the PCTs from different training site (Coastal Resource Management & Children, Youth, and Families trainees) to put on a Language Camp for local high school kids here in Dinalupihan!  It’s going to be one of these Saturdays, I think, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Upon completion of our tech session, we were allowed to dig into this feast they had set out for us!  We heard we were just getting a meryenda but it turned out to be a whole meal! 

On the way back we stopped at an SM mall nearby for a quick shopping trip.  I finally found liquid hand soap (couldn’t find it anywhere at the market or the ‘grocery store’ here!).  [On a side note—especially for Aunt Joyce—I also bought my own tabo and some bleach yesterday! J After hearing that session on all the potential parasites, I can’t be too safe!]  I also bought a few mangoes, at the grocery store in the mall that I practically inhaled as soon as we got back.  I think mangoes are my new favorite fruit!  They’re so fresh here!

I actually just got back to my house after spending the evening at Kathryn’s family’s house to celebrate Ryan’s birthday (the host “daughter”… she’s a bakla, more on that after I learn more!).  Kathryn got a birthday cake and the family got a whole platter of pansit for everyone.  Even though I had literally just finished dinner at my own house, I had to eat what they were giving, too, and it was masarap (delicious)!  After we finished eating the pansit and cake, Ryan said they had leftover chicken feet and wanted to know if we had tried them yet.  Out of the 6 trainees present, Charlie and I were the only curious ones (other than Chris, who is Chinese, and eats them regularly).  It actually wasn’t bad at all!  The taste was pretty yummy because it was chicken adobo; the only things that got to me were the sight of the foot and the consistency.  It felt like I was just chewing on tendons and fat.  I’m glad I tried it but I probably won’t be requesting it for dinner any time soon!  Next on my list of Filipino delicacies to try: balut!

I actually really enjoyed the last few days of constant rain because it cooled down the temperature so much!  Up until this week, my room was a constant 85 degrees… at least!  The last few days it was able to get down to about 80 degrees instead.  Even those five degrees allowed me to go to bed without being sweaty, it was glorious.  Unfortunately, it’s back to being warm again and I’ll have to go to bed covered in a light sweat.  In the States, I would RARELY be ok with that; I’d usually shower before going to bed if I was the least bit warm.  Here, a bucket bath would do nothing so being sweaty it is!  That’s (Filipino) life, I guess!

I wouldn’t say I’m confident, yet, with the language… but I’m on the right track.  I had a one-on-one with my language instructor today and from her comments, it seems like she thinks I’m doing pretty well.  I’m happy with that.  I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s only been less than a month! 

I washed some of my clothes last night with Michelle and, of course, had a small audience.  This time it was my host brother, Adrian.  At one point he said, “You are ready for a husband now that you know how to wash clothes by hand!”  He’s lucky he was joking!  I’m planning to do some more laundry this weekend.  It’s much better to do a little bit a couple times a week because last week I got blisters on my fingers from scrubbing so much!

This coming week is full of sessions to help us do a ‘needs assessment’ for our community.  This will help us to plan our community project, which we’ll start in a few weeks.  Unfortunately, these sessions prevent us from having any time to go to school to co-plan and co-teach with our counterparts; we’ll start back up with them in week 6.  Part of our scheduled activities is a courtesy call with the mayor on Monday morning.  We’ll get to ask him questions about what he thinks the community needs and how we can help.

For those of you wondering about my mental health status: I’m still very excited to be here and I’m loving (almost) every minute of my experience so far.  PST is a very busy time and we really haven’t had a lot of down time.  I’ve heard that changes drastically when you actually move to your permanent site, but until then, I’ll be constantly surrounded by people and I seriously doubt I will have to deal with any ‘lonely’ feelings while in PST.  Bottom line: I’m really enjoying my time here!

I think I’m going to start a new ending to my blog posts on “Things I Miss” (not including people, because that list would be too long).  Tonight, I miss mechanical pencils, 3-holed lined paper, grass, dry hair, “pet-able” cats and dogs, not having rice for breakfast, and cold milk.