I'm back! :)

Since I’ve been slacking on the blog posts lately—sorry about that—I will begin this post with a really interesting tidbit so you won’t be mad at me.

I happened to drop into one classroom today, and after watching the lesson and watching how the kids work, the teacher and I started up a really interesting conversation about Filipino superstitions.  I can’t even remember how we got on the subject but we ended up talking about ‘aswangs’, ‘tikbalangs’, ‘white ladies’, and ‘usog’ for almost 90 minutes!

I had heard of the ‘aswang’ and ‘tikbalang’ before because I bought a children’s book for “the boys” (aka Joseph, MakMak, and Marlon) a while ago which mentions these creatures.  Today I learned that the ‘aswang’ is a creature that eats babies, small children, and sometimes attacks old people.  The aswang is kind of in the shape of a person—can be a male or a female—but is very unkempt and scary looking.  It lives in the forest or the shadows and usually comes out under a full moon, but can also be seen during the day.  The aswang especially likes pregnant women and can smell them from far away.  If the aswang wants to eat the unborn baby of a pregnant woman, it uses its long, thin tongue to suck the fetus out through the mother’s bellybutton! 

There are precautions you can take to protect yourselves from the aswang; pregnant women should especially practice these defenses.  First, you should put a piece of garlic by your door and by your windows—aswangs don’t like garlic and will not enter your house if there is garlic there.  You can also sprinkle salt in the same places for the same effect.  Also, wear your underwear inside out every day.  I’m not kidding. 

If you suspect someone to be an aswang, and have the guts to look him in the eye, you will know it’s an aswang if your reflection in his eyes is upside down.  Also, if you think someone inside your house is an aswang, you can put an upside down broom by the door and if that person has trouble going through the door or doesn’t want to, it’s probably an aswang.  This is a tricky test because if the aswang catches on, it will probably be mad and since it’s already in your house, things could get nasty.

The person I was talking to has friends who have seen aswangs for themselves; her father even saw one.  Her father said a very scruffy (my term) man was walking down the street with his head straight down.  He knew it was an aswang by the way it walked: arms and legs completely straight, never bending at the elbows or knees.  My informant never saw an aswang for herself but she said she’s been in the presence of one twice, both times when she was pregnant.  One time, she and her husband heard one land on their roof.  *I forgot to mention that they can fly and their presence makes pregnant women’s temperatures soar.* The other time she woke up in an uncool able heat (even though all the fans were pointed her direction), and realized that she and her husband had forgotten to close the window above their bed.  The aswang must have been standing at the window and peering in.

I don’t yet have enough information on the tikbalang or the white ladies so I’ll save them for another time.

*Disclaimer:  I’m not an expert on ‘usog’ but this is what I understood from our conversation today.*

If someone is always sad and hungry, they might have an ‘usog’…meaning that if you pass someone with ‘usog’ and you make eye contact with them, you will get a headache or a stomachache that will last for days.  Luckily, there’s a man who lives by the river who knows how to cure this!  He has some kind of seed or leaf that he will chew up, spit in his hand, and rub on your forehead and on the top of your stomach.  This should get rid of your aches from the usog.  To protect yourself next time, if you suspect someone you’re passing to have an usog, say aloud “Please no usog!” (my translation of a phrase I don’t remember correctly).

I really loved this conversation and hope to have more soon so I’ll keep you informed (so you can keep yourselves safe)!

On a separate note, I’ve still only been doing a lot of observing at school and haven’t started co-teaching yet.  I have a few ideas in my head about teachers I would love to work with but I’m trying to figure out a schedule that would fit them all in.  In my estimation, I will be working with grade 3, 5, and 6, mostly, while still maintaining the Remedial Reading Program I’ve been conducting every day for 40 minutes.  The Remedial Reading Program is aimed at grade 6 pupils who have trouble with reading comprehension.  I usually meet with between 10-15 students at a time, and there are 5 classes that rotate days.  At first it was really difficult because they were very quiet and I really couldn’t get anything out of them.  Because of the silence I didn’t know if they just didn’t understand me, or if they were all just painfully shy, or if they didn’t understand the lesson.  I adjusted my plan a few different ways for different classes and by having the students write answers instead of saying them aloud, I learned that they were having trouble with understanding the topic (and they were shy).  I hope, as we continue to meet, that they will become more comfortable with me and be more willing to talk in our class.  In an attempt to make them feel comfortable with me, I arranged the tables into a big group so that we can all sit around (me included) in a circle where everyone is equal.  I even try to say things in Tagalog when I can, so that they see I’m willing to try to speak their language, and that I’m not perfect either.