A Few Things...

I woke up to a link to a wonderful web comic that, as a young female who loves to travel, I can really relate to.  (Thanks, Ricky!)

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As a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines, I've definitely heard the term "Posh Corps" being thrown around.  Yes, I have electricity and running water in my house, but we also have unexpected day-long brown outs in the hottest months of the year (which easily reach over 100 degrees).  Yes, I have a ref but my toilet has to be "flushed" by manually pouring buckets of water into it.  Yes, I have a shower head but the only way to get warm/hot water is to heat pots on the stove.  Yes, I have a stove but there are only so many foods you can make with only one gas burner and no oven, toaster oven, etc.  Yes, I have grocery stores available to me in Naga, but if I only bought food from there I'd be broke halfway through the month.  Yes, my monthly rent is cheap by American standards (2,800 pesos = $65), but so is my monthly living allowance (~9000 pesos = $210).  Yes, I have an actual school building to teach in, but I still have over 40 kids packed into a small, hot, noisy room with a very limited amount of supplies.  Granted, they're not all present everyday but some of the primary teachers have rosters of 60 4th graders for one class.  Yes, I have a lockable thatched roof house that keeps me and my things safe, but others like the Dela Cruz family live in a nipa hut that can never be locked to prevent intruders.  They have no running water or electricity and their CR is a found toilet bowl placed over a pit dug in the mud.  The "walls" that give them privacy are old tarps propped up by bamboo sticks that flow freely in the constant wind that comes with living in the middle of the rice fields.  This is just one example of one family.

Yes, we have some amenities that maybe other Peace Corps Volunteers in different countries don't have, but we are not without our own unique obstacles and challenges.  This is certainly the "toughest job I'll ever love".

“Posh Corps” Looks at Modern Day Peace Corps Image

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 I spent the whole afternoon yesterday brainstorming for the training I'll have to introduce the teachers to the library and how to make use of it.  The most important thing I'm now considering, thanks to Kathryn, is inspiring PASSION.  If the teachers aren't passionate about books and the library when they teach the kids about it, why would the kids be?