Gastroenteritis

AKA diarrhea and vomiting for 8 hours.  I guess it's really just a stomach flu, but I've never had diarrhea and vomiting at the same time before.  UNTIL NOW!!!!
So Tuesday night I ate dinner (nothing too weird; some coleslaw, pizza, a mango, and flan) and about an hour later I was rolling on my bed waiting for myself to vomit.  It happened while I was already on the toilet.  I let the PCMO know and she told me to let her know if it happened again.  I took some immodium, pepto, and tums (a valiant effort, I'd say) which came up another hour later.  I was taken to a hospital here in Iloilo, which couldn't give me a room.  I stayed the night there, on a bench, in the hallway, with an IV.  Huge props to Hannah and Sharon, who stayed with me the entire night.
Also, I can officially say I know what it's like to wear an adult diaper now!!  Hannah had the idea that I should wear one on the plane ride to Manila, in case I couldn't get to the bathroom.  It was huge.  
So, Hannah took me to Manila since I didn't think I could go by myself.  I feel so bad for her but am really grateful that she was there.  Probably the worst part about the night wasn't the throwing up or constant diarrhea but my thirst.  I couldn't drink anything because it would all come up anyway, but I knew I was dehydrated and it was scary.  The first time the nurse tried to put an IV in my wrist he couldn't because my veins were so jacked up.  This also made it hurt way worse.  I started crying when Sharon told me I was almost dehydrated because I seriously thought I was going to die there.  It wasn't really all that bad though.
So I got to Manila on Wednesday morning and Dr. Eloi took me from there.  She sat with me as I got another IV, a failed attempt at getting my blood, and finally a successful blood getting.  My nurse asked me where I was from and he told me he'd been to the Charlotte airport.  He was so sweet.
I spent 3 nights at Makati Medical Center, where the staff took good care of me and pumped me full of antibiotics, antacids, and IV fluid.  It was actually a really nice room: I had my own bathroom, shower with running water, toilet paper, a framed picture on the wall, a TV with cable, a minifridge, air conditioning, and a bed with 2 huge pillows.  It was a really big room, too.  I was almost sad to leave it.  Almost. I would have given up those three days of air conditioning for not getting sick in the first place.  It would have been nice to go hiking and cook out with my cluster and other PCTs, but I know getting sick wasn't really a choice.  
That's what's kind of puzzling me.  I feel like it wasn't my dinner that made me sick, unless the bacteria or whatever that made me sick could get through my entire system in the course of an hour or so.  
Anyway, I got to watch a lot of TV during those 3 days in Manila.  For example, I watched the end of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Promotion, Law and Order, Australia's Next Top Model, America's Next Top Model (THE NEWEST EPISODE), Asia's Biggest Loser, the beginning of The Biggest Loser from 2 years ago, National Geographic shows about Haerbin and the Yangtze River, the health benefits of Kimchi, and low-budget documentaries on the ethnic groups of China and the Philippines.  It may not sound like a lot, but it was.  I didn't have a book to read and I couldn't draw or write because of the IV.  I'm really glad that I got treated and am feeling better though.  Also, one million thanks to Jessica for calling me and making me feel better!  It was also really nice to see a fellow PCT, Britt, who happened to be in Manila for an appointment at the same time as me.  Also, thanks to the male nurses in the Philippines for all being cute.

A nice anecdote: last night, I went to sleep around 8 pm.  I was woken up by my new nurse introducing herself and giving me my last dose of antacid.  She said, "So are you leaving tomorrow, ma'am?" and I said, "Today, I thought."  She and my night nurse looked at each other and said, "It's 10:30 pm, ma'am."  I think they thought I was an idiot. 

Drowings

Today, I made some drawings during class and after dinner.  It made me feel a lot better to be making things I'm proud of, especially since I haven't really felt much accomplishment here yet.  Although, I am proud that I know my way around Mandurriao a little, can successfully shower, and have figured out how to rig my pillows so that I can't feel the metal bars underneath the 'mattress'.  
In other good news, my headphones broke today.  In other news, I have about $4 left to get me through the rest of the month.  I will probably wind up changing money at SM when I go to send off my postcards.  Hopefully we won't have to spend much money at the supervisor's conference next week.  
Right now, I'm listening to Illinois through the left earphone.  It's kind of cheery music, even though every single song on "Kid Catastrophe" is about a breakup.  
My host mother keeps giving me more and more food for lunch.  Today I got a whole container of rice (which, contrary to the views of some of my clustermates, is not difficult for me to eat) in addition to a container of vegetables (normal), mango (favorable but not daily), AND a 340-calorie block of cake from Goldilocks.  Let's not go into details, but I ate almost all of that.  The only reason I had some leftover is because I felt a little awkward being the only person in our class eating lunch at 10:45AM and I figured I might want the rest later.  
Anyway, today wasn't too exciting except Sharon told me my language checkup went well and that I was "spontaneous" in my questions.  She's so kind. Also, we got to hear from some current PCVs about their experiences here and what they wish they had known before they started service.  
It's been another pretty lazy evening for me and I am hoping to go to bed early tonight.  I also want to wish KATIE MCLAIN a very happy birthday.  

And the best part of the day is

I don't change. I don't care.

Well, yesterday was full of excitement and today was mostly devoid of excitement.  Yesterday we had our first language assessments which I guess went well.  Sharon asked me, "Where is your favorite place to eat around here?" and I think I answered, "Pineapple".  But other than that, I mostly understood the questions she asked me.  After language class, Meg and I walked to Supermart and sat down with some of the CYF trainees who live on the other side of the tracks.  It's weird that we hardly ever see the other Americans who live in the same town as us and are here working for the same program.  But it will be really fun to go to Banate with everyone in Iloilo on Friday for our COOKOUT.
We also had the first part of birthday festivities for Sharon and Jaron during our technical class.  We had cake, cookies n cream ice cream, and Coke.  It was a really nice Friday!
THEN, I slept for a while because I knew we were going out in the evening.  At 7:30, we went to videoke at Smallville (an area notorious for its drugs and general lack of morals).  Our counterpart teachers from ICNHS met us there and we sang songs until about 12.  My counterpart and I sang "Baby One More Time" together. Hopefully I wasn't too obnoxious.  The night ended with me getting a serious case of the hiccups.  

The birthday lady! With Roli and Carlos.

Me looking rough with my counterpart

Today, I mostly laid around in bed for as long as I could.  Merikar invited me to dinner so she, my host mother and I went to Supermart for a dinner of noodles and pizza.  Then we wandered around the street market for a while and went to SM so my mom could pay her phone bill.  Then I came home, finished Run, and now here I am.  I'm ready to watch some Degrassi, get in bed, and not wake up until at least 6.

You look like Ms. Universe.

Yes, someone did tell me this today and no, it's not a true statement.  
Today I co-taught my two sections.  And it was fun! I enjoyed it.  I reviewed some pronunciation with them and had to sing a poem to them.  One student took my picture in class.  It was a fun day and it wasn't tooooo hot during the brownout.  Also, my co-teacher gave me a nice little fan and some cookies and a Coke at lunch.  
We got through a lot of material today in language class.  We have check-up interviews tomorrow and I haven't studied tonight.  Six of us went down the road to Ryan's house to watch Supertroopers.  It was...so good.  It's past my bedtime now so I'll leave you with this.

Well yes, this spider's eyes are big enough to reflect a camera flash.

What do you do when life takes away two of your legs?  If you play your cards right, like this fell beast has, you will grow to the circumference of a baseball.  And what a great question! Yes, this spider does live in my bathroom and--so sweet of you to ask--has built its web over the light switch.  So charming.

You've got to keep the stream strong.

Today during lunch, we somehow wound up on the topic of peeing standing up.  I think it started something like this:
We watched a dog pee on the ground on the way to class.  
Another dog was right behind her, drinking her fresh pee.  
Someone mentioned Bear Grylls and how he drinks his pee to survive in the wilderness.  
Andrew: I'm so hydrated, I pee water.
If that was true, you'd never need to drink anything other than water.
Me: I guess it's a little easier for guys, who can just aim right back into their mouths.
Meg: I saw something that serves as a penis for women so they can pee standing up.
Me: You don't need that, just stand over the toilet.
Andrew: And then you pee all over your leg and call it water.
Me: No, you've just got to keep your stream strong.
Ryan: I think that's your line for the next two years.


And so it went, our 2 hour lunch.  Meg took Carlos's place as provider of Coke and orange drink and she also gave me a chocolate cupcake.  
 Today we learned how to congratulate people and make polite requests.  In training class, we went over visual aids.  Tomorrow I am going to meet with my co-teacher to plan our lesson on context clues.  What do I know about context clues?
I sent my family some text messages from Skype today.  I hope they get them and know that I'm thinking about them all the time.  I started a new book today, Run by Ann Patchett.  It starts off talking about New England winters.  Share some cold with the equator.
I'm getting excited about our supervisor's conference on the 27th.  We will be meeting our permanent site co-teachers and our permanent host families.  Plus, we get to experience running water and other PCTs from Cebu for a few nights.
A small victory came for me today in the form of Patricia intentionally grabbing my arm.  Still no talking, but at least it seemed like she and her siblings followed me into the house today instead of running away.  
I haven't shaved in weeks.  And tomorrow will be no exception.

  

And here's Vice Ganda, who is on just about everything here.

Cheep chip.

Today I co-taught with Ma'am Berboso at ICNHS.  Since it was a lesson on speech, I felt like my being there was actually beneficial!  I basically read tongue twisters and poems out loud and pronounced word pairs like "peel-pill" to help them recognize the difference between vowel sounds.  The funniest part about our lesson was that my teacher sang the chorus of "Billionaire" with a strong Western Visayan accent to emphasize how important it is to know your vowels!!!!!!!!!  I didn't know much about IPA before today, so it was kind of embarrassing to have to tell my co-teacher that I didn't know the difference between /I/ and /i/ .  It's fun to learn things about English that you have to teach to teenagers.  
We went to SM today to try to practice our dialogues about buying tickets for travel.  We went to 3 different travel agencies in the mall, but either there were too many people, they didn't handle international flights, or their online ticketing didn't work.  I was going to ask how much a ticket to Palawan would be but didn't really get to practice much.  We watched some of a dance competition and ate french fries and drank Coke, courtesy of our trainers.  It would have been an awesome day if I hadn't had a headache the whole time.  Also, I saw an old white man at the mall.
As promised, here is a picture of the frog that came into our house last night.  

And yes, that's a normal-sized plug.

Patricia came over today.  She still isn't talking to me, but she does freely roaming into my room periodically to see what I'm doing.  When I said good evening to her, she ran away.  Of course.
Also, shoutouts to two people who did cool things for me yesterday:  Andy, who set up a proxy connection for me so that I can watch trashy American TV shows while I sit in my jungle hut for the next 2 years.  If I could just get it to work.  And Patrick, who is in the National Guard in Afghanistan right now and has updated me on how things are going.  And I guess the Internet deserves some praise, since without it I would have little to no contact with the important people in my life right now.  Maybe one more for the cornbread I had after dinner.

Today I gave my mom's atises to other people because I don't want to eat them.

I'm not sure if it's because we're not tired of classes yet because it's Monday or what, but today was fun.  Language class seems to be getting a little bit easier and making sentences makes a little bit more sense.  We got chocolate cake and coke for our after-lunch snack again today.  We didn't have any shots this week, but we did get a video c. 1987 detailing the stories of 5 RPCVs who got HIV during service.  That was a downer.  
I took some pictures of a 1-cm frog that hopped into our house tonight.  But I'm not going to put it online right now because I want to get in bed.  In exchange, I'll leave you with this beautiful ballad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmTVLqPtk4U

Alibangbang

Alibangbang means butterfly.  I learned this word last week in class and heard it in a conversation this morning.  I don't know what the butterfly was doing, but at least I know it exists.
My mom still isn't feeling too well, so she actually had our neighbor come over and do my laundry for her.  Since I can't do it right myself.  I think our neighbor got atises in exchange for an hour of hard work.  Not quite a fair trade if you ask me.
I had lunch again at the Mosquito house and hung out with those childs again.  I can't remember much else from today except that Meg's house is real nice, I'm not ready for 8 hours of class tomorrow, and "The Hollows" by Why?

I also remember walking out of my room this morning on my way to the bathroom.  I remember this because something about my attitude toward animals and food has changed since I've been here.  The guy on the right there, who obviously doesn't belong in the picture, has a kids show on which animals and different science experiments are discussed.  When I walked out of my room this morning, he was on TV holding a big turtle in his hand.  My only thought was, "Oh, God, I hope he's not going to eat that."
The sunsets here are incredible.  The guy who I think walks the Governor's doberman said to me today "Maayong hapon" (Good afternoon) in a very upright way. The other day he said "Good morning" to Meg and me and she responded "Maayong aga" (good morning).  He said "Maayong aga! That's good!" in a very upright way.  I like the way this guy talks.  Oh, and the governor of Iloilo Province lives down the road from me.
Today Merikar brought the kids over because apparently her husband locked their car and house keys in the car.  Panoy made really ugly (cute) faces and my mom kept calling him law-ay (ugly).  He is adorable.
Speaking of ugly, our Hiligaynon manual has this picture to define ugly.

You wouldn't believe it; I just googled "ugly woman" and that's what came up.  Second entry.  

It's gon' rain

Today, I heard a pig getting slaughtered next door.  I'm really glad we have high walls around the yard so I wasn't able to hear it.  It was a pretty lazy Saturday, emphasis on the lazy.  I didn't get out of bed until 8:30, sat around in bed reading and doing puzzles on nationalgeographic.com, and ate a piece of pizza from dinner last night for breakfast.  It was mostly just crust and sauce, though, since I took off all the mushrooms and olives first.  I hung out at Andrew's house for a few hours and ate lunch there.  His mom asked me if I ate fish and I said no.   When lunchtime came, she had made a bunch of stuff that looked really delicious.  She told me to try the lumpia (spring or egg rolls kind of) because they had vegetables in them.  She forgot to say that they also had meat in them.  I ate them anyway because they were good and didn't want to insult her.  She also told me to try the vegetables in the soup that also had beef in it.  The vegetables were good, especially the potatoes.  Those people are so nice.  

Andrew and Kyle

After we ate, Kyle sat on my knee and I bounced him as he said words that came out wobbly.  I understood a sentence Kyle said to me for the first time ("Busog na ko?" Are you full?) I called Dart Dart Lamok today (lamok is the word for mosquito, which is his real last name).  He frowned but then I told him he has beautiful hair and he said "Thank you!" Kyle also gave me a piece of what I THOUGHT to be candy but turned out to be like a salty rice puff.  I licked it and gave it back to him.  I hoped for about 2 seconds that he would decide to eat it but I guess his mother has taught him better than that.  He threw it out the door.  It's hard not to like these kids.

Andrew's dad seems like kind of a badA type to me, since he walks around without a shirt on, has long hair, and smokes.  I get the feeling from him that he's just as protective of us as all our other host parents.  When they asked me if I went to Smallville (section of town with lots of bars) last night with some of the other PCTs, they seemed relieved that I said no.  I thought we might just get that from some of the more religious families like Meg's, but these people who don't go to church were just ask quick to say we shouldn't go there.  I always like it when people prove me wrong about themselves.

I came home and read more of my book and took a nap until about 4:30.  I'm sitting on the floor of my room listening to my iPod, typing on my computer, texting on my phone and uploading pictures from my camera.  It's kind of weird watching the black bugs land on my screen and try to walk on it against the current of the fan blowing on me.  I'm not sure if this is what Peace Corps is supposed to be like, but this is what it's been like for me.  

My bed is crawling with bugs tonight.  Note: mosquito nets don't protect you from gnats and fruit fly looking things.  But they also don't carry dengue and malaria so whatever.

Waay ayu?

Can we barter?
Today we went to the market to practice buying things.  Our lovely trainers got me to buy a papaya and some mangosteens.  The vendors laughed when I asked, "Waay ayu?" They gave me discounts and told me to come again.  Then I'll be a suki (regular customer).  
Today at the market, I decided that meat now repulses me.  Add that to the true list of reasons why I'm vegetarian.  
So that dog I saw with the "broken leg" the other day?  I think it's totally fine.  I keep seeing what I think to be the same dog walking around on a normal foot.  I'm going to believe that someone just had to pop its ankle back into place.  No big deal.  
Some cute things about Hiligaynon.  For one, in order to denote a smaller size, vowels in words are often changed to "i".  The only example I know of so far is that toko (a big lizard) becomes tiki (a small house lizard).  A bunch of bananas is sipi sang saging.
Today after class Meg and I went to get massages for PhP 250.  That's about $5.  It was an hour long and included a sauna and facial.  We also got hot tea afterwards.
My host mom still isn't feeling well and I'm starting to worry a little about her.  She got a massage today and says she'll be better in the morning.
Other than that, not too much crazy happened today.  Oh, and we did get drinks and cake today for lunch care of our trainers. 

He's everywhere!

Marie Curie: radium :: Watson-Crick: DNA

Today I learned that Marie Curie made some discovery about radium.  I learned this through the analogies lesson my teacher taught today to 15-year olds.
Today we had classroom observations at ICNHS again.  My teacher wants me to do lesson planning with her at her house, but we're not sure if that will get cleared by PC since she lives in another town.  She's a very nice lady and definitely loves her job.  She even told me today that she might be in line to be head of the English department at school (which has 6000+ students).  She doesn't want to, though, because she won't have a "purpose" anymore if she loses her connection to her students.  What a lady!
I had another bad dream last night.  I also saw a dog on my walk to the jeepney stop today with a broken leg.  I just try not to think about those things too much.
On a brighter note, my mom knows about Asia's Biggest Loser.  Hopefully she'll be supportive of me if I leave the house at night to watch it at Meg's.  She also rigged up some spaghetti for me tonight that had potato and eggs in the sauce.  It was dang good.
Today I started on Naked by David Sedaris.  I will probably be done with it by this weekend.
To make things better, I learned today how to say "How are you feeling?" in Hiligaynon: "Kamusta kabatyag mo?"
I also learned today how to say in Korean, "I have to go to the bathroom": 나 화장실가고십어.  That may or may not have taken me 5 minutes to type and it may or may not be typed correctly.

Other than that, today wasn't too interesting.  I am kind of missing my family today, but this picture is good for me.

Nagatuon ako sang Hiligaynon (I'm studying Hiligaynon)

Today, I started to make full sentences in Hiligaynon.  That's just about the excitement for today.  We also started learning the words for fruits and vegetables, which is important to me.  I know you probably have no use for specific words, but just know that there is such a thing as a rambutan.  

More blackouts today but lunch was delicious!  We played cards in the staff house for about an hour.  Then we went to the district library at the department of ed, where we will be able to find books and resources to use for our classrooms.  It's difficult to see how little the capital of this province has to provide for the education of students at 65 schools.  But we will all do our best with what we have and try to make some permanent changes for the better.  
I finally talked with my mom about different Hiligaynon vocabulary and phrases.  It's fun to talk with her about little things in the language.  Sentences are starting to make sense a little bit.  
I'm really missing Andrew and Estella today.  I looked up flights from Iloilo to Beijing.  They were too expensive for me to be able to afford now, but hopefully I can find some discount airfare to go visit some day next year.  Maybe I'll find a PhP 1 seat some day...

Monkey People

Well, today it happened.  I finally discovered some snacks here that will be gaining for me the Peace Corps 30 or whatever it is.  So Yan-Yans.  They're like dunkaroos but they're sticks and they have little animals on them and usually a weird phrase that goes with it.  Like MOLE------GO FOR MORE.  To make a long story short, I'll be eating these whenever I put money away to be able to afford them.  To be real, it'll happen.

Another great thing that happened today was that Carlos bought us dinner.  I mean, we bought it with our own money but he got the drinks.  He got for me some noodles from this little stand at the grocery store that you can put cabbage and bean sprouts into and add your own sauce.  It's about 50 cents for that.  The supermarket is kind of on the way home from training class, so after a hard day I can definitely see myself getting noodles and Yan-Yan.  I also tried to buy some Doritos but turns out they're about 75 cents, so I didn't have enough money to buy two packs.  Luckily, my mom also had some Dunkin' Donuts ready for me for dinner so it was good that I didn't buy them at the store, too.  

Today we did our first classroom observations at ICNHS.  My teacher is very nice and I think the kids really like her.  She makes jokes during class like, "Did you eat breakfast today, class?" -"Yes ma'am." "Good, then don't eat my copies."  It was kind of weird for me that they prayed together before and after class and the lesson today was about prayer.  They sang "The Prayer" together, talked about what it means, and then read the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.  I've never been in a public school where Christianity is so openly promoted and students talk about their personal religion in class.  It will be interesting if I wind up teaching those same lessons.

On another note, Meg and I got proselytized while waiting at school for our trainers to finish lunch.  Even though we both told this kid that we were Christians already, he went on for seriously 30 minutes about salvation and hell.  But mostly hell.  His English got a lot better when he was talking to us about it, and I can tell he really wanted to save our souls.  I guess because Meg said I was Presbyterian he figured I needed some converting.  He was really nice though.  

We had a brownout again this afternoon, so class ended early again.  I feel like we learn so much vocabulary in the space of 20 minutes.  Hiligaynon is fun to learn so far but the noun particles are confusing.  And sentence structures are almost completely opposite from that of English, but whatever.

Another thing America should know is Noah.  It's this soap opera/children's show that comes on at 8 each night and--from what I understood of my mom's explanation--is about a boy who was separated from his father at a young age and wound up on the island of Noah.  Monkey People took him in so now, years later, when his father finds him, he doesn't know who is his real family.  The boy, Jacob, met a giant dinosaur egg that speaks Tagalog and they became friends somehow.  I was able to understand that the egg didn't have a mom.  Here is a picture of the actors who play Jacob's dad and Jacob.  

There are two things I don't mind about this picture.

And here's what the show is really like.  

My co-teacher sent me a text this evening telling me good night.  Most of the people I've encountered here are really warm and friendly.  I'm glad to be here and even gladder that today wasn't exceptionally hot. I've actually had to get under my sheet the past few nights (actually I used Snuggie last night).  

Today while I ate dinner I watched a lizard on the ceiling.  It was moving really slow, so at first I thought it was sick.  I could see each arm move and then it spread out its little fingers and placed them back on the ceiling.  Then I realized it was stalking a bug and it moved about the length of its entire body in a split second.

Mga Toko

Butt shots

Today, Carlos told us that Dr. Ferdie was going to give us shots in the butt.  He was mostly lying about that, as we were really getting our second rounds of Japanese E and rabies.  Another brownout during language class, which meant we stopped our lesson to talk and make the best of our slow bake.  We learned about STDs and the four main strains of Hepatitis during our training class.  We also got our shirts for the Milo Marathon, which is taking place 26 September, the day before we go to Bacolod for our supervisor's conference.  I don't know why I said I would do it.  So far, I haven't gotten any rats (ilaga) on my bed, but I did find a rat-sized turd on my suitcase right next to my bed.  Suspicious...
I had another dream last night about someone who murdered kids at a high school.  It was a private school though, so I think I'm safe.  I think whenever there is a loud sound, like rain or the fan, I will have weird dreams. Which is every night, because without a fan there is no sleep.
The funniest thing I heard today was that Meg's mom said I would get cancer because I eat too many noodles that have preservatives.  She might be right, but it's more likely that I'll be the PCV who gets hit by a car.  Crossing roads habits wrought in China die hard.
I heard from my friend Patrick in Afghanistan today.  It's nice to know that he thought to contact me, even though he's busy being in the National Guard and all.  It's also kind of sad though, since some other people from home who are doing much less haven't thought to say hi. 
On a lighter note, I start my class observations tomorrow.  I will be at Iloilo City National HS for 2 hours observing my counterpart's English classes.  Based on our practices in training, I am definitely not ready to teach.  But hopefully the kids will get to know me and I can learn how to be the biggest help to them.
Sharon started our class today by telling us that Peace Corps wants us to have rubber boots because still water around this area can carry leptospirosis.  I'm glad that our first question about that statement wasn't "What is leptospirosis and how can it affect us?" but, "Do we have to pay for that?"  The answer was no.  We are basically allotted PhP 85 a day, which translates to about $1.95.  Remember now that you can get a meal for 4 at Pizza Hut for PhP 200, but that's not the point.  The point is that we don't have money to buy rubber boots for ourselves.  Actually, I can see how it would be possible to save money in Peace Corps, but it would be very little by very little.  We also get some money for transportation (which I will be using tomorrow) and PhP 100/month for our phones.  That is a joke, but at least they tried.  Walking to and from class and having a host mom who makes you delicious food every day keeps me from eating into my allowance, except for when I get massages at the mall.  
All in all, today was a good one.  Tomorrow I will hopefully have a little time to study Hiligaynon before language session at the high school.  Kapoy kapoy! (I'm tired!)
For your viewing pleasure, a map of my home for the next 2 years.

Babay-Baybay-Baye Baye

Today, Andrew, Kelsey, Sean, and I went with Andrew/Kelsey's family to a family farm out in the boonies.  We played cards with the kids, ate ibos (rice rolls) and baye-baye (rice + sugar rolls), and climbed a silly steep hill.  We also crashed a funeral gathering on the way home.  I let Dart listen to some of my music, which he didn't like.    I came home and immediately showered and took a nap.  My nap was interrupted by another brownout.  You see, when the power goes off here, you can't sleep anymore because your fan gets turned off.  So, you wake up even though it's more quiet when the power goes out.  I tried to take some pictures of the lightning storm that happened tonight, but failed.  Just know that the sky outside my house was jacked up for about an hour tonight.
Another one of the PCTs here on Panay is going home to take care of some medical concerns.  It's really sad to see so many people leave, but for most of them they either have no choice or made a mistake in thinking they could handle this job.  I don't think I had fully prepared for being here, but I am enjoying the adjusting.  I just wish my body would stop thinking sweating is such a great idea.  
Side note:

 "The eye contact is very important and magical for relationships."--ad on Facebook in the Philippines.

For today:
Babay-"bye"
Baybay-"beach"
Baye Baye-rice/corn rolls

Agoy!

This is an atis.

I started my Saturday by waking up at my usual 6 am, using the bathroom, and going back to sleep until about 9:30.  I had some ridiculous dreams, one of which involved driving a manual green Mustang that turned into an RV.  When I finally got out of bed, Lorna gave me one of those fruits that don't exist in South Carolina.  The atis tree grows in her front yard and she picks the fruit off it before they become too ripe and the birds start eating them.  The inside of an atis is really nasty.  It is pasty, white, and has black seeds.  Lorna said it's very sweet and delicious so I tried it.  It really wasn't too bad, but the texture of it kind of made me want to vomit.  I will be eating a lot of this in the next few days, once they start to get ripe.  While we're on the subject of disgusting-looking fruits; mangosteens.  

This mangosteen is either photoshopped or fake.  Normally they are a little browner in the middle and the shells (which become rock hard when the fruit is rotten) are hairy on the inside.  All this aside, mangosteen are probably the most delicious fruit I've ever had next to pineapple.  

By the time my mom started making me lunch, Andrew and his host sister wanted to go to Kelsey's house.  Once we got there, Kelsey was doing laundry so we just talked to her host family.  They were all very nice and gave us cucumbers, mayo, and french fries for a snack.  By the way, the homemade fries I've had since being here rival McDonald's fries in the states.  I was going to upload today's pictures tomorrow after we go to the farm, but I couldn't resist.

Kyle! (Kelsey's brother)

Patricia!

Panoy, you handsome devil.

After Kelsey's, I went home to grab a lunch of rice, stir fried vegetables and mango.  Then Sean, Kelsey, and I went to Andrew's place to play cards with his siblings.  That lasted about 3 hours, but it was time well spent.  Dart won the first few rounds of "Pinworm" (Asshole) and made us all very aware that we didn't win.  Poor Sapphire lost consistently for about an hour, but steadily regained a place at the top.  

My mom told me I needed to do laundry today since we're leaving early tomorrow for the farm.  She helped me so it only took about 45 minutes.  Dinner was salad, bread, and a donut.  

So today wasn't too crazy but I was glad for the company of my fellow PCTs.   Tomorrow should be interesting.  Hopefully I will have some weird dreams again tonight.  

Oh and today a fly landed on the open sore on my foot while I was washing clothes in the front yard.  Thanks to PST medical briefings, my conscience would not let me wait more than 5 minutes before I came into my room  to clean it and put a new bandaid on it.  With any luck my foot won't fall off tonight.

The way home from Andrew's

And for all of you who have to know how to say "ouch" in Hiligaynon, it's "Agoy". 

Malagawlagaw

3 September 2010


In case anyone is reading this, here are some of the people I may be writing about for the next 2.5 months.
Fellow Education PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) in Iloilo City:
[My cluster: Barangay Pali represent]
Andrew, Kelsey, Ryan, and Meg
[The other cluster]
Denise, Jaron, Lysette, Hanna, Amari, and Sean
My host family:
Lorna (mother), Merikar (step sister in law), Wilson (step brother), and 3 children.  Wilson is married to Merikar and is also my host mother’s step son.  They have about 4 years age difference between them.  I only live with Lorna but their family is at our house almost every day.  The children are beautiful.  I just today met their youngest, a boy.  They usually run away from me if I try to talk to them or give them something.
Filipino PC Staff in Iloilo:
Carlos, Hannah, Sharon, and Mau


I woke up today with an infection on my foot.  I don’t remember the last time I’ve had an infection like that, but I made good use of the medical kit PC gave us at orientation.  It’s clearing up so I don’t think there’s too much to worry about on that front.  
Today we had another blackout during class! Weird? So we kind of stopped doing anything productive and wound up taking a really long lunch/card game break.  Here are some highlights from our downtime.
Ryan: who do you think would win a fight if a pinworm and a fighting spider?  Note: pinworms are intestinal parasites that come out of the anus at night.  There is a kind of spider here that gets to be about as wide as a baseball.  
Andrew:  That’s kind of lose-lose for the spider.  Even if it wins the fight, there’s still a worm that just came out of a butt.  
Me: Do spiders have noses?
And on.  
Apparently our class is doing well in learning Hiligaynon, which is good to know since about half the time we’re just talking to our teacher or amongst ourselves about our lives here.  After language class, we took the van (read: air conditioner) over to Carlos’s for our first real technical class.  I thought it would be kind of a drag, but we made it a good time.  We learned the outline of a Department of Education lesson plan and made our own.  Lysette, Jaron and I decided to make our lesson on “How to take a bucket shower”.  Lysette came up with this great idea to get the class’s attention at the beginning.  It goes like this:  “It’s been a long day, class, so let’s stretch our arms high in the air and keep them there.  Now turn your head to the left and take a deep breath in.  How does that smell?  If you don’t smell too good, you might need to take a bucket shower!”
Each group presented their topics, including how to buy rice, how to set up a mosquito net, how to brush your teeth, and how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  By far my favorite question asked during the presentations came from Andrew, who asked if he could use his finger to spread his peanut butter.
When I got home from school, my mother had some visitors over.  One of them was the host mother of another PCT nearby, and she had with her a little girl.  The girl immediately followed me into my room and sat down with me as I put a new bandaid on my foot.  I asked her “Sin-o ngalan mo?” (What’s your name) and she said in a really raspy, sweet little voice.  I didn’t really understand her but she was so cute.  She also ran away from me after I tried to give her a bandaid.  Presh.
Meg and I went to SM again today for some down time.  I feel like this is the first time in an age that I can relax and not have anything to do in the morning.  We malagawlagawed around for a while and ate some Rai Rai Ken for dinner.  I got some noodles with vegetables and let me just say that cabbage is God’s gift to me.  I also had fresh pineapple juice.  After dinner we wound up at a little spa in the mall where you can get your feet massaged by little fish that take the calluses off.  I opted for a shoulder and head massage, which was well worth the $3 I paid for it.  We got home on the jeepney all by ourselves.  It’s nice that you can get public transportation to your front door.  
Wilson’s family was over when I got home from the mall.  He apparently bought a “minicab” today and had it parked in the front yard.  At first I thought I had walked into the wrong gate because I didn’t know the gate could open but there was a car parked in the yard.  I watched the end of Agua Bendita (or “holy water”, a show about a girl whose mother drank holy water when she was pregnant so her daughter is blue and has a crab and dolphin friend) and came back to my room to rest.  Today was a good day, even though this morning I thought it would be long and boring.  I’m looking forward to a restful weekend and the farm on Sunday!

Make Balance.

Since I haven't had any real internet access since being in Iloilo, here are a few highlights from my journal entries.

29 August 2010
Today, I mostly sat around, sweated, napped, and read.  It was kind of a lame day but I'm trying to be thankful for the down time while I have it.  Tomorrow we start training so I will be mostly busy until the next weekend.   I am getting antsy about getting online and wish people from home would call me.Today I went to my first Catholic mass, which was mercifully only an hour long.  I don't think that's the real Catholic experience though.  I had corn and Coke for dinner.  Patricia grabbed a glass and looked at me as I poured my Coke.  She looked away when I asked if she wanted some. I would have poured it for her but she got the bottle back out of the fridge.  I was impressed that she poured the drink herself.  After I sat down though we heared breaking glass and the whole bottle spilled on the floor.  Oh well.  Lorna doesn't want to put running water in this house because it is just going to be torn down eventually.  My friend David was really sweet and called me today with his last few pesos.  I feel bad that he ran out calling me.  PC only gives us 100 pesos a month for our cell phones.  That's not enough, since a text message is 1 peso and calling is way more. Today I ate some mango which was awesome.  A Filipino boy just walked into my house.  It was nice to laze around all day but I need to get out some. Hopefully once I start learning some more of the language I can interact with the family more. It's funny to think a house like this would be considered very poor conditions in America but we have everything we need here.  I kind of think the manual flushing toilets are neat.  Little bugs are getting through my mosquito net.


30 August 2010
Today I had solid poop!  Other than that, today was one of the best I've had since coming to the Philippines.  I had some great dreams last night and woke up feeling refreshed (at 5 am).  I laid in bed until 6:30, when I got the uh-oh potty feeling in my stomach.  We started language class today, which was a lot of fun but also made me feel better about being here. It was nice to start feeling productive after a lazy weekend.  I went home for lunch, since I didn't think to ask my mom to make me something to take.  Meg's family picked us up and we rode a trike back to our respective homes.  My mom made me vegetables, bread, and mango.  Let me say that last one again. Mango.
After that, we rode a jeepney back to our TCF's apartment for a health presentation on intestinal parasites.  Roundworm, hookworm, pinworm, amoebas and giardia.  I think the one I want the least is pinworm.  We just won't go there.  After that, we got rabies and Japanese Encephalitis shots (more shots?) and sat around playing cards until we had our site placement interviews.  I learned how to play Asshole by losing almost all the rounds I played.  BUT I did set a new high score on Rapid Roll (3270).  It was really good to see everyone after the weekend apart and it's always good to be able to play cards. I haven't had as many burials and birthday parties to attend as everyone else but I'm happy at my house.
I think my mom's stepson's children may or may not be warming up to me.  Also, last night felt really good in my room.  I don't know if it's the lack of rain for 36 hours or I'm just getting used to the heat but I really have no complaints right now! My interview went really well and I feel encouraged and excited about starting technical classes.  After all that, Meg and I went to SM (mall) with her host brother (who has a car.) and got some necessities.  I came home around 7 and my mom immediately started making me something in the kitchen.  Turns out, it was fries.  My dinner tonight was fries, salad, and cake.  I really haven't eaten anything bad here yet.  I think Lorna doesn't really believe me when I say the things she makes is good because it's "just vegetables".  Yesterday for lunch we had baby corn, carrots, cabbage, and squash mixed with coconut sauce and lemongrass (picked from her garden).  Sounds disgusting, right?  She's been really good about putting things together for me.  I think she thinks I can't possibly like rice that much or that I don't want to eat too much for fear of getting fat.  Maybe one day I can convince her that I would be overjoyed to eat the things she gives me every day in America.  And that rice is something I will always want to eat.  I got to briefly check my facebook today and Q sent me a text.  That pretty much made today altogether awesome.  Being at SM did make me really miss China and Korea, though.
I've been thinking about things that are different between America and the Philippines, at least in my xperience so far in Iloilo.
Hopefully this will either make you appreciate what you have or make you jealous.
1.  It's normal not to have running water in your house.
2.  Employees at the mall go out of their way to make sure you are smothered in help.
3.  The mosquitoes have malaria and dengue fever.
4.  Not having electricity in your house at some point every day is also a daily occurence.
5.  People smile at you, and not just in a creepy way.
6.  The supermarket is in the mall.
7.  An ice cream cone costs less than 25 cents.
8.  People wear pants when it's hot.
9.  Small family businesses are the norm, not the exception.
10. Lizards in your house is a good thing, since they eat pests.
11. Having a phone costs about $10/month.
12. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.
13. People use umbrellas on bright, sunny days.


31 August 2010
Today, we did courtesy calls to the schools, district superintendent, and governor of Iloilo province.  The kids at our school are so cute, so I'm excited to start working with them.  We played cards at lunch and I finally won a round of Ahole.  I set a new record on Rapid Roll.  3550.  Last night I messed up and used all my pesos calling David, so I had to reload again today.  Lorna and I went for a walk around the barangay and I got to see where Wilson's family lives.  The lot down the road has a great view of the sky.  I think I will try to walk down there often, if not every day.  I have figured out that from 8-4ish are the miserable hours of the day, but before and after are really nice to walk around.  Tomorrow we start again at 8.  I used to dread doing anything that early.  Now, I can't sleep much later than 6:30.  Today I had another solid poop and no diarrhea! Everywhere we went today we got snacks and tons of fruit.  Note to self: a mangosteen is not good to eat if its shell is as hard as a freaking rock.  I'm kind of sad that no one has bothered to call or text me so far, except for Q.  Hopefully we'll have internet soon but I want to know how my finances
will work out before buying a smartbro.
Today we experienced air conditioning.  Apparently sitting down when meeting an official is rude, even though they told us to sit down and eat.  I need to find another hobby besides playing rapid roll to pass my time.  Lysette told me today that I have beautiful eyes, and a few people said they liked my hair. How sweet.  At Mandurrio NHS we had to get up on a stage in front of hundreds of Filipino school children and introduce ourselves.  Andrew got tons of swoons from the girls and looks from the boys.  Mr. Arlo, who showed us around the officials, got emotional when he started talking about the hostage situation.  He was very
nice to us.  It was a good day overall.

1 September 2010

Other than language class today, I don't feel like I did much of anything.  We had class and then went to the 

mall and waited around for an hour, and then found out the mayor couldn't meet us because his father died

and waited another hour to figure out how we were going to get back to Mandurriao.  Ryan beat my high score on rapid roll so I have been trying to fix that.  We had 3 brownouts today; one at 5 in the morning, one around 9 during class, and another around 4 this afternoon.  I took a nap and tried to read in the dim house while Lorna did yard work.  I want to go into Iloilo and just walk around some evening, but I know that won't be happening for a while, if ever.  I left my school stuff at Sharon's so I can't even do my homework tonight.  

I wish I had some interesting hobby that I could do during this downtime.  I'll probably just take a shower

like Andrew said.  I wish someone from home would call me.  I am feeling kind of lonely today.