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!