Hello and Happy Friday! You guys have some great questions! I’ll address the more personal questions this week, and then I’ll take on the rest in an upcoming blog post. An old Peace Corps ad campaign labeled volunteer service as “the toughest job you’ll ever love.” I first started thinking about the Peace Corps during my sophomore year of college after a recruiter visited my school. As a marine biology and environmental studies student, I was curious about whether I could combine these interests with serving in the Peace Corps. After some Googling I found the Coastal Resource Management program in the Philippines. I was interested, but scared! I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle a long two years away from home, but the idea stayed in the back of my mind. During my last year of college, I started thinking about plans for after graduation, and was still drawn to Peace Corps. I loved the idea of living in a foreign community long enough to make friends and to create a life there, while also doing environmental work! But the time and distance from home still scared me. After a lot of thinking and talking to friends and family, I took the plunge and applied- very close to the December 31st, 2015 deadline. I had a phone interview in January, received my invitation to serve in February, then began the long process of obtaining medical and legal clearance (sooo many doctors’ appointments!!!). On July 3rd, 2016, I met up with my batch of volunteers in L.A. We flew together the next day to the Philippines. For the first 3 months in-country, I lived in a community with 10 other volunteers, each with our own host family. We had busy days full of Tagalog classes, cultural discussions, and technical training where we practiced habitat assessments, boat registration, fisherfolk interviews, fish identification, mangrove tree planting, environmental education, and more! Here are some pictures of my host sisters playing at the beach, fish ID day at the market, and the day we learned to plant mangroves: In September I moved to my site in Northern Samar, where we speak Waray Waray. I lived with a host family for a year, but wanted the experience of living independently, so I moved to a duplex type unit in August. My host family’s home looked very American, but my home now is a bit more rustic. I fetch water from a pump (“bumbahan” in the local language). We use small buckets called “tabos” in the kitchen and bathroom for showering, flushing the toilet, and washing the dishes. Before beginning service, I expected that the biggest adjustments would be lifestyle related. However, water pumps, slow and intermittent internet, hot weather, power outages, and a lack of toilet paper become routine surprisingly quickly. My biggest shock has not come from any physical discomfort, but from being a typical individualistic American living within a communal culture. Personal privacy is not prioritized in the Philippines as it is in the States. My sweet nanay (host mother) used to go into my bedroom every day while I was at work to clean and sometimes even rearrange the furniture! Common questions of greeting include: “Where are you going?” and “Where have you come from?” It has taken a lot of adjustment to come to terms with feeling like I live in a fishbowl! In the U.S., the first question we often ask one another is, “What do you do?” This is how we define and categorize one another. In the Philippines, the first questions are usually about family: your siblings, parents, children. The first question I receive upon meeting new people has often been, “Are you married?” closely followed by, “Why not?!” This can feel invasive- but I also find it quite beautiful that Filipinos define people more by their personal relationships than by their work. Filipinos often view Americans as being very independent, and I sometimes hear the stereotype that our family ties are not as strong as Filipinos. Unlike the typical American who moves out of their family home in their late teens or early 20s, Filipinos usually live with extended family, continue to live at home during college, and may not move out until they marry. I have tried to combat this stereotype by telling my Filipino friends about my family and showing them pictures. They are sometimes surprised when I talk about how I miss my family and speak with them often. My typical day has changed many times throughout my service. Near the beginning, “work” meant studying the local language, talking to people, eating with people, and overall just adjusting to Filipino life and culture. Here is a link to a blog post about my typical days early in service. Now that I’ve been settled into site for a year and a half, I spend more time working on projects related to my primary assignment: environment and coastal resource management. This week, I’m working on a grant proposal for an environmental education project I am planning for this summer- more on that later. I typically wake up early with the rest of my town, around 5AM! I usually journal, run, take a bucket bath, and get ready for the day. I often pick up pan de sal for breakfast from one of the little streetside bakery stands scattered around town. I bike to work, a short couple of blocks away. I spent this morning working on my grant proposal then ate lunch with my counterpart at a little restaurant across the street that a family runs from their house. Our lunch was chop suey (chopped veggies and shrimp), langka (jackfruit) cooked in coconut milk, and rice (of course!) In the afternoon, I had meetings with the high school principal and the president of a community women’s organization. Today looked much like an average office work day, but other days have included attending fisherfolk meetings, playing environmental education games with high schoolers, watching fishermen bring fish aggregating devices out to sea, and even accompanying coworkers on a door-to-door dog rabies vaccination campaign.
Thanks for the questions and feel free to keep them coming! Comments are closed.
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