We No Speak Ilokano

There is so much to say I will have to try and contain most of it until I have some pictures to show! 


Sunday I said goodbye to the heat and humidity of Manila and  made the 7 hour trip up to the mountainous region of La Trinidad in the Benguet Province and I met my new host family. It is absolutely stunning here and the weather is perfect, although there are short downpours of rain throughout the day. La Trinidad is built on the mountainsides surrounding a valley of strawberry fields. It is strange seeing pine trees growing in the rain forest, and the streets are so wet and muddy that the Peace Corps bought us rain boots.


My host family is great. I live with Auntie Apol and Uncle Sam and their three children Michelle, Fatylin, and Charston. The kids are all in their 20's so I will have some people to show me around during my free time. Fatylin has a 3 year old daughter named Kairi. Uncle Dave also lives in the house and so does Josie, the helper. So all in all there are 8 including me. The two girls speak near perfect English, and Kairi speaks more English than many of the 3 year-olds I've met in the States. Apolonia is disabled and uses crutches and a wheelchair. Uncle Sam owns a Jeepney shop. More about Jeepneys later...


The house is extremely accommodating and I am living comfortable. It is way more than I expected and I am sure I will be happy living here for the next 9 weeks.


So far training days have been filled with language training and courtesy calls to officials such as the Mayor and the Barangay Captains, as well as the school admin centers. Later we will begin observing classes and then start co-teaching in the classroom. They are teaching us Ilokano, but we soon realized that everyone here has their own dialect and aren't necessarily fluent in Ilokano. In fact, some of the locals are more comfortable speaking in English.