Welcome to the Philippines!

I’m here! It was a long trip but I made it to the Philippines. So much has happened in the last few days but I’ll try and keep it to a short summary.

I arrived for staging in LA on Friday and had to go immediately from the airport to the hotel for registration. They broke all the volunteers (about 60 of us) into two groups and we spend the rest of the day going over a basic understanding of the core expectations, aspirations, anxieties, and safety concerns. Afterwards, I went with a group to dinner and we celebrated our last American meal for two years.

We traveled as a group leaving LAX at around noon on Saturday. The flight to Japan was 12 hours and felt as long as it sounds. But the plane was comfortable and they fed us lots of food. From Japan, it was another 4 hours to Manila and by the time we landed everyone was exhausted. Peace Corps staff met us and we stumbled out of the airport like zombies at 12am Monday morning. An hour bus ride later we were crashed at our compound.

Some of the volunteers on the plane to Manila.

I didn’t realize where exactly I was until I stepped out of my room later that morning. It’s like a peaceful summer camp in the middle of a tropical forest. We are sleeping two to a room and are surrounded by lush trees and flowers. Unseen life is everywhere. I can hear the frogs and birds and who-knows-what-else outside my room. And although I expected it to rain, it has been more of a mist that comes and goes. My body is so confused with the time change. I thought that when we arrived I would pass out as soon as I went to bed, but I couldn’t sleep at all and gave up at 4am. At nearly 36 hours without sleep, I made it through the rest of the day through countless cups of coffee.

My hostel at the compound.