The Sky is Aliave

Today was the first of a long string of holidays celebrated here in the Philippines. Tomorrow will be All Souls Day and the day after that All Saints Day will be celebrated. Next week is a Muslim holiday, and in between we have the school’s annual district meet and the PC’s Grand 50^th Anniversary celebration. Today however has been claimed an unnamed holiday because we felt like we could use one more! And besides, they celebrate Halloween in the states, so why shouldn’t we join in the fun?

It couldn’t have been a more perfect night. A fog rolled in and the three streetlights that are strewn along the street became giant orbs of dim light. I was asked to be a judge for the Masquerade Ball. The children from Mt. Data came in there scariest masks, and a few adults joined in the costume contest as well. I regret forgetting my camera because there were some really great costumes!

Walking home I noticed the night sky, the first time clear enough to see the stars. I’m not sure quite how to say it without being overly poetic. I’ll say that it made even the dark sky back home in Skull Valley seem dead. It was alive, shimmering, glittering, moving. Shooting star after shooting star, like something out of a fantasy movie. The North Star was easy to find, twice the size. And I could see Orion’s Belt, this time clearly with his head, arms, legs, and sheath of his sword. It seemed so close and I stood transfixed for a while before calling it a night.

Message!

The other day I observed how the mail reaches me. As I was walking home from school, one of the big passenger buses came whizzing past me blaring its horn. I watched as the post woman came sprinting out of the post office, arms flailing in the air. As the bus threw itself around the curve, the driver chucked a bag out of the window which the post woman failed to catch. It hit the curb15 feet down the road where she retrieved it. “What’s that?” I asked. “Oh, just the mail,” she said, “look, you have a card!” As it turns out, the post office has a contract with the buses to deliver the mail along their routes. Just don’t send anything too fragile.

School is going well. The English program here is like a wild knot that I’m trying to untangle. I think I’ve got all the ends figured out, now I just have to work with my counterpart to slowly develop a strategy to implement a program that will last beyond my two years of service. It’s a little bit tricky because she plans to retire as soon as I’m gone!

Back at my host family’s house, I’m enjoying the food…maybe a little too much. Fresh veggies every day has me eating more cabbage than I ever thought possible. Add fresh carrots, squash, okra, onions, ginger, potatoes, watercress, chayote and, of course, rice rice rice! I’m weaning myself off of coffee and started drinking an array of wild tea instead. They have a several varieties of “mountain tea,” wild lemongrass, mint, and some plant that I can’t decide if it tastes like peppermint or root beer or something in between.

In my spare time, my host brother has been trying to teach me to play guitar. Otherwise, I have been reading or trying to recreate Taboo, Balderdash, and other vocab games that my class would enjoy. Know what a dingleberry is? Look it up. Holidays are fast approaching (we’ve been celebrating Christmas since September1). Next week is semester break for the students, the week after that is filled with days off due to more holidays, and then it is the district athletic meet. I’ll be going, hopefully, to Manila to attend the 50^th anniversary not only for Peace Corps in the Philippines, but for the agency itself. Thank you JFK!

P.S. Change of address! You can send letters and small packages to the address on the right. Please don’t send anything expensive or, like I mentioned before, might break due to being thrown out of a window (defenestration – thank you balderdash).

My counterpart, Mam Nellie, and I.

Teaching in my 1st year class.

Volleyball is probably the most popular sport.
The boys play it every chance they get.

Where my food comes from.

Day 104

I’ve been steadily learning the routine of a teacher at a high school in the Philippines. Peace Corps has an agreement with the Department of Education in the Philippines that a volunteer is not supposed to teach a class alone without a counterpart. However, that rule blew out the window about a week after I got here. My counterpart is often called away or sometimes late which leaves me alone with the class. All has gone well, but I have quickly discovered the differences in the educational system here.

On the surface, students seem to be very well disciplined. They greet you wherever you go with a courteous “Good Morning Sir,” or “Good Morning M’am.” They stand when you enter a class and thank you when you leave. Here, the teachers move from room to room, not the students. Teachers and students both wear uniforms (I’m waiting for mine to be tailored). School begins at 7:40 with an outdoor flag ceremony led by a prayer, then the anthem, then the pledge. They have a 20 minute recess in the morning, and then an hour and a half for lunch. School is dismissed at 4:30.

However, unlike in the U.S. where a bell ends each period promptly, here a teacher must ring a bell (a rusty wheel-well) and it is anything but prompt. Usually the flag ceremony starts at 8, and the bell ends class 10-15 minutes late. Teachers are not expected to be on time, and it is normal for students to wander in to class late. This is understandable because many have to hike over an hour to get to school.

However, there is virtually no discipline. My students rarely turn in homework assignments and the teacher does not do anything but give a light scolding. Some teachers give empty threats while others try to bribe them, and disobedient students usually get away without consequences. Today I observed a group start a fire in the class room as a prop. I watched amused as the teachers acted as if it were completely normal.

Unfortunately, the same story goes for students who come to school drunk or misbehave. There is no detention because there are no teachers to facilitate it. Parents can’t be called because they are working in the farm. Students can’t be sent home because they are the school’s liability. It’s definitely not what I’m used to and they are probably going to find me to be a bit of a strict teacher. It’s fun to watch them think they can cleverly get away with things. They don’t realize that I was a high school student much more recently than their other teachers. Usually catching them in the act is enough to get them to stop and thankfully I have not had any trouble.

On a brighter note, the English Club is up and running. For their first activity they decided they wanted to watch an English movie and I agreed to set up a projector and movie for them. Of course they chose Twilight Eclipse. At the end of the movie I woke up and noticed most of the students left early, either because they didn’t want to walk home in the dark, or because they were tired of the same kissing scene over and over. Anyway, I was left watching the ending credits with about 12 high school boys. The girls were nowhere to be seen.

Eat with your hands!

It’s been a while but suppose that’s a good thing and just goes to prove how busy I have been. I have been co-teaching for two weeks now and so far so good. I teach two first year classes and two second year classes every morning. That’s the U.S. equivalent of 7^th and 8^th graders. Right now we are supposed to be studying drama. Not my strongpoint but I help out as best I can. At noon I return home for a leisurely lunch. And at 3 in the afternoon I head back to the school for research and lesson planning, which sometimes takes us late into the evening after dark.

This week I also helped to revise the English Club. Some students started planning ideas for activities and fundraisers. They have some really good ideas! If they can just get past their shyness to say them out loud…However, the students have begun to loosen up around me and have started talking more. Of course, I have about a thousand ideas running through my head, but I’m quickly finding out difficulties and challenges in organizing anything outside of class time.

The community here is made up of farmers. They work all week in their gardens (can’t call them fields because there is no flat land here). On weekends, they make the trip to La Trinidad to deliver the vegetables to the trading post assuming prices are decent. As for me, weekends are my days off but are usually spent washing laundry, going to church, and finalizing lesson plans.

The 5-meals-a-day routine hasn’t changed. Everything stops at 10 and 3 for merienda. My favorite snack of brewed local coffee with home-made peanut butter on toast followed me here, and I continue to enjoy it twice a day. As for the other meals, they are simple but delicious. Eating with your hands is quite common here and I’ve gotten used to it. They say it makes the food taste better…

Thanks to all who have sent letters or cards (mom). It’s always exciting to get something in the mail.