Memories from Childhood

Well it looks like it is the first day of May, officially marking my 10th month being here in the Philippines and being a Peace Corps Volunteer.  Time is really moving fast and I'm closer to finishing the journey (COS in August 2014 hopefully) than when I started (Unofficially April 2011; Officially August 2011 reactivated my application).  As you can see a volunteer truly devotes about 3 years on average to this endeavor.  May 1st is also a national holiday here in the Philippines . . .LABOR DAY! But I sit here at my desk here in RSCC Reception and Study Center for Children typing this blog entry.  You may ask, well why are you there? Is it because you have access to internet? Are you working on an activity with the babies or the girls? NO! The staff and I are here finishing up tasks because our accreditation review begins today! Originally it was to commence May 2nd, but we got an early start.

We all knew accreditation was scheduled for the first of may but it seemed like all of the important work that goes into the review like the manuals and day to day operating functions was crammed into the last few days. Boy ill tell you that I've learned more about my organization in the past few days then has ever been articulated Regarding policies, expectations etc. I feel like I'm dreaming. everything seems perfect and its like i have been placed in new centers which reaffirms my statement that my agency does not need a volunteer but more so access to the resources. (With proper training of utilization- that's where I come in) this would be a great placement for response volunteers.  So anyway the past three days I have been stuck in the office operating off of MicroSoft word like the golden school days. All of our official business is written in English so I was in my element. It killed me that I was not done early Tuesday morning because I promised a "little" (what we called our mentees in the Big brothers, Big Sisters volunteer organization in the U.S.) that I would let her practice her typing. Integrity and consistency is everything with these girls but business overrules.I helped complete tasks at both agencies however most of my work involved creating a resource guide for RSCC.  All of the information that I gathered to type and organize was handwritten (because the manual was misplaced) and needed constant review from my Supervisor and then more papers were brought to me to organize. But in the end we finished it earlier today and I am done! It took time away from my girls and a few of them showed their discontent with pout faces when I joined them for lunch. But hugs from Ate Rina always make the situation better.

Speaking of hugs, a few weeks ago I caught myself reminiscing about my childhood living in Queens, in particular about one of my favorite elementary school teachers Mrs. Triplett.  Mrs. Triplett lived in Long Island but would commute to Queens everyday for her students.  Everyone loved her and she was great with her students. She always taught us new things and created new experiences for her inner-city youth.  She was my primary teacher for 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade and 6th grade.  In the mornings we would play outside in the school yard and when we spotted her car, we would run outside the gate (definitely not cool, but we did!) to greet her and take her bags from her.  My girls do that to me now (with the exception of running outside the gate). We'd tell Mrs. Triplett how beautiful she looked and would sing new songs that we made up just that morning!  She would always smile and greet us back and ask us how we were doing . . .my girls and I do the same thing here.  When Mrs. Triplett was absent from class we would worry about her and were anxious for her return (case aforementioned). And the icing on the cake was that she would jump double-dutch with us! She was a really cool teacher! (I teach the girls dances :)) I guess what I'm getting at is I AM Mrs. Triplett here in the Philippines to my girls and its a great feeling! Just being here and being with them lights up my day. It's weird and at the same time comforting to see my experiences come full circle.It feels weird because I'm shocked that I can relate these two experiences which are so different but yet the same. I'm also in denial that I'm in my upper twenty's and transitioning into a new set of norms and experiences. No longer little Laurenia but Ms. Laurenia it feels weird because it is different for me.

At the end of the day, being a PCV requires three things, common sense, courtesy and integrity. Be polite always in every situation possible, follow through with what you promise to do and go with your gut feeling always

Thanks for reading.