Simply aMAYzing

The month of May is now complete here in the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer and now just a memory. What a spectacular and event filled month it was! I'll begin with the week leading up to the month of May. Towards the end of April a few of us went down to Matnog again but this time we visited the fish sanctuary and the other island Tikling! It was an amazing experience and very relaxing talaga! There was snorkeling, swimming with fish, clear ocean views with a great breeze from the boat and of course food and drinks.  I was able to practice my swimming since I had many coaches available that day and am confident that by the end of my service I will know how to swim. All I seem to remember at this time is Justin's voice saying monkey, airplane, soldier, teaching me the back stroke!

Photo credit goes to Rachael Sparks, my batchmate who captured this photo from her office window!

Now on to May. First off, this marked the first month that I had tutoring sessions on a weekly basis as opposed to scattered sessions here and there.  I can tell that I am improving with language as we move from the worksheets and to conversational sessions which is the most helpful in learning this language.  Elena is a great language helper and I'm glad that we have her available here in Bicol.  In fact because since she is such a major source of support for us volunteers we were able to get the language helper stipend increased from 150.00 an hour to 250.00 since she is more skilled and employed by Peace Corps! Small victories!

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My agency held its Program Review Evaluation Workshop for both of our centers as well as RRCY (Regional Rehabilitative Center for Youth) - a center for male youth in conflict with the law.  (In the U.S. this population would be considered juvenile delinquents). The agencies talked about their respective accomplishments for the past year and worked on planning their goals for the coming year.  Our regional director charged the staff at all agencies to have zero clientele by the end of this year.  He would like to see to it that all children of RSCC have a permanent home or a foster care family while awaiting permanent placements and that the girls of Haven are sent back to their communities with responsible/parenting capable family/kinfolk.  Although it may seem like a lofty idea, it gives each agency an absolute goal to work towards besides fulfilling the immidiate, mandated reason for existing which is to provide these youth with shelter and basic needs, protect these populations from further exploitation and to provide other supplemental services as needed. 

In this type of work it is easy to become complacent and cynical about positive stories and happy endings because of the many multifaceted problems and confounding factors that affect such a vision (poverty among community members which result in less children having foster families, individual needs of the children (physical,emotional, mental), or siblings who can not be cared for in the same household). If by chance this dream does not come to fruition we can at least decrease the number of children in our care by trying.  Since our agencies are mandated to exist through Republic Acts, I’m sure the centers will not close because the need is far greater than one can estimate at this time here in the Philippines, therefore there will be a need for these types of services to exist. Although this is the case at present moment, there needs to be a paradigm switch regarding service delivery among service providers/caregivers.  It is understood that providing individuals with work/income becomes a byproduct of the need for the agencies to operate, however  we (the institutions) cannot exist because people need jobs but rather we should exist and service providers should work to serve the needs of the community.  When this point of "working ourselves out of a job" came up in discussion, the Regional director challenged those individuals who provide direct services to the clients such as houseparents, to think outside the box for potential jobs in the future, possibly serving as foster care parents or other endeavors.  He ended with acknowledging that it may not happen this year, but we should work everyday with this goal in sight.

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 On the morning of the second day of the conference we awoke to a little Bicol surprise. Mount Mayon exploded! Well not with lava exactly but  “a normal process of a stream-driven explosion,  Mayon's explosion sent a thick column of ash and debris some 500 meters into the air, but authorities said subsequent eruptions or lava flows were not likely”.Mount Mayon.

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My barangay held its Fiesta honoring the Saint of our community during May also (Origins of Fiestas in the Philippines).  Barangay Fiestas are similar to block parties in New York but more lenghty (instead of it being a day long celebration it lasts for a few days) and more people of course! The Filipino local elections were also taking place around the same time and volunteers were asked to stay at site and not to travel due to risk of riots and civil unrest because of people not being elected.  The entire week leading up to our Fiesta our Barangay hall officials (similar to neighborhood watch) held events for families, children and elders to take part in like homecoming leading up to the big game. My favorite night of the many was “Rockfest” that night we hosted a few musicians and were entertained. We had 2 free beers with our tickets and it was amazing.  I sat in the front middle area and one of the vocalists noticed me. He then asked me on stage to introduce myself in the middle of gangnam style.  As I walked off stage they picked up where they left off and I did the dance by myself in front of the stage.  People were clapping and laughing and gave me hi-fives as I walked back to my seat.  The night before fiesta there is a big walk where community members participate in a final procession honroring the Saint of the barangay. 

The day of the actual Fiesta celebration, Filipinos typically go around to different housing in the barangay and are hosted with food, drinks and dessert.  It is an honor to have guest over and serve food. My family and I didn't go around to many houses that day as it was so freaking hot! So hot that I developed a nasty little prickly heat rash in the creases of my right forearm.  (But nothing that a little prickly-heat powder can heal!) We had chicken adobo, pancit, coconut milk chicken, calderetta, rice of course and a few other dishes.

The election craze was pretty mellow around my area with the exception of the loud sound systems blasting the campaign music through the streets beginning at 6am.  On the day of the election it was ghost town in my barangay but in my town’s center it was hectic getting transportation because everyone was coming out to vote.  In America we wear “I voted” stickers after going to the voting booths.  Here the process is not anonymous. You advise the voting attendant who you would like to vote for and then your right hand index finger is put into ink and then marked on a piece of paper.  This inky index finger is your symbol that you voted.  Another big part of election day is the bribery money  that candidates pay out to the citizens for their vote. . . people are bribed to vote for a certain party.  Some people receive as little as 300 pesos and some as much as 5,000.00 pesos.  Many families are able to prepare a tasty meal because of the surplus funds.

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Towards the end of the month I traveled to Manila and was a participant in our HIV/AIDS Behavior Change Workshop, I’ll talk about that more on another post.  To round out the month of May we held our first ever PCV cross-sector youth camp for the girls of Haven. It was a huge success and I’ll also have a separate blog for that!

Thanks for reading. Peace!