Unfinished Blogging.

Since the end of July and my life got so crazy, I have started and left unfinished two different blog postings, both of which I think are important to complete and post. So keep on reading. I apologize for them being a bit outdated, but bear with me. I’m quite shocked, though, because over a month has gone by and I have only received a couple of inquiries about where is my darn blog update?? Perhaps I have lost all my readers by this point, though, because all of those nudges were from Mom, Mom, and Mom. Thanks for your patience everyone! And perhaps I shall update you about my life lately while I am in the writing mode…because it is Saturday night, and I am sitting at Starbucks, and I am not anticipating a real day off until next weekend. Why not?

Since beginning at my new site, work has been getting busier and busier. Luckily though, it has also been getting better, more challenging, and much more interesting. Last Friday, I had one of those days that reminded me of exactly why I joined the Peace Corps in the first place. I came home exhausted and disgustingly dirty, and it was absolutely fantastic. I had held my first monthly training with the teachers in our supervised neighborhood play (SNP) program, which is one of the main components of my job. Because of the severe lack and inaccessibility of early childhood education here (nationwide, 80% of children do not have access to ECCD, while within that Barangay, it is at 60%), my organization had trained eleven community-based volunteers to conduct daily (M-F) or thrice-weekly classes for local children, ages 2-6. Each month, we will conduct a professional development session for them to improve their teaching skills.

The title of our first full-day training was, “Becoming a Fantastic Storyteller”. You may be thinking to yourself that I have absolutely no formal skills in storytelling, so how would I be qualified to lead a training on it? Well, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am extensively trained in being an expert in something in which I am not an expert. I have mastered this skill in many jobs before. It’s only an 8-hour training, right? Exactly. So with a little research on google, all I had to do was dive right into the planning. And it went pretty smoothly. My counterpart and I split up the sessions the night before, and without much preparation, she continued to amaze me with her, well, amazingness at being a social worker. She is the best counterpart I could ever ask for! (Sadly, she has resigned this week….more about that later). Throughout the day, most of the sessions were active and hands-on, which proved to be the best way for them to learn and practice new material. They practiced voice, emotion, using props, dramatizing, and ad-libbing stories, and at the end of the day, they had the opportunity to work with their co-teachers to create, practice, and perform their own storytelling session. Most of the day emphasized the use of creativity and imagination, since the teachers are really lacking in high-quality early childhood books within their classrooms. Also, there are NO books published in the local language, which (I could imagine) is really confusing for young children. (Stay tuned here and to your emails—I will be trying to collect book donations and/or monetary donations for books very soon).

Throughout the day, I had a lot of great discussions and feedback from my director (who is also very awesome!) about how the training was going, future plans, and other projects I can take on. She also proved extremely helpful in co-facilitating with me and helping when my language skills were not adequate in explaining my thoughts (ugh, I have that problem even in English). At the end of the day, we handed out certificates and did evaluations. To my surprise, my director asked the teachers for two representatives to thank me, and the teachers responded with, “We would all like to thank her.” So they went around the group and each thanked me individually for my time, effort, and giving myself to their organization to teach and to learn. There were seriously tears in my eyes at the end, as it was the sweetest thing ever. Knowing how much I love my job now, I can not even imagine what the good-byes will be like in a little over a year. The friendships I have formed already at my new site have continued to surprise me so much. It’s exactly what I hoped Peace Corps would be like, and I am so glad to have had the support and encouragement to get through those murky few months. Thanks to all!

Back to my counterpart…she informed me a few days ago that she is resigning, as she has found another job with another organization. First, let me just say that she is the best social worker that I have interacted with so far. She is motivated, loves her job, and can form great relationships with and relate to her clients. Even though she is switching jobs, I can only hope that we will continue to be friends. This will be an excellent career opportunity for her, as she will be working with children with disabilities. The new hours of her position will also allow her to return to school for her Master’s, which has been part of her five-year plan since graduating from college.

During our first two months of working together, I had noticed right away the long hours she puts in and the lack of off-days she takes. I constantly said to her, “Pahuway lang…Mag-burn-out ka! Rest, you are going to burn out!” As a community organizer, she is tired. Her body has taken the brunt of the stress, as she has found herself exhausted and sick much of the time. It is no shock, though, since community organizing is an exhausting job no matter where you are in the world. But the same goes for many of my co-workers, and almost every social worker I have met here. People are tired—their bodies and their minds. NGO employees within human services are too often underpaid and over-worked—people come in with a huge heart and high levels of motivation, but slow results and long hours eventually exhausts a person. Fortunately, though, most of them still believe in the cause and what they are doing—they are willing to keep trucking along.

I am fortunate to have had two months to learn from Margie. I have observed her and learned so much from her in such a short time—she has left me with the confidence and the creativity to continue the work that we started together, and so I am excited to go forward.

During the last month as well, I had another bout with bad health and wound up in the hospital again for six days. While I was taken great care of (thanks to Angela!), it was quite the cultural experience! With low platelets, my doctors originally thought I had Dengue Fever. When the platelets stabilized, though, they wanted to send me home—fortunately I asked them when my stomach would stop hurting. This being an indirect culture, even medical professionals do not share much information with patients, so it is hard to tell most of the time what is going on. Because there was no reason for me to be having pain, they kept me there to perform more tests. I was told that I was going to have an ultrasound, a colonoscopy, and an endoscopy. You probably all know what the first two are, and an endoscopy is when they stick a camera and a long tube down your throat all the way to your intestines, to get a good view of your insides. The night before I was scheduled, I talked to my Dad on the phone. Expressing that I was a bit nervous, he assured me that they will use some type of anesthesia during the process, as that is what the procedure is in the US. The next day, when I was wide awake and choking on a camera that was in my stomach and a tube that was blocking my throat, I was quite surprised and really annoyed about healthcare in the Philippines. Ugh. Fortunately, though, they found out what was wrong with me—my symptoms had been the collaboration of three different infections that were working to take over my body. Shwoo, good thing I asked about that stomach pain.

Two weeks later, I am much better, but still not fully recovered. I’m instructed to return to the doctor next week if I still am having pain—at the moment, it looks like I will be going back for more tests. Fun times at the hospital.

Signing off for now—going to head home to my wonderful host family and to watch a movie. Thanks all for your patience in waiting for my blog posts!