More About My Site

It's been awhile since I've posted and I've got a lot to write about. Let's start with my permanent site.

I'll be living in Cabanatuan City come September 18^th. I've not been there yet but I've heard some great things about it. It's a good sized city and that's just what I wanted to have. It has tons of trikes, so transportation isn't an issue. I'll be living inside the city and only about ten minutes from my job site.

I'll be working for the CSWDO (City Social Welfare Development Office) under my supervisor Helen Bagasao. The CSWDO is a LGU (Local Government Unit) and is funded by the government and by donors who the CSWDO can acquire. I was poking through the paperwork detailing the performance of the CSWDO and in Cabanatuan they garnered a rating of 150% (outstanding) in its adjectival rating, this is pretty impressive. Leading the CSWDO is Helen, she's my supervisor, and she appears to know what she's doing. After meeting and working with her a little, I feel confident that she won't have my sitting around. She has some big plans in the works and she can't wait to have me lend a hand, neither can I.

Off the top of my head, here's what my work will include, could change though:

-Street Education with street children, mainly basic literacy. This is done in a center inside a market.

-Computer education for OSY (out of school youth). There's a computer lab, put there by an engineer from Canada, that are beginning to age.

-Assist in development and preparation of “Kariton”, a mobile classroom. I didn't know what this would look like but as it would happen, I worked with some street educators in Manila a few days later and I have a good idea what it includes (A van, TV, speakers, stacks of plastic chairs, DVD player, educational videos, and a generator).

-Assist in Saturation drives. This is where the city does a massive collection of street children and feeds, performs medical check-ups, and calls the parents of the street children.

-Anti-Medicancy campaigning. This is a campaign against giving alms to distance begging from being a realistic source of income. Surprisingly I could wind up back on the radio doing this.

-Collect, input, and analyze data regarding street children. This is actually pretty big in scope, this could span my entire stay and has the potential to show the issues that contribute to the situation street children find themselves in. This is both exciting (I like running data) and is also very daunting. I'll have to chat up my sociology professor friends back home to get an idea of what I can do.

-Out of left field is related to the study, a documentary. This sounds very hopeful as I have no illusions over my skills in this department, I have none. I was part of one video in university and it was wildly awful. So, we'll see.

That's a rough sketch of what I could be doing. The street education is really my main job. I also get to wear different types of shirts, depending on the day of the week. Mondays are Barong Tagalog day, Fridays are casual shirt day. I can't remember the other days but they're all polos, I'll be happy to finally own my own Barong Tagalog (it's comparable to a three piece suit back home, it's only a sheer shirt). The office also has air-con, I don't spend most my time there though.

The closest current-trainee (Volunteer when I get to site) site to mine is Natalie's. She'll be living and working in Tarlac. There's also two current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteer) nearby my site, both of the PCVs are a year into their service in education. I met one of the two, Emily, she made it clear that the two of them were happy to have another friend nearby. It's nice to be welcomed.

I just have four weeks to go. Training is about to get more intense too.