Typhoon & Flood

On September 27^th I had my first intense Typhoon experience. Shorty after boarding a trike to gather my laundry I received a text from a co-worker that said to get to work immediately and bring a disaster kit. As it's my second week at site, I had no idea that a “disaster kit” was or what might be in it. As my co-worker explained it's just a bag packed with clothes and toiletries for an overnight stay in the office. I was actually informed not to bring anything as I live so close to the office. I followed these instructions as I left for work, bringing nothing extra.

The day began slow enough at work. People were milling around, there was a new white board set up outside with Barangays listed, and my supervisor speaking into her cell phone. As co-workers flowed in, it seemed as they weren't alarmed by the situation, so I wasn't worried either. I was assigned to follow my Counter Part, Vanessa, to a few Barangays and inquire to see if any families had been displaced by the typhoon. Off we went, rain slanted by the wind, to check it out.

Some of the Barangays we visited indicated having displaced families, one had 40ish, another 25. We handed the Captains a grid paper to fill out that would detail each of the families. One of the last Barangays was rural and close to the river running through Cabanatuan City. It's one road going in was closely surrounded by raising water, but it wasn't quite over the edge. At the time it seemed as though the water had stopped rising, we came and went and no change could be told. As we returned to the office the roads were still being rained on but there was no sign of any flooding.

After getting back to the office I helped unload a truck full of emergency rations. We piled the boxes high into our office and then moved them once more to stage for repacking of rations. The wind at this point had picked up and had knocked out the power. The office was a cave with the boxes blocking the light from door. The repacking operation of rations had been at a stand-still at this point after staging as we were still without rice. A pile of half-ways prepared rations were awaiting the next step.

After about a half hour wait, one truck arrived with the rice. This was one full-sized dump-truck full of sacks of rice. Each sack weighing at 50 Kilos, the offloading never seemed to end. As soon as the first sack hit the staging area, and the string pulled from the sack, scoop after scoop were beginning to be poured. I settled into the production line, putting coffee and Milo (a chocolate mix, like Ovaltine), tying sacks, and stacking sacks. For two hours I sat in a sea of plastic wrappers and rice, tossing, tying, and moving. 

Soon enough it was five in the afternoon and I thought I could chance a trip home. I hadn't packed any change of clothes or any toiletries, and I wanted a nap, so it made sense at the time. Just as I packed my supervisor Came upon me and wanted to know where I was going. I told her home and she began saying it wasn't possible, the roads were far too gone. All I could remember from earlier was clear but rainy roads. I insisted that I go home and my supervisor gave in with a compromise, I could go home but only if I get a ride from a City Hall vehicle. She told me to wait for my co-worker Janet, as she had to leave shorty to distribute rations in a local Barangay. I said that was fine and sat at my desk.

After waiting in the office for Janet I finally asked her when we might be leaving. She told me it'd be another half hour wait. I doubted this immediately as what's on time in an emergency situation? As it turned out the truck arrived two hours later. As Janet collected me to hop on the truck I didn't know what was about to greet me in the parking lot. 

As I approached our dump-truck chariot, I finally saw what the typhoon had brought us, an all out flood. The steps surrounding the City Hall were now the banks of the local river. As I hadn't prepared in the least for the flood I was also not dressed correctly, I had pants and shoes. I had dressed like I was going to work, not like I was going to do some wading. Thankfully a friendly worker carried me to the passenger door of the truck, saving me a soggy fate.

After I got into the crowded cab of the truck, six crammed inside, we began our journey. It was slow going, just to get to the front gate of City Hall. To get to my home, you go left from the City Hall parking lot, that wasn't possible that night. The water was already three feet high, my hopes for a nights rest on my bed, a ten minute walk away from work normally, were dashed. I decided to continue on with my co-workers in their task for distributing rations at two Barangays.

The truck plowed through the water at a slow clip, the engine now partially submerged, throwing out a low wake. I couldn't believe how deep it was, it got to three and a half feet deep for huge stretches of road. Plowing through the water with us were other smaller SUVs and the occasional brave trike. The streets edges were lined with people clinging to trikes and store fronts, the water past their knees. Some store fronts were flooded, Jollibee and McDonalds were also effected. We had to make it out to two Barangays that were, as I found out, far away. Our slow paddle boat action made the trip drag on. It would have been boring but for the flood all around us.

We made it to both the Barangays with little trouble, just slow going. The trip back was around one in the morning, I was hoping to curl up on a couch in the office once we got back. Another change of course occurred when we made it back to the final stretch of road before City Hall. This was the same area that we had started in and was also one of the deepest. As we approached, the driver decided it wasn't a prudent idea to try. Another truck of the same make was deserted in the water on the same stretch, facing the same direction.

Right about this time I checked out. I was tired and I was having a hard time sitting in the cramped back. I was able to lay down behind the front seats and make myself comfortable. After maybe an hour the truck's engines finally went quiet as everyone in the cab settled into sleep. There I was, only a five minute walk from my work, sleeping in the back of a dump-truck, in flood water.

We finally reached the City Hall the next morning, even though the water didn't look any lower. We had to change dump-trucks, our first one was ready for a shift change. The cab for the second dump-truck was already full when we flagged it down from the street. I had to clamber into the actual bed of the truck alongside a rescue team and their inflatable raft (called “rubber boat” here, this bothers me). The ride was quick and triumphant. I was so happy to finally be back on dry land.

As it stands right now, the water is receding. I've been back home and thankfully none of my belongings were destroyed. My house had flooded and it was substantial, knee height in the living room, mid calf in my room. I never saw water in my house though, it was my Host Family that had to deal with the whole mess. They told me they moved everything they could up off the floor and then just waited. They had to sit on the backs of seats as the seat portion of chairs were covered by an inch or so of water. All night they sat there and the following morning they watched the water slowly recede. As soon as they had a chance they began cleaning. I never saw the full mess, with dirt up the walls and all over the floor, as my family takes serious pride in their house. The house looked almost better than I'd left it, although none of the sockets work now, or the fridge. The night I spent back in my bed was great, I was knocked out by nine.

It's day three now, 9/29/11 here. I was able to walk to work with no problems. The river nearby is still very high, only a foot below the bridge that crosses it. The roads are covered in rocks that were pushed there by the floodwater. A displaced water tank can be seen hanging into the road. I think we're on the recovery side of this event.

Cabanatuan City

Leaving Island Cove in Cavite I knew things were changing fast. I had just said goodbye to my friends who I'd got to know over training and I was now speeding away from to a whole new city I'd never been to. This was the final cut that separated all of us from Americans we'd see everyday. We all knew it was coming but it was still a little jarring.

I found myself in a better situation for travel to site than some of my friends who had to catch a bus from manila. I was with my CP and supervisor being driven in a City Hall vehicle headed straight to Cabanatuan City. The driver was scary in how he handled the vehicle in the rain, speeding, passing, he drove like an impatient maniac.

It took about four hours to get into Cabanatuan from Cavite, my white knuckles wished we had arrived later. The surrounding scenery is flat and continues far off into the distance, fields of grass at about chest height. That all ends when the city starts, Cabanatuan is a grand series of streets and buildings, little nature is about the city. It looks like a city from the states except with trikes everywhere.

There are two malls and there will be a high-end grocery store (PureGold) that will be opening in a couple months. There are two cinemas, I hear one of which is far superior to the other, I don't know which that is though. There are two open air markets that cover any fresh food needs. It's a full service city.

As it stands today, I don't have any complaints. I've had a little time to explore and gather my bearings about the city. I now can navigate downtown with minimal confusion. I even found a few bike shops!

Anyway, that's Cab-City.

Day One

I work for the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO). The CSWDO is a part of City Hall and is situated therein. My Counter-Part is Vanessa, she's a giddy woman with two kids and a great attitude for our work. I didn't know what to expect from my first day at work but I knew I had to show up for a flag ceremony at 7:30am on Monday. No rest for a volunteer.

After a light breakfast of eggs and luncheon meat (spam) I tossed on my Monday uniform, white polo, and walked off to work. Flag ceremony is a big deal most everywhere and Cabanatuan certainly is no exception, all the city offices and public services were in attendance. I walked in past the local police force, fifty or so officers all at attention, and began searching for either my counter-part or my supervisor.

Congregated around the statue of Rizal were a hundred or so white-shirt wearing city workers. After a minute I asked a friendly looking face where the CSWDO people were, she told me she was one of the aforementioned. I can't remember all the faces and names of people I met today, it was a long series of light handshakes and “good mornings.” Eventually the flag ceremony happened, I met the mayor briefly to no fanfare, and we all filed into City Hall to start the work day. I finally had a chance to see my department and settle into my desk. I wasn't given much time though, the next thing I knew I was headed for the mayors office for a conference.

I just wanted to deliver a letter that essentially said “Austin is here” (the misspelled my last name though, Kinkaid, oh well). I also had an official paper that needed a signature from the mayor, I had my eye on the practical. I hadn't anticipated being present for a five hour meeting or making an impromptu speech about the Peace Corps and myself. Sure enough I had my council with the mayor and impressed a few higher ups in the room with my basic Tagalog and gave a quick rundown of Peace Corps as it currently is in the Philippines. I didn't ramble very long and when I was done my supervisor translated a majority of what I had said and added some strange extra information like how I can't ride motorcycles. I thought she was just making sure the wealthy attendees in attendance didn't get the wrong idea that I was being disrespectful when turning down future offers of rides on motorcycles. I didn't know that the whole of the conference was being broadcast live over radio and TV, internet too I think. Imagine my face when I got back to the office and people who hadn't been in the room began complimenting me on my speech. Thanks, let me know ahead of time next time.

The rest of my day was spent touring a couple satellite buildings holding a medical center and the C4 program that I'll be working with before long. I kept working on Peace Corps paperwork through the day as they loaded me up with a few homework projects regarding contact information and signatures.

I finished my shift with wedging myself into my counter-part's supplemental feeding program she's on the verge of implementing. It's a six month program where parents are taught how to cook one meal a day for their children. The kids eat one guaranteed meal a day and at the end of the program the parents receive a set of cookware. I caught my counter-part trying to figure out how to dole out ingredients for each day-care, and it looks complex.

I'll take another gander at that problem tomorrow, here it is the end of day one and I feel good.

From Trainee to Volunteer

A little later today I'll become a full fledged volunteer. The ceremony kicks of at 2pm and is actually very short. I'm even part of my training group's dance number. Hopefully both the ceremony and the dance goes well.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17301326

There's a video for those who weren't there.

Counter-Parts Conference

I'm the sideways one.

It's the last week of training and all the trainees have reassembled at Island Cove. It's the last training before swearing-in and being set loose on our respective sites. This is a tough time as there are so many conflicting feelings over the end of training, let's list some.

Positive: Meeting my new host family, beginning work, meeting other PCVs in the area, seeing a new place, settling down, the chance to find a gym, and getting away from select personalities.

Negative: Saying goodbye to my new friends, loosing the safety net of our LCFs and TCFs, finally being alone.

I'm not concerned though. I assume these feelings are mutual within each PCT to varying degrees.

Tonight I finally get to meet my Counter-Part, this is my go to person at site, the person I'll be working a majority of the time with. We meet at dinner this evening.

Oh yeah, more Power-Point presentations too.

V2: A Way to Double You

Our last week of Technical Training wasn't all about propping up a community project, it was also our week to learn about V2. This is a program that encourages youth to become volunteers themselves and from there improve their community on their own. The idea is to organize and aide their agreed on mission. It's a great program and if I have the opportunity I'd love to utilize it. We as a cluster got to use it in a limited form and our plan was to train youth volunteers to run a short Padayon.

Padayon is a Visayan term for continuation and as a camp it is where youth volunteers learn how to run a camp, at a camp, then turn around and immediately plan and run their own camp. The actual thing lasts about eight days and looks like a blast. What we did for our V2 practicum was make a mini-padayon.

We gathered a dozen or so local youths from an alternative school as our volunteers. We had them participate in several games/activities we liked and figured might work for younger kids who they'd eventually be running them with themselves. Kaiti and I were lucky enough to facilitate the spider-web low ropes course, it's one of my favorites.

We strung up elastic sting all over the gazebo at the New Cabalan Barangay, to make a three dimensional spidery looking web of string. The idea of the spider-web is to get from one end to the other of the web without touching a single string. If you do hit a web you have to start the course over.

SIDENOTE: When I did this at our youth camp I had the hardest time making it through and I was annoyed that I couldn't make it through. I tried over twenty times before I made it through. Although, no one saw me do it, so you have to take my word.

Anyway, it can be a really tough activity if you're not creative or aware of your body. The youth volunteers loved it. There was one who was having a tough go of it and kept having to restart after getting so close to the end. Over and over she hit a line and was obviously not happy that either she couldn't do it or that we were so strict on the rules. Finally she made it and everyone was shouting and clapping. She looked very pleased with her hard work.

This training was done on Thursday, on Saturday we got to see if they could handle a massive number of kids on their own. Saturday was where they had full control and we just hung around and observed, snapping photos and the such. Kaiti and I strung up one spider-web, we gave them another set of string to do their own.

What happened thereafter was all their doing and they did great. These youths ran the show like pros and everyone had a blast. Us PCTs were exposed to a few local games that were unique. One had you hit a matchbox across the floor with a eggplant tied to a string between your legs, ridiculous.

This was a great success.

Community Project

Our first community project failed. It happened late in the schedule for getting the project completed. Our plan was to help the community build a few signs for a particularly deadly corner in New Cabalan. There had been numerous deaths on this corner and signage was just not there. We had completed a study through PACA on what the community wanted us to help them with and it was this pressing issue. Nick stepped up right away and took the lead on this project and was our man in charge. I was proactive in telling Nick that I was available to help him with anything, he gave Kaiti and I the responsibility of getting the proposal written up. Kaiti did the write up and I just kept reminding Nick I could help if he needed me, I wasn't needed as it turned out.

Fast-forward a couple weeks and most everyone in our cluster are in the new Barangay hall in New Cabalan, talking with the Kaptain about our project. At this point we just wanted to make sure the supplies were going to make it and we could still count on him to help us. After fifteen minutes of actual business being discussed, we heard about how greatly the Kaptain wanted us all to stay in his Barangay. This was a long and awkward conversation, less so for me as he couldn't remember my name and I don't actually live in New Cabalan like most of the others in my cluster. Anyway, things sounded like they might work out.

Two days later my Technical Trainer informed everyone that the Kaptain had made some calls and everything wouldn't happen. Bad times. We weren't looking for failure but considering we had done our part and the actual inability had come from our partner in this venture, I thought (still do) we had done our best. Failure is always an option, it doesn't have to be the death kneel of our training, it's just a realistic outcome from our efforts. Too bad some others didn't see it this way, we were instructed to make a new Community Project and have it done by September 1^st. Less than a week to make something come to fruition.

Our second project worked out but it wasn't a great success. We fed some kids some bananas and called it a “feeding”, an elaborate dance to go through the motions. I'm not a fan of forcing a success, I thought the first failure was lesson enough, concocting a wildly uninspiring community service successfully made me feel we were making a bad joke.

Here's the point: Failure is alright if you own it.

One more week of training in Olongapo to go before we ship off to Cavite for Swearing in. This week we're ramping up our studying and training for language, we have testing come Thurday and Friday. Friday is my B-day, can't wait.