Question: Work and Theaters

Picture Unrelated: In my right hand is a tiny spoon.

 

I got my first set of questions thanks to Travis. Here goes.

What's the average day like for you? You seem to be doing a lot of varied things. Do you work on your own time or is there a rigid schedule?

There was a time, in training and the first two months at site, that my days could be prepared for. Training was a whirlwind of “go here, do this, that, and another”, throughout current PCVs would tell me things would slow down when I got to site. I did get to site and it kept up, for awhile.

I had meetings with politicians, bankers, agency heads, and even my new office mates. I was ferried to varied events: Children's Congress, Agency meetings, awards ceremonies, and one youth competition in Pampanga. I had to find my way around my new home city, finding where I could buy black beans, peanuts, and locating a laundromat. In the middle of that was the flood that pushed a mountain of responsibilities on my department's shoulders, consequently shoving important non-flood related projects off into the future.

Thankfully things have slowed down a bit. People mostly know who I am, I know my way around town, it's a down period for events, and most projects have been caught back up to speed. I've actually had little to do for the last couple weeks thanks to all of the above. This period will pass soon though as I can look forward to a few big events: A dozen Christmas parties I “HAVE TO ATTEND”, proposal of my volunteerism project with the PYAP youth, preparation for life-skills training for street educators, inquiring about setting up a library (I was asked this moments ago), moving out, leadership summit in Nueva Viskaya, Christmas vacation in Sagada, New Years Eve in Manila.

That's just December.

In a day, I can go from doing a lot, to almost nothing. I come in at 8am and leave at 5pm. After getting to work I sit in my patio-furniture-plastic chair at my desk, turn my laptop on, and begin my day.

I do research for projects, like my life-skills training for street educators. I found a perfect life-skills training that was written up by other PCVs and will probably use it for my group.

I make proposals for all sorts of things, mainly trainings, but recently my biggest proposal is for a PYAP volunteerism group. PYAP is already a collection of youth in Cabanatuan but it's still in the midst of being rebuilt, it's been defunct for years in Cabanatuan. The idea is to have interested youths volunteer their time (and mine) to hold council and discuss community issues they'd like to see improved/changed. They would gather, discuss, find an item that concerns them (ex. trash on the street), discuss solutions (preferably of the sustainable variety), plan, execute, assess the results, celebrate, and begin a new project. That's the hope, the dream is to have it wind up a self-sustaining organization under PYAP where I'm not needed.

I advise my coworkers on a number of topics. I've been pulled aside to help with choosing colors for a t-shirt logo, making a catch phrase, proofreading English documents, crunching numbers too, and mostly talking about why I don't eat rice/do eat black beans.

I act as a resource really. I'm the ideas guy who has some skills, connections, resources, and a whole bunch of time on my hands. I have access to a pool of Peace corps information that has almost all the answers/guides to the issues I might have at site.

I also have downtime where I sit at my laptop looking at Facebook, reading Gawker websites, and writing emails or blog posts. These hours have been more abundant recently.

So it goes:

Arrive at work

Sit at laptop

Lunch

Sit at laptop

(maybe go into field?)

Go home

That's the most basic of days. There is room for me to out of the office all day in the field, or in a meeting. There just aren't many average days.

Also I remember you mentioned the theater a while back. Did you ever go to one?

We have cinemas here, two as far I know. I haven't been to a movie yet here but from what I've heard, it's a different experience. The reports I've heard are that some Filipino movie goers don't mind showing up for a movie half way through and sitting through the first half of the second screening to catch the first half they missed.

When I happened past a crowd in front of the theater in one of the local malls, I was surprised at the size of the mob. Thankfully I didn't need to get past everyone because it was wall to wall people in the lobby in a way that seemed to indicate the doors to the theater would be opening soon.

I've been offered a few opportunities to visit a theater but the selection of movies have yet to pique my interest. Of the three screens at the Pacific Mall nearby, two are often reserved for Tagalog movie (I don't know if they play with subtitles, I would assume not) and the last is English. Having only one screen available for English makes for tough competition for what get the spot. Breaking Dawn has that spot currently.

Natalie Leaves

 I just got home from saying goodbye to my friend. Natalie and I trained in Olongapo together but in separate clusters, we saw each other from time to time but rarely collaborated. When I found out where my site was going to be I checked to see who would be the closest to me from my batch, and that was Natalie. My first response was, “really? Natalie?”, I was unenthusiastic. I did know that I had little trouble or complaints regarding Natalie from training, I complained about others in excess, so I figured she couldn't be bad. Correct.

Sometimes your “feelings” are on the mark. While Natalie and I saw no reason to be friends before site, we made an effort to change that when we got to site. Our friendship immediately took off, we met on weekends, talked shop, and were even planning a vacation to Sagada, one of the coldest places in the Philippines, come Christmas.

I had prepped myself into declaring Natalie as my main emotional support, she was a friend, from my batch, and nearby so we could hand and process our Peace Corps experience together. Sadly, today that idea will be a dream from here on. Natalie opted to Early Terminate (ET) her service.

Why did she decide to ET so suddenly? I won't talk details, as she has confided in me and I'm still very much a friend of hers, but it was a sudden decision that she was more forced into making.

When I first heard the news of her possibly Eting I was unconcerned. As the days progressed and the final choice came to be ET, I still found myself unaffected. I reminded myself she would be fine and focused on the positive (oh me!). I'd been texting Natalie and she told me she'd be back in her city today and would leave tomorrow morning, today was my last chance to say goodbye. I said “see you later, “ and left directly from work to see my friend for the last time.

After an hour's ride in a bumpy jeepney, and a quick trike ride, I was finally with Natalie. We hugged, talked briefly and set out to find some food under a time limit. As I'm an hour's ride away, there aren't many jeeps back after a certain time, and that time was an hour after I arrived in her city, we had so little time.

She was upset over her decision but was at grips with it. She said she was so excited to see her dog again and have a real Thanksgiving. We went in search of a restaurant and gave up when no interesting candidates were found. I treated her to a supermarket banquet of cookies, peanut butter, and a drink.

We sat outside the mall, talking, drinking, laughing, encouraging, apologizing, eating, and even snapping a photo for memories. We noticed a group gathering where the jeeps park and figured that was my group (I had only one shot at getting a ride home at that hour). We made our way over that way and when a jeep barker announced the arrival of the last jeep to Cabanatuan City, we had to wrap our goodbyes up.

We hugged a good long time and wished each other luck. I ran off to the jeep and she walked towards a trike. That's how a new friendship was cut short.

I wrote a long time ago about the emotional support network here. It's mainly built of PCVs for me as I'm finding. If you imagine the game Jenga, where you remove a block (a friend?) from the middle of the structure and place the block on top of the tower, that about sums up this experience. A block was removed from my base and over the weakness is now more pressure, creating instability.

Don't worry though, I'm not teetering on the edge yet, I'm alright. The departure of Natalie came with hurt and it'll weigh on my mind for awhile. I still have my local PCV friends Emily and Caitlyn, they're wonderful people. I'm trying to turn this serious downer into encouragement, something to that makes me achieve more in my site.

We'll see.

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Celebration

Some guy sleeping on me as I started out.

Oh boy. I've just returned (as I write this) from a four day excursion in Manila. The reason I went to Manila was to celebrate Peace Corps 50^th anniversary and to see my friends.

Fresh PCVs, like myself, have waiting period after swearing in where they can't take annual leave. Since the 50^th fell on a Friday, we were allowed a special exception to take annual leave in our waiting period, and a good number of PCVs from my batch seized the opportunity.

I packed up and headed that way on Thursday afternoon, the 3^rd, as my ride I was supposed to have on Friday morning had fallen through. I met up with fellow PCVs Caitlyn, Emily, and Natalie in a nearby town and we hopped on the first bus that would have us.

Two-ish hours later, plus a ride on the light rail system, we arrived at Pension Natividad; the hostel PCVs use the most in Manila. We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for a fancy dinner later that night and before I knew it I was in a taxi headed for some highfaluting hotel.

I was under dressed in a sea of three piece suits, Barong Tagalogs, flowing dresses, and belts. I forgot to put a belt on. Thankfully no one was turned away and we were all allowed to mingle with the crowd of RPCVs, Peace Corps Staff, USAID staff, and politicians.

I met some interesting people at the dinner:

• I met a guy who was a member of the first(!) batch in the Philippines.
• A guy from a batch in 1969. Very interesting gent who lives in the Philippines and dresses as Santa in the holiday season. He did in fact look like Santa in plain clothes.
• USAID staff
• The Peace Corps Director
  
  
  
  
  

That last one listed is pretty cool. Aaron Williams doesn't just swing by at random, he's usually found in DC. Since the Philippines have been a part of Peace Corps for almost all of Peace Corps' existence, he came out to show some love. He was a nice guy but I spoke with him for a minute.

The food at the gathering was FANTASTIC. I've got a diet but I abandoned it the moment finger-food-everything was wheeled out. I ate roughly 20 miniature mocha eclairs and 30 chicken skewers. There was also wine.

The next day was the actual celebration at Mall of Asia (MOA). With a group of friends I arrived at 9:50am, prepared for a day of standing, shopping, and eating. All of which I did in excess.

The events were interesting enough but they were more aimed at the public. I ambled through the displays and demonstrations, watched my friends perform on stage, watched speeches, and walked in a “parade.” The parade was just walking behind a marching band, they played very well.

After the speeches and parade the celebration shifting into info booth shows and I began the impossible task of exploring all of MoA. That mall is so big that I don't know how much of it I saw. I walked a good distance and saw a number of storefronts, but the directories kept showing more.

After a fantastic burger lunch at Wham! Burger, expensive coffee at The Coffee Bean, and several hours waiting, the flash-mob kicked off.

Flash-mobs are defined as an event that is organized within a large number of people (like PCVs and PC staff) and is enacted in a surprising fashion in a public place where bystanders are none the wiser. Our flash-mob was a choreographed dance of almost seven minutes long that was near the end of the entire program. It went very well, even without my help. Here's the video of the dance, if you have amazing eyes you can see me walking out of the crowd on the left of the screen after a couple minutes. I didn't know the dance.

On Saturday, I went to a farmers market in Makati that reminded me of the ones back home. Makati is one of the more wealthy areas in Manila and the prices at the market reflected on the products. Quality was thankfully part of the bargain.

After the market a few friends and I decided to visit a tourist-y place in Manila and decided on Intramuros. What I know about Intramuros is still limited but from what I recall it's a place that was here before the spanish showed up, and they built onto it. It resembles a walled city, the wall being twenty feet high and thirty feet wide, allowing space to walk along its surface. Within the walled area was one ancient cathedral, built in the 1570s. The belfry was impressive with its massive bells. I couldn't tell if they actually rung them as there was a gift shop in the same room as the giant bells.

Sadly our sightseeing trip in Intramuros was cut short by the rain. Typical rain. My friends, Munya, Natalie, and Deborah, and I hadn't brought any rain gear and we hustled under a recessed portion of the ancient wall. The area we had chosen looked like a jail and lead out onto a bridge that spanned a shallow moat. Beyond the moat was what looked like a nice park to visit sans rainfall. 

We were trapped by the heavy rain but were willing to just wait it out. As it would turn out we would be forced to leave thanks to flooding.

Deborah and Natalie, trapped

The floor of the dungeon like area was dry when we entered and was for several minutes after the rain started up. This dry state was finite and my friends and I watched as a small puddle pushed it's way in from outdoors. This puddle crept across the floor at a healthy pace and within three minutes I, with my suede Nikes, couldn't put my feet on the ground without being soaked. A few minutes later pushed the water level to ankle depth and the water showed no intention of abating with the rain still hamming the ground.

Natalie, Munya, Deborah, and I were trapped in a watery dungeon. At least we were until a group of entrepreneurial petty-cab (BMX bike with sidecar) drivers assessed our situation and rolled in to lend a hand and a lift. For Php20 a piece my friends and I loaded into a single petty-cab, where the water was now over the floorboards, and began our short journey. The bike was half peddled, half pushed, by a large group of gentlemen that even included children playing along. There was a foot drop of a lip to climb out of the dungeon and this was the toughest part. With the water licking at our boots our new rescuers strained their bodies and wills (maybe?) to pop our chariot into the flooded street. Thankfully the guys who helped us out also flagged a taxi for us and we padded through the lightly flooded street from the petty-cab's interior into the waiting taxi. Those guys got paid well for a grand service.

That about highlights my trip to Manila. I was able to see some friends who are in sites far away and I even made some new friends. I ate great food at high prices. I had a good time. 

In-Country Friends

Kaiti and I

At the end of Pre-Service Training (PST) I had to say goodbye to my newly made friends as we all left for our sites. My batch of trainees was broken up pretty well and the friends who I'd made in Initial Orientation in different sectors or regions were also spread far and wide.

I had met my closest neighbor PCV, Emily, right after I knew I was going to Cab-City. Thankfully we've made fast friends already and that's a great thing. Near Emily is another PCV Caitlyn who I've not spent all that much time with but thankfully what time I have spent has been pleasant.

Natalie, me, and Lucy back in training

Another PCV is a little further off, Natalie, in Tarlac City and she's great. She's the closest PCV that trained in Olongapo like I did, so we've got a shared experience. We didn't know each other well before we got to our sites but we've hung out several times and are even trying to pull together forces for a xmas vacation up North. I'm lucky to have PCVs nearby and I don't ignore the fact.

To stay in contact with my friends who aren't so close I have to text. Texting here is done almost strictly on a pre-paid system and I can usually expect to burn through 100 pesos of load, load being the name of the money on the phone. Their all worth it though

All these people come together as a support group for each other and myself. It's a great thing to have some bros.

My group when we did immersion in Manila

Speaking of which, I'll be seeing a big bundle of the far flung PCVs at this Friday's Peace Corps 50^th Anniversary Celebration. I'll write more on this after the event, I might even get to meet the Peace Corps Director!

Sightseeing In Town

Recently I'd been asking my co-workers about places I could visit in town that are pretty, places to take photos of. I received a surprising number of “you have to leave Cabanatuan to see pretty things” but I wasn't sure my idea of pretty was the same as theirs. So, one day, I just rode off on my bike to see what I could find.

It didn't take a great deal searching to find this bridge or the wild sun-cloud combo behind it. The bridge is on the edge of the busier area of town and is incredibly long. The whole structure is concrete set on pylons 30 feet up and the whole structure shakes so much it's visible. Every truck that rumbled past would bounce me.

This turned out to be just the kind of area I was talking about as well. It had views of the surrounding area and even a nice portion of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range to the East of my province. Too bad I can't travel there (Peace Corps Black Area), it looks nice.