pattyinpeacecorps

Yikes, tempus fugit!

2009-02-23T17:09:00.000-08:00

It's more than a year since I last blogged here. (I'd sort of forgotten about it, but might as well keep it going.)
At least one very exciting thing has happened since the last entry - I have become a grandmother! Porscha is absolutely the cutest, best baby in the whole world - and she is now a whole year old! I enjoy her more than I would have thought possible.
On the flip side of that great event, at least one rather stressful thing has occurred. Sherman Indian High School layed off (in the new vernacular - they experienced a reduction in force / a RIF) 34 people and I was one of them. I'm sad, it was a most interesting place to work. But there is good news, I have been hired at Somerset as a Social Studies teacher. Somerset is a non-public school, which means it is actually a corporation that services the most difficult kids. Some are emotionally disturbed and others have been sent by the courts. It will be a challenge. But in this economy having a job is a good thing.

RPCV

2007-12-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

It's actually Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Patty now.
So I actually did make it, and the kids were the main thing that kept me going.
The high school kids and the environmental activities we did are absolutely my favorite memories. A lovely lady, Sylvia, opened a coffee shop about 9 months before I left and that became my haven. I could go in there and read with a cup of very strong Batangas coffee, it was a life saver. My host family honored me by asking me to be ninang to the new grandson, another great experience. Baby Lawrence is as cute as can be and I intend to keep in contact with him always. The funny - or sad, depending on how you look at it - thing is that just as I was beginning to get that sense of belonging it was time to go.
Readjustment to the US is almost as hard as unadjusting to the 1st world was. I still have a ways to go on that front. But, if learning new things about yourself and fighting to keep your life meaningful and forcing yourself to take chances and stay out of the old age rut, if that is what keeps one young, then I'm just a kid still. A kid with a lot to learn, ' cause what I don't know is alot.

an allegory

2007-12-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

An Allegory

A runner needed a pair of shoes, good, supportive, cushioned running shoes for the upcoming marathon. He needed the kind of shoe that makes running enjoyable, the kind of shoe that enhances performance, a shoe that fits. He jogged to the local running center and found a number of others there at the same time, all looking for the very same thing – a good fit. The race was coming and all these dedicated runners wanted to be prepared with proper gear.
Unfortunately, as it turned out, there was a limited supply of shoes. But the salesperson, with the best of intentions, was determined to satisfy the needs of all these customers, and set about fitting these feet with shoes that were not quite perfect fits, and were sometimes even badly matched. The runners needed shoes, they were committed to the race, and they hated to disappoint this well meaning clerk, so they accepted with good grace the recommendations made to them. And, in truth, a few of the runners were lucky enough to find exactly what they needed, but many settled for an ok fit, and others squeezed their feet into Adidas when they performed best in Saucony, or they took a 10 1/2 when they really needed a 10. Our particular runner found himself in just such a situation; he needed Saucony, size 10. This is the shoe that had brought him success on other occasions. Now he was wearing Brooks 9 1/2, they didn’t feel too terrible and the clerk was sure that they had enough flexibility to suit him and that he would adjust to the new fit. So he left the store with some doubts and lots of hope that all would be well.
The marathon day arrived. The runners were ready, more or less. Twenty six and six tenths miles is a long race, it takes commitment and endurance. The beginning of a marathon is almost euphoric. The air is electric with energy and expectation. There are no quitters at the starting line, everyone will finish; and truly, a marathon is primarily about finishing. There are a few who will finish at the front of the crowd, but the vast majority finish in hours - 3, 4, 5 hours. The goal is to finish and to perform at your personal best, whatever that may be.
All the runners from that running center started out with positive attitudes, high hopes, and new shoes – some which fit better than others. A few runners found they were not as prepared for the race as they had thought and dropped out early on. A few determined to make it to the half-way point. Most were committed to finishing no matter the cost. And a very few found out that they were wearing perfect shoes enabling them to run almost effortlessly.
Our runner, in the 9 1/2 Brooks, ran. He ran through the pain of the first blisters; he ran through the pain of muscles used in strange ways to accommodate his aching feet; he may have stopped about mile 13 to cut the toes out of his shoes and relieve some of the pressure – that would have given him a tremendous sense of relief and renewed energy. He drank his water and his Gatorade and followed all the advice of his seasoned coaches; but he cursed the well-meaning clerk who had sold him the shoes; and cursed himself for not understanding the importance of the perfect fit. However, he was buoyed by the encouragement of the hundreds of onlookers and supporters, “You’re doing great.” “Keep it up, you’re looking good,” “Looking good, looking good, have some water.” It is amazing how much strength he drew from those well-wishers. It got him through the worst times. Whenever he really considered sitting down on the curb and removing the shoes, joining the cheering crowds, someone looked him right in the eye and said, “You’re doing great! Hang in there! I'm proud of you,” and he kept on going. Thus he was able to finish, not in glory, just finish.
Maybe some of those supporters drew strength or encouragement from HIS determination. Maybe some learned a lesson about the nobility of commitment.
Our runner will never know about those things; he will know something more about himself though. Maybe that is what it is all about.

Peace Corps?

2005-07-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

pattyinpeacecorps

2005-06-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Homesick as hell!

2005-06-21T23:03:00.001-07:00

Ever since I arrived here I have been complaining and moaning about being homesick. And I knew going in that it would be so, but now that I am at site, with no one to talk to, it is really hard. And I am sick to boot, which just magnifies the homesickness.
My host family worries about me and it makes me uncomfortable. The teachers all want to help and it makes me nervous. My supervisor is solicitous and it makes me frustrated. I can't find a good place to go and sit and be happy in my solitude, like a nice park or a beach to walk on. I can go up to my room, and I do, but it is hot and confining up there. If I sit in the kitchen or living room the host family feels like they have to do something for me and finally say you go up to your room and study. They need a break from me.
At school I sit in the library and study Tagalog or read, or plan a lesson of one kind or another. The library is not used by anyone at school except me; the books are so old and mouldy and dusty it is no wonder. It is really quite a nice place to be,it receives a little shade and it is big and airy. The windows fill two walls and are slatted wooden shutters. Picture giant venitian blinds, when the slats are open the birds, bugs, etc. can come in, but so does the air. So this room stays relatively cool with the fan going. It is a nice place to be but it is also at school, so I can't very well go in there and hide out.
Today the kids started coming in. The first few days the boys would come up to me when I was outside during recess and say something to me, then run away. If they actually tried to talk to me it usually was to introduce one of their friends, they let someone else introduce them. The girls have been very shy. Every morning 4 kids are in there dusting, finally, today they told me their names. That seemed to uncork something because at recess they came back and talked to me and I asked them to help me with Tagalog, which tickled them. Then at lunch time the kids came in droves, telling each other's names, teaching me Tagalog words, and laughing at my pronunciation, then slowly repeating the word for me to say correctly. If I succeed in this venture it will be the kids that get me through.

Homesick as hell!

2005-06-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

It's about schools

2005-06-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
School has started here, for me on Tuesday 6/14, and for the kids on Mon 6/6.
Tuesday morning I arrived bright and early at 7:00 and most of the kids were already there and busy cleaning the school! They were washing, sweeping, watering, and dusting, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves all the while. At about 7:15 the whole student body assembled in the courtyard for some patriotic singing, pledge, songs of exercise/dance. Even though it was early it was already hot and I was hoping they would let everyone get out of the sun. Kids and teachers did not seem to mind, but I was dripping. There is something about seeing all those kids in their blue and white uniforms singing the national anthem that really is stirring. I think all schools should do it.

All the teachers are conducting preliminary testing for these first two or three weeks, then they will administer the same test in March a few weeks before the end of the year to see if they have made progress. The tests come in a variety of forms, some were teacher made, some looked like some form of standarized test. There are no answer sheets the kids just number their paper and list the letter of their selection. Then they grade them together and read out their score to the teacher. Since students sit 2 or 3 to a desk it is pretty clear that they help each other, but no one seems to mind. Teachers put a lot of stock in these tests. And there are the same kind of standards and such that we have, only it is on a national scale. The president says education is a priority, but, like our wonderful president, doesn't fund it. Teachers are spending their own money, and they don't make that much, on supplies and snacks for the poorest kids. All sounds too familiar.

I have been observing in different levels, so far 3rd, 4th, 5th. There are anywhere from 45 to 52 kids in the class. They must provide all their own materials, and some kids can't afford them, so they have nothing to write on or with. The materials of choice are stacks of small notebooks, about 5x7 and ball point pens. Some kids have crayons, ruler, scissor, most do not. They fill the note books with copying from the board and they don't waste any paper, writing on both sides and on every line. There are 5 classes at each level with section 1 being the high achievers and section 5 the lowest. Teachers make no bones about it when they talk to me - in front of the kids - that this is the lowest section, the kids who can't learn. Age range can be pretty significant with some 11 and 12 year olds in 4th grade. I was watching the 4th grade, section 5 yesterday. They are not in a classroom, but in a room that used to be an auditorium, so at least it is big. But they don't have desks and about 15 kids were still working on the test so she had given a spelling lesson in English to the rest of the class. One kid had been segregated from the group because 'he is different from the rest and he fights with his classmates.' Naturally I tried talking to him and he clearly struggles, unfortunately he doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of learning anything. They were looking for words with 'ze' as the final sound and could use their dictionary. There were only a few dictionaries so they worked together, and they worked quietly. When she had kids come up and list the words they had found, the first one was cheeze. Then another child put up squeeze, but he made the q backward and was reprimanded for having a word that was not in the dictionary. So I can see why they want help with English instruction.
Today I observed a Science lesson in 5th grade, 'The Human Reproductive System' We would never be allowed to teach such a graphic lesson without a huge parent outcry - and it was graphic. The kids had to share books and there was a smallish chart on the board for reference. For the most part the kids were on task, and there were 47 in there with only two fans, the teacher had them repeat things many times, they used very explicit vocabulary: circumcision, penis, semen, etc - it was only the male today - but there was a minimal amount of reaction from the kids and boys were seated next to girls sharing books. Couldn't help but compare it to our sex education and the caution we use.
The kids get a big kick out of having an American on campus, I go out at recess time and talk to them. The boys are bolder than the girls, coming up and telling me the name of their friend, not their name.
Still don't know exactly what I am doing, but PC says to observe for the first 3 months. I think I want to begin a story hour and read aloud though, figure it will help with their English which is a big focus.
One thing is nice to see and that is that kids are kids everywhere. They are a little bit more respectful here - a good thing given the size of the classes - but I see kids all the time that remind me of one or another of the kids at home. One little boy is the spitting image of a kid I had in intersession, same size, shape, vacuous _expression. I smile everytime I see him.

Hoping all of you are well as you wind down the year. Take your well earned break, sleep in, and don't get sick,
Patty

The Real Challenge is About to Begin

2005-06-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

June 7, 2005
Training is officially over, we have assembled here at the hubsite in Los Banos for our language interviews and our committment interviews. In Los Banos we stay at LakeView Hotel/Resort, but it is not what you immediately envision. By American standards it might be described as funky or down-at-the-heels, but it has become home to us because it is where we get together to unwind and behave a little like Americans for a few days. That is, we speak English, watch movies on computers, talk about and share our few books, commiserate with one another, and share our successes and failures, our apprehensions, and our hopes. So, with the great diaspora of the 21 volunteers in this section we have to bid this funky little haven good-bye.

As we get closer to being full-fledged volunteers, we have been a bit braver about going out and doing things with or without PC consent. Two weeks ago a group of us, 'the seniors' John, Jean, Ada and I, took a trip up the river to Pagsanjan Falls and had a really good time. It has been a major tourist attraction for a long time, and, up until Boracay became the ultimate tourist destination in the Philippines, people used to flock to this place. My host family said the buses used to come down the highway in droves with German and Japanese tourists. Business has fallen off a lot, which is too bad because so many people rely on it for their livlihood. There are 3,500 boatmen and they rotate the work so everyone gets to earn a little money through the week. Each boat takes two oarsmen and holds up to 4 passengers. But they don't like to take more than two because the work is really hard. They not only row up the river, they literally pull the boats upstream over the white water rapids. It is amazing to see them leap out of the boat, grip rocks with their toes and push/pull the boat over the rocks. They have to leap from one side of the boat to another. When they get through the rapids they pause for a few minutes to catch their breath and then go on. About halfway up all the boats stop for a rest and the boatmen get out and light up cigarettes. They are all relatively small men, but very 'buff' as one of the younger volunteers said after going up.

The river is relatively low at this time of year, so there was no real danger. Nonetheless, I was firmly strapped into my PC approved lifevest. At the falls themselves, we transferred to a bamboo raft and were pulled right through the falling water into a small cave behing the falls. It was pretty neat, and it was a lot of water! The whole trip took about 4 hours, and was well worth the 600peso + 300Peso tip, not quite $20.

This last week a bunch of us walked about 3 or 4 kilometers up Mt. Makiling to the mud springs. That was interesting too. It is a rainforest and felt a lot like Kilimanjaro except there were no monkeys and not very much wildlife of any kind. The mud springs are related to a dormant volcano. You can actually hear the blub, blub, blub as it bubbles up. They are the result of sulphuric acid dissolving the clay soils and they are really hot. According to the sign 80 degrees Centigrade and I'm not sure what that equates to in Fahrenheit, but I know it is hot and they are very acidic. The PH is 2. So no one went over and touched them we just watched from a distance, listened to the blubbing, and observed the fog rising up and nourishing the epiphytes in the trees way high overhead.

I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to do it.

Now it is on to Manila for swearing in and moving to my permanent site to begin my life as a PCV, no longer a PCT.

I've arrived safely

2005-05-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

Mabuhay everyone,
After 19 hours of flying we landed in Manila at 10:45PM on Thursday, March 31. At breakfast today - 8:30 Friday - we figured it was 4:30 Thursday in Riverside. I have to make sure about the time difference.
Flying over the Northwest Territory and Alaska was really something to see, very white, icy, mountainous, cold. So many lakes, some of them huge, I could hardly believe my eyes. And, of course, there were lots of pipelines crisscrossing the ground. On one river, we could see the trail of snowmobilers going down the center. Everything was frozen solid. Flying over Japan was rather like looking down on our Calif. mountains. Now we are burning up, it is HOT and HUMID. They have taken us to a hotel on the bay, and right across the way you can see the reason Peace Corps comes to the Philippines, great poverty exists here. At midnight last night as the bus brought us in, the streets were very busy with street vendors, and traffic all bustling about. We have spent all morning filling out forms, (Joe, you would go crazy.) and our official address is LONG: c/o U.S. Peace Corps,6th Floor Bayside, PNB Financial Center, Diosdado Macapagal Ave, Pasay City, Philippines - we had to write that at least 8 times, maybe more, I have writers cramp.
Our group has 80 people in it, 5 married couples, 4 people doing a second stint, 5 people older than me. It is a nice bunch, all very friendly.
This particular connection to the internet is costing me quite a bit, so I promise to write more later on.
Take care,
Ms. Verwiel

IN COUNTRY UPDATES

4/2/05
Dear all,
This is my first trip to an internet cafe. We took a jeepney in to the mall, two other teachers and myself. The jeepney trip was interesting, the lady in front of me was putting together small bags of dried fish to sell somewhere. I keep hearing that the people of the Philippines work at a slower pace, but watching someone use up their bus riding time to make things to sell seems very industrious to me. The mall is a big 3 story building, very noisy, crowded. One lady, Ada, needed a pair of sandals so we went into McJim department store. There are clerks everywhere! They all dress in uniforms, too. We found some Merrell sandals for 3,800 pesos which works out to be in the neighborhood of $75-$80. Then found some Fila for P999, about $20.
Still cannot find a battery for my camera, and am a little afraid to plug in the computer until I know for sure that the electricity is safe. I'm looking for a good adapter and a surge protector.
Training is intense, we will be at this resort until next Wed. Island Cove, Cavite, just outside Manila. It reminds me of Jamaica, and is not as nice as the hotel in Arusha.
Katie, your e-mail has been returned to me, someone please give me another address.
The teachers are ready to go, so I will sign off.
Take care,
Patty

4/10/05
Hi kids,
In Tagalog it is "Magandang umaga" for good morning.
The Philippines is very different from the US but in some ways it is surprisingly similar.
School is out right now, since summer is beginning here, summer vacation began about two weeks ago for elementary schools and high schools are having graduations this week. They get two months off and begin again in June. Classes sometimes have 50 or 60 kids in them, it is very crowded. And President Arroyo has just decided that instruction in Math and Science will be in English. This is a problem because most of the kids don't speak English and the teachers only have a limited ability.
I am staying with a family right now, they have what is called a compound where about 6 different families all live together. Four sisters one brother and one son with all their children all live in this compound. It is a very busy place. They have lots of dogs and chickens and roosters. You would not like to see the animals, Kelsey, they are not cared for very well. One dog was hit by a bus a long time ago, his leg healed, but it is bent behind him and he walks on 3 legs. The roosters are kept for cock fighting. There are lots and lots of feral dogs and cats roaming around and they all look very skinny and mangy.
The house or compound where I live is right on a highway. There are two main ways to get from place to place. One way is a jeepney, which is like a stretch jeep without windows and everyone crams inside on benches, some people hang onto the back. The other way is a tricycle, which is a motorcycle with a sidecar. You sometimes see a trike with 5 people stuffed into or on the sidecar. It is dangerous because the traffic is crazy, and little kids are walking right next to the street.
Food is good, lots of rice and fish and vegetables. Sadly, no good coffee.
Please tell all the kids in class hello for me, they can write to me at http://us.f316.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=aridgeo@yahoo.com and I will add them to my list. Also, I will write a letter and send it soon.
Hope everything is going well at Rivera and you are doing your best to learn all the things you need to know.
Your old teacher and friend,
Ms. Verwiel

4/15/05
Hello to everyone,
Today was the first big rainstorm we have had since I got here, it really poured for about 2 hours. I asked if the rainy season is beginning and they assured me it was still the dry season, but sometimes they get rain even in the dry season. We had to come into Santa Cruz for lunch and the streets were a lot cleaner, but the gutters were full of water.
So...
I have been here for about two weeks, there is so much to tell.
People are very friendly and helpful, always smiling; except for the jeepney drivers. I have yet to see one of them smiling, but just watching the stress of their work I am not surprised. A jeepney is a bit like a stretch jeep without windows, there are benches down either side and anywhere from 10 to 15 people cram inside with all their packages and bags, then someone (usually a young man) will 'back ride'; they stand on a little rail and hang on. John, one of the volunteers in my barangay (neighborhood) was riding with all of us on a jeepney and an older lady tried to pick his pocket. I never expected it to be a woman doing such a thing - and an older one to boot. But the jeepney drivers are not smiling because they are contending with incredible traffic, collecting fares, watching for passengers flagging them down, making change, honking their horns; it is amazing and scary. I got on a jeepney that was hired by Peace Corps to take us to our neighborhood and the tires were totally bald - I don't think they make much money for all the work they do. Jeepneys seem to run all hours of the day and night. I know this because the house of my host family is right on the highway, and they seem to be always there.
Now cycle drivers are a slightly different story, they often are smiling - not always, but often. In the bigger towns the competition is intense so they are less friendly, but in the neighborhood they will talk to you as they take you along. A cycle is a Yamaha or Honda cycle with a sidecar attached. And they cram a lot of people into those sidecars too. Jeepneys and cycles are all decorated and painted with names and sayings, they are extremely colorful. Most of the jeepneys have phrases painted on like 'Jesus save us' or God protect us' and with the traffic and the tires and the craziness of the drivers, you need all the help you can get.
The best way to travel is a pedicab. That is a bicycle with a sidecar. It is quiet. (You cannot imagine how much I miss quiet.) The drivers will often talk to you and you can really see the countryside as you go along. Of course the pedicabs are just for very short trips. The Filipinos all take cabs everywhere, even just a few blocks. So there are little tricycle stations every few blocks up and down the road. They just go out to the street and yell for a cab and one of them pulls up, you climb in, and off you go.
I live in a house that is about 1 mile from the school I have to go to, so I have been walking, they think I am nuts. But we have been getting no exercise and they feed you incredible amounts of food, so I said I must walk. People all along the road call out good morning, they think it is interesting to see an American walking down the road with a backpack. Sometimes they call out 'hey, Joe' All Americans are Joe.
Yesterday I got to school a little early and went into the rest house to study. This is a little nipa hut with built in benches. I was working on my Tagalog when a little old man came in and asked what I was doing. Thinking he was a janitor or in some way connected with the school, I began explaining myself, he spoke good English. He started right in with questions like; how old are you? Are you married? etc. personal questions. When he found out my husband was dead he suggested I marry him, it would be a good thing, I should think about it. I got my books together and headed for the classroom as quickly as I could, he followed me right along, where was I going? Like I said, they are a very friendly people, but that is a bit more friendly than is good.
We have had to interview local officials as part of our cultural training. We have met the mayor, the assistant governor, the school superintendent, district supervisor, and police chief. The police chief was like a stereotypical small town cop from a movie, it was rather surreal. Would only tell us his first name, Roberto. He was pot bellied, wore sunglasses, and gave us the suspicious what do you want stare. Everyone tell us that corruption is the number one problem in the Philippines, maybe that is why he is was suspicious. Are we Americans investigating something?
Literally everyone names corruption as a huge problem, from the pedicab driver to the ambassador. But no one does anything about it, it is just accepted.
My time is up at the internet cafe. I have not proof read this e-mail, so if there are errors please forgive them. I meant to give you my mail address, but forgot to bring it with me, so I will do that next time. In the meantime I love getting e-mails, even though I can only get them once in awhile.
Take care,
(take care of the country too, I have no idea what is going on over there, I am quite literally in another world)
Mom / Patty / Ms. Verwiel

April 23, 2005
Hi to all,
Last Thursday they told us where our actual living site will be. I am going to San Juan, Batangas. It is sort of in the middle of the Philippines, but on Tayabas Bay so it is coastal and is supposed to have some lovely white sand beaches as well as some mountains with hiking trails. It sounds very pretty. It is home to the world's lowest volcano, which erupted in the not too distant past. I will be working with an elementary school on English, Math and Science and maybe some ICT which would most likely be teaching basic WORD skills.

Also last Thursday we had water safety. They took all 21 of the Southern Luzon people to a resort on Manila Bay called Puerto Azul, it was very nice. We had to get on a boat with our life jackets on (as if I would ever get on a boat without one) and jump off, then we had to swim out to another boat and back to the first boat and get back in. There were no ladders or ropes to help and the sides of the boat were about 3' over my head. So you have to hang on, jump up and climb in. I have some significant black and blue bruises on my legs where I threw them over the side while hanging on. But I got in - with a little help. The people who felt they were competent swimmers had the option of helping turn over a capsized boat, and they managed to do it after several tries. I would have been a greater hindrance than help for sure. On the drive to this Puerto Azul we passed the world's lowest volcano. Had a great view of it, it sits in the middle of a lake, and we were told you can hike up the volcano and swim in the lake that is inside the crater. One of the PCVs with us had done this and there were warning posted the next day that the volcano was unsafe as it was showing signs of activity. So when I get ready to do the hike I will have to check the Philippine Volcano website.

We spent Wed, Thur, Fri, and Sat doing training at the Lakeview Hotel in Los Banos. The training is very repititous and everyone is getting extremely tired of it. We had to come back to our host families on Saturday. My host family is very nice, but the truth be told, I wish I could just go to my site and go to the host family there and start getting used to the place where I am going to live.

Sundays the son in law takes me to church in Santa Cruz, he has a tricycle - the scooter with a sidecar - and he sings in the choir. This church is also open-air, like the one in Manila, Our Lady of Fatima. This one is The Immaculate Conception. It has a beautiful, high-ceilinged nave (is that the right word for the long center aisle?) with high arches on the sides. There is more seating on the other side of the arches and beyond that it is wide open. The birds fly in and out. The altar is very elaborate, carved, gold, and all the statues are dressed in clothes and robes. After mass people go to all the statues and rub the hands or feet and hang garlands of sampaguita flowers on them. Ronnie takes me to the 7:30 mass because that is the one the choir sings at and because it is in English.

Today, after mass, he needed to run some errands so I went along with him. We went to his father's house/compound in a nearby neighborhood. The streets are narrow, barely room for 2 trikes to pass, and the houses come right down to within 3 feet of the street proper. We went through the gates of the compound and into a nice garden. They had pet rabbits that they raise for sale, two turtledoves, some other birds in cages. I waited in his brother's house which has 3 stories, the kids were doing laundry and they took me up to the third floor where they hang the clothes. It is like a rooftop garden with a view of the town and the lake. I asked if there was any way to walk on the lakeshore. They looked rather surprised and said, "No, too muddy." So there is a lake right here that I have never been to, and it looks like I may never get there either.

I don't know if I have given you all my mailing address, so here it is - perhaps again: (sounds like I want mail, doesn't it?)
Patricia Verwiel PCT
U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 7013
Airmail Exchange Office
N.A.I.A. 1301
Pasay City, Philippines

and my e-mail address is: aridgeo@yahoo.com

Hope everyone is well. I heard we got a new pope, but that is about all I have heard. Don't know what Bush / Cheney / etal are up to, maybe it is just as well.

Take care, Love,
Mom, Patty, Ms. Verwiel

4/28/05
Magandang umaga everyone, (I am making slow but steady progress in Tagalog)
Baseball in the Philippines! Yes! I was under the impression that they only played basketball here and so was a little bummed. But we met with the barangay captain the other day and were talking about activities available for the kids and he invited us to come watch a basketball game the next day at 2:00. So at 1:45 we walked through the sweltering heat and humidity to the barangay hall. (It is really hot here. I have always said it can't get too hot for me, but the heat is really getting to me here. Actually, it isn't the heat as much as the humidity. I'd give anything for a nice dry Santa Ana). Anyway the captain, Dante, piles us into his jeep - and this must be a luxury because most people have a cycle or a bicycle or nothing) but we all pile in. He takes us to a field where they are playing baseball!! Actually, fast pitch softball, boys about 14 years old. The field was one corner of a large area where caribou (water buffalo) were grazing, and other kids were flying kites. It was a wonderful sight, the rough infield, knee high grass in the outfield and caribou in deep center. They played a lot like our family games, lots of errors, lots of laughing, sharing gloves and equipment. I asked why they played in the hottest part of the day and Dante just laughed. Made me think of Mom talking about us in Tucson. How we sort of lolled for the first month or so and then, wham! we never gave the heat another thought.
After the game they gave us a tour of the barangay livilihood project. The barangay purchased 18 sewing machines which they let out to families. Then the families use them to sew purses and bags which are sold to a buyer in Manila, mostly Chinese he said. The family can make about 200P per gross of bags (144 bags), about $4.00. But it is better than nothing. Poverty is a very serious problem here.
On the way home he took us the long way through a couple of different neighborhoods and through 'squatters town'. It is an approved area for anyone to build a shack and live. The truly poor live here, there is a common water pump and many, many children. The captain said that is the thing they do best, make children.
It was a very interesting day.
Take care, love and miss you all,
Mom/Patty

May 18, 2005

Hello to all,
It has been awhile since writing because I went on my site visit and was unable to get to the internet. San Juan is internet-challenged; I will probably only get to go online once a week by going into Batangas City, about an hour / hour and a half away by bus.
Here's an update for you all.
Monday, May 9 I shared a van with 3 other volunteers to Batangas City where our individual supervisors met us and took us off to our respective sites. My supervisor is Betty Gonoon, the principal of Central West School. Right off the bat I was nervous because she had us stop for lunch at a turo-turo store. (Did I get the name right, Susan?) It is like a small roadside stand selling food that I was not too sure about, so I got a pepsi (always safe) some rice and the crisipiest stick of meat I could see, ate about half, drank all the pepsi, and did not get a bit sick. Then we rode the bus to San Juan, it seemed like we were going through some low mountains, but when I asked her she said no. I have yet to see a topo map of the area, so I am not sure what the hills were. I did see a sign for the Philippine Grand Prix track or something, Alex. They must have auto racing here. No sign of any beaches, I was bummed.

We arrived at the school, it is in the center of town, built by the Americans in 1946, pretty rickety now, but nice trees and plants and such. I met some of the teachers working on various reports since school is out for summer until June 6. The reports are voluminous and either hand written or typed on an old fashioned typewriter. Compilations of statistics and scores - they are totally into testing.

The teacher who is to be my counterpart, Juliet Dimaculangang, is my age and about twice as wide as me, very energetic. Suddenly she states in no uncertain terms, "You will come home with me, you will sleep with me, I will show you the beach in the morning." Nervous again, I send a text message to PC asking about this. I mean aren't I supposed to go to a host family that has been checked out? They text me back, "It's up to your supervisor." Off we go in a tricycle that comfortably holds me and maybe tiny little Eva - it was not a comfortable ride.
Her house is in a barangay that is closer to the eastern part of the town and there are beaches to the east. However, as we arrive, she tells me that there will be a lot of people there since it is her husband's birthday. And boy are they celebrating! Keyboard, microphone, gunshots, food, etc. I am trying to keep a low profile, impossible for an American in the Philippines, everyone wants to have a look at me. And everyone is really friendly and nice, but I am really hot, sticky, and tired.

Finally the daughter asks if I'd like to take a shower, you better believe it. Bathroom is less than basic and I shared it with a giant flying cockroach, but at least I am not sticky anymore. The party has quieted down and we are sitting out on the porch / terrace where all the men keep wandering in to talk to us, they have been having a 'barcada' and are pretty drunk. When it is late enough that everyone wants to go to sleep I am completely taken by surprise when told that half the bed is for me. I took my malong ( a long tube of cloth, open at both ends) and climbed inside, pulled my feet in and pulled my head in and made myself go to sleep. My supervisor was not fazed at all, I peeked out during the night and, sure enough, she was sleeping on 'her side'. She informed me that ahe and her husband have not shared a bed for 5 years. TMI

The next day I went off - roading in that same tricycle, stuffed in with that same supervisor, over rocky, dirt roads to the beach. This was an undeveloped beach where fisherman live in nipa huts and their boats are pulled up on the sand. Sadly the water was dirty, filled with algae, and there was trash there too. They told me the pollution of Quezon province comes into this small cove. Kids were swimming in the water, but I didn't think it was a good idea.

At last they took me to my host family house. It is a big house, but still has bathroom that use the bucket bath and toilets that you must flush with a bucket. My room is big, but since I had no mosquito net with me (big mistake) I got lots of bites, I made sure to take my malaria medicine. The family is a mother and father whose kids are grown, two sons work in Italy, one son in Manila and a daughter that was a nurse in Saipan but committed suicide last year over a love affair. A niece lives there and Ate Rory, the mother, said the niece takes the place of her daughter and I take the place of her sister who died last month. Kuya Tito is the father and he hardly ever says anything just chuckles everytime he sees me. Analyn is the niece and she is the quietest girl I have ever met, she just graduated from high school and has agreed to be my language tutor when I go back. The family raises pigs, chickens, owns 4 jeepneys, rice farms and mango grove. They are pretty well to do. Since it is May and they are Catholic they took me to the little roadside chapel across from the house where the neighborhood women gather to say a novena to San Juan and a Rosary. It is all in Tagalog but I pretend I know what I am doing. She took me to 6:00 mass on Friday, the day I was leaving and introduced me to everyone, Billy would love this place for all the introductions.

Wednesday I went up into the mountains with a mobile teacher. I had hoped to watch her literacy project in action, but since they had a visitor - me - they cancelled classes and had a big get together at one of the learners houses. I got to help them make cassava. We peeled it - it looks rather like sweet potatoes, it's a root, but the skin is very thick - then it was boiled, then it was mashed in a big hollowed out palm trunk with a long, heavy masher - it was about 5 feet long and maybe 4 or 5 inched in diameter. It was tiring and people kept taking turns with the mashing. They added a mixture of buko juice and buko (coconut water and coconut meat from green coconuts) and peanut butter, sugar, and condensed milk. You got a thick paste and people took great gobs, spread margarine on it and seemed to love it. I tried it and it was OK.

My last adventure at site was a trip to the pretty beach. The nice resort beaches are in the south and they are clean and pretty, no waves though. The resorts are way expensive, the vast majority of Filipinos will never get to go there.

I left for Batangas City Friday morning, met Mary - another volunteer - at the National Bookstore. We were so excited to find a real bookstore we could hardly contain ourselves - seriously; they not only don't have coffee, they don't have bookstores. I mean to tell you I am hurting here. Then we headed back to Lakeview, where we went awol (sort of) because PC wants you to always be with your host family. But we were in complete agreement that we were not going back yet, and Erin - another volunteer arrived and also agreed. So we stayed in Los Banos at our own expense and acted like normal people for two days. No community entry activities, no Tagalog, no PC oversight. It was great. We even went into Manila (that is really on the down low) on Saturday and met some of Mary's family, went to a mall where I bought an umbrella, got back by 6:00. We had dinner at this nice little restaurant on the lake and - hold your hats - I drank 3 beers. I've been joking that I will come home a Tagalog speaking alcoholic.

Now I am back in Bubukal and we are working on our community project. The four of us have decided to put together a 'make n take' workshop for the teachers at our school. We just started working on it today and we have to pull it off on May 30. Wish us luck.

So that was my site visit. Not terribly exciting. I met lots and lots of people. The town is not very big, it has no internet, no McDonald's, no coffee, no books (the library has fewer books than I have stored in my beautiful 'little house in the back yard' - but the librarian is very nice), no drug store. It is pretty rural, main street is the highway and it is narrow and pot-holed. So it is not a pretty place. There are some old houses here, but I haven't had a chance to really explore anything except the central square area. I still hope to find some place with a view of the beach and build a nipa hut, we'll see. I am sure I can make it work, but am not looking forward to starting over. I have just gotten used to Bubukal / Santa Cruz and now have to learn a new place all by myself, no fellow volunteers within 2 hours of me. So I am a little low, but this too shall pass.

There are two web sites you can go to to see some pictures of us: www.maryowne.blogspot.com and www.yvanovich.com
you have to sign up for an account for Anthony and Katie Yvanovich's but it is free, they send you a password and it fills a requirement for PC so they can post anything they want. Mary's does not require it, I don't think.
I am going to set up one myself one of these days.

Hope all is well with everyone.
Happy Birthday to Joseph. I don't have your e-mail address Joe.
Happy Birthday to Lori, too. You must be getting pretty big now.
Happy Birthday, Carl and Susie.
I need Paul's e-mail.
School's almost out there and about to begin here, have a good 3 day rest before you start over.
I must get off this now.
Take care. Miss you all a lot.

May 30, 2005
Hi everyone,
As I write this, it is Monday afternoon here, so you are still sound asleep resting up for the big Memorial Day softball game. I will definitely be thinking "Centerfield" for you all.

I did have fun yesterday! A few of us, 3 other volunteers and me, sort of went AWOL and went to Pagsanjan Falls. I don't have my camera with me, but will definitely post those pictures to my blog (which is almost ready for people to view) and you can see for yourself what it was like. You can also go to a couple websites with that name and see some pictures.
Peace Corps has been very weird about us going to these falls, and everyone has been more than a little annoyed about it. They don't seem to have a good reason, just don't want us to go. So yesterday we went without permission and had a great time.
It is a boat ride up river and over 16 white water rapids, boatmen actually pull/push the boat through the rapids, over and around the rocks. In places they have placed poles horizontally and roll the boat over these poles. At this time of year the water is relatively low so the trip is not dangerous, nonetheless I had my big, yellow, PC issue lifejacket firmly attached to me.
When you reach the falls themselves, it is very pretty, not anything like Niagara of course, but there is a lot of water coming down about 50 feet overhead. The canyon walls are maybe 200 ft. high, and you can know exactly what it looks like by watching "Apocolypse Now," it was filmed there. At the falls we transferred to a bamboo raft and the boatmen pulled the raft right through the falls into the cave behind them. It was pretty neat.
The river reminded me a lot of the Black River in Jamaica, except no mangroves or crocodiles. Crocodiles are in trouble in this country, there are only an extimated 100 pairs in the wild. At least that is one statistic I read somewhere.
Watching these boatmen in action was a fascinating trip in itself. They are as I imagine the Sherpa are in Nepal, small and very tough and when they stop to take a break they all have a cigarette. They paddle the boats up river and as they approach rough water they leap out gripping rocks with their toes and push or shove or pull the boats along. They reminded me of Gollum, clinging to rocks with their legs bent in weird angles to handle the boat.
As you can see we survived with no problem other than a slight sunburn, but we have not actually told our PC supervisors about our adventure.

Today we presented our 'make n take' workshop for teachers at our school, it went well and we are glad it is done. Now we can concentrate on getting ready to go to our permanent sites.

Hope all are well and you have a wonderful ball game. Enjoy your hotdogs and hamburgers and beer and pepsi. If I can manage it I will go have a beer in honor of the day.
Take care, love and miss you all, Patty