Your Face is Getting Fat

Mosquitos killed: 18 (slow week)
Snakes encountered: 0!

A cultural difference: Filipinos will comment on changes in your appearance, whether positive or negative…sometimes especially negative, not to humiliate you but to point out that they notice changes in your appearance because they care. So I guess I could do nothing but smile when my host mom said over dinner that ‘my face is getting fatter’ now…although that could be because I eat fried pork or chicken at literally EVERY meal. No really. It’s ridiculous. I’m plannin on droppin subtle hints (or not so subtle) that I would love some fruits and spaghetti and other such marvels that I see my fellow PCT’s eatin at lunch! Rice, fried meat. Every meal. She also commented that I’m getting some color in my face as well, since I’m so naturally pasty spending time in the Filipino sun is apparently darkening me very marginally. Personally that guy in the mirror tells me that I’m still white and my face is still proportioned in an expected manner for my body type.

Which leads me into food topic #2. We learned the Hiligaynon word for lime today (suwa) and I got an immediate cravin for key lime pie. I want some key lime pie, I need some key lime pie, I could write a sonnet about key lime pie. I’m gonna send home for a recipe and make a (probably futile) attempt to make it here.

I’ve gotten some interest on what my days are typically like so here we go:
6:30 wake up – I arise, without an alarm clock mind you, try to get into the bathroom (almost never happens. 1 bathroom, 9 people, many many morning showers) but sometimes I get lucky. Organize my things for the day, what I need, what I don’t. If I have time I’ll try to upload pictures or meander facebook. It’s a good time to try and catch me on skype…
7:15 breakfast – Usually eggs, rice, something fried, hot tea, and water
7:30 head to class – start walking to my morning language classes at Sharon’s staff house. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk. I usually meet up with Leanna, Megan, sometimes Kelsey on the way there (fellow PCT’s)
8:00 language classes - These are at Sharon’s house. We go hard into Hiligaynon for about an hour then usually we have a break. We’ll continue until the inevitable afternoon brown out comes between 9:30 and 10:30 at which point we finish up what we’re doing and more or less pack it in until lunch.
11:30-12:00 lunch – we eat our lunches, mine are usually fried meat and rice. Sometimes roasted chicken. Afterwards we usually play cards until it’s time to go to Carlos’ staff house.
1:00 – we go to Carlos’ staff house for our Technical training. This is combined with the other education training cluster so we total 11 trainees. This is learning how to teach and how to work within the Filipino Education system.
5:00 – head back home. Walk back from Carlos’. This is a longer walk, and it’s right when school gets out, and it’s during rush hour. Which means it’s high time for celebrity status and random people callin out my name, giggline, saying ‘Hey Joe!’ (Joe = American), and overall a smoggy/polluted walk home.
5:30ish – Arrive home, usually I try to get some work done, meander facebook again, check emails, study, etc. Ostentiously I might use this as ‘nap’ time to get some alone time, Filipinos don’t really spend time by theirselves and younger siblings everywhere always want to know what the older one is doing…especially if he’s American. Shh tho.
6:45ish – Dinner time. That’s an adventure.
7:30ish – Usually wind up playin games…typically cards…with Sapphire, Dart and Annie.
8:30-900ish – head to my room, listen to some music and read and then hit the sack by 10:00 or 10:30.

So a bit about my training cluster. My fellow PCT’s in my cluster are Ryan, Leanna, Megan, and Kelsey. Our 6th, Brad, left after the first night here. On the whole we’re the best comedy team this side of the Janitor’s Closet. Our downtime is spent playin cards, playin rapid roll on our cellphones, textin, and a variety of conversation points. Probably our most representative conversation is the ongoing speculation on the possibility of a passing spider gettin into a fight with a pinworm. A brief background: a pinworm is a worm that gets into your system, does its thing, and then exits your anal port at night. So our query is whether or not, upon Elvis leaving the building, the pinworm (Elvis) could get into a fight with a spider on your bed who’s just casually passin by…and who would win. Pinworm or spider. Some say the spider would naturally win, some shake their heads and try to ignore our cluster’s conversation, and I personally believe it’s a lose-lose for the spider. Whether he wins or not the pinworm just came out of someone’s backside, the spider loses.

Why do we talk about pinworms vs spiders? Because ‘stool’ samples is probably the most common topic of conversation amongst PCT’s. We discuss our bathroom schedules and routines. We’ve come to refer to the bathroom “holy trinity” which is a toilet seat, a flush system, and toilet paper (father, son, holy spirit). We debate the comparative bathroom situations. Is it better to have a bathroom to yourself with none of the holy thrice…or is it better to have a bathroom shared with 8 others and have two of holy thrice (my situation…if you’re wondering it’s flush and TP). PCT’s and PCV’s talk more about poop then any other organization of individuals.

Last weekend we (my host family, Kelsey's host family, Leanna and Sean) went to the farm out in the countryside. It was a long jeepney ride through the country which was awesome. Saw some amazing countryside and some old spanish ruins. The farm was in the middle of the forest/jungle really. It's in the hilly region and the rice fields were huge. Unfortunately we didn't get to ride a Carabao but we did climb this ridiculously steep slope that was more or less jungle all the way up. Finding roots to grasp, grip in my FLIP FLOPS (which split apart more or less), and not sliding back down was hard. But the climb was awesome and we walked a long ways around and down that was pretty easy. Sean fell into a rice patty which was HILARIOUS. You get through rice fields on elevated strips of turn roughly 2-4 ft wide and 2 ft elevated. Rice fields are mostly mud and standing water that the rice grows in. Mosquito swimming pools =/. The trip was awesome. I took some good photos and had a blast. It's beautiful out there and I enjoyed it immensely.

Finally, my next installment of Filipino Cuisine-O: the chocolate saltine cracker snacks. I love these things. They’re three saltine crackers spread with chocolate imbetween. Genius. Whoever invented these deserves to be a Budweiser Real Man (or Woman) of Genius. And they’re cheap. Like 35 pesos for a huge pack of them (that’s less than a buck). Doritos on the other hand for one of the little bags are like 75 pesos. Everything in general is cheap here. 50 pesos gets you two slices of pizza. At 45 pesos to the dollar that’s pretty good.

I hope to hear from ya’ll. A comment, an e-mail, a letter, a skype chat, a facebook wall post, or even just a hello are always immensely welcome to PCT’s so keep in touch! :)

Lastly, I'd like to mention Tom Maresco. Tom Maresco was a PCV in Lesotho, Africa and was shot and killed on Friday during an attempted robbery. Tom was a great person and he helped me on my Peace Corps application while I was at UF and he was waiting to begin his service. The entire UF Peace Corps community is heart broken over this and I feel absolutely wrenched for his family who survive him. He was a fantastic person doing great things to give back to the World and he was killed in a senseless act of violence. I hope you'll keep his family in your thoughts and prayers following this awful tragedy.