Swearing In

Snakes: 3 lang!
What’s on my iPod: Low Rider – War
Shoutouts: My family! They sent me two awesome care packages, including loads of UF silly bands, continuing my campaign to passively convert my PCV friends to Gator Nation. Also, Chadski who sent me the best rap in an envelope KNOWN TO MAN. No Chadski, I have not been followin in Tim Tebow’s snip-steps over in the Philippines.

Disclaimer: There will be no mention of Gator Football in this post.

So in the past one week my life has been transitioning faster than a Manny Pacquiao combination of punches (btw, you won’t see a country shut down like the Philippines did durin the fight today. And Margarito got turned into a Pac-Lunch!). A week before Thursday I was in Mandurriao taking my Language Proficiency Interview. Saturday I was at a despedita (going away party) for the PCT’s in Mandurriao. Sunday I was on a boat to Bacolod to spend a week in Counterpart’s conference and then on Friday I swore in as a full fledged Peace Corps Volunteer. The next day I moved into my new host family’s house here in Bacolod. Tomorrow? Goin to work bright and early. I got a lot to cover so let’s get to it.

The last couple weeks leadin up to counterparts was a parade of goin to dime quality beaches. Unbelievably gorgeous. By far the best thing I brought with me to the PI was my underwater camera…the photography opportunities are endless.

Photo opps like these are hard to come by with any ol' camera

The time came to leave my host family, which was very hard. I’ve become really close with them and leavin was tough. I was selected to give a speech at my despedita and they were crying before I even finished, I love them to death and will visit as much as I can. As it is now they still text me about 15 times a day which is awesome, I love chattin about what my dish was at lunch (question #1, always).

Me and my mom and dad at swearing in

We were off to Bacolod for Counterpart’s conference which was heads shoulders knees and toes better than Supervisor’s conference. I’m excited to work with my new counterpart, she’s very nice and we seem to get along and work well together! She has a great sense of humor and smiles a lot which is a relief as sometimes I’m at best described as a silly person with my fascination of puns and dumb jokes. Counterpart’s also got me excited to begin my work at site. I will be teachin 1st year English, workin with the Remedial Reading program, and I have a lot of ideas of secondary projects I might want to do. A lot of it will depend on what’s needed and what assets are available but I’m enthusiastic to start, which is a good sign because even comin into PC I, candidly, hadn’t done a lot of service projects and from-scratch volunteer efforts. Now that I’m here I have an idea of things I want to do and maybe a bit of a clue on how to get it done. My ideas include but are not limited to: library enrichment, English teacher training, critical thinking development teacher training, out of school youth English exposure, teachers abroad exchange, and maybe starting something like a school newspaper. Again, it’s all speculation and will depend on what’s needed and what’s available but I view the fact I have these ideas as a positive. Most of them probably won’t work out and none of them will like I envision but at least the synapses are there.

The night time parts of Counterparts’ conference involved celebration with my fellow PCV’s for finally reachin the end of Pre-Service Training. We all made it through the first three months. I cannot say enough about how thankful I am for my awesome training staff during PST. They were the best I could really hope for and became more than just trainers but people I could turn to and be comfortable askin any question to. On Friday we were swore in by the US Ambassador to the Philippines and my host Nay and Tay from Mandurriao came all the way to Bacolod to watch the ceremony! It was a nice ceremony and fortunately wasn’t too hot cause guess what people? It’s November and it still feels like August. Two seasons: wet and dry…always hot. Even by Floridian standards.

Mandurriao Education, lookin slick and sexy for the first time in 3 months

Now I’m at my permanent site, I’m fortunate to have awesome volunteers and people near and around me so I’m not as isolated as the vast majority of PCV’s around the world. I’ve received some letters from back home and I absolutely love every one of them. I’m writing responses and sendin them back as fast as I get em’ so please get in touch! =) Also, I updated my care-package wish-list!

Finally, I’d like to say to all of my friends from training in Mandurriao that you guys were the best. I’m thankful that I was surrounded by high caliber people with whom I could connect with, commiserate with, and commit to this experience with. Keep your eyes peeled for Aswang out there and your butts clinched from pinworms!