Love from Peace

This post is especially for Kristen, my favorite, cutest, most beautiful sister. I want her to know how much I miss her, how I wish she could be here struggling through a new language, learning an insane amount of stuff about the Philippines and CRM, and being pushed further outside of my comfort zone than I ever thought possible.

    So here's to you Kristen! The reason I'm even able to communicate with anyone in the US right now (via her iPad).

    Aside from being struck with dengue (which another 9 trainees in Bataan have contracted after me), me and my 20 fellow CRM trainees have been experiencing a new world. The Philippines is a fantastic place. We were slowly weaned into eating traditional Filipino dishes the first two weeks in country, and the only time that I haven't eaten rice everyday (and almost every meal) is when I was in Manila at the hospital. Eating with my hands in new but really enjoyable. I eat a lot of fish, all really fantastic, whether its been grilled on the beach after seagrass monitoring, or stuffed with veggies and requires pulling out all the little bones and not minding the extra crunch the skin gives. Adobo is one of my favorite meals, and I actually have yet to encounter a meal that I did not want to eat- so I definitely owe my host family a lot (because I know other trainees have eaten blood soup, chicken liver, etc). 

     Surprisingly, many of the fruits (prutas) and veggies (gulay) are the same, but many are different. I'll let this part be an intro to some of the many Tagalog words I've learned: we have eggplant (talong), potatoes (patatas), carrots (karots), okra, tomatoes (kamatas), onions (sibuyas), garlic (bawang), jicama (singkama), squash (kalabasa), spinach, peppers (sili), as well as apples (mansanas), pears (peras), mangoes (mangga), bananas (saging), watermelon (pakwan), melon, mangosteen (my favorite!), oranges (orans), guava (bayabas), papaya, mature and young coconut (niyos and buko), and many more!

      The weather lately has been very fitting for this rainy season. There's been a bagio (any large storm, in this case a typhoon) circling the Philippines. It came through earlier this week leaving us nice and drenched, but it must have forgot something because its back again, keeping our hands filled with umbrellas (which you should never leave the house without). Some trainees have been evacuated from their training sites because of flooding, but here in Mabayo we're protected from strong winds by our cove, from extreme flooding thanks to the river, fish ponds and ocean, and from landslides due to the fact that the mountainsides around us haven't been cleared. On top of being constantly damp, the typhoon season also keeps fish from being caught. And for a community that relies heavily on fish as a food source, this time is really difficult. But soon, the rains will subside and the heat will take its place, and I'll remember these days like they're paradise (which they most definitely are).

    The glimpse of life in the Phils is going to be my sweet Tagalog skills. We've been learning this language for about 5 weeks now, and although I wish I knew way more, I'm able to get along quite well so far. Here's a little smudge of Tagalog for ya. P.S. I've graciously added a translate option so you can see what I really wrote afterwards :)

        Magandang araw! Ako si Jess. Susulita ako ng pamilya ko sa iyo. May ang mga magulang ko  na nakatira sila sa Minnesota. Si Judy ng nanay ko at si Gus ng tatay ko. May ang dalawang kapatid ko. Si Nick ng kapatid na lalaki at nakatira siya malapit sa Minneapolis. Si Kristen ng kapatid na babae at pumupunta siya sa kolehiyo sa Winona State University kasi gusto niyang nagturo ng mag bata mamaya. Gusto kong ka dito kaya ibahigi ko ang mga adventure ko sa iyo. Mahal kita!

     I hope google translate doesn't butcher that but I think you'll get the idea!

I have some exciting news! This week I will have Internet!!!! And it's not because I'm in the hospital!!!!!!!! From Sunday to Wednesday we have our supervisors conference, which is probably one of the most exciting times of PST (pre-service training). We get to find out where our permanent sites are! And we'll meet our future Supervisor, hence the na,e of the conference. So in the next blog post Ill include my new mailing address for my new home! Also, if anyone wants to set up a Skype date, do so ASAP because its going to be a busy couple of days but I'm willing to wake up early if you wanna chat one night!

    So my dearest Kristen. I hope you enjoyed getting a little scope of how life's going here. I expect to see your bright and shiny face soon :) can't thank you enough for being the best little sister. You're amazing.

      Peace from the Peace Corps.