Malipayon Paskwa!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Philippines!

This last year definitely has its fair share of surprises in store, but the path I took got me to where I am now, and I couldn’t be happier with the destination.

<<This here is my bff, Aileen, a student at University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) that has become somewhat of a 'little' sister.

A tropical country is a bizarre place to spend your first Christmas away from home. I couldn’t expect snow, the attempt at making Christmas cookies for coworkers failed miserably (due to the lack of facilities and ingredients, like butter), and the spirit of Christmas was actually hard for me to muster without my family.  But being here did give me a whole new experience. I shared my day doing many, many things I had never done before. Enjoying a feast of seafood (incl. unicornfish, tuna, steamed clams, sea urchin gonads, and deep-fried crabs –which I hope were soft-shell because I ate the whole thing-, and freshly gathered seaweeds) with a group of people I had never met before,

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the internet to work well enough to skype with my family so I spent my favorite holiday without them. The bright side in that misfortune, though, was the appreciation for them that became really, really apparent. I didn’t realize how much I missed everyone until Christmas came and went without them.

The reef at Apo Island!

One of 5 sea turtles I saw. This one's a green!

Apo Island, the first of our two beautiful dive sites!

Needless to say, I survived 2013 and ended the year with maybe the best vacation I’ve ever been on.  Our planned dive trip to some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the Philippines (Apo Island and Siquijor), if not the world, was extended to a stay on Siquijor that included circling the island, relaxing under picture-perfect waterfalls and very willingly jumping from cliffs into the sea. I also, very classily, enjoyed fresh coconut water (called buko juice here) right out of the fruit-- looks something like that >>

My accidental artistic shot. These are the very venomous spines of a lionfish!

A moray eel

Another underwater scene, this time from Siquijor. There were so many awesome fish and tons or coral that never fail to make it worth traveling into the world underwater.

Brain coral!

And after living in the water for two days straight, some of decided to transform out of mermaid mode and use, what do you call them again? Oh feet.

Clearly staying out of the water didn't last for very long. Actually I don't think there was a day my entire vacation that I wasn't at some point fully submerged in some body of water :) I really was born to be a fish!

And this was my favorite way to reenter the water!

And the view wasn't too shabby either!

DISCLAIMER: Being a Peace Corps volunteer really is difficult and challenging work. Please know that this was vacation and not how every day life is. In reality, the waterfalls are four hours away and diving only happens every other month ;)

Before returning to Dumaguete, where 20 some volunteers were going to be for New Year’s Eve, Sarah (who will further be referred to as ‘Bunso’) and I took a short ferry over to the southern tip of Cebu. There, our extreme and dream vacation continued with exploring another waterfall (this time high up in the mountains), snorkeling around Sumilon, making, eating and thoroughly enjoying mango float, and for our first time ever climbing a coconut palm to pull down our own buko! The work that goes into climbing, pulling and machete-ing, makes the sweet flesh just that much sweeter. Then it was back to Duma for a night filled with fireworks and fun!

The second waterfall of the trip!

Snorkeling around Sumilon, a small island off the coast of southern Cebu. Has stunning, healthy reefs where we saw a hawksbill sea turtle, a rare Napoleon wrasse (the largest of as wrasses and an endangered species!), three cuttlefish, and these little guys- razor fish!

After sleeping on the beach under the stars, Bunso and I voluntarily hunted down breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed fresh buko and the rest of our mango float (which of course was followed by a real breakfast with our Filipino friends- who wouldn't let us leave without having another bite to eat)

Before returning back to site, I managed to bike to more falls, hike 10 kilometers (6 miles) and back, up and down a mountain to a lake with- you guessed it- another waterfall! And after about 9 hours of travel (by bus, tricycle, ferry and jeepney), I made it back to site.

Things here in Miagao are still lying low. Preparations have started for our annual fiesta that will go from January 31^st to February 9^th! It’s also our municipality’s 300^th year anniversary, so this is going to be a big one! Therefore, not too much gets done around the office and I finally have time to write another blog!!! So hooray for fiestas!

    I think that’s it for now. I’m going to leave it here and get to work on the hurricane post I promised last time.

I hope that wherever you were this holiday season, you found a way to be happy and enjoy your time with whoever was lucky enough to be around you! Have a super year and try not to give up on those resolutions just yet.

Peace on Earth,

          from the Peace Corps!

<><  ><>   <><   ><>   <><   ><>   <><   ><>   <><  ><>   <><   ><>   <><   ><>   <><

For those of you praying or keeping tabs on how the not-so-exciting part of life is going, I'm in a big pickle with my housing situation. After going through a tough situation with my first host family and a miscommunication on the second place I moved, I'm finding myself frantically looking for somewhere else to live. The kicker is that there's a university and a small college in my municipality and very little available space, making it extremely difficult to find somewhere I can live comfortably and call home. Just keep my situation in your prayers and thoughts so I don't have to feel so homeless and miserable anymore! Thanks! Love you all.

4 months deep

My only excuse for not having a new post for the last month and a half is how crazy busy I have been. If you don't believe me, read on. And on, and on and on....

   So much has happened in the last two months of being at site, that I'm not even going to try to get fancy and make my life sound beautiful. I'll be telling it like it is. Straight up.

  Let's go back in time to right before I came to Miagao. Setting: Manila, Date: September 2013
The day before we swore in as volunteers, our technical facilitators, Ae and Roxie, had a capping ceremony for the Coastal Resource Management (CRM) peeps. This act is based from the movie The 
Life Aquatic, and I am happy to announce we are all members of the Zissou Society (see the resemblance?)

Our swearing in ceremony was absolutely fantastic! It was the big moment we waited months (or even years) for and once we we're through, we were high on life and ready to represent our country in the Philippines!

Kyle sporting the bow tie, clearly he's fit for the US Embassy.

This was the first picture taken after we swore in. Those smiles are genuine and hardly represent the excitement I was feeling at the time!

We looked and felt like a million bucks.

Erika, Johann and I representing Minnesota halfway around the world.

But before the late-into-the-night dancing we of course had to celebrate (with pictures probably floating around somewhere in internet world), I had to go to the hotel we'd been living in/abusing/treating like home and repack my whole life, again.

Then we we're off from Manila...

and flew to our new homes on Panay Island.

And so began my new life. New family, new friends, new job, etc. When talking about my job, I'll start by saying how much I love it. I had the great fortune of being placed next to a current volunteer, Elli (that was at the time finishing his third year of service and has since COS'd), with another volunteer from my batch, Bentley, on the other side of his town. Because Elliott was here before hand, projects that were underway before we arrived, were halted so that we could take the reins. And take the reins I did! 

     I'm currently working on setting up out Municipality's first marine protected area (MPA) while the construction of an artificial reef continues. I won't go into depth too much on the entire process of what I'll be doing here (I'll dish that out in another blog as soon as I have time. Ha!), but just know that most of the things we volunteers do don't happen over night. The process can be long and gruely, and we might not even see results from all our hard work. Knowing this, and to remain willing are characteristics of a true volunteer.

I wish I had more picture of the events I've been involved in here. The firstend I arrived, it was our town's religious fiesta (and for clarification, this is the lesser party-party fiesta of the two municipalities usually have). In that first week, I...

danced with two people I had known for less than an hour 

(while the REST of the people there watched, 

went to a kid's fashion show 

(but unfortunately I didn't get to judge), 

ran my first 5k in the Philippines

(keeping up with my running buddy, our Chief of Police!), 

was wrapped in a paper dress and again danced and was modeled off to the crowd

(this was a contest on our Municipal Employees day. we got third place. out of three teams...)

and felt extremely embarrassed for those and multiple other things

(which, by the way, is a great indicator of how well you're doing on integration!)

Now you see why I wish I had the pictures? I was wearing a paper dress!!!

Here are some events I do have documented via camera:

A birthday party at Bentley's house with her friends from Tigbauan (her municipality). So traditionally in Filipino culture, the way a birthday works is opposite from how we celebrate in the states, in that if it's your birthday, you buy gifts for everyone else and throw the party for them to come to! Of course, the food is delicious (as always) and the company is sweet!

Miagao! Miagao! This is the beach in my wonderful municipality. We have nearly 10 miles of coastline, 22 barangays lining the shore, and 3 coral reefs (pictures of those will come later once I get my hands on an underwater camera!)

Weddings in the Philippines are another reason to have a big celebration. There is so much delicious food (which you eat, even if you just had dinner like I did), videoke (exactly the same as karoke in the US), games and hanging out. This picture is also fabulous proof of how hospitable Filipinos are- Bentley and I were invited to this post-wedding celebration down the road from her house and I had no idea who the lucky couple was!

Some volunteers get placed near each other. Maybe they become friends, maybe they don't see each other that much or ever. Or maybe they realize that they're so lucky to have each other that they want to collaborate all projects, spend each day (or at least most of each week), and go on adventures with them. The latter is how I feel about Bentley. She's the greatest and I love her. 

Fishing at sunset. This is probably near the top of my list on most beautiful things I've seen.

And there's the goofy gang of CRMers in my batch that grouped together to get their dive certification in the Philippines! This shot is right before their very first dive! The week of their dive training, these guys came to my town to stay for a week. During this time we got to cook on our own (for most of us, this was our first opportunity to do so in country), spend some quality time with each other, swim, and of course dive!
I want to end with a little snippet about a realization a few of us volunteers had a while ago. The realization was that all the teaching, learning, long days, memorization, frustration, lessons, and training that we received during training was really, really worth it. It just took meeting another foreign volunteer to see that. The Peace Corps does a fantastic job of preparing its volunteers for anything that we might hope or be afraid of experiencing in our two years here. So just so all of you out there know, me and the rest of the PCVs (not just in the Philippines, but across the globe) are in really good hands. These people know how to take care of us. If our experience through Typhoon Yolanda isn't proof enough, I don't know what is. (I'll make another effort to get something up on my experience through the storm soon, but I hope this dish will keep you satisfied for a while!)Peace out from the Peace Corps!       Love you guys!                             ~Jess

 (here's a 'right now' pic, for all of you wondering what I still look like- with the typical gwapa (beautiful) pose of the Phils)

Halo-halo

Halo-halo (noun): a concoction of many independently-delicious food items (corn flakes, jellies, beans, banana , etc.), topped with coconut ice milk and best enjoyed with a scoop of ube ice cream; Tagalog to English translation: mix-mix.

Halo-halo (adj.): comprised of many different people, cultures, histories and beliefs, all mixed together to form a wonderfully unique group.a

These two definitions are used, as you could probably guess, to describe a Filipino dessert and the Philippines as a country. I wanted to make this post about the wonderful place I'm in and a brief history that I recently learned about in hopes of changing how people look at the Philippines.

     Just like many others that travel to, or through, Manila, I commented on the state of the city. It's very crowded, dirty, with lots of air pollution, trash and toxic-looking waterways. But it not fair to give this city it's reputation by the way it appears on the surface. Thanks to Peace Corps, my batch was able to go on a walking tour through the city of Intramuros, the site used to defend the city from Chinese and Japanese invasions and also where the Philippine National Hero was publicly killed.

      Long before the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines, villages were present along the riverbanks of the Pasig River, one of these being the fort of Maynila. Peace was shattered in these communities when the Spanish settled here and it became apparent that the Philippines could be used as a westerner's port in the Eastern world. The invasions of Asian pirates prompted the construction of many walls around the city center, giving the origin of the city's name 'within the walls'.

     Unfortunately the walls didn't discourage other European nations from trying to claim Intramuros, resulting in heavy damage over time. America got involved in 1898 during the Spanish-American war, when Intramuros was surrendered and taken under the arm of Uncle Sam. But by time WWII came around, Japanese occupied the the Philippines. Their presence and mistreatment of the the nation resulted in mass destruction of Manila in 1945, when the US liberated the Philippines by demolishing the city. Then next year, America granted the Philippines it's independence but they were left to continue life out of nothing. The city that stands here today resulted from years of struggle to rebuild a nation, while being expedited by America as the first western everything in Asia (by that I mean America made the Philippines the first country in Southeast Asia to have an airport, movie theatres, spam, to be the main shipping port in the east, and acquire American (mostly Hollywood) culture).

So actually knowing and trying to understand all the hardships Manila has gone through, how their culture is comprised of pieces from America, Spain, Japan, China, and Austronesia, and especially how they've made themselves into this fabulous country, has been the key to appreciating all the difference and misconceptions that I have.

   On the note of mixing many things into one, I should also tell you that this country has over 100 different languages and dialects. I have only slightly mastered Tagalog but am now starting to learn Kinaray-a, my new dialect. Wish me luck on my way to becoming tri-lingual!!

Peace out!

(Also sorry about the lack of pictures. I'm finding its impossible to get them in here without my computer- buts its on its way so you'll be able to see me soon!)

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.

D is for Dengue: The Fever No One Wants

I'm laying in bed at a hospital in Manila for the fourth day, waiting for the morning the doctor comes in and tells me Im healthy enough to brave the world again. I'm hoping today will be that day. I'm ready for this week-long fiasco to be over. 

   I have Dengue. The first lucky one out of Batch 272. And no I'm not proud of it! Dengue fever is a mosquito-Bourne virus that gives you symptoms resembling the flu on evil steroids. For me, it started with a headache. Then came chills and aches for a few days, while the headache persisted. Then my fever made its grand appearance at 103 degrees. I haven't eaten more than a couple bites in 6 days because my appetite decided to go on vacation. But finally I am beginning to feel much better. I'm still hungry, and still not wanting to eat, still putting up with the headache and still can only stand/walk for about a minute before my head says we need to lie down.

   Moral of the story: don't get Dengue!!!

On another note, I might as well let you know about all the awesomeness I have been able to take part in. Last week we talked about how to do sea grass, mangrove and coral reef assessments and then did the first two last Saturday. The seagrass assessment was fantastic and there were quite a few coral, anemones with clownfish, and tons of sea stars that colored the floor.

I unfortunately did NOT take this picture, but I did see many of these guys and will hopefully have similar pictures to show after one of the many diving adventures I plan embarking on.

I'm supposed to have my site-placement interview tomorrow, that is if I make it back. This is an interview where you are asked any number of questions that helps Peace Corps know where your permanent site should be. I know I'll be sure to tell them I want a mosquito-free zone.

The Internet situation at my current site is pretty non-existent. I'll do my best to check in whenever I can thou! I hope everyone is doing better than I am! Thanks for all the love and prayers!!!!

   Jess

IO, IO, it's off to work we go!

IO is initial orientation. The last two weeks of my life. I'm going to do my best to include what I can but its already late and we're leaving tomorrow to spend the next 9 weeks in our training sites, living with our first host families!!!

       My Batch, 272, has been staying at a fabulous facility outside Manila called IIRR, since the 6th.

During that short time we managed to cram an unbelievable amount of information, learning, training, and most of all bonding. I, along with 8 other CRM trainees, will be staying in the barangay of Mabayo, in the municipality of Morong, Province Bataan to continue learning Tagalog and get technical training in Coastal Resource Management. Check it out on a map, we'll be right on the water :) My fabulous cluster mates (a.k.a. lapu-lapu) are Sarah, Katie, Anders and Kyle! We'll be sharing our barangay with the cluster bangus comprised of Tyler, Thom, Megan and Kat.

   Tonight we had a fabulous talent show after a glorious dinner of chicken adobo, kabobs, masarap (delicious) fruit salad, and of course rice, and a trip to the mall. Tomorrow we leave at 6 am for our 5 hour drive to our new homes! Adventure after adventure, coming your way as soon as I have the time, reliable internet, and my computer (which is currently being resurrected from the dead).

  Unfortunately for the ext two weeks or so I will not have internet at all so this is a message for everyone that cares: I'm safe, healthy, doing fantastic and can't wait to get back on here and share my stories.
      Also, for anyone interested, I have a mailing address if you would like to send something my way. If I get a card, package, postcard, whatever, I'll do my absolute best to send return the favor!
            So without further ado:
6th Floor PNB Financial Center
Diasdado Macapagal Blvd.
1300 Pasay City, Philippines

Peace out!

  (yes that pun was intended...)

Waiting...

The strongest desire I've had while waiting patiently for something is now an understatement to what I'm feeling. I still have a month left to prepare myself for the Philippines, spend as much time with my family as we can bare, and well then there's packing- which I haven't even bothered to attempt. yet.

But back to the waiting part. It stinks man! Minnesota has hardly helped subdue the flight response due to its complete lack of summer. It's been downright cold, I'm talking didn't-even-have-to-worry-about-the-ice-cream-cake-melting-outside-cold; not the best weather for pre-thickening my blood... I have been trying to take in as much of home as possible though, because I know soon, I'll be longing for it more that I thought possible.

The one month of time I have left to wait shouldn't seem like much though, because I've already been waiting for 22 months since my application was submitted to the Peace Corps! Just a reminder to any future PCVs (that's Peace Corps Volunteers) that are in the same boat I'm in now. Sailing the S.S. Tenacity.

Here's a brief timeline of how my whole process went down:
May 2011- decided I wanted to apply; started application
August 2011- after taking my dear-sweet time perfecting my application, I submitted it
*at this point I was switched from the Mid-West Regional Office to the Southern Regional Office because I moved to Alabama. It was later determined that was a complete waste of time...
August- November 2011- gathered and turned in all the pre-medical and legal clearance paperwork
November 2011- interview with my recruiter, Toby
*an eternity of waiting
January 2012- call from recruiter giving me potential nomination sectors (either environment, education, or environmental education) but waiting for the programs to open up
*more than an eternity of waiting
May 2012- finally nominated! for education (teaching science) in Sub-Sahara Africa for June 2013.
*for the following 9 months, I was under the impression the above nomination was what I was probably going to do. with no teaching experience, I went and got some- substituting at the HS here, tutoring and teaching at Sylvan Learning. this time also consisted of, well, waiting...
**the PC also decided to switch the application process around August 2012, so getting pre-medical clearance, etc. took way more time than usual.
February 2013- emailed back my final interview questions and within a few days (after mentioning that I still really wanted to do something in environment, despite my new teaching skills) I received my invitation!!!
*60 days prior to staging (July 5th), we needed the big jumble of medical paperwork completed. my most gracious thanks go out to Dr. Matt Struve and Dr. Paul Post for completely my dental and physical exams!
**Now here I am waiting for the Staging email that let's my know the details on heading out.

   That's my PC adventure (thus far) in a nutshell. I assure you the rest of it won't be so condensed :)