With the end of my Peace Corps service fast approaching, the job and graduate school search is in full swing. As I read job descriptions and essay questions, I have started to update my resume with the skills I’ve gained and the goals I’ve accomplished since joining the Peace Corps in 2010. Let me tell you, it is hard to quantify such a life changing experience into five measly bullet points. It’s challenging enough narrowing down the quantifiable goals that employers and schools really care about, but what about all the other random knowledge that might not sound like a professional skill but in reality is what truly sets Peace Corps Volunteers apart from the rest?!

In case any employer is interested in the “extras” I bring to the table, I have compiled a list (with photos!) to give you a better idea of what I’m all about.

• Can and will sing on demand. Also capable of making up random lyrics to the tune of popular songs.

• Can and will dance on demand. Choreography takes me about two days to catch on to (or teach). Five days to ‘master’.

• Beginner skills in making things out of pipe cleaners.

• Creative last minute theme party costumes

• Learned how to french braid hair (kind of)

• Expert at squishing into small spaces on public transportation

• Can sleep anywhere (not in meetings, of course, but on floors, buses, jeepneys, stranger’s shoulders)

• Wacky-wacky photo champion

• Able to wake up before sunrise

• Pulls off a mustache pretty well

• Well timed jumper in jump shots

• Can cut ice with a knife

• Leads energizers like a boss

• Ok at hiking up steep structures

• Attempts to be an older sister (even though I’m the youngest in my family)

• Able to become a part of another family

• LOVES parades!

• Eats exotic food

Rambutan

BALUT

• Not afraid of the dark (or bugs, but still very much afraid of mice)

• Talented in smiling under water

• Actively participates in cultural fiestas

• Pretty awesome at holding babies

• Learned how to cook ………………………………… ok I lied. I still can’t really cook. But here’s a picture of me trying.

• Love the people I work with like a family

Now, this may look like the resume of a camp counselor (and that would be a fun job, too!) but remember there’s a whole other official resume on file in addition to the fun stuff. So…who wants to hire me? :)

This post is dedicated to Grammy and Fuffer (the grandparents of a family very close to me) who are always reminding me to write in my blog :) 

Today marks the third day school has been cancelled due to heavy rains. Thankfully there hasn’t been much flooding, especially compared to the devastating floods in Manila, but the governor of Nueva Ecija suspended classes for safety reasons anyway. On Monday night, I fell asleep to the sound of pouring rain, and woke up to the same sound. I texted some co-teachers and confirmed that there were indeed no classes.

The first day off, I slept in, finished season one of The Wire and started the second, cleaned my house, drank some wine and watched How I Met Your Mother with Caitlin (which always turns into conversations about life post Peace Corps these days), and fell asleep to the sound of pouring rain.

Wednesday, the second day off, I woke up to no rain, but classes had already been suspended the night before. I continued watching season two of The Wire, helped a co-teacher edit a video for her friends wedding, went out to buy paint for our world map mural project that will start whenever we have school again, finished season two of The Wire, fell asleep early, but awoke around 2 a.m. to the sound of pouring rain. Fell back asleep around 3 a.m. to the sound of pouring rain, and awoke to a text that said once again classes were suspended.

On my third day off, I started season three of The Wire, paid my water bill (for two months) of 398 pesos (around 9.50 USD), felt stir crazy in my house and decided to bring my laundry to Cabanatuan. The jeepney costs 35 pesos (a little less than a dollar), and for five kilos of laundry I paid 132 pesos (about 3 USD). On the trike ride back from the laundry place (another 30 pesos), the driver spoke to me in Tagalog and we laughed about the rain and not being able to completely understand each other. I then went to the supermarket for some peanut butter and jelly (a staple in my apartment haha), ate McDonalds (for those of you who don’t know, I never ate McDo in the states, but caved here when it seemed to be my most appealing option..which says a lot), browsed the bookstore, and then ran into another volunteer’s boss who was running a beauty pageant at the mall for some youth leaders (some I had met before at Austin’s youth leadership camp). Around 5:30 I rode the jeepney back to Zaragoza. Once again, the rain started to fall, and I was squished in the front seat so water was flying in the open window.

While the water splashed on my face, I couldn’t help but smile as we passed vast green rice fields, assorted colors of umbrellas as we passed through towns, and laughing children running through puddles with bare feet. I looked down at my phone and noticed the date August 9, which officially marks three months left until my C.O.S (Close of Service) date. In a week and a half, it will be batch 269s two year anniversary in country. Hard to believe it’s been that long. Hard to believe it’s almost over. Mostly, it’s hard to believe everything that has happened.

So what’s next? Honestly, I don’t know. I plan to travel around a little bit before heading back, but my itinerary isn’t set in stone yet. Of course, I’ll be looking for a job, and possibly graduate school in the upcoming months. After stressing about it and having a quarter life crisis for the past few months, I finally snapped out of it and decided to focus on the present. I have my moments still, but I just want to take everything in, in the mean time. After all, I have a big project to finish before I go!

To finish off this post, here are (you guessed it) THREE pictures of recent events….

My introduction before giving a presentation on photojournalism to another school in my province

First year boys reading in the English Learning Center. Melts my heart!

Fourth year students play scrabble in the English Learning Center.

Besides a few teachers squaring away paper work and a few students who come by to get their records, the high school is deserted. Everyone is on vacation except the administration office and me, as I attempt to prepare for a teacher training in one week’s time after an unexpected and life altering trip home for the funeral of my brother in law.

Two faculty members, Jovi and Jeanie, who also happen to be married to each other, have been a constant support to me since I arrived in Zaragoza and this week is no exception. They listen as I dish out the details of my life, which feels on par with a soap opera. Their advice is always so simple yet sound, “Just enjoy your time here,” they encourage me. Our task for the day is printing out handouts, sharpening pencils, and planning out the rest of our budget.

Jovi, who works in the finance office, is a handy man. He swiftly takes a part a printer and puts it back together again to fix a glitch with the ink. However, after way too long fiddling with the margins that the printer is demanding and ultimately messing up the handouts, we switch back over to the older printer. The one we have to feed by hand, one sheet at a time. And just as I couldn’t get the paper cutter to cut the way I wanted one time, I also manage to mess up manually feeding a printer, to which Jovi says, “I’ll be the one. Let me do it now.” He always lets me try first, but once he sees it will take twice as long to complete the task, he takes over.

As Jeanie and I plan the budget for merienda (snacks), I feel immense gratefulness for their help. It is not their responsibility to help me, but they do anyway. “Because I told you I would” when I ask Jovi why he’s so generous to volunteer his time. In a desperate attempt to show my thanks, I offer them Cheez-Its that I brought back from America. It’s always a gamble with new snacks, but the bag empties slowly throughout the day.

Eventually, Jovi starts to get restless for music after hours of feeding hundreds of pieces of paper one by one through the 80’s style printer. We chose to play the Beatles on my laptop. Jeanie and I continue to manually sharpen 100 pencils. I have a blister forming on my thumb knuckle from spinning the crank, and a callus developing on my index finger from gripping the pencil. Jeanie has been alternating with me and takes over for the final box. Her hands appear to be stronger than mine.

When I look over at Jovi, I see that his eyes are closed with a smile on his face, and I can tell “Love Me Do” is flooding his mind with a memory. He starts to speak, “My father loved the Beatles.” His arms stretch out wide to try and express just how much. He laughs. “He could be very naughty sometimes. We had these speakers…” He describes large bulky black ones that stand a few feet tall, but with such specificity, I couldn’t take it all in. “We also lived across the street from an Inglesia ni Cristo church and you know how they’re always yelling into the microphone during their services?” I nod, knowing the sound very well after living next door to an INC church with my host family for eight months. “Sometimes, when he didn’t want to hear it, because he was Catholic after all, he would put the Beatles on and turn the speakers up as loud as he could!” He erupts with laughter, and I laugh with empathy. I can see clearly where Jovi got his sense of humor. He smiles, and continues to dance along, imagining a special moment in time with his father.

These moments are the ones I will miss when my service is over.

Please click here to donate to my worthwhile project!  Read on to find out why you should!

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” – Albert Einstein

Can you imagine your childhood without fairy tales? Without books with colorful, glossy, pages? At first, the words were jumbled squiggles that only your parents could read with what seemed to be magical powers. But as you grew, you came to recognize familiar words that you saw over and over again. And soon enough, you no longer needed mom or dad to share stories of far off places because you finally held the magical power of reading, too.

You could stay up past bedtime with a flashlight under the covers, discovering what happened next to sailors far at sea, or the trapped princess in India. In your backyard, you imagined yourself the hero slaying all the dragons, or the dancer overcoming her injury to win first place. These fairy tales were more important to your development than you could have ever realized at the time.

Now, imagine growing up in a town with no library.  Imagine having no books in your home. When you go to school, the books that are presented to you are printed on a dull gray paper that feels like phone book paper, rough to touch but easy to rip. Many of the books are in a language you don’t understand even though you may have not had the chance to learn to read your own language yet. The pronunciation may come but the comprehension does not.  None of these books are yours to own and you usually have to share with other classmates. Imagine never being able to say, “but this book doesn’t have any pictures!” because none of them ever did.

This is the reality of the high school I teach at. Not only are hundreds of students unable to comprehend reading in English, which they are expected to be able to do by the time they graduate, there are also many students who still have trouble reading and comprehending texts in their own language. The problem is clear. There aren’t enough books. Books in bookstores are expensive so only a small population gets to even entertain the idea of reading. But because most people aren’t reading, even those who can don’t.

And without books, without these fairy tales, your imagination can only go so far. Perhaps, you will be a farmer like your father, or a housewife like your mother, or get lucky and go abroad to be a nurse like your aunt, or a seaman like your uncle. Of course, there is nothing wrong with these aspirations, but what else could you dream to be? And even if your dream continues to be a farmer, imagine what kind of farmer you could be! A farmer with his conical straw hat, facing each day with the strength of a heroic prince, the newfound courage of a once cowardly lion, and the hope of a lost boy trying to find his way home. And who knows, with an imagination like that, you could be the farmer who comes up with the newest and innovative farming technique that brings in more money and food for your family.

Many people from the states, including me, have said, “I don’t read enough. I’m too busy.” Although, sadly, for many that is true, at least we had the opportunity to when we were young. Our minds were shaped by impossible stories made possible by the characters strong enough to go after their dreams. Stories that helped us find our interests in the world, hone our skills in specific subjects, or helped mold our values. Stories that taught us manners, evoked emotions, and introduced us to diversity. Stories that taught us how to comprehend abstract ideas, logic, and life in general. Ultimately, these stories widened our imaginations to their full potential. And that is a right I think every child should have the chance to experience.

My belief in this notion along with my imagination drove me to help my school create a reading program at my school called “Read to Succeed.” With the help of book donations from Books for Asia, Books for Peace, and Bagong Kulturang Pinoy, my students should soon be able to hold books with glossy, colorful pages in their hands. With your help, by donating to my grant through the Peace Corps Partnership Program, my school would be able to purchase the additional materials and resources in order for the program to successfully get off the ground. If only 80 people donate $20.00, my grant will be fully funded!

So what can $20.00 do?

It can help give a child a wild, funny, absurd, over-the-top imagination…just like Einstein’s.

Please click here to read more and donate to this worthwhile project!

Today marks the one year anniversary of me moving to Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija, just a few days after swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and about three months after arriving in the Philippines for training in Olongapo. Today also marks one month until I get to go home to the US for a three week vacation! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by. It has definitely been a year full of challenges, but also a year full of new friendships, amazing experiences, and so much learning!

Speaking of learning, I made a list of the Top 10 Tagalog Words I now use instead of English. These words wiggle their way into my conversations multiple times a day, often unconsciously, even when I’m speaking to other volunteers or sometimes when I’m chatting with friends back home and they have no idea what I mean.

1. Sige (si-gay) – Okay (I often want to type this when I’m chatting with people back home but then I realize they wont understand…I feel this will probably happen when I go home to visit in December, too)
2. Salamat (sah-lah-maht) po – Thank you! Always an essential phrase to know
3. Na (nah) – already/now (for example: Kain na! – Eat now! Or Dito na ako – I’m here already) I really use this one all the time even when I’m speaking English. Ex: Where are you na?
4. Syempre (shyem-pray) – Of course. In Spanish, with different spelling, it means always.
5. Hay naku (eye-nah-ko) – expression that compliments a sigh. This is definitely one of my favorites. “Hay naku, pagod na!” – “Sigh, I’m tired already!”
6. Grabe (Grah-beh) – my goodness! Another expression (they’re my favorite to learn)
7. Wala (wah-lah) – None/not. For example: “Nasaan si Carol?” “Wala pa.” – “Where is carol?” “Not here yet.” Or “May 10 pesos ka?” “Wala.” – “Do you have 10 pesos?” “No, I have none.”
8. Sana (sah-nah) – Hopefully. “Will you be able to come to my birthday party?” “Sana!”
9. Seguro (seh-goo-row) – Maybe. “Will you be able to come to my birthday party?” “Seguro!” (this is a nice way of saying probably not)
10.  iyan (eeyahn)/iyon (eeyoon) – That/There. Also used as an expression, for example if you’re trying to do something and you finally get it you say “iyan!” Like, “There! I got it!” It’s usually exaggerated too, like “iyoooon!”

And just in case you were wondering….

Top 3 things I’m looking forward to when I come home to visit:

1. Hugging friends and family!

2. DRIVING!

3. Food!

Well I totally jinxed myself in July when I said I wrote a post every month because as you can see I did not write in August. Believe me, there are plenty of drafts of started blogs in my documents folder…and maybe someday they’ll be published… or maybe not. I had this grand idea to write a blog summarizing my “Top” lists as an anniversary blog post… but that only resulted in scraps of paper with random ideas or memos in my cell phone. I’ve also noticed it’s become tradition for me to start my blog posts apologizing for not writing more often, so I’m not about to break that now!

So what’s been happening lately…

I moved in to my own place! More on this to come in another post..

My kitchen :)

Supervisor’s Conference – My supervisor (the head of the English department at my school) and I were invited to be resource facilitators for the new batch’s Supervisor’s Conference. This conference was where all the new volunteers found out where they will be permanently placed and met their supervisors for the first time. It was such an honor to be chosen as a resource volunteer since it’s an indicator of a strong relationship with my supervisor, as well as a sign that I am seen as a helpful leader by the Peace Corps staff. Many of my Peace Corps friends nicknamed me “Gunner” since I got here, because as early as orientation I knew I wanted to help at future events as a resource volunteer. So as early as orientation, I tried to stand out by participating a lot, applying for committees, and getting to know the staff, on top of working hard at my permanent site. I am happy to say my “gunning” paid off! I had an amazing time getting to know the new batch and tried my best to help them during a somewhat stressful and transitional point during their training. It was also interesting to get perspective on how far I’ve come since I was at the point they were at a year ago.

Journalism camp in Romblon- A fellow PCV held a three day camp at his school for teachers and students from surrounding schools in his town. Thanks to some Peace Corps funds, volunteers can sometimes be granted allowance for this kind of work related travel so eight of us got together to help out. We spent the first part of the week planning at one volunteer’s nipa hut right by the ocean (tough life) and the second part of the week teaching news writing, editorial writing, feature writing, photojournalism, editorial cartooning, sports writing and page layout. We first trained the teachers and gave them strategies for teaching journalism, as well as activities for each topic. The following two days we taught nearly 200 students from both elementary and high school.  My topic was photojournalism, which has been a passion of mine since I traveled to Sicily in 2008, so it’s really fun for me to teach. Romblon is prone to brown outs (power outages) and we were lucky to experience one during the camp. Thankfully they had a generator so most people got to present their PowerPoint presentations, but towards the end of the day the generator ran out of gas and my pretty presentation of photos could not be displayed.  Sayang (expression roughly translates to “what a waste”).

However, like PCVs do, I made do and did my best to keep the attention of tired and restless children at the end of a long day. Along with my slanted white board writing and the awesome support of the other PCVs, I shouted (brown out = no microphone) about the rule of thirds, patterns, colors, and angles and then put the kids to work. I passed out pictures cut out from newspapers and they had to observe what was good about the composition and what could be improved. Next, with those same photos, they had to use their imaginations to create captions using the 5 W’s. I personally enjoyed the creativity of the elementary students who often used their birthdays when they needed to make up the date of an event.  Of course, having students practice taking photos would have been the best activity, but the closest thing to a camera some students might have is a low megapixel cell phone camera and even then they’d have to share. Used digital camera donation drive, anyone? Regardless of the lack of resources, it was a successful presentation and overall a very successful camp.  Not to mention I got to see another beautiful part of this country.

Next, I was off to Northern Samar to help Trent out with a Coastal Resource Management assessment at his site.  Since he’ll be extending for another year, he’s working with his supervisor to assess all of the barangays (neighborhoods) in his town to help come up with a comprehensive CRM plan. This was the first run in the first of twelve barangays and I was happy to help out, not only because I got to spend time with him, but also because I live in a landlocked province and had not yet had the opportunity to help out with the CRM sector of Peace Corps.  The assessment tool being used was similar to a tool we learned about during training, including things such as a community map and seasonal calendar, so I didn’t feel completely in the dark. I helped him and his coworkers prepare the materials, and the next morning we went out to talk with local fishermen about trends, issues, and ideas they had for their smaller community. Trent has a great team at his site and they all did a great job presenting the information. It was really interesting to get to work in a completely different setting from my job…we did the assessment on the beach! And we gathered a lot of really interesting data that I’m sure will play a large role in the grander scheme of Trent’s extension.  I also got to see a few other PCVs that live in that province which was great. Getting to see where people live and work everyday is always an exciting experience.

Helping make a community map

Coming up next is the district press conference (journalism competition) and it is going to be hosted at my school, so we have been doing a lot of preparation this week. I’ve been working with the two students who will be competing in photojournalism and I’ve really enjoyed being able to have one-on-one interactions with them since I’m usually managing classrooms with forty or more students.  The biggest obstacle has been their shyness. I’m trying to get them to feel comfortable getting up close to different subjects and to not feel embarrassed crawling on the ground or climbing something to get a good angle…they’re not there yet but I saw some good outputs today and am hoping for even better outputs tomorrow.

Other things coming up this month: My site mate Caitlin’s environmental camp with several fabulous PCVs coming to help out, two new volunteers moving close by! (woohoo!!), and Shea’s journalism camp in Marinduque.

Oh, and this weekend I’m going back to visit my host family from training in Olongapo because they rock and I miss them and I’m so excited! Yehey!

So far (I think), I’ve been able to post a blog at least once a month. However, I almost missed it if it weren’t for my dad’s message to me reading “Need blog!” Of course, I have been meaning to blog, but life and laziness got in the way.

I will try my best to now sum up the last month of my life with bullet points.

• Journalism classes – I started teaching journalism three times a week to the three Special Science Curriculum (SSC) sections! SSC students are the smarty pants of the school. They have to take a test to be placed in this section before the start of school and have much more demanding expectations than the basic curriculum (including extra science and math classes, extracurriculars, etc). It can be quite startling to go from a second year class that still has trouble reading, to go to a first year SSC class that basically seems fluent in English. Normally, I feel my help is most needed for the lower sections but when I was asked to teach journalism (in preparation for regional and national press conference competitions) I jumped at the opportunity! Knowing that they understand me (for the most part) really allows me to come up with creative and more complex assignments, and since it’s only once a week, I have time to develop each activity thoroughly. I think the once a week factor also helps with the students interest level, which is always a nice thing to have.

Students trying to put a news story back together

• Developmental Reading classes- I also teach developmental reading once a week to three sections. It is supplemental to their English class, so again, I think the once a week, change in pace, mixes it up a little for the students and allows my counterpart and I to come up with fun, interactive lesson plans.

• Dance Day - So You Think You Can Dance started an annual National Dance Day last year, where they published choreography online for people to learn and then on the designated day people all over the country (and all of the world) performed and posted videos of the event afterwards. I decided last year that I wanted to participate in the next National Dance Day, so when the choreography was posted I told people at my school about it. I first taught the choreography to some students known for their dancing skills (the dance leaders, I called them), they were then in charge of leading the practices thereafter, including teaching new students the steps. They have been practicing for about two and a half weeks now. The plan was to then have the students who learned the dance teach the student body (and interested teachers) on Friday afternoon. The early part of the afternoon would be for teaching the steps and practicing, and then by the end of the afternoon have as many people as possible put it all together. There has been a typhoon happening this week, however, so we did not have practice today or yesterday and I fear classes might be cancelled again tomorrow. Hopefully it pushes through. If not, I’m hoping we could postpone it until Monday, but we’ll see! It’s been fun practicing with the students anyway.

• Baguio, Manila, and Bohol – I was a busy traveling bee this month! I attended an Independence Day celebration held by the U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas at his residence in Baguio, which included good food, lots of volunteers, and getting to meet the new country director for PC Philippines! Also while in Baguio, I helped out at America in 3D, a program ran by the U.S. Embassy to educate others about the different roles the embassy has in the Philippines as well as other fun activities like cooking demonstrations and musical performances. Talking to new people is one of my favorite things to do, so helping out at the Peace Corps station was right up my alley. Next, I went to Manila for an IRC Committee meeting, where we talked about reorganizing the resource center’s website and helped label and barcode books in the PC library. I also got to partake in a fun party for batch 268 just before they attended their Close of Service conference (held 3-4 months before their actual COS date). Lastly, I went on a fun mini vacation to Bohol with some 268 volunteers after the conference was over. The weather wasn’t ideal but the company was great. And I got to see Trent two weekends in a row which was awesome!

Alona beach in Bohol

Forecast for August: Potentially moving out into my own place, Resource volunteering at batch 270′s Supervisor’s Conference, Potential trip to Samar, and a Journalism camp in Romblon! Oh also, my host sister’s 10th birthday, and sitemate Caitlin’s 24th :)

Blog done. You’re welcome, Dad!

A glimpse into my life (a really long drawn out glimpse, at least I know my mom will like it!) :

5:45 – Alarm goes off. I should really change the song I have set, “Emily” by Lady Antebellum, since I really used to like that song and now it makes me want to throw my phone across the room. Press snooze (while simultaneously realizing, I SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! I feel like a baby, a newborn actually, admitting that…but if you read this post, you’d understand why this was exciting to me.)

6:15 – Finally get out of bed. Go to the bathroom. See the door is closed and light is on which means my host sister is in there. Stumble back to my room. Johna used to knock on my door when she was done, which was nice because I could lay in bed until the last possible moment (I avoided signing up for morning classes in college like the plague), but she stopped doing that for some reason so now I just play a guessing game.

6:30 – Enjoy a hot shower (I’m so spoiled) and think to myself, man, I’m really going to miss these when I move out of my own. Contemplate if moving out is worth it. Remind myself of all the reasons why it is.

6:45 - Eat breakfast. My host mom put out two cups of noodles for Johna and I. Nothing like a Cup-O-MSG to start the day! Not even complaining, I’ve grown to like them.

7:00- Rush to finish getting ready. Usually I get a ride to school with my host family around this time, but my host mom doesn’t have first period on Tuesdays, so I remember I can rush a little slower today.

7:10 - Leave the house. Stand out front to catch a trike. Have an awkward moment where I try to wave over one driver but he’s waiting for someone else. But the guy contemplates leaving if his potential customer doesn’t hurry up. Another driver notices me and picks me up, first, though. Along the ten minute ride (I really could walk if I left myself enough time, but that is unlikely) I check the progress of the small house being built that I plan to move into, then happen to pass by the landlord of the building standing across the street and we exchange smiles. I wonder why the small Filipino-American restaurant is always closed, but then I think I usually look at it when I’m on my way to school very early in the morning. I really want to check it out sometime though! We pass by the elementary school, located across from the private Catholic school. I wonder how much it costs to go there and what the differences in education are.

7:20 - It looks like there might be classes today since the elementary schools are open (the day before classes were cancelled due to flooding from the heavy rain over the weekend). But when we approach the high school, the trike driver shouts “Wala!” which means none. Still, I see some teachers are there, so I decide to ask them what they will do for the day. They say “chika-chika” which means small talk, so I decide to stick around for a little while. The trike driver says, “Madami mga bagay”, you have a lot of things. I had brought visual aids and books along, thinking there was class, so I did have my hands full. I laugh, hand him 10 pesos (25 cents), and say “Salamat po, ingat!”  Thank you, take care!

7:30- I check out the flooding. Most areas of the school are fine, but one of the main pathways to several different parts of the school still looks like a small river. I imagine there wont be classes the rest of the week. Even if they get the water out by tomorrow, they’ll still have to clean the rooms, and a lot of students wont show up. Just one example of how classes can get pushed way back here. I check in with my supervisor, she asks me to write up the results of our recent reading assessment for my second year class. She tells me we will have a meeting with the Department of Education in Cabanatuan to get our special reading class approved. I feel a little bit nervous, like I will have to defend a thesis paper. I head off to the guidance office (the unofficial office of the younger teachers) and get to work.

8:30 – Finish printing the papers needed for my supervisor. I talk to some teachers in the admin office about where I think I’m going to move. They start brainstorming what things they can give me for my apartment. One offers utensils, and plates, another offers a rice cooker. A prime example of Filipino hospitality! These ladies are so motherly to me and I love it. I sometimes imagine how different my experience would be if either of them or some other teachers were my host family instead. This all has been a learning experience to say the least.

9:00-11:00 – Welp, now there’s nothing left to do for the day and the wifi has been turned on. Teachers who have laptops, scan Facebook, watch Youtube videos, and maybe do some research. I join them and check the sites I always check: Gmail, Facebook, Boston.com, Cnn.com, Gawker.com, Gloucestertimes.com, Nytimes.com, StumbleUpon if I’m bored enough. I get restless easily, since I also have the internet at home (spoiled again, I know). Who needs to be connected this much?! I try to google things that make me feel productive. I browse Peace Corps grant files. I remember I need to get my Leave Request Form signed by my supervisor for when I go home for Christmas (hooray!) This starts a decent discussion about going home, and of course I receive requests for pasalubong (souvenirs). I wonder if I could get a discount on seventy Rockport, MA t-shirts if I buy in bulk?  I put my computer away, and have some more conversations with other teachers. One teacher and I talk about the differences in dating between our cultures. Another teacher and I browse some of the books I recently got donated from Books for Asia and talk about the different lesson plans one book suggests. I try to start a group discussion about nutrition month, which is next month, but they say the TLE (technology and livelihood education) department handles it, so I decide I need to talk to different people about my ideas.

12:00 – 1:00 – I have lunch with one of the women I talked to about moving out, Ma’am Jenny. She offers what she cooked for lunch to me and gives me a plate of rice, despite my efforts to say I could just go home for lunch. She is someone that I feel I can talk to about anything. I don’t know if she even likes that I talk to her so much, but she listens and she’s very nice, so I appreciate it. We talk for a good long while about several things in her life and in mine. One of the head teachers comes in and jokes she must be tired of speaking in English. I think maybe he’s right, so I thank her for the food and head back once again to the guidance office.

1:00 – 2:00 - Cyrus, one of the funniest teachers at the school, takes a bunch of small sticks and put them on the ground in a line. He says you can only move one stick to make it turn to liquid. After a long time staring and guessing, Princess moves one stick in between to others to make an H, and then it spelled out “ihi,” which is pee. He creates another puzzle, that has a little more crude of an answer, and then everyone goes back to their computers or elsewhere, and I decide to head home for the afternoon.

2:00-4:00 – One thing that Trent and I do often is listen to albums at the same time and then text each other what we think about each song. Since he was traveling by van for several hours to go to a Peace Corps event, it was the perfect time for him to listen to some new stuff. So we listened to Amos Lee’s “Mission Bell” and his self titled album, and then switched over to William Fitzsimmons “Gold in the Shadow.” I really enjoy doing this because I can listen while also doing something else like journaling, cleaning, or making visual aids for class. Not only that, but it’s a shared experience with Trent even though we’re not physically together, and it’s fun to see what songs we agree or disagree on.

4:00 – We have an internet crisis, which I was actually welcoming so I wouldn’t be distracted, but my host sister really wants to connect. Some quick troubleshooting and I am deemed the hero of the day!

5:00 – 6:00 – I catch up on some podcasts for TED Talks and NPR Tiny Desk. I think about all the new things I’ve learned or discovered since being here. First of all, I never listened to a podcast unless it was for class in college before coming here. I read books I wouldn’t think to read. Listen to music I wouldn’t think to listen to. And watch several TV shows on my computer that I would have never gotten around to watching back home. Although these things are not directly related to my job, it’s all a part of the experience, and I really appreciate the down time (sometimes) when I can discover and explore new things.

6:00- Dinner. Can’t even tell you what it’s called, because I’m a visual learner and no matter how many times someone says something to me, I probably wont remember it unless they write it down because I can’t understand what they’re saying (the same goes for learning  people’s names too). But it’s  chicken and some vegetables in some sort of  soupy sauce. With rice, of course. Just my host sister and I eating this round, her parents still in their room watching over baby John. She tells me she’s excited for tomorrow because she gets to perform a play she practiced over the weekend with some friends. I tell her we didn’t have class again because of the flood. “The students must be happy,” she says. I respond, “because there were no classes?”. “I guess so, I don’t really know why though, I get excited for school sometimes.” “That’s good! Yea, school isn’t so bad. You get to see your friends…” “And learn some cool stuff,” she adds. What a cutie. I love her.

The rest of the night – Mindless internet. Usually I’ll watch shows during this time too. I’ve been really into instrumental music lately, so I went to one of my favorite sites for playing music: 8tracks.com (because Pandora doesn’t work here in the PI). On the site you can search for user created playlists by genre or by artist. I searched instrumental and found some really great stuff. I’ve noticed listening to instrumental music inspires me to write. Hence the very, very long blog post!

Goodnight!

 

This blog title has been generously donated by my fabulous boyfriend, who has joked about making a book of this tragic tail (pun intended). This post is also dedicated to him for putting up with my frantic play by play phone calls every night (they go something like this: Me: WHAT THE F..There’s another mouse! It’s crawling up my window towards the ceiling. What is it doing up there?! Why?! Why wont they just leave me alone?!… It just jumped on the floor!!! And now I can hear it behind my bed..” Trent: …..patiently waits for me to be done..which is never…)

And so begins the story Of Mice and Woman

It all started innocently enough. One mouse, or so I thought, occasionally popped it’s head up behind my suitcase propped up next to the wall. Oh, hello, little mousey, you startled me, I thought. But you must be more scared of me than I am of you, that’s what my mom always told me, so I will be a brave Peace Corps Volunteer and let you stay just as long as you don’t come any closer and don’t ever think about coming on my bed, ever, ok?!

I really thought this mouse understood me. And that was my first mistake. My second mistake was thinking this whole time there was only one. In my defense, they only showed themselves one at a time! But still, I know, really not the sharpest crayon in the box on that one.

So this went on for a good long while. Occasional mouse sitings, even staring contests (I should have seen this as a warning that it/they were getting braver) continued until it was summer vacation and I left my site for a good long while. When I returned, I still was not shaken by the mouse’s presence. It had almost become a familiar routine, a sign of being home, if you will. But then the fateful day came, while readjusting my pillows, I noticed mouse poop on my sheets.

MOUSEY, I TOLD YOU, DUDE, MY BED EQUALS GAME OVER. But in quick return, as if to say, F U Emily, we never shook hands on that deal, I saw a mouse jump on my bed WHILE I WAS ON IT. This would be the first of many sleepless nights. I told my host family about it the next day, to which they basically gave me the look, I don’t care, you’re a grown up, deal with it. Ok, ok, I get it, yes I will handle it, but can you tell me, say, where to buy the traps, or what kind to buy? To which they gave me an answer, but again with a look that said, I’d rather not tell you but I guess I have to.

After school, I bought two sticky traps (that could be cut up into four), and headed home on a mission. By this point, I expected to maybe catch two, since the sitings became more frequent, and though still only one at a time, I’d see it in two different places within a very short period of time. I caught two on the same trap, almost immediately. But then I saw a third trying to avoid the trap, seeing it’s friends helplessly stuck there.

In order to dispose of the trap, you have to fold it up while the mice are still squeaking and trying to break free. As someone that does not want to be near mice, this was a very difficult task for me. I’d have to psych myself up for at least twenty minutes before I could finally get the courage to fold it up and stick it in a plastic bag. I’d then have to run outside in the dark and in the rain to the outdoor trash can before coming back to my room to face more. I caught two more on the second trap, and by this time it was already very late at night. So late, that I had started to drift off to sleep but then the loud squeaking of a newly stuck mouse woke me up. I decided if I was going to get any sleep, I’d have to wait to put out the next trap and risk mice crawling on me as the alternative.

I started evaluating places where I thought they were coming in, and tried to think of ways to block them. One place was definitely by my suitcase, which was where I was catching them. But the hole isn’t visible because there’s a gap between the entire wall and the floor. The wall is solid, but of course somewhere there’s a hole, and because of the overlap I couldn’t see where. I also noticed they would crawl up my window up towards the top of the curtains. Upon further investigation, I noticed that one of the ceiling tiles had a rather large gap across the entire thing. I asked for help from my host family, but it was initially answered with blank stares. I put out another trap. Caught another mouse. I didn’t leave it out long enough to see if another one would get stuck on the same trap. I was too spooked already. But after that I was out of traps. I shoved a towel between the wall and the floor and jammed my suitcase against it. This has worked temporarily, since I saw a mouse try to get back out that way, but got confused and then went up the window towards the ceiling.

This situation went very quickly from Emily not caring about a mouse in her room, to full out Emily freak out mode due to a mouse invasion. Losing sleep was also not helping my sanity. The other night, I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room, to which I think my host family realized, alright she’s lost it, I guess we should help. The next day, my host dad put up a wooden board to cover the gap in the ceiling tile. I bought more traps to try and get any stragglers that might have been lurking who knows where. I had such high hopes of a mouse free night, but when night came, another appeared. This one was smart enough to avoid the traps! It crawled up towards the ceiling, noticed it couldn’t get out and started gnawing on the corners of the wood. It wasn’t working right away, so naturally, it jumped on my bed again. To which I decided I would be sleeping on the couch again.

I still do not know if the mouse got out or not, but it did some damage on the wood. I attempted to patch up these new holes, and readjusted the traps in such a way to hopefully trick this mouse or any others that may still be around. Again, I have hope, but it is dwindling. I’ve become delusional; any sound or movement in my peripheral vision makes me jump a mile high. Come night time, I’m an anxious wreck, constantly on the look out with no real plan of action. If this were war, the mice would be winning by psychological warfare. I know, I know, they’re just mice but I can handle bugs no problem for the most part, so I have some strengths! If there is no improvement in the next day or two, my next plan is to put poison out. But I sure do hope this story is over soon. For Trent’s sake and for mine!

This post includes the session plans given to my regional and sector manager after holding the DREAM Workshop at my school. If you’d like to read the report that goes with it, you can read it here.

DREAM Workshop

Presented by Emily Grund

Objectives:

• To explore intrinsic motivation techniques related to administration, teaching, and classroom management.
• To develop goals for the upcoming school year through a series of hands on activities.

Dedication

Responsibility

Education

Attitude

Motivation

Venue: School gym

Materials needed: Tables, chairs, poster paper, markers, white board, portable microphone, crayons, bond paper, scotch tape. 

Attendance:

Objectives:

• To assess the amount of teachers present
• To discuss attendance techniques for classroom management

Activity: Post an attendance list on poster board with all the teachers’ names on the wall. As teachers arrive, give them a slip of paper to answer the question of the morning. “What is your favorite part about teaching?” Then have teachers post their answer next to their name. Announce if they do not answer they will be marked absent from the workshop. Discuss the answers, as well as the activity after the introduction. Ask teachers to share their ways of taking attendance.

Reflection: Teachers seemed to enjoy this activity. It took awhile since teachers arrived at different times. I repeated the activity at lunch with a different question, “What was your favorite activity from the morning?” It went faster after lunch because they knew what to expect. I shared that this could be adapted to their classrooms but not much further discussion happened during this activity because of time constraints. It was really interesting to see the answers from the teachers, they were thoughtful even though they joked their favorite part about teaching was break time. Some favorites: “Giving advice to students,” “witnessing learning and understanding,” and “sharing ideas and gaining knowledge from other teachers.”

Point system:

 Objective: To reinforce positive behavior from the teachers during the work shop

Activity: I used a point system called Motivation Station (adapted from a Peace Corps conference point system). Departments were given points for participation, winning an activity, etc. They lost points if their cell phones went off or if there was no participation during an activity. The team with the most points at the end of the day got the award “Most Motivated Department” including a prize.

Reflection:  The teachers took the point system seriously, and it definitely encouraged participation!

Energizer: Song: “I’m here because you’re here because I’m here because you’re here. I’m here because you’re here because I’m here because you’re here.” Sing with actions Thumbs in, thumbs down, hands crossed over chest, pointer finger out, pointer finger down, hands crossed over chest, and repeat. Sing three times. Each time getting faster.

Reflection: Got the teachers moving, and laughing! (No pictures, sorry!)

Icebreaker:

Objective: For departments to work together and problem solve.

Activity: Human knot. Get in a circle with your department. Everyone raise your right hand, reach across and grab the hand of someone across the circle. Make sure it is not the person you are standing next to. Everyone raise your left hand, reach across and grab the hand of a different person. Again, make sure it is not the same person or the person standing next to you. Now work together to untie the knot!

Reflection: One department didn’t even try to complete it, but they learned their lesson when they lost points from the Motivation Station. The rest of the departments had fun and most eventually completed the activity.

Inspirational Stories:

 Objectives:

• To share personal experiences related to the stories
• To explore the morals of the stories

 Activity: Two stories were chosen from Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul. “Attitude of Gratitude” and “I’m Glad it’s You and Not Me.” Four departments got one story and the other four got the other. Each department was asked to designate someone to read it out loud, or to share the reading evenly. On manila paper, teachers were asked to write what they thought the moral of the story was and personal experiences within the department that related to the story.

Reflection: Teachers had a really good discussion during this activity. Many of them were able to relate to having difficult students or feeling uninspired because of the challenges of teaching but from the stories also learned the importance of never giving up on themselves or on their students.

After snacks, we had another energizer “All the melodies in my heart” another song with actions. The teachers enjoyed it because it’s silly, easy, and got them moving again.

Scavenger Hunt for Expectations.

 Objectives:

• To build team unity
• To review the daily expectations of teachers

Activity: Each department was given a different clue for a certain place around the school. From there each clue led to another place. They had to write down the order of the clues and the rooms that matched them. The first department to be finished first got points towards Motivation Station. Discussion followed.

Reflection: The teachers had fun with this activity but during discussion it seemed they didn’t understand the point of the scavenger hunt. I reworded my questions, which eventually led to a deeper discussion about teacher expectations. This flowed very nicely into the next activity.

Snowball Activity:

 Objective:

• To brainstorm teacher rules that are important to them
•  To discuss rewards and consequences that motivate teachers

Activity: Each teacher was asked to write down a rule for teachers that is important to them on a white piece of paper. After they were done, they were instructed to crumple the piece of paper into a ball. They were first asked to create a snowstorm by running around like the wind and making snow fall by throwing their paper into the air. Afterwards, they broke off into two groups and then had a snowball fight. The teachers had to then grab one of the papers thrown at them and with a partner come up with three rewards for following the rule and three consequences for breaking the rule. A discussion followed the activity.

Reflection: The teachers really enjoyed the snowball fight and came up with some great rewards and consequences that I could see working for our school such as teacher of the month awards for a reward or getting observed by the head teacher for a consequence.

After lunch we began with the “Captain of the Ship” icebreaker/energizer. Teachers had to listen to the commands of the captain (me- hehehe) and with each command had to do a different action, with different amounts of people. For example, when I said “Captain’s ball”, they had to find a partner and dance, but when I said “Row the boat” they had to find two other people to row the boat with them. When they couldn’t find the right amount of people for the command, they were eliminated. Most teachers had fun with this activity, however, some did not care about winning so they sat down early on.

Meditation Exercise:

Objectives:

• To introduce a “cool down” activity, opposite of energizer
• To visualize past, present, and future scenarios related to teaching

Activity: Brief breathing techniques for meditation to start, then all teachers close their eyes and MC reads situations for teachers to imagine.

Distant Past: Imagine you’re in a classroom as a student, you’re favorite/least favorite teacher is teaching, how do they teach, why do you like/not like them, how do you feel?

Recent Past: Imagine you’re in a classroom as a teacher, you are teaching your best/worst class. What are the students doing? What is the environment like? How do you feel?

Future: Imagine you’re in a classroom as a teacher this coming school year. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want your students to do? How do you envision your attitude?

Share thoughts in between each meditation. At the end have a larger group discussion about the activity.

Reflection: Lots of participation from this activity. Most teachers, even if they had been teaching for over twenty years could still remember their favorite or least favorite teacher in high school. Bringing up those memories made them think of how they are as teachers and what they could do differently to improve.

Extracurricular activity:

Objective: For teachers to brainstorm ways to get involved with students, teachers, or the community outside of the classroom.

Activity: Teachers were first asked to write down their hobbies, things they like to do for fun, and community service projects that interest them. After they were finished, teachers were asked to match each thing written with a potential extracurricular activity that went with it. For example, if their hobby was gardening maybe a gardening club could start at the school. If for fun they like to play basketball, maybe the teachers could start their own recreational team. And if for community service they’re interested in the environment maybe they would like to have a clean up drive. Ideas were written on manila paper and then shared with the group later.

Reflection: Teachers had some good ideas to match their interest. If there had been more time I would have liked to brainstorm how they could actually get those activities off the ground (I hope to focus more on this during my next workshop).

Department Cheer:

Objective: To create team unity and have fun

Activity: Departments were asked to make a cheer that was motivational and positive. Three office workers at the school were the judges and the criterion was creativity, energy, and unity.

Reflection: A fun way to end the workshop. Teachers were able to come up with fun cheers in a short time and perform for the rest of the departments.

Reflection overall: Originally it was supposed to be a two day workshop, and I had to cut a few activities to fit it into one day. I wanted to talk further about project/idea development but then realized that could be an entire workshop in itself. I hope to create a survey for the teachers to answer what activities were the most effective and if they have or will use any of the strategies learned.  I also want to have a follow up meeting with teachers interested in starting up extracurricular activities with students or teachers. Overall, I think the day was a success. It got the teachers thinking about how their teaching effects not only the students but also themselves. I was very impressed with the depth of the participation and wish I had more time to encourage even more discussion.