Para sa Filipino Family namin

I am writing this entry from the Peace Corps Office in Manila. Tomorrow we leave for the US & we are not sure when we will be back in the Philippines. The past few days have brought quite a few unexpected challenges due to issues beyond our control.

To all of our friends, family, and maybe even strangers reading this from abroad, we want you to know that we are well & will write more soon.

Sa lahat ng mga Filipinos who have welcomed us into your lives throughout the past two years, words will never be enough to express how grateful we are for your generosity and love. miraming miraming salamat po. Mahirap talaga ito, pero ayos lang kami :) and we will never forget our Filipino family! Baka makabalik kami bagong pasko, baka hindi... pero basta babalik kami dito sa inyong lugar. We have so much to say pero di po kami marunong magsabi sa inyong lahat...

Pagdumating kami dito sa Pilipinas, hindi kami marunong mag-Tagalog, magluto ng kanin, kain sa kamay-kamay lang, magbili ng mga saging (hilaw? Hinog? Lakatan, saba, pula... aroy naman!) at syempre hindi kami marunong magsakay sa mga kalabaw o magmatay ng mga manok, kambing, at lahat ng ibang masarap na hayop! Nagturo nyo kami tungkol sa buhay nyo, at mas mayaman na kami kasi nakilala na tayo. Naginvite nyo kami sa mga outings nyo sa dagat at sa ilog (oh sarap maligo!) Nagkutohan nyo ako when I was super kawawa... the list is never-ending!

Aroy, mahirap nga alis gan ito, pero pagisip kami tungkol sa Pilipinas, grabe talaga ang mga ngiti namin because of you! Grabe laki ang Filipino family namin!

Matamang salamat po.
Pasenya na po, kawawa ang Tagalog ko ngayon... pero mahirap din magsalita sa English. Oh no! wala kaming language.

Ingat kayo lagi

Still going strong

We are alive and well. Thanks for all the well-wishes and check-ins, but the typhoon that hit Manila did not cause any damage here. It did however cause lots of damage in Manila and hopefully emily and i will head there to help with some of the relief effort.


But to prove Emily and I are A-OK here is a picture of us having some coffee this morning (and just to show what we look like these days)









So much to say, we haven't blogged in quite awhile so I'll do my best to fill everyone in on the happenings here.

Most of the volunteers who arrived with us have headed home since our two years is now officially over. It is sad to see them go and has made us realize we have a whole year to go!! Luckily we get to head home this October-December to see friends and family! Very excited for that.

Recently a co-worker invited us out to see their "land" out in the rural barangay of Irawan. She warned us it is very malayo (far) and that magdaan tayo sa ilog or we will have to walk through the river to get there. She was right! it was quite a hike, but very well worth it. When we finally arrived there we all settled into the small pool at the bottom of the gently flowing waterfall for an great afternoon. here are some pics.

Jon playing the drums on the coconuts drying out near their house before we hiked to waterfall.

Jon enjoying a shot with the guys

Emily cooling off with the girls

Time to eat!

Jon courageously defending the group from the docile water buffalo

Another exciting happening was the finishing (well, almost) of my grant project. This was the constructing of new classrooms for a school with disabilities. We were about 90% complete when the US Ambassador to the Philippines happened to be passing through and asked to stop by and see our project. Everyone at the school was so incredibly excited for the honor of hosting the US Ambassador. She only came by for about 30 minutes but i could see it was the most memorable day yet for the center. We prepared for her visit for nearly a week, practicing what we would do, always making little changes here and there. The day of her visit we all anxiously paced awaiting her arrival...soon the motorcade was within site and everyone jumped to their places. Myself and Pastor Mon had the honors of explaining the goals and mission of the center and then giving a brief tour to the Ambassador....after a quick snack and a photo-op she was off to her next destination. As the motorcade pulled away from school you could feel the anxiety leave the people as literally everyone let out a genuine cheer of joy....it was great to be apart of that. Here are a few pics:

Jon giving an opening speech

Showing her the classrooms....not quite finished/painted...

A look at our classrooms from the outside

Each of the teachers has a big box like this to store all their new materials in

Since then things have been very busy for jon and emily...although for different reasons. Jon is busying tying to finish up projects before heading back to the US for a vacation and Emily is busying trying to get some last second Palawan site seeing in before heading back to the US...she had quite the bike tour of the area.

Jon has been busy giving trainings to many of the urban barangays on how to conduct a diversion program with youth offenders. Its been going pretty well, but is especially rewarding since this is a follow through on the planning done at his community consultation recommendations given last April... so far no construction yet on the proposed buildings, but supposedly the funding is still there...we'll see.

Another opportune project jon is trying to get started is based on the "Second Harvest" concept. Puerto Princessa has a pretty large hotel and service industry, so we are aiming to collect their excess or wasted prepared foods for the purpose of feeding children in need of special protection who are housed at our centers. I've got all the information I need to get started and hopefully will begin trying to get the restaurants involved.

Only two weeks till we head back to the US!!! Can't wait to see everybody.... hopefully we'll be able to update while we're in the US as well so our friends here in the Philippines can see our trip home.

the story of island life

Liberated toes

The permeable houses that remind us
sometimes it is hard to know
where inside begins & outside ends

goats nibbling back the rioting jungle

The sea brezes that make
everything windblown seem
alive with salty madness

the holy quiet
of dropping a hook & line
into the deep blue

sucking on fleshy fruit seeds
while sorting the
oceans freshly entangled booty

island laughter

the warm sea during monsoons
fruit bats at dusk
the thud of a coconut falling

the noise of a birds wings
fluttering away at the door
that opens all the way back
to a moment of simplicity

Bicycle riding vegetable dealers
water buffalo riding girls
banana stands

lazy saturday mornings
dominated with badminton
and coloring
with the neighborhood kids

Mutya ng Pawikan

The above picture was taken with the winner of the "Mutya ng Pawikan" pageant (loosely, and less poetically translated as "miss pearl of the sea turtle" pageant) at the first ever Pista ng Pawikan (sea turtle fiesta). She is wearing her outfit from the "Recycled Wear" contest. It is made of newspaper. My favorite in recycled wear was the girl who made a dress out of old CDs. it was beautiful. The other Americans in the picture are other PCVs who came to help out w/the event. It was a two day long environmental education event focusing on sea turtles & the marine environment. A sort of celebration of natural resources in honor of World Turtle Day. The theory being that people need to be aware that their resources are unique & something worth appreciating before they can learn to respect them, only after which there is a chance they will be willing to conserve/sustainably manage them.

I organized the event as a sort of introduction to coastal/marine ecology & conservation in the community. The next stage is teaching environmental science in the grade schools & training high school teachers in how to integrate environmental topics into their science curriculum. Hopefully by the start of next nesting season (beginning in December) we will have established a volunteer Bantay-Pawikan ("protector of the sea turtles"). They will be in charge of nest monitoring & continuing the environmental education program when I leave in a year.

The Fiesta was a two day long environmental education event focusing on sea turtles & the marine environment. The event included a film showing (The Lorax and BBCs Blue Planet – it is always interesting showing communities who depend so heavily on the sea what it actually looks like down there. Though they know where the fish are, and some dive using wooden framed goggles, wooden flippers, and spear guns, but most have never seen a coral reef), information booths, face painting, sea turtle mask making, an environmental treasure hunt (which involved out-of-school youth planting trees, picking up trash, writing environmentally themed poems etc), an attempt at a coastal clean up, and a riverbank rehabilitation project (planting native vitivir grasses on a steep riverbank).

The highlight of course was the pageant, which was one of the most entertaining spectacles of which I have ever been a part. No public event is complete without some awkward gesture by the foreigners, which came during an extended intermission when we were (without warning) called on stage to entertain. Filipinos are great at impromptu spotlight sessions, and after being here two years I’m pretty much immune to this type of awkwardness so we hopped up on stage and began singing “Buhay Kubo,” a favorite Filipino children’s song. Luckily everyone in the audience knew the words and sang along with us.

While I would definitely say the event was a success (literally everyone in the three surrounding communities was present), there were a few major shockers, such as the contestant who beat a beautifully constructed sea turtle effigy to bits & then walked off stage crying as part of the talent portion. Or during the question and answer portion when another contestant answered the question "Why are sea turtles important to our community?" by toasting the crowd with "Because their eggs are the most delicious! Cheers!"

Hey, at least it got people thinking about sea turtles...

Building Updates

Here are a few more pictures of the progress. Unfortunately rainy season started a little bit early this year and it has slowed us down a bit, but other than that there have been no other major concerns yet! (i'm not sure why its underlining all of my typing, but I can't figure out how to make it stop...sorry).

Here the guys are working on the roof and beginning to build the outer walls.

As rain comes and goes the guys hide under the roof to try to stay dry.

Bayanihan. Neighbors and friends come by to help put up a new bamboo fence.

Outside walls and window jambs are up and in place.

A view from the other side

Here we see the plywood walls that face towards the inside of the compound.

Pastor Mon putting together a door for the new rooms!

Here we can see the concrete has been laid for the new floors

A masonry guy works to smooth over the walls so they look nice. (tough to see it in this dark picture, but to the right is nice and finished while to the left is still exposed hollow block)

All in all everything is looking good. Still have a ways to go with putting in the electrical stuff, tiles, interior walls, and others....but no complaints. I've been doing my best to help out, but find it has been much easier for them to do what they do best and stay out of the way. They did let me stack a few hollow blocks for the walls, but later when we went back and check it out we noticed I had laid one a little off line with the others. Although I was able to fix it I pretty much banned myself after that....

The center recently hosted a "medical mission" in which doctors from metro manila and around the Philippines gave a free two day medical consultation to those who cannot afford a doctor. At the mission the doctors did eye checkups and gave out free glasses with prescriptions, did dental check-ups and pulled lots of teeth (not sure if they did anything besides that with the dental), checked basic health and gave advice or free medicines, and also...my favorite, gave free circumcisions to all the local boys (if they wanted it of course). Boys here don't get circumcised until their teenage years or "as a right of passage" to manhood...as they would say. I don't quite get it, but I really felt for the line of 13 and 14 year old boys who fearfully sat outside the door where the procedure was performed. Ouch! The nurses even asked me if I wanted to watch a procedure, but unfortunately I had to go to soon...They said it takes nearly 30 minutes!!! How on earth is that?? Just get it over with already! Apparently, back in the day (or even sometimes for those who still aren't lucky enough to run into a free medical mission) this procedure was done by local person with a VERY sharp Bolo or Machete. The person gave it one quick slice then the boy ran into the ocean while sucking on some kind of leaf. When they get out of the water they spit their saliva in the leaf and use it as a bandage for their recently chopped manhood....Ouch.

Really though, it was great to see Filipinos doing this kind of service (the overall medical mission...not just the circumcision) for their own country.

Construction Pictures

Here are a few pictures of what the ongoing construction looks like at the center. The construction is being done by Pastor Mon, Jun, a husband of one of the teachers, a father of one of the students, and from time to time a random assortment of other family/community members donating there time and skills to the project. The tradition of volunteering your time to those in your community who need your help is called Bayanihan here in the Philippines. It is similar to what I would imagine is a "barn raising". I'll do my best to explain what is going on and what the purpsose of the constuction is though, it seems a bit hard to do through these pictures.

Here we start clearing out the area where construction will be taking place.

A good chunk of walls and materials have been removed and intial preperations are being made to start building.




In the foreground is the cement mix while the man kneeling is pouring in the concrete for one of the posts.

Wooden framing for walls quickly goes up.




Kids help by priming some of the metal.

Roofing and wall structures are going up for the extension portion.

Finishing up some measurements for the roof.

Hollow blocks are laid and filled with cement as the outside walls begin to be placed

Jon helps make a few measurements.

Looking out from where the classrooms will be towards the extension. Window jambs, door jambs, plywood, and other materials lay on the floor.

I also had to include a picture of the girls and the lunch they provide everyday for the workers. Masarap!

More pictures to come soon. So much progress everyday.

Buildings, Work, Extensions and Fun

Most everyone who reads this blog knows that nearly a year ago Jon posted a project on here and asked for everyone to help support it. Maybe you thought this project slipped through the cracks or never happened, but I am happy to report that the funding for the project came through (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU) in full mid-April, we received the funds at the end of April, and began purchasing construction materials the first week of May and are now well on our way to the construction of the resource center.

First, let me back track a little to catch anyone up on what I am talking about. Taw Kabui for a child is a local NGO that I work with as a secondary project. They are a center for children with disabilities, mainly autism, downs syndrome, or another form of developmental disorder. This organization had been established close to one year before I arrived (so now it is nearly three years old!). It was started by a nice couple, Solomon (Pastor Mon for short) and Ofelia Rosario (pic at right), through their church. The teachers are all volunteers with little experience who held their classes in make-shift classrooms in the open floor planned church area and in nipa huts to the side of the church. They had no real support material in their work. To say the very least they were putting all their heart into their work.

I wrote a grant with them to fund the building of a resource center and purchase materials for the teachers and students. As I mentioned above, we have finally begun this process (Thanks to all of you!). Below I will show a few pictures of the area we are working on before construction and then show some pictures of the on-going progress.

approaching the center

Front View of the Church area and nipas to the left

The entry way with the open church area to the right and nipas to the left.

These are the nipas that will be made into permanent classrooms and extended for more space for their resource.

Make shift classrooms in the open air church area.

A teacher teaches a song to her two students in one of the makeshift classrooms. The girl in uniform is a social work student from a local university doing a summer internship at the center.

A teacher working with a student in a nipa.

As most of you know we applied for our extension and it was approved. For now we will be staying through September 2010. We are very excited it worked out because we still have plenty of work to do. Emily has already posted info about the work she will be doing to create a sea turtle sanctionary, so its my turn to let everyone know I am busy at work myself....we don't get to spend the whole time diving in beautiful tubbataha or swimming with whale sharks off our bay (we did both this last month)!!!

The Philippines has only recently (2006) made a law prohibiting the detention of children with adults. Because of this their juvenille justice system is fairly undeveloped so far. A good portion of what I will be doing is related helping my city develop their programs and services related to it. Along with this I do other work related to "at-risk" youth or underserved youth. This has a lot to do with helping streets kids and kids who come from poor areas and don't have alot of opportunities. And of course I also have my side project there at Taw Kabui. Below are some details on what exactly I've been doing.

The bigger projects I have finished so far are... Created a psycho-social assessments for their CICL (children in conflict with the law--basically, kids who got arrested) clients. This is to help the social workers have a better understanding of how they can best serve the youth, what sorts of programs, counseling, or services they should provide to them. This project took me quite a long time, but has been very successful and I am glad to see all of the people in my office capable of doing this process on their own now. Along with that I helped organize a Life Skills program for some of their CICL clients based on the the intake assessments we created. My counterparts are begining to take over the implentation of this program so I would call it a success!

For the next year I have even more planned as I've really gotten into the swing of things. Right now I (along with another volunteer here) are conducting a situational analysis/case study/feasability study (not sure exactly what you'd call it, but we're doing it, ha!) about the current CICL process here in our city. From this we will give reccommendations and proposals for what programs and services would help this process. We already know that a glaring hole in the services here is the lack of a facility or "rehabilitation center" for CICL youths. The study isn't finished yet, but we plan to have our presentation of it by mid-June. At the presentation we hope to invite all of the community stake-holders as well as possible funders or outside supports (UNICEF, Shell Foundation, National Gov, etc) and kind of give them a sales pitch of what are the current needs in this area and how to address them. Hopefully this will result in a collaboration between all the parties to actually accomplishing all of the things we reccomend.

Over the past year and a half I have already written the manual of operations for such a center/facility(how it will run, what staffing needs there will be and what they will do) and have also helped draw up what this building will look like (an actual architect made the final drawings...i just gave him my input). This center would house youths who have committed a serious offense immediately after the offense (rape, murder) to protect the complaintant as well as the offender from retaliation and to provide counseling and other immediate services. The majority of youth offenders are and should be released back to the custody of their family for other offenses. The city has social workers who are capable of running it, so it will be a matter or having some one fund the building as well as the city committing to pay the salaries of the staff...these are two things that will be hard to secure...but I am hopeful.

As well as the center, I plan to help implement a diversion program here. This is something that also already is existing in paper here, but not yet in reality. The people (actually one person for the entire city) who are responsible for overseeing the program simply do not have the resources to get it going. This is mainly do to the geographical size of the city we live in...just too big. I think I can train a "Diversion Officer" in each barangay who will then be responsible for supervising the youths in their local area and then reporting back to our office monthly. If I can get it started I think our office will have no problem fulfilling their responsibility of overseeing all of the diversion officers. For those youths who simply cannot comply to their diversion contracts or continual re-offenders, the planned rehabilitation center will also serve as a temporary home for them to get back on the right track in life.

The last thing related to CICL will be helping create a statistical database for their old records and help train them on how to keep it updated. This will be an ongoing, slow process...luckily they have Social Work interns periodically from the local university who will be more than happy to help me sift through several years worth of scattered paper files :-).

So much work...and only one more year?!?! If anyone has any questions or wants to know more about my work please feel free to ask or email. Sometimes its just hard to try to explain it here without making it to boring or detailed....

I will soon post some pictures of how the construction at the center is coming along. Thank you so much to all of those who helped make that happen.