Transitioning and What's to Come

Before I share about my transitioning from my Peace Corps Service back to home, I'm currently  participating in one of my last projects here in the Philippines. What is it you ask?

I'm so lucky to have been one of four volunteers chosen to participate in a project called Padayon Mindanao.  Here's a descriptions with some pictures:

 

It's a three-year USAID funded and Peace Corps’ continuing effort to promote peace building in the Philippines. At the core of this education initiative is cross-cultural learning among literacy teachers and peer educators across conflict affected areas in Mindanao and other Peace Corps sites in the Philippines. Through this project, PC volunteers and their local counterparts will take an expanded role in improving youth literacy and life skills by means of Alternative Learning System.

There's two part ,including a Literacy Summit and a Youth Leadership Camp.

Literacy Summit is a seven-day intensive training which aims to develop competence of literacy teachers to meet the education needs of vulnerable youth through Alternative Learning System by: raising awareness on situations of vulnerable youth in education settings; promoting innovations in teaching strategies and learning assessments as applied to ALS core modules; and, upholding mutual learning among participants and exchange of ALS initiatives across regions.

 

Youth Camp is a seven-day youth exchange training which aims the following for the youth:

·         increase life skills and livelihood skills

·         increase understanding of civic engagement

·         develop/enhance leadership skills

·         strengthen linkages & understanding among them

·         promote cultural exchanges

So I'm currently in the second part, the youth camp, here in Cebu City. We are having so much fun and I've really enjoyed my experience here. It's kind of been the cherry on top for the ending of my service that is fast approaching now.
After this project ends the start of the Close of Service (COS) conference, with all my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers that are leaving, starts.


It is soooo crazy how much time has flown and super weird to think that I’m leaving this place, that I have made my home, so soon. Completely in denial and procrastinating on thinking about how I will feel when the time comes to say good bye, is how I’m handling the situation.

COS has always seemed so far away for most of my Peace Corps experience. Up until recently I didn’t really worry about how much it’s going to hurt to leave my work and my friends, both Filipino and fellow Peace Corps Volunteers.  It’s almost like when I first left for the Philippines; it’s been more than two years since I left everything back in the states to start a new part of my life.

Again I will leave my support network and go into more uncharted territory. Yes I’ll be going back home and physically it will mostly be the same as when I first left. Maybe there will be small changes in the landscape, but the bigger difference is me. I am not the same. My inhibitions, my dreams, my outlook on life are different. I will mentally leave my found normal here and venture into the unknown again. That is what is on my mind the most as time gets closer, of course I am excited to see my friends and family back home again but I’m worried about the disconnect that may occur.

I mean no one will understand my jokes, because all of my humor is adapted from Filipino culture or Peace Corps related. hehe, biro lang (just kidding)! I will survive, but am nostalgic.


As my for my future, my next year will be focused on traveling... I 'm going on a month long journey to Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. And then when I get back home to the states.... applying to graduate school is my mission along with road tripping around the great states since I know other PCVs from other states now.

Even though I have mixed feelings now, I am excited and ready to start the next part of my life and whatever comes my way along the way.

Then and Now

Yes it’s been an even longer amount of time since my last blog now, so this one’s going to be jammed packed with information. Maybe I'll make it into two, Actually I have been pretty busy compared to my stagnant update I posted over four months ago. So I’ll let you know about what’s been up in the past four months and what’s going on now. I'll save the 'what’s to come' for a later time.

Since my last post I have been busy traveling and working in between, of course. Getting to see as much of the Philippines as I possibly can, has been my major goal in this second year of my service.  Recently my trips with some of my friends are in the islands of the region of the Visayas here in the Philippines. This is the region is located south of the largest island Luzon, where my site is located. If you look at a map of the Philippines these islands are in the middle of the two larger islands.

The Visayas, Luzon, and Mindanao are the three parts of the Philippines. Unfortunately as a Peace Corps volunteer, I am not allowed to travel to Mindanao due to safety reasons. But I’m trying to explore the parts I can go as much as I can.

 

To get to specific islands in the Visayas there are bus and ferry routes, but this can take days of traveling on bus/boat hell. So I have opted out to take 9 hour bus rides to Manila and then fly to major cities. It’s more expensive, but airlines here offer promos for flights at certain times. On average if I can time it out and keep my eyes online for promos, round trip flights here can average around $30.

Here are some place that I have visited recently:

In April I traveled to the city of Iloilo and then made a long journey (about 6 hours by bus) across the island of Panay to where a hot spot for tourist is, called Boracay. This felt like a vk you would take to get away from work and just relax. It wasn’t the most beautiful beach I have seen in the Philippines, but it definitely was the most modern. My friends and I spent our time eating, drinking, sun bathing, and being merry for Easter.

 

Then I also visited the cities of Dumagete of the Island Negros in May and most recently for my Birthday I went to Tacloban in Leyte. I actually didn't take many pictures, but just spent time hanging out with other Peace Corps Volunteers and enjoying the cities.

 

Beside Visayas traveling I have also been enjoying visiting places at my site of Bicol.

It truly is a gem for traveling to pristine beaches. There's not much tourism going on from international visitors, more just from local Filipinos and Filipinos from different regions.

So here are some of my favorites, including the most beautiful beach I've ever been to:

islands of Matnog, including Subic (the pink sand beach), in the province of Sorsogon,

 

 

Sangay beach chilling in my province of Camarines Sur,

 

 

and last but not least, the gorgeous island of Calaguas in the province of Camarines Norte.

Liked it so much, it was so nice that I went twice!

 

 

 

But of course there's still been work too.

So right now I have a little less than three months left in my service.  I have a couple bigger projects coming up that I will explain in a later blog (promise), but currently I'm focusing on just finishing up a grant project that I started with my counterpart over a year ago. The funding for this project came from an organization called World Connect. They help fund Peace Corps Volunteer projects all over the world; here's their website. where you can read more about the project:
http://worldconnect-us.org/projects/parent-leader-capacity-building-training/

I talked about this project in previous blog posts and it is still not quite completed.  Parts of this project has been postponed so much due to weather and schedule conflicts. Also after the initial project was completed in January there were funds that still needed to be used. 

This month two follow up activities were completed at a local school involving teambuilding activities with elementary school students that are also beneficiaries of the program 4Ps, to which I am assigned. Along with teambuilding the children and their parents were given sessions on the Rights of a Child under the guidelines of the United Nations. The parents were also given sessions on positive parenting.

So there is one more activity of the same nature that will be finished within the next month. yaya! I will explain more work stuff later, but I hope you enjoyed seeing and hearing about my travels. I'll post again soon :)

 

A stagnant update

The title feels like an appropriate one for how I’m feeling, as well as some of my other Peace Corps volunteers. There’s only about seven months left in my service here in the Philippines.  It’s still a lot of time left, yet at the same time it’s not very much. Especially compared to the amount of time I’ve already been here.

It’s been awhile since my last post in this blog though and to be honest it’s mostly because I’m lazy. But it’s also because most of the time I’m just living and not sure if it’s very interesting to others.

Now here, this is my new normal. I no longer feel home sick like I did when I first arrived and through my first year of service.  I have work, which lately involves more independent paperwork, office time, and a project here and there if they don’t get canceled or postponed.   

Then in my free time I hang out with friends, read, and binge watch TV shows or movies. Of course there’s traveling too.  I have been doing a lot more traveling since my time in the Philippines is growing short now.  I want to see as much of this amazing country as I can....

I had an amazing time on a trip that I got to share with my family to Bohol last month!!!  

Most Recent trip to Cantanduanes, passed by the gorgeous Mt. Mayon (active volcano)

   

That's my normal

Being a volunteer gives you more independence and free time versus a regular job, which can be a blessing or a curse depending who you are. I’m adaptable but I do miss having a really routine schedule…. Well sometimes, but mostly I enjoy my relaxed and laid back lifestyle. When I do have productive work I try to work really hard and appreciate it while I’m doing it.

My most recent project was a capacity building training for the beneficiary parent leaders in the organization I work in.  The project idea was developed by my main counterpart (the coworker I’ve been working with most since I’ve been here) and I last March. I submitted a grant for it last April and due to weather (you may have heard a little about typhoons) it had to be postponed from its original date in July all the way to December and then again to January.

It’s a really good example of project progress can go here in the Peace Corps. But thankfully it finally happened and everyone here was really excited about it.

But otherwise work is indeed stagnant at the moment and on my really boring days sometimes it can be hard to remember why I wanted to do this to be here. I’m not always sure about my productivity level and I definitely feel like I’m getting more out of this experience than I’m putting into it. Maybe, I’m hoping, later more towards the end of service I get a glimpse of the impact I’m actually making.

Just like anywhere, in life, in meeting and interacting with other people, a person really has no idea what kind of influence that is being made. In the back of my mind I try to remember that as I talk to my neighbors, as I bond with my coworkers, and as I practice language with my host family and boyfriend.

The only hope I can really have, the most important part about being here I think isn’t about the amount of productive work I do (no matter how much I get frustrated with the pace of work sometimes), it’s about the positive relationships I develop. Which includes after leaving here, in my future and in anyone’s life everywhere, not just in Peace Corps.

If I am remembered after I leave my community in seven months, my only hope is it is in a positive light about Americans and about the kindness I have tried to show while working.