Greetings from beautiful Tarlac!

I realize it's been a while since I've posted a blog entry, but I haven't been able to access a computer that often...or I've been tired...or I haven't wanted to cross the street that I'm pretty sure has me bargaining with death on a daily basis.

So, yeah. I've been at my training site since last Friday and living with my host family. I'm located in the province of Tarlac. The smaller unit of government is called the baranguy, but I won't go too much more into the details of my location. This blog is public and all you'd have to do to find me is look for the awkward looking American stumbling down the street. I believe that I will be training here for three months and then, if I don't wash out, I will be sworn in at the beginning of August.

My host family is very nice and I have my own room in a house (with no air conditioning), two girls aged 8 and 10, and an older couple. There are also six dog and four duck at this place. Now, when you think about dogs you may envision lots of cuddles and companionship...but, in this case, you would be very...very....wrong.

The dogs at the house were one of the first things I noticed. It works as follows: One mother dog runs in between the front porch area and the back yard while functioning as a garbage disposal for most meals...oh, there's about 4-6 full meals a day here, so she does pretty good. As for the puppies...the best I can liken them to are Jim Henson characters from The Dark Crystal. There are five puppies, some white with floppy ears, a couple are brown with black muzzles...they are cute, in theory. But, the catch is that they are the secondary garbage disposal after their mother. They hide out underneath various objects in the yard until they sense you approaching the back door. When they know their going to be fed, they all run up and bark in unison for the food...after you give them the food, there is a very quick flurry of action until they again scatter to their respective hiding places. I tried to pet one once...but it yelped and ran away. SO, that's the dog story.

I'm slowly learning Tagalog...very slowly. My host family really wants me to be fluent quickly, so they have been helpful in the process. I have no complaints so far...except for that I'd like to eat my breakfast without being told to repeat word in Tagalog...I'm just not in the mood for it when I first wake up. The Peace Corps has kept us very busy and yesterday was the first serious "cross-cultural" experience that I can say I've had so far. The story is as follows:

A couple days ago I was informed in passing that the community leaders would like it if us PC trainees would take part in a local fiesta celebrating some saint for some saintly or otherwise religious reason. We weren't really told in detail what we would be doing....as I've just come to accept is how EVERYTHING works here...so, of course, I just agreed and went ahead with what everybody else was doing.

Wait. Hold on a second...did you ever have that dream where you were walking down the street while children and elderly people paraded around you carrying Molotov cocktails...and then you look down and you're wearing a ballgown and carrying a small crucifix? Everywhere you turned, people were pointing and smiling and speaking some language that you were trying really hard to understand...but just couldn't?

Oh....no, what was I thinking? That wasn't a dream! That is what happened, in reality, LAST NIGHT!!

Yeah. So, I'll have to agree...it was definitely cross-cultural and I enjoyed it, despite how awkward I felt. There may be picture of this in order to add some more details to the story.

One last bit before I have to run. In order to get this ballgown, we had to drive to the next town to find ones that could be fitted to our larger American frames. Besides the shame of being too fat to fit into a dress in the town I live in, I had to go home an explain where I went to my host mother. When I started to tell her that I had to take a short trip for the dress because I was "too big" to fit into the dresses in this town, she promptly took my water bottle and refilled it with the ice water in the fridge. Apparently, she thought that I had finally mastered a usable phrase in Tagalog;see....tubig (too big!) is the Tagalog word for water.

There are lots of things happening here, almost too much for me to report on regularly, but, so far, I believe I am hanging in there despite missing lots of you guys back home! Take care and until next time...

A quick note about sending things here...

Not that anyone was thinking about sending me stuff or anything, but just in case you were, I was told some tips that will be of use:

-pack things in small boxes, such as a shoe box or something around that size. I believe the mail has to be delivered to me and all packages are opened, searched and re-packed, so the smaller the better...padded envelopes are really good too.

-on that note, all the packages will be opened. Don't send anything that may be confiscated or stolen...and make a list of what was sent so I know if it got to me or not.

-please don't send books until I'm at my site...I still have one more move left before I get to settle down somewhere for a while...well, unless something changes, anyway. And, again, on that note, I'm dying for some books to read! I didn't bring much in the way of reading and I'm regretting it.

Okay, enough of that. I'll try to make a link to this on the side, but my computer use is sketchy, at best...so just try to remember!

Malaria Monday

Just to start....no, I don't have malaria. That's just what our medical officer suggested we call Monday so that we remember to take our malaria medication. This medication supposedly has some side effects that can include insomnia and vivid dreams, so I opted to take it tomorrow morning....meaning, Tuesday. I figured that Tuesday often lacked recognition as an important day in the family of the week, so I have dubbed Tuesday from this day forward: Two Tab Tuesday.

Tuesday will be the day that I take my two tabs of Chloroquine once a week...most likely, for the next two years. I've even recruited some other PCTs on my campaign! We thought we could even make tee-shirts to express our affiliations...they would, of course, be colored teal...or, if there is a bind at the screen printing shop, taupe.

I am tired and it is quite hot here. I still haven't gotten over the jet lag combined with sitting in a meeting room for 8 hours a day....oh, and Hepatitis shots were served up for this evening's Happy Hour. Something like....a single shot on the house!! What a deal.

I do have some pictures to post, which I will put up here the next time I remember to bring my camera down to the computer room. But, so far, to sum up...there's plenty of socializing going on, along with an incredible amount of information being thrown at us...albeit, in a very organized and informative way.

Besides the ants in the bathroom and the bats that fly around my balcony at dusk, I can't really claim to have experienced the Philippines as of yet. Since the local elections were held today, the fervor and excitement should be calmed down by the end of the week...at that time, we may be let out of "lock down" at the resort. We are set to move to our official training sites this weekend and I think that's when we move in with our host families.

My brain already feels like it's soaked in so much new information, meeting new people, and just talking about things that are incredibly interesting...it's hard for me to even believe that I was still in Texas a week ago!

Well, sleep must be had....soon I will be one with the waking/sleeping pattern of these here islands...which is something like, sunrise at 5:30 am and sunset at 6:30 p.m. But, yeah....til then!!

Oh, one last thing...this blog will be renamed after I get a feel for the perfect fit. I have a feeling that it might take me a few months of living here, but it will more than likely change. Not that it's that interesting or anything...I just thought I'd share!

Pre-departure countdown

I haven't actually left yet, so I'm not officially "in the Philippines." BUT...I have just sat through two days of pre-departure orientation (what the Peace Corps calls "staging") here in L.A.

It's been pretty cool to meet a bunch of people (65 of us, total) who have all been going through all the same stuff that I have for the past year. So far, I can say it's been pretty invigorating to meet lots of new people....of course, I haven't spent three months of my life with them yet during in-country training. We'll see how that works out.


On that note, I was told today by some of the PC officials that I need to watch what I say when I'm writing on here. I can't offend anyone whether they be my coworkers or other people in the country...it would really suck if I got kicked out of the Peace Corps due to something stupid that I put up online. So, I'll try to be nice.



Tomorrow morning, I'm up bright and early to be on a bus at 9 a.m. We all head for the airport and then get on a plane at 1 p.m to head to Tokyo, Japan. I'm excited about this because it's probably the only chance I'll get to experience Japan....from an airport terminal. Then, after about a two hour layover, we head to Manila. It's my understanding that we will not actually be staying IN Manila due to elections set to commence the day we arrive. I know....it's so convenient....I fly to this country only start out by fearing political and social upheaval.



Well, I need to conclude, as I'm running out of Internet money...but, I've also been told that it may be hard to communicate during the first few days of my being in-country. Although we will be near phones and Internet, at the beginning, there is much settling in and figuring stuff out going on. Basically, no news is good news...so, if no one hears from me for a little bit, don't worry!

Everybody take care and I'm hoping the 11 hour flight (plus 5 more to Manila) won't be so bad...expect some letters or postcards....uuummm, sooner or later!

Welcome!

Hello. I'm rushing to get everything together before I depart at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning...talk about hectic! But, in the mean time, I've completed this blog that may end up being quite useful in the next couple years.

I'm going to give a short walk through and feel free to look around, provide some comments on what you like or don't like or what you'd like to see added.

1. On the right hand side of the page, you'll be able to find all my contact information. The information will change as I move around, but even as the posts get posted, this contact information will stay on the right hand side. Pretty neat, huh?

2. Also in the right side bar you will find emergency contact information, the current time in the Philippines and a useful (hopefully!) glossary to help everyone decipher all the Peace Corps acronyms and various phrases that I will undoubtabley learn once I am there.

3. Anyone has permission to comment on here or contact me if they'd like. In order to do this, you may have to sign in or follow some directions when you click on the comment link. This prevents spammers from filling up my blog with their annoying ads. In the future, if I get too much spam or unsolicited mail, I may take down my addresses...although, anyone who is willing to send junk mail internationally must be a very determined individual/organization and, therefore, I may be willing to purchase their shoddy, useless products and/or services.

4. Check back here often! This site allows me to post up pictures and links. If your even more tech-savvy, you can sign up to a RSS feed and let your computer tell you when I've posted...this might help you if you're a little obsessive and like to check people's blogs every hour for new content. Also, I believe you can sign up to receive an email every time there's a new post.

Other than that...I guess I'll get back here the next time I get a chance!