jedibinkstravel

[jedibinkstravel]

The second photo featured is from CYF”s performance!

[jedibinkstravel]

Video of our Swearing-In Ceremony on September 16, 2015

[jedibinkstravel]

PST Week 6 (August 24 - 31, 2015)

Week 6: LPI, Site Placement Reveal, & YDS

On Monday we traveled to Vista Venice, a resort on the border of Morong and Bagac, in the morning to meet up with the other sectors. We were scheduled to have our LPI throughout the morning. Once all the sectors had arrived, we began the interviews with assigned interviewers. The interviewers were certified after receiving specific training. I was assigned to Ate Elena, a LCF from the Education sector, and my assigned time was 11:00 – 11:30 am. I was towards the end of my group with only two others after me. I was very nervous and alternated between practicing the scripts I had prepared to answer questions, talking with other trainees who were also waiting their turn, and playing some card games with a deck of cards I brought. Merienda was served at 10 but I was too nervous to eat although I saved some for when I finished my interview. Each interview was scheduled for half an hour but thankfully did not take that long, so my interview ended up being before my scheduled time. Arnold was the trainee who went before me so shortly after he left to do his interview, I followed the PC staff member who escorted me to an area near my interview site. We chatted a little and I made sure to practice as much Tagalog as I could. My interview site was in the Volcanic Spa area at a table outside. When Arnold finished, I went to take my seat across from Ate Elena. She turned on the recorder and began the interview. She asked me to introduce myself and I recited the script I had memorized. She then asked about activities we had done during training and then asked about what I might be doing at my permanent site (as we did not know our site placement yet). I also talked about the overall plot to the Harry Potter books and how to make fruit salad as these were other scripts I had memorized. Next it was time for the role play. She held a deck of yellow cards and told me to choose one (the yellow cards were a good sign since Ate Eva and Kuya Joefil told us that meant it was a more advanced role play compared to the blue cards which were for beginner level). My scenario was that I had many problems in my house and had to tell my landlord about them. The whole interview I felt as though I was struggling because the questions were difficult for me to come up with an answer and I didn't have the vocabulary for some of the topics. At the end of the interview, Ate Elena gave me some feedback but it was overall positive. We were to find out our LPI results later that night after everyone had their interview and the recordings were reviewed for the sub-levels. I went back to the main conference room where everyone was waiting and ate the merienda I had saved now that my interview was over. I played some more card games with other trainees until lunch.

After lunch, it was time for our site placement reveal, the moment we have been waiting for anxiously for so long. Ever since I found out I was coming to the Philippines, one of the top questions people have asked me is what I will be doing. Until this day I could only give vague answers because we didn't know. Our site managers (SM; Kuya Ambet is CYF's SM) had to observe us during training through our LCFs and TCFs and then have a site placement interview in order to determine the best fit for each trainee. We started the announcement with videos from each sector, highlighting the training from the past few weeks. After all of the videos and introductions from our Program Manager (PM) Boni, we finally started the reveal. They went by region, starting in the north of Luzon. Annie, one of the Regional Managers (RM), is in charge of the northern regions so she was describing the different sites and then calling the trainees who would be placed there. To my surprise, I was the second trainee called up. I went up to receive my site placement folder and to place my picture on the spot with a piece of string making a line to Baguio City, Benguet in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), an area known for cold(er) weather, vegetables, mountains, and flowers. It even has a flower festival every February. I was so excited and once I got my folder with information about my site, I didn't pay much attention to the others being called up though I did try to applaud for all of them. I would be placed at Japan Philippines Community and Communication CARES, Stimulation & Therapeutic Activity Center of Baguio (JPCOM CARES & STAC5 – Baguio), a NGO that works with children with disabilities and I would be focusing on the Independent Living (IL) Skills program. I was extremely excited because I really enjoy working with this population and Kuya Ambet had told me that this was the only site this year that works with this population. Once everyone had received their site placement folders and all of our pictures were on the map, we meet in our regional groups with our RM. There is a total of three RMs and my RM is Annie. She talked a little about what her role was, but we were mostly too excited to listen much. We were then given free time which we used to ask each other about our sites. Many of the CYF trainees were placed with the Municipal Social Work Departments (MSWD) with 4P's programs. They would be focusing on facilitating life skills sessions with youth and some would work with university students from 4P's families. I found a total of seven other CYF volunteers (Ana, Arnold, Colleen, Jackie, Kate, Matt, and Michelle) who were also placed throughout Northern Luzon in the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, Mountain Province, and Pampanga. The closest trainee to me is Ana who is in La Trinidad, about 30 minutes away. We also found out the local language we would study was Ilocano. Depending on our LPI level, we would begin learning the next morning.

Soon it was time for dinner, which was when we would find out our LPI level. Our LCF would find us and tell us. After I had finished my dinner, Ate Eva found me and told me that I reached Advanced-Low for the LPI! I was shocked and very happy. That was the goal we had set at the beginning of training and I had achieved it. I thought I was going to get Intermediate-Mid because I felt I struggled during the interview but Ate Eva reassured me that that meant I was doing well and Ate Elena was trying to find my ceiling, or the highest level I could converse. I also found out that everyone from my language group had passed with Jackie also receiving Advanced-Low. The trainee with the highest level of Advanced-High was David from the Education sector. As default, he was chosen to write and present a speech in Tagalog for our swearing-in ceremony since he had the highest level. A handful of people didn't pass and received Intermediate-Low, so they would continue to learn Tagalog for the rest of training and have another LPI before we left Bataan. Everyone was celebrating that night, swimming in the pool, and singing videoke. I went to the room I was sharing with three others early because I was tired from the extreme emotions of the day and enjoyed a hot shower (rare for us and we get excited whenever there is a shower head AND a water heater). It felt especially good since it had been raining hard the past few days from a nearby typhoon.

The next morning we had our first local language class. My group met in a small room under the main conference room and off the side of another conference room while a larger group took the conference room. Our new LCF was Ate Shirley which was good for us since she was already a Tagalog LCF for CYF during training. Some of the trainees already had Ate Shirley for a LCF. After class and lunch, we split up into our sectors to begin preparing for our presentations during the swearing-in ceremony. Each sector had to come up with a performance for the swearing-in ceremony to showcase their sector and their work during training. After our first planning session, it was time to return to Bagac.

The rest of the week was spent preparing for our Youth Development Session (YDS), our last activity with our youth. That Saturday we would observe a current Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), Jay, conduct a session and then we would facilitate our own session on the following Monday. We each would have a different life skill and thirty minutes to facilitate. We also spent time preparing in our technical clusters for our Handog, or thank-you party for our host families, and the Youth Recognition Ceremony. We also had our first week of our new language class. I was now going to Ate Shirley's house for class in the morning and then walking over to NPC for technical sessions in the afternoon. On Saturday after the YDS, we treated our youth leaders to an afternoon at the pool at NPC. We also decided to make them an American-style lunch of sloppy joes and macaroni & cheese. Mallory and I worked on cooking the meal while the others went to supervise the swimming. It took longer than we expected to cook everything because we only had one burner. We made some pretty tasty sloppy joes and then made some macaroni & cheese using Cheez Whiz, powdered milk, and margarine. Once we finished, we walked over with the pots full of meat and pasta to the pool to serve our youth a late lunch. They devoured everything and greatly enjoyed it even if they were confused by it at first (there was no rice). We then continued to swim and have fun until later in the afternoon. We held our own YDS on the following Monday since it was a holiday and the youth didn't have school. My topic was conflict management and other topics in my group were stress management, communication, critical thinking, and listening. It was also Paige's birthday and everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' to her at the end of the sessions.

[jedibinkstravel]

PST Week 5 (August 17 - 23, 2015)

Week 5: Birthdays & Youth Camp

This week was exciting because we were preparing for our youth camps (each cluster did theirs separately). Our camp would be held at Fajardos Beach Resort in Pag-Asa which we were able to use because Adam's host cousin was the owner and let us rent it at a discount. We practiced with our youth leaders two evenings that week.

On Wednesday it was Ate Eva and Jackie's birthday, so we attended a birthday party at Ate Eva's house Wednesday night. Kuya Jes, Adam, and I were a little late because we had been going through Sitio Aqui with some barangay hall leaders to drop off permission slips to parents so we could have youth attend the youth camp that Friday. There was tons of food ready when we got there: the traditional pancit, barbecued meat on sticks, macaroni salad, and buko salad. We got there as the rest of our cluster was getting ready to take a group picture. We took a picture as a technical cluster (minus a few people who weren't at the party) and then as a language group with Ate Eva. Soon after, it was time for cake and Ate Eva did the honors of cutting up the chocolate cake. Some people started to leave while others moved to the entry room to sing videoke. We only stopped having fun with the videoke to sing Ate Eva, Charli, and Jackie 'Happy Birthday' and have them blow out candles placed on doughnuts Kuya Joefil arrived with. After blowing out their candles and everyone getting a doughnut, we continued with videoke with the staff members joining in and throwing in some Tagalog songs. We were having fun but I had to leave at 9 pm so I could walk back home with kasamas (companions) since it was dark.

Friday came and we were ready to have our youth camp. We met up at Adam's house (St. Agnes) and waited for the barangay van to take us over so we could set up. When the van didn't show up for almost an hour, Adam's host mother offered the school's bus to take us and our supplies over. By that time, we also took some of the youth leaders with us since it was the time we told them to come. It was a very overcast and windy day with promise of rain from a nearby typhoon. As the youth participants arrived, we finished setting up and began our camp later than we planned. At this point we were used to things not starting when we planned and taking longer because of 'Filipino Time'. Our youth leaders kicked off the camp by introducing themselves and facilitating an energizer called 'Wah!'. Once a winner had been determined, we split the participants into four groups, one for each life skill station. The youth leaders facilitated the same life skills four times for each group. Our group started each rotation with their energizer, singing a well-known Colgate song about brushing teeth. They then went over proper brushing techniques and the importance of keeping our mouths clean and healthy. Then they used the fake paper teeth, tongue, toothbrush, floss, and plaque to demonstrate the correct way to take care of the mouth, just like Stacie and I had done for Training of Trainers. We also gave the participants real floss so they could practice on themselves before they practiced with the fake mouth. After all four rotations, we had lunch which was prepared by parents from our community. By this time, it started to pour rain and the wind made it almost come in sideways. It quieted down some by the time we started the second half of our camp: the carnival games. We set up different stations for the participants to go to at their own pace. We had an art station with Jackie and Terry, field games with Charli and Mallory, face painting with Liza and Paige, videoke with Adam, and I had Minute-to-Win-It games. However, the rain picked up again shortly after we began and Charli and Mallory had to post-pone their field games. I had a good-sized group at my station and we started with the forehead cookie race that I had used as my talent at the Talent Show during IO. The participants really loved the game and I even had Kuya Jes try it. Only two participants were able to complete the challenge but they all got a cookie out of it. Next I had them do a challenge with moving Nips from one plate to another using only a straw. They liked this game, too, since they were able to eat the Nips at the end. We played a few more games and participants moved from station to station to try them all. The videoke machine stopped working and the rain let up some, so Mallory and Adam ended up playing with the youth on the sand in the rain, playing tag and starting a water fight. Everyone had a lot of fun but we had to send them home at 3 pm. We sent the wettest children back on the bus first so they could take a bath and change into warmer clothes. We thanked our youth leaders and then we cleaned up so we could go home. We spent the rest of the weekend preparing for our LPI.

On Sunday, I went with my host family to a fair trade for their products in Marivelles, about an hour south of Bagac, on the southern tip of Bataan.

[jedibinkstravel]

PST Weeks 3 & 4 (August 3 - 16, 2015)

Week 3: Cookout & V2/Community Project (August 3 – August 9)

We continued to have language and training sessions everyday. This week we focused on V2 and preparing to implement the selected community project (singing and dancing workshop). The youth leaders we identified would mostly be in charge of facilitating the workshop and we would be there to assist. Our main activity for the week was a cookout we did per language group. However, my technical group decided to have the cookout together instead of by language group because we were so used to eating together everyday. We planned which language group would be in charge of cooking what and then made a list of the ingredients we needed to buy. We decided to make a trip to Balanga (the closest city, about 30-45 minutes away from Bagac) so we could practice using the jeepneys and buying at the palengke (market). We went to Balanga on Thursday and spent the first part of the morning buying ingredients. I was in charge of buying onions, garlic, condensed milk, and graham crackers. Some of the ingredients we had to get at the local mall in Robinson's. Once we had successfully bought our assigned ingredients, we went to the mall to get the rest of the ingredients and have some time for personal shopping. Adam and I decided to walk around and we found a little coffee shop. It turned out that the owner used to be a host mother for a PCT a few years ago. After getting some coffee, we decided to check out the World War II museum that was nearby. We took a trike to Balanga Elementary School because the museum was located in the back of the lot. We walked through the school until we reached the museum. We met some nice women who were excited that Americans were visiting and were impressed by the little Tagalog we could speak. We got a private tour from two of the women. We learned more about what happened in the Philippines during WWII and the Bataan Death March. We would have liked to spend more time but we had to get back to the mall to meet up with our cluster so we could return to Bagac.

Instead of language on Thursday, we went to Ate Eva's house which she shared with Ate Shirley, another LCF so we could better learn cooking vocabulary. Their staff house was near NPC, just in the row of houses across the street from NPC's entrance. Liza's husband, Tim, joined our cookout and helped prepare our lunch. Ate Eva, Kuya Joefil, and Kuya Jes were all showing us how to prepare the different dishes. We all helped with the preparation for each dish: dicing, slicing, cutting, chopping, and mixing. Ate Eva, Kuya Joefil, and Kuya Jes did the actual cooking. We made chicken adobo, seafood curry, grilled fish, arroz caldo, Bikol express (two ways: one with shrimp and one with tofu), crab, buko salad, mango float, and rice (of course).  Once we finished everything, everyone had to take pictures before we could eat. We ate shortly after and were joined by some other PC staff who were visiting. It was all delicious but my favorite was the seafood curry because it was nice and spicy.

Saturday was the implementation of the community project. We had met with the youth leaders throughout the week to help prepare them for the workshop. We divided into two groups: singing and dancing. I worked with the dancing group. They led some warm-up stretches and then began teaching moves to a dance they could present after lunch. The whole morning was spent practicing and making up moves, only interrupted by merienda and then lunch. After lunch, it was time to present what each group had been working on. The singing group went first and sang two songs, one in English and one in Tagalog. The Tagalog song was “Ikaw” and the English song was “Let It Go” from Frozen. The dance group performed their dance up until the second chorus of the song because that was all that they had choreographed. Both groups did a wonderful job and had lots of fun. After the workshop was finished, I went home to change into a swimming suit and then join some others at the pool at NPC to swim for a bit and cool down.

Week 4: Mt. Samat & Training of Trainers (August 10 – August 16)

Our training for this week helped us prepare to train our youth leaders to co-facilitate sessions during the upcoming youth camp. We worked with them to decide a theme for the youth camp and decided upon “Let's Get Physical” which would have four stations that addressed four different life skill areas relating to physical well-being. I was paired with Stacie and we worked with four youth leaders: Louise, Lovelyn, KC, and Patricia, all really wonderful young ladies who are great youth leaders (the youngest being only nine years old!). We would focus on oral hygiene and why it is important. Stacie made big fake teeth out of paper and I made a big fake toothbrush that we could use to demonstrate and have our participants practice proper brushing techniques. For training of trainers we only worked with our youth leaders and focused on good presentation skills as well as the information about oral hygiene. We then had each group do a practice run in front of the other groups at the end of the workshop. Each group did a great job for their first time presenting the information. It was also Charli's birthday that Saturday and the youth leaders made her a little bouquet of flowers and sang 'Happy Birthday' to her. After finishing the training, I went again with some other trainees to swim at NPC before heading home and resting the rest of weekend.

Out language and culture field trip this week on Friday was to Mt. Samat, a memorial for those who lost their lives during the Bataan Death March in WWII. The main feature of Mt. Samat is the giant memorial cross at the top of the mountain which also has an elevator and stairs for people to go to the cross section. The LCFs had arranged for a couple of jeepneys to take all of us up to the mountain in the morning. As we got closer, the road began to get steeper and curvier and we were surprised when both jeepneys managed to make it to the parking area at the gate. We then had to continue to walk to the first memorial, an open building with three beautiful stained-glass windows in the middle and the story of the memorial written on the two walls at the sides. From this vantage point, we could see all around and the valleys of Bataan. On one side was another, larger mountain. A few of us went into a small room to the side of the memorial and went down the spiral stairs to the WWII museum. There was a scaled replica of Bataan with colored lights representing Filipino and Japanese troops during the war. Also in the museum were artifacts from Filipino, Japanese, and American troops and pictures of war-torn Philippines.

After spending some time there, it was time to walk up to the memorial cross. The way up was a series of slanted walkways and stone steps up the remainder of the mountain. Each step up brought a more spectacular view of the land below. Once we made it to the top, we saw others getting ice cream from the little store and we decided to join them. Most everyone else had already been up the cross by the time we got there, so I went with only Colin. We went into the small doorway to the single elevator. The room was tiny, big enough only for the elevator, spiral stairs, and a handful of people to stand. We waited a few minutes for the elevator to reach the bottom floor. A few others stepped out before we could get in. It was like a clown car elevator. I felt lucky that it was only Colin, the elevator operator/security guard, and me. We counted the each floor we passed through the small window and when we reached 25, we had made it to the cross section of the cross. We stepped out and saw a few other trainees who then took our place to return to the bottom. On each side was a small room with a low roof. There were long windows on each side and rows of chairs facing the windows so people could see the amazing view. A small, circular window was at the end of each hallway-like room and reminded me of hobbit houses form Lord of the Rings. Colin and I took our time being the only ones up there (other than the security guard) and took many pictures. After we had our share of becoming scared of heights, we returned to our fellow trainees at the bottom of the cross. We had a few minutes to walk around the top of the mountain but then it was time to get back in the jeepneys and go to Balanga. We were to activate our brand new PNB cards at the bank there. Once there, we had an hour to get lunch and do any personal shopping. I ended up getting a boba tea from a stand in the mall before we returned to the jeepneys to go back to NPC.

[jedibinkstravel]

So true

[jedibinkstravel]

PST Weeks 1 & 2 (July 20 - August 2, 2015)

CYF was divided into three groups, our technical clusters. Each cluster lived in a different barangay, or neighborhood, in Bagac which were all near each other. My cluster lived and worked in Barangay Tabing-Ilog. The other two main barangays are Ibaba and Atilano Ricardo with a few people living in Pag-Asa. Tabing-Ilog means “by the river” because we lived very close to the river. Near my house, there were many rice fields which are very beautiful, especially in the morning and at sunset.

Pre-Service Training (PST) began with the whole sector making courtesy calls at the municipal hall, social work office, and barangay halls. First impressions are very important in Filipino culture and making courtesy calls are required when you are a new resident, especially when you work in the barangay like Peace Corps. We all met up at the municipal hall as a sector for introductions. Everyone went up by barangay to introduce themselves in Tagalog. After introductions, we met with the social workers from the social work office. Next, we went to the barangay hall in Tabing-Ilog to meet and introduce ourselves to the barangay captain and the other barangay hall workers. My cluster also stopped by the barangay hall in Pag-Asa since we had two trainees live there.

Weekly Schedule:

Our overall schedule for every week during PST included language every morning from 8 am until 12 pm and technical sessions in the afternoon until 5 or 5:30 pm. We had small language groups with a maximum of five trainees in each. Two language groups made up the technical cluster. My language teacher (LCF, Language Culture Facilitator) was Ate Eva and in my class were Adam, Jackie, Liza, and Mallory. The other language group was taught by Kuya Joefil and had Charli, Paige, Stacie, and Terry. Every Friday we would have one-on-one sessions with our respective LCF to go over bi-weekly self-assessments and practice for the Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) by speaking, answering questions, and performing role plays in Tagalog. The LPI is mandatory for all volunteers and the benchmark is Intermediate-Mid to be able to learn the local language of our site. Trainees who do not pass the LPI must continue to learn Tagalog for an additional two weeks before having a second LPI. The LPI is not held until right before Site Placement Reveal, towards the end of training.

We would be in our separate classes in the morning and then work together for technical sessions after lunch. Our Technical Cultural Facilitator (TCF), Kuya Jes, led us for all of our training and activities. Every Friday we had medical sessions and vaccinations. Saturdays were when we implement our activities with the youth and Sundays were our rest days to spend with our host families.

Week 1: Water Safety Training (July 20 – July 26)

The first week was spent getting used to our new schedule. My technical cluster met at NPC D-17 while other clusters met at other houses Peace Corps has rented for staff members. Our afternoon sessions this week went over safety and security and record keeping in addition to more details about Participatory Analysis for Community Action (PACA). On our first Saturday, all of the sectors went to Mabayo, Morong for water safety training. It was nice to see everyone again even it if had only been a week. We started with wearing our bright orange, Peace Corps-issued life vests to practice safety and rescue moves on the sand. Then it was time to break up into small groups to go on some boats. We were taken out to open water to practice getting in the water and getting back on the boat. My group-mates were all successful. The water was nice and refreshing but incredibly salty. We all wanted to stay in the water longer but we had to get back so the next wave of groups could go out to practice. When we got back to shore, it was time for merienda. There were fried bananas on sticks and some locals were cutting coconuts for everyone to drink. I got my own coconut but couldn't finish it.

After merienda, we were allowed to swim in the water. I went with a small group to swim in deeper waters. The water was warmer than my showers at my host family's house and the sand was soft. We swam for a while before a handful of people were stung by jellyfish. We went back to shore in time for lunch. Some of the host families from Mabayo prepared lunch for all of us and it was delicious! There was so much food and everyone was having a good time talking with each other. After lunch, there were rumors of ice cream nearby. I went with Jackie to investigate and we found an ice cream cart, which locals refer to as dirty ice cream. This is not because it is dirty but because you can only choose between the two flavors they are selling that day. They were selling banana and chocolate and I got a small cone with both flavors for 10 pesos. The vendor layered the small scoops on the sugar cone ending up with three scoops of each flavor. After coming back from eating the ice cream, Kuya Jes flagged the vendor down and had him move his cart closer to our building so everyone else could get some. Once people started to meander towards the ice cream, I went out to the floating cabana in the shallow part of our beach. Others were sitting around the picnic table in the middle and talking while watching others play in the sand and swim in the water. I stayed there until it was time to say goodbye to the other sectors and head back to Bagac. The rest of the weekend was spent resting and exploring Bagac.

Other trainees had discovered the local bar, Manifesto, which had more of a cafe atmosphere but served alcohol (albeit more expensive than the surrounding sari-saris). It was located in the main part of Bagac with the plaza/basketball court to one side and the local palengke (market) on the other. It was also popular with the trainees because it had free WiFi. Around the corner we discovered a small pizza shop called Lots-a Pizza. We would order pizza and the young man who worked there, RR, would deliver it to our seats at Manifesto. The pizza reminded me of warm Lunchables pizza but became a nice treat every once in a while especially since pizza isn't as common in the Philippines as it is in the US and tends to be expensive.

Week 2: Dinner with the Mayor, PACA, & Las Casas (July 27 – August 2)

This week in technical was spent preparing for our first activity with the local youth, PACA. We had started to settle into a routine with our PC schedule and host families. My technical cluster, since we stayed at the main staff house in NPC, ate lunch there everyday and fed the stray cats leftovers. We started to name some of the regulars: Pusa (meaning 'cat' in Tagalog; her former name was Tsika-Tsika which means 'chat' or 'gossip' in Tagalog because she meowed the most; she was also pregnant and had her kittens just before we left Bagac), Skinny Pusa (a cat that looked like Pusa but was not pregnant and did not meow as much), Papaya (a small orange and white kitten), Muffin (a brown and black spotted cat), and X (a big, black cat that looked like a mini-panther). Others that came later that we named were Squirrel (a gray kitten with a small break at the end of his tail) and Alvin (a kitten that looked like Squirrel but had a straight tail). (By the end of training there were about 20 cats who stayed outside the staff house and always waited for us to give them food)

The Friday of that week, our sector was invited to dinner with the Mayor of Bagac at his newly opened farm restaurant. We all met at the municipal hall to ride the van to the farm. Now, I have to tell you, I walked all the way to the municipal hall (about a 30 minute walk) to catch the van which then proceeded to drive by my house on the way to the farm. I was mildly irritated since I was sweaty from walking to the municipal hall but could only laugh at the situation. The van could only take nine people at a time, so we arrived to the farm in waves. It was already dark when I arrived but the area was warmly lit and lanterns were in the surrounding trees. We walked up to the open seating area to claim a table and seat before standing in line to get our dinner (buffet-style). In the back area there was a billiards table and a bar near the food line. A three-piece band was playing live music in front of the bar. It was an open-bar so there was a line almost all night. Dinner was delicious with different seafood, meats, and vegetables. Waiters and waitresses came around to give us (non-alcoholic) drinks and make sure we had everything we needed. The mayor and some others were sitting at a high table near the buffet, talking and laughing. Everyone took time enjoying the food and drinks while some played billiards. Towards the end of the evening, some of the trainees went up to sing a few songs with the band. We started to leave in small groups in the van. I left in one of the early groups and got home around 10 pm (I had Kuya Manny, the van driver, drop me off at the road near my house instead of going all the way back to the municipal hall).

The following day, we had our first official facilitation with the youth. Most of the youth participants were from 4P's families (families in poverty who receive government assistance and must attend family and youth development sessions) who lived in my area, Sitio Aqui. Each technical cluster worked in different locations and focused on youth from their respective barangays. We were able to use St. Agnes Institute of Bagac (a local Christian school; my host brother, DM, attended school there) because Adam's host family lived there and his host nanay was the founder and principal. It is located near the barangay hall of Tabing-Ilog. Our cluster had almost 40 youth participants. We split them up into four groups based on age and rotated through three rooms with the last room doing a fourth session. The half-hour sessions in each room focused on a Community Map first, Seasonal Calendar second, Daily Schedule third, and Needs Assessment last. In each group, the youth were divided by males and females to get a sense of different perspectives of their community. The youth first drew maps of their community which helped highlight what places they considered important in their community. After the groups rotated rooms, they began to make a Seasonal Calendar. This was to help us learn more about what happens in this particular community in each month: which holidays were celebrated, when school was, when parents may have more or less work, weather, and important days for the youth. The last rotation focused on the youths' daily schedules to help us see what their typical day was like and when the best time to meet up with them would be. After completing their schedules, we asked them to think about something they wanted to do for their community to help make it even better. This would determine the community project we would implement. The previous year's community project was for the parents and they decided to create a community garden (which is still there). Once the boys and girls came up with a list of projects, we had them narrow it down to one idea from each to present to the larger group. They chose repairing their basketball court in Sitio Aqui and selling crafts and baked goods. Once we got back into the large group, we wrote the six total ideas on poster paper and gave each youth two stickers to vote for their two favorite ideas. This narrowed the choices down to three ideas: repairing the basketball court, a singing and dancing workshop, and another garden. We voted again using a different method and repairing the basketball court was the winner. However, the following week we learned that the Mayor was already planning on repairing the basketball court, so we went with the second choice: singing and dancing workshop.

The next day was our rest day to spend with our host families. My host family were members of the local resort, Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, because they sell their cashew products there and decided to take me that Sunday. They let me invite some friends and I ended up bringing along Arnold and Kelly. Once we were signed in, my Ate Marivic, Kuya Don, and brother DM left us to explore on our own. The resort has many Spanish style houses and buildings left over from colonization. It has a pool, beach, church, hotel, and restaurants. It was very beautiful there and wasn't crowded that day, so we took our time walking around since we missed the last guided tour of the day. I think it was better this way so we could go where we wanted and take as much time as we wanted. After a couple of hours when it was close to sunset, we had Kuya Don pick us up and then he dropped Arnold and Kelly off at their houses before we returned home ourselves.

[jedibinkstravel]

My Bagac Host Family

I was the second trainee my family had hosted, but I was the first who stayed the entire training. The previous trainee went back to the US after one month of training because of homesickness.

They live in an orange house near the rice fields in Sitio Aqui, near Tabing-Ilog. During the week, only four of us stayed in the house but three more joined us Friday nights until Monday mornings. This is because they own a cashew factory that makes cashew cookies, cashew butter, and other cashew products and they own the sari-sari (little store) below the factory. The store is located near the palengke (market) down the same street as Manifesto (the local bar). During the week, Ate Marivic, Kuya Don, and my little host brother, DM, stayed at the house. Ate Marivic and Kuya Don are married and are both 28 years old. DM is their five-year-old son and Ate Marivic is pregnant with their second son who is due in October. Kuya Don's mother, Nanay Raquel, stays at the store with two of her daughters, Donna (23 years old) and Doris (21 years old). They all work at the store and help with the cashew products. Nanay Raquel's other daughter, Daisy, is currently living and working in Dubai. Donna left earlier this month (September) to also look for work in Dubai.

My family is always busy and hard-working. They travel almost everyday to Balanga (the nearest city; about 30 minutes away), Pampanga (the next province north of Bataan), or to Manila (about 3 hours without traffic) to deliver their products or to attend conventions. Because of this, Ate Marivic and Kuya Don usually came home later at night, so I would be home alone after technical sessions until they returned. I would come home, take a tabo (a dipper for the toilet and bathing; I also looked forward to the cold water since it was also hot and I was always sweaty from walking home) and work on my language homework until they came home and prepared dinner. After dinner, I would have Ate Marivic help correct my language homework or we would talk, sometimes about the differences between the Philippines and the US.

My family are also extremely generous and caring, always making sure I had enough to eat and that I had everything I needed. They gave me one of each of their products in my room when I arrived which I shared with the other trainees. Every morning, Ate Marivic sent me to class with a huge baon (packed food) for morning merienda, usually fruit, cookies or cake, and crackers. For lunch, Ate Marivic or her cousin would deliver my lunch to NPC, fresh and hot. When they would come home from Balanga, Manila, or another city, they would bring pasalubong (little gifts) for me, usually food.

I really enjoyed living with my host family and miss them very much. I feel very fortunate to have had such a wonderful host family during my training. I hope since I am living not too far from Bataan that we can visit during my service.

[jedibinkstravel]

Introduction: Tagalog Remix

Maganda umaga po. Ako po si Charly Marin. Taga-California po ako. 22 anyos na po ako. Peace Corps boluntir po ako. Magatrabaho po sa Pilipinas ng dalawang taon. Gusto kong magbasa. Nakatira po ako sa pamilya Duran. Maraming salamat po.

[jedibinkstravel]

Initial Orientation (IO) Reflections

Initial Orientation (IO) or Peace Corps Initial Training (PCIT) felt like summer camp. For the first two weeks, we spent our time at IIRR in Cavite, about two hours south of Manila. IIRR is a retreat center with cabins and hostel-like rooms. We all shared a room with one other person for the duration of our stay. My roommate, Kelly, was also in my sector, CYF (Children, Youth, and Family). The first few days we were there, it poured rain everyday. The first week, we had sessions with the whole group. After a couple of days, we began our language classes. CYF had two classes with about fifteen people each. My class was taught by Ate Laura, Ate Argy, and Ate Yoly. We practiced simple Tagalog sentences, words, and songs. I really liked my class. After lunch we would have technical sessions in each sector with different workshops or lectures. In addition to three meals everyday, we had two meriendas, or snack times. The first merienda would be in between breakfast and lunch while the second was between lunch and dinner. We usually had some sort of sweets, crackers, or fruit in addition to a fruit juice. Merienda is a very important cultural tradition and we all grew accustomed to it quickly, even looking forward to it everyday. The first Wednesday we had a cultural fiesta to learn about Filipino culture. There were different stations to explore different aspects of the culture: food, videoke, festivals, superstitions and beliefs, rituals, holidays, and Pinoy games. At the food station, there was Filipino food: chicken head (helmet), chicken feet (Adidas), chicken intestines (IUD), different rice cakes and sweets, durian, rambutan, mangosteen, as well as the infamous balut. I did not try the balut, but many others did. Balut is an egg with a chick still inside that is cooked. You open a small hole in the top of the egg to drink the liquid first and you can salt and/or vinegar. After drinking the egg, you peel it to eat the inside. The ones who tried it said the liquid tasted like egg drop soup and the inside tasted like a crunchier egg. The newest food I tried was the helmet which was very tasty. After the food station, my group went to the videoke station to sing some songs. Videoke is extremely popular in the Philippines and is present at almost every event. We learned a song about Magellan in Tagalog. Next, we moved on to play traditional Pinoy games: pantitero and tumbang preso. Pantitero is played with two teams, one standing on lines and the other trying to get to the other side. The team on the lines can only move horizontally to try to tag those trying to run across. Tumbang preso had someone defending a can from everyone else throwing shoes to knock it over. If the can fell, the defender had to place it back up while everyone else retrieves their shoes to throw again. If someone is tagged, they become the defender. Both were very fun to play. In the rituals station, we learned about customs for various Filipino rituals including weddings, baptisms, funerals, and house blessings. Next we learned about Filipino superstitions and watched a very funny video. After that, we went to the festivals station and practiced a dance for one of the festivals. We ended the station with painting each others faces and trying on colorful crowns. Our last station, holidays, focused on Christmas: the food associated with it and how to make a star. That evening, we were treated to traditional Filipino fiesta food (lechon, roasted pig) and traditional Filipino dances. We even got to try tininkling, the bamboo dance. I got to try it and it was lots of fun! You coordinate your steps with a partner while stepping in between and outside of long bamboo poles clapping together in rhythm. On Friday for our technical session, CYF built a Nipa Hut, a house made out of bamboo and leaves. We were very proud when we finished. Later, we had to move it all together to the back of the room which we did successfully. The first Saturday, I went with two other volunteers, Charli and Mallory, to explore around IIRR and outside the campus. While signing out at the front gate with the security guard, we met a couple of kittens, one black and one white. While walking on the sidewalk, many vehicles passing by would honk at us to say “Hello.” A couple of the people were shocked to see us. One boy was walking out the street and quickly turned around to tell his friends about us, yelling “Amerikanas! Amerikanas!” Another little boy wanted to say hello to us but was too shy to give us a high-five. We stopped at a sari-sari (store) near the IIRR gate and found some treats before we returned to the campus. Later, I got to go to the local mall, SM, by jeepney. The jeepneys are leftover from WWII and are a main source of transportation. Everyone sits on the bench seats very close to each other. In the Philippines, there is always room for one more, so people sometimes hold on to the back or sit on top of the jeepney. However, as Peace Corps volunteers, we are not allowed to ride jeepneys unless we are sitting inside. The mall was huge with three floors. The SM Market felt like a Walmart. In the supermarket portion there was a grocery store, house goods, clothes, and fast food stalls. There was an international food section and it had many American treats. The second and third floors had more clothes, Filipino souvenirs, and toys. I had dinner with a couple other volunteers at Yellow Taxi Pizza Company. It was delicious especially after a week of eating rice with every meal. We spent three hours exploring the mall before returning to IIRR. The next morning I went with a small group to attend mass at a nearby church. I was able to follow along for most of it even though it was conducted in Tagalog. The church was beautiful and I was sad we did not get to spend a lot of time in it. Once we got back to IIRR, Kelly and I decided it was time to try washing our clothes by hand. All in all, it wasn't too bad and we dried our clothes on a makeshift clothes line by using our hammock ropes inside our room. The second week we split up into smaller language groups of five each. My language group consists of Adam, Mallory, Jackie, Liza, and myself with Ate Eva as our language teacher (LCF). Our technical cluster is our language class combined with another language class (Kuya Joefil's class) and our technical leader is Kuya Jes. The other people in my group are Charli, Stacie, Paige, Seth, and Terry. Our technical groups are the groups we will stay with at site and work with for our activities. Our first event we planned together is a session for the students who make up the other group staying at IIRR for our last Friday there. We decided to do a group activity in one of the classrooms first. Terry split our group into four teams and then lead the teams in building straw structures for the first half hour. Kuya Jes then judged each group's structure and decided that everyone did a great job. As a prize, we handed out cookies to everyone. Next, we went to a field area for Mallory to lead the group in matball, a hybrid of dodge-ball and kickball. The was by far the activity the group enjoyed the most. We made them stop playing so they could have their merienda: spaghetti. Filipino spaghetti is sweeter than American spaghetti and is considered merienda instead of a full meal. At the end of merienda, some of the students started an impromptu singing showcase. Even Adam jumped in at the end to sing a song. After singing, we moved back into the four groups to do our stations: origami, oobleck, friendship bracelets, and rugby. I led the friendship bracelet station and taught the students how to make simple friendship bracelets. Jackie led the origami station to teach them how to make origami cranes. Paige led the oobleck station. Oobleck is a combination of cornstarch and water that makes it liquid in the cup but more solid once it is in your hand. Mallory led rugby which later turned into volleyball because many of the students preferred it. The stations overall were a success and we returned to the starting classroom to reflect on the activities before giving everyone candy as they left. Every evening, there was a fun activity planned. I only attended a few of them: videoke night, energizer night (where we played different games), Pinoy parlor game night, and talent show night. Videoke night was a lot of fun because everyone went up to sing to their favorite songs. It was the most fun when everyone else would join in to sing the song. The most surprising was the Pinoy parlor game night. I walked in while they were starting to play the talong (eggplant) game. The men stood in a circle with their backs to each other and with an eggplant between their knees. The women stood in a circle on the outside and walked around the men while music was playing. When the music stopped, the women were to grab an eggplant before the others. Those who didn't grab an eggplant were out and one of the guys were taken out to make it similar to musical chairs. This continued until the last guy was in the middle and three of the women were left. At this point, all four were blindfolded and the women had to find the talong. It was very fun to watch and gave everyone a workout from laughing so much. I left shortly after this game, but some of the other games included eating an apple hanging from a string while blindfolded and knocking bottles over with an eggplant hanging between your legs. The talent show, which was held on the last Friday, was a chance for everyone to show off their talents. There were many who sang and all were very good. Other talents included juggling, jump-roping, dancing, and poetry. I went up to do a Minute-to-Win-It challenge: moving a cookie from my forehead to my mouth without using hands. It was very silly but everyone told me that they thought it was great. At the end, first, second, and third place was announced. Third place was Laura for singing some opera, second place was Tim and Liza (husband and wife) for singing “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and first place was Arnold for reading his poetry. Our last day at IIRR, we had sessions most of the morning but I was able to use my hammock for the first time in the late afternoon. It was very relaxing but I ended up getting 41 mosquito bites on my legs. That night we had a bonfire and s'mores. We were able to watch a video compilation of the last two weeks which was very nice. We spent the rest of the evening eating s'mores, dancing, talking, and hanging out by the bonfire. After the bonfire, I finished packing my bags for the following day when each sector would travel to their respective municipalities for training. We woke up early the next day to load onto the bus. CYF was going to Bagac, Bataan. Education was leaving for Orani, Bataan. Coastal Resource Management (CRM) was heading for Morong, Bataan. Bataan is located west of Manila, straight across the Manila Bay. Bagac is on the west side of Bataan in the middle near the sea (some call it the China Sea while others call it the Philippine Sea). Our first stop in Bagac was at our training center in NPC, a resort hotel and training center, to meet our host families. This event was called Sunduan. We all met at the house Peace Corps had rented, D-17, and we each were given cards so we could match up with a representative from our host family. I was able to match my card quickly and found my host family: the Durans. The representative was Marivic, my new ate (pronounced ah-tay; a title used meaning older sister; a sign of respect). Ate Marivic is currently pregnant with her second son, who is due in October. We ate some merienda before heading to their house. Ate Marivic's husband, Kuya Don (kuya being a title meaning older brother), met us outside to help put my luggage into their car. We made a couple of stops before going to the house. We went to their sari-sari which had their cashew factory upstairs. I went up to meet my host nanay (word for mother), Raquel. After leaving the store, we stopped by Ate Marivic's mother's house to pick up her son, DM, who is five years old. Then we went to the house where I put away my things in my new room. I rested most of the afternoon and played some with my new host brother. We shared our first dinner together before I went to bed and start Pre-Service Training (PST) the next day.

[jedibinkstravel]

First Days (better late than never)

Friday, July 3 My first day of being an official Peace Corps Trainee (PCT), I said goodbye to my family in LA and began staging at noon. Saying goodbye was difficult but I know this is the right decision for me and I am so thankful for how supportive my family is. While I was in line for registering, I meet another girl named Charli and two MI students from the University of Michigan. What are the chances? And just to make things confusing, Charli and I have the same initials and we are in the same sector (CYF). After registering, a group of us went up to the hotel restaurant to wait for staging to begin and to start getting to know each other. At 1pm it was time to start staging. During staging, we discussed logistics, went over Peace Corps (PC) expectations, and questions. I also found out the total number of people in my batch (Batch 274): 88. We are divided up among three sectors: Children, Youth, and Family (CYF), Coastal Resource Management (CRM), and Education. CYF has the most people with 31 trainees. After finishing staging, we went to our rooms and then headed down to another one of the hotel's restaurants. PC gave us money for food, tips, and travel expenses on a debit card which we then had to withdraw from. The hotel only had two ATMs and we emptied out one of them. After dinner, everyone headed to bed to get up early the next morning for our flight.

Saturday July 4 – Sunday July 5 I can't think of a better way to spend my Fourth of July than beginning my journey serving my country. The day started early when we all had to meet in the hotel lobby by 6am so we could ride a bus to the airport (a five minute drive). We took up two buses and had a ton of luggage (some had to be put on the bus with us since there was no room in the storage area). We got dropped off at the airport and thus began the long game of waiting to check in and go through security. Since we had special plane tickets and there were so many of us, we had to go through a separate desk to check our luggage. Unfortunately, there were only two desk people helping us, so the line took a couple of hours. Thankfully I was in the middle of the line, so I didn't have to wait the entire time. Going through security was fairly quick and painless. Once we made it past security, it was time to get our last American meals. Most places by our gate were sit-down restaurants, but we didn't have that much time before our flight. I found a market with different offerings and decided to get some chilequiles verde and watermelon agua fresca. It was delicious and I am really going to miss all of the food at home. We started boarding the plane around 11am since we were scheduled to take off at 12pm. My seat ended up being an aisle seat in the third row from the back. It was quite amusing to see everyone playing Tetris with the carry-on luggage. My seat-mate, Jimmy, opened one of the overhead compartments and a bag of pads fell onto a man sitting nearby (we then told Jimmy that at least they weren't used pads). As we were taxi-ing onto the runway, we watched the most confusing and hilarious safety video I have ever seen for a flight. It used internet memes and at first we all thought we were going crazy but then we realized it was supposed to be like that. We finally took off and began our 11 hour flight to Tokyo. Shortly after taking off, the flight attendants began drink service. By talking with other trainees, we discovered that we could get complimentary drinks, including some alcohol. We also discovered the schedules of our meals, snacks, and beverages. All of them sounded delicious. Our group either watched movies, played games, or listened to music on our individual monitors while others tried to sleep during the flight with occasional breaks to stretch. I ended up watching Whiplash, Boyhood, and Interstellar since I could not fall asleep. My whole body was confused by the time and I felt like it was afternoon the entire time even though all of the windows were closed and the lights were turned off during our normal “evening”. We landed in Tokyo at the Narita Airport ahead of schedule, so we had about an extra hour for our layover. I was so excited to not only be in a different country for the first time but to be in Japan! I have wanted to visit Japan ever since I can remember and I was finally there, even if it was only the airport. We had to go through security again and it too was fairly quick. It is interesting to see the differences between the US security and Japanese security. Everything went into baskets, even backpacks, and we didn't have to remove our shoes. After security, a group of us got a little lost trying to find our gate, but we eventually found it and slowly everyone started to find their own space (mostly near outlets to charge electronics or a spot to nap). I went to get some food and had my first real udon with shrimp tempura. I only had the US dollars from PC but was able to use it and get some change back in yen (that I will now keep forever). The udon was delicious. After eating, I discovered that our terminal had a Kabuki museum and origami museum. I found a small group of people to go with and ended up at the origami museum. Everything was beautiful and so intricate. They had a wide variety of origami and different scenes. Unfortunately, I could not find the Kabuki museum and had to go back so I could change into business casual attire for when we got to Manila. We boarded our plane around 6pm (Japan time) so we could take off at 7pm. My seat was towards the back again. We sat in the plane for about an hour and a half before we took off due to some technical issues that had to be resolved. It was hot on the plane and people tried to sleep. We took off sometime around 8pm. This flight was only four hours. We received meals and drinks again. Everything was delicious. I tried to take a nap and was able to get around an hour of sleep. Towards the end of the flight, we received more paperwork for immigration and health clearance. We landed in Manila around 11pm. Once we got off the plane, PC staff were waiting for us with signs and leis, ushering us to the side so the other passengers could go to baggage claim ahead of us. The leis were beautiful yellow tuber roses that smelled wonderful. We then made our way to hand off our health paperwork and go through immigration so we could grab our bags. Airport staff were handing out individually wrapped Mentos to our group as we claimed our bags. Once we got our bags, we put them in a section for hired staff to put into trucks to take to our site. We then got together to take a group picture with all of the trainees and staff. After the picture, we were ushered onto one of two buses and were given apples and water bottles. We left the airport around midnight (Manila time) and started our drive to Cavite (about an hour south). I tried again to sleep on the bus, but was only able to rest my eyes. Around 1am, we arrived to our home for the next two weeks: IIRR (or as we refereed to it, 11RR). As we got off the bus, we were greeted by music and PC staff (both American and Filipino) cheering for us. They directed us the main hall for cookies, crackers, water, coffee, and tea. We sat down in seats as our Program Manager (PM) Boni and Country Directer (CD) Jean briefly welcomed us. Around 1:30am, we left to receive our room keys, get our bags, and go to our rooms. The IIRR staff were very helpful with some taking our bags to our rooms and others either holding or handing our umbrellas to us since it was raining. My roommate, Kelly, and I were to stay in the GAA hostel. Our room was simple with two twin beds, two closets, one desk and chair, and a bathroom. We quickly got ready for bed so we could get up to begin our first day of PCIT.

[jedibinkstravel]

The friendship bracelets I’m making as my pasalubong

[jedibinkstravel]

One Week to Go

One week from today I will be spending my first hours in the Philippines. This past month has been such a whirlwind of spending time with my family and visiting friends. On Tuesday, my family and I will be driving down to Los Angeles to drop me off for departure. We’ll be spending a few nights in Pismo Beach, a place we used to visit when I was younger. I’ll be able to meet up and spend some time with one of my roommates from my time in Sacramento before we finish our trip to LA. On Friday, my family will drop me off at the hotel for our orientation. This will be the first time I will meet the other 89 volunteers who are also going to the Philippines. There are three sectors in our batch (Batch 274) with about 30 volunteers in each section. We’ll all travel to and stay together in Cavite, about an hour south of Manila, for the first couple of weeks. We’ll then travel to Bataan and separate by our sectors. Each sector will stay in a different town and each volunteer will be living with their own host family for the remainder of our training.

Today at mass I received a blessing from the visiting priest (our regular priest is in Europe on vacation) in front of everyone. I really appreciate the blessing and being able to talk to everyone after mass. This church community is a huge reason why I wanted to go into social work and become a Peace Corps volunteer.

I’ve been busy getting together my pasalubong, or little gifts, for my host family and children I will be working with. I got 60 postcards of San Francisco and I’ve been making friendship bracelets to hand out. So far I have made 35 bracelets to hand out and I will post pictures of them after I post this. (This has doubled as giving me something to do to take my mind off of leaving).

Now I have to pack and get ready for the upcoming week of craziness!

[jedibinkstravel]

In 49 Days...

In 12 days I will be leaving Michigan to spend a month at home in California. In 49 days I will leave for Los Angeles for pre-service orientation. In 50 days I will finally be going to the Philippines to begin training for Peace Corps service in the Children, Youth, and Families (CYF) sector. It’s hard to believe that I will be moving to a new country so soon, especially since I have never been outside of the US. Now that my second semester at the University of Michigan has ended, I have more time to think about it and it’s starting to sink in. It all feels so surreal and the past few days I’ve caught myself thinking “What am I getting myself into?” As nervous and anxious I am about this big change, I am still excited for all of the new adventures I will have, all the new people I will meet, and the new culture I will get to experience. It feels like such a long time since I first applied to Peace Corps last July. I was finally medically cleared earlier this week which means the last of pre-service paperwork! Throughout this whole process, I have reminded myself that Peace Corps wants to make sure that I really want to do this since the paperwork has been so tedious. Fortunately the Peace Corps staff has been incredibly helpful and supportive in making sure I get everything I need finished on time. I have started to teach myself some Tagalog (which my roommates and I refer to as Asian Spanish) with an app called Fabulo and labeling things around my apartment. (it has been somewhat challenging since in my mind I translate everything from English to French and then to Tagalog) My roommates have even joined in sometimes to help me. I really love the Fabulo app because it teaches the words, spelling, pronunciation, and sentence structure. It has been incredibly helpful with learning some basics. I can’t wait to be able to speak it fluently and learn more during training. I have also joined the Facebook group for my batch (Batch 274) which has all of the volunteers who will be starting this July as well as volunteers currently in the Philippines. Everyone has been very helpful and has been giving great advice. I even ordered a hammock with a group of them. I’m looking forward to meeting them all and spend time with them during training. All I have left to do is pack up everything and send it to California, spend some quality time with my Michigan friends, head home and spend time with family and California friends, pack for the Philippines, and go to the Philippines. It’s crazy that I am so close to going and starting this adventure. I will try to keep you all updated as much as I can, just have to get into the habit of writing it all down. I can’t wait for this adventure!

[jedibinkstravel]

A timeline of events related to Peace Corps and my journey to service

Watch above or click here