sept and oct 2009

Housekeeping…. Whew! Maybe it’s because I just finished doing laundry and cleaning my apartment but I will start this update with what housekeeping is like for me.

I push everything off and just do everything in a one day frenzy. This includes grocery shopping, cleaning, and doing all my laundry in buckets and with a bar of Tide soap (yup they are in bars here) in the back “porch” of my apartment. I do have to say that as ominous as it sound, I really do enjoy washing my clothes. It like any mundane /routine thing you get use to, like showering or driving to work; I find it therapeutic. But, I still get as wet as the clothes I’m washing when I’m doing my laundry. Hanging up everything to dry is another endeavor. Ideally it’s nice a sunny outside with a slight breeze. If the sun so gracefully chooses to shine on me then all my clothes will quickly dry with a lingering pleasant detergent smell, but because it is typhoon season these kinds of days are few and hard to come by. Clouds, drizzle, or stormy weather has me shuttling my clothes in and out of the house with dampness lingering where a pleasant detergent smell should be.

Bleach and duct tape have become my household go-tos for anything that goes wrong. I inherited some duct tape from another volunteer and it has saved my life a few times. For example…. I’m brushing my teeth and noticed a biting sensation at my feet. I looked down and I noticed an ant colony streaming out a hole in the wall by my bathroom. When filling the hole with Elmer’s glue failed… haha yes go ahead and laugh….. I suddenly remembered the valuable resource I had stowed away. Ant colony entrance… sealed! When there are bugs I’d rather not feel squished underneath my hand… let’s just trap the bug with duct tape and dispose of it that way. Broken chair… duct tape! Clothing malfunction… duct tape! Oh and the bleach. Weird smell coming from the corner of my living room… let’s throw some bleach on it. Mysterious and fuzzy substance in the refrigerator…… throw some bleach on it. Just sloshed through rainy and probably bio hazardous city water….. throw some bleach on the shoes. Like I said….household go tos.

School….. good news there. Students are actually checking out and reading the books!! Very stoked about that! So now student interest is tested and confirmed we just need to work on getting some more material and finalizing the checkout procedures.

September and October has yielded very few full weeks of school. I’ve had my teaching pushed back, canceled, and disrupted for an assortment of colorful reasons. It’s the principal’s bday so we are having a surprise assembly in light of the happy day… an all day assembly! Our school is hosting a division competition so we need the students to clean and tidy the school instead of having classes. It’s science month so the science department is having an assembly where I judge the “best scientist look alike” competition. The student dressed as Einstein won. The President of the Philippines has declared a last minute holiday and there is no school (I don’t have a TV so I didn’t hear the notice and went to school – no one was there). Emergency teachers meeting… no teaching just sitting and listening about future events at the school that will disrupt more teaching. Town fiesta is happening and our students need to have all day dance and theater practice. Our school is being evaluated for some Department of Education best school competition so no classes for two days to have the students prepare last minute tweaks to the school. The next day I finally get to teach and we are doing an activity, but then my class gets “hushed” because we are being too noisy and the evaluators maybe displeased. Haha… good times!

Most of volunteers that came in 2007 are now starting the post PC chapter of their lives. We, arrived in 2008, are right in the middle of ours, which means a new group has just arrived. I spent a few days doing a few talks at one of the training sites and got struck over the head with “wow! It really has been a year!” It really puts things into perspective. Two years is and isn’t a long time, but when it comes to creating/stimulating/initiating institutional change….how much is really possible? Where do my skills and the needs of my community align to do something meaningful together? The most important thing is to see the big picture alignment and macro purpose of everything… is this a universal purpose that is tugging at everyone? All the questions that I started with are still lingering and even after a year I still don’t have the answers, but aren’t we all a work in progress?

And also as you know, the Philippines has been devastated but the recent typhoons. Filipinos are resilient and are working hard to restore their homes but more aid is still needed. If you would like to contribute you may do so at http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/wtd.aspx