how it’s going…

Hi ALL!!!
First of all I’m fine, not sick, eating well, drinking a lot of water, and not getting to eaten by mosquitoes. Only a few bites on my ankles and arms
So it’s officially been 2 weeks since I’ve been in country and this is day 11 with my host family.
I’m in south of manila and it’s a good size city. Lots of people and lots of cars. There is a mall about a 15 min walk from my house and I can find anything that I forgot there. It is really hot and humid but it’s not too bad because it rains A LOT about every other day so that cools it off alittle bit. Those little Korean white cloths I packed were the BEST things ever!!! Great for the sweat dabbing; I feel like one of those old Korean men eating hot soup every time I bust it out. Everyone saw mine and went out and bought their own!
My family is really great. I live with a woman and she is 45. She lives in this house with her older sister and 6 year old daughter. She was really shy the first couple of days but then warmed up to me. It’s great having a little sister it makes things really comfortable. My host mom is one out of nine kids (8 girls and 1 boy) so her family is everywhere around the city. Her other sister actually lives like 5 feet away from us. That house has a mom, dad, daughter and son but the son lives in Manila. There are always people in and out of the house so it’s never boring ? it’s a very communal culture. Everyone speaks pretty good English so communication is not a problem and they are very helpful in helping me learn tagalog.
Finding working in the Philippines has been recently really hard. EVERY family has at least one family member working abroad and sending money back home. I’ve heard of a lot of people going to Saudi Arabia and Europe to find work. Right now with my family only the brother in law is bringing in money by driving and renting out his van.
Food is never, never, ever scarse…oh my goodness they feed me sooo much and 5x a day. Always, always eat more, eat more… take another serving. Lots of fish (fried and boiled) even for breakfast, great fruit (yum!), rice, chicken, pork, and vegetables. So no problems adjusting to the food. Some of the volunteers are having a hard time eating fish and shrimp with the heads still on it… hehe but I’m use to that ? Oh and there pork is exactly like sam gup sal – the pork belly so it’s all really familiar food.
I do have consistent electricity and running water. I have my own room with a fan, bed, and dresser. It’s very nice but I think I kicked out the older sister because the older sister is sleeping in the living room. My bathroom situation is good. They call the bathroom the comfort room. It has a toilet bowl and a faucet. I have to manually flush the toilet with a bucket of water and I’m taking bucket showers. The bucket shower is great! I love it! I feel like an old Korean lady washing in a kimchee squat position.
Being a Korean volunteer is actually pretty interesting. One nice thing about it is they say I look philappina, my hair, dark skin, round face, a lot of things except for my eyes. Haha my eyes are “cheena” eyes. They say me and my host cousin look the same and that we can be sisters.
I think I’ve been accepted pretty well into my family. I get along with everyone and am open to everything. They LOVE the fact that I eat everything and anything. Haha I even heard them bragging about it to another host mom whose host daughter is a selective eater. I hope I can continue to mesh and get into the community.
All is well and I love and miss everyone!
<3
Chris