long break

Hi everyone! So why such a delay on blog? I was out of town for a week and then when I came back we had a typhoon and also a brownout for three days – that means now electricity, no internet, and eventually no cell phones as everyone had low battery. Now its back on again so all is back to normal. It is actually a lot of fun….like camping – when it gets dark everyone hangs out on the street. When we go in for dinner, we eat by candlelight. The other night we hung out late outside playing cards. I taught everyone here how to play BS and they love it.
I have a lot of catching up to do with everyone so ill start a ways back alright?
So lets see…before I left for my vacation I was spending time working on my class. I was doing research, organizing the materials I bought and rearranging the class. I have to say that it looks really good. Much better than before. I came up with some good ideas for the whole set up. I think Liza liked it too. Too early to tell if it will work, we still don’t have the pupils coming yet. But I am hopeful. They sure liked the materials anyways. You should have seen them all with the plastic flutes grandma sent. Actually a choice I regret – they are loud!!!!! Mama Zonia came by one afternoon to see the class. It was the first time she was there. She just decided to drop by. I was very happy to finally show off my work.
The next day started my vacation - reunion in baguio for Kelly and dustin’s birthdays, followed by a visit to Saytan (our old cluster site), and then a random trip to the beach close by
– October 19 – I took a day trip to Baguio alone. It was a long drive but I was lucky and got to watch a movie. I kept busy by registering for unlimited texting – basically 15 pesos and you can text people on the same network for 24 hours. A nice way to pass the time on a bus that is if I don’t get carsick. I also packed a really good packed lunch -some couscous concoction I put together with black beans – it turned out amazing and a great alternative to bus stop food – usually cold rice and fatty meat. Yummy!
I got into Baguio about 930 and crashed at Lina and Kelly’s place. Adam took the night bus from Banaue and showed up around 130 am. In the am we wondered around the city doing some shopping. We went to the grocery store and bought cheese and baguettes and olives – a luxury we don’t have back in ifugao. Jill showed up in the afternoon and we went on a search for a birthday cake before heading back to their house to get ready for a big night out – dinner and dancing! We all got dolled up for the first time in ages. I can’t remember the last time I put on some normal clothes and did my hair and make up. I even accessorized! Silly as it sounds, it felt great. We all went out looking great. We ate a restaurant similar to Hu Hot Grill, did our birthday celebrations with cake, and headed out to a place called Nevada Square. You pay a small entry fee and you get access to about 10 bars. We played pool, darts, and then danced all night. We followed up our night out with pizza! It was so much fun. A taste of back home. Im sure we all really needed that vacation. It was definitely a refresher for me.
Saturday we lounged around – tired and a bit hungover. Jill, Adam, and I headed to Saytan in the afternoon. When we arrived we were greated by all the council members and many other important members in the community. They weren’t there to meet us – we aren’t THAT important! They were having a meeting in the barangay hall. I was shy seeing so many people at once but at least we got it all over with quickly!
We headed first to Nanang Tina’s house. She was Adam’s host mom and the one that moved to the US a few months ago. She was living with her son and his family in Chicago. After two months or so, she realized that she was not happy there and decided to move back home. She was so happy to see us. We all were happy to see her. You should have seen it. All of us jumping around hugging each other repeatedly. Adam hugged her and I just jumped in for another one. We thought we might never see each other again so it really was a special moment. She helped me so much there when I was having problems with my family. She made me feel at home. I was always welcome in her house and she treated me like family. Any bad impressions Merci gave me, Nanang made up for. We spent the rest of the day chatting and eating. She made a feast for us! Spaghetti, pansit (pasta stir fry dish), puto (dessert), fried chicken, and then some. Adam told me that she would cook like this before and when they sat down to eat they would ask “who’s birthday?” because he always made so much food. Later that night we met up with Vanessa (Jill’s host sister) and her friends and went to the next town for a church youth group get together.
Sunday we skipped 6 am catholic church service with nanang so we could sleep in but went later to the Christian service – the one we used to go to most Sundays. Church service and the rest of the day was spent socializing, eating, catching up, making visits to all of our friends and family members. Stan was able to stop by on his way to Baguio to our quartet was complete. Everyone there was really welcoming and happy to see us. Especially the kids. Everyone insisted I stop by Merci’s house to say hi. I reluctantly went, dragging jill and adam of course! She was friendly, visit was short, and it seemed that we all knew it was just out of politeness and obligation. That was all I saw of her during our visit and I think we were both okay with that.
Sunday night we hung out with Vanessa and the rest of our friends there at the videoke bar. It was just like old times.
Monday – eating and more chit chat. Jill left early in the morning to get back to site. She had a seminar to give on Tuesday. I was starting my sem break back at school so I didn’t have to report all week. So adam and I decided to take a little side trip to san Fernando – a beach about 2 hours north of saytan known for its surfing. We wanted to go on a longer trip to 100 islands where they have snorkeling and kayaking but I mentioned it to nanang and she wanted to come! I decided that trip could wait. So we snuck off to la union instead.
We got some advice from another volunteer who had been there just the day before and got a place to stay just outside of town. The beach was gorgeous! Long nice sandy beaches. We swam all afternoon. The waves were mild but there were some surfers there. Even some students taking lessons. I was disappointed to find out surfing is really expensive here! It costs 200 pesos an hour to rent a board! That’s a lot. So we decided just to swim. Adam got a deal with someone who said they would loan out a board for 600 half day with a one hour lesson. Sounded good to us so we set it up for the next morning. Ha and also while we were out there adam all of a sudden started yelling about how something was stinging him. He headed in and I followed him. He said he thought it was a jelly fish. Sure enough, there were some remains of one stuck on his bracelet and he was turning all read where it had stung him. The stinging didn’t go away so guess what we did to stop it? Ha ha! Adam took the empty Popsicle wrapper we had and peed in it and poured it over his sores. It wasn’t enough. So that’s when I had to step in. We went back to the room and it was my turn to pee in a bag and pour it over his sores. It was so funny! He smelled of pee! Covered in both of ours! First time I ever peed on a friend J We did some shopping in town for food for the next day. I got to practice my ilokano and wow some locals! Ha ha not really “wow” them. They are impressed if I can say “how much is that?” We got sick of the fumes and people in town so we ate dinner at a nice restaurant close to our lodge – fresh grilled fish and cheap beer. Then relaxed on the beach with our two free beers from the lodge – added bonus to our fee!
The next day we woke up, ate, and hurried outside to get an early start surfing. One look at the waves and I was like “no way!” Ive never surfed, never really lived by a surfing area so any sizeable waves are a big deal to me. It really looked nuts out there. Gorgeous but nuts. Still, we went and found our lender. Turned out it wasn’t possible to give lessons in those conditions but with some reluctance he agreed to loan us the board. He went to fetch it and came back and told us someone already had it! We saw later that all the instructors were out surfing in it. Its just the beginning of surf season here so they’ve probably been waiting for a good day. Sneaky huh? We went to the surf rental shop to see what we could do there. We wanted to try so we were willing to throw down a little money. Adam knows how to surf – he’s from LA. And I really wanted to try it. They told us there that they weren’t renting out boards because the waves were too strong. So we settled for a body board. We each got one and headed out. I cant describe it. It was so hard! Trying to get past all the waves…..Each time you get hit with one it sets you back. You can put all your energy into it and just end up right where you started. Its exhausting if you don’t do it right. You have to dive under all the waves to make any progress. Its hard to do. There were so many sets I felt that every time I would get up there would be another one. I tried for a long time but in the end was just water logged, thrown around, and it came to me that it is dangerous out there. Im not that confident of a swimmer and I got scared thinking id get stuck out there. So I retreated, with my tail between my legs, and left adam to try it out. He spent about an hour out there then came back to get me and drag me out again. This time he took the board out there and I just swam like crazy to get past all the waves. This time success! I was tired but we made it. He set me up on a wave and I took one shot at coming in on it. Even that was hard. I had to hang on really tight so I wouldn’t fall off and even then I lost my balance in the end and was thrown around. I came up with my shirt nearly over my head my hair in my face, waves still splashing, me, and completely water logged. But it was fun. Up there on the wave you can see everything. Its exciting. I didn’t do any more after that. I let adam play. Even he had trouble the next time around. He spent forever trying to get past the breaks and ended up really exhausted. After a couple of hours we stopped and just relaxed on the beach. I cant wait to try surfing but the water will have to be a lot calmer to get me out there.
That afternoon we took a bus back to baguio. I had a few days left of vacation but we were blowing through our money and I wanted a couple of days back at site hanging out with my host family before I had to report back to work. In baguio we indulged one last time – real pizza – I mean amazing pizza! and real hard scooped ice cream! Expensive and worth every peso.
Thursday am we got on a day trip bus back to ifugao. On the way adam got a text that our governor died. His host family next door is made up of the governors mom and his brothers family so this was a big deal. The governors mom had been in manila for the past month taking care of him while he was in the hospital. adam was planning to hang out in Lamut for a day or so but because of his death. So I got off in Lamut and he went ahead to banaue. I had been fighting a cold all week and when I got back it finally caught up with me. I spent the next three days in bed sick. I read a couple of books, slept, watched some movies, and watched episode after episode of smallville. On Saturday a couple of volunteers stopped by with Gatorade and other cold drinks to help me get better.
The wake for the governor started last Friday. They last for 10 days. The family spends every night there. Most do not sleep at night, just coming home during the day to rest for a bit before going back. Adam was spending every night there with his family. I wanted to go visit the family as soon as I found out but I was sick so waited until Sunday and went after breakfast. Jill was there also and dustin had gone the night before. Our former language instructor in saytan, paul, was the governors assistant so he was there as well. Adam and I went to the wake and visited with family members, paul, and lola. I am worried about her. She hasn’t been sleeping and she is 80+. This is going to be hard on her. That night after we got back to adams, it started to rain. We received a text from peace corps that a typhoon was on its way. We went to bed thinking nothing of it but in the middle of the night I woke up to crazy winds and rain. It looked nuts outside. I was sleeping by these big windows there and could see it all. During all this the window opened a bit. Adam ran to the door and checked outside. Hard to see anything. Everything was rumbling and shaking and I was afraid we would get swept away in a mudslide. We were reassured by telling ourselves that this house was 50 years old so wasn’t at risk – many typhoons had passed here before right? It was hard to get back to sleep with all that – I was nervous! In the am it was still raining hard and the river below was flooding, the roads were flooding, it seemed we were still in it. The top layer of adams bathroom roof came off and the roof downstairs was leaking all over the floor. Peace corps called us to check on us and said it was a level 4 typhoon. That’s pretty strong. But we were safe! The rain didn’t stop all day. I tried to get a bus back to Lamut – I had work the next day. But the 600 bus was cancelled because of the storm. We missed the other ones. Actually, when we got to the bus, our trike driver tried to chase down the 530 bus but we had missed it. So I stayed another night. There was no electricity so we spent the night next door sitting by a fire and also playing card games. By morning the rain stopped and I took a jeep back to Lamut. I was too late for work so I just hung out with my family – like I said, brownout still so cards and dinner by candlelight again!
Wednesday was a holiday – All Saints Day. Everyone here makes native rice cakes and goes to the cemetery. We cooked and took a picnic there. There were a lot of people there. Big groups of families all picnicking on the tombs. We ate lunch, drank, and sang. Later we went to a cousins birthday party where I won 20 pesos playing charades with bembol, spilled a plate of spaghetti on myself (therefore walking around with a wet shirt all afternoon), and having a frostine fight! I also was daring enough to wear shorts there. Big deal cos no one wears them. They weren’t short but short enough to get a lot of stares and some comments about my sexy white legs!
That night we went to the farm. They took the videoke machine out there so we sang together and had dinner out there. All saints day is a fairly big holiday here. In other parts of the country they celebrate it even more. Ive heard its great in sagada where they have huge bonfires.
The past couple of days Ive been back to work. It hasn’t gone too well. Back to having issues with liza again. She blew up on me a bit yesterday. I went home upset again and talked with my host family. They too feel bad that I am having problems there. Mama Zonia said that she tries hard for me to be happy here and it pains her to have it go so terribly there. Again, I sat down with liza today and had a talk with her asking her what her problem was. I figure its either she doesn’t like me, doesn’t like her job, or doesn’t like me being involved with her job. We didn’t resolve much. I did tell her that I am a volunteer and that if it isn’t working for me to do this project I can do something else. I also explained again my role here and that I really want to work with this project and I hope she does as well. I asked her if she likes working there and she said she does its just a challenge at first. Not much has changed. I am done taking it personally. I think its her personality. She has told me she isn’t one for chit chat and she is hard up with speaking English. All I can do is wait and see again. Ahhhh what a stress
Apart from work, everything is fine. I had a great time seeing saytan. Not much had changed and I still felt at home there. The beach vacation was great. I needed to get away like that. However, now that I am back I am having to readjust to work again and refocus. I was really focused and motivated right before I left so Im trying to get that back again.
Ive been a bit homesick lately. I think it’s the holidays that does it. I miss everyone and I know that Christmas is going to be hard. And so much is happening at home that I am missing out on! Luckily I have a great family here that helps. They are always celebrating together and I am included in everything.
And tomorrow I have been invited to the girl scout retreat by another teacher. Maybe it can be a possible secondary project. Either way, I can socialize with some other teachers and branch out.
And I have some great news. I will hopefully be coming home in the end of may. Why? Because Holly is having a baby!!!!!! I cant believe it. At first I was stunned and then I cried because I am going to be missing out on the whole thing. Watching her belly get big, shopping for baby things, giving her advice…so I decided the only thing to do is to be there for the birth – or at least try. So that’s my plan for now. Gonna start saving what I can and hopefully see you all in a few months.
That’s all for now. Im beat! Write more soon. Love you all

oh and many of you may have been trying to call me and having problems...sorry about that....not sure what it is! but dont stop trying k?