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.