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The second photo featured is from CYF”s performance!

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Batch 274 Swearing-In ceremony: recorded on USTREAM. Other Events

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

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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.

#pcmi #pcphilippines #philippines #pst #pst2015 #bagac bataan #baguio #lpi #site placement #batch274 #cyf #tagalog #ilocano

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.

#pcmi #peace corps #pcphilippines #philippines #pst #pst2015 #cyf #batch274 #bagac bataan #youth camp

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.