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.