(Fun fact for history buffs: Bagac to Tarlac is the start and finish of the Bataan Death March)
To friends and family who have been keeping up with my blog, sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted! I’m alive and well and settling in smoothly into my new home in Barangay Sta. Maria in Camiling, Tarlac. My new mailing address has been updated in the Contact section 🙂 This last month and a half has been a wild rush of emotions, events, and experiences; all of which felt more appropriate to spend living in and enjoying every second of rather than trying to figure out how to put it all into words in a blog. Here’s my attempt to sum up last month and half’s events:
Following my last post was our long-awaited Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) followed by our Site Placement Announcements (a super stressful day). Our LPI determines whether or not we would continue on to learn our local language or continue studying Tagalog. The LPI is broken into three levels (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced) which are each broken into three sub levels (Low, Mid, High) and our threshold for passing was Intermediate-Mid. For the occasion, all PCTs were brought to Vista Venice Resort in Morong, Bataan. After our LPI in the morning, we found out our site placements in an award show-like fashion. Our Regional Managers introduced each particular region one at a time and then announced the volunteer(s) placed in that region, each of which was followed by applause as we each went up to get our site-placements packets with information about our site and host-agency. After two months of wondering, we finally knew where we would be going, what we would be doing, and how far we would be to each other. I was very excited about my site and to top it all off, I had passed my LPI with my goal of Advanced-Low! It was the first time all PCTs got together since the first week of community-based training so we were all very excited to be in each other’s company especially on such a big day.
The next day, we jumped right into local language training, which for me is Ilokano. Ilokano is spoken in the northern regions of the Philippines down to where I am in Camiling, Tarlac. Learning another language after 7 intense weeks of Tagalog was difficult, especially when we had so much left to do in our last two weeks in Bagac. Those two weeks went by so quickly; we did one final event with our youth leaders, prepared for our youth leader recognition ceremony, and prepared our handog for host families (a thank you/farewell celebration). It was an emotional week saying goodbyes to our youth community, our families, and homes in Bagac. Our Tabing-Ilog youth leaders surprised us with an impressively organized program consisting of dances, songs, and speeches on our last night. It was affirming to see everything we had been working with them on throughout CBT to be put into action that night by our youth leaders all by themselves.
On Sept. 8th, I said see-you-later to my wonderful Bagac family. Thank you, Tuvera family, for making me feel so at home and giving me such a beautiful and diverse first two months in country. Luckily, I’m only about a 3-4 hour bus ride away so visiting soon and often is definitely possible. We left early in the morning and my fellow CYF volunteers and I departed for Manila for our two-day site immersion. Site-immersion was a chance for us to visit two of the Philippines’ most unique communities, Smokey Mountain and North Cemetery. We went into each community with a reputable NGO that works directly with the people in the community (which helped alleviate some of the awkward intrusiveness of a group of 30 Americans walking through). It was a very eye-opening experience for me. For most of us, it was the first time we had witnessed poverty at that level. When I was first informed that we would be visiting a community of 30,000+ people that is built within a dump site or 10,000+ people within a still-functioning cemetery, I had no idea what to expect or how I would (or should) feel. Although these communities face extreme poverty, what I also saw were functioning communities of hardworking and resourceful people making a living for themselves – much like any other community. I want to talk more about this and the greater context of poverty in the Philippines, but I feel that’s deserving of its own post at another time.
From site-immersion, we traveled to the beautiful Ciudad Christhia 9 Waves Resort in San Mateo where we would join the other two sectors for a week of feeling pampered with glorious and delicious buffet style meals and air-conditioned rooms. There, we had our PST wrap-up (mostly logistics and admin presentations),
Work Partners Conference, and Swearing-In. I was very nervous and excited to meet my counterpart/superviser, Amelia (Amy) Tuquero, who is a rockstar and a super passionate and committed Executive Director at Rehoboth Children’s Home where I will be working the next two years. During the two days of Work Partners Conference, I had the chance to get to know Ate Amy and Rehoboth and I couldn’t wait to get to site and start working.
On Sept 16th, the 81 trainees of Batch 274 were officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. We did it!!! (You can watch the entire ceremony here if you missed it.) It was a 2 hour ceremony that consisted of the singing of the the Philippines and American national anthems; speeches by our Country Director, our Director of Programs & Training, the Ambassador, and the Executive Director of the Philippines National Volunteer Service Coalition; performances by each of the three clusters; introductions by each PCT; and the official swearing-in oath. I’d put that moment pretty high up there on my list of proudest moments of my life. Everyone got dressed up and made up and it was like we were all different people since care for glamour and appearance was one of the first things to go for most of us. (It’s too hot and humid here to care about looking good!) After the ceremony, we all enjoyed a feast of foods that we hadn’t seen for 3 months (and probably won’t see again for a long time). I ate my weight in eclairs, cream puffs, real cheese, salmon croissants, and so much more. We danced and celebrated our last night all together and said see-you-laters to PCVs (yes, it’s a V now!) leaving as early as 2am that night. At 8am the next morning, I made my departure and said farewell to the comfort of having PST staff and my fellow volunteers around every day and looked forward to starting my service. I arrived at site that afternoon, met my host family, received a warm welcome from the children and staff at Rehoboth, and thus life at site began. 
It’s been nearly a month at site but I feel like it’s been much longer (which I’m taking to be a good thing). I live in a small, landlocked town of Sta. Maria in Camiling, Tarlac which is a 30-40 minute drive to the closest big city and 3-4 hours from the next volunteer. I live with the Hufano family which consists of all women: my Mama Evangeline (43), my host sister Jasmine
(19), her 7-month old daughter Alexandra, and my other host sister Debbie Ann (17). The father (whom I’ve been told to call Uncle) works in La Union, a city about 3 hours away and he visits once a month or so. My oldest host sister Angelica (22) works in the next city of Pangasinan and also visits occasionally. I have my own room and bathroom in a beautiful house. We live very simply, but happily. My family has limited English and I have even more limited Tagalog/Ilokano, but they’re all very kind and I’m doing my best to find new ways to engage and communicate with them. There isn’t much to do here in our small town, but I’ve struck gold with Rehoboth as my job placement. I’ve been kept wonderfully busy and I’m learning and loving every day.
That’s all for now, I think. I’ll share more about my day-to-day life, my family, and Rehoboth in my next post (with pictures!) Sending lots of love back home. ❤
Jac in the Philippines 