Ready, Set, Dance!

February 20^th- 26^th:

My third year students could not concentrate in class the two days before, maybe even more but it was noticeable the final two waiting days, their junior/senior prom. I quickly realized that their JS prom was a lot different than the one I experienced as a high school student. A lot of preparation time was spent practicing for the “Rigodon de Honor.” The students selected their dance partner and the learned the steps to the dance. It reminded me a lot of the ballroom dances we studied in high school gym class. The only place for them to practice was on the rocky open field that is at the center of our school yard. This seems like a fine place to practice but not when the climate is getting warmer by the day and the participants do not like exposing their skin to the sun for over 5 seconds. For me, a free natural tan before the big dance sounds perfect. For them, the darker the skin the uglier they are, their words not mine. But, the dance is important so they put on their long sleeves, hats, carried their umbrellas and fans and danced the day away, determined to get every step just right. The dance would be at the school so the Friday before the big event they decorated the stage with red and pink fabric and hearts. The mayor let the school borrow a set of outdoor hanging lights and a disco light to hang up over the court where the dancing would take place.

On the day of the dance, the girls all dolled up and the boys dressed to impressed, they were ready for a night to remember. After the introductions, the first big event of the night was when the fourth year students passed on a large sparkly gold key that represents the responsibilities of being fourth year students. (The fourth year students are always doing projects around the school campus to help improve the facility; building benches, they just installed a new sink, planting trees, they are currently slowly piecing together a basketball hoop & court, taking broken desks and making new ones, and more.) Then, one of the fourth year students gave an inspirational speech in which he created a story using the fourth year students and the jobs that he could see them living. Unfortunately, during this it started to down pour. The students ran for their classrooms, the dance floor quickly flooded, the excitement took a giant leap towards sadness. The students near me were joking about doing the sun dance. While we were doing the sun dance I was wishing that magical powers were real and I could stop the heavy rain and put the magic back into the atmosphere. The amazing thing is that after all of the short lived frowns went off their faces, it was like everyone simultaneously decided that they just had to make the best of what they had. Their classrooms became the dance floors and the music rang loud throughout the campus.

Later that night, the rain stopped. The second year students who were there helping deliver food and drink and run the event hurriedly wiped the water from the chairs and the 3^rd and 4^th year students rushed out of their classrooms. One main event that they do is a candlelight ceremony. One by one the fourth year president lit the candle of each fourth student as they slowly formed a two hearts. The outside heart was fourth year, the inside heart was third year. Tapos, the fourth year students lit the candle of the third year student in front of them, symbolizing friendship and passing on the fourth year status. The hugged and shared memories before the dancing continued. On the dance floor, the girls were on one side and the boys on the other. Once a song started the boys walked over to the girls and asked one of them to dance. It reminded me of my junior high dances. The awkward, “I am not sure where to put my hands” and the “we have to dance next to my friends so I can talk to my best friend.” The world of puppy love at its finest. Even though there were no real dates, no expensive dinners, no elaborate decorations at a fancy venue, and more, it was still a night to remember for my high school students filled with lots of dancing, smiling, picture taking, and the feeling of being beautiful and alive!

My classes this week had some memorable moments. First, in my second year we are still practicing writing paragraphs, getting prepared to write the big essay coming up. To make describing objects fun, we did a “Survival Island” project where my students worked in groups to device a survival bag of objects. Each member of the group had to bring two objects and describe the object and why they brought it. Ok, the funny part is this- the first thing that I heard every group say was, “We need a sac of rice!” Filipinos really love rice. All in all, they all came up with really good lists, I was impressed. At the end we chose a winner and I gave them some “What if this happened scenarios” and they were ready with their answers in the blink of an eye. It was a lot of fun. We also did writing pyramids this week to describe objects. They had to write ten sentences, but each sentence you add a word. So, sentence one you use two words, sentence two- three words, sentence three- four words… and so on. It got them to think creatively about their descriptions and chose of words. There was a competition to find the pyramid with the most adjectives used! Reading about flying mermaids, robots, talking clocks and more definitely produced some good reading material! In my third year class we read an excerpt from Macbeth, “The world is a Stage.” This was actually an easier piece for them to understand so we had a lot of fun with the activities. Each student created a timeline on stage. As they remembered past experiences and imagined their future I had them think about the different “acts” of their life and the different audiences of each act. The conversations were out of the ordinary and it helped me learn a lot about my students regarding where they see themselves in the future.

This weekend I am busy preparing myself to leave site for almost two weeks. On Wednesday, February 29^th I will travel to Mindoro. Mindoro is an island next to Marinduque. There is a volunteer there who is holding a teacher training at her school. She invited some volunteers to come help her facilitate the lessons. This is great experience for me because Catherine and I have already begun talking about doing a teacher training here in Marinduque. I will stay there until March 4^th and then Catherine and I will travel to Cavite for IST (In Service Training). I am excited to see the volunteers who I have not seen for quite some time now! Should be an awesome reunion and also an opportunity to learn, discuss, discover, and plan for the next months of service. I will be in Cavite until March 10^th and then I will travel back to site! That’s all for now folks!

Handful of Love

February 13^th- 19^th:

                                                                                                                                            

First topic, Valentine’s Day! My day was filled with plenty of pink and red hearts and it was just perfect. Valentine’s Day was a great reason to take a break from lessons and do some arts and crafts. Due to the fact that I was a nanny for um… five or six years before I left for Peace Corps, my excitement about doing crafts was probably a little over the top. I miss having kids around every day to plan crafts for. A light bulb just went off in my head that I could possible start an arts and crafts club with all my neighbor kids- Sunday Funday with Ms. Gina? Je je je. Anyways, Catherine and I browsed the internet the weekend prior to V-day to look for paper crafts, or any craft that we would be able to make with our students using the materials that are available. I also had to keep in mind that I would be doing this craft with about 200 students, no my usual craft buddies who were at most only five. In a nutshell, we had to keep things simple and affordable! We found a project titled, “Handful of Love.” It was very simple, just a couple important directions and some added creativity and personal touch and the outcome would be suitable for any Valentine. The students loved it! See pictures below.

Another new experience I had this week was washing my bed sheets. I thought jeans were hard but in comparison to a bed sheet, jeans are easy! I have been putting off washing my dirty sheet for a few weeks and somehow one afternoon after school I found motivation to actually wash it. In all honesty I was considering asking someone to wash it for me because I was not anticipating a good experience washing it myself. I carried the sheet outside, put it in the bucket and from then on there was no turning back, it was already wet. It took me about 20 minutes to scrub each section of the sheet, carefully maneuvering the sheet in the bucket so I would not lose track of what parts I had washed and what parts I had not washed.  The tub was filled with bubbles. I needed a break so I let it soak for 15 minutes while I gave my muscles a break before rinsing. I actually ate a piece of chocolate to reward myself. The whole self rewarding thing really works for me. I am much more likely to wash a load of clothes if I tell myself I can eat a piece of chocolate afterwards. Did I just admit that? While rinsing, the sheet was so heavy I could barely lift it high enough so that it was under the faucet but not in the soapy water. It did not help that before I left my mother bought me a heavy duty, high thread count, amazing sheet from bed bath and beyond. After “rinsing” or trying to rinse some might call it, I think there might still have been some soap in the fibers but I decided I could live with it and hung it out to dry. Definitely a good arm work-out.

Friday night I went to Boac after school. Two fourth year students were competing in a Marinduque wide pageant for search for Mr. and Ms. Social Science. Catherine and her friend from home Ashley were also coming to the show because there was a student from Catherine’s school competing too; actually… her student won the competition! Ashley is a film maker who is currently collecting a variety of pieces to lay out the life of a Peace Corps volunteer from beginning to end. She is planning to visit Catherine about every six months. I think I mentioned this earlier too. She told me she has already created a trailer for the film. She is using the trailer to promote the film and collect funds to help her continue and finish her project. She is going to send me the link to the trailer so when I receive that I will pass it on to you all. It is actually really hard to “act normal” when there is large camera equipment extremely close to your face. I kept thinking about the ending credits on Little Rascals when they show a series of shots saying, “Darla, don’t look at the camera!” I always wanted to look at the camera! Before the show started we all ate dinner together and that is when Ashley shot some film about the conversations Catherine and I were having. The show started at 6pm, but in Filipino time it was more around 7. The stage set up was beautiful, complete with spotlights, tri-level platforms, lanterns decorated with butterflies, and multi-colored lighting. The show was intense and the contestants were all very brilliant and talented! Every outfit: sports, casual wear, gown, talent, and uniform, had to be made from recycled materials. This really brought to life the complexities and creativity of designing outfits using rice sacks, plastic bags, pages of a magazine, newspaper, umbrellas, and so on. Catherine and I had a laughing attack during the talent portion of the contest. One of the contestants did an interpretive dance and at the end of the dance number they (there were background dancers too) came to center stage. First, they opened a box and many butterflies went flying through the audience. Then, the two at the ends released (more like threw or chucked) two large birds into the audience. However, these birds did not exactly fly, perhaps they were in shock, they just went up solely because of the toss and then came rapidly crashing to the ground. We could not control our laughter. The birds survived though, I think.

The grand finale to my week and weekend was the Junior/Senior Prom at my school. I will write about this in next weeks post because I did not have time to write everything before I came to the internet today.

One of my classes! Everyone was very excited to have a "handful of love" that they could give to their Valentine.

Close up of the activity. Each student added a little burst of creativity to make it more personal and fun!

Meet Romeo and Juliet! They are busy practicing for the final production coming in March. I was impressed with the balcony scene, they are going to blow me away with the entire play there is no doubt about it. The props crew did an amazing job!

My new classroom display! I may not have a laminating machine, store bought letters, bullentin board and tacks but I do have 100 little hands to help me! They all thought the boarders were really large stickers, it was cute. But I guess when you take classroom boarders and stick about 100 pieces of tape on the back it does become a rather large "sticker." I am adding new star students this coming week!

Congrats Little Sister! "From Bugeyes to Amazing Mom to Wife"

February 6^th- 12^th:
Many of my thoughts this week have been bringing me to Wisconsin. I have been thinking about my little sister who is getting married on Sunday! I wish that I was by her side, involved in the bonding that happens before such a life changing event. But, since I am here, many, many miles away, I am restricted to merely thinking about how stunning she is going to be, how happy I am for her, how great of a (whatever you want to call it) love is, and a bazillion other happy and positive thoughts that are sure to make my sister smile like she has never smiled before! The reception will happen the following week, luckily for me one of my co-teachers just got Wi-Fi at her house. She is allowing me to come to her house and use the Wi-Fi so I can see all the happenings at the reception! Joseph is going to “bring” me to the reception so I can see all of the people, action, food, flowers, and beyond at the splendid occasion.

Many important people in my life are getting married this year: my sister, my cousinski, and my best friend. It is a heart dart; there is no doubt about that. BUT, I am not going to take the greatness out of love by being upset over not being able to attend. I have convinced myself to suck it up, be happy that Skype is in existence, and smile because just because I will not be there physically I know that these lovely people know that I am there mentally. Oh, the beauty of destiny.

Not a lot has happened this work week. Due to the fact that I was in Tagaytay last week I got behind in my laundry service aka my own two hands. I do not have an excess amount of hangers so I can’t really do a “large” load. Hopefully this weekend will allot me some time to wash, wash, and wash.

My third year students are busy making props and memorizing lines because they will put on the play “Romeo and Juliet.” In class on Monday, we are going to do a short version practice, just the well known balcony scene. The major presentation will be right before school ends, middle of March I believe. I am planning to record it because it is undoubtedly going to be astounding. My second year students are busy practicing writing good descriptions. This week we wrote postcards to my friend the alien in outer space. Everyone was really excited to draw objects and write good descriptions. I really enjoy watching my students complete assignments that they are excited about because A) everyone actually participates (even the students who commonly sit in the back and doodle or day dream) and B) I get one-on-one time with my students to help them correct the grammar and spelling in their paragraphs, my students really benefit from the one-on-one time too!

In the world of food, Catherine and I were in town two weekends ago. We always go to the tiny duty free store because they have a very limited but good selection of American food. Catherine found parmesan cheese! I have definitely enjoyed my pasta dinner creations a little more this week because of the tasty flavor of parmesan cheese.

Last weekend I was at a birthday party in Boac. One of my friends there sat me down and asked me if I would like to be a sagada (I do not know if this is the right spelling, it’s on my list of things to figure out) in the flower festival that happens here on the island in May. There is going to be a parade through Boac. Remember my pictures from the butterfly festival parade? I am thinking that this flower festival parade might be similar. Anyways, as a sagada I am going to rent a gown and I will have to wear some type of flower arrangement on my head. I have not dug deep enough into the details of the parade but I do know the sagadas are different queens, for example, “Queen of Peace.” Mysteries of the future are grand, who knew I would ever be a dancing flower queen?

The Adventure In Me

Where did the month go? Guess it is time to say Hello, February! Yesterday I went to Tarug, Mogpog to go rock climbing. Jean, who I met in Maniwaya a few weekends ago, invited Catherine and I to come over to meet her mother and to take us on an adventure to the caves and high stone near her house. Sarah and Jean are both students at the School of Tourism in Santa Cruz. I am thankful that our paths of life have crossed because I have been anxious to get out and see what this island has to offer, and what better people to show me than tourism students!

Catherine came Friday after school. The plan was to wake up early Saturday and go to Tarug. I had no idea where Tarug was. We took a jeep the bayan and then asked someone the best way to travel to Tarug. One person told us jeep, the next told us tricycle. We went with the tricycle. It ended up being further away than I anticipated. The driver dropped us off on the main road and showed us the hill we had to walk up to reach Tarug; it was literally on top of a mountain. The hill was so steep that after about only 50 steps I was out of breath. I don’t really know how long it took us to hike up the hill but I do know that sweat was racing down my face and body when we reached the top.

Jean and her mother we were. Her mother offered us Gatorade, which was actually perfect and just what I needed. The bottle was really fancy, can’t say that I have ever enjoyed Gatorade fancy style before. Tarug was a small barangay, hidden within the coconut tree covered mountains and steep terrain of the island. It was breathtaking. I always enjoy when I get to venture off the main road that goes around the island, you just never know the hidden treasures you might find down the dirt path.

After replenishing our body and a short rest, we began our hike. Jean’s friend Girlie also came to join us. She is also a student at the School of Tourism. Her personality was spunky and outgoing which made it easy to hold a conversation with her, getting to know her story. We had to walk a short while down a dirt road to get to the bottom point of the climb. Before we started we had to sign a book, guess it was just in case we never came back. With water and my camera at my back the thrill began… up, and up, and up…

Earlier that day it had rained so the path was a bit slippery. I always made sure that my hands had a good grip on a branch or part of the rock wall just in case my feet slipped and I had to have faith in my arm strength. I can thank however many days of my life when I spent hours swimming laps for my oversized and strong arms. We reached the first cave rather quickly. There was a window in the cave that you could climb up into and look out at the, like I have mentioned before, the beautiful scenes. There were also parts of the cave that had grown to look like animals. At the front of the cave there was a large piece that stuck straight out, my eyes caught sight of it straight away- it looks like a T-rex! The other animal that had been naturally created was a group of elephants. It was a carving in the side of the cave that looked like three elephants stacked on top of each other. After the first cave, things got a little more dangerous, my heart started to beat a bit faster. One wrong move of my foot going up to the high stone could have been bad. Good thing we had a good tour guide with us who had climbed the rock walls many times before and knew every step, every grasp of the way. We made it to the, and after I took a moment to let out a sign of relief, I began thinking about going back down. It was scary going down but we made it safely back to the flat ground. Those first few steps on the flat gravel ground felt strange.

Covered in mud and very sweaty, we were all very hungry so we went back to Jean’s house for lunch. After a little relaxation, talking, and eating Catherine and I were ready to go home. Jean’s mother had given the two of us a coconut and a bag filled with bananas to bring home so they made the trip back to my house with us. When we got back to Mogpog, we stopped at my favorite burger place to get burgers for a snack. We also stopped at a small store to get some ice cream, we definitely ate ice cream three times that night, it was the best ice cream I have had here. I am getting hungry just writing about it. What an adventure!

Right now, I am in Tagaytay City with some of my students, another English teacher, and the principal. Five of my students qualified to compete in the regional journalism competition. My favorite part of being here was watching my students take a video of our room that we are all staying in. They had never seen a ceiling fan, a window heater, the water heater in the bathroom, or a socket in the wall for a telephone. They were so excited I could not stop smiling watching them examine these new things. It is cold in Tagaytay, even for me, I had to wear a scarf today! Last night they were asking my about twitter, facebook and social networking in general. I told them everything I know. Today after one of the competitions, Kim was very excited because the topic she had to write about was related to our conversation the previous night about networking. Things really do happen for a reason!

And the Marinduque Adventures Begin...

Maniwaya Sunset.

Maniwaya: Paddling in a small boat off the coast.

Rock Climbing up to Tarug Caves and High Stone. I did this yesterday, today my body is almost as sore as it was after I ran a marathon. I guess clinging for your life off a cliff is strenuous on your muscles... Don't tell my mother I did this. More to come!

I am becoming good friends with students here who attending the School of Tourism in Santa Cruz, Marinduque. They enjoy thrill and adventure as much as I do which excites me. We are planning more adventures at various spots in Marinduque. It is nice to have gotten to know a group of people who are experienced and educated about the amazing sights and adventures that exist in Marinduque. Where will we go next?.....

I Promise to Write More This Year...

2012. So far in 2012 I have spent three weeks with my bestfriend and boyfriend, discovered a great tasting burger in town that I actually crave all the time, started warming up water every day so I can take a warm bucket bath (how miraculous), finished my seventh month of Peace Corps, fell in love again, found paradise in paradise, ate sea urchin, and I feel more energized and excited about this coming year than I ever imagined.

Paradise in Paradise? When Joe was here we made the decision to go to the small island of Maniwaya off the coast of Santa Cruz, Marinduque. Catherine and I heard many positive and attention grabbing things about Maniwaya so… this trip became our first trip together. There were a few things I had to do to coordinate the trip – trip times, what to bring, find out what food is available on the island, but every detail fell into place rather perfectly.

                                                                                                                                            

When we got to the port, we were lucky because we made it just in time for the ordinary trip. The ordinary trip is cheaper than hiring a seaman to take you to the island on a special trip. After twenty minutes of staring at how mountainous and picturesque Marinduque is my eyes caught sight of Maniwaya. The island is only 5 hectors so from a far you can see the entire half of the island- the glowing white beaches and the vibrant green flora at the center.

When we got to the island we walked down the wooden ramp and onto the small manmade pier. Sir Constantino, the man who we were going to rent a cottage from told us to look for his niece, Sarah Jane. We started walking in the direction around the island that we thought was towards Sir Constantino’s cottage. As I was walking I could not decide where to look: up, down, straight ahead, towards the sea… everything was beautiful. The beach made me think of my Grandma Judy because there was a splendid assortment of shells- my Grandma was always showing me her shell collection when I was young. I hand selected a few delights that I will attempt to turn into jewelry… current and future project of mine. Back to the island…

The cottage we stayed at was on Wawie’s beach. As we were walking we noticed someone was following us, this someone turned out to be exactly who we were looking for. She showed us to the rooms, her friendly personality made the first impression of Wawie’s a great one. The adventure started right away- we suited up and hit the ocean for some snorkeling. There were thousands of sea urchins so luckily for me my ability to skull across the top of the water came in handy. Sea urchins do taste pretty good though! We learned that you have to search for the orange ones if you are planning to eat them because the orange ones are pregnant. When you eat them, you eat the eggs. Joe opened one up so we could have a taste! We washed the sea urchin down with some fresh coconut water! Nice afternoon delight.

A while late, Sarah Jane let us take her families small boat out for a little cruise off the coast. It was cool to see the coral, schools of fish, starfish and more from up above. The water was pristine. Snack time and beer drinking was to follow. For dinner Sarah and her mother cooked us fish and rice- best fish I’ve tasted so far! At night, we were invited to the neighbors for a birthday party. We spent the next hours watching the sunset, drinking coconut wine- maybe a little too much, having a dance competition, playing tag with the kids on the beach, and doing cartwheels in the sand. I slept like a baby that night.

In the morning we had to wake up early to catch the ordinary boat trip back home. We ate banana bread for breakfast, packed our things, and went for a stroll around the island before jumping into the boat. We had such a good time that we went back the following weekend too!

School Life.

This week is the first week of 4^th quarter. The school year here is from June-March. The end of this school year is approaching fast but I have lots planned for my students. There is always a theme for the quarter- 4^th quarter is essay. Some of my students struggle to write a paragraph in English, I have began to plan out a step by step process to help my students reach the quarter goal of writing a five paragraph essay- Wish us luck!

Last quarter we studied poetry, one of my projects for this was creating a poetry wall where I could display the student’s imagination at work. I am beginning a similar project now. Stacey sent me some classroom decoration supplies so I am eager to get some of it up on the walls. I am going to make a “Superstar Student” bulletin board. I will choose a variety of examples of exemplary work to pin up on the board with bright, shiny stars! Each month there will be a new batch of stars, the previous stars will become part of the Wall of Fame. Where they will forever be recognized for their hard work and talent!

I recently became an addict to Pinterest which is just another reason why I wish I had internet on a regular basis. Pinterest is a one of a kind network of useful and intriguing things! Sometimes I forget to “Pin” some things because my brain craves more too fast so I just keep clicking away at new ideas and photos that catch my attention. One of my favorites is a chalkboard wall titled “Things I want to do Before I Die.” After painting a wall with chalkboard paint (which I already found a recipe for) you permanently write the title and rows of lines where participants can write their personal hopes for the future. This is an activity that all of my students could enjoy over and over again. I think it will also be inspiring for students to read the dreams of their peers. This will be on my work plan for my summer projects.

February Goals:

1.      Create summer work plan

2.      Do 20 pushups every day

3.      Write more

4.      Watch my sister get married

5.      Make jewelry

6.      Learn how to make more Filipino foods

7.      *This on is a secret

8.      Plan a trip

I wrote this many weeks ago and forgot to post it...

Christmas vacation is well underway. Even though my activities are a bit, okay a lot, different than the normal adventures back in Wisconsin- this vacation is indubitably memorable!

I started my vacation by packing up my room at my host family’s house to prepare to move into my new house. I must say, packing it not as overwhelming when you only have two suitcases of belongings. Normally I dread moving day- it is always a hassle, it normally rains even though you pray that it doesn’t, and something is always lost or broken. This time, it was hassle free. Many of my new friends came to help. We ate first, of course, and then loaded up the tricycle with everything. My new home is only about a three minute tricycle ride away! What a breeze.

That night, after everyone left, there I was standing in my room inside a big yellow house. I thought to myself, “Wow, six months have come and gone so fast!” I feel lucky to have had such wonderful host families but it did feel good to finally be independent. That night for dinner I had milk and cookies.

Due to the fact that I am an independent woman again, shopping in the market, washing my own clothes, trying to cook Filipino delights, singing in the shower, and drinking coffee whenever I want have become part of my weekly routine. My host mother did offer to continue to wash my clothes but she has not been feeling good and I will admit it that I kind of wanted to have a go at it. I have been washing my own under garment since I have been here but I imagine that washing a pair of jeans is different from washing a pair of undies! Dontcha think? Washing jeans and other large garments is A LOT, I repeat, A LOT more difficult. Good thing my newly engaged best friend (** Yay, I am so happy for you!!!**) sent me some Reeses peanut butter cup trees because this was my reward for finishing.  There is a care taker who lives with me. Her name is Tita Angel. The owners of the house live in a different part of the Philippines so she takes care of their animals, fish pond, rice field, island, and I am sure other things that the family owns. I like it because it feels like I have a roommate. I have never lived alone before so there was anxiety among my emotions. Independency is fun. Washing clothes is difficult. I definitely drink too much coffee.

After a few days of buying odds and ends that I need to get by I had to prepare for my first visitors. Amy, Catherine, and Karen (other Peace Corps Volunteers) were coming to visit for the holiday. I must say that many of the Christmassy things that my family sent me crept into the festivities, a lot! Karen and Amy live a city in Batangas. There first reaction when Catherine and I picked them up at the fort was something like, “Wow, this is already very different than what we experience.” There are no malls, no restaurants, no stop lights, and few cars. There are plenty of gorgeous views and beaches. One thing the girls wanted to do was go to the beach so that was priority for the get together.