October 8, 2004: Headlines: COS - Philippines: Extensions: Coshocton Tribune: Andrew Harrison recently finished 27 months with the Peace Corps, spending two years in the Philippines. He's extended his service for another six months.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Philippines: Peace Corps Philippines: The Peace Corps in the Philippines: October 8, 2004: Headlines: COS - Philippines: Extensions: Coshocton Tribune: Andrew Harrison recently finished 27 months with the Peace Corps, spending two years in the Philippines. He's extended his service for another six months.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-141-157-9-111.balt.east.verizon.net - 141.157.9.111) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 12:47 am: Edit Post

Andrew Harrison recently finished 27 months with the Peace Corps, spending two years in the Philippines. He's extended his service for another six months.

Andrew Harrison recently finished 27 months with the Peace Corps, spending two years in the Philippines. He's extended his service for another six months.

Andrew Harrison recently finished 27 months with the Peace Corps, spending two years in the Philippines. He's extended his service for another six months.

Completing the assignment
CHS graduate travels back to Philippines in Peace Corps

By KATHIE DICKERSON
Staff Writer
Photo
MATTHEW LEASURE

Caption: Andrew Harrison takes pictures of several exhibits to take back to show his friends in the Philippines while at the Coshocton County Fair Tuesday afternoon.

COSHOCTON -- The job isn't finished. That's why Andrew Harrison, a 1997 graduate of Coshocton High School and 2002 graduate of Kent State University, is returning to Vigan on the island of Luzon in the Philippines on Oct. 10.

He recently finished 27 months with the Peace Corps, spending two years in the Philippines. He's extended his service for another six months.

"I really don't want him to go, but I understand that if he doesn't go back and finish these projects, they may not get done," said Kathy Thompson, Harrison's mother.

Vigan and the surrounding area have numerous partially constructed buildings and half-finished roads, Harrison said.

Part of the problem is well-meaning outsiders trying to fix things before finding out what locals really need.

"It takes about a year until trust is built and they share their wants," he said. Once problems and solutions are identified that's the best time for international help, he said.

Harrison's assignment with the Peace Corps is to teach English. There are a variety of ways to do that, he said.

The Peace Corps mission is basically three-fold: to offer technical assistance; to help others understand a different culture on a personal level; and to bring home information to share about the host country.

He's worked with youth programs and service clubs, and one of his favorite projects was an environmental youth camp. He was able to help an environmentalist teach natives about preserving their homeland and at the same time teach English.

He's been working with the Department of Tourism on another project.

Vigan has been named a World Heritage site, which means it ranks with places like ancient Thebes and the Necropolis in Egypt, the Triumphal Arch of Orange in France and the temple of Apollo in Greece.

"There are four- and five-hundred-year-old houses and churches," Harrison said.

The Department of Tourism is trying to capitalize on this, and he's working with a local pottery factory, taking photographs of the process and writing explanations in English and the local dialect. Things are done the way they have been for hundreds of years. Pottery is hand-thrown. The clay and sand is mixed by a cow walking in circles in a pit.

Harrison's host family is a widow with three children. She's a full-time teacher that comes home each day to fix lunch for the family. On Sundays she does laundry by hand. She's offended if he tries to sneak his clothes out to a laundry service.

"You're part of the family, she says.

"They're the happiest people I've ever met," he said. "They're very hospitable and the families are close-knit."

He taught the teenage boys of his host family how to raise chickens for profit.

Their first crop was ready around Nov. 1, or All Saints Day, a time for feasting in the Philippines.

"We sold all our chickens in two days, and the kids made more money than they'd ever seen," Harrison said. "They were hooked."

Thompson and her husband, Scott, spent 15 days in the Philippines in February.

"The deal was, they stayed in a nice hotel at night but were with me for the day," Harrison said.

As a result of that trip the Coshocton Rotary Club voted this week to raise $14,000 for materials to build two restrooms in six schools. Kathy Thompson is a Rotarian.

"Andrew sent e-mails, but we couldn't really understand until we saw the conditions," she said.

Harrison was a substitute teacher for a time in a school district with 6,000 students, 115 teachers and six toilets.

"That's six toilets, not restrooms," Thompson said.

The district and international Rotary will also be involved in the project, said Kevin Pyle, chairman of the Coshocton Rotary Community Service committee. He's currently in the process of writing grant applications for the funds.

The Vigan Rotary will contribute $4,000 for labor for the project, he said.

Harrison has been taking photographs in the U.S. to share with his friends in the Philippines. He took his camera to the Coshocton County Fair.

"I can't believe the size of everything -- the pumpkins, the pigs, the horses and the meals," he said.

He enjoyed eating donuts and an elephant ear.

"That elephant ear was fantastic. It was the size of my head, and I ate it all," he said.

He just left monsoon season in the Philippines, and he thinks the weather has been perfect here. It's very humid in Vigan which is near the South China sea. There's flat coastal land adjacent to volcanic mountains, Harrison said.

"The humidity comes in from the ocean, then can't go over those mountains. It just sits there," he said.

He's enjoyed seeing his breath on a cool morning in Coshocton. He's enjoyed the smells of the fair and the sounds of a train whistle.

"It's comforting, not much has changed. It's home," he said. "It's been fabulous being home."

kdickerson@nncogannett.com





When this story was posted in October 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Director Gaddi Vasquez:  The PCOL Interview Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview
PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before.

Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.
Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention
Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?
 Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America
Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?


Read the stories and leave your comments.






Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Coshocton Tribune

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Philippines; Extensions

PCOL14231
64

.


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: