I am a Peace Corps volunteer serving in the Philippines
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Philippines:
Peace Corps Philippines:
Peace Corps in the Philippines:
I am a Peace Corps volunteer serving in the Philippines
I am a Peace Corps volunteer serving in the Philippines
I am a Peace Corps volunteer serving in the Philippines
Magandang araw sa inyong lahat! (In Tagalog, Good day to you all!) Hello, my name is Meg Hall and I am a Peace Corps volunteer serving in the Philippines. Originally from Machias, Maine in the United States, I arrived here in the Philippines in April 1999.
My first 2 months in the Philippines were spent on the island of Panay in the Visayas, in a city called Iloilo. During our training, we had 3 major components; technical, language, and cultural. Through our technical training, we learned about the biodiversity of the Philippines, as well as how to plan community and school based events. We were fortunate enough to travel to the sites of current volunteers in Palawan and Sibuyan islands to see their work in progress. We also had the opportunity to gain practical experience by sponsoring a community based environmental cleanup, a teacher training workshop, and an environmental day camp.
A large portion of our training consisted of learning our respective languages. Because I am assigned to the province of Cavite on the island of Luzon, I leaned Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines. Finally, as part of our cultural training, we lived with wonderful host families in Iloilo. Through them, we were introduced to Filipino foods, customs, and ways of life.
For those of you who do not know much about the geography of the Philippines, here's some quick background. The Philippines consists of 7107 islands and is very diverse ecologically. We have many coastal communities, beaches, and coral reefs, but we also have mountain provinces and the rice terraces, the eighth wonder of the world. There are 4 major island groupings; Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, and Palawan.
After the two months of training, we were sworn as Peace Corps volunteers and were dispersed to our sites. I live in Maragondon, Cavite, which is about 2 hours south of Manila. It is a peaceful town of 20,000 people, nestled between mountains and Manila Bay. I live near the Catholic church and the town plaza, which consists of a palengke (market), video rental stores, sari-sari stores (small grocery stores), and a few small restaurants. I am currently living with a host family, who are incredibly warm, open, and generous. I eat lots of papaya, saging (bananas), rice, and fish. The fish here are incredibly delicious and fresh, with one of the most popular kinds being bagus (milkfish). We also have some delicious gulay (vegetables) here like okra, kamote, snap peas, and string beans.
The program that I am working for in the Peace Corps Is the Integrated Protected Area Systerns (IPAS) program. As a protected area community educator for Mt. Palay-Palay, I am working with both the Humanitarian Sciences Foundation ( a non-governmental organization from Philippine Women's University) and Cavite National Science High School (CNSHS). I am responsible for providing environmental education and increasing environmental awareness in my community. Specifically, I am working to integrate environmental studies into the curriculum within CNSHS. Additionally, I will be helping CNSHS to establish a youth environmental club that will participate in various environmental activities at the school and in the community. One activity that I am hoping to initiate at the school is a waste management program that will include composting and recycling.
So far everyday has been a learning experience and sometimes an adventure. I can't say that I rniss many things back in the States (except for friends, family, and oh yeah rollerblading.) I've always believed that moving beyond one's comfort zones is the way to grow as an individual. So, here I am living that motto of mine, "Living La Vida Loca", although some days are harder than others and I still have so many things to learn about life in the Philippines, I have no regrets whatsoever. I hope that I will be able to give back to my Philippine community half of what they have already given me.
Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon/ Bagong Milenyo sa inyong lahat!!!! (That's Merry Christmas and Happy New Year/New Millennium to you all). I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and an eventful New Year. It's time again to update you all on the craziness of my life. The past 2 months have been wonderful, a blast. I did a lot of fun things and now with the New Year, work has resumed. So, during the month of November, I held a 2 day camp for students and teachers from my high school. It was a huge success and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was great to see everyone get down and dirty and do some hiking and camping. Though, the Filipino way of camping is much more high tech and planned out than our way. We had a sound system and fluorescent lighting set up, as well as an elaborate cooking station. Not like the basic camping that I am used to.
After the camp, I left for training in Los Banos, 2 hours south of Manila, in the next province over from me. I was there for 2 weeks, one week being Tagalog lessons and one week for technical training. It was an incredible 2 weeks. All 26 of my fellow group mates were there and it was the first time for many of us to see each other since we left our training in June. Although it was awkward to be reunited at first (with much energy generated and stories to tell), we quickly got reacquainted with one another. While there, we also made some new friends who are veterinary medicine students at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) and some who work for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). They are an eclectic mixture of Canadians, Americans, Filipinos, Nepalese, and Pakistani. We spent a week hanging out with them every night. After training ended, we had a Thanksgiving dinner at the house of our country director in Manila. It was an amazing spread, lots of turkey and vegetables and wine.
Returning to site after being gone for 2 weeks was hard at first, but I settled back into things. Plus, the month of December was very busy with social engagements for me. ( Because of Christmas, very little work is done during December) I was interviewed about composting on a morning talk show with the US Ambassador's wife. The next day, I attended a program at Malacanang (the Presidential Palace). President Estrada was supposed to attend, but he never made it I guess that I am a celebrity now, huh? Besides these engagements, I went to Christmas parties and saw my friends from Los Banos a few times. I'm glad to have experienced Christmas here. It is a very festive and alive time. There are tons of lights up everywhere and homemade stars called "parols." I spent Christmas with my host family. We went to my host mother's hometown of Liliw, Laguna and celebrated with her family. Unfortunately, I was sick from all of my running around. Nonetheless, it was fun, (though weird to be without cold weather, snow, and my family.) There was lots of food and lots of kids. Plus, my host aunt has this tradition of throwing out money to members of the family. I made about 100 pesos!
After Christmas, I traveled to Palawan (another island here, the westernmost) for the New Year. All but 6 people from my group went, plus 2 of my friends from Los Banos. We spent a few days in the city of Puerto Princessa, which is a hip, laid back place. Then, we spent 3 nights in Sabang, 3 hours north of Puerto Princessa proper by jeepney. The ride isn't easy either. 3 hours, no pavement, dirt road, 5 million people inside the jeepney. It's an experience, though and especially fun when you ride on top of the jeepney like we did. So, we rang in the New Year by having a costume party and then went to the beach (we were staying on this gorgeous beach) at midnight for a New Year's swim. Napakarelaxing (very relaxing)
But, back to life and reality. I have some good projects lined up. My Youth Environmental Club is busy with t-shirt design contests and the planning of a waste management seminar for February. Hopefully, I will be doing some health management seminars with the farmers at Mt. Palay-Palay. In March, I will be attending a week long conference on environmental education in Mindanao.
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.
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Philippines; PCVs in the Field - Philippines; Special Interests - Photography - Philippines
PCOL3013
12
.
Very interesting.Brought back old memories.I was born and raised in Cavite, Philippines and currently resides in LA, CA. I was an elem. school teacher there and worked with Peace Corps assigned in our town. This was in the '70's(Modern Math & Phys. ED ..Peace Corps 51 ) They were all wonderful people..and I lived in Westbrook, Maine after I left the Philippines...
I would like to enquire how to get involved. I am currently living in United States. Born and raised in the Philippines. I came to United States when I was 18. I have a degree in Business Management and currently working as Purchasing Manager to one of the Electronic firm in San Diego. I am pursuing another carreer as a nurse. I would like to come home and serve my people and go to school to finish my nursing school there. Please give me some information what I need to do. Thank you.
I was born in pakistan. I am a FA and having about 22 years of experience as clerks/office assistant and looking forward a suitable job abroad. please help me.
Hello to all.
Ed Gavin here - was a member of Philippines XIV - arrrived in Manila in August, 1965, and was assigned to the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture Rural High School and the Department of Humanities. I stayed for three years and treasure my time there. During that time(1965-1968) there were about 600 PC Volunteers throughout the Philippines; six of us worked at the College of Agriculture. IRRI had just opened and so many international students were on the campus; Cornell University had a graduate exchange program with both Agriculture and Forestry; and there was a large contingent of Thai students at the Colleges. In fact, my best buddies there were a Filipino, a Thai, and an Ethiopian. I lived in a one-room bungalow on the property of Mrs. Dolly Sakay; most of the other Volunteers lived off campus. I travelled up north to Baguio and Ilocos Norte; as far south as Zamboanga (where the Peace Corps had a beautiful hostel on the beach) and Jolo City (Sulu Province). I spent a week at the home of one of my students near Bacolod City, too. Most of my teaching was in the Department of Humanities, where I taught English comp, Humanities (basically, an art appreciation course), and literature; I directed a few student productions. Plays were produced mainly by the sororities and fraternities on campus; there was no single student theatre club.
As I said already, I treasure the years I spent there; for at least ten years after I came home, not a day would pass when I didn't recall something about the time I lived in College, Laguna, The Philippines.
Hi. I was in group 90 in the Philippines, assigned in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro 1975 -1977, in the "nutrition" program. I'm sure so much has changed since then, but maybe not. I remember listening to the group "God's Ego" in Manila and going to the Hobbit House in Manila. Also the "Oar House" pub in Bagiuo. This was before there was any McDonald's there.
Hello! I am Mrs. Richelda Estrada Valdez, from Agoo, La Union, Philippines, I accidentally visited your site because I am looking for someday who have visited Liliw, Laguna and who know Liliw, Laguna, place where I became fascinated with and fall in love with during college days. We used to visit Liliw, Laguna specially on semestral break, harvesting lanzones and going to the different resorts and hiking. Our host in Liliw, Laguna were the Ardes family because Dr/Father Roland Ardes, DVM and based on reports of my college friends/classmates at Gregorio Araneta University, Malabon, MM Philippines now catholic priest of Liliw Parish church. He was my former team mate in table tennis, both of us were Varsity players of our school. I am hoping that I could reached him through these forum and through Meg Hall who posted her travel in Liliw,Laguna in 1999, her mother homeplace.I need help from Dr./Father Roland Ardes (do not know his e-mail address or parish church that he is serving now) and to all who can read my story.
I am an administrator of Agoo Computer College, a non-stock non-profit non-sectarian computer center, school and a college which we established and founded in the year 1987. These is the first time that I am seeking for help/charity regarding
our two students, both computer science graduating students these year who meet a motorcycle accident on their way home in Pugo, La Union, going to Baguio City last August 19, 2005. The driver of the motorcycle, Carl Aguilar is now fighting for his life at the ICU of a private hospital in the city of San Fernado, La Union. He was operated in the brain last Thurs. The other student, Israel Lobrera, our Student Supreme Council Pres. need to be operated on his left leg (totally crashed) these Monday, August 29, 2005. His parents were so poor, fish vendors in our town and they cannot afford to pay Israel's leg operation on Monday August 29, 2005. The attending doctor said to me that the operation causes around fifty thousand pesos around 1,000 dollars. The school does not have money also to shoulder his operation.The school wanted to raise money for Israel's operation. I know that the Peace Corps International have a lot of connection, please help us, my e-mail address is rich888valdez@yahoo.com. My two sons website/forum pinoyforum.net could also a great help for immediate communications regarding these fund raising campaign,.Post charity sites that we needed to help me raise money for Israel's operation in the general info discussion board of pinoyforum.net. I hope through these message will be send immediately to charity institutions. We could help save the life of Carl Aguilar now fighting his life and Israel Lobrera, (could lost one leg if he cannot be operated these Monday August 29, 2005. PLEASE Help our two students.
Hello! I am Mrs. Richelda Estrada Valdez, from Agoo, La Union, Philippines, I accidentally visited your site because I am looking for someday who have visited Liliw, Laguna and who know Liliw, Laguna, place where I became fascinated with and fall in love with during college days. We used to visit Liliw, Laguna specially on semestral break, harvesting lanzones and going to the different resorts and hiking. Our host in Liliw, Laguna were the Ardes family because Dr/Father Roland Ardes, DVM and based on reports of my college friends/classmates at Gregorio Araneta University, Malabon, MM Philippines now catholic priest of Liliw Parish church. He was my former team mate in table tennis, both of us were Varsity players of our school. I am hoping that I could reached him through these forum and through Meg Hall who posted her travel in Liliw,Laguna in 1999, her mother homeplace.I need help from Dr./Father Roland Ardes (do not know his e-mail address or parish church that he is serving now) and to all who can read my story.
I am an administrator of Agoo Computer College, a non-stock non-profit non-sectarian computer center, school and a college which we established and founded in the year 1987. These is the first time that I am seeking for help/charity regarding
our two students, both computer science graduating students these year who meet a motorcycle accident on their way home in Pugo, La Union, going to Baguio City last August 19, 2005. The driver of the motorcycle, Carl Aguilar is now fighting for his life at the ICU of a private hospital in the city of San Fernado, La Union. He was operated in the brain last Thurs. The other student, Israel Lobrera, our Student Supreme Council Pres. need to be operated on his left leg (totally crashed) these Monday, August 29, 2005. His parents were so poor, fish vendors in our town and they cannot afford to pay Israel's leg operation on Monday August 29, 2005. The attending doctor said to me that the operation causes around fifty thousand pesos around 1,000 dollars. The school does not have money also to shoulder his operation.The school wanted to raise money for Israel's operation. I know that the Peace Corps International have a lot of connection, please help us, my e-mail address is rich888valdez@yahoo.com. My two sons website/forum pinoyforum.net could also a great help for immediate communications regarding these fund raising campaign,.Post charity sites that we needed to help me raise money for Israel's operation in the general info discussion board of pinoyforum.net. I hope through these message will be send immediately to charity institutions. We could help save the life of Carl Aguilar now fighting his life and Israel Lobrera, (could lost one leg if he cannot be operated these Monday August 29, 2005. PLEASE Help our two students.
|
By Anonymous (203.213.209.161) on Wednesday, September 07, 2005 - 9:17 pm: Edit Post |
On behalf of Agoo Computer College/Philippines ACC/P family, we would like to thank you for the messages/pledges and donations you give to our two students, Israel Lobrera and Carl Vincent Aguilar. God Bless.......
|
By Anonymous (cache-rtc-aa07.proxy.aol.com - 152.163.100.11) on Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 10:25 pm: Edit Post |
Mrs. Richelda Estrada Valdez, are you related to Irene Estrada ( Maiden Name )who lives in Agoo, La Union????? she was my classmate when were were in 5th and 6th grade.
Yes, I am related to Irene Estrada. My father Antonio "Tony" Estrada, Ex-Oic Mayor of Agoo, La Union, Philippines, 1986-1988 is the older brother of Auntie Irene. Auntie Irene Estrada is happily married to Juanito Lomboy of Rosario, La union and they are blessed with 3 children namely Juanito Jr,(businessman and now living and working with his family in USA) Irlyn Janet (head, Computer Science/Computer Secretarial of Agoo Computer College/Philippines) and Joan (registered nurse and working/living in UK).
More info visit http://rich.pinoyforum.net
I was told that Ed Gavin, whose post I read here, was assigned to Los Banos with another volunteer named James. James, whose last name I do not know, married a good friend of mine whom I'm trying to locate. If you happen to read this, Ed, will you please e-mail me? Surely you'd know James' last name, if not his whereabouts? That might just bring me closer to my friend Alice.
Hi! Magandang umaga!
I hope you wouldn't mind that I posted some of your photographs in the forum I started for CNSHS.
Here's a link of the forum:
http://www.s8.createphpbb.com/cavitenatlscien/viewtopic.php?p=13&mforum=cavitenatlscien#13
Maraming Salamat!