Stuff I Wish Someone Had Mentioned ...

I have been scouring various blogs for information about serving in the Philippines and had to share this because it was just too entertaining to pass up. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did. 

“Stuff I Wish Someone Had Mentioned When I Joined Peace Corps Philippines” 

by Slappy Happy Pinkerton

1. You don't yet know what "hot" is.

2. Dance club music, at dance club volume, functions in the Philippines exactly like muzak does in the US. Kareoke goes until dawn. If there's a library, a TV or radio (which repeats the same 6 songs) will be playing inside. You'll acclimate eventually, but for about 3 months it'll feel like someone's screaming at you nonstop
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3. No toilet paper: you use a bucket of water and your LEFT hand to wipe. (Then wash thoroughly, obviously.) Also no flush; you just pour buckets of water down the toilet. In the rare event that you do get toilet paper, do not put it in the toilet; it will clog the plumbing. Put your used toilet paper in the trash can, aka "basurahan." None of this is as bad as it sounds.

4. "Safety and Security": you will come to loathe this phrase like children loathe bedtime. Be advised that Peace Corps is a gov't agency and is thus deeply informed by liability. Another way of saying this: you can spin 2 years of doing nothing into a heartwarming story of cultural exchange, but you can't spin a dead or injured volunteer. In short, you will be treated like a 16 year old. If you're like me, you imagine Peace Corps to be sort a cross between the wild west, Lawrence of Arabia, and Indiana Jones on a slow day (before the Nazis or Soviets show up, he presumably just wanders around rustic villages, right?). This is exactly wrong: PC will likely be the safest 27 months of your life.

5. If you're lonely, and you will be, get a dog.

6. Cigarettes are cheaper than food, and bottled alcohol is cheaper than bottled water.

7. "Secular" in the American sense does not exist here. 4 of 5 Pinoys are Catholic. Get ready to start every meeting with a prayer. Deal with it. (I often explain my non-religious status with an appeal to my own ignorance, i.e. "I don't want to be so arrogant as to say that God is this or that, because I don't know.")

8. Lower your expectations. Everyone will tell you this, though not quite as bluntly ("small victories" was the buzzword during my training), because it's true. You will accomplish much, much less than you hope and expect and think you should. If you revise your hopes/expectations/thoughts in light of this fact, you will still accomplish less that you hope etc. Notice that out of the Peace Corps' 3 official goals, only one is related to getting anything done, and even then it's a conditional goal (you "provide assistance"). Lower your expectations.

9. Knuckle down. The great PCV virtue is not compassion or innovation or tolerance or hope. It's endurance.

10. There's a reason why you've never heard of a Filipino restaurant in the States. To put it diplomatically, the food is uninspired. But you'll be more or less forced to eat behemoth amounts of it (you'll be a hostage to your hosts' hospitality). Particularly rice: some Pinoys (no joke) attribute quazi-mystical powers to this food.

11. When a dozen people scream "HEY JOE!" at you every time you walk down the street, they're trying to be friendly. Knowing this won't prevent you from becoming angry. (Or they may not even realize they're screaming it; the "Hey Joe" phenomena is a subject of much psychological speculation among PCVs.)

12. Tagalog may not be spoken at your site, but it's widely spoken throughout the country. Start studying basic phrases now. On the other hand, study your assigned language like a demon during Training. Being able to talk naturally with locals is an essential tool for your service, but it's really easy to slack off during Training. 
(Because Training is so silly and boring, and because it habituates PCVs to rely on their trainers to translate and hand-hold, it's easy for PCVs to forget that language is a skill they'll actually need.)

13. Not sure how to put this diplomatically, but it's crucial: critical thinking is neglected or even discouraged here. E.g. every Edu. volunteer has a story about their students reading a paragraph aloud perfectly, then being unable to answer the most basic questions about what they'd just read. This will baffle, infuriate, and amaze you, and you won't really understand or believe me until you see it for yourself. The whole thing's probably related to the high-status of tradition, deference to authority, and fate within Filipino culture. But heads-up.

14. Password-protect your blog. Trust me on this.

15. Everything has tons of sugar in it. Esp. peanut butter. But you can commission sugarless peanut butter from the local supplier, if you contact them.

16. You'll need letters of support from various officials to do the most basic projects. Again: deference to authority. Deal with it.

17. You're going to spend a lot of time doing nothing, esp. at your host agency. Even when your agency is "doing something," you'll often be so bored you want to cry. Some PCVs actually get in trouble for working too hard. Bring a book.

18. In many cities, the air is so bad you may want to wear a wet bandanna-mask when you commute.

19. Dogs: dogs are not considered pets here. They are just animals. That's why so many of them look like something from a zombie film. Most homes have semi-feral guard-dogs, as well, who will menace you if you pass after dark. Carry a rock or a stick. 

20. You'll have extravagant stomach problems for the first week or weeks. Deal with it. Also: between stress, pollution, and exotic flavors of various diseases, you're a great candidate for a major illness at some point. Good luck!

21. Romance: Many volunteers have romantic relationships with locals. It's cool if you do this, but BE SMART. Try to keep in mind assumptions and expectations which seem obvious but (you'll learn) are deeply informed by culture. Go slow. If you're white, your skin color will increase your attractiveness by a factor of 10, here. Expect to be hit on constantly. Expect to answer impolitely personal questions about your relationship status. If you're male, expect to be offered a date with someone's sister. Many female volunteers wear fake wedding rings because it's just easier. Prostitution/sex work is widespread; if you elect to patronize sex workers while serving as a PCV, kindly quit, because you are not welcome. (This is rumored to be a problem in my batch.) Oh, and FYI: abortions are illegal here.

22: Color: be advised that part of the legacy of 3.5 centuries of western colonialism is that Pinoys widely associate white with beautiful. E.g. soap often has bleaching agents in it. Pinoy movie stars and models tend to look part-Pinoy, part-white. If you're black* realize that most Filipinos' only exposure to black Americans and black people is through pop-culture representations...so e.g. it's not unlikely that local kids will refer to you as "my nigga" etc. And if you're of Asian or latino descent, or otherwise construable-at-first-glance as Filipino, prepare to be ignored as your more-obviously-foreign fellow PCVs receive the spotlight. Also, white PCVs are often assumed to be rich tourists. Heads-up.
*(Obviously I know none of this firsthand; I'm just going off what I hear from black PCVs, to whom I hereby advise you to direct relevant inquiries--though in a sensitive and sensible way, duh.)

23. White PCVs: it's really easy to start unconsciously equating "American" with "white," since locals already do it and most of the Americans and westerners you'll meet will be white. Do not do this.

24. Never, ever be blunt in your speech as a PCV. Vent to your trusted friends, but speak as a diplomat to locals and to Peace Corps. And be prepared to face a lot of passive-aggressive waffling and hypocrisy.

25. Your netbook will be your best friend. Bring a heavy-duty Ziplock to keep it free of moisture and ants. I also wish I'd brought a 3G Kindle, in retrospect.

26. If you want to know what Manila is like, watch Blade Runner.

27. Realize that while Filipino culture is very weird, much of the weirdness you'll see results from the fact that you're observing it as an outsider, without the ideological filters that make things seem normal. Imagine a Martian anthropologist trying to understand Walmart. 

28. Many PCVs find their 3 months of Technical Training to be useless, FYI.

29. You're not helping street children when you give them money: it may go to their exploitive parents or drugs, and you're reinforcing begging as a career choice. Instead, talk to them like regular kids. Play with them. This is--no joke--a bigger help than your money. Buy toothbrushes and toothpaste to give out. But realize that their problem is not that they'll starve tonight (they won't); it's systemic poverty. React accordingly.

30. Seriously reconsider whether the Peace Corps is for you, starting...now. I can neither sufficiently express nor adequately explain how the pop-culture, PR-mediated image of Peace Corps is entirely distinct from the actual, banal experience of service. 

Just me and my backpack...

Yesterday I made a trip to REI and tried on about a million different packs until I settled on this one. I'm hoping the fact that I will have to carry all of my belongings will be good incentive to pack light, and it's easy to say that until I remember I am going to be gone for 27 months. Regardless this adventure will be a good excuse for me to work towards being more of a minimalist. 

I have been thinking about all the fall and winter clothes that I will leave behind and I might as well just give them all away. Of course I will save a few items for when I finally come  home but the majority of my clothing can go. Looking around my room I have so much unneccessary clutter, so much excess. Getting rid of these items that serve zero function will be another task to complete in the days to come. There is something about a clean and organized space that works wonders for the mind.

Communication Overseas

Communicating With Your Peace Corps Volunteer While Overseas

May 2012

Dear Families,

Greetings from the Southeast Asia Desk in Washington, D.C.! It is with great pleasure that we welcome your family member to the 2012 Philippines training program. We receive many questions from Volunteers and family members regarding travel plans, sending money, relaying messages and mail, etc. As we are unable to involve ourselves in the personal arrangements of Volunteers, we would like to offer you advice and assistance in advance by providing specific examples of situations and how we suggest handling them.

1. Written Communication. The mail service in the Philippines is not as fast as the U.S. Postal Service; thus, it is important to be patient. It can take from seven days to a few weeks for mail coming from the Philippines to arrive in the United States via the Philippines postal system. From a Volunteer's site, mail might take several weeks to reach the United States.

We suggest that in the first few letters sent, the Volunteer family member give an estimate of how long it takes to receive the letters and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often the volunteer will write. (Also keep in mind that written correspondence sometimes wanes as the Volunteer’s service progresses.) Also, try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if one has been missed.

Volunteers often enjoy telling their “war” stories when they write home. This is one of the exciting and adventurous elements of serving as a Volunteer. Anecdotes in letters might describe recent illnesses, lack of good food, isolation, transportation challenges, etc. While the subject matter is good reading material, it is often misinterpreted or exaggerated on the home front. There is a Peace Corps medical officer at the Peace Corps office in Manila, Philippines. In the event of a serious illness, the Volunteer is sent to Manila and is cared for by our medical staff. If Volunteers require medical care that is not available in the Philippines, they are medically evacuated to the nearest medical hub site or the United States. Fortunately, these are rare circumstances.

If for some reason your normal communication pattern is broken and you do not hear from your family member for an abnormal amount of time, you may want to actively follow-up with your family member. If you have serious concerns, you may contact the Counseling and Outreach Unit at Peace Corps Washington at 1-800-424-8580, extension 1470. Also, in the case of an emergency at home (death in the family, sudden illness, etc.), please do not hesitate to call the Counseling and Outreach Unit immediately, so that we can inform the Volunteer. Tell the operator your name, telephone number, and the nature of the emergency and the Duty Officer will return your call.

2. Telephone Calls. The telephone service in the Philippines is relatively good and service in and out of the Philippines to the United States is mostly reliable. During training, your family member may have scarce access to email, and the host training families may not have phones. However, during the first few days in country, your Volunteer will be issued a cell phone for use during service.

Few volunteers will have residential lines; most will probably need to purchase international calling cards to make calls to the US. They will be able to inform you of the actual telephone numbers once they arrive at their permanent sites in the country or upon the receipt of their cell phones during training.

During service, most Volunteers in the Philippines will have access to email, though access is not as consistent or as fast as in the United States. Depending on where your Volunteer will live and work, they will be able to access email at a local Internet cafe, at their place of work, from home (if they have a computer), or at the nearest regional center. Volunteers generally find the internet to be the fastest and most affordable way to communicate with friends and family in the United States.

3. Sending mail. Families like to send care packages through the mail. Unfortunately, sending packages can be a frustrating experience for all involved due to delays and heavy customs taxes. You may want to try to send inexpensive items through the mail, but it may take from 1 to 4 weeks to arrive even if the U.S. post office has sent in “3-5 days” or express mail. Experience has shown that expedited mail services (i.e. DHL, FedEx) tend to be more reliable in terms of delivery estimates. We do not recommend, however, that costly items be sent through the mail.

Letters and packages may be sent to the following address:
“Name,” PCT c/o U.S. Peace Corps
6/F PNB Financial Center
Macapagal Blvd., Pasay City
1308 Philippines

Only letters, on the other hand, may be sent to the following address:
“Name,” PCT U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 7013, Airmail Distribution Center
NAIA, Pasay City
1301 Philippines

A Peace Corps staff member picks up mail from the post office box weekly and sends it to Volunteer sites by special delivery through a courier service, known in-country as the Peace Corps pouch or through the Philippine mail system. Please note that Volunteers are expected to personally retrieve their packages sent to the Manila office. Should they request the Mail Clerk to forward their package to their site, they will shoulder the cost of sending it.
After training, because it is more convenient, many Volunteers choose to have packages and letters mailed directly to their sites.

Please note that all mail sent through the above Peace Corps addresses is opened and checked according to standard U.S. government policy.

Peace Corps/Philippines advises you not to have packages sent through any airline. Even if the freight charges are prepaid in the United States, there will be numerous charges in the Philippines for customs, brokerage, storage, and clearing. Please note that regardless of how the package was sent, by local post office or a courier service (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc.), your Volunteer will be required to pay the duty charge before they can claim their package/s. Please note that the amount of these charges may sometimes cost more than the worth of the package contents, depending on the customs officer’s assessment. It is advised that the sender pay the import taxes at the shipment origin to avoid delays when Volunteers claim their package/s

We hope this information is helpful to you during the time your family member is serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines. We understand how frustrating it is to communicate with your family member overseas and we appreciate your using this information as a guideline.

A Welcome Letter

Dear Prospective Peace Corps Volunteer,

You are fortunate to have been chosen for service in the
Philippines. This is a fascinating country with wonderfully
friendly people where geography and history have cooperated
over many centuries to produce a vibrantly diverse culture set in
some of earth’s most beautiful scenery.

The Philippines is also a nation of great contrasts. Metro Manila
includes extravagantly luxurious hotels, gated communities of the
super rich, congested highways, mass transit, enormous shopping
malls, American restaurant chains, modern airports, and futuristic
skyscrapers. However, throughout the mega-city, millions of
people struggle to sustain life in dangerous and heavily polluted
slum neighborhoods and shanty towns. Among them, legions of
homeless children scramble every day to collect discarded bottles
and bits of plastic and metal to sell for money for food. Hunger
and disease co-exist in close proximity to rampant consumerism
and displays of wealth that many Americans would consider
unimaginable.

Our Volunteers join the ongoing work of national, regional,
and local government agencies and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) and work alongside Filipino teachers,
youth development workers, and environmental officers either
as school faculty members or staff members of youth centers,
local government offices, or community organizations. The
most important purposes of a Volunteer’s assignment are the
expansion of knowledge and skills that Volunteers give and
receive with colleagues, students, friends, and others whom
they encounter.

At the beginning of your service, three months of training will
offer you a solid orientation in your future work assignment,
a local Philippine language, and standard Philippine cultural
usages. You will simultaneously receive crucial information
about staying healthy and safe. The pre-service training also will
provide you with a good base from which you can continue to
expand your knowledge and skills after you arrive at the place
where you will live and work for the next two years. Living in
a Filipino household and working together with Filipinos will
be integral parts of your pre-service training. Later, on arrival
at your site, you will be hosted for the first three months by
another Filipino family who will help you learn about your
new community while offering you continuing opportunities
to practice cultural awareness and increase your ability to
communicate in the local language.

Please accept our sincere congratulations on your decision to
become a Peace Corps Volunteer. You will soon join one of the
world’s most effective human development organizations. Peace
Corps’ success derives directly from the central emphasis on
positive learning that is featured in all aspects of our program.
We are confident that your service will continue to strengthen
Peace Corps’ effectiveness. And we are eager to welcome you in
person and to help you become a fully integrated and successful
part of the Peace Corps/Philippines team.

With best wishes for a smooth departure from home and a safe
journey to Manila,

Peace Corps/Philippines Volunteers and Staff

______________________________________________________________

After emailing the Peace Corps my updated resume along with my aspiration statement, I was required to apply for a special passport and visa. I could not help but feel anxious as I slid my current passport into the mailing envelope along with the other forms. What if it gets lost? I am hoping for the best.

A few days ago, I also recieved access to my packing list which includes a ridiculously huge list of items. Some of the most notable: a snorkel mask and a head lamp :)

Aspiration Statement

ASPIRATION STATEMENT

Amelia Kent

Philippines

July 6th

 I hope to use my experience working in social services in the US to inform my practice and bring new ideas to social service agencies in the Philippines. I feel prepared to serve as a Youth Development Volunteer as I have extensive experience serving youth from coaching soccer, running summer camps and now currently serving in the Teen Department at the local YMCA.

The best way to work effectively with host country partners is to first build rapport and trust by integrating into the host country culture. If I can show respect and understanding for my host country partners, they will be more likely to be honest in sharing their needs and I can help them find solutions based on the problems they have identified in their own communities.

My host family will be the most important way for me to adapt and integrate myself into this new culture. I will need to stay focused in an environment where there are constant opportunities to pick up insider knowledge and learn about my new country. I will also have to be aware of my own cultural competence in order to prevent doing things that may be considered offensive in the Philippines.

I hope to gain valuable language skills during pre-service training. When collaborating with anyone on projects communication is vital, this is why the language aspect is so incredibly important. I also hope to learn some necessary coping skills and learn about what kind of support network I will have around me while living abroad.

My experience serving abroad is bound to be an adventure. I feel completely ready to serve knowing that this will be a life changing experience that will inform my career decisions from this point forward. I can’t predict where this service will lead me, but I know that the people I meet and the experiences I have will inspire me to continue to serve others in some capacity. Not knowing where you will end up is what makes life so interesting and the growth you experience is always more valuable than the end point.