August 7th
I was
almost evacuated due to monsoon rains that caused landslides and flash floods.
They sent us home to pack a bag for evacuation but in the end only three
volunteers were evacuated because of their proximity to the river. My house was
fine but we lost power for over 24 hours so I busted out my head lamp.
Meanwhile in Manila the city was in crisis. They had mass flooding, so bad that
people were forced to climb up onto their roofs to escape the water. Many of
our volunteers were evacuated from flooded areas and some lost many of their
belongings because they didn’t have time to go back and get their things. We
immediately got some donations together. I gave some clothes and an extra
headlamp.
August 9th
I had my site placement interview with the CYF
sector manager. They put two site options on the table. The first option I
would be working in an urban city doing outreach with women working in
prostitution. The second option I would be working at a Catholic orphanage for
boys coaching their soccer team while simultaneously working with children in
conflict with the law doing tutorials and group work.
August 10th
We
conducted a PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action) in our barangay.
The PACA
activities are designed to help community members
to explore ways to
analyze their own situation,
participants from different groups will complete a 24 hour calendar, a monthly
calendar and a community map. This helps us
understand the best time for community organizing as well as how the community
views itself. It also develops local
capacity-building;
the community identifies
its own resources and
strengths that it possesses so that it can
draw
upon them in order to reach
its goal. Our barangay identified unemployment
as its greatest concern and decided they would like to have a livelihood skills
training on meat processing. A community member volunteered to facilitate the
training so we will write a proposal to the mayor to help cover the costs of
materials and food for lunch.
August 15th
A few days
ago I had a really hard day. I was frustrated with the logistics of training
and the quality of our projects. I could feel my attitude turning really
negative. I took that afternoon to practice some self care and became
determined to change my attitude. From now on, instead of allowing myself to
get frustrated I decided that I will only allow myself to laugh at the
challenges. As a result, the past few days have been wonderful. Yesterday I
taught an old camp song at our technical training which everyone loved, so much
that we are now singing it in parts. I invested in a new high tech umbrella
that brings a smile to my face every time I pop that baby open and today I got
to enjoy two chocolate covered espresso beans from Traders Joe’s via another
trainee’s care package…what a saint.
Lately I
feel more resilient when negative thoughts try to take over. I am more outgoing
with the language and notice that I am making jokes all the time. I have made a
conclusion that music drastically improves my mood, so now I listen to it every
morning before I leave the house. Others have noticed the difference as well, during
my weekly assessment my technical trainer said she noticed a big difference in
my attitude telling me, “You’re blooming Amelia, as if you’re in love.” I
want to be better still. I want to make people laugh and help them feel
lighter. I hope to spend the next two years figuring out the best way to do
that.
August 17th
For our language class we were required to cook a Filipino dish so my partner and I made Shanghai Isda shown below. Masarap. It only took our group 4 hours to cook everything!
August 18
Today we implemented our PACA community project. We attended
the livelihood skills training on meat processing that we helped coordinate.
There were many women who came to the barangay hall and learned valuable skills
that they can hopefully transfer into income.
Later that night I was asked to accompany my technical
trainer for an exposure to bar hopping. We went to the red light district and
met up with some social workers, then spent the next three hours sitting in different
strip clubs observing the girls. The social workers knew many of the girls from
doing outreach but they explained to me that it takes a very long time to gain
their trust. During the week they will conduct group sessions or meet with them
individually. Many of the girls working in the bars have never completed formal
education and they all looked really young.
At one point we watched some Korean guys come in. They were
socializing with the girls when one of them jumped out of his chair and started
screaming and jumping around. Finally we watched a huge cockroach fall out of
his pants. KARMA! Almost all of the clientele I saw were white guys and they
always seemed surprised and confused to see me in the bar. I would stare them down
with an unforgiving look and watch them drop their heads in shame. If I end up
working with this population it sounds like it will likely be in Cebu, which
means I will have to learn yet another language. One more week and I will find
out my permanent placement.
