Permanent Placement: Human Trafficking Prevention Advocacy Volunteer in Cebu City

Good Sheperd Welcome House

Drop -In Center

Cebu City

Volunteer Role/Activities: Peer Education Program for women who are still active in sex trade,  basic facilitation skills in psycho-social activities, advocacy in schools and the community. 

Tomorrow I will meet my supervisor: Sister Tonet (a nun who has been working at this site since 2007). I am so happy with this placement and cannot wait to get started. I will move to Cebu City in September after I complete three more weeks of Pre-Service Training. 

PACA

August 7^th

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 9^th

 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 10^th

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.

Still Raining

The weeks go by really fast. Monday-Friday we have language from 8am-12pm then technical training from 1-5pm sometimes later. We are exhausted by the time we get home but we have homework every night. My family has been very encouraging in helping me learn Tagalog and the neighborhood children like to come by and help me study as well. Here the typhoons are striking hard. School gets cancelled often which in turn cancels our daily tutoring sessions but I have been assigned to the first grade. I am hoping this will force me to use a lot of Tagalog since the first graders don’t know any English yet.


On Saturday July 28th we conducted a Literacy Fair. We had four stations music, art, sports and story telling. Our primary goal was to show the children that learning can be fun and creative. My group ran the music station so we wrote a song to the melody of “Call Me Maybe” and performed it with a silly dance for the kids.


We joined the Peace Corps to help
But we’re learning as well
We’re coming our of our shell
But you’re in my way


We just can’t wait to meet
All the people and see
All of the Philippines
But you’re in my way


We got off the plane
And all the Jeepney’s came
Peace Corps a lot of training
And it just keeps on raining


Hey I just met you
And this is crazy
But we’re learning
Tagalog Baby


Ano sa Tagalog?
What did you say?
Cause we’re still learning
Tagalog baby


After we performed the song we split the kids into groups where they made up a song and dance about various subjects in school: Math, Science, Music, Reading, English, and Filipino. Everyone here loves to sing and dance so our station was really popular and everyone seemed to have a great time. By the end we were all exhausted but received great compliments from our sector manager and many community members. We served over 200 kids!


Last Sunday was my day of rest. The weather was horrible so I spent the entire day in bed reading Wild. It was a great novel about Cheryl Strayed a woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail by herself back in 1995. Her journey was accompanied by a memoir detailing her difficulty in facing her mother’s early death, her failed marriage and the self destructive behaviors that followed. It was a great female empowerment story and very inspiring so read it!


I am building great relationships with a lot of my fellow cluster mates. We are getting more comfortable in this community and it’s beginning to feel like home. My lack of internet access has been good for me but I do miss talking with my friends and family. Although I’m sure you are all getting on fine without me, I think about you a lot and wonder how you are doing, and what’s happening in your lives.


After another jam packed week of language, training and community organizing on Saturday August 4th we conducted an all day Life Skills Camp focusing on Leadership, Self Awareness, Communication and Decision Making. I was assigned to Self Awareness so we led some fun activities that helped kids realize their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the impact of their actions on others. During one of our snack breaks I was pulled away by one of the host mom’s who wanted to introduce me to my ‘many suitors’, who think I am very beautiful. Not even kidding. I literally had to shake the hand of like five different men who all introduced their selves to me. It was mortifying.


I spent Sunday with my host family. We hiked out to this amazing waterfall which required wading through a knee deep flooded river with huge rocks. I slipped at one point and banged up my shin but my adrenaline kicked in and I got right back up and kept climbing. Afterward we walked down to my host grandma’s house (who lives at the family rice farm), and joined a bunch of extended family for a huge delicious lunch. There was a hammock and it was heavenly.

Things I’ve Gotten Used To:


-Ants crawling all over the dinner table.
-Bathing from a bucket of cold water.
-Having at least 10 mosquito bites at any given time.
-People speaking with their eyebrows.
-Lizards scaling the walls of my room.


Ongoing Adjustments:


-Riding in the Jeepney is still pretty terrifying.
-Lack of personal space and privacy.
-Being constantly stared at.
-Carrying an umbrella everywhere.

Host Family in Subic

I have moved in with my first host family where I will stay until September. They are really wonderful people. I have  12 yr old brother named Ryan and a 14 yr old sister named Eunice. My host mom doesn't work but her husband works in Saudi Arabia doing something with oil. My host mom wants me to call her Ate Belen. 


The area we live is really beautiful because it is in the foothills of the mountains but it rains almost constantly here so there is a lot of flooding. Luckily the Peace Corps bought us all some rain boots. When we walk around the barungay it feels like we are on parade, everyone peeks out of their houses to see the Americans. My blue eyes are especially of interest.


Myhost house has two rooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom with a toilet that flushes! I am getting used to the bucket shower but we do have two faucets that have running water so that's nice. I put a mosquito net up every night before I go to bed because there are a lot here I am also taking malaria pills every Monday. 


The food has been good lots of rice, fish and chicken and my host mom has been giving me peanut butter ever since I told her that's my favorite food.


The hardest thing to get used to has been the rain. It is so loud on the tin roof that we can hardly hear anything when it rains and it sounds like tidal waves are crashing on the roof. This happens every few hours and I often jump awake at night because the sound scares me. There are roosters making noise at all hours, they especially love 5am-6am.


I am writing from an internet cafe just around the corner from my house. There are many other volunteers living close by and some are living with the sisters or brothers of my host mother. It seems like everyone is related one way or another, which is good because I already know lots of people in the community. 

Last Day of Center Based Training

Today was the last day of Center Based Training. CYF sector spent our final day together doing team building activities and affirmations. Tomorrow we will move in with our host families and spend the next 11 weeks in Community Based Training. 

I'm On a Boat

Wednesday night was epic. All of the trainees got together for an intense dance party. We had about 50 people sweating profusely within about five minutes. It was so much fun, we have made a motion for this to be a regular occurrence. Everyone here is so incredibly accepting, even some of the older volunteers were breaking it down.

We started taking our language classes this week. I cannot wait to start using it with the locals. In addition to language we have been meeting within our sector groups learning about the current situation we will face while partnering with NGO’s and social service agencies. So many of their professionals end up working jobs overseas which leaves certain agencies completely over capacity. One agency that serves mentally disabled children has a ratio of 1 staff member for every 100 clients. It’s numbers like these that make me grateful to be here because they obviously have a great need for trained social workers.

My supervisor shared his very personal story of growing up on the streets here, selling plastic bags by age five, looking through the sewer for stray coins and living in a shack with 13 other siblings. He could recall every kind word from social workers who outreached him as a kid and eventually convinced him to come live in a shelter. They gave him hope and made him feel like someone cared so he worked his way through school and when it came time to choose what to study in college he chose social work. Hearing his story made me feel so confirmed in being here and I am so grateful to have this opportunity. He believes the Peace Corps is the best of America we were all very flattered and inspired.

One day after training we took a Jeepney to the mall, and we fit 21 people in it! The mall was a really strange experience. They had KFC, Burger King and most notably Starbucks! So of course I went in and told the baristas that I was from Seattle. It’s weird spending money here because one dollar is 41 pesos so it always feels like you’re spending a ridiculous amount of money but for the most part everything is super cheap. On the way home I couldn’t resist riding in the back of the Jeepney next to the open doorway it was nice to see out but the exhaust was so intense it was making my eyes burn. 

The other night I had a little jam session with one of the other volunteers so the word has gotten out that I'm a singer. There will definitely be more jam sessions to come. 

Today we all piled into buses and drove to the beach for water safety training. We took turns climbing into little boats and jumping into the ocean with our Peace Corps issued life jackets. The best part of hanging out at the beach was getting in on some Filipino karaoke. Some fellow PCV’s and I did “Bye Bye Bye” by N’SYNC and I think there is a 99% it will end up on YouTube because all the locals were holding up the cell phones to film us. One more week here before we move in with our host families for community training. 

Torrential Downpour

Today we were nearly washed away by extreme rains that flooded the grass and forced all the cockroaches and centipedes out of hiding! My roommate and I had to run through the rain to get to our room and we were soaked in just a few minutes. Some of the streets have turned to rivers so we are all taking refuge inside until/if/when it dies down. 


We found out today that for our community based training all of the CYF volunteers will be placed in Subic...you can google that. It looks to be near a former U.S. navy base and it's kind of a touristy place. Beyond that we don't have a lot of information about our hosts families so I think that will all be a surprise.