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Sweeping the Dirt Road

Posted on May 11th, 2005 in Asia, Philippines by robjkentjr

It’s raining today. It’s in the middle of the hottest part of the year right now so when it rains the temperature starts to feel a little bit normal. It’s about 33°C but 100% humidity. Let’s just hope the sun doesn’t come back out and back everything, then it just sucks. In the interior of the island the land is dry and the sugarcane is dying but I guess this par for the course. I was told that they actively try to seed the clouds here to produce rain. I don’t know how successful they are but I do know its raining now.

My Host Family:

In Peace Corps, we have to stay with a host family during our first three months at site. It is to introduce us to the community and help us learn a little more about the culture. I would say most volunteers have moved out but I stayed. Rasa and I feel very much part of the family and we are treated like royalty. It’s hard not to feel spoiled sometimes. There is the mom (Mercy) and dad (Nester), two boys (Jonjon and Vincent), and three helpers (Ruzel, Happy Happy Joy Joy, and Ellen).

The three helpers recently went back home to Mindanao but they will be back next month. The two younger ones finished school and wanted to go home to visit their parents for awhile. Ruzel just took a break. Jonjon and Vincent are the best. Jon is 5 and Vincent 11 years old. It’s so nice to have them around even though they are both monkeys sometimes. Mercy works at City Hall in the city planning department and Nester works for the electric company reading meters. I would say they are a middle class family.

The two younger helpers live in the same house as us while going to school during the day and helping Mercy with her catering side business during the evening and weekends. They are sisters who just turned 17 years old. If they didn’t work for mercy they wouldn’t have finished high school. People work hard here. For example, I would never have the patience to sift through a sack of hulled rice picking out the stones. They do it regularly. Or hand washing laundry! That is a monumental task for 9 people.

The Burning:

They also sweep. They sweep the floor, the walls, the roof, the driveway and even the dirt road leading to our house; everything, every day. You would be amazed how many leaves fall on the ground. All of it swept up in a nice big pile and burned. This is a huge problem here. How do you get people to stop burning everything when there is nothing else to do with the trash? This is a sensitive subject for me because of all the problems I have been having with my landfill project.

I have spent the last year trying to get the city to implement a proper landfill, recycling and collection program. Nothing has happened so far. The property for the landfill was bought before I arrived and the trash has been dumped there uncontrollably ever since. The open dump burns during the dry season and floods during the wet. At least this is an improvement over dumping it in the river. The only reason this stopped is because 1999 was one of the worst flood seasons on record. The river surge broke the banks and fittingly disgorged all of its trash in the city center. Now I guess something similar needs to happen with the landfill to convince them of the need to continue implementing their solid waste management plan.

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My love, the Tentacle!

Posted on May 10th, 2005 in Asia, Philippines by robjkentjr

I’m feeling a little tired today and I think I’m still sick. I might have to call the nurse after all if this stomach cramping doesn’t stop. I’ll give it one more day though. It could also be that I just gorged myself with a full pitcher of mango shake? After that I was way too full to drink my morning cup of yummy instant NesCafe coffee so that could explain why I’m tired.

On Sunday when I was to sick to move I taught my little house brother how to play Rise of Nations. Vincent loved it! Now I am trying to get the internet cafe to install it on their computers so Rasa, Vincent and I can play each other over the network. Speaking of Rasa…

Rasa Siminkas, My Fiancee:

We have our wedding planned for 11 October 2006 in Cairo Egypt. I love her and she loves and tolerates me so we work well together. We are currently living together with a host family in the Philippines. We rent a room with a fan and toilet! for 3000 pesos ($55) a month. We love it and are treated as part of the family.

She was planning on just visiting but then decided to quit her job in New York City and move here. We have spent every day together since June 2005 and now that she is visiting Paris I find my time empty. She was so fed up with the rat race and never being outside during the daylight hours while I was complaining that I didn’t have enough to read and the beach was too hot. I’m glad we are together now; we have a very easy and happy life here.

When she arrived I got her a job volunteering at the City Hall. She has been helping the City Tourism office to set up a cultural museum and receive national recognition for some local historical sites. She also just won an education grant recognizing her achievements in art history and desire to pursue this subject in the context of Cultural Development. At 23 years old she is finding her decision to move here and pursue her passions and dreams is being justified.

Future Plans:

After Peace Corps is finished in March 2006 we would like to move to Syria or Jordan and study Arabic. We’ll have a month or so to play with our family and friends for the wedding. Then in March of 2007 we are hoping to enter Peace Corps Morocco as a married couple and continue our Arabic lessons. After that we would like to go to George Washington University in DC for a master’s degree in international development. And if all this still happens we would like to try and get a job with the State Department and eventually the UN. This is our plan anyway.

I do feel lucky to have such a wonderful partner to share my life with. All those long years of questioning, looking and yearning have rewarded me as if I was a king. Its one thing to have someone in your life who loves you but it is entirely another to have someone to share your love of life with. We live a simple life that I would say has a High Quality of Living. We might not have lots money but when you live cheap and have someone to cuddle at night you don’t really need it.

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