Site Visit

Two Sundays ago (goodness time is flying by!) we had one of the most important days in the Peace Corps experience - finding out where our permanent sites will be, that is, where we'll be living and working for the next two years of our lives. A rather big deal. The energy levels and excitement amongst us Trainees were running high that day for sure.

Well, I found out that I'll be going to a smaller coastal town in Albay province, in the Bicol region. This part of the Philippines is known for its spicy food, use of coconut milk in cooking, and the Mt. Mayon volcano. With its name derived from the Bicol word for "beautiful" (magayon), this "perfect cone" is one of the most active, most famous volcanoes in the world. Stepping off the plane at the Legazpi airport, and seeing it towering over us with plumes of smoke coming out the top was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

My school and host family are really great too. I'll be working at a high school on the outskirts of town, where it's nice and quiet. The school has about 1500 students, average sized, and lots of programs and project ideas for me to work with, like a newspaper, remedial reading program, and an English club. I'll also be co-teaching in English classes for 20 hours a week, and my principal and counterpart teachers were very welcoming and excited about working with me.

My host family's house is right across the street from the school, and I really like it there. They make good food and everyone is sweet. The first night I was there, we had a brownout (common in the Philippines, especially in this area after the November 30th super-typhoon Reming destroyed much of the electrical and communication infrastructure), and my teenage host brothers played guitar and sang by candlelight until the power came back on late at night. Even though I was thoroughly sweaty since we were without electric fan, it was a beautiful experience.

After site visit, we moved to our new training site in Bataan province. We'll be here for the last three weeks of training before swearing in. I guess the move has been a bit hard on me, especially since we came here on my birthday, but I'm trying to stay positive and take care of myself. My birthday turned out to be pretty good. The people in my cluster are really happy, because the town we're in has lots of coffeeshops, restaurants, and christmas lights on the trees that line the sidewalk - pretty atypical for the Philippines. Also, it's good to be here for language learning, since everyone here speaks Tagalog, we get so much more practice. I guess we're getting spoiled a little bit, but that's ok, right?

All in all, a good site visit. I was one of the lucky ones who came back feeling super-excited about her site. Now I just have to hang in there for the last month of training, and it'll be time to swear in and go be a full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteer.