Perspectives

"Hey Joe, what's your name?"
- common thing for Filipino kids to say to Americans they see on the street

"Peace Corps must want its volunteers to be beautiful."
- Lala, my host sister, when I told her that the face wash I was using was provided by our medical officer

"Do you know already how to eat rice?" - A common question almost everyone I meet seems to ask me

"I'm very worried about you when you return to that place."
- the head teacher at my school, expressing genuine concern that I would not be safe living in the U.S. due to winter ice storms in the Midwest and the forest fires that raged in California last October

"Sadista!"
- our school's secretary's reaction to my telling her that I had our cat neutered

"You look like an astronaut."
- my teaching partner, Ate Lani, in reaction to me wearing my purple rain jacket inside the classroom because I was cold

"I didn't learn the word 'stressed' until I started working for Peace Corps."
- our Tagalog teacher, Ate Yoly. To be fair, she joined in the 1980s - probably before StressTabs were for sale at all pharmacies in the Philippines.