A “typical” day in the life…

Most of what I’ve shared in conversations with people back home consists of the highlights and the lowlights of my life here at site. I realized that I haven’t talked much about the average daily stuff. And that’s most of what life is, right? So here’s what a typical day looks like.

AGA (Morning)

I wake up sometime between 5 and 6 AM every day. The rest of the town is already awake and preparing for the day. Roosters crow and vendors ride by on their motorcycles shouting “ISDA ISDA ISDA (FISH FISH FISH)” in fast auctioneer voices. On Saturday mornings, the house across the street blasts American and Filipino pop music, in all the languages that are used here: Waray and Tagalog and English. So I don’t sleep in on weekends!

I’ve found that my mood is better and my mind is calmer when I start the day moving (#ENDORPHINS #SEROTONIN). So, most mornings, I go on a walk or run. If it’s raining, I work out on my yoga mat  using the exercise videos stockpiled on my external drive thanks to my fellow volunteers. I’m lucky to live steps away from a walkable/runnable beach, and less than half a mile from the school which has a track I can run on without being stared at!

I’ll take you on a virtual walk from my house to the beach:

I walk out the gate and sometimes by a neighbor’s trash-burning fire…

then past another neighbor’s fighting rooster…

Almost there…every time I walk by this house, the little girl in the picture shouts my name, waits for me to wave and say “hello, maupay nga aga (good morning)” and then immediately runs and hides behind the fence

And here it is, THE BEACH! A CRM volunteer’s dream.

After exercising I come home and eat my oatmeal and drink my coffee and get ready for the day.

TRABAHO (Work)

I bike to the office, just a few minutes away, by 8 AM. Kada-adlaw (every day) my workmates ask me what I ate for breakfast and then ask if I’m still hungry because I ate only oatmeal and no rice or meat and then I assure them that I am busog na (full already).

I work at the Local Government Unit’s (LGU’s) Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) (the acronyms never end). The image brought to mind by the words “Peace Corps Volunteer” often seems to be a dirty hippie living in the boonies, in a nipa hut with no running water or electricity, wearing backpacking clothes and growing beards/not shaving legs and climbing coconut trees and foraging for food and walking miles to work uphill both ways…. I exaggerate. Anyway, the truth is, many (not all) volunteers live in some of the nicest houses in our communities because those are the families with the space to house us. Most of us have intermittent internet access. I live in a rural area 8 hours from the nearest big city, but I’m still only an hour away from a small mall with air conditioning and pizza and ice cream, and many volunteers do live in or near more urban areas. In my experience, the hardships don’t come so much from physical things, but from being the foreigner, learning how to work and make friends despite language and cultural barriers, and struggling to find productive, realistic, sustainable ways to help our communities.

Anyway, that being said- I think my office fits the rugged rural Peace Corps stereotype pretty perfectly. I LOVE IT. It’s bordered by demonstration fish ponds on one side and corn fields on the other. There’s a beautiful view of a hill behind the rice fields. We have chickens and ducks and sometimes we spend our afternoons shucking corn. Our most common afternoon meriendas (snacks) are mais (corn), kamates (sweet potatoes), and cassava, all grown nearby. If we forget to close the windows before leaving the office, chickens find their way inside and my counterpart must chase them out with a broom upon our return. A few minutes ago, a rat fell from the ceiling a few feet away from where I’m sitting writing this.

The office

Despite the ruggedness of my office, we do have a TV which is always playing Showtime, a Filipino variety show, or Double Kara, a very dramatic show about twins named Kara and Sara who were separated at birth and who are now in a custody battle over one of their daughters. At least that’s what I understand from my limited Tagalog.

Work is slow because of the presence of said TV in my office and because the beginning of service is focused mostly on cultural integration and language learning. It takes time to find and organize projects and the importance of relationships in Filipino culture requires that friendships are built before productive work begins. So I struggle with patience and imposter syndrome. I spend a lot of my time reading documents and studying language and meeting people around the community- and these activities really are teaching me a lot. I also spend a lot of time talking to my coworkers. They are awesome and always make an effort to speak with me to help me practice Waray. They use very little English and to be completely honest this was TERRIFYING at first I felt like I had been dropped on another planet. But it makes them very good teachers and has helped me make a lot of progress in my language learning (still a long way to go, there will always be a long way to go :)). My highlight of last week was making my first successful joke in Waray!

KULOP & GAB-I (Afternoon and night)

I usually leave work between 4 and 5. Sometimes I stop at the outdoor market on the way home and sometimes I tambay (stay and hang out) at my neighbor’s house while she sells snacks like fried plantains and popcorn and bread with mayonnaise. Then I go home and make dinner. I cook my own mostly-vegetarian food now and am pretty happy about it!

After dinner, I journal or read (most recent book: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. Now reading Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food. Both recommended) and usually send some messages to family and friends at home. I watch the news most nights with my host nanay and tatay. A lot of coverage on drug killings and the recent controversial move of Ferdinand Marcos’ body to the national heros’ cemetery.

It was interesting watching the U.S. election coverage on Filipino news stations.

My 19 year old host sister Mae, who is a college student studying I.T., comes over most evenings and we chat or watch a movie. Often of the zombie genre. She laughs uncontrollably when I close my eyes during the scary parts.

My eyes start to get heavy around 9 pm and I’m usually asleep by 9:30 or 10.

SABADO & LINGO

Saturday mornings are usually when I wash my clothes. I sit in the choir loft during Catholic mass on Sunday mornings, and will hopefully begin singing with them after learning the songs. The music is beautiful and full of energy and mostly in Waray with some English and traditional Latin mixed in. On the weekends, I spend time with my sitemate Courtney. We often go to the capital Catarman (1 hour away, where the mall is located) to run errands and shop and visit our sitemates who are teaching at the university there. I also spend time with Mae and other women I’ve met at site, singing videoke or watching a movie or walking to the beach or eating at one of the few little restaurants in our town.

I was happily surprised to find that there is a tennis court in my town, so sometimes I go join a group of middle-aged men who play there every afternoon!

Just as I finished writing this, my coworkers started yelling at me to eat merienda, which was bread and ice cream. They put the ice cream ON THE BREAD. Blew my mind. An actual ice cream sandwich. I ate two (one unexpected part of Peace Corps: THE RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF OVEREATING THAT OCCURS). Then my boss made me play chess with one of my coworkers. I lost.

Thanks to anyone who read my ramblings and as usual please continue to keep me updated on what’s going on in your life as well!