Currently, I’m sitting with some grade 2 students. Its 11:30, which means is igma rin (lunchtime). We’re chatting in the local language kinaray-a and sharing lots of laughs and smiles.
Since coming back from my MST (mid-service training) in October, I’ve been trying to live in the moment everyday here and appreciate the little moments like these that happen everyday. Even though its only the end of November, the rest of my time here is already filling up and going by quick.
The mid-year slump for me came and went, it occurred shortly after our training. In October, the 43 of us who are left in my batch met in Manila again, with staff and had a three-day training. During the training, we shared our challenges, wins, projects, funny stories and advice on how to deal with situations we encounter. I have some incredible batch mates who are doing some amazing things in their communities! It was very inspiring to hear how they’re making an impact.
My main project that I’m working on right now is renovating and improving the school’s library space to make it inviting and welcoming to the students. Libraries don’t exist here, and if they do, they are in bigger provinces or cities, many schools don’t even have library spaces or books for that matter.
After coming back from MST, we were supposed to have an event within the community to help support the library…and it didn’t happen. I was told the news the day I got back to site that we weren’t going to get any proceeds from the event anymore, needless to say, I was upset because we had meetings and promises were made that some of the benefits would go to support the library. I became frustrated with my community, because my counterpart and I have tried numerous times, writing letters to organizations, making courtesy calls to the LGU (local government unit) asking for donations and support for the library. We received no feedback or donations which is very disheartening because this is for the students and will have a huge impact on their educations, but the community can’t show support. When I heard that the event was cancelled, I was feeling unsupported by my community and a little angry that people (who are supposed to be stakeholders for the school) wouldn’t step up and give us help. So instead of sitting with my emotions at site (we also had a couple of holiday days) a couple of my friends and myself went to a neighboring island called Guimaras and took a couple of days to relax before we had to re-adjust to our site lives coming from training.
After all the failures with the project, I was feeling un-motivated once I returned back to site because it’s hard, working on a project that no one seems excited about or interested in. It made me question: Why am I still doing this? Is this something I should still be working on? As a PCV, you can feel trapped with these questions and doubts because our version of success (and failure) looks different than it does in the places we’re working in. Thank goodness for my amazing counterpart, instead of letting myself fall down that hole of doubt (which I’ve done before) my counterpart suggested that we hold a Fun Run for Reading and have word activities for the students afterwards. We talked about the idea with some other teachers and the principal and they were on board to support and have their students join in as well. My counterpart and I had a busy couple of weeks, preparing the items needed, sending out invitations to local organizations (mayor, barangay captain, police, firemen…) and collecting registration from students. And the event came and was amazing! Per usual, we were scrambling getting everything ready, even during the event. We had a lot of families and students join and showed their support. Following the fun run, we did some zumba and the participants received free pamahaw (breakfast) donated by a community member.
The turnout of this event was so inspiring; we raised a lot of funds towards work that needs to be completed in the library. With all of the failures, having this success ensured that this project can be completed and it is going to be worth all of the struggles we’ve encountered. Despite some of the doubts that I faced with this project, I am constantly motivated everyday by my students because they all deserve a place that supports and encourages reading. So many of the students have never owned books or are given the chance to read and look at books. Lots more work still needs to be done but the success of the event is bringing the school community together to pitch in and see the library be finished. Kaya Kaya Pa!
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts – Winston Churchill
Nina Around the Globe 
Your perserverence paid off Nina! So happy your Fun Run was a success! XO