no news is good news…?

Hoy! Buhay pa ako (I’m still alive)! Just 5 months left here so enjoy this re-cap of the happenings the past couple of months…

I started off the New Year with my family, after almost 18 months of being apart; it was so amazing seeing them again. We spent our time together in Palawan, island-hopping and exploring the islands. Being back with my parents and siblings felt like no time had passed at all, being with people who genuinely care and appreciate what you are doing was very refreshing (not to say I don’t get that here…its just shown differently among the people I work with). I get the loving care of my host nanay everyday and the appreciation from my students and teachers, but various factors come into play as how it is shown. Feelings of comfort and belonging are a little hard to come by here, being different, still constantly stared, talked, and worried about are hard to shake off. So just feeling like you belong and aren’t this odd-person-out was good. Also the comfort of home ties into belonging, you’re with familiar people where you can just be yourself and not worry.

After our time in Palawan, my family was welcomed to my site with open arms from my host family and school community. I still get asked almost daily, “Miss Nina where is brother Sam & sister Paige?” the students were (and still are) very star-struck by them! Sharing my site brought these two worlds together and it felt really special to have them here. Saying goodbye was difficult, but I wasn’t as difficult as it was when I left to begin my service. There was an ease, knowing that I’d see them again in 8 months when I return home.

For the rest of January and the beginning of February, I worked on my main secondary project here, the school library. When I first arrived at my school, they had a non-functional library, it was used to house old and outdated books. Students were not allowed to go into the space and read and the access to interesting books was not there. So I tasked this to be my main project during my service, after 7 months of work, we officially opened the new library! Student Librarians were trained to help with the operation of the library, as there is no librarian at the school. Seeing these kids come into the library everyday is very inspiring, they are taking the initiative to read and are exploring the different things they can learn from the books.

In February, I spent my time in Manila as a resource volunteer and facilitator for a Peace Corps training. Batch 276 Volunteers had their 6-month training in project design, as 275 volunteers, we had the opportunity to help facilitate this training with our counterparts. So my counterpart and facilitated a training on how to start projects at their site and we shared about our library project. It was kind of nostalgic being back at the same training site when we first arrived in the Philippines back in July of 2016.

We just had our schools graduation which means summer is here! The heat is hot, at sometimes almost unbearable to go outside. My summer plans will consist of some travels, spending time by the beach & plans for a Environmental Camp are in the works!

Hope you enjoyed this re-cap, keeping up with the blog here has been a #struggle, but trying to keep it real during these last few months of service.

 

Kita Kits,

Nina xx