First PC B-day, sick and last week of training!
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2006
1
7
55
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
Gusing Sur, Naguillian, La Union, Philippines
Monday, May 22, 2006
Well it has been an eventful few weeks since my last entry and as I am writing this I am on my last week of training!! I can hardly believe how fast these ten weeks have gone by.
A few days before my B-day the two other environmental volunteers and I went to visit a reforestation project about a half hour south of Baguio City, St. Thomas Watershed and the Twin Peaks. While it was wonderful to hear about their replanting efforts and I look forward to having tree planting projects at my site the hike was the highlight of the day. The bamboo and pine tree diverse forest was incredible, the bamboo here is amazing!! It always seems to be the natural beauty of a place that grounds me, even through the many emotional roller coasters of each day here. I look out and see the sunset or watch my host Mom harvest corn and realize how lucky I am to be living in an area that is so connected to the earth.
I had yet another wonderful international B-day experience starting with some great phone calls from and too the US. It was crazy to be standing in my back yard here looking at the mountains and fields of corn filled with goats and cows, roosters crowing on a cell phone clear as bell with the US!! Oh the things technology provides!! My host family decided to throw me a b-day party (turned out to be half the Barangay which was fun). It was really fun minus the fact my family butchered an entire pig for the party (traditional practice but very expensive). I felt really bad about it but there was no stopping them, pig was the last thing I wanted to eat but I enjoyed with a big B-day smile none the less!! I hired a videokee machine and we sang the night away which was really fun and all the little cousins loved it. My host sister Melody also gave a me a beautiful silver bracelet which was a huge surprise and too sweet!! I am including some photos of my family so you can all see them. I am excited to get to my site and get settled in to my work but I really will miss my family here. They have welcomed me into their home and I will always remember them as my Filipino family. All day on my B-day my host Dad was saying I have five children including me too!! I am really glad my site is close to here, I will for sure be coming back to visit Gusing Sur!
Well it has happened I have experienced and am still getting over my first and most likely not my last illness of my Peace Corps time!! (Don't worry Mom I am fine taking medicine and our PC Doctor's are wonderful). I some how got a really bad stomach virus which caused terrible stomach pains, fever and major fatigue.... and well... you don't need more details then that. Luckily we went to Baguio on TH and the PC Doctor was there and determined I have some bad stomach bacteria. So after basically sleeping the last five days and hardly eating anything I am starting to feel better. I was really sad to miss some of our final HUB sessions but I did make it to one of the most important and powerful ones. We heard from an organization that works with "the Bar Girls" in a Port Town about two hours from Manila. We heard the testimonial of a women who as spent the last 8 years on the streets and working in the bars for prostitution. The second she began to tell her story her tears began and so did mine. She has been working as a prostitute since she was 14 years old she is now 22 with three kids (who she has no idea where they are) and while she is connected with this organization she is still working the streets to make money to survive. Hearing the stories of these women really broke me up and the prostitution industry here was started and remains to be controlled by American Military men as patrons!!! The women make about 50 peso working the bar and dealing with the many levels of harassment and if they "are lucky" they will get asked by a man to leave and make 1,300-2500 pesos in one night. 50 pesos is $1 dollar so you can get an idea of the poverty here that $20 dollars is seen as a good living and prostitution is the only option. The organization is starting some alternative livelihood projects but having little success, I was glad to hear they provide HIV/AIDS test for nearly 700 women a month but the problem is still huge here!!! As I sat and listened to the woman tell her story I really felt helpless... but it was good to know that there are organizations here taking steps in the right direction, and they are entirely run by survivors which is even better!!
As always I am sending a big hug to each of you through the net and hope this update finds you well. Thanks for all the mail and love next update I will be on official PCV!!
Send good thoughts for my language exam on the 28th I am nervous!!!
PEACE,
Sherry
Comments
Glad to hear you're feeling better!
Hey Bear, you're doing great things! I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better. I love the pictures! Thanks for keeping me in the loop! I can't believe it's been 10 weeks? ... Amazing ... Good luck on your exam!
Mmmm... pig....
I, too, am glad to hear that you're feeling better. Those stomach ailments are no joke!
It's also good to hear that you've grown close to your host family. A whole pig in your honor... pretty cool.
I look forward to your next update!
Adventure!!!
Hey Sherry! It¡¦s so much fun reading your updates, sounds like your having quite an adventure. Take care of yourself and enjoy the time you have! fº I look forward to reading your next adventure¡K
XOXO,
Monica