One month in...and the rain continues

Between the lack of internet at my training site and the heavy monsoons that have been in the area recently, I've been out of the blogosphere the past few weeks. I am now three weeks into PST. A typical day consists of a 5 AM wake up call by either roosters, dogs, or kids, followed by breakfast and a bucket bath, then on to four hours of language class, lunch time, fours hours of technical training, dinner, a brief period of relaxation, and then bed. I have 10 people in my host family: my mama and papa, three sisters (ate..pronouced 'ah-tay'), two brothers (kuya), two nephews, and a niece (in addition, I also have four sisters that live elsewhere, including one in Austin, TX and one in Toronto). I also have 3 cats and 2 dogs, one of which had 7 puppies the other day...3 litters in 3 years, this dog has been on a mission. My papa and kuya J.R. are fishermen and farmers. All in all, my family has given me a great set-up with my own good size bedroom with an adjoining C.R. (comfort room or "bathroom"). Much more than I was expecting! The food has been fairly tasty, with meals consisting of chicken, pork, fish, vegetables, bananas, and LOTS of rice. Staple meals include adobo, tinola, pancit (noodles and veggies), and whole fish (complete with head, tail, eyes, etc.). But NO meal is complete without rice!

View from Sabang

My house!

It's safe to say that our typical daily schedule has fluctuated quite a bit over the past few weeks though. The southwest monsoon (habagat) hit our province extremely hard and many of our sessions were interrupted/suspended due to the heavy rain. I've never seen or heard rain this hard in my life..especially when living under a tin roof! My site was probably the best off of the three training sites though. Both of the others were evacuated and some volunteers were actually stranded in a two-story house in their town for 40+ hours due to the 8 feet of water below. Luckily everyone is safe now and some volunteers have been able to return to their host families. My site was actually evacuated on Friday but not because of the flooding. A nearby landslide destroyed 5 power lines so we are without power and water in Sabang (the lack of drinking water caused us to be evacuated). We are all hoping to return soon so we can continue work on our community projects. Currently, the CRMers and myself are in the process of designing a CRM Plan for the municipality of Morong, as well as a youth park for Sabang. Our group had a community merienda yesterday to engage the locals and gather resources for the project. Probably our best day yet! Great to see the community, espcially the kids, rally behind our ideas. Besides the park, I'm also hoping to get some chain-link nets for their basketball court (I still have yet to play here because of the rain...).  Can't wait to get started (before and after pictures to come)! 

The entryway into Sabang.  Every barangay has one

Presenting our youth park to the Sabang community

It's still hard to believe how fast time is going...at this rate my two years will be over before I know it! In two weeks, we have our supervisors conference where all of 271 will be meeting up and learning where we will be placed for the next two years! But for now, we are soaking up our weekend together in Subic. We are all looking forward to returning to our sites, but its nice to be able to catch up with people and unwind, especially after the traumatic experience some went through last week. Hoping to get to the mall today with some of the gang (lord knows I need a razor...mine got fried at IIRR and my "mane" is growing thick). Tempting to let it grow...swearing-in stash bash with President Barack Obama (hopefully)?? Stay tuned!