Since Then...

[our training group and technical trainer]

11.25.09

After completing our community project, we took our Language Proficiency Interview and both passed – we are officially “intermediate” speakers of the Waray-Waray language after three months! We then packed up our things, said farewell to our first host family with a goodbye party, and headed to Manila for a conference and our swearing-in ceremony.

[Arki, the comical baby who shared our home. We're looking forward to returning to Leyte in January to attend his first birthday party]


[saying goodbye to our neighborhood gang - these kids followed us to and from class each day and loved getting rides from Brandon. hanging out with them was a highlight of our training]

[at our host family thank you party with Nanay - we already miss her a lot!]

Each volunteer has a Filipino counterpart who will work alongside us for the next two years, so they attended the conference to do some basic planning and “getting to know you” activities with us. We were scheduled to have our swearing-in ceremony on Friday afternoon at a Manila hotel, but on Thursday evening, PC staff announced that we would be having a special morning ceremony at the US Embassy, and that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be the one addressing us and giving the oath!

We boarded a bus early Friday morning for an embassy security check point and then proceeded to the embassy to rehearse the ceremony. We practiced for maybe three hours for what was only a 15 minute ceremony with Secretary Clinton, but it was well worth it! She gave a brief speech about Peace Corps’s role in frontline diplomacy and the Obama Administration’s commitment to expanding the Peace Corps worldwide. We then raised our right hands and took the patriotic oath of service. It was an honor to be sworn in at the embassy by Secretary Clinton, who has been someone we’ve admired. This was a really unique opportunity for Peace Corps volunteers and will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of our time here.

[Cameras were not allowed in the embassy, but Peace Corps will be sending professional photos and video along soon; we will post when available.]

[the 20 Leyte trainees, our trainers, and PC staff]

Later that afternoon we had our originally scheduled ceremony and reception. The mayor of our site came all the way to Manila to attend this, which was very kind and demonstrates our community’s commitment to the Peace Corps partnership. (Only a handful out of 60+ mayors made the trip). In the end, 63 trainees swore in as volunteers (69 began the journey in San Francisco in August).




Swearing in was the exciting beginning of our service, but it also marked the end of our time spent with our fellow trainees. We spent a brief weekend in Manila together, stocking up on dive equipment, eating LOTS of good/unhealthy food, and saying our temporary goodbyes. We have become close with the 18 volunteers assigned in our region, and it was bittersweet to head off on our own.


We boarded the plane for Eastern Samar on November 16th and have been settling in nicely ever since with the help of our work counterparts and new host family.

What to Do with All the Stuff...

[finished community project]

11.6.09

All PC trainees complete a community project before beginning service. Because we saw firsthand the waste problem in our community during training, our training group decided to focus on waste management education for both our community project and our practicum in a local elementary school.

In week 7 or 8 (they’re all blurring together) our training group planned and taught waste management lessons with children in grades 5 and 6. We led an activity about decomposition and how long it takes for different materials to break down. We then taught a short lesson on recycling and held a litter relay race, where the kids sorted waste items into different categories (reuseable, recyclable, or residual).

[after the elementary lesson]

I think we were both surprised by how much we enjoyed these activities, since neither of us has much experience working with youth education. The kids were enthusiastic, and their energy was a good boost for us at the end of training. Because we’ve been working in the same village for over two months, we’ve also enjoyed seeing some of the kids who come to our events regularly and have become our fan club.

During our early focus group discussions in the village, the adults said they’d like to have waste bins on the beach, so for our community project, we decided to hold a workshop for building waste bins in the village. Brandon took the lead on design and construction, and I worked on the planning/reporting and education activities.

[waste education on the beach]

[community build]

A highlight of the project was strengthening a partnership between the village council and a local manufacturing plant, which agreed to donate waste bags for the bins on an ongoing basis. After construction, the fan club painted the bins a bright green, and the council made plans to place 7 more in the village.

[the painting crew]

The project output wasn’t particularly grand (the community constructed 3 simple, bamboo bins), but community members worked together to address one of the needs they’d identified and it served its training purpose – we learned a lot about working with barangay councils and community members AND doing construction without power tools! (Our egos were bruised, when our instructors had to lend a hand with the very basic construction – oh, how we take drills for granted in the US…)

[training group and trainers, building the prototype]

All the STUFF

10.30.09

Solid waste is a problem everywhere. We all know there’s no ‘away’ place to throw our trash – it’s all sitting somewhere, outlasting us all. But several factors are converging here in the Philippines to push the problem to a crisis point.

In the US, everything is jumbo-sized; here, almost all products are sold in single serving bags or packets. Shampoo and laundry detergent in one-use metal sachets, just enough bagged soy sauce and vinegar for one meal, peanuts and chips in snack-size bags only. So tiny plastic pouches proliferate.

At the same time, population continues to rise (the World Bank projects the Philippines could soon have the highest growth rate in southeast Asia; currently around 2%) and municipal governments are unable to afford the expensive sanitary landfills we take for granted in the US. Instead, waste is normally dumped in open sites, with little on-site management and no barrier to prevent contamination into groundwater or nearby streams and neighborhoods.

With these constraints and without organized recycling programs in the provinces, communities have developed other systems for managing reuseables. Waste isn’t segregated before going to the dump site, so scavengers (often children) will comb through the waste at the site to pull out recyclables and sell them at local “junk shops.” These junk shops collect the reuseables/recyclables and sell them in bulk to factories in large cities or to companies abroad (mostly China, we’ve heard).

[touring the local dump site with municipal officials]

There is weekly, municipal garbage collection in our community, curbside on major roads, but often on a common neighborhood corner. An obstacle, though, for municipal waste management, is the mixing in of human waste with regular household waste for collection. Many homes here, particularly those in the fishing village where we’ve been doing our practicum, lack indoor plumbing, so the alternatives are to use the sea/seashore or the garbage truck.

Communities here are way ahead of us, though, in the realm of food waste. All food scraps are either fed to animals or buried for composting.

These are just our impressions at the 3 month point, so take them as somewhat uninformed observations –we have much to learn about waste management here, and it’ll be a big part of our work, particularly for Brandon. Our permanent site is fortunate to have a full-time waste management consultant on staff, who seems to really know her stuff and has many creative plans for engaging the community through waste education. We’re looking forward to gaining more experience in this area and hopefully making a small dent in this very large problem.

MPA Visit

[mangrove area]

10.24.09

Last weekend, we (CRM trainees and our instructors) traveled to Samar for our Marine Protected Area field trip. The trip was two days and one night of snorkeling, identifying fish and corals, conducting sea grass assessments, touring mangrove areas, and enjoying the many reefs.

There were several MPAs in the coastal community of Lawaan. The Local Government Unit (LGU) gave us a quick intro to MPA establishment in their waters and then took us out to see them firsthand.

Marine Protected Areas here are set aside to allow for conservation and repopulation of fish, coral, sea grass, and mangrove species. The areas are sometimes managed by the community or through people’s organizations, although the local government provides assistance with funding as needed.

[guard tower at the MPA site - volunteers will take 3-day shifts staying here, watching over the area and reporting any illegal fishing]

A big part of my work here will be monitoring and evaluating existing MPAs and establishing new ones, together with my many counterparts. Ideally, when managed well, these areas can boost fish populations, create spillover into nearby waters, and raise catch levels for local fisherman – which results in more income for the community, which is what it’s all about!

We knew going into the trip that we’d have many opportunities to practice our fish and coral ID, but the experience was better than I’d expected; on the reef, I found myself surrounded by numerous, colorful species of fish - it was an exhilarating experience.



Tori, on the other hand has vowed to never reenter the reef, because she probably did more harm than help, stepping/falling on the live coral and scraping up her legs pretty well in the process. We wouldn’t be surprised if they’re hanging this picture of her at the MPA right now – “keep this woman out.”


The next day we conducted sea grass assessments in another MPA. Healthy sea grass beds are essential for marine ecosystems, because, among other things, they anchor sediment and provide habitat. We learned several species and measured percent cover along a 50m transect. We all caught on to the methods quickly, so it didn’t take long. After the assessments, we checked out the neighboring reef for awhile before getting picked up and taken ashore.

Overall the trip was fun and it was nice to get away from our classroom training for a few days. We’re now looking forward to our swearing-in as official volunteers as the next big event.

Four Days in Eastern Samar (Part 2)

Tour day 2. One of my projects will be working with a newly formed entrepreneurs association, and one of the major players in the association right now is a fisherfolk’s organization.

Their primary project is mudcrab farming, but a secondary earned income projects is a coconut wine (“tuba”) brewery! They’ve built quite an operation and have won the title of best tuba in the Visayan region – due, they say, to their marketing and branding strategy (professional labels and tamper proof seals).

Our coworkers took us to the tuba brewing site, which is also being developed as a tourism spot – the fisherfolk’s organization hopes to create a platform overlooking the ocean, where folks can sip their tuba and watch the surf.


Setting up for some tuba tasting.


Prize winning wine at the on-site retail shop.


The brewery operation. Each blue barrel contains tuba at different stages of maturity.


Trying some fresh buko juice.


We think this tuba/eco-resort idea could succeed. We’d hang here.

We were scheduled to head back to training the next morning, but were convinced to stick around for the fiesta parade. It would be a great way to get our faces out there in the community, right?


Street dancers from the local university.


Parading through the streets.


My coworkers keep the sun away. I think this was right before the crowd started chanting “Brad Pitt, Brad Pitt” at Brandon…


Post-parade we went to the mayor’s house for a fiesta feast. Roasted pig (known as ‘lechon’) is a regional specialty throughout Leyte-Samar.


View from the mayor’s house.


With our sitemate, Eric, and our new host family, Nanay Dayot and Carol.

Our site is beautiful, but there is still much work to be done. We have some great natural resources and economic opportunities to work with, and there are tons of potential projects waiting for us. We’re very excited to return here in just a few weeks and get to work.

Four Days in Eastern Samar (Part 1)

10.10.2009

Our visit to our permanent site was packed full of activities and tours – we couldn’t have hoped for a better introduction to our new community. When we arrived, the town was gearing up for its fiesta, known as “patron,” so there were cultural shows each evening and lots of visitors in from out of town.

Our community has a population of just over 40,000. It’s located on a peninsula, bordered on one side by the Leyte Gulf and on the other by the Pacific Ocean. The community contains 60 barangays (neighborhoods/ villages), 44 of which are coastal. The town has both a newly renovated central plaza and a church built in the 16th century. We can get most things we’ll need right in town, with a bank, shipping center, plenty of stores, and internet cafes, so we won’t need to leave our site too often.

At the same time, Samar is one of the least developed areas of the Philippines, with some of the highest poverty indicators. Our community hopes to capitalize on its natural assets, ecotourism potential, and recent infrastructure developments to accelerate economic development and job creation.

Here are some highlights from the trip:


Our coworkers at the local government unit (LGU) planned tours and activities for much of our stay, including this welcome dinner at a local restaurant.


We visited the local Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) office. The BFAR in our community has a well-developed hatchery for bangus (milkfish), abalone, giant clams, snapper, and more. Cultures grown here are used to populate fish sanctuaries throughout the Philippines and as starts for aquaculture entrepreneurs. This is a great resource to have right in our community.


Brandon checking out the mature fish pens at BFAR.


16th century church (and pilgrimage destination) in our town plaza.


Brandon’s office – Municipal Planning and Development.


After checking out the sites in the town center, our guides took us out to the very tip of the peninsula to Calicoan Island, which is known for its beaches and surfing. Here’s the view from one of the small resorts (perhaps one I’ll be working with on tourism development), facing the Pacific.


That evening, we went to the town plaza for the nightly cultural show, leading up to fiesta. That night featured a famous Filipino ballet dancer and his young protégés. After this awkward warm up routine, they performed excerpts from Swan Lake. So random, but great.


Food vendors line the plaza, selling fresh roasted peanuts and barbeque pork on sticks.


Plaza at night.

Headed East

[City street at our permanent site]

10.4.2009

One of the biggest moments in the life of a Peace Corps Trainee is Site Announcement – when you find out where you’ll be living and working for the two years of service. We gave our preferences for site early on, but ultimately the decision is made by PC staff and is pretty much luck of the draw.

We were really happy with the announcement of our permanent site though – we’ll be going to the southern tip of Eastern Samar, a largely undeveloped area noted for its pristine coast and potential ecotourism spots. We’ve heard that aside from Mindanao, Samar is the poorest region of the Philippines, and Peace Corps volunteers haven’t been on the island for some time.

We will be the first group of Coastal Resource Management volunteers in Samar and Brandon and I (along with our sitemate, Eric) will be the first ever PC volunteers in our community. For a program that’s had 268 batches of volunteers, getting a site that’s never hosted Peace Corps before is a big deal.

[View of Leyte Gulf, from our new home]

We spent three days at a conference on Leyte, meeting our new supervisor and learning about our site workplans. I will be working at the Municipal Investment, Environment, and Tourism Office and Brandon is assigned to the Municipal Planning and Development Office. Both are housed in the municipal building, but we’ll have separate offices, just across the hall from each other.

The bulk of my work will be in ecotourism development and working with micro-entrepreneurs on livelihood projects. Brandon will be concentrating on solid waste management, marine biophysical assessments, and marine protected areas (MPAs). This seems to be a good match for both our skills and interests.

After the conference we traveled to our site. The trip only takes three hours from the nearest large city, Tacloban, and most of the drive is along the Samar coast. People from Leyte have been warning us that Samar is a mystical place, full of witches and poison – but people are always afraid of the unknown and we didn’t find any of those there. Our current host sister actually told us that she only eats Ramen noodles and other packed food when traveling in Samar, (because of the witches with poison), but we ate the food and have survived so far!

[Outside our new home]

At our new site we will live with another host family for at least three months. On this trip we stayed with our future family, which again consists of one little old lady, who again, was incredibly kind to us. Nanay #2 runs a boarding house for street vendors, which is located directly behind her main house. We will live upstairs in the main house, in a spacious bedroom overlooking the Leyte Gulf.

There’s so much to tell about our wonderful visit to Eastern Samar. We’ll post another entry soon with more details and pictures from the trip.

[This is where we will LIVE]

On the Shore

9.25.09

The weather has finally cooled off a little here – enough that our shirts aren’t soaked with sweat by 10am, we aren’t planted in front of a fan every second of the day, and we’ve even slept with a sheet the past couple of nights! Most members of our host family, including us, have come down with colds in the past week though, which our host mom attributes to the “cold environment.”

This week we did our first hands-on work with fisherfolk, doing socio-economic assessments. We conducted household interviews, completely in Waray-Waray, making it through with our broken language skills and lots of gesturing! For the assessment, we went into people’s homes (which is normal here – you can just walk in) and asked basic questions about household demographics, utilities and possessions in their homes, and fishing as a livelihood.

When asked how they envision their community and coast five years from now, most fishermen said they didn’t see any future for their community, because by that time their homes will be gone. This is a reality for them, because most fishermen in our village are squatters who’ve built permanent homes (nipa huts and plywood) on the shore. Because of sedimentation, coastal erosion, and climate change, the waves are coming closer each year and washing away homes in the process.

We hope to work on these issues over the next two years, but it seems the only immediate solution for these families is to relocate further inland when absolutely necessary.

The following day we held a focus group session with fishermen and their families. I conducted a community mapping activity and Brandon led the group in creating a seasonal calendar for fishing activities and household expenses. We also made a 24-hour calendar with the group, comparing the daily routines of men and women.

The highlight of this activity was when the women noted that they slept from 9-11pm, then woke up for an hour for ‘making babies’ before going back to sleep! Our last activity was a needs assessment for the community, where they identified public bathrooms, a fish sanctuary, small business support, and a watchtower as community priorities.

It was great to finally interact with community members and do work that feels more comfortable for us. Although it felt like familiar work on the surface, facilitating community processes in a foreign language was a whole new experience – if we hadn’t had our language instructor with us to help translate, it would’ve been completely overwhelming. We’re now more motivated than ever to learn the local dialect.