On Sunday I experienced my first ever beauty pageant. What a trip! A friend of one of the trainees was kind enough to supply us with tickets as well as a service to Balanga. So, for forty five minutes, 9 American PCTs rode crammed onto a bus with fifty or so gay men and women! Homosexuality is explained by the word “bakla,” and is generally represented by very effeminate men, or (less acknowledged as far as I have seen) very masculine women. It is a concept that is both incredibly widespread, and at the same time very limited. Walking around my barangay, one can automatically distinguish at least a handful of bakla, because it is quite common for a gay man to wear women’s clothing, grow his hair long, and/or wear a full face of makeup. Some community members like to points the bakla out, using the pronoun “she” rather than “he,” or calling out and giggling. Whether or not they are respected, they are certainly tolerated by most, and again, an extensive part of the general population. Despite this, the actual roles assigned and/or chosen by bakla are restricted. In a bakla couple, one usually assumes the feminine role, and one the masculine role. The feminine may dress in drag and exhibit more typical female characteristics. And in so-called lesbian relationships it may be the reverse (though I have not experienced
the latter, so that is all I will say). So as such, despitehomosexuality, the relationship is still representative of that of a man and a woman!
Anywho, the bus ride was interesting, to sum up. The Miss Bataan Pageant was held in Balanga, and represented young women from eleven municipalities. It ran on “Filipino time,” or about 2 hours late. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but as usual I was surprised; it was, in short, a beauty pageant like any other. There were swimsuits, political, social, and cultural questions, evening gowns, traditional ball gowns, lots of skin, lots of “gasping” moments when a contestant almost fell down the stairs, and, most importantly, Miss Dinalupihan, the winner of Miss Bataan (yeah Dinalupihan)!
On another note, we (the 10 CYF trainees in Daang Bago) have started tutorials for the kids of our barangay. The past two weeks of our Technical Training have focused on assessing and implementing literacy, so now we are testing our skills with the local children. In all honesty, I am not a very good teacher nor am I very creative, so this is a horribly nerve-wracking activity for me. After the first hour-long session, at the least, I now know a dozen more of the kids’ names, and that the second year high school students do indeed know multiplication. Some major challenges though, are keeping the children’s attention, as well as working with a multi-level population. We recently visited an elementary school in Limay, Bataan which taught multi-level classrooms and was really effective at doing so. These are skills I’m sure I will develop eventually, but if anyone has suggestions for teaching English and Math, especially in an engaging way, please do share with me! I only know so many games to play with numbers and letters!
Other exciting upcoming events:
1. Street Dancing Festival. My nanay and tatay are members of an organization called “Couples for Christ.” Pretty self explanatory. This Sunday marks its 15th anniversary, which will be celebrated by a giant parade with all of the chapters of the region. Each chapter will have a dance routine, or at least a few steps to perform. Apparently I will be marching/dancing in the front line. Yikes. I don’t know. I’ll probably find out the day before, and practice in my sleep. Those malaria-pill dreams sure are realistic anyway.
2. On Friday, the 10 trainees, our two language teachers, our cultural teacher, and of course kuya Vic our wonderful driver will have a cookout to learn Filipino recipes, foods, and to test our palengke (market) bargaining skills. We will cook chicken tinola, pork adobo, and chop suey, all Filipino staples. Chicken tinola is my favorite dish so far, consisting of chicken, ginger, garlic, and a delicious and tender vegetable called sayote. Adobo is the national dish, and can be made with chicken, pork, or beef. It has a sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, onion, and garlic. Sarap sarap! Mangoes and bananas are delicious here, as well as a fruit called rambutan, which is similar to lychees. And then there are the more interesting foods, like shrimp paste, bright red hot dogs, whole fish (thankfully my tatay eats the head, since he is the “head” of the family), and an incredibly bitter gourd called ampalaya. Thank goodness for rambutan, and for tatay.
3. Finally, in less than two weeks we will find out our Site Placements, or where we will be working and living from November 2009-November 2011! So far, I know that I will be working with women and girls in a somewhat rural area, in a stable organization, with another volunteer in the same town. This may seem terribly vague, but believe me; it is reassuring to hear anything I can about my site future. Most days I do not know the details of future plans, whether it be the plans of a trip to the market, the details of attending a funeral, or the lesson plan for tutoring fifty children, until just minutes before. It has been easier than I imagine to let go and just roll with it. I suppose that’s what Peace Corps, and to a degree Filipino life, is all about!
Anywho, the bus ride was interesting, to sum up. The Miss Bataan Pageant was held in Balanga, and represented young women from eleven municipalities. It ran on “Filipino time,” or about 2 hours late. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but as usual I was surprised; it was, in short, a beauty pageant like any other. There were swimsuits, political, social, and cultural questions, evening gowns, traditional ball gowns, lots of skin, lots of “gasping” moments when a contestant almost fell down the stairs, and, most importantly, Miss Dinalupihan, the winner of Miss Bataan (yeah Dinalupihan)!
On another note, we (the 10 CYF trainees in Daang Bago) have started tutorials for the kids of our barangay. The past two weeks of our Technical Training have focused on assessing and implementing literacy, so now we are testing our skills with the local children. In all honesty, I am not a very good teacher nor am I very creative, so this is a horribly nerve-wracking activity for me. After the first hour-long session, at the least, I now know a dozen more of the kids’ names, and that the second year high school students do indeed know multiplication. Some major challenges though, are keeping the children’s attention, as well as working with a multi-level population. We recently visited an elementary school in Limay, Bataan which taught multi-level classrooms and was really effective at doing so. These are skills I’m sure I will develop eventually, but if anyone has suggestions for teaching English and Math, especially in an engaging way, please do share with me! I only know so many games to play with numbers and letters!
Other exciting upcoming events:
1. Street Dancing Festival. My nanay and tatay are members of an organization called “Couples for Christ.” Pretty self explanatory. This Sunday marks its 15th anniversary, which will be celebrated by a giant parade with all of the chapters of the region. Each chapter will have a dance routine, or at least a few steps to perform. Apparently I will be marching/dancing in the front line. Yikes. I don’t know. I’ll probably find out the day before, and practice in my sleep. Those malaria-pill dreams sure are realistic anyway.
2. On Friday, the 10 trainees, our two language teachers, our cultural teacher, and of course kuya Vic our wonderful driver will have a cookout to learn Filipino recipes, foods, and to test our palengke (market) bargaining skills. We will cook chicken tinola, pork adobo, and chop suey, all Filipino staples. Chicken tinola is my favorite dish so far, consisting of chicken, ginger, garlic, and a delicious and tender vegetable called sayote. Adobo is the national dish, and can be made with chicken, pork, or beef. It has a sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, onion, and garlic. Sarap sarap! Mangoes and bananas are delicious here, as well as a fruit called rambutan, which is similar to lychees. And then there are the more interesting foods, like shrimp paste, bright red hot dogs, whole fish (thankfully my tatay eats the head, since he is the “head” of the family), and an incredibly bitter gourd called ampalaya. Thank goodness for rambutan, and for tatay.
3. Finally, in less than two weeks we will find out our Site Placements, or where we will be working and living from November 2009-November 2011! So far, I know that I will be working with women and girls in a somewhat rural area, in a stable organization, with another volunteer in the same town. This may seem terribly vague, but believe me; it is reassuring to hear anything I can about my site future. Most days I do not know the details of future plans, whether it be the plans of a trip to the market, the details of attending a funeral, or the lesson plan for tutoring fifty children, until just minutes before. It has been easier than I imagine to let go and just roll with it. I suppose that’s what Peace Corps, and to a degree Filipino life, is all about!
Photos below of my host family! Ate Ellen, Nanay, Tatay, Tita, Ate Wang, and my niece and nephew.
Til next time,
Just
Jess
P.S. Send me children’s books? Quick dry towels from REI? Non-melting candies? Yes?
Wow, what a great read! Looks like things are going well (so nice to see pics of you and your people). I could get you one of those towels... IF you send me some sayote ;) What size do you want?
ReplyDeleteilluminations.nctm.org for math lessons mofo! you should have just asked me in the first place. And yay for finally being in a different country where you really like the food! I miss you!
ReplyDelete