Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Treasures



It doesn’t take 8 months in the Philippines to record the differences in values between this country and the U.S. But since I haven’t mentioned it, I’ll go ahead and do it now.

First of all religion plays an enormous part in the culture here. The majority of people are catholic but you will find Protestants and the Islamic faith without looking too far. Students pray before school and after lunch. Usually God is incorporated into lessons and programs and speeches. People go to mass at least once a week. From what I’ve encountered so far, faith is valued above all else in my site.

Close behind is family. And I don’t just mean family who you live with mother father bro and sis. Extended family is always close and it is rare for a Filipino to move far from his or her birthplace. My site is unique because nearly everyone here has moved here to work their crops, but none will call it home because it is not where their family is. Home will always be where your family is. It is common for aunts or uncles, cousins and grandparents to all live with each other. It’s just one’s assumed duty to care for family and I doubt anyone would give up living in a crammed home full of relatives if given the chance to move to a brand new house miles away if they had to live alone.

Third is food. If there is any occasion at all, there is food. At funerals, wakes, weddings, birthdays, fiestas, you name it, food is expected to be served. Even when planning trainings or school events, if anything takes place over lunch, you had better find a way to feed your guests. At my site a mass feeding requires boiling chicken or pork, and serving it with a heaping pile of rice on a paper plate covered in a plastic bag (handy for taking home leftovers). Plates are then passed down a food brigade until everyone has their meal. The broth from the meat usually arrives soon after in a mug to sip on.

Of course there are so-called material items that Filipinos value as well, but they also differ. They take great care in appearance. Filipinos are very clean and tidy and if they can afford it, they will wear the best clothing they can. My students prize their Levis and Nike shoes. If you watch T.V. commercials are all for either laundry soap or shampoo. It’s  hard to explain what has the highest value because it’s not necessarily a cell phone or laptop. For me, I have begun gather my own collection of priceless items and here are the top 3:





1. My bolo knife given to me by my host brother on Christmas. It has 15,000 different uses such as chopping up a chicken, cutting down a tree, peeling a carrot, and whacking a path through the bushes.



2. My Sagada Bag, or as I like refer to it: my magic bag. This thing is like the Mary Poppins bag. It was hand woven in Sagada, Mt. Province and can carry my entire life’s necessities.


3. My chicken. This thing has proven to be the most frustrating animal I have ever tried to raise. After catching it the first time, it has escaped twice and I have to keep chasing it around the neighborhood. But one day it will provide me enough chickens and eggs to last me the rest of my service! And the money I will raise from selling the roosters for cock fighting will hopefully fund a small project for the school. Are those high hopes for a single chicken? Maybe, but after all the talk I give my students, I need to show them an example of reaching for one’s dreams.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Happy Birthday to Me!!!


My birthday was last week and to help me celebrate, the Peace Corps dragged me to Manila for a full week of In-Service Training. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to celebrate at my site but some volunteers who remembered my big day took me out for pizza and it ended up being a pretty good day. But in order to enlighten you some more cultural differences, here is what WOULD have happened if I had remained at site.

My host mom, extracting the "juice" from the  rice wine.
It tastes pretty good! Kind of like a sangria but gets stronger
every day you let it sit.

Birthdays in the Philippines are celebrated a little bit different from back home. First of all there are no presents; if you haven’t figured it out already, nearly every celebration is centered around food. Second, it isn’t the friends who treat the birthday-boy, but the exact opposite. If it is your birthday, you are expected to provide food for all your guests or pay for their dinner if eating out at a restaurant. It can get pretty expensive and I was dreading it. I had already ordered my rice for the wine and was counting the number of chickens I would have to buy as my mental guest list kept rising. Teachers, family, neighbors. Those are only the base. As word gets around, anyone might show up! However, this year I was excused and I can start saving up properly for next year.

After the training ended in Manila, I rushed – no wrong word – I traveled as fast as the buses would take me back to Bauko to catch the end of our town fiesta. I was supposed to present an encore of the Cotton Eye Joe with the teachers. Unfortunately they had to present alone because I was an hour late which, honestly, when making a 12+ hour night trip isn’t all that bad. The highlight of the fiesta, and of this year for that matter, was the Tiliw ti Manok (Chicken Catch). This is a popular game where they release the fastest chicken they can find and the person who catches it wins!

I won. I had to race against all kinds of foes including my students, but I came out victorious. And my prize was the chicken! Boy do I have some big plans for this chicken. It is going to make me rich. Ahem, I mean it will make my school rich. Native chickens (any other chicken than the standard white chicken) are the most expensive and most prized of all chickens. When a person has a dream of a deceased relative, they will fork out the cost of a native chicken to butcher and offer some of the meat with a little gin to the ancestors.