There Goes the Neighborhood & JS Prom 2009

I will be telling this narrative slightly out of order but I think it makes more sense, as you will hopefully agree.
So here goes, my name is Sean and I will be your tour guide this afternoon. Please make sure to fasten your bicycle helmets, apply plenty of sunscreen and dawn your polarized sunglasses (proud of me mom?) as we will be touring the Philippines country-side by bike. As a side note, bicycles are the only permitted means by which Peace Corps volunteers may transport themselves; motorcycle accidents were, at one time, the leading cause of death among volunteers, it may very well be massive overdoses of Coca-Cola since. Now that we are prepared, making sure we all have our cameras, a full battery and a healthy sense of humor about ourselves, let's depart from the house and head out north. As I said, I live in town. Just around the corner, we can see "downtown," the only main road that goes through my town and the avenue where all the shops are. This is the main drag at about 9:30 a.m. This is rush hour. There is a store on the left where I buy soap, toothpaste (proud of me mom?), guitar strings, chocolate and load for my phone. To the right is the town church, which I hope most of you have seen in albums previously posted to Picasa; it dates back to the Spanish times, and is super old, I think from the 1800's. I know that some have this image that Peace Corps volunteers only live in stick huts in little rural villages, but that idea is simple not true. Volunteers serve in every kind of social and developmental environment; many volunteers here live in cities and live only seven minutes from night clubs, but that does not devalue the contributions they are making to their schools that need as much help as those in rural communities. Well, maybe it does, I don't know.












This images above are two very important buildings in town. The one on the left is the post office (and other government-type offices) that was built by the Japanese as a garrison during WWII. During the Japanese occupation, according to Sir Erwin's grandmother, an officer was riding horseback in her barrangay (like a neighborhood, the smallest unit of governance) when he was attacked by Filipino rebels. Everyone in that barrangay was then collected and held prisoner in the church, across the street from this garrison. Japanese occupation has quite a few horror stories, one such story involves Japanese soldiers using babies for bayonet practice, tossing them in the air and stabbing them. The Japanese are now committed to atoning by donating computers and heavy machinery. The second building above, to the right, is the town auditorium. Every event is held in this auditorium, including the Junior/Senior Prom and the Miss I.T. beauty pageant; the auditorium is the oldest building in town, built by the Spanish forever ago (proud of me Augsburg history department?).
Continuing on, crossing the river about a 4-5 minute ride outside of town, we come to a little country chapel surrounded by a rice field. When on the buses, you see these all over. It's nice, on evening trips, to pass by them, the sun setting and people inside holding prayer services, the insides all lit up with candles. We will see this chapel a little later in a video. This chapel is literally less than a 10 minute bike ride from my house. While I do live in town, I must be realistic about the immensity (or lack there of) of what is meant by "town." Indeed, "town" is a well-demarcated area and everything beyond is, well, rice and coconut trees. It's easy to say that I'm a rural volunteer, but how rural am I? This I cannot exactly figure.

This is a typical rural house, made of wood, native palms, bamboo and corrugated metal sheets. These are not unlike the materials used on the house in which I live sans bamboo and palm. Also, mine has a cement foundation.
Another country home off in this distance. No doubt this family tends the rice fields that lead up to it.
Alright kiddos, we have biked outside of town, through the next town to the north and are now in a massive series of rice fields. This is a picture of one of the many Inglesia ni Cristo churches that are ubiquitous throughout the Philippines. They are always immaculately white and I have no idea how they manage...divine intervention? This is the same scene as the panorama picture at the top of this post.
And finally, we will about-face and head south of my town, stopping by the park where I will go to sit with students or try to finagle some alone time late at night after all the students have gone to bed. Here is what it looks like to bike back into town, so to speak I suppose.

So this, to the right, is the park, back in the center of town. This is the public forum where families bring their children and play in the grass. The sun in this country is so insanely hot, being so close to the equator, that I constantly wonder why they did not plant any trees for shade in the park. I mean seriously, it is often too hot to go outside mid-day (and it's February!). The sun feels like a broiler. I have never felt anything like it.
The view of the stars from the park on a clear evening is indescribably beautiful. I mean, we are literally 3-4 hours from the closest city. There has been only one other place in my life where I have seen the stars more clearly, and that was in Namibia during my rural homestay. But the stars here are so brilliant and clear that one could seemingly reach out and touch them, expecting them to feel like little studded diamonds fastened to a black-velvet cloth.
Okay campers, enough time at the park. We will not head south, out of town, to see some beautiful coastline and some rice terraces.



















If we will look to the left, we see rice terraces backing up to the densely forested volcano which overlooks our humble town and, to the right, a stream that runs down from the jungle-laden volcano and off into the bay to the right.
Well, you may want to see more, but your faithful tour guide is kapoy, or tired now, and wants to go home, sit in the hammock and tell you of last night, the Junior/Senior Prom. Coke anyone?
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So last night was the Junior/Senior Prom, or simply put, JS Prom. Roughly 450-500 students came, dressed in their best, to dance, to schmooze, to simply have a good time. During the first part, where the hundreds of students walked down an aisle in pairs, the male teachers, myself, and Melissa, the Australian volunteer, all went out for some libations (it was a hot night, what do you expect!?). Upon returning, the students were doled out box dinners of tuna sandwiches, fried chicken and rice. The teachers table had their own...refreshments. We had a big pot of gin and Tang with sliced apples in the mix. I would sure as hell have gone to my own high school prom if there was fried chicken and gin.
Tangent, ahem, so the students had their box dinners and socialized in large groups, according to year. The juniors wore pink and the seniors wore blue. Here is a picture of the juniors, not because I like them more but because the pic I got of the seniors came out blurry. See the people in the bleachers to the left? Both sides of the auditorium were filled with parents, watching their students' every move. Probably because of the Fried Chicken.
After the dinner and the socializing, each section of each grade made dance presentations, usually to swing music, which should not imply swing dancing. Filipino teenagers love nothing more than to cut-a-rug American-club style. The presentations were very entertaining; it was obvious that the students had worked on them a long time. Finally, after the presentations, the students got what they came for: a disco. WAITAMINUTE! You mean to tell me they disco!? Well, not really. It's more like a club scene, they just call it a disco. Observe:

So, as you can see, it's less of a disco and more like a...like a...Filipino style Bar Mitzvah.
It was a real fun time. The best thing about being the Peace Corps volunteer and teacher is how popular I am. I could walk into the middle of the dance and just start dancing. In seconds there would be a group of students around me, emulating every dorky dance move I could muster. This is the closest I will ever come to celebrity status. I even got to hang out with the prom queen, by request! Look at the tie! Look at how good it looks! I did it myself after an hour of practice with a downloaded how-to YouTube video (proud of me dad?). The Internet is almost necessary for the, ahem, professional volunteers these days.
We danced and danced and danced until about midnight. I made good friends with the DJ and he played a few tracks of Girl Talk for me, both he and the students loved it! Looks like Girl Talk will be the next big DJ in the Philippines! They absolutely love club music here, which is kind of neat.
Well friends, it has been real. I was privileged to give you a tour of the neighborhood and regale you with stories from my experience at the JS Prom. This has been a long post and, if you have made it down this far, I appreciate it and thank you.
There are more pictures from both my bike trip as well as the prom on my Picasa page.
Next week it's back to classes and trying to get some statistical data from our library collection. I don't just go to pageants, proms and bike around, I do actually do work around here.
Until next time, much love from the equator.