tapos na sa Magalang

Oh man, what a week. I have finished the goodbyes at site and finally made it to Manila for the home stretch. Leaving was much, much harder than i thought it would be. The worst part was leaving the center. Thursday was my Despedida (goodbye party) at Haven and I cried the entire day. One of the most special days of my life, hands down. The girls put on a program with the requisite singing and dancing and presented me with cards and paintings they had made. We had pancit, ice cream, videoke, and i gave them the bracelets I made for each of them. When I first arrived in country, the blatant display of emotion made me completely uncomfortable, but apparently I've gotten used to it. We sat and hugged and cried and told stories all day and it felt so normal...Filipina na ako?
Maam Precy, my boss (and one hell of a lady) arranged for the staff to go night swimming (with more singing and eating, of course) that evening, so we wrapped it up at the center and headed to San Fernando to finish up the party. Friday was moving day and hanging out with the host family (and more tears).
The Philippines. This place has let me in on a few secrets, the biggest of which is that feeling sorry for oneself is a waste of time. Just smile and keep going. These girls at my center, who have been given no chances whatsoever, who have been kicked in the ass by their own family members and society in general, get up every morning and face the day with more integrity than i could ever muster if I was in their shoes. They have inspired me to no end. There are so many things i will miss about this place. Sure, there's also plenty that I wont miss, but so what? I could have done my Peace Corps service anywhere in the world and there would be things to complain about. I will miss the ease of public transportation. There's nothing comfortable or quick about it, but its cheap and convenient. Not having a car is so liberating. I will miss the gorgeous tropical fruits...papaya, mangos, star apples, guyabano, guava, leyches, mangosteen... I will miss the sense of community, children running barefoot outside, everyone knowing my name and watching out for me, and the sound bamboo makes when the wind blows it. I will miss knowing exactly where all my food comes from that I buy at the market and being able to pick bananas off trees in the yard. I will miss suman with coco jam, san mig on ice, and ample free time to journal, read, and do yoga. I will miss walking or riding my bike everywhere in my town. I will miss the curiosity of adults and the innocence of children and the friendliness of everyone. I will miss the excitement I got when I picked up a care package at the post office, or got online and saw that someone from home was available for a chat. This list could go on for quite some time...but I am ready to go home and start the next chapter.
Kapayapaan, Carrie

more recent pictures

o boy.

It's getting so close. I thought at this point I would be bounding out of bed in the morning, so excited to wrap things up and be on my merry little way back to the States. Instead, as my 5am rooster crows, I find myself wanting to just hide. I would so much rather disappear in the night than have all this attention that I am leaving, the goodbye parties, the gifts, etc. It's overwhelming. But Filipinos don't need an excuse to throw a party, so you can imagine what its like when they do have a reason. I'm knee deep in packing (how I have acquired all this stuff in two years is beyond me...my family and friends definitely win the award for most-consistent care-package-sending), visitors keep dropping by with goodbyes, well wishes, and gifts to take with me (no, i CANT TAKE MANGOES! i wish...), everyone in my neighborhood wants to know what I'm getting rid of and can i have it and are you REALLY throwing that away?? I want it! Let's factor in the fact that its upwards of 100 degrees, and every little face that asks me "Ate Carrie, uwi ka na? Kailan mabalik?" makes me have to fight back the tears.
Yes, you precious little things, I am leaving. And no, I'm probably not coming back. How do I say that? So I lie. Yes, maybe in 5 years....I tell them. But even if I do, the girls at my center will no longer be there, and they are the ones that are hardest to leave. Peace Corps' slogan is that it's "The toughest job you'll ever love". It's not tough to love. It's tough to leave.

the goodbye series: part 1

I hate them. Saying goodbye is one of my least favorite things to do, and i just had to say it to most of my peace corps friends. Last week was our COS(Close of Service) conference in Manila, which was a week-long lovefest with sessions about readjustment to life in the US, closure, reverse culture-shock, and LOTS of late nights. I am going to miss these exceptional people all so much, my heart hurts.

hiking mt. pinatubo

Over the weekend Sherry, Adam, and Pat came to my place to hike Mt. Pinatubo. Here's a little info about it, copied from wikepedia:
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, at the intersection of the borders of the provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Pampanga. Ancestral Pinatubo was a stratovolcano made of andesite and dacite. Before 1991, the mountain was inconspicuous and heavily eroded. It was covered in dense forest which supported a population of several thousand indigenous people, the Aeta, who had fled to the mountains from the lowlands when the Spanish conquered the Philippines in 1565.

The volcano's eruption in June 1991 produced the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century.[2] The 1991 eruption had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6, and came some 450-500 years after the volcano's last known eruptive activity (estimated as VEI 5, the level of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens), and some 500-1000 years after previous VEI 6 eruptive activity.[3] Successful predictions of the onset of the climactic eruption led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the surrounding areas, saving many lives, but as the surrounding areas were severely damaged by pyroclastic flows, ash deposits, and later, lahars caused by rainwater remobilizing earlier volcanic deposits, thousands of houses and other buildings were destroyed.[2]

The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10 billion metric tons of magma, and 20 million tons of SO2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and metals to the surface environment. It injected large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere—more than any eruption since that of Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone depletion increased substantially, but has since recovered.

Holy Week '08 - camping in Tublay

Holy week in the philippines is a spectacle of flagellants, pabasa, and men nailing themselves to crosses to reenact the crucifixion. Holy week also happens to fall during the most ridiculous heat of the year. So, this being our third year to experience this display of outlandish reverence, a bunch of us opted to go camping in the beautiful northern mountains of Tublay. We stayed at Sherry's host family's organic farm, helped out a little bit in the gardens, but mostly just hiked and hung out and cooked good food and enjoyed the cool, breezy weather (sweatshirts at night! crazy!)and solitude of the area. It was a bit of a last hurrah for some of us...we will all be together again at our COS conference in Manila in a few weeks, but this was a great opportunity for us to just chill and reflect on our adventures throughout the past 2 years here. I will be flying out on May 7th, so the counting of months has now become weeks, and the emotion of this experience coming to an end is beginning to overwhelm me.

swimming with whale sharks

Last weekend I flew down to Legazpi with Sherry to check out the whale sharks, or butanding as they are known by locals. There is a high concentration of whale sharks in Donsol during the months of February through May. Butanding are the worlds largest fish and can reach up to 40 feet long. They only feed on plankton and are completely docile, but because of their size, swimming alongside of them is a huge rush. Absolutely exhilarating. They are endangered because their meat and fins can fetch alot of money, so the local fishermen had all but killed off this beautiful creature in Sorsogon until 1997, when laws were passed to prevent the killing and sale of whale sharks. As an alternative livelihood for the fisherfolk of the area, there was a big ecotourism push and swimming with the whale sharks quickly became a popular tourist activity. All you have to do is rent a boat, guide, snorkle, and fins, and you are on your way. You put on your gear and sit on the side of the boat as the guide scouts the waters from up top; when he sees one he yells go and you all jump in the water and swim towards it. We saw several the day we were out, despite the rainy conditions (they are harder to spot when its cloudy), and Sherry and I swam alongside the same one for several minutes, close enough to touch it, until he whipped his tail (scared the crap out of us!)and took off. Here are some pics of the adventure:





Afterwards we visited our friends and environmental volunteers Jarod and Mariah, who possibly have the sweetest setup of any Philippines PCV. They live in the guesthouse of a renowned vulcanologist, who had his homes build on the beach, directly facing Mt. Mayon. Spectacular. They even have a nipa raft, which we swam out to with a bottle of wine to enjoy the sunset... What a weekend!