improvement

Improvement: This was a much better week in terms of volunteering.  Monday was a holiday; when I arrived on Tuesday around 9:30, Shiena already had a movie playing.  At least it was a kid appropriate movie and not all of the kids were interested in watching it.  For the most part though, Shiena wasn’t around and I was alone in the playroom with the kids and we had lots and lots of fun together.  The game that quickly became a favorite was a sort of tag/hide and seek in which the person doing the seeking also keeps their eyes partially closed.  I spent much of the time being “it” since I’m too big to find anywhere to hide.  By the end of the week, I had really bonded with the kids and can’t imagine not continuing to volunteer there.

I also think I understand the movie thing…not all of the kids come to the playroom.  Some are a bit old…some choose not to come for other reasons.  Playing movies gives them something to do other than sit on their beds all day.    At least, that’s what I think I’ve figured out.

By the way, everything I wrote above applies to the kids with cancer.  We sometimes allow kids from other wards into the play room.  But we don’t allow the two groups of kids to mix.  The cancer kids are immune suppressed due to their treatment so it’s not good to have them around other sick kids in such a small space.  When kids from other wards come in, there’s not as much for me to do….they’re often accompanied by their parents.  And because they don’t stay in the hospital as long, I don’t have time to get to know them like I do with the cancer kids.

Sir/Joe: Almost everyone here calls me “sir”.  I haven’t figured out yet if they do it with everyone or if it’s because I’m a foreigner.  Even people who are older than me call me “sir”.  And sometimes when people know my first name, they call me “sir Ed”.  The other thing I get sometimes is “Hey Joe”.  This is an expression in the Philippines that dates back (I think) to WWII, when the US helped liberate the Philippines from Japan (MacArthur’s famous line “I shall return” refers to the Philippines).  The Joe in this case refers to G.I. Joe.  Rather than being an insult, “Hey Joe” is an expression of appreciation for the US action in WWII.

National Anthem: Remember how in Thailand, before a movie, they played the national anthem along with a photo montage of the king?  Well they do the same thing here.  Minus, obviously, the photo montage of the Thai king.  Instead, the screen is blank.  I’m actually surprised that we don’t do this in the U.S.  Wonder why we do it before sporting events and a few other things but not movies?

Sneezes: Surprisingly, given that this is a Catholic/religious country, no one says anything when you sneeze.  Maybe I should start something and see if it catches on.  Any suggestions?

Finally some culture! (includes photos)

I’ve been starving for culture ever since leaving Mexico.  I was so spoiled there…especially in Oaxaca…where it seemed like there something going on every night (music, dance, parade, etc).  There was nothing like that when I was in Thailand.  And so far nothing in the Philippines.  Until this past week when they had the Kadayawan Festival in Davao.  This is a week long Indigenous People’s festival that they have every year in Davao.

I mainly went to two things…on Saturday there was a street dancing competition and then on Sunday there was a parade.  Photos of both events are below.  The first set of photos weren’t taken by me…I arrived at the street dancing only to find that my camera battery was dead.  Fortunately, I ran into a Korean guy who lives at my place and he shared his photos with me.

Street Festival:

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/446050.8427567dff9/editor

Parade:

http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/446109.77cb753ae04/editor

Volunteering Blues

Volunteering: Volunteering is hard.  Partially because you’re only going to be there short-term, it’s hard to know what your role is, and most places aren’t used to having someone who wants to volunteer full-time.  All this is a prelude to saying that I’m feeling frustrated by my volunteering and am going to look for another place.  Here are some of my specific challenges:

1) As I mentioned before, most of the kids speak little English. At least in Mexico, I could speak a little Spanish so I could communicate some with the kids.

2) My goal is to volunteer 30-40 hours a week but the woman I’ve been working with (Shiena) often doesn’t open the playroom till about 10 am, she then closes it around noon for lunch and then doesn’t re-open till 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  That gives me way too much free time and often I’m waiting around for her to text me that she’s opening it up.

3) Originally I thought I would plan some activities….but there’s very little structure…and you never have any idea which kids are coming to the playroom or how many.  So I’ve found that it’s impossible to plan anything.  So I often sit there trying to figure out what to do with kids who I can’t communicate with and who I may or may not have met before.

4) Many of the kids are incredibly shy.  Shyer than any kids I’ve ever met before.  I’m not sure why.  I’ve met other kids here who weren’t shy….maybe part of it is being in the hospital.  Whatever the reason, this adds another layer of complication in working with the kids.

5) The movie issue.  Several times, rather than trying to do something interactive with the kids, Shiena has simply played a movie.  The other day, I was in the play room by myself.  Shiena stopped by and said that a few kids wanted to watch a movie.  I said that was fine but if a movie was put on, I was going home for the day.  The next day, Shiena had a little talk with me and told me that we have to play movies for the kids because they don’t have a tv to watch in the ward.  And they get bored just reading and playing.  Now.  I certainly am aware that give the choice most kids will choose tv or movies over other options.  But that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.  And most kids will be fine if you actually try to engage them in something fun.  I made my case but it was clear that Shiena didn’t agree.  So she proceeded to put on a movie for the kids.  An incredibly violent movie that wasn’t even close to being appropriate for them to watch.  I sat there stunned, wondering how anyone could think this was a good choice.

What you don’t want to have happen in another country: I’ve decided to join a gym.  I have a bit of free time and would like to get into better shape.  So I bought some gym clothes and then went to the ATM to get some money for the gym membership fees.  There was a long line….I finally got to the ATM and after going through the steps was told that my transaction coulnd’t be processed.  So I went to another ATM.  Again waited in a long line.  Entered my pin number and was told that was the wrong pin.  Uh oh.  Now I’m starting to panic, wondering what the heck my pin number is.  Went to a 3rd ATM.   Again waited in a long line.  Tried a couple of other numbers.  Wrong and wrong again.  Since there was a long line behind me, I decided to leave and try again the next day.

Went home, racked my brain….now I’m pretty sure I remember it…go back the next day, try again….now my account is blocked because of my mistakes the prior day.  Ugh!  Called the number on the back of my card and got a message saying to call back during normal business hours, 9am-4:30pm, Monday-Friday, pacific coast time.  So I wait till 9am (1am my time…ugh!) and call.  And I run into a problem.  I’m calling through my computer and when it says to “press 1″ for problems with your ATM card, I press 1 on my computer and nothing happens.  I try and try and try and nothing happens.  I’m stuck.  So I look online and find another number.  I still have the same problem but eventually get forwarded to a live person.  I tell him the problem and he unblocks the card for me.  As I’m getting off the phone he says….”call back anytime, we’re here 24 hours a day.”  What???  Why did that other number tell me to call back during normal business hours.  You mean, I didn’t need to stay up till 1am to make the call???  Sigh…

Fortunately, when I went to the ATM the next day, my card was unblocked, I correctly entered my pin and I was able to get money out.  All’s well that ends well.

Communication problem?: The place I’m staying at has a few pots and pans for cooking.  But the other day, when I went to make lunch, they were all missing.  Which meant that lunch was a can of beans that I ate straight out of the can.  I really didn’t like these pots and pans anyway so I decided to buy one or two of my own.  I went to the mall, looked around and found one that I liked for 275 pesos.  But then I saw the same pan, as a set of two, with a sign that said, “Buy one, take one”.  Even better.

So I took the pans to the counter and they rang up at 550 pesos.  Hmmm.  I explained to the clerk that if one pan was 275 pesos, “buy one take one” should mean that 2 pans was 275 pesos also.  She didn’t seem to get it.  I talked to several other people at the store and they also didn’t seem to understand what I was saying.  I tried and tried and tried to explain that if one pan was 275 and 2 pans were 550 that wasn’t “buy one take one” and there was no point in having a sign.  I never did get them to understand what I was saying so evenutally I walked out empty handed.  I’m still perplexed….

I text…therefore I am…

Texting: Texting is a way of life here in the Philippines.  As I mentioned before, it’s much cheaper than calling.  Sending a text message costs about 2 cents whereas calling costs about 20 cents per minute.  Filipinos text a lot…invariably, if I send someone a message I get a reply within 5-15 minutes, no matter where they are or what they’re doing.  Sounds great…but there’s a downside.  Since they text back so quickly, it encourages me to do the same and the next thing I know, I’ve spent an hour or so, texting back and forth.  Sometimes, I turn off my cell phone, just to get away from spending my whole day texting.  But even this can have ramifications….I’ve actually had people text me and say “where are you…why haven’t you responded to my text” after 15 minutes of silence from me.

OFWs: Did you realize that 10% of Filipinos live outside of the country?  That’s quite a large percentage for a country that is a series of islands.  You can’t just hop on a train or a bus to get to another country.  So why so many?  First off, the Philippines is a very poor country and people can earn more in another country than they can here.  Combine that with the fact that people speak English and it becomes quite easy for them to find employment abroad.  They then take the extra money that they earn and send it back to support their families.  There’s even an entire government office in the Philippines devoted to supporting the OFWs (Overseas Foreign Workers).  Already, at the hosptital, I’ve met a couple of physical therapists and a doctor that are trying to move to the US.  Nursing happens to be a very popular subject to study here for both men and women because there’s a demand for nurses in lots of countries.  Of course, there is a downside….it tends to be the better educated people who leave the country and as a result the Philippines is experiencing a “brain drain”.

questions

Questions:

I get asked a lot of questions here.  These are some of the of the typical ones…

1) Where are you from?  An easy one.  I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I’m an American.

2) Are you here for business or pleasure?  This leads me to telling them about my volunteering.

3) Are you Catholic?  The Philippines is a Catholic country and potentially the most religious country in the world.  A newspaper article recently detailed the results of a survey from 1998.  On questions having to do with religion (do you believe in God, is there a heaven, is your religion the only correct religion, etc), the Philippines scored 1st or 2nd on every question.  There were a few question in which Chile was slightly higher; on other questions, the Philippines had a large lead over other countries.  The one caveat to this is that the survey only included 30 countries.  So it’s certainly possible that there are countries that are more religious than the Philippines.

4) Are you a missionary? This one comes up in response to telling people about my volunteering.

5) Do you have a friend here? This is code word for girlfriend (i.e., a filipino girlfriend).  Lots of foreigners come here looking for brides.  I’m certainly open to dating someone while I’m here.  Most people, though, assume that I already have a “friend” and are surprised to here that I don’t.

6) Do you sing?  Filipinos love to sing and supposedly are quite good at it.  Karaoke is huge here as it is throughout Asia.

What time is it? Filipinos are notorious for being late.  This might be the result of the Spanish influence since people in Spain, Mexico, and South America are similarly notorious.  The way people deal with it here is by putting their watches ahead 15-30 minutes.  Even the clocks in shops and businesses are set ahead.  I have no idea how anyone knows what the real time is.  And if you set your watch ahead….don’t you know that? I don’t understand how that helps you be on time.

Divorce: Did you know that there are only two countries in the world that don’t allow divorce.  Malta is one.  And since I’m posting this while being in the philppines, I’m sure you can figure out the other one.  Kind of surprising isn’t it?  The Catholic church is very powerful here and has blocked any attempts to legalize divorce.  People can get legally separated or annul the marriage. Those are the only two options.  Even if you’re not Catholic, you’re not allowed to get divorced.

Corruption: Corruption is an accepted way of life in many poorer countries.  It’s unfortunately one of the reasons why these countries have a difficult time making progress.  Here in the philippines, there are apparently no political parties, there are only wealthy families who buy their way into power and then find ways to bring other family members into power.  Vote buying is quite rampant.  Some of it is “subtle”…bring a bunch of rice to a poor village and tell the people to remember you on election day.  Other is more overt…people actually get paid by bringing in their stub to prove that they voted for a particular candidate.  And politicians often expect to get kickbacks for performing their normal duties.  A Korean company was planning on making a massive investment in the philippines….but the local mayor wanted a cut of the investment in exchange for his approval….the Koreans got tired of being “shook down” by the mayor so they cancelled the project.  Kind of sad….