Potential Projects?

Well I have less than a week left here before I go home for the holidays and I am still scrambling to find a project to do for next year. I've spoken with several 'higher-ups' here about prospects and think there's definitely things that could turn into a solid manuscript for me. The doc here that is in charge of the clinical microbiology has some ideas about analyzing the drug susceptibility of M tuberculosis strains over the past several years in Vitoria, so that might be it.

In other news, they have decided to move the Christmas extravaganza to next week, which means I will not be able to partake in the festivities. I still need to go buy some sort of wrapping for the gift I bought my 'secret friend' and also write a speech. It's unfortunate that I won't get to go, I've heard that it's a really good time. I'm still having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit here when I'm continually sweating like crazy under the intense heat, although there are a few houses that have put some lights up. There's also a quaint fake Christmas tree placed by the entrance to the 'Nucleo' that occasionally emits some cheer.

I have to mention something strange that happened last night. Some random guy with a gas mask was out spraying the sidewalks with some unknown chemical. Smoke filled the street and wafted into our apartment. Fearing a terrorist attack I ran to find my roommates to advise them of the threat. When they were nowhere to be found I ran outside, only to encounter the house owner lounging with her family while the smoke drifted overhead. So I guess it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Finally, there are only two days left to have the lab techs here become pros at the BioNumerics software, I've been working with them over the past week and they seem to be getting it quite quickly. Other than that things are slow and laid back around here as usual, I'm alone right now in my section of the lab. I have no idea where people sometimes disappear off to in the middle of the day. Until next time, wish me luck in the 100 degree heat!

Battle Wounds

Well not really, but I did scrape my knee. Paint ball was awesome, it took place on an old football field with abandoned cars and tires everywhere. The guys I played with were pretty intense and clearly came ready to go to war. My one big complaint is that the camo suits they had for us to wear were wet and smelled awful. I almost vomited when I caught a whiff of the vest as I pulled it over my head. The masks were disgusting as well, covered with old paint and sweat.

I had to carefully pay attention to the safety briefing as it was totally in Portuguese, and I didn't want to be that guy who pisses everyone off by doing something stupid. All in all it was a great experience, I got some really nice shots in, including nailing some people on their unprotected hands. Right now I'm about to go downtown to clear up some issues with my ticket from Victoria to Rio, need to sign off. Will put some more on later.

Doente

Doente means sick in Portuguese, and thanks to one of my roommates, is the state I currently find myself in. I knew I was in trouble as I heard him hacking up his lungs every night over the past week, and sure enough I too started to feel some gunk building up in my throat. Luckily it isn't too severe, and I'm already feeling my body process it.

In other news I showed some of the people from the lab here how to use a software package to analyze gel photos. I struggled through it in Portuguese but I think that they all got the gist of it. Over the next week I'm going to have to spend time with each person individually to make sure they understand all the nuances of the program. That was pretty much the big event of the week here. Other than that I've been going to some nice places for lunch, although the whole white rice thing here is getting on my nerves, I still don't want to see that stuff after my experience in the Philippines.

Today is a semi holiday here in the Nucleo, people are cleaning up their labs or just surfing the web. As such not too much for me to do, I'll probably go check out the hospital in the afternoon, wander around and see what's up. Tomorrow I'm going paintballing with some people from the lab. Apparently it's in a big warehouse, so I'm looking forward to that action. I'm off to go read some articles in the library, until next time.

Catch Up

How quickly I've managed to fall behind... So now the whole TB protocol is looking unlikely due to problems with NIH (National Institutes of Health) approval woes. This is unfortunate since it was looking like it was going to turn into some sort of deliverable for me by the end of my time here in Brasil. All hope is not lost, people are checking into it to see what could have gone wrong, we'll see.

The weekend went by quite slow. I made some plans with people to go out and play paintball, but since I don't have a phone they had no way of getting in touch with me. It rained all day Saturday, which meant I spent most of the day reading and perusing archaic web sites. Sunday I took my usual beach trip and stopped by the mall. I considered seeing a movie but I would have had to wait two hours, so I nixed that proposal. I'm starting to get pretty anxious about returning, less than 3 weeks to go.

This morning I passes by a stray dog on my way to the lab. After a few minutes of coaxing he finally came up to me and I scratched behind his ears for a while. I couldn't help but think of how here in Vitoria they pick up stray dogs and use them at the hospitals for the students to practice surgery on. Here was this cool dog that was going to be tortured by some clueless kid trying to take out his kidney. This practice has been phased out in some parts of Brasil, but not here. Then upon my arrival I watched while one of the technicians began to sacrifice some of the rats that were no longer needed. This consisted of dumping them into a jar filled with alcohol and watching them suffocate. Needless to say not the most pleasant way to start a week.

Right now I need to work on preparing a presentation to teach some of the people here how to use an analytical software package. It has to be in Portuguese, so wish me luck.

Rainy Tuesday

Chuva (rain), and lots of it. Since Sunday it has been off and on, which makes traveling to and from places interesting. This week has started off pretty nice, a lot of meetings to iron out the details of the Tuberculosis trial. I've also attended a conference on a new HIV protocol and a journal review club meeting. I feel more responsibilities coming way which is good and bad. Good in that it keeps me busy, and bad for the same reason. Although I can't stand having nothing to do, so the current situation is definitely preferred.

Just got back from a churrascaria/buffet place with awesome food. Both time I've gone there I ate way too much, but I just can't resist all the tasty options available (one of these, two of those, etc). A meeting is about to start in 10 minutes, some more combing through the protocols of the TB project, hopefully it won't last till 6 again. I'm starting to enter a food coma, maybe I should consider having some of that motor oil that they call coffee here, no I suppose I'm not that desperate. Peace

Weekend Updates

Hey everyone (and by 'everyone' I mean the two or three people who actually read this), welcome to another glimpse into my life here in Vitoria, Brasil. I'll start with the events from last Friday. I spent some time talking to a doctor that is here from the New Jersey Medical School about a Tuberculosis project he is preparing. After about two hours of going over all the specifics I was impressed and eager to lend a hand in this endeavor. The essential goal is a common one in the Infectious Disease world, why are certain strains of TB more virulent than others, specifically what is it about their genetic makeup that gives them an edge in causing disease in humans. Here in Brasil TB is a huge and ongoing problem, especially as resistance rates to antibiotics are on the rise.

The major stumbling point in this study will be in the data gathering portion. The medical care infrastructure here is good, but it's not like the US. Care givers working in the affiliated hospitals of Greater Vitoria have been known to not collect all the data that they should. With a project of this magnitude it is going to be critical to gather all the requisite data from all the patients enrolled, and it must be accurate in order not to screw up the subsequent statistical analysis work. In other words, it will mainly be an issue of quality control. If done properly, this study has the potential to really elucidate some genetic areas of interest in the M. tuberculosis genome that could lead to new, more effective drugs. My goal during the time I'm here is to organize a write up of the pilot study that is about to launch and submit it to a peer reviewed journal. I'm really excited that an opportunity for a deliverable during my time here has finally sprung up.

In other news, on Saturday I went with some of the people from the 'Nucleo' to beach in Vila Velha. I was very impressed with the scene there, far more beautiful than the beaches in Vitoria. There were also some impressive waves that managed to batter me against the ocean floor. The rip tide was quite strong so I had to be careful not to be sucked out to sea. Afterwards we went to a bar and had numerous cervejas (beers) along with a famous brazilian seafood stew, 'moqueca'. It was quite an extravaganza of food and drinks, which lead to a long nap upon my arrival back at the house.

Sunday was very laid back. I was hoping to go to the samba school but plans for that seem to have fallen through. This weeklooks to bring some more exciting developments, I'll let you all know. Peace

Happy Thanksgiving!

My first Thanksgiving away from home with no turkey and pumpkin pie, definitely a shift in tradition. It was a little rough getting up this morning as last night I went out with some people in the lab to watch the Brasil v Uruguay futebol match. Plenty of beers and other alcoholic drinks were provided along with meat and french fries. The game began at 9:45 so as one can imagine it was a late night.

Today I spent some time in the Leshmania lab getting to know the routine there. They are doing experiments to see which drugs are more effective at killing the parasite that is known to cause a lot of problems here in Brazil. I can't begin to explain how difficult it is to learn from people when you can only understand about 75% of what they're saying, I constantly feel like I'm missing important points. Reading over the protocols does help, although these are often in Portuguese as well. It looks like I'll be spending tomorrow and most of next week in the Leshmania lab learning as much as I can; I've also gotten in touch with one of the docs in the research clinic to see about tagging along with him for awhile.

I still have no idea what kind of project I'm going to initiate come next year. I still need to find a few physicians to shadow within the hospital system here, preferably get out and see even more clinics. Keeping myself busy while I'm here is beginning to seem like a surmountable task, as opposed to my first weeks here where I was just feeling like total dead weight. Only a couple weeks till I'm out of here for Christmas, time flies.

Thanks Eve

Well it's Wednesday, and as they say Wednesday's a work day. I just found out that an article I submitted to the Journal of Clinical Microbiology has been accepted, which is quite cool. After painstakingly looking at some gel pictures here I realized how much this lab needs some analytical software to facilitate the process. Apparently they have ordered BioNumerics, essentially the gold standard of comparing/analyzing/cleaning gel pictures. So that will give me something to do once the software gets in, as it's a complex package that requires a lot of time to learn. I've used it a few times before but don't remember it very well.

Wow, I'm boring myself just writing this stuff. Last night it rained hard off and on, which helped to keep the temperature down a little bit but I was still sweating it out. I'm tired of waiting around for my supervisors who seem to hardly ever be here, so after I write this I'm going to head over to the research clinic and see what's going on over there. I'd also like to hang with one of my med school roommates for a day and see what that system is like here in Brazil.

As the title says it is the day before turkey day, here it will be nothing special. Only one more month until Christmas time. I still can't get over this weather this time of year, I mean it's summer here! Nothing like cruising around the beach then going into a shopping center to be surrounded by Christmas decorations. All for now.

Trials of a an extranjeiro

I spent all yesterday morning on a scavenger hunt to gather all the items necessary to register with the federal police department here in Brazil. I needed two color 3x4 photos, notarized copies of my passport and visa, home and business addresses in Vitoria, two tax forms filled out and then paid at a federal bank, and another completed form. It was pretty funny getting the pictures, I went to some place that was for people getting headshots to launch their acting careers or something similar. The dressed me up in a black shirt to match my hair and then put makeup on me, I was like come on I'm just doing this for the visa form.

Next stop was the police station itself, which is a good thirty minute drive from the Nucleo. The passport office was packed, but luckily I was the only foreigner there to register. I got stuck with some incredibly rude, arrogant jerk who 'assisted' me in processing all the forms. Then I got fingerprinted seventeen times like a common criminal before finally getting out of there an hour or so later. It wasn't pretty, but I'm glad to have all that stuff done. Had I not finished all those steps yesterday, they would have begun charging me 80 reais per day, craziness.

So that was yesterday in a nutshell. I've also been talking to people around here about new schemes for identifying mycobacteria species, especially about getting some computer software to assist in this endeavor. The problem is that most of the programs out there are quite expensive, and this lab operates under very limited resources. I'm also going to help one of the guys here with a paper he's writing in English, so we'll see how that turns out. Next week the tentative plans are to work a little in the Leshmania lab. We're about to start a meeting now, must be off.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Invaded

Am I back in the Philippines all of a sudden? After a series of downpours over the past few days suddenly my room started to become overrun with cockroaches on wings. It reminded me of an episode back at the Mapa School that was also triggered by rain. The little buggers were everywhere last night, and as I exterminated them the ants would come out to feast on their remains. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. The problems continue tonight as I write this, as those that escaped my wrath have evolved into an even more disgusting bug and keep popping up. I suppose I could have closed off my windows and sealed my door, but with no AC it's just plain too hot for that to be a viable option.

Enough about the bug problem. The holiday was really laid back, went to the beach and shopping Vitoria a few times. Did some reading, studied Portuguese, medical terminology, watched movies, ate at more self service restaurants. I was hoping to do something a little more adventurous, but there's always future vacations to look forward to. One of my roommates had his girlfriend over while the other has been cramming for a big exam this week, so neither of them really did anything. But in all it was good to kick back and not have to worry about anything. Well, I do still have to sort out this registration with the police business, so I'm sure that will take up all day tomorrow.

This is the first Thanksgiving week in a long time that I won't be at home with my family. Of course, Thanksgiving is not celebrated here in Brazil, so there will be no turkey dinners for me. I'll have to make up lost time once Christmas rolls around. Speaking of Christmas and the shopping season, I've learned never to buy any locally made technological items, they never work! Luckily they weren't all that expensive so I'm not too upset. The imported electrical stuff here is insanely expensive, I can't understand why it is this way.

I found a nice spot on the beach over by where Shopping Vitoria is. It is relatively quiet, and has a nice view of all the oil platforms out at sea. There's some pull up bars that I like to use while I'm there, got to keep in shape somehow. Well I'm tired, and I have to arise early tomorrow. I'll be sure to post more updates.

Feriados!

Well it's a holiday here in Brazil, meaning no work today and tomorrow. Tried to make plans for scuba diving which kind of fell through. I think I'll spend most of the time at the beach, maybe even venture out to try and find some surfing. Of course there will be plenty of chilling time in the apartment. My roommates are quite skilled at chilling on days off, they both typically sleep in until early afternoon. I've never been one to sleep in, so I typically get up and do some things, get breakfast, and wait for their arisal. Once they do get up we typically grab lunch at one of the cafes nearby. For the rest of the day I'm typically on my own as they either watch TV, sleep, or work/study. This isn't that big of a problem since I'm becoming more familiar with how to get around, especially with the buses. Today I hit up the beach, got a nice jog, and did some pull ups on the equipment they had set up over there. Afterwards I went over and bought a pair of sunglasses, since the ones I bought here broke (long, embarrassing story). The guys there asked if I spoke English (am I that obvious?). Pretty interesting conversation, it's rare to find people here that can speak some English.

Yesterday I tried to take care of some business with the federal police station (all foreigners are required to register with them). So I had a document that said all I needed was my passport. Alas, when I went there, they kindly informed me of the 5,000 documents I would need to bring them, as well as all the money they needed to be paid. Typical government BS to fill their coffers, it's no wonder the foreign tourism industry here is not booming, it's tough to get a Visa and then they put you through all this hassle once you get here. I'd be interested in finding out how the US handles such matters. I do know that if you are from Iraq, Iran, or N Korea, there is no way you're going to get a visa to the US. My math teacher was kicked out of the country because he was Iranian. Thus I'm not condemning the system here, just analyzing it for comparison's sake.

Right now I'm jamming to some Brazilian country music, some good tunes. Pretty tired today, I must admit I really enjoy sleeping without worrying about waking up early. I'll probably do some reading, play some guitar, then turn in, fan on me full blast of course. I'm quite hungry now, no snack foods at the moment though... I did get some ice cream, although I must say I'm not impressed. Food items this country earns my highest rating for: meats and bread.
Till next time.

Hello?

Arrived at the office around 8:40 this morning, totally abandoned. For the next 30 minutes I was by myself. I don't understand why I was told to get here around 8:30, no one is ever here at that time. Anyway, I don't think much will be going on today, we're not starting the new protocol since most of the people here are busy taking some test on pathology. As for me, it looks like another day of studying up on TB, and wandering around the nucleo seeing if anyone is up to something. I think I'm going to chat with Reynaldo today to talk about some things and maybe arrange some hospital time.

Yesterday we went to lunch at this shopping mall area. The restaurant we went to sucked but everyone seemed to be all riled about it. I tried to order a customized salad off the menu but the waitress could not fathom that I wanted to order such a thing. She was only programmed to except a few orders that most everyone got when they went there, so it took about 10 minutes to get my order through. The rest of the day was slow, I went to the library for a little while, talked to some of the nurses, and left at about 5.

One of my roommates, Gustavo, just arrived. Now they're talking about the prove (test) they are supposed to turn in today. Things are starting to come alive now that it's 10 AM, I guess I'll go check it out.

Office Blues

Well it's Monday here in the Nucleo de Doencas Infecciosas. Pretty much a skeleton crew here right now, I'm never really sure where everyone is around here. The labs seem empty most of the time, and when I'm in the office I'm typically alone. Not a lot going on today, supposedly tomorrow we're starting up a new protocol for the species differentiation of mycobacteria, so that should bring some activity. I've read up on the relevant journal article, seems pretty straightforward. I'll be interested to check out their molecular biology equipment here. I'm sure it's nice, this place is about up to the standards of a moderately-funded lab in the US.

I'm worried about being able to get a project started here in a timely fashion. Still really struggling with the language, and I want to feel like I'm contributing something. I don't want to get in the way but at the same time I'm like, 'hey, give me stuff to do.' But be careful what you wish for, as they say. So little goes on here in a given day, I'd like to venture outside this lab and spend some time in hospitals, clinics, and see more of the country. Maybe I'll talk to Reynaldo and see if this can arranged.

The pace of life here really gets to me, people seem to be in slow motion. The supermarket is the worst, it takes an eternity to get through the lines there. It is the most inefficient system I've ever seen, and no one seems to mind the fact that it takes a good 20 minutes to get through the checkout line. And then there's the public transportation system, ie the onibus. I hate taking the buses, you typically have to wait 30-40 minutes for one to show up. What baffles me is that people will wait this long when their destination is a 15 minutes walk away. And another thing, they eat pizza here with ketchup! For some reason the pizzas here don't have tomato sauce, what is that!?! Just another interesting cultural difference I guess. OK time to maybe find something to do. Currently reading through a huge textbook on TB to get a head start on med school material. Also I've got a book of crosswords. Did I mention I hate crosswords?

Update after hiatus, begin Brazil chronicle

Wow, it's been quite a long hiatus for me. I'll give everyone a quick catch up. I flew back into the states in early August, and after a quick stopover in NYC I headed home to Simpsonville, KY. After spending a week with my family I went back to Durham, NC to finish up some things. From August 10 - September 10 I pretty much just studied for the MCAT and wrapped up a manuscript that I submitted to the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Then I went back to Simpsonville where I spent the next month finishing up med/business school applications, doing a few interviews, and preparing for my next international trip. Let me just say getting my Visa was a huge hassle, I had to submit every kind of documentation you could imagine, all notarized of course. I got it by FedEx Saturday delivery the day before my flight, talk about cutting it close.

I'm now here in Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil. I've been here since October 22 and so far I am enjoying it. The language barrier is tough, it's all Portuguesee, very few people speak English. While I did do some work with Rosetta Stone before coming here, I'd say I was really under prepared for the communication. I'm learning quickly however, as I'm constantly immersed in the language. The weather here is hot, as it's just about to get into the summer time. A nice breeze constantly comes off the ocean which helps keep this place from feeling like an oven. The heat is certainly nothing next to the Philippines. I mean my room has a clean floor, reliable electricity, and a fan! Certainly an upgrade in living conditions.

My purpose is basically to learn as much as possible about the operation of the Infectious Diseases Center that is set up here. At the beginning of next year I hope to initiate a project and have some sort of deliverable by the time I leave in early June. These first couple of weeks have mainly been a lot of orientation, getting to know people, the customs, and the layout of the land. I must say I enjoy the food here, a lot of really good meat and bread. All the people are very friendly, and patient with my struggles to become more comfortable with the language. I've joined a local gym (academia), quite the challenge that was. There are a couple of bread places and a supermarket nearby where I get most of my food items. Right now we are lacking an oven and a microwave, so I pretty much just always get something from around the house.

I'll start posting here fairly regularly from now on to chronicle things, it will be more of a day to day format as before. Thanks for checking it out.

Steven: Wednesday July 25

Only two days left here at the school. I know I’ve already mentioned this but I’m definitely going to miss a lot of the people here. Both the kids and the staff have taught me so much about their culture, especially how easy it is to make good friends despite the huge differences. Not to mention all the sign language and Visayan I’ve learned, even though I'm not sure how I’m going to keep practicing that when I get home.

I spent some time today teaching the scheduled performance songs to Joseph and Jade. I think they’ve just about got them down, and I bet they will stun the crowd with their performance. We’re working on getting the kids involved by singing the choruses, so that will be the main task over the next day or so. I was hoping to teach them a dance but I think that it would take more time than I have. I definitely want to have another ‘dance party night’ with everyone to give them some tips on how to dance to other styles of music. Filipinos definitely love music, which is great except for one hideous institution that drives me crazy, karaoke. Everywhere I go people are doing karaoke, and 99.9999999% of the time it’s very bad and very annoying. Do they really need to turn the volume way up on those things? Anyway I digress. Apparently a puppet show is scheduled for this Friday as well, so I’m curious to see how that turns out.

It’s been really hot up here in the mountains lately, yet as usual Jade doesn’t seem to mind it and can pass out in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile I sit there in a sweat just waiting for morning to come. It seems like the animals have gotten wind of my imminent departure, as we’ve been having an unusual amount of visitors lately. Last night the rats and gekkos were causing quite a ruckus. A big spider also crawled into my bag, I guess he wanted to go check out my crib.

Before I sign off I wanted to address something I said in an earlier entry. I had voiced concern over why Tom and Diane did not admit kids under 9 to the school. I feel I should clarify that the school here is intended as a second chance school for dropouts. It’s not meant to compete with regular public schools, Tom and Diane have no problem if kids want to go to their barangay’s school. Basically Mapa addresses the need for an educational institution for kids passed up by the government school system.

Tomorrow I think we'll get a final round of basketball versus the local MAPA pro team. Hopefully we can pull it together so the teachers don't end up losing money again.

Steven: July 23

So here we are, our last week at the school. These past few weeks have been a lot of fun with the staff and the students. T-bone, some of the staff, and I have gotten several intense games of b-ball versus the local pro team. Although we have yet to take home a victory we’ve had some good games despite the cheap play of our opponents. Before the games we take a run up this really steep hill leading to the concrete court, which probably is not a good idea since it significantly drains us.

All the students speak to me in Visayan now, I’m sure they enjoy it when I have no idea what they’re saying, but I’m learning. Also over the weekend the kids had a quiz bowl. The competition was intense and saw many heated intellectual battles covering nutritional topics. Afterwards they had a dance party which was pretty hilarious. They put on really loud techno music and proceeded to go crazy, you really just had to be there.

I’ve also taken some time to enjoy the island a little more. I went for scuba dive #2 this past weekend right around White Island. I saw some amazing coral formations along with a nice stingray just to name a few of the sights. Then I took a mountain bike ride around most of the island. Every five seconds some locals would shout something to me. It’s going to be odd to go home and not be treated like a spectacle anymore, but alas.

In other news it’s still hot, all this nonsense about a rainy season cooling things off is false. Today when we walked up to the school my shirt was soaked through with sweat, a nice thick blanket of wet, hot air was the culprit. Although some rain finally did come through the mountains today, but it stopped a little while ago and now it’s just hot again. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that the tropics is simply not somewhere I’d want to live for a long time, cold weather is definitely preferable.

I’m a little worried about training the performers for the show at the end of the week. We’ve agreed on three songs and a dance. I suppose I’ll play guitar, but I doubt anyone else, especially the kids, actually has the lyrics memorized. Then for the dance I still need to teach them a ton of steps… Well last minute is typically when I get everything done so maybe I shouldn’t be worrying. Tonight a huge spider decided to crawl into my bag, and then some gekkos stopped by to stare at me from my ceiling, and I heard some rats behind the dresser again. I think it’s fair to say there are certain things I won’t miss about my nepa hut up here in the mountains. Yet I certainly will miss the unique people I've met here at the school during my time here.

Trevor: Sunday, July 22, 2007

As we were walking down to the main road from the school on Friday, Steve brought to mind the fact that we have only 5 more weekdays at the school. We'll be leaving the Philippines in roughly a week and a half. It seems like just yesterday that we were making the sweaty trek up the hill to Mapa for the first time, yet at the same time, I feel like we've been here forever. Those two sentiments may seem directly conflicting; it's certainly a strange feeling overall.

This week, there was a mild "disturbance" near the grade 5/6 classroom (ie a strong smell of animal feces), so we merged the class with grade 4 for the day. Both classes have speech during the first period in the afternoon, and together with Wilvin and Jennebeth, I came up with an idea for a vowel-sound competition. We wrote a poem on the board, and each group of 6 students tried to write down all of the words that contained each vowel sound. The group that found the most words won. It got pretty intense, especially after we announced that the winning group would receive extra credit on their next quiz. It seems like the students don't get the opportunity to learn much "outside of the book." Activities where they get to apply what they learn from the textbook seem to really spark their interest.

This weekend, I've been back down at the house, working on the topic lists for the curriculum. Last night, Tom and Diane went to one of the resorts nearby to meet with some old friends, and Steve was at Paras, so I was at the house with Jomar, a grade 6 student who comes down to help at the house on weekends. He's one of the brightest students at the school, and we threw a baseball around, watched Back to the Future on TV, and we got to talk a little bit about what he wants to do after he leaves Mapa. One regret I have is not having been able to bond more on an individual basis with the students. It's very difficult, because while they have an informal relationship with the teachers, Steve and I are constantly referred to as "Sir," and the kids are really shy about speaking English with us. I've joked with Tom and Diane that I'll have to get my little brother to start calling me "Sir Trevor" when I get back to the US. But perhaps most importantly, I was able to get a student's perspective on the English curriculum by talking to Jomar about which teaching techniques helped him and which didn't.

Well it's back to work on the topic lists, but I'll be sure to check in a few more times before we leave.

Steven: July 14

Only a little more than two weeks left here! It's hard to believe the summer has gone by so fast. T-bone and I just returned from an interesting visit to Cagayan de Oro. We managed to somehow get our visas extended after paying a hefty fee of about 60 US dollars. They certainly like to gouge the foreigners for they're worth over here, so be forewarned potential travelers. Although to be fair many places are like this too, it's merely the driving principle behind a healthy tourism industry. Otherwise we got some DVD movies in this subterranean Muslim-run shady boutique, waited with a swarm of people at the Cebu Pacific ticketing office, saw a movie at the local 'mall', and got a cheap 'Hobble-Hobble' ride back to Tom and Diane's that was the highlight of the trip (minus the hot ash flying into my eyes, apparently the entire population decides to burn random crap at around 5 in the afternoon).

On another front stuff at the school is going well, I've been spending time with Joseph and the Grade 1 math students. The class has essentially been split between those that have a clue as to what's going on, and those who still can't count. There are definitely a couple of bright kids in the class though who catch on to all the topics very fast, luckily they often help out and teach the others. I've given all the teachers the achievement tests from the public schools for math, and later I will give them the ones for Science, Filipino, and Makabayan (history, music, and art). T and I also picked up some new math and english books in CDO. They look very promising, well-laid out with sample tests for the teachers to use. They might be a little more expensive than previous books have been so we'll see what they decide.

T and I just got back from going to this tree house attraction here on Camiguin. Very cool sculptures and paintings covered every surface of the place, definitely worth seeing.
Oh I also got some bad food poisoning while in CDO. So one of the few nights I'm in a nice room with A/C I spend clutching the bathroom toilet, oh well. If you're ever in CDO be wary of the chorizo, that's all I'll say about that. Now I must be off, many things to be done
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Trevor: Sunday, July 15, 2007

Posing in front of Jollibee

The past week has been pretty eventful, and it seems that as our time in the Philippines winds down, the things that we have yet to see and do somehow become more numerous.

This week, we caught the edge of the tropical depression that passed its way through East Asia. There wasn't very much rain, but the winds were almost scary in their intensity. Wilvin left the school during the week to attend his Grandmother's funeral, and so I was left alone to brave the storm in our sleeping quarters. Ok, so maybe it wasn't that bad, but it's pretty incredible to see the trees outside the window bent far over due to the wind. It was nice and cool, but it was difficult to sleep because of the nipa leaves that kept falling from the roof onto the bed. I woke up many times during the night to brush leaves off of the pillow.

Because Wilvin was gone for two days, I was able to take over his grade 5/6 language class. Teaching common and proper nouns was an interesting experience, especially because I've had to re-learn much of the grammar material myself. Actually thinking about what each word means and their relationships to each other in sentences isn't something that I do on a regular basis. However, I think my points came across well, as the kids seem to pick up the material without much problem.

This weekend, Steve and I went to Cagayan to extend our visas. The ferry ride was quite rough, and I felt a bit queasy afterwards, so I just slept on the bus ride. We went straight to the Department of Immigration office, just as they closed for a two hour lunch break. We were pretty dismayed, as we had donned close-toed shoes and long pants specially for the occasion (you are not admitted otherwise). We ate lunch and then returned, and finally received our visa extensions. While in Cagayan, we also changed our return tickets as well as saw a movie at the mall near our hotel. The size of the move theaters here boggles my mind, they're easily twice as large as those in the US. We also stopped by Jollibee, a national institution of a fast food restaurant which seems to be perpetually crowded, regardless of the time of day.

Sleeping in an air conditioned room was nice, but it was actually too cold at nighttime. Could I be getting used to the climate? It's unthinkable. On the way back from Cagayan, the bus ride and the ferry trip were uneventful, but as we struggled onto land, we discovered that the motorella and jeepnee drivers were trying to overcharge us for the trip back to Tom and Diane's house. So we decided to jump on the back of a "habel habel" (read: motorcycle). On one motorcycle, there were was driver, Steve and I, along with two backpacks and a box of textbooks that we had purchased in Cagayan. It was a new experience, but is far from one that I would like to experience again.

When we got back to the house, it was almost dinner time, and a bunch of the teachers had come down to spend the night. There's a sense of family that pervades Tom and Diane's relationship with all of the people they work with on Camiguin.

This morning, Tom took us to Enigmata, which is a treehouse, built in a huge acacia tree by a local artist. It's a very unique home, and seemingly every surface in the house is decorated, down to the toilet seats.

As Steve and I look back at the month and a half of time we've spent here and the two weeks we have remaining, we can't fathom just how fast this summer has passed.

Steven: July 10th

Well I'm back after an unprecedented leave of absence from blogging. Much has transpired since my last entry, so allow me to bring you all up to speed.

Lately T-bone and I have been playing some hoops with a few of the teachers. We sprint up this steep hill to a concrete court, or the battlefield, then the games begin. I enjoy the competition, although I can tell the Filipinos get frustrated at my height and see it is an unfair advantage. Afterwards sometimes we get some young coconuts back at the school. Downing the sweet coconut water after sweating off five lbs in the hot tropical sun is quite an experience.

My sign language ability has been growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to the assistance of all the great teachers up here. Anirose has been especially helpful to me, frequently quizzing me with mercilessness. In return I quiz her on the Spanish language, which she is quickly learning.

Wildlife continues to be a constant source of entertainment. The other night when I got into the shower there was a nice, big toad in there with me. Jade Emperor told me it was harmless but then later corrected himself and said it might be poisonous... Big spiders are the main nuisance in my sleeping quarters, ants aren't that much of a problem at the school (unless you leave something with sugar out).

The other day, as aforementioned, Trevor and I gave a rousing talk about nutrition. I thought it went over fairly well, with some talk about things like physical fitness and natural herbs. My favorite part of the ceremony was the parade at the beginning. T-bone put on some music and the kids started to get their dance swerve on. At then end we were presented with a certificate and some deluxe T-shirts that will certainly see some serious wear back in the states. Although mine is a little tight (mind you it's and XL by Filipino standards).

I've been having a lot of fun teaching guitar to Joseph (a teacher) and the kids. They are all very eager to learn about the instrument, especially when it comes to playing pop songs. Most of the songs they like I am not familiar with but I've downloaded a few and will start to teach them not that I can listen to them. I think it would be great to put on a concert before Trevor and I leave disembark early next month.

Speaking of leaving. It's funny how when I first got here all I could think about was going home. Now I actually don't want to leave and know it will be extremely hard to say goodbye. It's such a simple life right now and surrounded by people whose company I enjoy. I'll definitely have to plan a return visit before the end of the year.

In other news, last Thursday night we had a swarm of flying termites invade the school buildings. Inexplicably, some of the kids decided to feast upon the creatures. Upon inquiry, I was told that they tasted like 'milk'. OK, well I seriously doubt that but they seemed to really enjoy eating the little guys. I politely declined the cuisine.

Finally, I managed to get the achievement test for grades 1-6 in science and math. So I'll be going over those as well as getting them to the teachers. This way they'll have an easy way to gauge what they're doing against what the public schools here on the island are doing. Maybe they can even adapt the tests and administer them to the kids at the school as a diagnostic tool.
The tests certainly need some revisions though, as some of the questions are esoteric and/or nonsensical.

Thanks for continuing to read the site. Feel free to ask me any questions.

Trevor: Sunday, July 8, 2007

Tom and Diane's Jeep (the vehicle for patient visits)

Showing off the Department of Health's vision statement

Two little girls at one of the patients' houses

Nutrition Month kick-off

This week, it's really started to rain. Some days, it has rained almost from dawn until dusk. I'm wondering if my clothes will dry before I leave the Philippines. It's a constant struggle to find sunlight, and we have to run out and take our clothes off of the line whenever it starts to rain.

The grade 5/6 class is held in a sleeping quarter building at the bottom of the property, and its roof has a few holes. The students have to strategically place their tables and benches in the classroom so that they don't get wet. It's really amazing to me how nipa roofing (made from a leafy plant similar to a palm leaf) can keep the water out, but it generally works pretty well, except when it's not replaced regularly. Tom has sent new nipa up to the school, so the roofing will be fixed soon.

On Monday, we went with Diane on one of her trips around the island to see patients. We were chased by hordes of mosquitoes while hiking off the road in search of a patient, and went between a few of the public schools to track down patients during the school day.

July is nutrition month, and the school held its opening event on Wednesday. Steve and I were the "guest speakers." We spoke about having a health lifestyle, and Steve spoke specifically about medicinal plants. I'm not sure about our expertise in those areas, but we figured out some things to talk about. Each grade had made a poster, and they hold cleanliness checks and various other events throughout the month. Celebrations like nutrition month help to get the students involved outside of class.

On Saturday morning, I interviewed a group of brothers for my documentary. They have 7 kids in their family, and all of them have been touched by Family to Family in some way either by attending the Mapa School or participating in the high school assistance program, or both. It was amazing to hear the struggles which they have endured, and have still managed to get a secondary education. The Mapa School truly has a family environment, not just within the sibling groups that attend the school, but within the networks that the students maintain long after they leave. When Tom and Diane need information about a former student, they will just talk to other former students, as they all seem to look out for each other.

Last night, Steve and I stayed at Paras Beach Resort, which is about 15 minutes from Tom and Diane's house. It sits right on the water, and it was nice to have air conditioning and hot water for a day. Strangely enough, I miss the school and its more simple lifestyle. It's going to be an interesting transition going back to the US.

Trevor: Sunday, July 1, 2007

Katibawasan Falls

Happy Canadian Independence Day!

We have one month and one day left in the Philippines, and it seems like the time we've had has passed really quickly. We're well into the rainy season, and it's been raining every day. There are frequent brown-outs as well, but they rarely last more than a few minutes.

On Tuesday, I was in my sleeping quarters when I heard the kids yelling about something outside. I looked around, and they all were staring out to sea. There were two waterspouts (tornadoes) not too far out in the ocean. It was a little scary to contemplate what would have happened if they had come a little closer, but apparently they rarely if at all come onto land.

On Wednesday, there was a fruit give-away for the students. It's mulberry season as well as cashew season. The cashew nut actually sits on top of the cashew fruit, which resembles a small, yellow bell pepper. So the end result was mulberry stains all over the staff room floor, and kids with stained faces and stained hands. It was quite an experience. I've included pictures of it in my previous entry.

Anthony, Steve and I have continued our ping-pong tournament. I'm wondering whether they'll be able to beat me before we leave the Philippines.

On Thursday, the grade 5/6 class had its second story presentation, which turned out very well. The kids seem to understand the stories a little bit better. On Friday, Wilvin left for the weekend a little bit early, and I covered his Grade 4 speech class. Fridays are tongue twister days, and each student presented two tongue twisters. The Grade 4 class is very willing to participate and contribute, and we even read the tongue twisters backwards. Teaching a class of 14 students by yourself is a sometimes daunting task, and I can't imagine how the public school teachers here can deal with class sizes upwards of 30 or 40.

Yesterday, I tried to get my computer fixed. The keyboard is broken, and will type multiple letters when I press certain keys. I rode on the back of a motorcycle, swerving through traffic along the main road, and went to Richard's house. Richard is the man who owns the internet cafe in town and is the expert on all computer issues on the island. He works for the civil government as their computer specialist. But even he couldn't fix my keyboard, so I'll just have to get it fixed when I return to North Carolina.

This weekend, we were going to climb Mount Hibok-Hibok, which is one of the main volcanoes on the island. We went to the Department of Tourism, and then to the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, where we were told that we would have to pay to climb the mountain as well as for a guide. We decided that we would go to the Katibawasan waterfall instead.

This morning after breakfast, we headed over to the waterfall. After walking up an extremely steep road, we made it. Katibawasan waterfall is a gigantic waterfall surrounded by trees. There is a pool of water at the bottom where one can swim and take pictures. Anthony, Steve and I found some inner tubes (salbabidas) and lazed around for awhile. I've included some pictures, but pictures truly don't do it justice.

Trevor: Thursday, June 28, 2007

My keyboard on my laptop is broken,
but here's some pictures of our epic ping pong tournament and other stuff.

Steven: Wednesday, June 27th

After seeing the first grade students in math class today I really feel like the system needs to be altered in some way. Approximately half the class could not even recognize the numbers one through 10. Without this knowledge Joseph, the grade 1 math teacher, could not begin to cover the material in the textbook. So while the rest of the class sat bored out of their minds, Joseph struggled to impart upon them this most fundamental knowledge. I think it really brings out the need for a kindergarten here. When you have kids coming in that have had in most cases absolutely no exposure to any education they simply are not ready to tackle grade 1 material. So then the whole year is spent playing catch up. The deaf students already have a kindergarten type program to get them acclimated to all of the signs and how to communicate, I think something similar for the rest of the school would be very beneficial.

Another thing I wonder about is why the school refuses to accept students below nine years old. Kids around here normally begin schooling around seven, so if there is such a youngster that wants to come here to Mapa I don’t see any reason to deny him. If kids in their late teens come here why can't a younger child? Why not get them as early as possible?

Moving along, I’ve also been wondering why the deaf classes I sit in on seem to go so slow. After talking with some of the teachers about this the consensus is that these deaf students are not so bright, and it takes much longer for them to learn things. Personally I find this hard to believe that being deaf has nothing to do with a lower intelligence. Of course I realize the communication difficulties, but I feel like once the medium of sign language is firmly rooted this shouldn't be a formidable obstacle. I doubt schools in the US tone the curriculum down for the deaf, it's not as if they’re mentally handicapped. Thus I must wonder about this which is seen as a forgone conclusion here, and how to overcome this idea. Another thing, combining three grades into one for the deaf students just does not seem reasonable. Subject like Math and English are inherently progressive, it’s simply not reasonable to expect them to effectively learn their material in this scenario. It’s similar to the problem I’ve been seeing with the Grade 5 and 6 combination for the hearing students. I realize the staffing is a problem, but the reality is that this is not a good substitute for their own class.

In other news the weather has become much more pleasant. I went down to the Macao Spring today only to find it very polluted. I also saw what looked like a large snake slither between some rocks. I doubt I’ll be returning there anytime soon, which is unfortunate since I’ve been looking for a nice place to swim. I saw ‘Tablea’ in the refrigerator in the staff room, which means there will be hot chocolate tomorrow, so that’s good news.

As I'm preparing for bed tonight I can hear drunk Filipinos up in the mountain 'singing' horrible sounding karaoke. They only have one CD which they keep on repeating. Then towards the bottom there's a fiesta going on. The people are wantonly celebrating some random saint and playing a lot of bad music very loudly. Then one of the kids in our sleeping quarters has a really bad cough and every five minutes has an attack. Great combination for some dreams tonight.

Steven: Monday June 25th

Well after another relaxing weekend it’s back at the school. It’s been raining all night so I imagine tomorrow will be another muddy day. It probably would just be easier to go around barefoot rather than 10 lb sandals weighted with mud, maybe I'll give that a try.
I’m quite tired and it’s only 9 at night, I think I’ve really become accustomed to the time patterns around here. Not that I like being up so early, but it’s more of an acceptance of it for now.

I’m trying to make adjustments to my diet this week, I’m cutting out white rice. Since it has no real nutritional value and plugs up my GI system, I don’t think it will be a loss. It does worry me that sometimes there's not much else to eat, especially if I get to the staff room late for a meal. Trevor thinks I won’t last more than a day sans rice, but we’ll see. I’m still snacking on the sweet breads, saying goodbye to those would be almost impossible for me. Maybe it's an expression of my donut withdrawal coming out? Tomorrow I’m going to buy some peanut butter to have in my room, that way I can have a nice accessible snack.

Now that we have a little over a month left here we’re starting to feel some pressure to get things done. We’ve got a lot of recommendations on how to change the curriculum around for math and English, the actual implementation might be a little more difficult though. In three weeks we go to Cagayan, I’m hoping my funds can hold out till then. The bank here on Camiguin is a total mess, unless you’re willing to wait 3 hours to change money. It also closes at 3, what is that?

Still need to climb Hibuk Hibuk and go scuba diving, I'm hoping we can accomplish one of those things this weekend.

Trevor: Friday, June 22, 2007

We’ve definitely settled into the school’s routine by now. It’s going to be interesting making the transition back to the US to not waking up at 5:30 in the morning.

I’ve started to collect topic lists from each of the English teachers. I’m going use the lists, combined with the Department of Education curriculum, to make a curriculum for the Mapa School that has a consistent progression each year.

I’ve been teaching in Wilvin’s Grade 5/6 Language class, with mixed results. It seems as if the students know the grammatical definitions quite well, as they’ve been taught the subject matter since very early on in their academic careers. However, as far as applications, they seem to have some difficulty. I gave the students a book report project to complete in groups. Each group has a different story and is supposed to present a short summary to the class, including characters, setting, etc. The first group presented today, and their story was “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” I think the major problem that they had was with vocabulary, as they didn’t know what “Emperor” means. I stressed to the class the importance of looking up words that they don’t understand, so hopefully the next group will have a better understanding of their story. The kids here don’t lack intelligence; it’s just an issue of learning to apply their knowledge. I was very surprised when they had trouble with the story.

I guess we’ve officially entered the rainy season this week. It’s been raining very heavily at night. Sleeping under a nipa (palm leaf) roof is definitely an interesting experience. Wilvin and I maneuvered our beds so that they occupied spots where the roof wasn’t leaking. The rain cools things down at night, which is definitely appreciated. Having to keep clothes out on the line for three days before they dry has given me a new appreciation for clothes dryers.

While I’ve become accustomed to the school’s schedule by now, its setting is just as surreal as it was when we arrived. Waking up overlooking the ocean, on the side of a forested volcano, is incredible. If I was a student at the school, I feel like my attention might be constantly focused on the scenery, rather than on a teacher in the classroom.

Steven: Thursday June 21st

Another rainy night. I’m still feeling sick; I just can’t get over this cold. I hear a lot of kids and teachers hacking up stuff so I know I’m not alone. I think Jade Empire might have also gotten sick from me, oh well. My stomach is growling at me for all the raw chocolate (tablea) I just had, but I needed some substitute for sweet bread. I've become addicted to a sugar diet...

T-bone and I have started going into town for lunch. I mean the food at the school isn’t horrible, after awhile it’s just really bland and repetitive. White rice and bony fish are generally the food items of choice. We go to this great restaurant we discovered that’s by the main market area. Their pancakes are simply amazing, it’s making me hungry right now just typing about it. I think we might easily become their best customers in the coming weeks.

There’s all kinds of weird sounds coming from the jungle right now, I always wonder what's going on in there. Tomorrow we’ll be headed back down to T & D’s house, no big plans for the weekend. I’m sure I’ll get antsy and try to think of something. I still need to scuba dive at some point, but it seems like that may require a significant amount of time to actually get that going. This weekend I'm going to work on some songs, as well as start really figuring out this whole math curriculum thing. I've got a lot of ideas going through my head right now. It's been discouraging to grade the papers of my math students, lots of mistakes they should not be making for their grade level...

Anyway, I’m quite tired and believe I will retire now to the sanctity of my mosquito net.

Steven: Wednesday June 20th

Well it’s been a few days since I’ve posted, I blame it on finishing up my med school application. Finishing it here was an interesting endeavor to say the least. Now that it’s over I should be back to fairly regular postings.

Last night, after a period of stifling heat, the clouds opened up and dumped water on the school. I was surprised at how well the thatched roof kept the water out. It was quite pleasant to sleep next to the window and have a slight mist of water come in and cool me off. I must say thank goodness for my mosquito net. I guess the rain drove the critters to seek shelter as there were huge swarms over the fluorescent bulb in our room. After turning off the light I dove for the safety of the net, one mosquito did get in with me but I quickly dispatched it. Of course the next morning everything was a mudslide. The red clay-like soil sticks to everything and creates a nice thick layer of mud on your shoes.

Yesterday I talked for a while with my roomie, Jade Emperor. He was telling me some interesting Filipino folklore. Apparently, if the women leave their underwear out on the clothesline all night, they will become pregnant. In order to back this up he told me stories of women doing this and becoming pregnant with baby squids and octopuses, which he apparently had seen... Needless to say I was a little confused. Also, he believes that cases of appendicitis are often due to overeating... We then talked a lot about local witch doctors on the island and how they supposedly succeed where traditional medicine fails. I won’t pass judgement on something I know little about, but I’m skeptical. Then I found out about an incident here at the school a couple years ago where a student broke into a teacher’s room and stabbed her multiple times with a kitchen knife. Wait, so why wasn’t this mentioned on the brochure? I thought I was staying at an island paradise?

It looks like it might rain again tonight, the mosquitos are certainly out in full force. My bug repellant is essentially worthless, they even seem to like it. I played some guitar for the kids tonight. Started out as me just playing a few songs by myself in one of the classrooms, next thing I know I look up and the room is full. The other night I was playing around with some major scales and they started singing the ‘Do-Re-Mi’ sing from the ‘Sound of Music’, that was pretty interesting. Later.

Trevor: Saturday, June 16, 2007

One of Diane's cleft lip patients posing for a picture

This weekend started a little bit early for us, as we headed down to Tom and Diane's on Thursday afternoon. Early Friday morning, we went over to the hospital, as a doctor from the mainland is here to conduct surgery on some of Diane's patients with cleft lips and cleft pallets. She had to help the children and their mothers go through pre-operation screening, which involved x-rays, blood tests, and urine tests. In the Philippines, unlike the US, hospitals don't provide things like x-ray paper or medicines. Patients are required to buy them from a pharmacy. However, since most patients aren't able to just get up and walk across the street to the nearest pharmacy, they must have someone with them at all times, usually a family member, who is called a "watcher." Each morning, the hospital conducts "watcher training." Diane had to run back and forth to buy x-ray paper and medicine as well as check on patients' results. We joked that she had walked miles around the hospital.

Out of the 8 children who came to the hospital, 5 were accepted for surgery, since the other 3 had coughs or runny noses. We'll be going back tomorrow to watch the doctor from the mainland make his rounds. The surgeries will be on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Also on Thursday, we visited the Department of Education office, and we were referred all of the way up to the District Superintendent, who gave us a CD of the entire elementary curriculum, with all of the subjects. We have over 100 pages of material about the English curriculum, so we should be able to get a good start on the new Mapa curriculum this week.

Steven: June 12th and June 13th

As I write this the kids are at their nightly study hall being supervised by one of the teachers. For them it's the equivalent of having caring parents who would sit down at the dinner table and go over their lessons with them. I really think this place is doing a lot of good things for people that otherwise would be entirely neglected. Without this school these kids would probably never get a basic education and live their lives at the bottom of Filipino society. All of them are from poor families, you can tell by the fact that they all wear the same, dirty clothes every day. When I compare their lives at this stage to mine I can’t imagine living like this, no mom to wake you up for school in the morning and cook pancakes for you, no watching cartoons with Dad on a Saturday morning before hitting the baseball field, no weekend trips to the movies with friends. Instead it’s farm, clean, cook, go to class, study, sleep on the floor, obey the rules. Would I be tough enough for it? I know they have to learn to look out for themselves but sometimes I wonder if this is the best way for a child to grow up. Although they have no alternative, it’s this or back to their families who have enough problems of their own and certainly won’t be an impetus for success in the child’s life. Also, Tom and Diane are smart enough to know the society these kids live in, and to give them an artificially comfortable environment would do them more harm than good in the long run. Life is tough and it's a lesson these kids must face early on in order to overcome their poverty.

I went by the cold springs today and I swear everyone there stopped what they were doing and just stared at me. I mean this pretty much happens everywhere I go but I just wanted to get a swim in and wasn't in the mood for any extra attention. Additionally, people here frequently call out to me to come inside and have a drink. So let's see, here we have a naïve American traipsing into some random hut to have a drink with complete strangers who speak no English. Probably not the best idea, so I politely turn them down.

In other news Trevor and I, along with some teachers, have started daily table tennis matches. Trevor right now is undefeated, although his dominance will not last. It's amazing how much we sweat when we play. I never thought of the game as exercise but when I'm soaked after a couple of games I seriously rethink my earlier conclusion.

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Well another hot and busy day here in Camiguin Province. I woke up bright and early at 5 AM and even attempted to sleep in but my bug friends had other plans. A nice big spider decided to crawl up on my leg, I quickly dispatched it before it managed to get a bite in. After that I was wide-awake. I then sprinted up the hill a few times, got an ice cold shower in, and had a breakfast of rice and hard-boiled eggs. I taught two math classes today, one for grade VI and the other for grade IV. I’m astounded at the repetition of topics, so far it's been the same things for grades IV, V, and VI. The teacher I substituted for in grade IV told me to teach the kids about rounding decimals. I’m pretty sure no one in the class had a clue to what a decimal even was, so that was interesting. The call me “Sir Steve’ for some reason, which makes me a little uncomfortable. I mean if I was a medieval knight it would be cool but otherwise it seems out of place. Also, I find the Filipino names difficult to remember. They are often very similar to English but with a twist. For example Milfred is Wilfred, Omar is Jomar, John is John Binky, etc. Hopefully the students don’t find me too incompetent with their names, I’ll learn them eventually. Another thing I've noticed is that with non-native speakers teaching the students I often spot a lot of errors in the lesson which means the kids are sometimes learning the wrong things. While it’s not overly critical and often involves things like pronunciation errors, it is something I feel could be improved upon.

Tonight the power went out here at the school for a brief period of time. While we were waiting for the generator to kick in I stumbled over one of the staff room cats. I apologized and hoped the cat didn't take it personally. After dinner I checked up on the newborn kitten to see how she was doing, a very cute site indeed. Trevor and I were planning on watching some 'Andromeda' on TV since we saw a pretty good episode last week. However, there were kids in there watching news in Tagalog so we decided to abort those plans. Instead we hung out in the staff room with one of the deaf teachers and were taught some more signs. It seems such a daunting task to really become fluent in American Sign Language. I’m having trouble keeping what little I know now straight in my head. I do enjoy learning it though, and our teachers are very patient with us.

Now I am about to turn the lights off and go to sleep. I just saw my nightly lizard visitor climbing across the ceiling. We're headed back to our host's house tomorrow afternoon to meet a doctor coming in Friday morning, should be interesting. I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes.

Trevor: Wednesday, June 14, 2007

The Usual Suspects

Some of the younger guys

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in the Philippines for almost a month, and that our time here is a third over. The summer has flown by so far, and I’ve adjusted to things here far faster than I thought I would. 5 am wakeups, rice at every meal, cold showers, living with kids, and somewhat of a language barrier are not things that I would consider normal compared to my life in the US. However, they’ve become part of the daily routine, and I’ve come to enjoy all of these experiences.

Steve and I are picking up sign language, and we are learning for Archeline, a deaf teacher at Mapa. She can read lips extremely well, and can even use her voice to say some words. We’ve learned colors, days of the week, the alphabet and a whole bunch of useful expressions, such as “be patient,” “later,” and “correct.” Sign is difficult because it doesn’t just require knowledge of the signs, but linking them together as well. Hopefully the coordination will come with time.

The Department of Education has an office at the Central Elementary School in Mambajao, and Steve and I are going there soon to get a copy of the Math and English curriculum for grades 1-6. Hopefully, we can apply that to what the teachers here at Mapa are already doing and create a greater consistency of topics from year to year.

The teachers here are extremely well-liked by the students, and as I’ve said before, they share a bond unlike any teacher-student relationship I’ve ever seen. It seems as if this connection translates to the classroom as well, as the teachers are more in tune with the habits of individual students.

I’m beginning to shoot some footage for my documentary, and Steve and I will be going to Tom and Diane’s tomorrow night so that we can wake up early the next morning to observe a doctor who is coming from the mainland to treat some of Diane’s patients, mainly handicapped children. Hopefully I’ll get some good footage of this aspect of Family to Family’s work.

Trevor: Monday, June 11, 2007

Macau cold spring

We spent the weekend at Tom and Diane's. They had some other visitors as well, so it was pretty crowded, although it gave me some inkling of how crazy things could be if they were to have foster babies in the house like they normally do. The house is obviously designed to have visitors, and it seems as if there are always people coming and going. Whether these people are patients, volunteers from the US, or family friends, Tom and Diane are always welcoming.

This weekend, in addition to Steve and I, there were four other guests. A British couple named Jill and David, who have lived on the island for many years, have now sold their house and are leaving Camiguin. Also Sonia, who is a teacher for the deaf in Illigan, a city about 3 hours away from here. She brought with her a high school student from St. Louis named Cole.

Steve and I mostly just relaxed on Saturday, I guess we were recuperating from our first week of 5 am wake ups. On Sunday, Sonia, Cole, Steve and I went to the Macau cold spring. The water there was a turquoise color, and there were little fish in it. It was freezing cold. The spring was full of people, as the spring serves basically as a community swimming pool.

Then Steve had the idea of finding the path from the spring to the school. It didn't sound too bad, as it was supposedly only a 1 km walk, albeit uphill. It turns out that Sonia, who taught at Mapa many years ago, didn't quite remember the way, and the path wasn't well maintained. It was a difficult hike, and the cooling effect that the spring had was definitely negated.

We're now back at the school, and Steve and I have found a definite need for development of the curriculum in both math and English. We're going to look at the public school curriculum and develop a modified one for the Mapa School.

Steven: June 11th, 2007

We got up to the school today around 10 AM. The students had their weekly ‘flag ceremony’ at 10:30, which we got to witness. It appeared very military junta like as they recited lines of allegiance over an anthem. It’s stuff like this along with all the talk in the textbooks of people becoming ‘contributing citizens’ that gives me an odd feeling sometimes. Classes got rolling at around 1:30, basically every class meets for an abbreviated amount of time in the afternoon. This is probably to give people a chance to get back to the school from their homes. The weather was also really pleasant today, overcast with a nice cool breeze. Just that factor makes everything so much more enjoyable, it’s such a drag when it’s so bloody hot outside.

I helped Anthony (‘Tone Dawg’) by teaching the sixth graders while he looked over the fifth graders. The topic of the day was rounding whole numbers. After going through a few examples and asking them to solve some problems I still felt that they did not totally get it. However I only had 30 minutes to work with, but I think they got the gist. Trevor and I also observed the deaf students and an English language class. It was great watching the deaf kids talk about their weekends. The teachers here are all very helpful in showing us sign language. Every night I learn a couple of new signs, today I learned plate, dog, cat, fork, spoon, evening, table, and many more. I hope I can lend a hand in the deaf classes at some point.

I should also mention that I gave squid a try at lunch at found it to be quite good. I don’t think I would have ever considered eating some of the things I’ve eaten were I to be in America. It’s probably a combination of being really hungry and wanting to experience a new culture. They are also really big on this vegetable called ‘umpalaya’ (bitter gourd). It’s alright when it’s cooked with eggs, but otherwise it’s almost inedible. The beef here is not good, it’s extremely tough and like chewing rubber. The fruit is fantastic, especially the mangos. I have not had any pineapple despite the proximity of the huge Del Monte facility… Well I’m about to go to bed, I think I might take away the mosquito net to be cooler, doesn’t seem too buggy tonight. As I was coming in tonight I heard some rustling in the leaves. When I turned my flashlight on to investigate I discovered a large caribou staring right at me. Yet another dose of random wildlife.

Steven: June 10th 2007

Well it’s been a few days since my last update, so I figured it was time to get back up to speed. Last Friday since one of the teachers fell ill I filled in and taught my first math class with the 4th graders. I could tell that they were initially very apprehensive, but this quickly went away after a few minutes. The topic of the day was writing out numbers and recognizing which number is bigger/smaller. I found the children very obedient and eager to learn, although petrified of making mistakes. I really want to get away from a ‘gestapo’ type environment so that they can feel more relaxed and have a little fun. I think right now they have a perspective of a very rigid and unyielding structure to the classroom. Trevor (T-Bone) and I also started perusing the course textbooks. The English text is really bad, with numerous errors and awkward phrasings. The Math book is decent, although I’m sure I’ll find some shortcomings.

The weekend was nice and relaxing as we spent it at Tom and Diane’s hacienda by the sea. There were quite a few visitors there joining us, 4 to be exact. Among them was a sixteen year old from St. Louis named Cole. I got a real big kick out of him due to what happened the first night he was there. Cole slept with Trevor and me in our room on the floor. Now since this room is quite infested with ants I predicted that it would not be the most comfortable place to fall asleep. The last thing I remember when turning out the lights was Cole flicking a few ants off his shoulder. Throughout the night I heard him frantically swatting away at ants on all parts of his body. Finally, he gave up and went and sat at the kitchen table where he fell asleep with his head in his hands.

We also took a trip to Macao Springs, which is located really close to the school. The water was ice cold, but refreshing compared to the blistering heat. It was particularly crowded, probably because it was a Sunday. Kids were drinking rum along the spring, and kept offering me some. They were also discarding used candy wrappers in the water, clearly not sanitary. We almost went on to ‘white island’, but as it was very hot we decided to hold off on that for another weekend. There’s still plenty of sites left to see on this island, we’ll try and squeeze most of them in.

Steven: Wednesday June 6th and Thursday June 7th

Weds:

I wonder how the kids know to get up at the ridiculous hour of 4:30 AM, maybe it’s the roosters crowing. Once they get up however, sleep is no longer an option for me so I arise as well. Lately I've been getting up and getting a few sprints up the mountain in, then taking a nice cold shower. It's a good way to start the day, although by 10 AM you feel like half the day is over.

Dropped in on some more classes. Most of the kids can understand English very well, it’s speaking it that’s another matter. I was amazed to learn that in the grade V/VI class the youngest kid was 13, and their ages went up to 19. It’s disheartening to see such a lack of fundamental education in the populace, it’s no wonder the country is so poor.

I did find out that while the make-up of the school is basically a pyramid structure, meaning a lot of kids in the lower grades and fewer in the higher grades, most of the graduates do end up going to high school. Yet even with high school and even college educations well-paying jobs are extremely rare around here. The people behind the cash registers at malls are often college educated people!

Thurs:

Slept in a little later than usual this morning, maybe I’m getting used to the morning sounds. Spent about an hour gathering the necessary materials to do laundry (scrubbing soap, plastic bin, working faucet). It’s amazing how simple takes can become such a chore out here when you have limited resources. I also had trouble finding a shower with running water.
Trevor and I took a brief trip around the island to deliver school supplies to other schools. I was surprised how ‘well-kept’ they were, with tended gardens and very clean rooms. Wherever we went kids stopped what they were doing to wave at us, I’m sure the teachers were quite pleased. All of the principals were also very surprised to have foreign visitors.
I’ve become very accustomed to receiving a few very common greetings here, ‘Hello, friend’, and ‘Good morning Sir’. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those phrases.

We had a pretty nice storm last night that cooled things off significantly, the room actually felt pleasant. Of course there was a drawback since the entire school is situated upon a reddish, clay-like soil. As such the entire place is turned into a mudslide. I don’t know how the Filipinos can keep the massive amounts of mud off their rubber sandals and keep from slipping all over the place, but they do.

Trevor: Saturday, June 9, 2007

The infamous truck

Child Friendly?

The Dep-Ed's mission statement

Our first week at the Mapa School comes to a close, and it’s certainly been an interesting one. Waking up at 5:30 each day, sometimes with a gecko hanging to the wall next to your bed, is something I’ve never experienced.

Steve and I talked to Wilvin and Jennebeth about possibly doing a project with the speech and language classes. We talked about their general curricula for the year, and asked whether they have target goals for the year, as far as concrete topics that the students must know to go on to the next grade. Mapa does loosely follow the public school curriculum, but the teachers often are too busy to coordinate their lessons year-to-year. It’s also difficult because there’s a fairly high rate of turnover among teachers. It’s often difficult for teachers to ascertain whether students do not know certain material from the previous year because they do not remember it or because they were simply not taught it.

So Steve and I realized that there is definitely a need for a set curriculum for each grade that can be passed down from teacher-to-teacher each year. His area of expertise is math, and I’ll be looking at English. We’re going to go to the public and private schools in the area and consult the teachers there. We’ll examine their curricula and the activities that they use. Resources may be somewhat more limited at Mapa, but for the most part, we’ll shoot for the same targets as the other schools. We’ll also consult the staff at the school as well as Diane and Tom. We hope to create a system whereby the students will be required to know a set of topics in order to progress to the next grade. Having such a set of topics, perhaps with suggestions of example activities to reinforce the material, will ensure that the school stays consistent year-to-year. The teachers will still have the individual freedom to teach the topics in whatever way they see fit, but will now have a rough outline to teach with.

Hopefully the project with Jennebeth and Wilvin will also work. We’ll most likely take short stories and put the students together in groups. Then they’ll use the short story for a number of short activities which will reinforce what is learned during the week. We anticipate having these book report activities each Friday. For example, the students will be asked to read part of the story aloud, focusing on pronunciation, or they will diagram the sentences of a certain paragraph. Hopefully on Monday or Tuesday of next week we’ll be able to choose the stories for the project.

On Thursday afternoon, we went with Jesse and Maraphe, two of Tom and Diane’s employees, to distribute school supplies for Family to Family’s school sponsorship program. Family to Family gives schools supplies to 31 of the 58 elementary schools on the island. The program covers about 900 students. A student may be unable to attend school because he or she comes from a family that cannot afford to pay for school supplies. We rode to the schools in Tom and Diane’s rickety truck on some really bumpy roads. Riding in the back and sitting on a bench was definitely an adventure. There were times when we stopped suddenly that I had to hold on for dear life to avoid being thrown around.

At one of the schools, I noticed a sign that said “a child friendly room.” It made me wonder whether there are “child unfriendly” rooms as well. I also took a picture of the Department of Education’s mission statement. It reads as follows: “To provide a quality basic education that is equitably accessible to all to lay the foundation for life-long learning and service for the common good.”

We’re down at Tom and Diane’s house for the weekend, and hopefully we can make some progress on our idea about the math and English curricula for the Mapa School.