Initial Orientation

Although many things have happened over the last few days, I will try to limit them to reasonable post.  The flight was really long... 19-20 hours between Huntsville and Manila.  That has easily been the low point of this experience so far.  I am at a place that we call 11RR or the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction; you can look it up on Google to see where it is and what it looks like.  It is a great place to have Initial Orientation (IO).  I have a hot shower, AC, 3 meals, 2 snacks, etc... every day.

One of the many snacks

The weather is interesting.  It rains a few times every day and the sun is out quite a bit too.  Temperatures are really nice...considerably cooler than the Alabama summers.  The flip side to this is that the humidity is impressive.  I'm not too sure just how humid it is, but I would guess that it's at least 80% at any given time of day.  Overall, it is more pleasant than it is in Alabama.

Dragonfly

The fresh fruit has been no disappointment; the mangoes are always juicy and sweet, and the pineapples are so sweet they make mangoes taste sour.  Rice is served with every meal, and I've found it to go really well with eggs.  On the subject of eggs...before I left, many people brought up balut in conversation with me (in case you don't know what balut is...click here).  Today I got to try balut, and found it to be okay.  It's not something that I would crave, but it tasted just fine.  Next time I'll put some hot sauce on it.  I wrote this paragraph before diner on Wednesday, and that was just a few minutes too soon.  I'm glad that it wasn't posted because I would have omitted one of the best things so far.  A whole roasted pig (apple in the mouth and all); served with a sweet sauce on the side.  If anything is a taste of home, it has to be slow cooked pork.

Le Pig

So far IO has been really fun... especially considering the amount of time we have spent going over Peace Corps policies, safety stuff, etc.  The people I've met have been great!  Almost all of the PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) and Peace Corps staff are great company and great resources.  I would be willing to say that this is the most interesting and inspiring group of people that I have ever been around.  It is interesting to see a group so large (80) that seem to get along like we do.  Every time someone meets someone else they seem to have something in common or something to talk about.  

As much as I felt like I understood the Peace Corps before the first few days of IO, I've come to realize that it is much more than I ever envisioned.  Every Peace Corps office functions differently, but as for the Philippines...it really works well.  People often point to government agencies as examples of inefficiency and ineffective, but this is exactly the opposite.  I'm not sure how many people are Peace Corps staff here (40?), but only 3 are Americans.  The perception that the organization is just a bunch of outsiders telling people how they should live is the farthest thing from reality.  All of out language instructors, technical trainers, medical staff, safety advisers, etc. are all Filipinos.  They are simply people who share a common vision of a better world.  As the PCTs, they are also all brilliant, inspiring, and a good laugh to interact with. 

On a final note, I have ran into something that was really unexpected.  Everyone has heard the term G.I. Joe, but I didn't think it was still a term that people used.  Some of the PCVs (male and female) really dislike being called Joe (for many reasons), but the Filipino staff tell me that it's a good thing that I go by Joe.  When someone calls me Joe then I'll actually answer.

-Joe