I NEED Help PLLLLEASE

Redlani Sports Fest Practice

Teaching Life Skills with my counterpart

I sent this e-mail out to various people in my address book but I also wanted to post it for anyone I may have missed accidentally.

Hi Everyone, How are you all??? I'm doing great, happy as a cricket on tuesdays. To be more specific there is a typhoon heading to pass a bit north of us so it is really cool here and i don't need to use my electric fan. You got to love life when your biggest concern is if you will need the use of the fan.

What I'm writting about is I'm putting together a peace corps grant proposal for my center. The grant is to start a card making livelyhood project that the kids at my center for them to make and sell for profit. Our basic goals are to give the children a skill they could utilize after they leave the center, a way to sustain and grow our small library room, and a creative outlet for our children.

I would like to have my grant prosal sent to you with the specifics with the hope you could help make our project a reality. Before it gets sent to you I need an address, phone number and e-mail address for you so I can have it sent to you. Your personal information is collected under the authority of the Peace Corps Act but it will only be used to promote my peace corps project through the Peace Corps Partnership Program informing you about my project.

So right now I need your full address, phone number and e-mail address so I can get you the information about our cool project and I hope you want more information about it too. Also if you know anyone who may be interesting in knowing more about my project please e-mail me or forward this e-mail. My e-mail address is katiepentz@hotmail.com

I am sending you lots of love, light and positive energy, I miss you,

Ingat (take care), Kate :-)

Life, where anything is possible... :0)

The Slaugher

There are so many things I love about the Philippines and here is just another example of how simple life is (and by the way this happened 2 weekends ago). Anyway it is Sunday morning and I am reading my book instead of getting up; it is about 9:30am. I hear my host cousins, host aunt and uncle and some other people. I take no notice, I live in a compound and I am really enjoying the book I'm reading. After taking a short break I hear they are right outside in front of my house. I meander outside and what do I see but one of the young pigs we are raising in the piggery on the side of my house. He has been drained of his blood, gutted and the head has been removed. The entrails are in a large bowl under the slaughtering table.

I was shocked to see Piglet in such a state. My little host cousin is touching the pigs cheeks and telling me how masarap (tasty) they are. His mom tells me his favorite part of the pig is the face. I am struck but at the same time I am getting used to these situations. Just 5 months ago I got my chance to kill a chicken and pluck it. I didn't have time to cook it but my host aunt would have let me if I was staying. Ok back to the pig... the family was surprised I didn't hear anything. That is not true, I heard the pigs squeal but they do that every time they are fed!!! I am still surprised I missed the killing, it would have been interesting to see. They will be repeating this activity for Tatang and Mico's birthday in November. They asked if I would be interested in killing it and the rest, I said sure why not, it will add to my cultural adaption. So what is the reason for this unexpected slaughter??? Well to sell the pigs to a slaughter house they would not get a good return on the raising of the pig so they will walk around the community and sell it in pieces. Ok sounds good to me even if my host uncle has got a huge knife hacking away at the thigh.

My host mom offered me sisig for dinner the next night and I was not feeling good so I just stuck with the veggies and rice. My host cousin wouldn't tell me what it was exactly. The way it looked put me off of it. I found out from my friend that it was parts of the head and face. I'm just not down with eating the face, ears, hoofs or internal organs. It probably sounds weird since I'm willing to slice and dice Piglet but I did dissect a cat in anatomy class so I have experience compartmentalizing these types of activities.

I'm sure I sound barbaric but I can't help it, while in Rome do as the Romans do. I'm in the Philippines and I find myself following the same credo. Just another crazy Philippines experience :-)

Sobra Init!!!

Sobra init - So very hot!!!! I have definitely noticed the heat since I have returned. Make no mistake about that. But today, we are talking heat at another level. The last ½ kilometer was like looking at an oasis; you know there is water you just got to keep your feet moving. I arrived at work drenched in my own sweat, disgusting!!!! Another part of living here that I have learned to live with. Before I took a shower this morning I had downed a liter of water.

To be honest I also ran this morning which already elevated my body temperature and I had to go to the elementary school before walking to work. Now if I had just gone straight to work I may have not pushed my body over the edge. It really has got hotter for sure because I’m using my fan throughout the night and that is like temp gauge. It will get hotter because I’m still turning it off about 5am; I’m waiting for the days when I NEED it. I think I could get by without it.

It makes me think that when my day revolves around the weather what does that say about me and my living situation??? The sun also drains your energy and I wonder why it has to be so greedy when it creates so much of its own energy. I think I’m a little heat delirious at this moment and after my lunch nap I will get back to normal; 2.5 hours from now.

Think positive for me please!!!!!

Lovely Puerta Galera

We (Rachel, Cynthia, me and Sue) have been planning this trip for a while and it has been canceled a few times. Rachel confirmed with me while I was in the US and I was up for it. It was kinda weird to be taking a weekend away after just arriving back in the county just a few days before. I however have no qualms with having a good time and now doing a 7 hour trip is cake.

We stayed at Tamaraw beach next to the infamous White beach. It was quiet and comfortable. The best part was they had lounge chairs on the beach instead of putting your towel out on the sand. The food was great, really reasonable and had a pretty good variety.

I was rather surprised with the small rocks that came up to the shoreline, they looked like river rocks and they are beautiful. It rained really hard the first afternoon and it made crossing an inlet rather challenging but we are troopers and make it across. It was a great place just to relax (I got to read a great book) and if you want a little more action White beach is only a 15 min walk away over a hill. I did not indulge that need because coming back to the Philippines has more jet lag and I partied my little butt in Lake Havasu.



It was so fun just hanging out with my friends, catching up and shooting the breeze, eating grilled cheese sandwiches and reading my book on a lounge chair. It was beautiful looking out from the deck over the water at the banka boats, the ship in the distance and an island off to our right. The clouds made the evening sky purple, blue and shimmered silver. It was wonderful!!!

My Visit Home

I got mixed reviews on visiting home, some said don’t until towards the end of your service, others said go because for them coming back was a blessing. I got to be honest, I was a little nervous going home cause I had a really sweet living situation, lots of great friends and a job I was doing pretty well in but I also wanted some adventure so I was off.

It was sureal and just comfy cozy to be at home with all my family and friends. We got to hang out, chow down at my favorite resturant, visit our favorite watering holes, see people I really care about and vice versa, a chance to revise my workout plan with a great friend and trainer, took a trip to Puerto Pensco (Rock Point) Mexico and stay at my dad’s house.

I never really appreciated Lake Havasu until I got back. I always loved the fact that 90% of my immediate family live in Havasu but I now love the weather (a dry 105 degrees) and the natural beauty of the desert. I always loved the desert but now it seems different, calm and still but not deathly. A place to recharge and energize and that was what I needed!

My family were totally excited I was home and I had to see everyone the first night I got back. Reajusting to the time zone was not as rough as I thought. My sister woke me the first morning I was there because we were off to a tube float race down the river and honestly I planned my trip to be there. There was 15 of us and we hooked up to various other groups and lazily went down the river. By the end I was fried but not too red, flying on cloud nine and totally reajusted to being back in Havasu.

My spring break crew also came to visit (a group of my friends that seemed so somehow conglomorate during spring break over 4 years). It was so fun just goofing off with them and knocking a few back and talking about how life has progressed. If I look at the group we are pretty much still on the same tracks we were when we last met with some slight variations of progression. None of us have kids, the same people are with significant others, and the same group members are hooking up. Gosh it is fun being single and alive.

When in Havasu it is expected that your good behavior may deteriorate and stupidity is expected. It is a town of few morals and a good time to be had by any who wish to endulge. Now what I am also saying is that if you choose to have fun you can do it with dignity and self respect. It is also a tough place to get deep and meaningful thought at 11pm at night. This was just what I was looking for when I wanted visit home. I needed to decompress and not work and that is just what I did. A couple times I had an incling “You could finish your late quarterly report… hummmmm not today.” I did this a few times but I was burned out by the time I left for my visit, really I didn’t want to work while I was home and so I didn’t. Not doing any work while on holiday was really refreshing. I don’t think that has really ever happended when I was employed.

Some of my highlights: My chance to have my first real argument with my dad (within the first week of being there), I got to see some of the natural beauty rhomping around in the desert behind town, I was told I was more assertive and it was a good quality, waking up to the sound of the waves in a soft bed all to myself, being given a minature pinapple, talking with my grandparents, doing an irish car bomb with crazy friends, having a three hour conversation about politics and the end of the world while enjoying a yummy grilled cheese, getting to know people who I was connected to but wasn’t really friends with and having fun, watching golf with my dad and going shopping with my other mother.

Who didn’t I get to see??? My crazy little brother! I would have loved to see him and hang out but he was off saving the world the other way… with the army. It is weird for my dad to have two kids working on behalf of the US but in totally opposite fronts. One day I’ll get him a t-shirt “My daughter is in the US Peace Corps and my son is in the Army… WTF!” I think it was my sister who suggested the “WTF” well that’s my family ;-)

Mount Pinatubo

Now this was a real hike!!! But don’t let me get ahead of myself… this is just one of the many trips us 3 Musketeers (Rachel, Cynthia and me. Niki was our D’Artangion on this trip) have planned but not really had a chance to implement. Even I was skeptical we would follow through. The weather was kinda bad and we didn’t really know exactly how to get to the beginning of the trip.

We rode a bus to somewhere in Tarlac where on accident we met a tour guide who’s group ended up not making it and we got to fill their spots. We proceeded off the beaten track to a Barangay close to some military base where we waited for another 4X4 jeep to take us to the beginning of the hike.

Our start began at 5:30am and our first bus left at 6am. By 9am we were on the jeep making our way to our drop off point. The hike there took about 3 hours and we were hungry and beat by the time we got there. We traipsed through water ways, over dried river beds with ash that turned into sand, up through the jungle over a ridge and ahhh a view of the beautiful lake within Mt. Pinatubo. I can’t even explain the exhilaration I felt when I saw the lake. I was awe struck by the size and the color of the water against the walls of the volcano. The water was not clear and even when we went to put our feet in you could barely see them. You could lose someone if you weren’t careful. The water was green signifying it was more alkaline. If it is blue it is more neutral (or do I have that backwards???)

I was told by a guide the water color was grey sometime ago causing an influx of volcanologists come in and take a look. Mt. Pinatubo is still an active volcano. The last time it erupted was in 1993 causing extreme devastation and death. In my province alone it caused damage up to about 45 min by bus towards my house. You can see an old church that only has the top sticking out because of all the ash and lahar covered the town. Instead of digging the community out, they built right over the preexisting Barangay (Bacalor). Because of the amazing building quality Pampanga has been able to quarry this natural resource left by the eruption. My host dad said the highway used to be much more built up between our house and San Fernando but not everyone has rebuilt. Many people relocated because their community could not be rebuilt. There are no fish in the lake but plenty of algae.

The way down also took us 3 hours. Once we got to the river bed we heard a hug swarm of bees above us but we could not see them. Our guide looked a little concerned which made him walk faster. Niki got stuck in some quick sand half way up her calf and I had to fish her foot and shoe out. Our guide on the way down was not the same and kept a rather fast pace. I’m not exactly sure of the mineral that was seeping out of the rocks but it was a goldish yellow. In one of the pools of water with algae the mineral caused the algae to be this yellow color. It was really interesting.

It was a really fun trip and a perfect time just before I headed to the US.