Third Goal

Christmas in Mindanao

Christmas, 1997 along the north coast of Mindanao, Philippines.  I helped give out food and toys to residents. 

Cooperative Learning

Children in North Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, Philippines in a cooperative learning group at their elementary school. 

Fiesta in Buenavista

Myself and educators marching in a parade during fiesta in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, Philippines. 

Teacher Training

I conducted a workshop in Agusan del Norte, Philippines for all teachers in teaching methods. 

Close of Service

Close of service in Baguo, Philippines for group 250.

Snowing in the Philippines

My students always ask me what snow is like, as they have never experienced a temperature less than 70 degrees farenheit. For Christmas, I taught my students how to make snowflakes out of white paper. They had a great time cutting out their own unique designs. Then we all threw them up into the air, making it snow in the Philippines for the first time!

The Bangka

A bangka is a Filipino boat made out of wood and bamboo. As we noisely motor to one of the 7,107 island of the Philippines, the Filipino man navigates the boat with his bamboo pole.

The Igorot

The Igorot tribe, high in the Cordillera mountains, are one of the most well preserved examples of Philippine Culture. In a country colonized and overrun by both American and Spanish culture, seeing native Filipinos embrace their own heritage brings a new hope to the future of the nation.

Fisherfolk Family

One of the fisherfolk families in Barangay (village) Magsaysay that my counterparts and I worked with standing in front of their traditional Filipino home, a Nipa hut. 

PEEPING CHILDREN, Camiguin Island, Mindanao, Philippines

PEEPING CHILDREN, Camiguin Island, Mindanao, Philippines This photo was taken during a trip to visit another Deaf Ed PCV's site on the southern-most and largest island, Mindanao.  Unbeknownst to us, the PCV we were supposed to visit had been evacuated for peace and order problems several days earlier.  As we were taught during training, we heeded the advice of the host country nationals in her village who encouraged us to leave the highly charged area we were supposed to visit and go visit n...

FILIPINAS on a JEEPNEY, Talamban, Cebu, Philippines

Three of our Language Trainers on the way to a PC Training event of some kind in late 1985.  All were wonderful and extremely patient ladies!  Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!

Fish Catch

As my coworkers and I were eating on the beach, a fisherman walked by and proudly showed off his catch, which included a red snapper, that he caught with his spear.

Trike with Kids

After a day working in one of the villages, one of my coworks decided to snap this picture as we waited for the trike to fill up with people in order to return to the "poblacion".  

Filipinas travel by Jeepney

During training in Cebu (Philippines), I caught this shot of three of our language instructors traveling into town.

Peeping Filipino kids

During a stay on Camigan Island off the coast of Midanao, these kids hung around our hut the better part of a day, periodically peeping around the gate.

A Home Sweet Home

This was certainly one of the best times in my entire life! This was certainly the favorite place that I have lived. Remembering the quiet and profound friendship continues to help me know my center.

50 Years of Service

While enjoying the Bobon Sto. Nino festival in Northern Samar, the four of us, volunteers in Batch 268, met a volunteer from Batch 3 who had returned to his former site in the Philippines to enjoy the festivities!

A Protracted Expanse of Ocean

Sometimes I feel that being a Peace Corps Volunteer feels as if I am hand-delivering piles of bricks across a muddy riverbed to provide a community with the means to build. It’s as if I am carrying the weight on my shoulders through a thick mud. To me, this mud I must trod through everyday represents the all-encompassing and foreign culture of the Philippines. As a Peace Corps Volunteer working at the community-level, I carry my load brick by brick. Over time I can see the buildings get...

Explaining Coral to Filipinos

I have been doing so much class observation. It is beneficial because there is so much about the educational system that confuses me still, despite having spent weeks here. Many times, my counterpart does not involve me with his lesson planning. (However, after observing several classes of his, I realize that he just reads from the book and does not actually plan any lesson.) Today, I didn’t feel like I could bear the monotony of it all, so I volunteered to do the lesson, despite no pr...

America

There is a little girl who lives down the street.   I see her sometimes on my morning walk to work.   She’s a tiny thing, maybe four or five, and she’s usually wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops.  I don’t think that she goes to school.  Any time I do see her she stops in her tracks, grins from ear to ear, sort of leans back a little, points, and yells at the top of her voice, “AMERICA!”  It always catches me off-guard.  She communicates only that one word, but her body language shows h...

Sorsogon Pizza

Sorsogon Pizza   I served as a Peace Corps Agricultural Advisor, assigned to Baranguay Salbacion, Magallanes, Sorsogon, Philippines, from 1979 to 1981. A major part of my work was to build & manage a nursery for the propagation of coffee, cacao, and black pepper, as one of  several outposts of a USAID-funded project, the Sorsogon Crop Diversification Program.  SCDP had been designed and proposed to USAID by an earlier Peace Corps Volunteer, Paul Driscoll, who had also recruited a recen...

Beergin Coke

“Beergin Coke”   It was, I don’t remember how many, but not many days after I arrived in country, that my co-newbie & I were invited to go out for drink by a local.   Tom, (10 years my younger but partner in mischief) and I had been known to have a drink.   We were in training at a mold-loving hot springs spa in a college town about an hour south of Manila. We were to be housed, in pairs, for a week, with local families.   I also don’t remember the Baranguy Captain’s name, to my great re...

Forming Islands in the Philippines

One of the Philippine creation myths speaks of a lightning bolt blasting rock and dropping islands from the sky to form the vast archipelago.  Another myth suggests that the Filipino people emerged from a piece bamboo before fanning out across the island chain.  It is no myth that life in the Philippines can feel scattered and vast.  Its history is a tangled mix of native roots and colonial influences.  The cultural and geographic diversity can feel as if each of the thousands of islands is ...

The Philippines: The First 10 Months

Visayan Love