Rockin' the bed!

Last night was my first earthquake! It was so small that no Philippine siesmology websites seem to acknowledge it happened. But at 3:40am, I awoke to my bed shaking and soon realized it was the whole house. The dogs in the area were all howling or growling, but in less than 10 seconds it was over and all was quiet again. At breakfast many of the girls said that they were awoken too.

When Oahu had its latest earthquake, I was in China. I was a little dissapointed I missed it and was (sort of) hoping that I'd get to experience one. Baguio was devestated by an earthquake in 1990, so it would be naive and callous of me to "wish" for one. And now... having felt it... I didn't really like it. The bed was shaking so little that it felt like something I would be able to stop, and thus knowing how entirely helpless I was to do so, kind of scared me. The earth was shaking. That's just weird... and scary.

But I'm fine, and now I can say I've experienced an earthquake. Hopefully, that will be the extent of it... and more hopefully, Pinatubo won't get angry again. (We don't like when Pinatubo gets angry.)

Healthy Start

Today, I went with a fellow CFS employee as she made the rounds to some teenage mothers enrolled in Healthy Start. This program works with new parents to teach them how to raise healthy babies. (The program was largely founded by Gail Breakey, whom I worked with in Hawaii.) They show them games to play, how to interact with their babies to stimulate development and, of course, how to deal with their children in effective, non-violent ways. Today, we were specifically visiting some poor moms whose babies are underweight to deliver special formula that they can't afford themselves but that will hopefully get the babies' weights to where they should be. This mother's older child is in the Healthy Start program, but there hasn't yet been a need to enroll her younger one.

Ates (ah-tays)

This isn't a great picture of me, but what else is new--besides, I had to post something. This is me and "Ate" Liza. She's a social worker and house parent at the Consuelo Home. In this picture she looks young and cross-eyed, but she's 24 years old and does really well not bumping into things. I have a great time hanging out and talking with her. She's helped get me telephonically connected (still working out the kinks) and took me shopping for cheap clothes. Fortunately, she was there to comfort me after I discovered that here I'm size XL by reminding me, "oh Nicole, you're not fat... you're obese." Yes, I can tell we're going to be good friends.

She's also lent me a portable DVD player, so while in my bed I've been able to watch better movies than Power Rangers; although, Aeon Flux is debatable. Perhaps a bootlegged Rambo 4 will up the standard?

An Aside

Ok, so this has nothing to do with the Philippines or the work I'm doing here, but being that I have been a canvasser six different times and in four different states, I had to pass on this article. This will be a comfort to my fellow canvassers to see that someone can articulate so well what it's like, and may be enlightening to those who have never knocked on a stranger's door and for whom we have not been able to adequately describe what it's like. It's long but worth it.

http://www.flakmag.com/misc/canvassing.html

To be rich and beautiful...

Diana is one of the fifteen year old residents. She's been taking care of me with whatever I've needed since I first arrived.

Cute story... Diana asked me, "you want to kilo yourself?" Confused, I followed her pointing finger to the scale on the floor. She saw me laughing and asked, "what is it called?" But my answer only led her to ask, "do you want to scale yourself?" Eventually I told her how to correctly ask that question and "kilo-ed" myself.

Also last night, Jamie and I were keeping Diana company in the kitchen while she was making dinner. Having already been complimented multiple times in a short while, when Diana said, "you're so beautiful," this time I pleaded with a smile, "stop. Thank you, but stop." Jamie turned to her friend and said, "What about me? Am I beautiful?" Daina quickly replied, "no! You have no money." She then turned back to me said, "you're gorgeous..." and put out her hand, "...one peso."

After dinner she continued her questionably sincere flattery to which I now responded, "I'm broke... do you know that word: broke? It means I have no money." Excited by this new useful vocabulary, Diana stopped little 10-year old Nancy in the hall and loudly proclaimed, "I'm broke!" to which Nancy passionately and even more loudly retorted, "I'm broke too!" I'm not even sure if Nancy knew what it meant, but it looked and sounded so funny that we all burst out laughing.

Later on, having forgotten protocol, when Diana said, "I like your hair," I said "thank you." She promtly reminded me, "I don't like thanks. I like pesos." This morning, when she got her allowance, I was sure to tell her, with an extended hand, how beautiful she was.

The Consuelo Home

I'm in Baguio living in the Consuelo Home, a shelter for abused girls. Currently, there are twelve of them, ages ranging from ten to nineteen. As far as I can tell, I'm here to just have fun with them and provide extra attention and care, which I'm so far really enjoying. They like me. They also like my long nose and my height--I'm tall here! And Filipinos, especially the girls, like singing and dancing whenever they can--I'm like a native. In fact, one person already told me that I have a Filipino heart.

The girls call me Ate Nikki (pronounced ah-tay Neekee); it means older sister Nikki. It's a prefix that they use for each other too.

Most of the girls speak English, or at least understand it. I will hopefully be a good way for them to practice, and I, in turn, plan to use them to learn Tagalog. Unfortunately for me, the one who likes to talk the most, doesn't know English. I guess that's just more motivation for me to get on the Tagalog train.

Each day has a solid schedule, and they're all given chores to do. It's the only way to make a house of twelve girls, one staff person, and one volunteer run smoothly. Plus, the discipline and structure is good for them and will make reintegration with their families easier. The ultimate goal is to get them back home. Obviously, not if they'd still be in danger there, which is the case for only one of the girls. For the others, if their cases are prosecuted successfully, they'll be able to go home again.

It's hard to resist the temptation to buy them all books, games, CDs, movies... although, I may have to buy them some new movies no matter what. So far the English movies I've been subjected to are Sandlot 3: Heading Home and Power Rangers: The Movie.

Amusingly enough, the girls thought I looked like the woman who played the character Dulcea from the Power Rangers. This woman had long curly red hair and was dressed in a green amazon woman-like bikini thing! It was flattering, I guess, but so far off that it was hard not to laugh at them. They must think all white people look alike.

Right now, the girls are at church. I told them that I wasn't going because I'm Jewish. Some of the girls didn't know what that meant, so I said, "I'm like Abraham... Old Testament" They seemed to understand that.

Sorry there's still no pictures. I'm not allowed to post pictures of the girls, and I don't know what else to put up. I'll find something, though.

New Beginning

(Note: Sorry for the alphabet soup, but in that way this entry can serve as a primer for blogs to come. I hyper-linked many of them, so you can learn more if you choose.)

I arrived in the Philippines on Sunday night; although, it still felt like Saturday to me. I tried their local San Miguel beer that first night. I figure the best way to get a know a people is to drink with and like them. (I just made that up--like I'd have any idea if that's the best way.) Anyway, it was only one beer, and I was with Danny Urquico the CEO of Child and Family Service Philippines (CFS PI). I had already shared drinks with him in Hawaii, so I can't say this was a wholly unique experience.

However, the next day Danny made sure that I did have unique experiences. He showed me two organizations which the Philippine branch of the Consuelo Foundation (an organization I worked with in Hawaii) funded. First we met a group called Families and Children for Empowerment and Development (FCED). Based on the Healthy Start model which was created in part by Gail Breakey (the woman I worked with in Hawaii), their program aims to prevent child abuse by helping mothers and families as early in the child's life as possible, including pregnancy. FCED took me to a poor baranguay (neighborhood) where one of their family support workers (FSW) was meeting with mothers and their 3-year old children. The FSW was showing the group games to play with their children that would allow them to monitor and stimulate proper development.

For example, kicking balls is important for children's eye-body coordination, but these families are so poor, they can't afford to buy balls. So the family support worker showed them how to ball up newspaper and wrap it tightly in a plastic bag to make a ball. Watching the kids kicking it around was a highlight for me--it was as valuable as a store-bought ball in its effectiveness and was more valuable in its significance and innovativeness for people with almost nothing.

Danny then took me to the Tuloy Foundation's complex for street kids. There they feed, house, clothe, and educate kids from ages 9 to 20 who have been abandoned, abused, or orphaned and forced to live on the street. I was shown around their pristine facilities where kids who were once likely involved with crime, drugs, and prostitution were now learning to fix car engines, wire electricity through ceilings, and repair computers.

I'm not sure what to say about all this without sounding trite or sentimental. It was inspiring to see what's possible when people who care are given the resources they need to make a difference. Obviously, the choice for a better life ultimately resides with those being helped, but at least now it is more of a choice. I am thrilled and privileged to be a part of these efforts.

I am writing this at a stop on the way north from Manila to Baguio where I will be living and working at CFS PI. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing there yet, but as I know, I'll be sure to tell you.

I apologize for the current lack of pictures. I do, somewhat shockingly, have a working camera with me... for now. There will be pictures as I become more comfortable with my surroundings and the people in them.