time to get to know each other

so, we've been holed up in this pension for days.  Brief trips outside have been welcome, but mostly we are here, alone with each other and ourselves.  Right now I am watching 3 PCVs doing yoga in an open hallway as myself and a few others do computer things.   We are eating shawarma and hummus and naan.   lunch and dinner... repeat...   drinking red wine.  The storm, Ruby, ended up being quite the lady...  She was demure... not showing us where she wanted to go at first, but once she decided to move, she moved delicately.... swerving around the areas that matter the most to me.  It now looks now like she will head off into the Pacific, barely touching Manila.  She's still out there... Southeast of us, but I think she has good manners an will just take her things and go.

So many volunteers... an extraordinary group of american young people.  That our country could exclusively be filled with such a bright, diverse, courageous, talented, intelligent, giving, and even beautiful group such as this...  it would make all the difference in the future.  To a person, they are all at some point on a quest to become fluent in Bicolano and/or Tagalog.  Most live with other filipino families as this helps their assimilation into communities, improves safety concerns, and speeds up language development skills.  Some are signing on for another year, others are using this time to write applications to graduate school.  Others have only been on island for less than 6 months.  One gal entered the PC married and is now divorced.  At least three have developed significant relationships with filipinas.  One guy has a music collection even larger than the one that I accidentally destroyed here a few months ago.  There are three main programs in PC here:  Coastal Resource Management, Social Services, and Education.  As best I can tell they populated rather evenly with PCVs.  Of course, the PCV programs run parallel with the program that I am in, which is PCRV.

Ive talked quite a bit with this one guy. He a giant of a man; obviously works out daily.  I told him that my son has the same interests.... targeted body definition, I call it.  He's lived in Seattle and other places... got his degree from Univ of Hawaii.  Id figure him to be about 6'1", 210 and well, he's cut like a stone.  I'd say he bears a striking resemblance to Lebron James (tho he will be pissed if he heard me tell it!) We were talking around one night about places we wanted visit in the world... One gal, her home is just a few miles down the road from where Jean and I lived in MD, her goal is to learn the 3 main asian languages, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin.  She is a korean american, and already fluent  in Mandarin and Tagalog,  She wants to spend a good amount of time in both Japan and Korea.   Another person noted Nepal because of the mountains.  My friend....  well, he didnt have an answer.  His only comment was "I never had a passport before Peace Corps so this is the first time Ive been out of the US,  Im just happy to be here".  So, we changed the question.  "OK, so you don't care where you go.... Tell me, where do you NOT want to go?"  He didnt skip a beat in his answer. "That's easy.  I don't want to go to prison."

I wonder how many white volunteers would answer those two question the same was as my new african american friend....

I am blessed.  And so are you!  Thank you all for your concern.  Im not sure when Im headed back to site.... it may be as early as tomorrow, but with PC you never know.  I'll keep you posted...