Saturday, October 29, 2011

TJ Maxx Goes Filipino

"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."


Name that movie.  As I was starting this blog, it sounded a little like this so I chose to throw in some trivia for y'all.  I expect both of my brothers to get this.  Number 3, if you don't, you're not the movie genius I thought you were...


Anyways, I'm pretty sure you've guessed already that I didn't go to Home Depot or Bed, Bath, & Beyond.  However I did pick up some of those items in the Poblacion market in Solano.  New fact that I just learned... 'Poblacion' is apparently 'city' in Spanish, which is why almost every municipality around here has a barangay called Poblacion.  Maybe this is a dumb blonde moment.  Kind of like:


1. When I thought an air guitar was an actual instrument.  Until age 16.  OR
2. When I thought gravity simulators actually existed in space shuttles, and astronauts casually walked around like they do while on planet Earth.  Until 2ish months ago.


If this, in fact, WAS a dumb blonde moment, don't hesitate to tell me.  I enjoy laughing at my stupidity and gullibility. (Is that a word?)  Maybe the latter was due to the movie 'Rocketman,' a classic.  "The earth looks like a giant blueberry!"  


Anyways I had to go into the "city" to run some errands.  As I was sitting down having lunch, I was thinking about how I was really enjoying my afternoon.  I decided that my 30 minute trip from little Lamut to big city Solano feels a lot like my 40 minute trip from little Scituate to big city Boston.  However please take note that I am using the term 'big city' very loosely here.  Solano is probably the size of my little hometown in the States.  I'm not sure though- Google it.  But anyways it was nice, just sitting by myself, probably looking like a weirdo when laughing at funny incoming text messages. 


Wanted a few items from the market, but I think I'm still getting used to the whole market thing.  I don't know.  I guess I just always feel a little vulnerable, financially speaking, when I'm in any public market.  When I say this, I don't mean about theft; I'm always very aware of that, but what bothers me more is that I can't really tell when I'm being ripped off.  And I think I probably always am.  Unlike in the familiar shopping malls and outlets I grew up in with my mom, public markets are cramped, loud, and there is a ridiculous variety of things EVERYWHERE.  Sounds like a shopper's paradise, right?  To me, it seems more like a third-world version of TJ Maxx.  I hate that place.  Although the building is large, the racks are all squeezed together, there is no rhyme or reason to its organization, and the air conditioning is never high enough.  It's overwhelming.  One of my friends always finds wicked cute things there, but my organization-wired brain can't handle that store and it really bugs me to even walk through the doors.


So basically the whole market setup is really intense, then you have to pay attention to your purse and pockets the whole time, EVERY vendor is saying 'Hello ma'am' (and my polite upbringing makes me feel inclined to respond), you have to walk at a decent pace because there are always people behind and around you, you have to look back and forth, left and right into your dim, Hurricane Katrina-like surroundings... then if you DO see what you're looking for, there's a lot of pressure to just buy it right away so you can get out of there as quickly as possible.  I think this is one reason why these places are so successful.


I had a friend who worked at Abercrombie and Fitch.  He said their company purposely turns up the volume of the music in their stores because studies have shown that customers are more apt to buy impulsively when they're in a loud environment.  It triggers something in the brain that distracts the customer from thinking through their purchases logically and reasonably.  I guess what I'm saying is that these markets create the same fight-or-flight response in me.


Anyways I decided to walk around into some different stores before hitting up the market and I found a few awesome, reasonably-priced places!  I got a few nice polos and some other things.. all without that stress.  And the way that I see it, I may have spent a little more money overall, but I was able to go along slowly, at my own pace, and think about what I was buying.  "Do I really need this?  Is this a good deal?  Will I actually wear this?"  So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure how long it will take for me to get used to shopping in the market like all the locals do, or if I ever will.  However part of me doesn't really worry about it... "I DO WHAT I WANT!"  (Name that trashy daytime TV show)  I know plenty of people who hate shopping malls or strip malls or boutiques (or TJMaxx for that matter).  


So ya know what?  Maybe I'll just stick to what I like and what I'm comfortable with.  There's no reason to stress out when all I need is a darn T-shirt!  I appreciate public markets for what they are and how they contribute to the society and culture here in the Philippines.  I continue to learn and make adjustments to life here, and it's been SO fun... I could go on for days.  But maybe this part of American Becky will just stay the same.  You can take the girl out of the shops, but you can't take the shopping out of the girl.  Don't worry Mom, Sharon, Cor, and all my long-term fellow bargain queens.  Nothing full price!


Some things never change :)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Happy McDonald's Bathroom Appreciation Day!

As my secondary project as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am going to write a proposal addressed to the Philippine government, the United Nations, and whichever various organizations I need to contact regarding the following issue.  I am proposing to make October 22nd International McDonald's Bathroom Appreciation Day.  I'm going to write a rough draft here.  Please contact me with any comments or suggestions.


To Whom it May Concern:

My name is Rebecca ****.  I am an American citizen working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines.  I am very fortunate to have grown up in a country that values its independence, freedom, and limitless opportunities for each of its citizens.  Because of these nationalistic values, Americans have every right to have big dreams and aspirations.  Historically, many of these small ideas have grown to become some of the most groundbreaking, innovative solutions to serve both the country and the world.  When it comes to serving mankind, McDonald's Inc. is today's maven in the public service industry.

Since its institution in 1955 by a small-town American with a big-town idea, Ray Kroc, McDonald's has provided its customers with delicious fast food served with a smile.*  To date, McDonald's has locations in 119 countries worldwide and serves more than 64 million people each day.  Families spend hours in McDonald's "Play Place" rooms as a way to bond with each other and make new memories to treasure forever.  McDonald's also provides the opportunity to bring joy to any birthday girl, boy, or adult with their princess or superhero-themed birthday parties.  The restaurant is a casual meet-up place for friends or even co-workers.  One could argue that some of America's major businesses may have benefited from a quick business lunch at McDonald's.  We may never know for sure.  However what we are sure of, is that this chain has become a place that brings people of all walks of life together every day, and no price can be put on the value of interpersonal relationships.

The standards McDonald's sets for its franchises worldwide are exceptional.  One standard that I would like to address specifically in this letter is that of their comfort rooms (CRs).  Growing up in the United States, I was raised using white porcelain toilets to relieve myself each day.  Every bathroom I had entered throughout the country, from personal homes to public areas, I could always count on the reliable toilet bowl to be there for me.  The toilet paper wasn't always accounted for, but the toilet always was.  My biggest qualm was the occasional wet toilet seat.  After living in a third world country for three months now, however, I realize that I have spent my life taking such things for granted, including the wet toilet seat.

Two months ago, myself and several other Peace Corps Volunteers decided to walk into a "Mac Do's," as they are familiarly called here in the Philippines.  After enjoying my meal, I traversed to the bathroom, preparing myself for what I have endearingly termed the "S&S"- the squat and shake.  Upon opening the door, I saw a bright light and heard angels sing when I saw a white, shiny toilet in front of me.  As I sat there, I teared up at this discovery and when I saw the toilet paper on the wall, I wanted to call home to tell my mother that I had found love in the Philippines.  His name was Ronald.

Since that day of reckoning, I have visited various McDonald's throughout the country and they never cease to impress me with their high standards in their CR upkeep.  Because of this, I would like to propose the institution of International McDonald's Bathroom Appreciation Day (While I'm at it, could I also question the validity of Arbor Day and Flag Day?).  Certain individuals in first world countries may not realize that they receive a gift from God each day- a working toilet that flushes itself.  Before living in a third world country, I was one of these people.  However, I now have a great appreciation for the miracle of modern "johns."  Therefore, I believe McDonald's should be recognized for its forward-thinking in human waste disposal, and this day will provide the recognition it deserves.

If this celebration will be accepted by your organization, millions of people will begin hailing October 22nd as International McDonald's Bathroom Appreciation Day.  This will bring one American's idea full-circle and empower other people to keep dreaming.  It will encourage people worldwide to keep working hard, despite today's financially troubling times, and will relieve the American government of creating economic stimulus packages.  Not only will you be instituting a holiday, but you will play a role in the turn-around of the currently depressed economy.  When your children's children read about the year 2011 in their history textbooks, the creation of International McDonald's Bathroom Appreciation Day will be a prominent mark on the yearly timeline, and they will take pride in knowing that their families come from greatness.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.  Thank you for spending your valuable time considering this proposal.  

Sincerely,
Rebecca ****


*Visit the McDonald's location in Norwell, MA at Queen Anne's Corner on Rt 53 around 10pm Monday nights to reference this fact.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

It Takes a While to Post These Things

October 8, 2011
It’s officially been three months in country, three weeks of those at site and wow!  (Cue cliché-ness)  There’s so much I’ve already seen and done that I could never have expected, which makes me wonder... what in the world is next?!

I suppose I’ll have to start by talking about my host family!  I live with my host mom, her aunt, and four of her six children (two go to boarding school during the week).  Plus a dog named Meggie (weird, right?  Our family’s first dog was Maggie), who I thought was a girl.  However one day about 3,000 ants got into the peanut butter so I decided to show my youngest two siblings, 5 and 6, how to feed PB to dogs.  This was an awesome moment, because I realized that, just as humans are, dogs are just the same as all the others around the whole world.  They all look RIDICULOUS when they try to eat peanut butter!  If you haven’t seen this phenomenon for yourself already, get your dog or go on youtube.  I’m sure someone’s gotten it online by now.  So funny!  The kids were cracking up and I think Meggie likes me now.  But needless to say, as she sat there licking away I discovered that she is actually a HE.  So anyways, moving on.

The most amusing running joke in my house is that I have been nicknamed “Barbie hair.”  I suppose it doesn’t matter that unlike Barbie’s long, silky, platinum strands… I’m sporting short, auburn, nappy roots.  Nevertheless, to my host siblings, Barbie and I are one and the same.  Which I have to admit, is flattering.  When it comes to toys, I’ve always likened my hair to that of my stuffed bear after I sent it through the washer and dryer when I was 9 or so.  POOF!  Anyways they like to play with it; brushing, ponytailing, smelling… things that even my stylist back home doesn’t do. 

Meanwhile I’ll sit there watching one of the AWESOME Filipino melodramas on TV.  They’re all in Tagalog, so I have ZERO idea of what’s being said, but the acting is so cheesy and overdramatic that I want to laugh hysterically.  However my siblings sit there intently so I stifle my giggles.  Imagine an Amerian soap opera.  But on uppers and downers.

My host mom is awesome.  We live a five minute walk from town and the market, so after school every day we walk around to pick up fresh veggies, fruits, and meat (I’d rather not talk about the meat part.  Ever.), and I get introduced to whomever I haven’t already met.  I’ve never said “Bassit laeng” so many times consecutively (When asked if I speak Ilokano, it’s my token answer – “Only a little”).  But it’s really nice to meet everyone because then when I’m walking around on my own, I’m not just a random stranger that’s invading their quiet little town.  The other day I was by myself and someone recognized me and said hello.  I smiled and said hello back, and kept thinking to myself ‘who was that?’ and remembered a few minutes later.  I WISH I was better with names, but I’ve just been meeting SO many people in such a short span of time.  I’m just getting all the teachers’ names down now.  A few of the students as well, but it’s going to take some time.
 
When it comes to being known and knowing people in the area, you might as well consider this “area” to be all of Ifugao.  There are five other PCVs in the province, one in Lamut with me, two in Lagawe, another in Kiangan, and the fifth in Hinyon.  These towns are not very close- 45, 90, and 120 minutes away, respectively. If I mention this, a person will ask which family they are staying with, and somehow they will know right away who I am talking about.  If I was talking about a friend of mine a few towns over in the States, if asked whom it was, I would simply answer, “Oh you wouldn’t know her…” because chances are, that’d be the case.  However I have a feeling that the same will happen with us as we live here for a while.  Not that WE will know all of these people, but that they will know US
. 
So here’s the question being asked lately: “Are you in one piece?”  Yes, my friends and family, I am fine despite it being a wild typhoon season.  I’m wondering how these past few have fared in comparison to years’ past.  So Tuesday the 27th we woke up with no power.  No biggie.  It happened the week before for a day, and then it was back on before we knew it.  And this happens in the States too, anyways.  Just a part of life.  And it’s usually kind of fun- a race to eat everything in the fridge, Jeremy PO’ed at the “idiots” running into Shaws, stocking up on water and batteries…  Well Typhoon Pedro laughed at my ignorant New England American-ness and showed me what blackouts are really about.

The storm itself wasn’t too crazy; we shut all the windows and doors, and it was really banging around outside, but I just sat on the couch texting away and reading all day long as the rain poured down.  Got the candles out for some ambience at dinner (ha), and went to sleep early because it was pitch black (duh), which kind of made us a bit lethargic.  Woke up the next morning, no way to know if we had school or not so we just didn’t go.  Didn’t want to get caught in Quiel, which was reported to hit shortly, according to Peace Corps.  They’re actually pretty great about letting us know of ANY update on weather or security FYI’s.  They send out immediate mass texts to every PCV with the latest reports.  So when my host family or teachers at school don’t know what’s going on, they’ve learned to turn to me for the forecast.  Go PC!

Anyways, Quiel did hit us and most of Northern Luzon.  As far as I’m concerned, it wasn’t as bad as Pedro.  But I guess the destruction as a whole has been crazy.  Difficult to tell what happened when though.  We went back to school Thursday, still with no power but we don’t usually use the lights anyways so it was no big deal.  However, the lack of a fan near my desk was (and is) irksome.  Came home from school every day to no light the rest of the week, but I started stressing out because I couldn’t charge my cell phone anywhere and my battery was dying.  Not only was this a problem for my socialization, but when there are major security issues in the country, Peace Corps asks us to follow up any texts from our Regional Managers (RMs) regarding our well-being… just making sure everyone’s accounted for.  So this whole time I’m getting more and more anxious because all I want to do is send random texts to people as I always do (my friends back home- you can vouch for me on this one- it’s my way of life), and in the meantime I also need to make sure I’m being a legitimately responsible PCV  (Insert: “You are a bratty generation X American” comment here).
It was dark for 8 and ½ days at my house.  Day 9 I left for school without power, and upon my return, I walked into my dark house, feeling defeated once again.  I opened my bedroom door, hit the switch on my wall, and VICTORY WAS MINE!  I shouted “Woooooooooohoooooooooooo!” at the top of my lungs and started dancing around my illuminated room.  I plugged my cell phone into the charger and instantly felt like a new woman.

Later that evening, a friend of mine texted me, asking what I learned from all of this.  (HE had only been without power for three days.  Ifugao went the longest in the dark in the whole country.  My school still doesn’t have power).  I wished he was sitting next to me so I could punch him in the arm.  VERY FUNNYYYYYYYYYYY.  But he was asking this as a legitimate question, so as I lay in bed later that night, I thought about it.  And quite frankly, by day six it just seemed to be the normal routine.  Daytime is as it always is, we’ll get home from school around 5:30, and the sun will already be going down.  By 7 it will already be completely dark inside.  Dinner will have somehow been prepared with limited light, and we will sit around, eating by candlelight.  Afterwards we’ll be sitting around doing much of nothing, maybe some reading or helping with homework… then taking a bath by candlelight.  Reading in bed by candlelight (it actually produces more and better light than my diesel camping flashlight), and falling asleep.  Waking up and starting all over again.  I can honestly say that I was okay with it.  The ONLY thing that really caused me legitimate distress was the dying cell phone battery.

The cell phone thing makes me feel like (and probably sound like) a major brat.  However, it’s not just the lack of HAVING the little piece of Nokia plastic working that’s the problem.  I haven’t been here very long, but the friends that I’ve made are pretty awesome and the blackout made me realize how much I enjoy staying connected to them, especially since we live hours away.  Because in the States, I basically still live within spitting distance of most of my best friends.  And for two months, it was the same here.  So I guess this is the first time in my life that I’m actually riding solo.  It’s definitely weird.  It’s not that it makes me sad or anything, but all I want to do is joke around when something funny happens to me, something that only these friends would understand (or would just be totally inappropriate to say to the Filipinos around me).  So to put it simply, it was the laughter that I missed, of all things.  Not the electricity.  My laptop was dead, as was my ipod.  But I missed sharing the humor of everyday life with the people I care about.  THAT’S what I learned.
A few days later, Typhoon Ramon seemed to just turn around and spare us with hardly even a drop of rain, which was very nice.  And the weather has been quite pleasant for the past few days.  Knock on wood!  Go figure.

Anyways, as usual, there’s much, much more to say, but as usual, I’ve been rambling.  One quick update: if you ever feel so inclined to send anything via snail mail (seeing as I hardly get to the internet- plus snail mail is awesome), I have my new address for ya.  If it’s more than just a letter, Peace Corps suggests that you write some biblical sayings or verses on the package so people will feel guilty if they want to open it up and steal stuff.  Get creative J  Peace, love, and Thomas Edison… Becky

Becky Keys
The Butale Family
159 Kullaw
Poblacion West
Lamut, Ifugao
Philippines