Siesta - "Nap"

[I actually started this entry on Tuesday...It's Thursday now...]

Guys!  It's officially been over a month since my arrival in the Philippines!  Incredible.  Time is such a strange thing.  How can it move so quickly and slowly at the same time?  It just doesn't make any sense.  But then again, not much in the world makes sense...which makes it awesome!  "Awesome" as in "full of awe".

My supervisor is leading a microfinance training session in Rwanda for two weeks.  When she gets back, I will be halfway done with my internship.  Crazy right?  I'm currently processing my interim report (analyzing data, deciding the next steps to take, etc)...which I'll probably actually write sometime next week because my translator has to take a couple days off for nursing training anyway.

So my host mother is away.  My host sister also just got a job and today was her first day of teaching.  She is in another city and will be back on the weekends.  My younger host brother just had his first day of class today (3rd year of college) so he's also in another city and will be back on the weekends.  So yup, just me and my host father and older host brother.  (Maybe I should start using names?)

I titled this entry "Siesta" because it's the Tagalog word for a nap taken after lunch...and this entry is about one of my days off!  Day off = rest = ...nap.  Okay...a bit of a far reach with that one, but just go with me.

Today [Tuesday] I went with Pastor Benjie (my host father) and Jairus (older host brother) to the theater and watched a movie!  It was really fun!  When the lights went out, the silhouettes of peoples' heads lined up in the theater made me think of popping in a DVD from China, only to find that it was pirated (oh but of course).  I wish I could use my ethnographic skills to describe what it's like to watch a movie in a theater in the Philippines, but I turned off my ethnographic brain today (don't tell Dr. Mask please).  We ate spicy peanuts during the movie--sooo much better than popcorn!  After the movie we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner where they served jasmine green tea (my favorite) and gave us chopsticks!  The food even tasted like Chinese food!  (That's probably good considering it was a Chinese restaurant.  But, I mean, when you go to a Chinese restaurant in the U.S. it doesn't usually taste like Chinese food...).  I was all giddy and bubbly inside--it probably showed a little on the outside too--which got me thinking:  I've been more excited about seeing Chinese things or meeting people who speak Mandarin much more than anything Western.  Maybe because the Philippines and China are similar in many ways, so it's a bit disorienting to see things or taste things or even smell things that are familiar, but in an entirely different setting.  Yeah.  Disorienting is probably the best way to describe the feeling.  So close, yet so far.  One of those kinds of things.  So like...Chinese, but not Chinese.  American, but not American.  Spanish, but not even Spanish.  Filipino culture is really a blended one, which makes it beautiful and also one of wonder for me.  It's taking a long time to figure things out.  You can learn things quickly and yet, not really know anything.

Every week CDV interns have to write a weekly log and turn it into our professors.  One of the questions is always about our cultural adjustment.  Usually we describe how we're doing based on Alder's stages of cultural integration (in emotional terms:  excited, confused, withdrawn, angry, assertive - and then the cycle begins again).  I think I mostly skipped the "excited" stage all together.  Those of you who know me might find that strange since almost anything excites me and I'm very easily amused.  But I was just so nervous, scared, and self-conscious that, well, I didn't show any emotion except whatever emotion smiling portrays.  I think I'm loosening up a bit...so that's good.  It's nice to feel a little bit more at home in my own skin.

I'm going to cook a meal for my host family this Friday :)  I'm so excited!  I hope they like Chinese-Chinese food...that'll probably be disorienting for them too since there's definitely a Filipino version of everything I'm going to make.  Maybe I can buy them all chopsticks too...

Prayer Requests
-It seems that I can never catch up on written work....
-That I remember that my life is His to own.  For a willing heart and steadfast spirit.
-For continued flexibility and good health (so far I've only had minor problems :D and I drink 12 glasses of a water a day yay!)
-For productive use of my time
-Continue to pray for the sick baby I visited.  Last week I saw him and he looked a bit better (more color to his skin, more active, gripped my finger - but it was a pretty weak grip), but he is still very sick.
-That I won't be afraid to invest in people here and that I won't be afraid to let them invest in me (I really dread goodbyes.  I dread goodbyes so much that I think about the day I leave more than the day I arrive.  It's really a very depressing habit of mine!)


**I think I'm more productive the days I blog...so if you don't mind, I think I might blog for my own sake in addition to keeping you updated :) **