Sunday, August 19, 2007

It's Official

We have finally finished training and have been sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. The ceremony was held at the United States Embassy. It was a very nice ceremony. John had a speech in English of course. Then after the ceremony, some of us were interviewed by the media. We heard later that our photo was in the paper and that we were on tv, but we never saw it.
We are now at our permanemt site in Central Luzon. I teach at the local high school and John is at a for children. We still live with the same host family we had before. They are young and have young children. They have a helper that also lives with them. They butcher hogs and sell meat for their income and do quite well.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Finally Here

We have finally arrived in the Philippines. After a long 17 hour plane ride and a lay over in Tokyo, we arrived in Manila on May 13. We were met by many Peace Corps people that we knew from the last time we were here. It was a nice reunion. They took us to a hotel where we would train for the next six days. We were not allowed to go out since the elections were the following Monday. It was fine. We finally received our assignment for our training.
We are here in Bataan. It is a place filled with much history. We have seen markers marking the Death March. We have a wonderful host family, and are enjoying it very much. The Internet is just nearby so that is nice. We have language every morning and technical training in the afternooe. Every Saturday we visit another place for more training.
We recently attended a festival. There were many young girls in pretty dresses. It was a nice sight to see. We are just glad to finally be here after two years of waiting.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Time is passing

We have just returned from a wonderful cruise with our daughters, new son-in-law, and granddaughter. Now we are living in limbo in Texas waiting for our return to the Peace Corps and the Philippines. We leave May 8th for LA and then on to Manila about May 11th. We will miss everyone, especially the granddaughter, aged seven, but know that she will be fine. She has so many people around her that care for her.
We also hope to have our daughters and granddaughter visit us next year.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Almost there

We are now starting to move out of our little apartment and get ready for our trip back to the Philippines. We just have one thing left before the staging in Los Angeles, and that is a cruise. We leave April 21 for the wedding of our daughter and then a cruise to celebrate. It will be a last trip together for a while and so it is special. It will also be a first cruise with our granddaughter. We are looking forward to it.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Waiting . . .

Jean and John are awaiting May 9, 2007. That is the day they will depart for another Philippine adventure. Having been a part of batch 264, they are somewhat familiar with a small part of the country. Jean will be in teacher training and John will be with youth services. They will keep you up to date with more information later.