Time draws nearer to my first Christmas spent in the Philippines. Just recently, I realized that this would be the first Christmas I've ever spent apart from my family, which brings a strange mix of emotions. I suppose the holiday season has been my first true experience of homesickness since arriving in the Philippines. December has been a chaotic month in general, with the passing of the recent typhoon and obstacles involved with projects at work. My first major disappointment came earlier this month when we had to cancel all of the December sessions with the Sorsogon State College scholars due to overwhelming scheduling conflicts. Its not the end of the world by any means, and we plan to start the sessions again in January, but it was kind of tough to swallow after putting in so much time and effort into developing lesson plans. Plus, I know that a lot of the scholars were disappointed too. :(
But its okay! Things move forward. I was recently able to attend the Sorsogon State Christmas party and spend time with the students, which was nice after being gone from site for about a week due to the typhoon. Typhoon Ruby was originally predicted to be much worse than it turned out to be. I was evacuated from my site before the storm made landfall and consolidated with other volunteers in Naga City, which is a couple provinces north of my site. We were then told we would be moved to Manila due to the severity of the storm. Needless to say, a lot of us were really nervous about what may end up happening to our site. Sorsogon City was originally predicted to be directly in the path of what looked like a seriously enormous storm. The storm ended up weakening significantly and veering to the south of Sorsogon, fortunately. At this point all volunteers have safely returned to their sites and resumed work across the Philippines.
As 2014 draws to a close, I've spent a lot of time thinking about a way to sum up my experience in the Peace Corps thus far. Before you arrive in your country of service, expectations are running wild and you really have no idea what your experience will be like. No one could really know, because each country and each site placement within that country are going to be individually unique. Because of this, to try and describe a typical "Peace Corps experience" would be a nearly impossible thing to do. I can tell you that, in the very short time I have been here, my experience has been filled with joy, sadness, awe, frustration, love and host of other emotions. I think its safe to say that if you're ready to learn more about yourself and what you're capable of, that is what you should expect to get out of your Peace Corps experience. When I look at how far I've come since arriving in the Philippines, its hard to believe that my journey is really just beginning. I'm very excited for what 2015 has in store.
Stay well everyone and maligayang pasko! Peace.
