Celebrity

                Monday kicked off a new work week. We began by travelling back to the elementary school in Carigara as the principal agreed to let us paint a mural with a motivating message on one of the main outdoor walls of the school. We had a great start by purchasing the materials, drawing the design, painting the back drop, outlining the mural, and beginning parts of it. I don’t want to give away what we’re doing, but I will say that Bonnie developed a wonderful idea that is kid-centered, motivational, and requires teamwork. When we finished for the day, we were all very excited about the beginning of this project.

                … But that’s about all that we were excited for. When we began cleaning up, the kids at the school went crazy – and trust me, crazy is an understatement. School had finished about an hour before that, but 50 or so kids were still hanging out at the school with us. They jumped on us, asked us to play games, and kept dipping their hands in paint when we weren’t looking. While we were trying to enforce rules and take on the role of “crowd control,” they thought that it was all a game, so they kept laughing and doing it. Finally, we picked up our materials, told them goodbye and said that we’d see them soon. As we walked down the street to Veronica’s house (the grade 1 teacher I mentioned a few posts ago), we each had several kids hanging on us, following us, jumping on us, etc. We thrust open Veronica’s door, said goodbye to the kids yet again, and sat in front of the fan in her living room to cool off and rest for a bit.

                … Or so we thought. The students began knocking on the door loudly and repeatedly. They climbed trees outside of Veronica’s house to look in and yell at us. They ran around the house and reached through the windows to touch our heads. They called our names over and over again, hoping to get our attention. They sang, they kicked, they screamed. THEY. WERE. EVERYWHERE. And what did we do? Ignore them, hide, and allow Kulia, one of the volunteers who speaks the language, translate for us. Somewhere in the 45 minutes of this “uprising” as Shawney calls it, I developed a conclusion: This must be what it feels like to be a celebrity… And, if so, I don’t envy celebrities in the slightest.

                Allow me to pause the story here to praise two people that have earned a coveted “Meg’s Favorite Filipino” award thus far. Veronica was incredible. She made us lunch (while her students were in class next door, by the way!), allowed us to stay in her home when she had an after school meeting, fed us snacks and provided countless drinks throughout the school day, had her husband drive us around, and brought us to the Carigara festival where she eventually (and sneakily!) PAID FOR OUR DINNER. Here is this woman who has so little and still wanted to give us everything to make us feel comfortable. I’m floored by her kindness and compassion and hope that I can show just a tiny bit of this in my own life on a daily basis. The second award goes to her son, Sam, who is 11 years old. He is in grade 6 at the school and is consistently being described as the “coolest kid ever” by the volunteers here. Not only is Sam our primary translator, but his mom’s generosity and selflessness has definitely been given to him, as well. Sam did exactly two things to win me over, both of which occurred during the uprising: 1. He yelled at his peers to leave us alone. When they didn’t, he picked up a broom and ran around chasing them. Take a moment to allow this visual to sink in. Sam. Is. Awesome. 2. As the uprising continued, he nonchalantly turned to us, shrugged, and said, “Want to play Scrabble?” … so we did. In case you are ever being mobbed from the outside, take it from me that Scrabble is, in fact, the best solution. Now you can see why Sam is, well, the coolest kid ever.

                Eventually, the paparazzi – I mean children -- left, so we went to dinner at the festival in town. Shawney and I tried beluit, a delectable food here. Don’t know what it is? Google it. Choosing not to Google? I’ll summarize it: we ate a hardboiled duck egg. That was 16 days old. Yes, there was a baby duck in the egg. Now, Google it.

Because Carigara is a good hour away from Tacloban, we decided to stay the night at a church there after we left the festival. We were pleasantly surprised to have a room with A/C in it and, after showering in the custodial closet of the church with a spigot (yes, that’s right) – we slept wonderfully.

                … Until we were woken up by a typhoon in the middle of the night. Now, several of our friends and families have warned us of this typhoon and we knew that it was hitting further north; however, we were under the impression that it wouldn’t be making landfall until Wednesday. Needless to say, we were surprised when the still-damaged-by-Yolanda roof started slamming up and down on the church loudly at 4am. Fortunately, the roof made the storm sound much worse than it actually was. Even still, school was canceled on Tuesday due to weather, so we woke up and had nothing to do. We didn’t want to bother Veronica for breakfast when she had a day off, so we donned our rain gear and walked into town despite the wind and rain to eat. Then, we decided to pack up and head back to Tacloban as our work was obviously postponed without children to help us paint. Because the majority of the team’s projects are outdoors, most of the volunteers were stuck indoors, as well. So what did we do? Go to the movies to see Earth to Echo.

                Today, we woke up to the sun shining, so we ventured back to Pago. Ben and I spent the entire day sifting dirt to make gravel and loading a dump truck with cinder blocks. It was exhausting work, but it was made fun because Ruby and her friend Rezilyn joined us the whole time. We spent the day laughing, talking, and joking. Even though Ruby had the day off, she chose to spend time with us and even began working some to help out. As promised, I did paint her nails (and Rezilyn’s!) after lunch because sometimes, even if you’re busy and working hard, girls just need to be girls. Also, in case you were wondering, our nail painting party turned into a dance off between Rezilyn and me. I think it ended in a tie as we just started dancing like crazy together in the middle of Ruby’s one room house.

                At the end of our work day, Ben, Ruby, Rezilyn, and I were walking down the road. After a week of being in the Philippines, Ben and I are used to having people constantly waving to us as we walk past, but Ruby and Rezilyn thought this was hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing. I finally asked what was so funny, and Ruby said, “You look different. They think you are so beautiful. You are like an artist.” I thanked her (“Salamat”) and asked if – instead of an artist – she meant to say a celebrity (“like Katy Perry or Jason Derulo?”). Ruby covered her mouth and laughed about her mistake, but eventually said that yes, she meant celebrity. Moral of the story: We really are treated like celebrities here!

Lastly, I want to give out another coveted award to Ruby. During this same walk down the street, she casually mentioned that her old home was by the sea. I asked her if it was destroyed by Yolanda to which she nodded. I looked her in the eye and said very sincerely, “I am so sorry, Ruby.” She looked at me like I was crazy, pointed in the direction of her neighborhood, and said, “No, it’s okay for me. I have a beautiful new home now!”

                If we treated the Ruby’s in this world like celebrities, our world would be a much different place.