Tom and Leah in the World

Pic of Month - January - TOM

2012-01-17T00:09:00.000-08:00

One of my jobs is to teach Filipino Literature in English. It is probably the one aspect of my job that relates most to your reading of Heart of Darkness; the topic of colonialism comes up routinely. The teaching of this course is also the most philosophically conflicting part of my job as an American living here in the shadow of colonial power. I’ve learned a lot in my two-years, and I continue to wonder about the extent colonial rule has played in shaping lives here today. So instead of a picture this month, I decided to present some voices from people in my community.

First, I’ll give you a brief background on the Philippines, so you can understand the country in a historical context and appreciate why it is such a great point of conversation for your reading. The archipelago was first colonized by the Spanish. Many Spanish words still permeate through the language, and Spanish traditions are still alive in many parts of the country. With the Spanish-American War everything changed. The US created its first colony. Filipinos were not happy having fought to expel the Spanish only to find that the Americans were not going to leave. A war ensued called the Filipino-American War. Many Filipinos died. Japan occupied the country for several years during WWII before losing it again to the Americans. Eventually, the US was pressured into giving the country its independence. The US continues to enjoy strong ties with the Philippines, and many corporations from the Gap to McDonalds operate businesses in nearly every major urban center throughout the archipelago. The US military maintains a strong advisory role in combating extremism in parts of Mindanao – the archipelago’s most southern islands.

As someone from the US volunteering in the Philippines, I try to view my role here in the context of post-colonial life. Many Filipinos are understandably nationalistic, and I try to remain sensitive and understanding when someone is claiming that reliance on English in schools erodes the country’s identity, or glorification and consumption of products from Western corporations inhibits national growth. These are challenging issues for both Filipinos and Americans in shaping a future relationship.

In our literature class, Arcy and I explore pre- and post-colonial life through story. Given that the early Philippines was a predominantly oral storytelling culture, the pre-colonial world we present is limited to the myths and folktales that have been written down, but there remains a vast body of work that has not been written down. Post-colonial life is routinely discussed, and a lingering “colonial mentality” is an often-referenced term that I have found difficult to define.

Instead of giving you a snapshot of post-colonial life in the Philippines, I’ve decided to ask random people at school to help me define “colonial mentality.” I think this recording helps confirm that colonizing another country has vast untold effects on its population. And as Conrad explores the dark side of colonial pursuits, I thought it might resonate a little more for you to consider a few of the voices of the millions of people in vast numbers of colonizer- and colonized-cultures around the world that continue to grapple with the effects of colonialism to varying degrees.

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So here are some Filipinos in my community trying to answer the question – What is colonial mentality?

Pic of the Month - November - TOM

2011-11-29T00:02:00.000-08:00

“Marriage can wait, education cannot… because a society has not chance of success if its women are uneducated.” – Babi speaking to Laila A Thousand Splendid Suns

Hi Cox Seniors,

I should have known when I signed up for this that I’d be coming to know poverty more intimately than I did when I was a student at Cox. During my senior year, I was living in Birdneck Point staring out my kitchen window at the 17th fairway of the Cavalier golf course each morning; I was completely unaware of the struggles faced by people living in a former American colony halfway around the world. I was completely unprepared, however, for my outrage when I watch a student with great potential get pulled into the cycle of poverty. While reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I thought again and again of my students. They endure hardships with a smile, but sometimes those hardships, coupled with the forces of poverty, deprive them of so many of the things I have taken for granted in my life – food, education, health, and/or shelter.

But this week’s picture is not meant to be a sob story. I chose this picture to celebrate the Lailas of the Philippines. Of the students I have taught, one student kept popping into my mind as I watched Mariam and Laila grapple with the damning effects of poverty. Her name is Glory. She will graduate in April, and when she stands to teach her first class next year and asks her students to take out their notebooks, no one will be there to celebrate her first steps out of poverty. I’ll definitely be thinking about her though. I remember when she became pregnant and faced the prospect of getting kicked out of school because a policy that requires any pregnant students to either marry or withdraw. She married the father. She still wanders into our faculty room selling snacks at 5 cents each. She says she has to sell or she would not be able to pay her tuition. I buy snacks regardless of my hunger.

Poverty is my single biggest source of frustration, but when I get to be in the presence of students like Glory who are clawing their way out peso by peso, I am filled with great hope. I am inspired to make Glory’s path a little easier through education. So this week’s picture is one of the thousand glorious suns that has set over our barangay during the last two-years. And even thought the shadows hide the poverty and those who endure it, the light reminds me of my students who’ve emerged from those shadows.

October Pic of the Month - TOM

2011-10-10T18:11:00.001-07:00

Dear Students,

You won’t find a lot of existentialists hanging around my community this week. They might agree with the absurdity of the picture above, taken after two consecutive typhoons struck nearly identical parts of the country in two-weeks. The trail of destruction and death is the longest of this year’s rainy season, and everyone is grappling to restore a sense of normalcy to their lives.

Part of that effort is ongoing at my school. We have resumed classes, and the delayed final exam week is now in full swing. During English proficiency tests, I asked students, “What can you say about your experience during the storm?” I scribbled notes on their successes and challenges navigating preposition use and personal pronouns, but I also listened to the content of their responses. Repeatedly, students spoke of the need for resilience through shared responsibility. No one said that increasingly powerful typhoons that inundate and destroy vast quantities of rice - their families’ livelihood – was an absurdity that necessitated an act of free will to escape it. They don’t have that luxury.

Finding a picture that relates in some way to Albert Camus’ The Stranger has reminded me of how privileged I was in 1996 to sit in Mr. Lambriola’s class on the second floor of Cox and think critically about my world. How would you view the world if all that stood between your family’s livelihood and destitution was two-weeks of heavy rain?

The students at my school might not appreciate a writer like Camus this week. They would accept that natural disasters are highly unfortunate. They might even agree that two in two-weeks is absurd. But the Philippines remains a group-centered society and a country where over 80% of its inhabitants are Catholic. Poverty is so great that often one typhoon is all that stands between a family eating or going hungry. Instead of subscribing to the idea of free will in the face of life’s absurdity, many families choose the path of shared effort to hold back the absurd from invading their lives. Many are also fiercely fatalistic, claiming bahalana translated as “God willing” "whatever comes" when faced with life’s greatest challenges.

Many of my students might say, “If God plans two typhoons in two-weeks, so be it. It is part of a plan, and I must rise to the test. We Filipinos are resilient. God may have given me free will, and I choose to eat.” It’s these practicalities that water down and muddy philosophies advanced in The Stranger. Yes, Albert Camus has a point about the absurd. When I read the newspaper, I lean toward Camus' belief that we are surrounded by the absurd. But why is it that his argument seems to lose force when it is applied in the context of the picture above – an image of a disaster where the clawing instinct to survive is triggered in those who are least capable of helping themselves?

Regards,

Tom

July-September Peace Corps Philippines

2011-09-22T05:45:00.001-07:00

Tom and Leah in the World

Pic of Month - January - TOM

Pic of the Month - November - TOM

October Pic of the Month - TOM

July-September Peace Corps Philippines

The Third Goal of Peace Corps: Mission Accomplished (in a major way)

Back from a Month of Travel

Some Poetry for the Day - TOM

Pic of Week - June 5-11 - TOM

Pic of Week - May 8-14 - TOM

Pic of the Week - April 3 - 9 - TOM

Pic of the Week - Mar 13-19 - TOM

Pic of the Week - Feb 20-26

Visiting islands and other Peace Corps volunteers

Pic of the Week - Feb 13-18 - TOM

Pic of the Week - Feb 6 - 12 - TOM

Cox Needs Assessment - TOM

Pic of the Week Jan 23-29 - TOM

Thanksgiving Podcast - TOM and LEAH

Pic of the Week - Jan 16 - 22

Pic of the Week - Jan 9-15

November-December 2010

August-October

Married Life in the Peace Corps - TOM

8 Day a Week - TOM

A Conversation with Albert Camus - TOM

Video Contest Entry

Accosted by Acrostics

Taiwan

In A Nut Shell - TOM AND LEAH

Comfort Rooms for All - TOM

RCHI Well Project

RCHI Well Project - LEAH

Volunteer Voices - TOM AND LEAH

Teaching Teachers is Fun - TOM

July_2010-Christening, Gardening, Loving, Teaching

Global Youth Service Day April 2010

Global Youth Service Day: Youth Planting Trees for Life-LEAH

Garden Well Project Complete-LEAH

May_June_2010

May 10th - TOM

Newest pictures_Leah

March-May_2010 Permanent site and travels

RTFM - TOM

Letters to School Children - LEAH

Project Update - LEAH

Dec 09 - March 2010

Teaching on Top of a Volcano - TOM

An Open Letter to Mrs. Molodow's English Classes - TOM

Leaves of Grass - TOM

Litoorahtoor - TOM

The Story of a Bad Luck Mouse - TOM

In the Mixing Bowl - TOM

Training wheels are off! Months1-2 at our permanent site as PCVs

Life Update

Ongoing observations-LEAH

Transitions - TOM and LEAH

Gardening, playing and inspiring youth-Leah Plus an introduction video

Back to the Future - TOM

Transition from Trainees to Volunteers

Life Update - TOM

Trainee to Volunteer Transition - TOM

A Day of Sounds in the Philippines - TOM

Part of the Family - TOM

weeks 8-9 training

Where's My Camera? - TOM

Singing, dancing and smiling - TOM

My Face is Aching with Joy - TOM

Weeks 5-7 Pictures -captions on larger view

Rain - TOM

Gatherings, storms, and more gatherings - LEAH

The learning continues - LEAH

Peace Corps Training - Weeks 1-6 Pics

An outing to a farm-Leah

Very Superstitious - LEAH

Bugs - TOM

A Typical Day as a Trainee - LEAH

Big Honor - TOM

Acronym Mania

The first two weeks in La Union as Peace Corps Trainees