"When I can't understand the language I just play with the kids."

The Meat Market January 28, 2016

I always called the Utah State library the meat market. But today I learned what a real meat market is and it didn't end well. We were visiting the ILP or individual loan clients and I could smell the market before I even knew we were going there. I had been there before but only walked through the meat section. It was a hot day and the smell is overwhelming. I had done it before though so I quickly followed the rest in. We met one of our clients Nanay Merrily. Who you guessed it, is a meat vendor. We began to ask her questions. Right in front of her were pig feet and I couldn't help staring at them. You could see the dirt in the hooves and the hair on the skin. I thought, just look at her. So I looked at her, behind her head was a row of pig heads hanging. I though okay just turn around, thinking there was an empty stand behind us, I turned and there was a whole pig being maneuvered every which was and sliced right down the middle. I thought just look at your feet. By this time I sweating profusely and the nausea I usually feel at the market was only worsening. As I looked down I saw blood flowing through the gate underneath us. Quickly I looked up. I tried looking at her again but just not behind her head. Then I noticed her fingernails, caked with blood. She kept touching her face and mouth. I told Mam Baby I didn't feel well but it was loud and she didn't understand me. By now the room was spinning and things were spotty. The only thing that kept me from not passing out was I knew if I passed out my body was going to touch that floor and there was no way I was letting that happen. Finally we said our goodbyes and I quickly made my way to the edge of the meat section... Little did I know we had another meat vendor to visit. I thought I could make it but I was so hot and put my hands on my knees and head down for a minute. Brad saw me and said he would walk outside with me. We walked outside the market for a minute and I got some fresh (that's relative) air. We went back in and visited a few clients upstairs in the toys and clothes sections. Needless to say I stuck with my Almond Kind bar and not the chicken and pork place everybody else went to for lunch. While Nanay (meaning Nanay Eden) was making dinner I told her this story and she had a good little chuckle. She said my family would love that story. She saw the picture I hung up of you guys on my wall and she loved it. Miss and love you guys. Sorry I didn't take any pictures at the market but hopefully I painted a pretty good picture. Oh and meanwhile as I was feeling worse than I did my junior year at the cadaver lab there was a steady ring of comments from the men meat vendors directed my way. What pigs. Get it? 

Rachel's commentary: Ironically before I went to bed last night I sent Ems a little text about keeping your chin up and making the most of each day, you know just like mom's do. As I was typing it I felt a little like Charlotte in Charlotte's web and told her I had no idea why that little visual, a spider talking to a pig, had popped into my brain. I hadn't thought about Charlotte's Web in years! I had a good laugh to myself about it as I drifted off to sleep..and then woke up to this! The same time I was visualizing Charlotte and Wilbur, a cute little talking pig, Emily was dealing with real pigs, in every variety! 

Nanay Nalia January 25, 2016

Monday was a good day at work. A really good day. We had a center meeting and met Nanay Nalia. She was the coolest. She sported cheetah leggings with a hole in the bum and her bright pink undies poking through. She was one woman who truly wants to succeed and thinks she can do so. She smiled a lot and did lots of hand expressions. She is a masseuse and does home service massages. From the numbers she is claiming she does pretty well. She also sells herbal medicine. Philippines version of doTerra maybe? Haha We asked a lot of questions. If she did a lot of home massages she could make bank. I thought back to the eyebrow parties and wondered if you could do something similar. It isn't exactly home service anymore but she could do more without spending so much time traveling, women could go to a home in their neighborhood which would be easier than going into town. She wouldn't have to pay to rent or own a place. And she would set up the next time the clients come that time so she would always have repeating customers. And she could sell her herbs too if she wanted. It might be hard to explain that concept and work out the logistics. We will see. Anyway, she asked us what the business secret was. She said she has figured out one of them but needed help with the other. The first she said was time management. She has managed being a wife, mother, businesswoman, and friend. David explained the second secret in Tagalog. So it is still a secret to me too. He wrote out some stuff and drew some things on a piece of paper I had brought while he was teaching her. She had us sign our autographs so she could give us some credit when she made it big. Oh and we will be using the "business secret" thing again. People love that. For example, last week I was with mentor Bennie and we walked through a neighborhood that had a few hopia factories. Apparently that is like a hopia central. I couldn't figure out why all four of the hopia factories were built right next to each other. If one person has an idea everybody thinks it is a good idea to do it I guess. Anyway, there was one hopia store that outsold the rest. Bennie said it is because they have a secret ingredient that makes theirs so much better than the rest but won't tell what it is or how it makes it better. Hopia is a cookie type thing that is thick and kind of flaky. The texture is hard to describe, almost grainy or super powdery. Not terrible but not my favorite. I have had it twice now since being here. 

The Hospital--January 23, 2016

I forgot to mention this earlier! The day of the terrible jeepney ride we spent only about 15 minutes visiting a client whose daughter was in a hospital with pneumonia. We got there and I quickly learned she also has cerebral palsy or something like that. It was heart breaking. I didn't take any pictures because I did not want to be rude but I was in shock. The children room kind of looked like a scary orphanage you see in the movies. There were two kids in some beds and everything was very faded and rusted. It broke my heart and I got a little choked up. The world is so much bigger than we think and people have it so much worse off than we do. Everyone stared at us while we were in there. The Nanay really liked me and I held her hand for awhile. I didn't ask much about her business or what she used her loan for. The more and more I visit these women I am learning a lot. Some of these micro-finance groups (including Mentors at times) are hurting women more than they are helping. I just don't think they really understand the concept of interest. Today (Monday) I learned that the APR at Mentors is 50%. My jaw dropped. These women are just getting further into debt and further away from self-reliance. I think those in poverty, especially in the Filipino culture, just are content with the way things are and they have a hard time seeing a vision or thinking they have the ability to create anything great. That breaks my heart a lot too. Every person deserves to think they can do incredible things. 

Week 2 Pictures and Snaps

The Beepney-Jeepney: January 22, 2016

So a jeepney is a jeep/bus they jam people in. There are two rows facing each other and it is basically knee to knee. From what I understand there isn't a company that owns the jeepneys but they just kind of do it on their own. There is some organization and they have names of where they are going but it isn't government public transportation or anything. I found one that was named Jerry & Emily. I also saw one named Annie but didn't grab a picture in time. Well anyway, we had gone with mentor Gilbert to a center not far from the main office. It was a good center and very few of the women were in default. The women made pot holders and peanut butter, ran sorry sorry stores, and one was an even an Avon dealer. I really want to try one of the Nanay's peanut butter but I was having a hard time communicating with her. Anyway, we ended up leaving an hour later than we were supposed to because, you know: Filipino time. We got on a crowded jeepney and it was bumper to bumper traffic. After being on it for an hour we passed the McDonald's that was ten minutes away from the center. I was so mad. Almost three hours later we traveled 10 km (6.2 miles) and arrived back at the office. It was very hot and I was covered in mine and other people's sweat! Next time I am sure a better attitude and a smile or two on my face would make for a less miserable ride. And some headphones and a book on tape. 

First Half Week 2

FIRST DAY OF WORK

The CEO and Global Operations guy were here from Utah so they trained both the Manila branches with some leadership stuff. After we had our orientation and everything. Sorry my first two sentences were far from gripping or exciting but it was a good day. I am writing this while waiting for my yoga to load so I am probably being a little impatient and not all the way there. I should do yoga before I write. Actually you really should do yoga before everything in life. Back to the day, it was a lot of orientation and trying to understand how things work around here. The Filipinos love to tease each other. Imagine a bunch of 30 years olds in a room with their CEO and bosses laughing and ooing and awing when someone mentioned in a story/comment, during a leadership training, that they went to a store with one of their co-workers. They are hilarious. They like to tease us a little bit too. I am the baby or youngest but I can't remember the Tagalog word for it right now. 

FIRST DAY IN THE FIELD

A little bit of culture shock. I went with David and Mentor Bennie to a slum and two center meetings. A lot of the day was in Tagalog which can be frustrating but luckily David (who served an LDS mission in the Philippines) would fill me in with the jist of what was going on. For the next week we are just going to meet clients and get some exposure to the groups. The grameen groups can be frustrating because sometimes they aren't necessarily women who want to grow or really succeed. I think some of that can be fixed with the loan qualification process but that can be hard when you are competing with hundreds of other lending organizations. After asking them all questions I have learned that most of them are loan dependent and have been with mentors for 10+ years. Not a good sign.

One of the groups we visited was really in the slums. Pretty dang poor. Lots of people stacked on top of each other in little shacks. A lot of poop on the roads and these really freaky/sad looking dogs everywhere. This group is having a lot of problems and a lot of the loans are in default. We hung out waiting for the meeting to start at a women's house whose daughter died ten years ago when she was sick with cancer at age 6. For Christmas in 2013 her brother gave her his daughter because she was still in a rut. Her name was Aieesha or Yaya for a nickname. All the little kids love us. And when I can't speak well I just play with them a lot. We visited clients with small "sorry sorry" stores (little stores in the front of their house that sell toys, candy, gum, soap, etc.) and tried to collect some in default but they usually send their kids to the door. The boys say it feels exactly like their missions haha 

MICROFINANCING BACKGROUND

I still don't have it perfect. For more info definitely look up stuff by Muhammad Unis, the father of micro finance. His findings are the basis for these group or centers I am talking about. It is called grameen lending. A group of 40-50 women is called a center. From there they are split into 4 groups. Each group has a leader. Then, the leaders vote which one will be the center chief. They hold each other responsible for the small loans and discuss problems in the group and try to help each other. The other type of loans mentors does is called ILP. These individual loans are often much larger and given to more sustainable businesses. They have really proved they want to be successful. In two weeks I get to start meeting and mentoring with them which I am really excited about. In my opinion, these people have more influence in the economy and really have potential to increase there quality of life even if they are already doing alright. The women in the groups are often nervous to speak English, the Philippines call this "nosebleed" and use that term a lot.  

NANAY

Nanay means mother and ours is the best. You call all older women Nanay. I say it to all the women in the groups because sometimes I can not understand or remember names. Our Nanay is a pretty good cook. This morning (Thursday) was the first morning we didn't have rice. We love the chicken curry. But I am craving a good chicken breast. Here, you just try and nibble a few pieces off the bones. She cleaned my roomed today but loves to always rearrange the furniture in our rooms and the apartment. It is pretty funny. It is sad she feels inferior to us. It is a little crowded but we started pulling up a chair for her at our meals even though she was hesitant and denied us at first. The only hard thing about the food is it is a lot of rice and bread because meat and vegetables are more expensive, even though we do have them at meals there is just not always a lot of them. I also always want to try the new things and the "dirty icecream" or street ice cream is 15 pesos. 

I am going to switch things up, instead of sending a big email I will do multiple short ones with little snippets and stories. So this is only the first half of my week. Love you!!!

Pictures and Snaps She's Sent Our WayThis Week

Week 1: SEED Internship in the Philippines Jan 2016

Rachel's commentary: It seems she wrote this over a couple of days and it jumps back and forth a bit. She flew from SLC on Wednesday AM and arrived in Manila late Thursday night and finally got to her apartment early early Friday AM. She was traveling alone and the rest of the group (there are six of them total) didn't arrive until Sunday afternoon. She decided to heed the program's rules which say that the women shouldn't travel outside the apartment complex without a guy which meant she was alone and stuck inside the complex for the first two and half days. She did venture with Carlos to church on Sunday and was excited to get home and have some company finally! 

GETTING HERE

Well, it only took me a day and a half but I did finally get here. Thanks to dad the small layovers were nice. In Gaungzou going through immigration or whatever it is was taking forever. Luckily about 1/3 of my plane was headed to Manila so we took off a little late and didn't leave anyone. You have to take a bus to the plane instead of boarding straight from the terminal. I met quite the bunch. While waiting in the line I talked to a cute girl who was 27 or 28 from the Philippines she was dating or married to some guy from Tennessee and they were with two other guys. They seemed like nice normal Americans. She invited me to some Mardi Gra celebration on Cebu this Sunday with them haha I don't think they realized I wasn't even old enough to drink. On the bus I talked to a kid who was from Layton and is traveling around the Philippines by himself for a month because he needed a vacation and a giant old fat guy with a hairy chest, mustache, a stretched out tattoo on his bicep, and a new balance shoes who was going to pick up his fiancé. He noted it was long over due Haha Carlos picked me up, he waited for two hours for me! He started walking away with a white girl named Emily and then asked her her last name and it was definitely the wrong Emily. He loves to talk and like most here is really friendly. Our taxi driver ran out of gas and so we had to switch and I got here about 1 AM. I have to say, the most nervous I have felt was switching terminals at LAX. Creepy head nods from cab drivers and cat calls from constructions workers. 

THE APARTMENT

They are nice and cozy. And my cozy I mean tiny. I can't complain though. The pool is a great addition and I have spent a lot of hours by it. I am excited to get to know the members who live here because I know there are some. There are a lot of cute little kids who run around. One asked me today what I was doing when I was jump roping. There are always people out and about. I stock up on water a couple times a day from the little store underneath the "clubhouse". It is all very nice but like everything in Manila it is a little dirty. It gets much dirtier the second you step outside the gates though. The pollution isn't bad like I thought it would be. Blue skies and big clouds now, but when you look at the skyline there is definitely a layer of junk. I think most people who live here are pretty wealthy for Filipino standards.

TAGALOG

Everything is written in English and most people speak it. But I do need to learn some just because I feel like an uncultured ungrateful ignorant American who doesn't even know the lingo. Last summer I learned that even if they do know English if you say hello or thank you in their native language it means a lot. 

FOOD

Well I can't say much about that because I have been living off protein bars, fruit leather, gummy bears, and the cheez-its I got with my last American dollars in LAX. The store here mostly has junk food too. 

CHURCH

Man, it is just the best. They are so so happy and so friendly and kind. I was swarmed after sacrament meeting. It is about 50% English/Taglish. I go to a young single adult Sunday school class. It is the Pasig 1st ward. I didn't get to go to relief society because the other interns were locked out. I am excited to go this week and get to know the members better!

MONDAY

Nanay is a cutie. (Nanay is the cute little lady that will be cooking breakfast and dinner for them and doing their laundry) She is about 4'9'' and has a son and daughter about my age. She cooked pork and rice for breakfast and chicken adobo for dinner. The biggest adventure of the day was going with her to the market. I was gagging the whole time. This is the stinkiest city in the world. There was all sorts of meat and fish. I witnessed a whole pig get split right open as I was walking by. I had nanay get the chicken for dinner while I went to the bank because I didn't want to be nervous to eat it. The girls got massages for $6. Bergen (Bergen is one of the girls and she is married to Lincoln Perkins' older brother, Taylor, who is also interning) said it felt just as good as her $60 one in the states so it is a steal. 40 cent ice cream cones are hard to turn down though. We spent tonight at the basketball court. The boys played and the girls chatted. Of course the 16 year old boys thought I was a movie star or something and asked for pictures. We have decided that we should just go down to the studios or something and try and make a little extra cash. It was an experience, I am still trying to get used to the smell here. 

I should have known... Trevor and I have always been a lot alike so of course my emails would be long (love you T Lloyd) Shoutout to everyone who got to this paragraph. I am sure once I start work and don't spend 24 hours a day by myself the emails will get shorter. I can layout and write this though which I am doing now haha They probably think I am crazy for laying out. They walk around with umbrellas to block the sun. Until I find a book I can get hooked on (I read the first chapters of like 6 books on the way over here) I have been reading Little Women. Makes me think of my sisters! I am determined to catch my fist sunset here. I have heard they are good. My first night I feel asleep at 5 because of jet lag and then woke up at 4 the next morning. I am a little bit sleep and fresh food/nutrient deprived. While I was asleep Friday night  MP was freaking out because they thought I got abducted or something. (The people from the office, MP, had come over to check on her and couldn't get her to answer the door because she was out cold asleep). I am alive though haha. Traveling to the other side of the world all by yourself is pretty exhilarating though. Lots of time to think and root. Everyone needs to do something that pushes them outside there comfort zone, big or small. Love you all!!!