This weekend's trip to the big city came with a "to do" list of a length proportionate to the time it has been since I've last gone to Tagbilaran. That is, by all accounts, a good sign. Back when I was living in Lila (the past tense of that still thrills me), frequent trips to Tag were a necessity. In large part because I had to do all my grocery shopping and errand running there, but also because it was a much needed mental break - a place to meet friends, drink a beer, and just get away from the persistent challenges of my site for a while.
Which is why I say it's a good thing that the weekend's "to do" list was so long. I still need Tagbilaran, but I don't need it quite as much. Here in Clarin, I can buy a loaf of whole wheat bread or credit for my cell phone at the corner store. Sure, for anything beyond that I still need to go to Tag, but that's just fine. Most importantly, I don't need the city so much for the escape. I like Clarin. I'm happy here. I choose to be here on my weekends. And that is a very good thing.
Plus, I'm about twice as far away as I used to be. But that's okay too because I find this corner of the island really, really beautiful, and I'm a new enough transplant that I still find pleasure in spending the entire bus ride just staring our the window. There's a sense of space up here that's hard to come by other places on Bohol.
So this weekend, shopping lists in hand, Abby and I headed south. Sometimes I think we look more and more out of place the longer we've lived here. It's as though at first we put more energy into fitting in to this new culture, but now that we don't feel like visitors anymore, we have the unintentional confidence to be weirdos again. We are, after all, different. Though there is no single type of person who ends up as a Peace Corps Volunteer, anyone on the island of Bohol may think otherwise. Between the five of us, we have quite an impressive collection of odd sunglasses (the ones Abby are wearing above have flip up lenses), non-lobe ear piercings, tattoos, loudly colored nylon shorts, reusable water bottles and quick-dry underwear.
The first stop of the morning was to see the PCTs' community projects in action. The education cluster were facilitating a mural painting. They all swear in in a couple weeks, which kind of blows my mind because it feels like just a hot minute ago that Batch 269 was making the transition from trainees to volunteers, yet here we are, just a month away from being halfway through our service, and the new kids are about to take the reins.
But enough of that. The whole point of this post is actually to introduce you to the newest member of my Bohol family: Isabel. There she is strapped creatively into the back of a trike (the picture uploaded oddly, with that neon green stripe, but let's call it art). On my to do list was "look at bikes", because I had finally planned on putting my PC bike allowance into action. It's a bit late in service to be just now getting a bike, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to do it back in Lila. I think that's because I was never really convinced I was going to be there long-term, and getting a bike felt a little too much like putting down roots. Now, however, I'm in it to win it. I'm going to be in Clarin until November of 2012, and I've got places to go, things to see, and calories to burn. With Isabel, it was love at first site. She's got an aluminum frame, disk breaks, and a bad attitude. She's a little on the small side, but so is everything when you're my size and living in the Philippines. You get used to it, and we're getting along fabulously.
That same afternoon, Abby and I took our bikes out for a sweaty ride around Tubigon, where we discussed their personalities and gave them their names, Isabel and Frederick. The four of us have big plans to explore all the little nooks and crannies and hidden back roads of our towns. And there you have it. Settling in is feeling a lot like freedom.
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