The world called, they answered

And now, they’re in Bohol.

Serving for almost a year now with their host organizations in Bohol, Peace Corp Volunteers (PCV) Jessica Miguel, Kate Jaffe, Kristin Kuhn, Todd Massari and Abby Samuelson are not the usual Amerikana/Amerikano you see around town.

They’re the real deal, here to share their skills and knowledge with their host institutions and communities for a two-year volunteer program. The Peace Corps, run by the government of the United States of America, deploys volunteers all over the world with three main goals, one, to provide technical assistance (for social and economic development at the grassroots level of their host countries), two, to help people outside the United States understand U.S. culture, and, three, to help Americans understand the cultures of other countries.

The five PCV batch mates, after their three-month training in Dumaguete, started their service in Bohol on November 2010. Already passionate with volunteering and development work in their respective communities in the U.S., their PCV stint here marks the fulfillment of living out their Peace Corps dream. The application process to be a PCV is quite arduous and to be accepted in the Peace Corps is a huge deal.

Equally unbending are their training modules, particularly with the local language and culture. The PCV Cebuano language module is one of the best Cebuano language resource books around. It’s no wonder, the five all speak and understand Cebuano, that’s bisaya to us, fairly well. Dili mabaligja, true.

Abby, who’s working as an English teacher at the Tubigon West National High School, for instance, speaks street bisaya, nay, make that, bisaja quite well. Of course, her constant interaction with the locals, high schoolers at that – and you never know what new bisaya slang kids take from Teban & Goliath these days – gives Abby the best conditions to learn the language, the culture behind the language, included. 22-year-old Abby is from Kansas and studied Sociology and International Studies.

Jessica Manuel, 23, an International Development studies graduate from Fresno, California, likewise teaches English, a few towns east of Abby’s, at the San Jose National High School in Talibon. Almost Fil-Am looking, being of Mexican descent, Jessica constantly gets questions about her Pinay-ness, she’s referred to, in jest, as THE Filipina of the Bohol Five. There are perks to that, but it could also get taxing, to be referred to as THE “tour guide” of the four other PCVs each time they go around. But Jessica gets by. She especially gushes about her work at San Jose High and especially with her students.

Kate Jaffe, 23, from New Jersey, studied Psychology and had worked before with teenage girls, so she got assigned at the Bohol Crisis Intervention Center, this city. She’s introduced great programs at the crisis center, including pushing for their going back to regular school, creating various activities for the girls like life skills trainings, children’s rights workshops, among other. An interesting note about Kate is that she dyed her blonde hair to dark so she wouldn’t stand out too much amongst the ocean of black-haired “us”.

Kristin Kuhn, 24, and Todd Massari, 23, on the other hand, are doing coastal resource management (CRM) work under the Municipal Agriculture Office of their host local government units, the municipalities of Clarin and Maribojoc, respectively.

From Connecticut, Todd’s been wanting to join the Peace Corp since high school. Todd is a trained marine biologist and got the perfect fit for his expertise. He helps with the management of Maribojoc’s rich coastal resources which include mangrove environments as well as marine protected areas. He has even expressed interest in helping with the Mabaw Reef conservation, whose stewardship is collectively shared by the five LGUs (Maribojoc, Cortes, Panglao, Tagbilaran and Dauis) that flank the Maribojoc Bay where the marine protected area sits.

Kristin is from San Diego, California. Though, not necessarily a marine biologist – she took up political science and international relations – she did have quite an experience doing marine biology related volunteer work back in San Diego, hence the CRM designation. She drives a bicycle around the Clarin poblacion, so she’s pretty known around town as that “Amerikana with the bike”. They will always pop out in the crowd and just learn to live with that, pretty much. Kristin, who’s also an artist, oftentimes, helps Kate with the bigger art projects at the BCIC.

In fact, Jessica, Abby, Kristin, Kate and Todd – truly volunteers, at heart – don’t stop helping at their PCV-assigned work. The girls, early this year helped out in the Faces of Tomorrow medical mission here in Tagbilaran City. (Faces of Tomorrow is a US-based non-profit which provides medical treatment to an underserved population of children, youth, and adults who might otherwise not receive the benefit of surgical treatments for their cleft lip or cleft palate.) And they’re also still keeping track of the served patients for routine follow-ups.

The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. The Peace Corps grew from that inspiration.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. Since the first batch of PCVs in 1961, 200,000+ Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 139 host countries working on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation. Of these, over 8,521 Peace Corps Volunteers have since served in Philippines. And, probably about close to forty or more have served in Bohol. And there’s more to come.

Just recently, a new batch of PCV’s were deployed here in Bohol. They are couple Micah Roth and Wyatt Graft, who’s assigned in Talibon, and Constance Johnson and Caitlyn McElroy, in Tagbilaran and Dimiao, respectively.

We know the Peace Corps has been around in the province since 1962, thereabouts. There are other volunteers from other global volunteer organizations, too, here or who’s been here to share, as well as learn from us. Of course, we have Bol-anons out there, as well, somewhere, juggling homesickness, adapting to the local cultures and doing development work.

It is heartwarming, this global exchange of humanity at its finest. The earth is beaming.

(This article also appeared in LifestyleBohol of The Bohol Chronicle on October 9, 2011.)