(September 2023 – January 2024)
“What are your plans for the weekend?”
“Well, I fully intend to wake up late and then proceed to slowly get out of bed and have an extremely lazy day,” which was said with certainty.
“Alright, then do you want to play Volleyball with me Saturday night?”
“Sure! Seems fun!” I responded wondering if I was properly understood by my neighbor. It seemed like he just ignored the fact I had plans already.
As we started toward the court, the road had become dirt but was still busy. Multiple chickens decided to cross the road while a loud horn accented the landscape somewhere afar. We took one curvy turn, and in what seemed like the backyard of two houses was our destination, the basketball court.
So, no matter what sport you wish to play, the basketball court is the place to do it here, and apparently, there was a basketball court only 5 minutes away from where I was living in the Philippines. Before this event, I’d been going to the basketball court 15 minutes away from my house.
When we arrived, there seemed to be a uniquely festive atmosphere for what I thought would be a small game of volleyball between friends. I wondered why so many people were around. It turns out, we had just walked onto the set of an impromptu beauty pageant, in which all the local sports teams were competing. I was shocked but equally amused that this entire time I was under the impression I’d be playing a volleyball game.
Each team had picked a muse to represent their team and walk down the makeshift runway. As each muse did so, the community was hollering, ecstatic for this representation. I still recall one muse, who I found particularly cute. They’d won my heart immediately and I found myself hollering along with the crowd.
While I didn’t understand a word from anyone since only Tagalog was spoken, I could tell that these humble folk cared for those around them and that despite the sudden change in plans, I was still enjoying the opportunity to do something new.
That’s what made the Philippines so inviting, I don’t need a plan here, I can simply be present for the world surrounding me. I implicitly trust the people that I’ve met knowing they’ll be showing me some adventure I could never dream of while feeling complete simplicity living here on this fragile rock we call Earth. I’m just grateful this rock exists in this armpit of the galaxy and happens to be teeming with life in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
To feel alive is to accept all the good and the bad. Happiness is fleeting, but so is sadness. Life can’t all be happy if not punctuated by the absurdity of living on this confusing, banal rock. There is nowhere else we can live this life. It’s simply amazing on its own that we experience anything and call it life. Where else can we experience the sensations of a spinning rock circling a plasmic radiator?
Where else can we just breathe?
Just do it, go ahead and take that deep breath.
Take your time and inhale slowly, for about 5 seconds, only exhale once it feels right, and have fun with the process, breathe out as if you’re a dragon expelling fire.
It feels good, doesn’t it?
I’ve been living in the Philippines for some time now, about five months, and I’m lucky enough to experience the feeling of exhaling every day, but sometimes I can forget that I am breathing.
I’ve met many struggles here that I would’ve never experienced back in the US. I constantly struggle speaking Hiligaynon, the local dialect, I struggle taking public transportation despite the ample connections, I struggle walking down streets as I’m always thinking I’ll be run over accidentally, and I struggle being alone at night feeling as if nothing outside of my brain is real.
Despite this, every day, I go outside and surprise myself. I’m no longer alone when I see the neighborhood kids playing some random game I’ve never seen before. I walk across town with no car even close to hitting me. I call the public trikes and even tell them where I want to go in Hiligaynon. Every day I learn something new, I keep practicing Hiligaynon, and, most of all, I remember to breathe. There’s so much this world has to offer and there’s nothing better than reminding myself that I am alive at this moment.
The Philippines is beautiful, and I’ve experienced a new approach to living here.
I went on a camping trip recently and I was reminded that the Earth is dying. I walked into the luscious green bamboo forests dripping with sweat from the intense humidity of the surrounding air. While there, I couldn’t help but think what could’ve been. Noticing notches in a nearby coconut tree, I wondered what they were for, the answer only revealing itself when I came back to see someone on top of the tree cutting coconuts down. What was this forest like 500 years ago, before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines? 100 years ago, before industrialization? 50 years ago before rapid urbanization?
Having studied ecology and environmental sciences, the pain we inflict on Earth due to our societal practices is painfully obvious to me. Hiking through this forest, I don’t hear the wildlife, I only see a lack of large old-growth trees and infestations of invasive plants. While here I accepted the fact that our Earth is dying and I should adopt a stance of grief rather than remorse concerning this fact. Only then can I live in the moment, remember to breathe, and experience the beauty that still exists despite our planet’s dire circumstances.
Can you imagine, hiking through a beautiful forest and not seeing the inherent beauty? Even in the presence of damage or scars, people are still beautiful and the same applies to the damaged ecosystems throughout the world. Just like I needed to accept the fact that I am living on a planet with no given purpose other than life itself, I needed to accept that the world is dying despite nothing I did in particular. Only in doing so can the beauty of what’s here seep through.
I thought back to this realization that night I ended up at a beauty pageant instead of playing volleyball with my neighbors. I was happy because I accepted I wouldn’t be playing any games, I trusted in the goodwill of my neighbor and despite my confusion enjoyed a community coming together.
So I just set up my tent in this forest and am about to go to bed. Wish me luck as I embark on the start of my journey in the hopes of a better, just world.
I’ll start by taking my rest.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are my own and not necessarily those of the Peace Corps or the U.S. Government.
Turn off the Bright Lights 