Yvanovich.com Family Portal

It was like a scene from Fear Factor, except around the dinner table. Ate Lucy, our host mother, brought home balut two nights ago. For those of you who have not heard the horror stories, I will fill you in. Balut is a fertilized duck egg that is partially grown. It is then hard boiled and salted. When cracked there is a baby duck surrounded by egg yolk. Gross!

New pictures have been posted. We went out on our last day at site for a quick photo walk at around 4pm. Unfortunately, this is also the time that the entire village decides to burn their garbage so the air was incredibly hazy. Therefore, they are not the best pictures but will give a general idea of where we live. Anthony and I are doing well. We have managed to remain relatively healthy. Other PCVT's are dropping like flies! Keep us in your thoughts as you are in ours.

Anthony and I have just gotten back from our site visit. This was a five day excursion to see the place we will be living at for the next two years. Our island is beautiful and amazing. There is so much to tell!

I hope everyone at home is doing well. Anthony and I are doing great here. Our life is starting to have a bit of normalcy to it. We have been working hard on language and community skills. Our language is really coming along well. I have learned more in the past 3 weeks than I ever thought was possible! Anyway, yesterday our cluster group put on a water game day for the neighborhood kids.

I have posted more pictures to the gallery. Remember just create and account on yvanovich.com and then email Katie or Anthony and we can give you access. If you already have access visit our gallery.

Anthony did it! We were finally able to upload our pictures! They are only able to be viewed by friends and family, however. This is in compliance with Peace Corps policy. Sorry strangers!
To get access to our amazing photos you need to make an account. To do this first, click on the "new account button" on the left side. Then, fill out the form. After, you need to check your e-mail for the confirmation and follow the subsequent directions. Lastly, e-mail katie or anthony and we will give you access. When you recieve our reply, you can click on the "photo gallery" link on the left side to view the pictures. Don't forget to sign into yvanovich.com first! Sorry for the pain but we would hate to be "administrativly seperated" from the Peace Corps so early! Love you all!
Katie and Anthony

Hello to Everyone!
We just wanted to say how much we love the e-mails of support that we have been getting. There is no way to describe the feeling of joy when we open our e-mail and see that someone is thinking of us. The letters have, literally, brought about tears of happiness. When things are going hard, the words of love from home can really lift us up. I guess it lets me know that I have not, actually, fallen of the face of the earth! There are people who still remember me! Things are going well here, but I don't know when I have ever been so busy. I have not had a chance to write in my journal or respond to written coorespondance. They say that, during training, there is time to do much of anythying. Tomorrow, Saturday, Anthony and I will be learning how to cook over an open fire. We are cooking Bicol Express, Chicken and Pork Adobo, Chop Suey, and Fruit Salad. And of course rice because no Philippino meal would be complete with out rice! It should be an interesting day. I'll be sure to post on Sunday to let everyone know how it went. As I'm posting, Anthony is working on a way to post picutures. Hopefully some generic ones will be up soon, with more specific ones for memebers only. We give our love to everyone!

I don't know if everyone knows this, but Katie and I aren't actually Peace Corps Volunteers. As such we can't refer to ourselves as PCV. Right now we are lowly Peace Corps Volunteer Trainees, (PCVT). We don't actually become full fledged volunteers until June 10, 2005. Right now we are going through training, which is a brutal process which destroys all happiness and free time that a person could possibly have. As an example, I'll outline our day yesterday...

Hello!
Anthony have recieved our site placement. This is the place we will call home for the next two years. Our placement is in the region of Bicol on the island of Catanduanes! We are so excited about our placement! We will not start living there until June. They call our island and Eco-paradise, it is still untouched by tourism. It is a beautful little island that offers world-class surfing, snorkling, and scuba diving. It is located on the "typhoon belt of the Philippines". Our island is the first hit by a typhoon and the hardest hit as well. Anthony and I will proably end up building a Nipa Hut. This is a small house built of bamboo. Can you believe that we are actually going to be living in a bamboo house on the typhoon belt of the Philippines? No, I can't either! Here is more information about Catanduanes. We are sending all our love home!
Katie and Anthony

I'm not sure if things have been getting better but there are a few good signs of hope. One of the most important parts of the Peace Corps is fitting into the community that you live in. The philosophy is that if the community learns to like and respect you they will protect you. I'm still not sure if the whole commnity really like us but there are a few signs. Everyday, Anthony and I walk through a rice field to get to the "bayan". (town proper). At first, Anthony got a lot of "Hey Joe!" and I got a lot of cat calls. Now there are a some kids across the rice field that live in these little wooden houses. They wear clothes that are often ripped and their hair is sometimes dirty but they are always, always smiling. Well, when Anthony and I walk across the rice field, we have started hearing them call out "Ate Katie!" and "Kuya Anthony". (Pronounced Awtee and Kooya) Literally translated into English it means Big Sister and Big Brother. However, here it is a sign of respect and friendship. They wave their small arms high in the air and calling out "Kamusta Ka?", which means "How are you?". Often they will run half way into the field and hold our hands as we walk. There are often more kids than we have hands, so each hand had has about 5 kids. There is always room for one more in the Philippines! No one is ever left out. This may be a small step in the acceptance of the community but we will take it! I hope that this is the start of good times to come.