Peace Corps newlyweds at home with Filipino family of 10

MANILA, Philippines—There’s nothing like Filipino ways to make this American couple feel right at home.

He was teased mercilessly whenever he did the laundry. She was always urged to eat the “double banana” so she would bear twins when the time comes.

In a home they shared with a family of 10, Scott Kumis and Jessica Folk experienced the Filipino sense of family—loving and enduring beyond age, laid-back and playful despite meager means.

“I think I smile more here,” said Jessica, 31, a teacher.

“I think the strong family culture of the Philippines is so important, and it’s such a beautiful thing. It’s what welcomed us into this country and [it’s important] to be able to go back [to the United States] and share that,” said Scott, 32, a lawyer.

Scott and Jessica are among 204 US Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) now serving in the Philippines, one couple among eight. They had only been married nine months when they, sweethearts since their late teens, arrived in August 2009 to begin their two-year service.

They spoke with the Inquirer at a reception on March 1 at the residence of US Ambassador Harry Thomas in North Forbes, Makati City, to celebrate the corps’ 50th anniversary.

Open doors, homes

Some 8,300 American volunteers have served in the Philippine Peace Corps Program—the second oldest among the US Peace Corps programs—since 1961, pursuing projects involving education, coastal resource management, and child, youth and family concerns.

“I don’t think we could ask for a better host. Homes, doors are opened wide for volunteers to come in. They become a member of the family,” said Sonia Derenoncourt, US PCV country director.

The same level of support has been constant from both local and national governments, Derenoncourt said, noting how Philippine officials had continued to request volunteers to serve in their respective towns or agencies.

“I think what is most striking to them is exactly the hospitality of the people, their joy of living,” she said.

Scott Kumis and Jessica Folk experienced this firsthand when they stayed with an extended family in the fourth-class municipality of Caba, La Union, located midway to their workplaces: he at a rehabilitation center for children in conflict with the law in Bauang, and she at the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University in Agoo.

Scott, an avid drummer, teaches music to out-of-school boys at the center as part of a comprehensive rehabilitation program. He hopes to raise funds to purchase new musical instruments that the center can use after he leaves.

Jessica, who trains local teachers in educating special-needs children, aims to establish a resource center where teachers, students and community members may learn about effective methodologies in special education teaching.

Family life

Scott noted a difference in the way Americans and Filipinos cared for elderly family members.

“There’s certainly a good family culture in the US as well, but I don’t see people going to nursing homes in the Philippines,” he said. “People live with their family and [they are cared for] until they die, and it’s so beautiful. It’s nice to bring that back to the US, to remind people of that.”

Far from living the independent life they led in their native Chicago, the couple found, lived and shared a lesson that may well cultivate a long and lasting marriage.

“We lived with our host family for almost a year. We still live near them. That is quite a change from being extremely independent adults to becoming a part of a family, and how you work well within an established family,” Jessica said.

The stay came with a generous sprinkling of Filipino humor.

“I got laughed at every day that I was doing the laundry. The lolo (grandfather) in our house would come out, he’d see me, and he’d be like, ‘Oh, Scott’s doing the washing,’” Scott recalled, chuckling.

Added Jessica: “We were always given double bananas, because if you eat a double banana, it means that you’re going to have twins. And everyone wants us to have twins, so we’ll take one back with us and leave one with them here.”

(US PCV couples are not allowed to bear children during their stay in the Philippines.)

Shared experience

The shared experience of being adopted by a Filipino family is one souvenir that the couple will take with them when they leave before the end of the year.

“It’s interesting that as we move on with our careers after this, we have a common experience to draw from. Not many married couples do that … And by sharing this experience, we have this common starting point for the rest of our lives,” Scott said.

“You know, in the US, sometimes when your parents get older, you put them in a nursing home. That will never happen here. You take care of your family. That’s something I definitely learned and will take back home with me,” he said.