Emily Grund, a 22-year-old US Peace Corps volunteer, would repeatedly answer her host family in Nueva Ecija with “nakalimutan ko (I forgot)” when dared to translate English words to Tagalog.
Ironically, it had become her most unforgettable Tagalog phrase.
In her stay in the country for over a year, she had learned to speak and comprehend the Filipino language while teaching English to high school students at the Zaragoza National High School in Nueva Ecija.
“I try to speak Tagalog every day. It’s hard because I can easily learn one word but I would also easily forget it,” said Grund shifting from English to Filipino. She added it was through the repetition of Tagalog words that she was able to remember common phrases and words.
She said her mission had so far taught her the language and bits about the Filipino culture. “I’m learning a lot. My students love to teach me new words. Halimbawa, one time, we were waiting for a press conference to start, they taught me expressions in the streets like ‘Kasi naman eh,’” she said.
A journalism graduate at the University of Massachusetts, Grund said more than the chance to help other people, her volunteering experience enabled her to learn about cultures other than her own. It was a rigorous effort on her part to learn Filipino as she said it was the easy way to bridge the communication gap.
Common experience
This was a common experience among other volunteers who attended the 50th founding anniversary event of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City on Friday. Various livelihood and environmental projects of the Peace Corps were exhibited at the Music Hall of the SM Mall of Asia.
Charles Enciso, director for programming and training of the US Peace Corps, said volunteers get three months of intensive training before they embark on their respective assignments, one of the lessons was language.
“During the training, they live with Filipino families and they were taught Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano, and Bisaya,” he said.
He said some were able to the learn the language for three months but others managed to do it little by little in the entire 27 months of volunteering services.
Ebonee Ragins, a volunteer in Lagawe, Ifugao, could speak few Ilocano words after four months in the Peace Corps.
“Basit (A little),” she said when asked if she can speak Ilocano. “Cultural exchange is so big here. It’s a wonderful experience. I love sharing them about my African-American culture,” she said.
She said she was organizing a baby shower for her Filipino counterpart in Ifugao who, according to her, had not known what baby showers are for.
“It would be the first baby shower in there,” she quipped.
Helping communities
Since its creation in 1961 by US President John F. Kennedy, Peace Corps volunteers have been working with Filipino communities on several areas including water and sanitation, appropriate technology, health and nutrition, education, fisheries and agro-forestry.
US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said that with the 8, 000 volunteers sent to the Philippines since 1961, the American government is sharing “its most precious resource, our people.”
“Peace Corps volunteers share the hope of peace through the gift of friendship and cultural understanding. They had demonstrated that the success of development can be achieved from the grassroots level,” Thomas said during the anniversary event.
Enciso said Thomas’ statement was supported by success stories in the communities.
“There is this project in Bago, Negros Occidental, where women were taught to make bags out of plastics. For many of those women, it’s the first time they have been able to earn income. They take care of their families, their houses. But there was no opportunity before to earn income,” Enciso said.
He recalled the time when a woman in the community cried to the volunteers after she earned some money from the bags and pay for school fees of the children.
“That is life-changing for her and for her children,” he said.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro and Health Secretary Enrique Ona attended the event.
“I hope that the experience in the past 50 years allowed the 8,000 volunteers to enrich the US with many more of those living testimonies about our country,” Luistro said.