VSO Training Weekend: Brief Facts

It's been a month since I've updated but finally things are starting to come together in regards to my VSO placement. These last few days I've been up North at my training weekend prepping and generally having a proper good laugh; getting to know all the awesome people I'll be volunteering with.

I did start off the weekend with some trepidation.  Was I going to gel with my team? Was it going to be power point after mind numbing power point? Are my cheek muscles going to cope with permanent smiling in order to overcome my resting bitch face? And most importantly was I going to have a smoking buddy? Never mind the crucial stuff I should have been worrying about, like information about placement and what risks am I likely to face.

Luckily all my worries were unfounded: my team is sick, there was lots of participation led training, my face muscles survived and it seems half my team are a bunch of dirty smokers like myself. And while a lot of other worries and issues were addressed during the training, I'm informed enough to feel pretty chill about the whole process. My mind is however completely saturated with information now and it would be impossible to write down everything I've learned this weekend in one post. So here are a few interesting facts I've learnt about VSO, the Philippines, my team mates and myself to start with:

1) VSO ICS volunteers usually live in a host home with an in country counterpart. So I will be living
not only with my family but a Filipino VSO volunteer

2) The VSO try and match it's volunteers to placements that they feel best suited to the volunteers skill's and interests when volunteers get into country

3) On placement there are Active Citizenship Days where you can work with a in country volunteer partner to plan and carry out your own project that can help the community you're working in. For example organising a fun run to raise money for community resources or compiling a sustainable programme to help address important issues like health or human rights

4) The VSO really have a thing for acronyms

5) Cebu has a reggae scene

6) Filipino's are known for their passive and non confrontational attitude (hopefully something which will rub off on me)

7) It is, as my lovely team mate put it, 'roasty toasty' weather wise over there. Low temperatures in Cebu averaging 20c and high temperatures averaging 36c

8)  I'm pretty good at 'the hat game'/charades

9) My team have a wicked sense of humour

10) Everyone going to the Philippines value sustainable and ethical volunteer work

11) I'm not the only person thinking about taking a stuffed animal with me to the Philippines...phew.

12) I'm not the anti social git I thought I was...or maybe it's a super positive reflection on my team mates personalities