Miami University

Miami University is ranked number eight on the Peace Corps' top 25 list for medium-sized schools, with 42 alumni currently serving as volunteers. Among them is Katie Kaskey, a 2007 teacher education graduate, who is working in the Philippines.

Kaskey has been sending regular emails updating her professors and Miami friends about her experiences. Here are excerpts:

August 2007
Not too much is going on now...people still stare at me hard core, but we had a town party the other day and I got to go on stage in front of thousands of people and eat balut...so they like me now! By the way, balut is an everyday treat of a duck fetus...with hair and a beak.

September 2007
Hey all, ...still having a ball. My school just finished their intramural competitions, and I couldn't be more proud of my students. There was dancing, volleyball, barefoot basketball and even vocational skills. My students were out in the blazing heat plastering walls and one of my seniors was welding!

October 2007
After visiting another volunteer in Baguio (one of the coolest cities in the world!), I realized just how different volunteers' experiences are. For example, she works in a developed city where she can blend in with everyone else. She can have a beer in public and come home at 4 a.m. without anyone caring. She has a microwave in her house and eats vegetables on a daily basis. And then there's my site.....in a rural location placed in the "rice bowl" as Filipinos call it (the middle of nowhere), women are not permitted to leave the house past 6 p.m.

November 2007
School is back in session, and I have over 300 new students' names to learn. That's just in the high school.

Let's talk about my bahay (my house!). I might have mentioned that my new house used to be a junk yard. There's a huge garden yard too...full of junk. The owner promised me that he would clean it before I started renting. That didn't happen. So, for days now I've been putting in four-five hours a day cleaning this dump, and I didn't even start on the garden! First, I had to clog a giant hole in my bathroom wall to stop snakes from coming in....used a rock.

December 2007
I'm working on building a library at school, still teaching college and hosting a radio slot called "rockista" and going to Baguio later next month to shoot more episodes of my Spanish show. So....BUSY!! Not to mention, it's still takes me three hours to wash my clothes. Take care and enjoy the holidays.

January 2008
School is starting back up so I'm really busy....I'm making a 5 by 5 foot scrabble board from bamboo so my whole class (well a group....remember I have +75 kids per class) can play at once. It seemed like a good idea. AND....rainy season is over...which means there's less insects around to eat.

Most days are pretty good, but some really make me happy. One of my high schoolers stopped going to school and wanted to drop out to become a tricycle driver (said his classmates), so I went to his house. It's great...just walked in uninvited, threw a mango at him and told him to go back to school. He was in class today.

February 2008
First, remember that student I talked about that wanted to drop, but I threw a mango at him, and he returned to school?..well, he dropped, and I could chuck a watermelon at him with no results. Boo. Oh well, he lives in my neighborhood and always offers to drive me everywhere in his tricycle and buy me balut (the duck fetus).

I've started a nutritional cooking class that is so much fun! I'm learning a lot. And I think I'm teaching college forestry this summer.

Since the Peace Corps' inception in 1961, 782 alumni like Kaskey have joined the ranks, making Miami the No. 44 producer of volunteers for all time.