Heaven and Hell in the Philippines: Journal of a Peace Corps Volunteer

The author served as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in the Philippines from 1985 to 1987 as an agro-forestry specialist. This book is a daily journal describing some of the encounters, experiences, trials and tribulations he went through as he became a part of the culture and daily life of a small farming community in Quirino Province. This book is a transcription of his entire journal - he made a journal entry every day while he was gone. In fact the journal begins on the day that he left his home in Fairbanks, Alaska and ends when he arrived back home in Fairbanks. Because it's a journal, it is written in the first person, there is an abundance of "I did..." and "we did...". Every entry is dated and the expenses for each day are also recorded. Parts of it may be extremely boring and even mundane to you, the reader, but everything that is recorded here was significant in the specific day of life for the volunteer as he did his best to accomplish something that would have a lasting impact on the lives of the local people. The author was older than the average PCV and as such, he had ideas that were a bit different than them, for example, he bought his own water buffalo and set up a large demonstration farm to show the benefits of contour plowing and farming, something which many local people said was impossible for a water buffalo to accomplish. By the time he completed his service, however, every farmer in his small community was doing contour farming, so apparently it was not impossible. This book is recommended for any person who has a dream of becoming, or has been a PCV. If you're one who wants to serve, this book will show you exactly what you might expect to have happen to you at some point in your service as you go through the stages of culture shock, acculturation, acceptance into your community and more. If you're a returned PCV (RPCV) this book will make you recall some of your own trials and tribulations and probably make you laugh about them. Note that this book speaks briefly of some gay sexual encounters. There are, however, no long and drawn out descriptions of these encounters, no graphic sex.

About the Author :
Daniel Wieczorek was born in 1947 in Ionia, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Forestry in 1969. He moved to Oregon to work in the field of forestry in 1971. That was followed by a move to Alaska in 1975, where he continued his career in forestry. After about a 14 year career in forestry, Daniel decided to do something different and he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Philippines from 1985 - 1987. Upon completion of his Peace Corps service he returned to Alaska, where he attended the University of Alaska - Fairbanks and received an M.B.A. in 1991. This was followed by a move to South Korea in 1992, where Daniel taught English to Korean people wishing to improve their English Language skills. Daniel's next stop was in New York City, where he worked as temporary staff at Deutsche Bank from 1998 - 2001. He left NYC in March 2001 and moved on to his present home in Mitaka City, Tokyo, Japan. He is teaching English in Japan and at this time he's been teaching as a career for about 17 years. He has been hiking, climbing and doing photography since he was about 12 years old. At the present time he's been in Japan for 15 years. He and his same-sex life partner were married in Ashland, Oregon on August 10, 2015 and at this time he and his partner are in the middle of the long process of getting a green card so that they can go to and live in Alaska. It will, of course, be a return for Daniel, but for his partner it will be his first experiences of Alaska, his first opportunity to see the Aurora Borealis in the winter, the midnight sun in the summer and much, much more. By the way, if you're curious, he never did make a return trip to the Philippines. Eventually he lost contact with George, Ronald, Nestor and everybody else in the Philippines. At the present time the only fellow PCV's that he still has contact with are JB and Katie F.