romblon is an amazingly cute little town. we had a beautiful sunrise on the trip here (6 am boat!). i really love it and have the feeling i will be here quite a bit.
[sunrise over romblon island]
rey, a guy who lives in long beach, has an office here that he let jenn and i stay in for free, so i am hoping that will continue while i am here. he works for an organization called SIKAT that runs the sanctuaries on romblon island and it seems like a great program. sadly, he doesn't have work i can help with really apart from maybe the last week of september. too bad; it would really provide the direction and information i need. it is amazing to me that i am introduced as an expert when .... i know so very little.
we went diving at a place a ten minute or so boat ride away from romblon. the guy who runs it is swiss, josef, and has been here in the philippines for the past 15 years or so. he made the house reef there a protected area, and it has been for the last seven years. it looks much better than the one in carmen where i will be working. the coral there all appears to be in good condition and there are lots of fish, invertebrates, biodiversity all around. i haven't bought moisture munchers for my camera yet, so i don't have any underwater pictures, but i am going to buy some this weekend while i'm here in boracay, so hopefully will have some cool pictures to post soon. it was beautiful though and very interesting and it felt so, so good to be back under the water. it is impossible to describe diving to non-divers, but it is truly another world down there. and to be able to experience it right alongside all the fish and hydrozoans and corals makes it much more personal. it is a freeing experience, much like i imagine flying to be. i hope i can go diving a lot while i am here.
i came back to long beach feeling very refreshed and slightly more optimistic about the work to be done here. i will not be given a lot of direction, and so that means i need to just go and do what i know needs to be done. how much that is actually possible still remains to be seen, but hopefully i can spend however long i end up staying (yes, i am toying with the idea of leaving early...) doing something productive and useful. i don't want to complain about it too much, but it has been disappointing. i am really trying to stay optimistic about it and hope that i can find something meaningful to do while i'm here. it is a challenge; i can see what needs to be done, but i also realize that i am only one person with very limited resources and that it may just not to be possible for me to do it alone. i will, obviously, do what i can.
the people at the department of agriculture have actually been very helpful this week and have some concrete things they would like me to do and help them with, so i hope to get the ball rolling with those soon. they are a bit far away, but i have someplace i can stay in san agustin, so maybe i will spend a few weeks there working in the office with them at some point.
at least there are mangroves to be planted, and pictures to be taken in the sanctuary, and field guides to be made. something immediate, that i can work on now.
on a completely different note, i bought a bike when i first got here. it's a fairly decent bike – even has gears and everything – and since the sanctuary is 7 km away, the department 14 km away, i figured a bike would be useful to have as a way to get around so i wouldn't have to pay for a tricycle or motorbike every time. so, on monday (10 september), i decided to ride my bike to the sanctuary. i get on and am pedalling down the road and saying hi to all the staring children and answer the oh-so-common "what is your name?", "where are you going?" questions and avoiding the leers of the men and the next thing i know the seat is wobbling all over the place and then just falls off. in the middle of the road, as i am riding it. i certainly got stares for that one. see the problem is that i am tall. much taller than anyone here. and so i had adjusted the seat as far up as it would go which still isn't nearly tall enough because my knees still touch the handle bars on the up-pedal, but apparently i put it so tall that you couldn't actually tighten it. so, one of the guys got out his wrench and helped me put it back in and off i go. then, another kilometer or so down the road, i'm pedalling along, and all of a sudden ... one of the pedals falls off. so i stop and see that it's just come unscrewed and so i get out my leathermen and am trying to get the thing to screw back in again and i am dripping with sweat because it is so freakin' hot outside and there are about eight children crowded around me staring as i do this and i couldn't get a good grip on the screw because it is too big for my leathermen and so some other guy came over with a wrench and helped me. and on i went, thanking them. about a km from the sanctuary, the other pedal comes off and this time there aren't any houses around and so i walk to the nearest house and they don't speak any english and so i'm making pedalling motions with my hands and trying to show that the pedal fell off and that i need a wrench and they are just staring at me like, "who the hell is this white girl waving her arms around like crazy and all sweaty and why is she here talking to us?" but finally i got them to understand and one of the guys came and helped me and i finally made it to the sanctuary and then back again and everything! the next time i rode it, the entire pedal (not just the foot piece) just fell off and i had to walk it the 3 km or so back home (at least is on my way back and not there). and the brakes stick like no other, meaning not only do i have to pedal up hills, i have to pedal down them as well. what a piece of crap bike. i think learning about mike maintenance and repair is in my future. today on my way back from the sanctuary (the first time with no break downs! yay!), it started to absolutely pour rain and while everyone else ran for cover, i just continued pedalling on, completely enjoying the rain and how cool it felt compared to normal. mostly, i think i am just confirming that i am crazy to everyone around here.
[view along the bike route]
jenn had my family over for dinner on thursday as a goodbye, and so i decided to make chocolate chip cookies for dessert. i got mom to text me the recipe (i was very impressed that she managed to do this :)) and looked for the ingredients in san agustin. the grocery store was closed (on a tuesday? why?), and none of the little canteens (a la convenience stores, although more outdoors ... hard to explain) had anything. i have since discovered that you cannot buy chocolate chips here period; no one has heard of m&m's; there is no butter, only margarine; you can only buy flour from bakeries, they don't sell it in grocery stores; and if you actually want any cooking supplies you need to go to a big town to get it. however, since lucie had made a cake last week, we did have vanilla and baking soda and i managed to find all the rest (except i had to use margarine and these things called 'nips' which are basically exactly m&m's).
no one here had ever eaten a chocolate chip cookie before. and all the kids stared into the oven (that's a completely different story: [in short, it has gas on the bottom that you light like a fire and instead of a temperature control there is a sign that says how long to have it on high and low to maintain the temperature you want. for 190oC, that would be high for 2 minutes 25 seconds and low for 35 seconds.] as they baked and were just amazed by it. i wish i had had my camera when we brought them out after dinner as everyone stared and took their first bites. i think everyone actually enjoyed them, but can you imagine never eating chocolate chip cookies?!?!?! that is like ... wow, i am really far away from america.
i went to the 2 year anniversary of ROMANGA (romblon mango growers association) celebration at the sanctuary on friday (14 september) and have had some very interesting conversations with the men. the first question is always, "are you single?" to which i reply, "no i have a very serious boyfriend and he is coming to visit?" (as in, don't even think about it) and there are lots of jokes – half in english and half in filipino. sometimes it's ok, because it's just a joke, but i have trouble telling when then joke ends and they are getting a bit too serious about it. men here really look at white women and it is ... very uncomfortable. i think i surprise them. it seems like most people here have only ever worked with males or the women stayed in the office and then there i am always offering to help and very hands on and active and i think i catch them off guard. the point of bringing up the party though was that i had my first coconut milk and ate the meat right out of the buko (young coconut, it's sweeter) and it was delicious and very refreshing.
the fruit here is amazingly delicious. i eat so many mangos it's kind of ridiculous.
and there was a fabulous banner on the sanctuary platform:
you can't really read it, but it says "fish for peace". haha. what does that even mean?
and just randomly, here's a picture of bing and i blowing bubblegum bubbles (mine started to die down just as this picture was taken and she ... has no clue how to blow bubbles). but she is cute.
for the next few days, i am in a place called boracay, a popular tourist destination south of tablas island, just off panay island and caticlan. i came here to extend my visa (which i will only do for a few months ...) and to be able to get on the internet and do some research about coral reef networks and so on in the area. also to lie on the beach, do the shopping i cannot in romblon, relax, and go diving! it is pretty touristy, but very nice and comfortable and since it is the off-season, not too crowded. i am staying at a place for 300p a night (that's like $6; you can even bargain for hotels here) and there is wireless at a nearby resort that i am currently stealing! hurrah!
[i apologize for this ridiculously long entry, but there is so much to talk about]
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