jet waves are driving me thing in nicer motions

this week i have spent in romblon town working with rey and SIKAT. i really absolutely love it here in romblon (very cute town) and once again am feeling inspired to go back to long beach and try again. being in the philippines is a bit of a roller coaster ... i go back and forth on a very regular basis between feeling determined/inspired/excited/full of ideas/zealous and then frustrated/disheartened/wind taken out of my sails/depressed about the situation.

so we will see how this next week goes. i've got a bit of a plan for myself, which i really think will help. i think my main frustration here is that i rarely feel as if i accomplished something, even if that something is very simple. perhaps that is what makes me american more than anything else – i need to do something, to say, "today i did _____".

oh, and before i forget, i finally got a good picture of a jeepney, so at long last here it is:



[nothing like jesus and unicorns]


anyways, i came to romblon to assist with a mangrove planting session at two of the local barangays monday – wednesday and to attend a GIS training on friday. i'm also here to thoroughly question rey about procedures on the surveys SIKAT does in romblon and see what ideas/suggestions he has. really, he has been so helpful and such a good resource to have.

[by the by, SIKAT is a national NGO (non-government organization) that works with LGU's (local government units) and PO's (people's organizations) to set-up coastal resource management plans. one of the places they are based is on romblon island and that's where rey works although he lives in long beach with a teacher named sally – they also host volunteers.]

i am really incredibly impressed with how things are done here. SIKAT really has its shit together and knows how to work the system and with people very well. in fact, there was actually two people from a film crew here this week who are doing a documentary on fisheries in the philippines and they are using romblon as an example of what is good to do.

it's great to tag along and observe how things are run. they were doing a big mangrove planting at a sanctuary in one of the barangay's on tuesday. and the sanctuary, although small, is very well run and maintained.

they have a lot of information up in the main building, a floating house, a guardhouse with 24/7 monitoring, etc. and, through SIKAT, the sanctuary is surveyed every year (sadly this will take place in march after i have left). honestly, it is wonderful. and i ran around taking bajillions of pictures and trying to note and remember all these things that i want to do in carmen. because *sigh* the potential is there, it's just that it needs a shove to get it going.

the mangrove planting is hard work, but they got a lot of people from the community out there doing it and helping and we got it done (they claim we planted 5000 seedlings) remarkably fast. when you think about the fact that in my first three weeks i planted, like, 30 mangroves ... yea, it's a bit insane what you can accomplish when you have a lot of people.



[community involvement]


[me planting with the mayor and a councillor]


wednesday was at a barangay on a different island (just a ten minute boat ride) and much more low key. beautiful though:



[sunset]


the director for SIKAT was also here this week to check on things and he's a really honestly nice guy. most of the time i feel a bit uncomfortable around men here – they are all friendly, but very ... forward and direct (read: i am sick of being asked if i am single in every single conversation. NO! i am not!) – but this guy is really decent. so to make a long story short, turns out they've been trying to get the two municipalities on the east side of tablas island, which faces romblon island, to collaborate with romblon municipality here on the island on the management on the corridor inbetween. municipality control is 15 km offshore and the distance between the two islands is less than 30 km, so there is so overlap. and apparently the corridor is a big path for migratory species (the director said that they find whale sharks (!!!!) there and have even seen dugongs and mantas and all sorts of dolphins and pelagic fish and what not), so coordination between two municipalities would be very good. aaannddd one of those municipalities on tablas island is san agustin and the work is funded and will likely start in october or november and so he says i can assist them with that project. i am not sure exactly what that entails, but it is certainly exciting! i do not want to abandon carmen; i have a commitment there and fully intend to do what i can there, but even helping out SIKAT one week a month or something, would be wonderful (and a great learning experience).