i've had a good past week in long beach. the weather has been a bit iffy, but i've still managed to get a good bit done, which ... feels very nice and is a welcome change.
the mangrove planting area near long beach is a few kilometers from my house. it is a bit of a pain, because the seedlings are here in long beach and quite heavy and kind-of awkward to carry along with a meter long crowbar (to dig with – since the flat where we plant is so rocky). anyways, the few times that i've planted, everyone from the nearby houses has come out and stood there and watched me plant them (maybe i will get used to the staring eventually?). this week when i arrived, i was sitting on a rock having some water when these three boys came and stared at me (as per usual) and then one of them pointed at the seedlings and says, "bakhaw" (which is both tagalog for mangrove and also incidentally the name of the species i'm planting). and i say, "oo" (yes). and they continue to stare at me, so i get up and start digging the hole and plant one of them. when i finish the second hole, one of the kids runs up holding one of the saplings and plants it. the rest then followed suit, and they helped me plant all of the seedlings i had. i speak very little tagalog and these kids only speak the san agustin-visayan dialect (don't even get me started on language difficulties around here) and so there was no communication going on – only smiles. here are these kids who have nothing and who are already loosing teeth permanently because people do not brush their teeth here and are old enough to be in school but are not attending, probably so they can help their families work, but they were helping me plant mangroves. it was ... so cool and so amazing. i have no words for it. but it made this whole month of struggles worth it.
[planting from afar]
also this week, i feel like i've started to actually ... be included and become a part of life here in long beach. my host family spoils me absolutely rotten and i've been having a lot of trouble getting them to help me with anything (seriously, they do my laundry, they clean my room when i am away, they are constantly giving my snacks, they refuse to let me do the dishes), and it's been hard to tell them that i want to help, that i like to help. so i started jumping up immediately after breakfast, gathering all the dishes, and starting to clean them despite their protests. and there was initially a lot of pointing and no's and so on, but now they are letting me. and it is funny that something so small makes me feel like i am becoming part of the family, not just a guest who sleeps and eats here. one night, cecile was in the kitchen after dinner making something, so i went in and asked if i could help and she was making spring rolls, so she showed me how to roll them and we sat there for a while, working on them. lastly, wilma's son, who is my age (name is francis, but everyone calls him totz – some nicknames here are very strange. i'm just glad i've gotten them to stop calling me "al" and now they're calling me "lex" and "alex" which are much, much better. but i digress), has been here for a few weeks and it's been sort-of weird. he has been a bit stand-offish (this may be because the first morning he was here, he started blasting music at 5:00 am and i came out of my room, glared at him, not knowing who he was, and then sort-of-on-purpose slammed my door. whoops ... ), but this week invited me to sit and have some drinks after dinner. that's something all the men here do – meet in the rest houses (which everyone has – they're little palm huts) and drink. and even though they are usually drinking brandy (which i don't really care for) and are drinking a lot (which i also don't really care for), it's fun to sit out there and mix a tiny bit of brandy into a big cup of juice and listen to them joke and laugh along with them about jokes i normally don't understand. it feels like i have friends, and i like that.
there were also piglets born here almost two weeks ago now. they are adorable.
and in the latest bike escapade, the wire which controls the gears broke – this time en route to san agustin and in a high gear which made the rest of the ride (at least i could still ride it, i suppose) ridiculously difficult. the guys at the bike shop didn't have wire (how does one run out of wire?) so i left it in san agustin over the weekend and then they delivered it to long beach, which was nice of them. ay that bike. i am sort of terrified to ride the thing. totz figured out what the problem was though – the wire was actually rubbing up next to the gears as there was nothing keeping it from sliding around, so, in exchange for a gallon of tuba (that's coconut wine. tastes like syrup mixed with rancid juice. it costs something like 25 pesos/gallon.), he welded something to prevent it from happening in the future.
[rice fields on the bike ride to san agustin]
on the work front, things are going quite well. i feel like i've made some really progress with the department of agriculture in san agustin: starting to plan a few things involving the community, meetings with fisherfolk, and working on preparing an updated coastal resource management plan. i've also started doing a few general observations in the sanctuary to get a good idea of what's happening there, scientifically speaking. all small little things, but at least it feels like progress.
i do apologize for how jumpy this entry is; it is just that it is hard to sum up over a week's worth of time and tell all the little things going on here on the other side of the world.
[sunset in long beach]
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PIGLETS!
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