Sa Guimaras, Malagaw Ta

Sitting in my nipa hut, relaxing on a Sunday night, I think back to all that’s been going for the past seven weeks and can’t believe how much has happened in such a short amount of time. As I reminisce here the events of the past 7 weeks, you may want to read this in installments. Thankfully I have sub-headings. I have a feeling this one’s going to be a mouth-full… 

The Big 2-3

My birthday this year fell on a Friday. The night before, on April 7th, my host family set up the kitchen table outside and put up some lights and served a very nice dinner outside. My host parents and sister cooked some Filipino dishes (grilled fish, mango float, fish soup, and of course rice), while Denise and I made some American dishes (pasta with tomato sauce and salad). Denise and I stuck mainly to what we had prepared, while my family stuck with their dishes. Afterwards, some of my friends from my barangay came by for some T5. It was the first time I had anyone over to my nipa hut, so it was a lot of fun. For sumsuman (the requisite food that goes with the alcohol), I bought some chips, salsa, and queso dip from SM City (the mall in Iloilo City). The chips and dip went over much better than the salad, which my friends just laughed at. It was really nice having my Filipino friends and family come out to celebrate my birthday with me. I couldn’t have asked for anything else!

In the Philippines, unlike in America, when it’s your birthday, you’re the one who's supposed to prepare everything. So instead of your friends buying you drinks on your birthday, it's the other way around. Therefore, for my birthday, I I (for the first time ever) baked some Magic Bar-like treats and brought them into work. I felt like a kid in elementary school giving out cupcakes to all my favorite teachers. People seemed to enjoy the treats (despite their amorphous shape and burnt exterior), and it was fun getting to go to all the different offices in the LGU.

For the weekend, I took a trip to Roxas City, which is about 3 hours north via bus from Iloilo  City. It is also the site of Laura, whose birthday was the day before mine. For a joint celebration, the rest of Grupo Grabe, our two Japanese JICA volunteer friends, and I came and visited Roxas City for the weekend. We all stayed at Laura’s two-bedroom, two-plate apartment. It was an awesome weekend, filled with delicious seafood, restaurants on the beach, a full-blown Olympic-size swimming pool, some pretty legit bars and clubs, and most importantly, generic brand tequila!

Celebrating my birthday dinner with my host family. From L to R: Patriz, Pinot, Justin, and Nanay Elsa.

From L to R: Ali, two of Ali's friends, Cloy Cloy, Rayno, Tan Tan, Pukok, me, and Kirk.

Sadly enough, the only picture we took the whole weekend.

Eat All You Can

Mangahan festival is the biggest festival on Guimaras. It’s a provincial-wide celebration of the mango harvest. It was an amazing week following my birthday, and we spent lots and lots of time that week at the food court, which was set up at the provincial capital, drinking, eating, hanging out, dancing, and watching the activities of Mangahan. The official (and only) Mangahan Festival jam, which played either on repeat or every other song for 7 straight days, really summed up the feeling of Mangahan. It’s better appreciated when listening to its Caribbean-feeling reggae beats, but the chorus goes like this: “Sa Mangahan Festival, sa Guimaras, malagaw ta. Sa Mangahan festival, Sa Guimaras, makaon ta. Sa Mangahan Festival, Sa Guimaras, magsinadya ta. Sa Guimaras, maenjoy ka…” [At Mangahan Festival, in Guimaras, we will walk around… we will eat… we will have fun… you will enjoy]  

Lots of volunteers from different areas came too, and it was great to see everyone. Along with spending some quality time with other volunteers, many of whom I hadn’t seen in months, highlights from Mangahan included the Sunday night fireworks competition, spending Saturday afternoon at Macopo waterfall, and of course the long-awaited for Eat All You Can Mango competition.

Every Mangahan, there’s an Eat All You Can competition, in which participants are given 45 minutes to eat as many mangoes as he or she can. We volunteers on Guimaras have been spending months making wages and predictions on the competition and thinking about what’d it be like to eat so many mangoes. The Guimaras mangoes are world-famous. They are sweet, delicious, and are so special that the bringing in of mangoes onto Guimaras is forbidden for fear of contaminating our pure product. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

At our long-awaited competition, it was me, Stacey, Stef, and Rob, all four of us volunteers on Guimaras. The energy and excitement was high when the 45 minutes got kicked off, but the mood changed quickly after realizing that stuffing your face with mangoes isn’t as pleasant as it sounds. They’re incredibly sweet, drying out your mouth and lips, there's a steeply decreasing rate of marginal pleasure derived from the taste, it begins to churn in your stomach quicker than expected, and it gets all over your clothing (well, maybe that last part was only for me). Stef and Stacey didn’t last too long, but between me and Rob, the race came down to the wire. It was a photo finish, but in the end, I was able to force down one last mango, defeating Rob, 7 to 6. Of all the volunteers at Mangahan, Kevin ate the most with 12. While I was relatively pleased with my showing, my Filipino friends were not. While we were counting in mangoes, they count in kilos (I had about two). 

The worst part about eating 7 mangoes wasn’t the stomach ache that ensued but rather not being able to enjoy a mango for a solid two weeks. Now that mango season is over, I can say that is a real shame.  

This picture of the mango mascot dancing in front of the provincial hall basically sums up Mangahan. Thanks Stef!

Mangahan kicked off with a parade, which included lots of dances and some rather elaborate costumes.

Even the Jollibee showed up (Think: Filipino Ronald McDonald)

The volunteers of Guimaras, minus Stacey (who had already fallen asleep) enjoying Mangahan.

Eat All You Can.

 

Let the competition begin!

Going after it. And not enjoying.

The taste of defeat.

Spending the afternoon with Rob, Stef, Joy, and Lindsay at the nearby waterfalls.

Me with Joy and Chia, two JICA volunteers

Night 7 of Mangahan with Rob, his counterpart Gerard, Stacey, and Stef.

Sorry I’m running late, I just came from a crucifixion

Following Mangahan was Holy Week. One of the traditions here in the Philippines is to put a show on Good Friday that features the “12 Stations of the Cross.” This performances happen in a few places around the Philippines, including Guimaras. For those non-Christian readers out there, the 12 stations are the different steps in the end of Jesus’ life, beginning with the arrival of Jesus and ending with his crucifixion. So that means we got to watch an actor portray the finals days of Jesus, including the last supper, getting beat up by the Romans, and of course, the crucifixion itself. This was another activity that was much anticipated by me and the other volunteers. The last actor who played Jesus (for over 20 years) used to get nailed to the cross. This Jesus was just tied to it (although they really did hit him with ropes, loud enough for the whole audience to hear).

The second station of the cross. Jesus smashing pots and kicking over tables. Selling things outside the church makes Jesus mad.

Walking up Bayan Bukid (Holy Mountain) in the hot, hot sun. I feel for those Romans in costume and for Jesus, who has to carry up his cross the last 10% of the way.

Chie stabbing me with a Roman baton. Unfortunately for my light blue shirt, there was already fake blood on the tip.

Jesus on the cross.

 With all the celebrations of April, from my birthday to Mangahan to Holy Week, you’d think it was just one big party party. And while there was a lot of that, I have also been really busy with my work on CRM Planning that I talked about previously in my blog. Many nights during the three weeks, when I wasn't partying, I was staying up late in my nipa hut revising proposals and consolidating all the information that had been collected in our 16 community meetings. It was a huge hassle, but in the end, the meeting that I organized with all important stakeholders of CRM in Nueva Valencia came together, and my presentation of the results was a success.      

An example of one of the many maps I made for the presentation. This one shows the different barangays that requested a Marine Protected Area during their community meetings. The green areas represent already-established MPAs, and the circles represent areas that were recommended to be MPA by a comprehensive study carried out about 10 years ago.

From Manhattan to Guimaras

Getting to show off some of my life to Mom, Dad, and Logan was a highlight not just of the past 6 weeks but of the past 9 months. I’m still grateful they had the opportunity to come, and I really enjoyed getting to introduce them to the people, places, and activities that have been my life. Along with spending some quality time with all of them, getting to relax at their beautiful resort, La Puerta al Paraiso, giving them a short tour of Nueva Valencia, having meals with my host family and my language tutor, and taking out my volunteer friends for nights out in both Guimaras and Iloilo City, what I enjoyed most was seeing my family’s reactions to everything in the Philippines.

There are too many little things to list (from wondering why we only use forks and spoons to understanding the technique of eating fish and rice by hand), but one thing I remember clearly was Logan’s first comment upon arriving at my compound. He said, “I didn’t know you live on a farm!” Just because there are chickens roaming around, pigs in the back, a (new) goat chowing on the plants, and our dog Bads sitting in his little dog house, this isn’t a farm. It’s just a house. At least here on Guimaras that's the case.

 

Palawan

After spending a week on Guimaras, my family and I flew to Palawan, a beautiful island of the Philippines that is pretty removed from the rest of the country. There is some incredible diving there, and since it’s a little harder to get to, it made for the perfect destination with my family.

Having a second week traveling made for the perfect vacation. I really couldn’t have thought of a better trip. Maybe our 7-hour boat ride between Busuanga Island and El Nido could have been a little less rainy (and a little quicker), but I really cannot complain at all. In Busuanga Island, there is the best wreck diving I have ever done, with several Japanese ships sunk during World War II by a secret American bombing campaign. The wrecks were amazing: in great condition, absolutely covered in coral and fish, and had some really cool swim-throughs. I’m also very happy I got to make it to El Nido, which is well-known in the Philippines for being a magnificent archipelago with beautiful beaches, coral reefs, and sunsets. The highlight of the trip was that Dad finally got his SCUBA certification! Only 21 years after Mom!! Logan put up two great albums on his facebook, so check them out, but here are just a couple pictures to see.

Introducing my family to Tanduay at the plaza

Jet lagged.

Can't you see the family resemblance?? To say my family took a liking to Justin is a understatement.

Palawan.

Not sure if I ever thought this would happen.

VEG (Volunteers in Environmental Governance) Training

Straight from saying goodbye to my parents in Manila, I flew directly to Bacolod City, where I met up with the rest of the Peace Corps CRM volunteers who were heading to Sagay for VEG Training. It was great spending all that time with volunteers from many regions, most of whom I hadn’t seen since we left for site 6 months ago, and a couple who I hadn’t seen since our first week of Initial Orientation.

There were two main highs of training. One was meeting my new counterpart. My old one, Joe Ann, got a great job in Iloilo City at the Office of the Obunsman, which weeds out corruption within the government… Side note: ironically enough, the Obunsman himself was forced to resign over last month over, you guessed it, charges of corruption. Gotta love the Philippines.

After Joe Ann left, was counterpartless for just a couple weeks, because my LGU hired Riro Vincent Balabag. “Ro” is awesome. He’s almost my age, recently graduated from fisheries college, and has been a lot of fun to work with and hang out with. Things are going to be a lot different moving forward with my new counterpart, and I know it’ll be very fun having him with whom to work side-by-side.

The other high was coral gardening. Set up by two volunteers (Tyler and Elliott), coral gardening was a special training, added onto VEG, where we learned about how to revitalize a destroyed coral reef by transplanting corals from a healthier area. It’s definitely a controversial practice, but it was really interesting learning all aspects of it, and then having a day to practice all the different components.   

Take living corals, which have been broken off their original habitat, and breaking them into smaller pieces with Laura.

Once you have coral fragments, you have two choices. One is directly transplant the corals to a different, less healthy part of the reef (using a homemade cement mix). The second option is taking the frags, establishing a coral nursery, letting the corals grow, and then transplanting them then. This photo is of the later option. There are actually two types of nurseries. We got to build both.

Attaching coral fragments to the "bed." We spent the entire day in the water, and I didn't even get sunburned! (thanks rash guard!)

Liberating sandwiches from the boat carrying all the snacks to my boat.

My new counterpart, Ro, and I at Carbon Reef.

Jellyfish and Sea Snakes and Fire Ants, Oh My!

One of the most technical aspects of our Peace Corps CRM training was learning how to carry out biophysical assessments of the coastal habitats: mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs. These assessments are important to make sure that policies intended to protect these habitats are being based upon what’s actually out there. Additionally, monitoring the resources over time can help measure the effectiveness of the management scheme.

For two days, with the help of ZSL (Zoological Society of London), we did mangrove assessments in two different coastal barangays. The assessments were a lot of fun, and it was great being out in the field, particularly with my counterpart, but it was definitely a challenge as well. Anyone who has done work in mangroves can attest that the habitats are not friendly for humans. Usually in an extremely muddy substrate, with roots coming out of the ground all over the place, mangrove areas are not pleasant places in which to do work. Using a measuring tape to determine the girth of a mangrove that is covered in fire ants definitely poses challenges of its own. Some of the mangroves needed to climbed to get the accurate girth, and one of our 10x10 quadrants was surrounded by thick mangrove bushes that were extremely thorny. And best of all, during our second barangay, a storm moved in quickly. All I could think while sitting on a tiny little banca (boat), rowing from one mangrove area to another, in the middle of a thunderstorm with torrential downpour was that there’s gotta be a better way to do this.

Getting a lay of the mangrove area.

By this point, we're drenched. But a little mid-day monsoon can't damper Nini's spirits!

After the assessments, we ran into some locals gathering sea urchins. They would slice them open and collect the saliva-like goo in the middle. Of course, I was offered some to try. I did. Twice. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would (not by much), but afterwards I did have a sharp pain in my tongue, along with some mild swelling.

After our two-day mangrove assessment, we moved right into our coral reefs assessments. Areas for observation were based upon areas that community members identified as potential MPA (Marine Protected Area) sites during our community meetings last March. For the assessments, we were joined by Rob, Stef, Gelby from PSBP, an NGO with which I’ve worked closely in Nueva Valencia, and two members of the GENRO (Guimaras Environment and Natural Resources Office) in the provincial government, Neil and Rose Jane. We went to 6 sites 3 days. In each case we were assisted by the local BFARMC (Barangay Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Council) Chairman, each of whom I’ve met many times before. 

The assessments were a riot. Not only was our team such a diverse group, but conducting these types of assessments is tough in general. While the actual procedures for monitoring the seagrass, corals, and fish are pretty simple, it’s finding the sites, getting there, setting everything up, and dealing with other factors that makes it so challengnig. In our first site, while doing the seagrass assessment, the water was absolutely covered in jellyfish. They didn’t have to touch you directly, but they would just release their juices into the water, leaving us to swim around in water that irritated the skin greatly. I thought my lips burning was bad until I realized the stinging went right through the bathing suit! I was at the point of cursing through my snorkel, but I couldn’t help but laugh when I got my head out of the water and saw Rob and Stef had already taken refuge on the boat. Neil finished off the assessments and was covered in some serious welts by the time he got back on the boat. We were all concerned, but as he told me, Rob, and Stef, “Your skin is sensitive. My skin is like caribou!” 

We were relieved to get to the next site, away from the jellies. At Pulang Pasayan, a tiny island off the coast of Pandaraonan, the corals were beautiful but also extremely shallow. We had to lay a transect line over the corals, which were no deeper than 1 foot at its shallowest point. Plus since the tide was coming in, it only kept getting shallower. It was here when I rubbed up against some fire coal (good one, JLowe), and got a really nasty rash above my right knee. I’ll spare you and leave out the pictures. 

It was Stef who had it the roughest on the second day. In the morning, although the jellies were few and far between, one did find Stef and grab onto her, leaving her with quite a nice mark. And in the afternoon, while Stef and Rose Jane were doing their final transect line, they had to flee the scene (and skip the fish census component), when they saw what was apparently a meter-long sea snake. They said it was rather scary (particularly in the extremely shallow waters of Guisi), but after seeing Stef’s reactions to bugs and spiders many a times, I do have my doubts!

The final day was less eventful. We went out to the already-established marine protected area, far off the southern coast of Nueva Valencia, and also did assessments at one of the coastal barangays, Panobolon. We spent the whole day out on the boat, and our crew even lit up the charcoal stove and cooked us lunch right on the boat. The area was less defined in the final two areas, so we had to do some serious swimming just to find the corals, but although it was tiring, everyone was a real trooper. 

Being in charge of organizing it all, I was very thankful that everyone was patient and such good sports. The assessments can get tiring, and it’s a lot of time in the sun and in the water, but everyone had a positive attitude the whole time. I think our little team even had a lot of fun. I’m especially thankful to Rob and Stef who crashed in my nipa hut with me all week. While my house is great for one person, it’s a little crowded for 3. When you add up not just everything from the assessments but also the late afternoon rain showers that kept us wet for 3 days straight (Rob kept putting his towel out on the clothes line outside, while mine were in the wash and therefore unable to dry, and Stef’s were all in Jordan), my congested sinuses that made sleeping through the night a challenge for all of us, that mosquito season has just begun, my neighbor’s new routine of blasting classic rock at 6:30 AM, barking dogs, roosters cock-a-doodle-doing literally from under my nipa hut, and the long days in the sun (which I’m blaming for the itchy rash that spread on both of my arms and a little on my stomach, back, and legs), they were beyond troopers. Maybe it was my famous stir fry vegetable dinners (3 nights in a row!) that kept their spirits up, or maybe it was the Jack Daniels and pile of Maxim magazines that Logan brought for me, but whatever it was, despite the struggles, we all had a lot of fun. 

Explaining to Neil, Gelby, Rose Jane, and Ro the different aspects of the biophysical assessments.

Filling out our underwater slates.

See what I mean? All those yellow circular things are jellyfish.

Me, Rob, and Stef.

Guisi beach, Dolores.

White (bleached) coral. Not good.

Healthier parts of the reef in Guisi.

A blue starfish.

Joebert, the BFARMC chair of Tando, pointing us in the right direction.

Some of the corals of Tando. Notice the crown-of-thorns starfish on the top of the coral in the center of the picture. Crown-of-thorns are an invasive species that destroy corals quickly. Hopefully I'll organize an eradication program at some point soon.

Our ragtag bunch. From L to R: Gelby, Stef, Neil, Rose Jane, Me, Dennis, Rob, and Ro.

So that, my friends, is it for now. Hopefully these 3000 words will make up for my long absence. But now I’m going to bed. Maayong gabi!