Sunday, December 21, 2008

Mamasko

Sadly, it seems that Christmas caroling in the US has been relegated to old-folks homes and shopping malls, but it is alive and well here in the Philippines. From November through January, bands of carolers roam the streets every night. (This is called mamasko, which is basically making "Christmas" into a verb.) Most of them are children with sweet voices and simple noisemakers - a stack of flattened metal bottle caps nailed to a piece of wood - who sing medleys. There are more professional bands that go around too, like groups of men with guitars or larger groups of teenagers with drums and other instruments. After playing for a minute or so, they will stop and then begin saying "maayong pasko... maayong pasko... pasko... pasko..." ("Merry Christmas.. Merry Christmas.." then more pathetically, "Christmas.. Christmas...") until you give them money or hide yourself deeply enough in your house that they eventually go away. If I'm at all visible during the performance, I feel compelled to give them money, but if I'm behind closed doors and can hardly hear them anyway, I usually just stay inside. Otherwise it would be like giving out candy at Halloween every night for a month.

I took a video of a group of younger kids singing their medley on my porch. I can be heard yelling "kanta!" (sing!) to a kid who is just mugging for the camera, thinking I'm taking a photograph instead of a video. It fades out, I give them money in the interim, and then they sing the thank you song.



And here's a photo of an older, more intense group:


And a serious guitar band last year during Christmas:


This also seems like a good place to mention my favorite Pinoy Christmas decorations, which are these awesome stars. It depends on the size and material, but here is the making of one with bamboo and plastic. Then lights are put inside. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures yet of this big green one lit up.



But here are some smaller ones, so you get the idea. They look great in trees!


This will do it for this blog for 2008. I'll be back in January with an update on my trip to Malaysia, which I'm leaving for tonight. Happy holidays to everybody!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Mag-ambahan ta!

Without really realizing what I was doing, I entered a choir contest with my co-workers for the Local Government Unit Christmas party. There were 8 contingents, with each contingent singing a song of their choosing and a Visayan song called Mag-ambahan, which means "coming together to do something". Our group sang The First Noel as our second song. It was way more serious than I expected (quick background for those who don't know me well - I have no musical training at all) and we had harmonies, vocal warmups, and all. I sang bass and didn't embarass myself too terribly.

Here are the lyrics:

Mag-ambahan

Issignit ta ang kalipay'g hudyaka
Kay pasko karon sa pagmaya

Mag-ambahan ta ning pasko sa kalipay
Ang kagul-anan ta ato nga isalikway
Ug duyog ning awit sa malipayong dughan
Issignit ta ang kalipay'g hudyaka
Kay pasko karon sa pagmaya

Wad-on ta ang mga kayugot
Isalikway ta ang pagdumot
Ang pagpasaylo mao'y angay buhaton ta
Ning adlaw sa manunubos

(Repeat Mag-ambahan stanza)

Issignit ta ang kalipay'g hudyaka
Kay pasko karon sa pagmaya

My rough, unofficial translation is below. Of course, it loses all its poetry in translation...


We're shouting in happy merriment
Because it's Christmas, time of joy

We're coming together this Christmas time of happiness
We're putting aside our troubles
And joining together in song of happy chest*
We're shouting in happy merriment
Because it's Christmas, time of joy

We're getting rid of our anger
And setting aside our hatred
Forgiveness is the right thing to do
This day of our Savior

We're shouting in happy merriment
Because it's Christmas, time of joy


*"happy chest" is the literal translation, I think it's more of an expression that you're walking around filled up with joy and happiness.


We didn't win the contest, or get top three. Funnily enough, I nailed the lyrics to the Visayan song, but had a little trouble with the 3rd and 4th verses of The First Noel.

If you'd like to see the performance, I've embedded a video below. Please be aware that the friend I gave my camera to was more drunk than I realized, and it's extremely shaky. Once you glance and get the idea of how we looked, you may just want to switch to another tab and let the sweet sounds of our voices fill your computer speakers. And ignore the talking that sometimes drowns out our voices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPao8FBYJiI

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A Pinoy Pageant

[This may be the first in a series of Christmas-related posts]

I hear that the high school is doing its raffle drawing today. (Last weekend some students came by selling tickets at 2 pesos a pop, so I bought ten.) I head over to the school 45 minutes after the official start time and try to enter inconspicuously, but as usual, I am unable to do this and dragged to a chair onstage. The teachers are finishing up the parade of top students this grading period to the stage. Two raffle prizes - a sack of rice, and a lechonon - a live pig that is just ripe to be lechon'ed - are given away. (I win neither.)

The pageant begins. I leave the stage and go stand facing it to get a better view. It is introduced with specific references to the scriptures on which it is based. We are at a public high school, but there is no separation of church and state. The Washington State Capitol Holiday Sign Argument Extravaganza would not occur here. The pageant is mostly traditional, except that the piped-in musical accompaniment is more techno-based than the typical pageant. The three wise men bring their gifts wrapped in festive wrapping paper with Santa designs. Mary and Joseph are addressed as "ma'am-sir" by the innkeeper. And immediately after Herod has given his orders to seek out the babe in swaddling clothes lying in manger, the stage clears and 20 girls in Santa hats, short red skirts, and tall white boots come out and do a dance to an instrumental version of Walking in a Winter Wonderland. (It's at least 80 degrees, but with a strong breeze, admittedly almost-chilly weather here.)

The 2nd-prize pig is roused from its sleep across the field and dragged squealing on stage for a photo-op. It arrives mostly by being dragged on a leash attached to its hoof, but is whisked up the steps with a firm grip with one hand on an ear and another on the tail. I realize that I'm being introduced by the emcee, and jog up to the stage to select the winner of the raffle. I spin the drum with gusto, open the lid, and select a name, hoping that I don't pick my own name. It ends up being a construction worker who's right next door helping to construct a new school building. I am photographed with him, the school principal, and a teacher, handing over the small two-range burner with natural gas tank that is the 1st prize. In her final remarks, the principal urges all male students to make sure they get haircuts over the break. With that, the event is over and the crowd disperses. It has been exactly an hour since I left. I return back to my office.

Monday, December 15, 2008

A Celestial Countenance

A couple weeks ago (December 1 to be exact), Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon all lined up. Even cooler, they made a smiley face over south and southeast Asia. They were quite low, and by far the brightest things in the sky, even showing up before it was dark. Here's my somewhat-fuzzy shot, taken right in front of my house.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Flood!



I normally enjoy the feeling of going to sleep as torrential rainfall comes down outside. There's a certain sense of security and warmth about being wrapped up under your sheets and safe from inclement weather. So that's what I did on Saturday night.

I was torn from this pleasant dream at about 1:30 a.m. as I groggily woke up to the screams of my host mother and realized that my floor was already covered in a few inches of water. I hastily stood up on my bed and started hoisting electronics, books, and magazines from my bed to higher ground. The lower half of my mattress was already soaked, compliments of a leaky nipa roof.

Once I'd cleared off the important things from my bed, I sort of froze in shock. The water kept rising. Already given up to the water were all my shoes, half of my clothes, and some random papers and magazines that were on the ground or on low shelves. It was time to get in. Forgetting a lifetime of jokes about high-water pants, I stepped in to the hopefully-not-contaminated water wearing baggy white basketball shorts. I had a short table with a lot of important documents, books, and magazines on it that needed to be cleared off. Once I got to that point, it was sort of a wait-and-see.

I realized belatedly that my bed would float (it's just a thin foam mattress on a wooden frame), so I could have saved some initial time that I spent clearing it off. But I couldn't leave my room as Sining (host mom) was yelling at me to stay in my room because the water was higher outside. I doubted this claim, as there's a 1-inch gap between my door and the floor, but I stayed put. Eventually the waters began to recede, having got as high as my knees. But nothing could be done until the water level dropped to the lowest barrier outside. After that, we'd have to bail out about 8 inches of water, because my room + porch is sort of like a tub. And now it even has a ring to prove it.

When the water finally reached the bailout point, I started on my room and porch area, while Mark went for the kitchen (it's own, separate tub.) Eventually, after much more exercise than I'm used to at 3 in the morning, the water was mostly down. But there was still a ton of silt and mud to be dealt with, as the river had been carrying quite a bit. We worked and cleaned until 6 a.m. until I couldn't stand it anymore, and I went to go sleep in the extra room upstairs.

In the end, the damage wasn't so bad. It could have been much worse. I will be eternally grateful that I put my laptop on my bed that night, instead of in its bag on the floor, as I usually do. All in all, the main fallout was losing a backlog of Economist and GQ magazines, a bunch of paper I probably needed to recycle anyway, 3 books that are totally soaked through, a lot of basketball cards (planned as presents to children here), my Trivial Pursuit '90s edition, and all my shoes are soaked. I hope they'll dry. Basically all of my clothes except the ones I'm wearing (one change of clothes made it through dry) are still wet. My passport and iPod cord also got soaked, but hopefully they'll survive.

And in anticipation, here's a PFAQ (Potential Frequently Asked Questions) Section:

How did your host mom wake up in the first place?
Usually when there's a super high tide, my toilet goes glug-glug-glug as the water table gets inundated. This happens frequently enough that you don't even think about it. For some reason, on this night, she heard it only go glug-glug-glug once and was up in a flash, and looked outside and saw the rising floodwaters. I, for the record, never heard anything.

Why did it flood?
We live about 5 houses away from the river. Apparently the river had been running high all week, and with the super-hard rain coming on Saturday night in addition to a week of heavy rains, it must have caused a storm surge of at least 2 meters. I'm not sure what role the tide had, if any. Another thing to think about is the cause that deforestation had on the ability of the mountains and hills to retain water and sediment, rather than letting it gush through the valley and flood. I can only speculate, and it still may have flooded were the deforestation not so severe, but I'm guessing it had a lot to do with it.

Wow! Do you have any pictures of this?
Uh, in case you didn't notice, I embedded a YouTube video at the start of this post. If it's not showing up for some reason, here's the link: Flash Flood Video
And if you haven't seen what my house looks like during non-flooded times, here's a link for comparision: Cribs Philippines

Why haven't you blogged for 2 months? What have you been up to?
My parents came/I've been busy/I've been unmotivated/it was thanksgiving/It's been a rough month/etc. etc. I'll get around to some updates, I hope!

Monday, October 6, 2008

quick update

Time is flying by. Assuming I get out of here on time, I only have 10 months left. I've been in the Philippines almost a year and a half already!

Something that I've always known, but really realized lately, is that one of the major struggles of the Peace Corps is time. Specifically, regardless of a culture's concept of time, the Volunteer has a two-year opportunity in which to accomplish their projects, but the community has always been here, will always be here, and doesn't see anything particular special about these two years. It's an ever-ongoing task, after these two years there will be many more, and there are a lot of limitations on what can get done in any certain time frame. But for me, it's all I have. I'm definitely feeling the rush to get things done, especially now knowing how a month can go by so quickly without really getting anything done.

Lately, I've been running around trying to keep tabs on my various projects, especially the high school mural project and the recycled products project. The strictly CRM stuff seems to be sort of on hold right now. Looking forward a few months, it is hard to imagine that a lot will be accomplished in the rest of 2008, between vacations, helping with training, fiestas, and holidays. But that's the way it goes. Every occasion from here on out is my last go-round at it, so I have to take advantage of as much as I can.

I spent most of last week in Bacolod helping out with the Supervisors Conference for a lot of the new batch of trainees. I was a late draftee to help at the conference and mostly just hung out and tried to get to know people, pitching in at sessions where I could (there were no CRM trainees there, so a lot of my knowledge wasn't super-relevant.) I've met 2/3 of them now and it's been fun to get to know, and give advice to, the newbies. In the first week of November, I'll be going back there to be a resource volunteer again, this time for the whole batch, and I'll see their swearing in.

The big news is that in about 12 hours I'm flying up to Manila, where I'll meet my parents, who are coming for a 2-week visit! We'll spend some time in Manila, relax in Bohol, and then I'll show them around Negros. It's been a long-anticipated visit, so it will be great for all parties involved.

Oh, also I came across this new blog by a guy named Craig and some of his friends. It's called Hella Politics, and it's about politics. Check it out if you're into that sort of thing.

Peace!
-cpb

PS- Thanks to the anonymous benefactor in Jacksonville, FL, who sent me some magazines! That was cool.
PPS - Please nobody send me any Huskies football videos.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Stache Bash 2008


Peace Corps Philippines has a traditional mustache contest at mid-service training, which was a couple weeks ago in Manila. For over two months, I grew a beard out in preparation for the event. A full beard is a rare thing in the Philippines, so I drew some funny looks and stares (well, I always do, but this time I imagined that the beard had something to do with it), as well as frequent comparisons to Jesus and Santa Claus. In a clean-cut country where I already buck convention by having frequently shaggy hair, I managed to get away with it when I explained that I was preparing for a lantugi sa bungot (mustache/facial hair contest). That always managed to draw a laugh, and I continued on. Near the end, one of my friends took me aside and somberly informed me that I really needed to get a haircut and shave because I looked "like a Bigfoot." I assured him that it would be soon.

The day of the contest finally rolled around on the first night of our mid-service training. I trimmed my beard down to a handlebar stache and some furious sideburns, donned a basketball jersey, borrowed some short-shorts, and played it as an enthusiastic '70s basketball player.. and I won!

For more of the story, I invite you to check the photo album I have compiled on facebook:
THE MUSTACHE CHRONICLES - http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2322691&l=1efb8&id=10701003

Also, another volunteer has compiled more photos, and lots of video, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcw7649/sets/72157607221317552

Friday, September 19, 2008

Sing us a song, you're the piano man


In a world of security guards, elevators, and No Soliciting signs, the typical American workplace is devoid of the wonderful world of traveling salesmen. Not so in the Philippines. On an almost daily basis, somebody wanders into our office selling towels, socks, foodstuffs, or something of the sort. But today was the best traveling salesman ever: he had keyboards! One out for demonstration, another good to go, still in the box. When his initial pitch wasn’t successful, he busted out some of the synthesizer buttons to show how you could make your own band. I covertly snapped a couple pictures. When he left, I couldn’t stop laughing. My coworkers asked me why I was laughing, and all I could think to say was “that’s something you’d never see in America.” I bet that someday I’ll be at work and suddenly want to buy a synthesizer keyboard on impulse. But that guy (and his 2 or 3 buddies, who were covering the town with him) will be nowhere to be found.


From L-R: Bemused, Piano Slangin', Skeptical

Walay Plastik Amlan

Americans could learn a lot about reducing waste from Filipinos. A lot of the stuff that ends up in landfills in the US is reused or recycled in numerous creative ways here. However, one glaring problem in the Philippines is plastic. While many countries and cities across the world are moving to ban plastic, or at least charge extra for plastic bags, I’ve had a large number of awkward interactions with cashiers here who are trying to put my purchases in plastic, no matter how unnecessary. Our mayor and I talked about ways of reducing plastic use in our town. The last thing I want is another well-written and well-intentioned law that doesn’t get enforced, though. Instead, this great program called Walay Plastik Amlan has been started (meaning “no plastic Amlan”).

It works like this. Many people in our town buy rice subsidized by the National Food Authority (NFA) for P18.25/kilo (as opposed to up to P40/kilo for commercial rice). The rice comes in these giant 50-kilo bags, but families must queue up for the rice, and can only buy 5 kilos every week at the subsidized rate. When the rice sacks are empty, the municipality gives them to a few different groups in town, including the group of fisher folk women that I have been working with on my recycled products. From each sack, two smaller bags with handles, capable of carrying 5 kilos, can be sewn. The municipality pays the women 5 pesos for each bag that’s made. Then municipal employees screenprint the bags with the Walay Plastik Amlan logo.

Now, when people go to buy the NFA rice, it comes in these hand-sewn, reusable bags instead of in plastic bags. Those buying the rice pay 5 pesos for the sack, which they can then bring back every week to purchase rice. Thus, the municipality can recoup the money invested in getting the bags made, and only has to pay for the labor and materials involved in screenprinting, and whatever time the employees spend organizing the program. Rice sacks are reused, many thousands of plastic bags are saved, and many families have a supplemental means of income. We’re hoping to expand it beyond the purchase of rice to fish and vegetables at the market, and eventually everywhere, so that people in the town use as little plastic as possible.

Do you want a bag? Let me know and I’ll try to get you one. Especially if you live in the Philippines!

Daghang Dap-ag (Lots of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish)


Crown-of-Thorns Starfish are a cool looking, but very destructive part of the coral reef ecosystem. In the past few decades, their population has exploded. Reasons are not fully known, but it’s likely that human activity has been a large factor. This is a problem because the starfish eat corals and can destroy entire reefs if they go unchecked – the coral reef being the basis for the entire local marine ecosystem. A couple months ago the population started increasing in our Tandayag Marine Sanctuary, so we recently had a underwater cleanup and dap-ag removal with the Bantay Dagat. We armed ourselves with snorkels and sharpened bamboo sticks and went hunting. You have to be really careful because the dap-ag are poisonous, so you must avoid getting stung. In places with lots of extra money to kick around, like Australia, divers are hired to inject poison into the starfish, which is probably the most effective means of getting rid of them. However, if you’re not poisoning them, you have to remove them entirely from the water, which is what we did. After an hour of so scouring the reef for every last one (we undoubtedly missed some, they like to hide in the nooks and crannies of corals), we had a couple hundred in the boat. To prevent them from going back to the water, we buried them in a mass grave on the beach. And our reef is safe from this particular threat for the time being.

Adam loading up the basin with starfish from the boat (click images to see larger sizes)


Mga dap-ag

The Bantay Dagat crew and the beach burial


2nd Round Knockout



My friend Britt and I headed over to Cebu City to meet up with Jon and attend a boxing match. Boxing is a national sport here. While it’s not the highest in participation (that goes to basketball), it’s the most popular spectator sport, especially when Manny Pacquiao is fighting. Pac-Man wasn’t involved in this fight – he only fights in Las Vegas now (Oscar De La Hoya is next!) – but one of the more popular Pinoy boxers, Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista, was set to defend his WBO crown. I’d never been to a match before and didn’t know if I’d ever have the chance to go to another high profile event again.

The event took place at the super-swanky Waterfront Hotel and Casino, which is actually at least 5 km from the water. We got there about halfway through the undercard bouts and bought tickets in the medium range, for about $12. The ring was set up in a huge ballroom with a balcony, and our seats were on the floor decently close to the canvas. We spent the first couple fights wondering what made the “piff” noise when punches were thrown and enjoying the action. It was all Pinoy-vs-Pinoy until the three biggest fights. First a non-title bout was fought between a Filipino and a Thai, who looked like he was trying to be Tony Jaa. But Ong-Bak doesn’t work when you’re boxing, and he left himself open to numerous head jabs. The Filipino won.

Next, there was a title match between 105-pounders. The Pinoy title holder, Donnie Nietes, took on an overmatched Nicaraguan and knocked him out in the second round. Finally, Boom Boom was up. His opponent was a Mexican, Eden Marquez, who had been talking a good deal of trash before the fight, even “declaring war” on the Philippines. Boom Boom hasn’t been without his struggles – a promising fighter with strong knockout power, he’s compiled a very good record, but had an embarrassing first round knockout against a different Mexican less than a year ago, and has had to redouble his efforts. The first round, he just danced around the ring and only threw a few punches, letting Marquez tire himself out. Then, in the second round, he pounced and knocked him out in less than a minute. A long trip from Mexico for less than 4 minutes of action!


Boom.

We hollered and jumped and celebrated with the rest of the crowd, proud that Boom Boom had easily disposed of his opponent and represented the Visayas well in retaining his WBO 122-lb crown. The best part was probably the post-fight interview, where a Filipina reporter from Manila was asking questions in Tagalog. Boom Boom understood her questions, but requested to just respond in Cebuano. The crowd loved it! I’ve possibly never felt so culturally integrated and proud to be an adopted Visayan, laughing along with the crowd as we all understood Boom Boom’s responses while the flustered Tagalog-speaking reporter tried her best to figure out what he was saying.


Three happy Visayans.. guess who didn't enter the mustache contest? (Me, Jon, Britt)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

International Coastal Cleanup - Sept. 20


A friendly reminder to all, no matter where you're reading from, that the International Coastal Cleanup will be taking place on (and around) Sept. 20. Especially for all my Washingtonian and Californian readers, I'm sure there are some events going on. Not to mention the Philippines, which will also have a ton.

For more information, please check out The Ocean Conservancy's Website -- you can sign up to join a cleanup, or learn how to host one of your own.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Next High-Profile Visitor: Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter

The high-profile visitors just keep on coming! Last week, the director of the entire Peace Corps, Ron Tschetter, came and visited my site, along with his wife Nancy (they served together in India in the '60s), an assistant, our new Philippines country director, and a few other staff. We followed a similar schedule as the Ambassador’s visit, but in reverse, and more low-key. The party arrived at 5 pm and went directly to the marine sanctuary, where the Mayor and I explained about our CRM program and showed some underwater footage. Then we headed to the municipal hall for some snacks and a further explanation of some of the projects I’m working on. There were some new products to show off from the recycled goods livelihood project, and they went over well. I’d pre-purchased a couple of them to give away as gifts, but they were so enthused that they bought all the rest of them and refused any change in return, donating it to the group.

This provided for a good cultural teaching moment once everybody had left. Some of the municipal staff was a bit aghast that I’d actually accepted their money for the products. (I’m acting as the treasurer for the group right now.) They wouldn’t dream of accepting payment for something like that from visitors. But I explained that, as Americans, I understood that they would want to pay, and would in fact feel better if they had paid, rather than accepted all of them as donations. In this way, we feel like we are helping out and supporting a worthwhile project.

The next day, I went down to Dumaguete and met with the other volunteers from Negros and Siquijor for a lunch with Mr. Tschetter and the whole gang. We feasted on a mixture of Filipino and Western dishes at a nice restaurant and everybody got to hear from him and share some stories. It was a pretty cool deal. Certainly a percentage of PCV’s get to meet the Director while they are serving, but it’s definitely not the majority, and even fewer are lucky enough to have a personal site visit.

My camera was the back-up during the proceedings, so I don’t have the best pictures right now. Hopefully I’ll be getting copies of other pictures soon.


Introduction at the marine sanctuary (L-R: Nancy Tschetter, Ron Tschetter, PC/Phils Country Director Sonia Derenoncourt, PC Staff Kavita Pulapilly, Me, Mayor Bentham De la Cruz)


Breaking down the finer points of marine sanctuaries while showing some underwater footage

A pose with the Bantay Dagat (Coast Guard) members (L-R: Ron Tschetter, Sonia Derenoncourt, me, Joel, Adam, Anton, [forget name!], Rogelio, [forget name!], Oliver, and Mayor)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The worst package ever

The other day I went to the office and was excited to see a package on my desk. I tore it open and was perplexed at what I found. No, not a cup of coffee (look closer). A MIF Procedure Kit, for the collection, staining, and preservation of fecal specimens. No explanation as to why this was being sent accompanied the kit. I'm guessing it has something to do with my upcoming mid-service training, but I am steering clear of this particular present until given a specific directive. Wouldn't you?

This seems like a good place to mention my address again, in case you wanted to send me a MIF kit, or maybe something better... like DVDs of the upcoming Husky Football season (I'm really serious, this would make me so incredibly happy), or magazines, as Peace Corps is canceling our Newsweek subscription in a cost-saving move.

Letters, small packages --
Craig Bosman, PCV
c/o the Peace Corps Office
6/F PNB Financial Center
Macapagal Avenue
Pasay City 1308
Philippines

Larger packages --
Craig Bosman
US Peace Corps Volunteer
LGU-Amlan, MENRO
Municipal Hall
Amlan, Negros Oriental 6203
Philippines


EDIT: Please do not send me DVDs of awful games. I don't really want to watch the Oregon or Oklahoma debacles. As Sarah Palin said, "Thanks but no thanks". Except I'm not lying when I say it.

Beijing Olympics... from the same time zone!

Like many major sporting events, I got waaay into the Olympics. And even though Peace Corps Volunteers are supposed to be leading some sort of deprived life, I probably had a much better viewing experience than you. Indeed, I will probably lucky to ever have this outstanding of a (television only) viewing experience again. I’ll leave the analysis of China’s human rights record, the political controversies of the games, etc. to other people, and talk about what the Olympics were like from my vantage point.

I don’t watch a lot of TV here. The steady stream of action movies served up by cable channels and mindless game shows on basic cable are usually a bit much for me, so I typically exclude myself. But in the run-up to the games, I subtly informed my host family how incredibly excited I was to watch the Olympics every night. Luckily, they were also quite into it, which was no doubt helped by the USA Basketball team’s great popularity here.

Instead of struggling with NBC’s hype, commercials, and delays, I was blessed by the South African sports television network, SuperSport. They provided 3 channels worth of live, virtually commercial-free coverage of almost every sport imaginable. In addition to this, there was a Filipino-owned network, Solar, that had one channel devoted to the games full time and four other channels (including Basketball TV) that showed the games at least part time. Solar was pretty obnoxious with its commercials, and had less live action, but it was probably on par with NBC. Both SuperSport and Solar appeared to be using pool commentators from the IOC, who seemed to be from the US, UK, and Canada. My favorite was perhaps a very serious and proper British woman who was helping on the gymnastics broadcasts, whose idea of praise was something like “Well, that routine wasn’t too terribly awful, was it.”

Having the same time zone as all of China (kind of a remarkable idea, given how large that country is), the Philippines was also a good place to be. I could catch most of the action live as it happened in the evening, and for the big morning events like swim races and gymnastics, I was able to either run home real quick to catch a race, go across the street to the Mayor’s office (which was how I saw most of Phelps’s gold medal races), or extend my lunch period at home a little longer. I got to see almost all of the sports, too. It was great figuring out team handball, field hockey, and competitive ping-pong as I watched the action unfold. Some sport coverage was lacking. I was frustrated by the lack of soccer coverage, surprisingly, and also of baseball, less surprisingly, but still managed to see some of each. I could have done with less equestrian coverage. (Once, when searching in vain for the US Women’s Soccer semifinal match, and frustrated with prancing horses taking its broadcast time, I said “Who cares about horses!?” to my host family, and my host mom replied immediately, and incredulously, “People who loves horses!” Touche.)

The Beijing Olympics were, for me, a perfect coincidence of a matching time zone, a cable network that respected the intelligence of its viewers, and a lifestyle and working environment that afforded me relaxed evenings and a flexible workday. The only thing that will top it is actually being there in Vancouver 2010. I can’t wait! And congrats to Team USA for a job well done.

A Lack of Posting

I think the handbook for families of Volunteers warns of less frequent letters home as time goes on and the Volunteer gains new perspectives, gets more used to life in their adopted country, and is further removed from everyday American life. In some sense, this is probably what’s happened with this blog as of late. But also, I’ve also built up in my mind the need to make every entry sort of epic, either a fantastic story or an in-depth news report, and few things lately have fit that bill in my mind. If I think about it, a lot has actually gone on since I last posted. Furthering ties with the local soccer team, including participating in our first tournament, a refurbished tennis court, a plan to make a huge mural in my town, developing some architecture plans for a new library, entering in a mountain bike race, visiting friends in Cebu, not shaving for six weeks and counting in preparation for a mustache contest, helping with a scientific research project in Siquijor, being a complete and total Olympics junkie, and slow but steady progress on most of my projects. Honestly I doubt I’ll ever fully post regarding all these things, but some of them will probably be incorporated into future posts. I tend to do this thing in spurts, and recently most of my writing energy has been focused on creating satirical Onion-style stories for a Volunteer newsletter that would probably take too much energy to explain. So for you loyal blog readers, if you haven’t given up by now, I’ll do my best to update more frequently and less epically. In fact, here come a couple right now.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The US Ambassador visits!

A few months ago, my regional manager contacted me and said that United States Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney was planning a visit to my site, as she enjoys meeting with Peace Corps Volunteers. There would be exactly half an hour for a visit, and then she would host other PCV's in the area for lunch. What would we do?

I was sort of in disbelief that the Ambassador would come to my site, but this was huge! The US Ambassador has an extremely big profile in the Philippines. Statements she makes and events she attends are sometimes front-page national news. There is a lot of history between our two nations, and because of (or in spite of, depending on your opinions) this history, the Philippines seems to be one of the few countries in the world with a generally positive view of the United States. Plus, Ambassador Kenney is extremely popular for her warm personality and willingness to indulge in stunts like this, dancing the Papaya on national television.

We began a detailed, intense planning process, coordinating between myself, the municipal government, the Peace Corps, the Embassy, and the various other places she would be visiting that day, which included our rural health unit - also a beneficiary of USAID funding. After weeks of nailing down every last detail (including what the Ambassador would have for lunch - a ham and cheese omelet and Coke Light, if you're keeping tabs), I returned from my vacation 2 days before she was due to arrive in town and reported to work the next morning to finalize plans. The mayor sadly informed me that she most likely wasn't coming, after all. This set off a crazy day of back-and-forth between me, the Peace Corps, and the Embassy, trying to figure out what on Earth was going on. The locals were sure she wasn't coming and had even canceled lunch. We were in a position of waiting for what we assumed was a final cancellation. Then, at 3:45, I received a call that the Ambassador was for sure coming, and all the original schedule would be kept. So we scrambled to put everything together again.

The rest of the story will be told through photo captions:

After making final preparations, the local officials and I anxiously awaited for Ambassador Kenney's arrival at the front of the Municipal Hall.

Although scheduled to go right up to the municipal hall in her van, the Ambassador disembarked early to shake the hands of the many schoolchildren who were lining the road, waving handmade Philippine and American flags, as drums played and a festive mood filled the air.

As Ambassador Kenney and her support staff from the State department approached, I provided the official welcome, and proceeded to introduce her to my co-workers and the local administration.

We went through a receiving line upstairs to the city council meeting chambers. I was quite worried about the schedule, since every event had been assigned a very specific time in minutes, but the Ambassador put me at ease, and was extremely friendly with everybody, taking time to shake lots of hands and take lots of photos.

The Mayor and I presented a brief overview of our CRM program, and a summary of the major initiatives that Peace Corps and the local government are working on here.

After some photos, we proceeded to our Tandayag Marine Sanctuary to show off one of the crown jewels of our town and meet with local fishermen. A TV had been hooked up to my laptop and was showing off some underwater footage, since we didn't have time to go snorkeling. We discussed the history of the sanctuary and our hopes for developing more eco-tourism here, as well as improving fish catch for the marginal fishermen.

Ambassador Kenney gave a brief message to those assembled - members of our Bantay Dagat, Municpal Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Council, and the Tandayag Marine Sanctuary Managment Association, and handed out some pins featuring the American and Philippine flags together, and we headed to lunch.

PCVs from Negros Oriental and Siquijor joined for a delicious lunch at a local resort that I could hardly eat because I was still so wound-up from the day's events, and hadn't really taken a breath for multiple hours.

One last picture, with the local PCVs, Ambassador Kenney, Mayor Bentham De La Cruz, one of our SB members, and my work counterpart and supervisor.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing day. The preparations went off pretty flawlessly, and my co-workers and the local government went above and beyond in preparations for the event. I was very proud to have a part in hosting the Ambassador, which is believed to be the first time that a US Ambassador has come to my town. I hope that having such a high-profile visitor to our project will help convince the locals of its importance, and enable us to continue improving our programs. And, above all, a goodwill, face-to-face visit such as this goes a long way toward preserving the main goal of my organization, stated in the very first word: peace.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Ocho Cero Uno Sa Inyong Radyo...

Hola, amigos, I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya. A lot's been going on, from projects at site, to a vacation to Palawan, to a visit by the US Ambassador. I plan on making posts on all of these things soon enough. In summary though, I'm back at site and things are going well. I got some new soccer cleats, a ridiculous number of cats have been dying at my house, I finally got to read the 7th and final Harry Potter book, I'm chomping on a lot of sunflower seeds, and I just started the 5th and final season of The Wire.

In this post I mostly want to talk about a recent radio show appearance I made, because it was kind of cool. Our mayor purchased some airtime on a local station for us to talk about environmental issues, and the first week was for Coastal Resource Management. So, I went along with my co-workers to 801 Radyo Bandillo in Sibulan for the program. My assignment was to talk about marine sanctuaries. The station is popular among fisherfolk, so I decided to speak in Cebuano. I wasn't sure what I was going to say until a couple hours before we decided to leave and I lifted a few Cebuano phrases from a poster we have in the office, then madly practiced my pronunciation.

Listening to the Mayor introduce the CRM program while nervously awaiting my turn

I guess the host had been falsely buttered up as to my level of Cebuano skill, and my well-written (not by me) prepared remarks didn't help shatter any myths. So when I sat down and started getting asked all sorts of questions, I did my best to respond, but then let her know I'd really be more comfortable reading my prepared text. Later, after I was done and Job had been speaking about fishery laws, the host called me to the mic and asked me some rapid-fire question regarding mesh size for a certain kind of fish net. I ran away and made Job answer the question. Laughing about it after the show, the Mayor suggested that next time, I should say "that question is so easy that even Job can answer it, so I'll defer to him". Not a bad idea!

Here's a picture of me breaking it down on-air, and then a transcript of what I said (the English translation - I guess you can contact me if you'd like the Bisaya).


A well-managed marine protected area (MPA) promotes habitat recovery and restores fish productivity.

1. MPAs are designated areas where fishing or other forms of human access and activities are restricted to protect the area’s ecosystem. MPA is the general term for marine sanctuary, marine reserve, or marine park.

2. MPAs promote the recovery of degraded habitats critical to enhancing and sustaining our fishery resources.

3. MPAs have a no-take zone or “sanctuary” where the harvesting of fish or any marine life is not allowed. This enables fish stocks and all marine organisms to mature and thus reproduce at a higher rate. As fish and other marine life grow bigger, their ability to reproduce increases.

4. Bigger fish produce many more eggs than smaller ones. No-take sanctuaries have been proven to host more and bigger breeding individuals, increase the supply of young fish and lead to a build-up in fish populations.

5. Once fish populations inside the MPA increase, some fish will spill out of the MPA and boost catches of fishers. Currents will also disperse eggs and larvae (newly hatched fish) to populate other habitats.

6. The enhancement of fisheries is only one of the many benefits of MPAs. MPAs also contribute to the stability of the marine ecosystem, biodiversity conservation, research, public education, tourism and recreation – benefits which often exceed the economic benefits derived from fisheries alone.


Friday, May 30, 2008

The Non-Electric Water Transportation Test

[Note: I just finished reading Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, so apologies if my writing is a little more free-form than usual. Just read it. READ IT!]

The other night, I returned to my island, after an eventful day that included:

A fastcraft ride with a lady clearly taking pictures of me with her cell phone;

Waiting for a bus on a pier so thoroughly inundated with the smell of urine that it made me seriously question my previously unwavering support for the Filipino male tendency to urinate in the great outdoors, then wandering over to take a picture of a decrepit and rusty version of the boat I just rode, wasting away on the beach, and noticing a kid just openly defecating on the beach – the first time I have seen that here;

Taking a bus ride that provided some thrilling views and awe/fear inspiring turns, a regular Disney ride (knowing in the back of your mind that sometimes they have serious injuries occur on Disney rides) with the unfortunate addition of a screeching horn that makes the bus sound like a diseased weasel hurtling through lesser, slower forms of life;

Losing my cell phone on a bumpy trike ride, ordering (and paying double my already-inflated fare) for a fruitless search of my phone;

Wandering up and down a somewhat grimy dive colony, looking for “4-American-Friends-3-White-and-1-Chinese” while realizing that this was probably what detectives had to do when they didn’t have the benefit of contacting their snoop subject via cell phone – I managed to be shown the rooms they had stayed in the previous night, was offered the room key to their place for this night, and found where they had gone diving before, but no THEM, until at last! There they were.

And more happenings, like calling my phone to find that it had already been found, stolen, and de-SIM-carded, meaning I had no viable way of tracking down an honest person who found it, because an honest person didn’t find it;

Grabbing a sandwich to go and going on the fastest boat period that I’ve been on in this
country;

Snorkeling a little bit because I’m still afraid my throat will seize up if I cough too hard while I’m diving;

Having some dinner while playing Settlers of Catan and watching a beautiful sunset; catching a ride with locals back to the highway and getting to pay the true fare (5 times cheaper than the tourist fare!);

Waiting for an hour for a bus to come while impressing some locals with my language skills/going through the motions of the same inane conversation about “chicks” that we’ve all had a million times, finally catching the bus, the last boat, and arriving back on my island.

While I was on the bus, I thought about how dependent we are on cell phones for meeting people. Back in the day, you would name a time and a place, and that was that. [Or you wouldn’t even do that. I once read about a study where New Yorkers were asked to name where they would meet somebody in the city, if they had no agreed time or place, they just had to meet. An overwhelming amount independently chose the clock at Grand Central Station, 12:00 noon. I wonder where it would be for Seattle – I’d probably choose the middle of Westlake Plaza. UW, HUB front stairs. But where do you choose for a dive colony in the Philippines you’ve never been to before, and the time is now?] Cell phones make it more complicated and easier at the same time. But what happens when the paradigm shifts mid-plan? You lose your phone before setting an on-the-go time and place, and you end up wandering around up and down a hideously developed dive colony, telling the sunglasses/rolex/Viagra man three times that you don’t want any of his products, while thinking about what could have been in this day, in this place. You could have put the bloody phone in the pocket with the zipper, or your bag, or any number of other rough-road-immune places, there’s so many ways I could have not lost my phone. They could have kept the shoreline free and open, put the resorts off the beach, never made any seawalls, and created/preserved a place 30 times more beautiful, there’s so many people who could have not screwed this up. Sayang.

Like I said, I returned to my island, getting off the slow boat at the southernmost end of my town, which is about an hour’s walk from where I live, as I now know. It was late, beyond typical public-transport time, but there was one tricycle driver waiting at the dock. I told him I wanted to go to Poblacion. He appeared to ingest this information, but it had no effect, and he wandered off. I waited a few minutes, and then I asked him if he wasn’t leaving, after all. He mumbled some stuff and then asked how much I was going to pay. I said, well, the regular fare is 6 pesos, so what do you want? He sort of said nothing, just smiled weirdly. I asked him a couple more times, and he said nothing. I told him he needed to talk, or I was just going to walk home. It was strange, the way he refused to begin a negotiation. Then he finally says 60 pesos. 60! Sometimes I give in a little bit to the inevitable rip-offs that follow my white skin because I just don’t care enough to haggle on everything. But no way is this happening in my own town. He wants more because he might not pick up a passenger on the way back – totally reasonable, so I offer him 12. No. “Gasolina is expensive.” … Yes, it is, but it’s no more expensive at night than during the day time, when you drive up and down giving rides all day for 6 pesos. I offer 15. 20. 20 each, me and the kid by me who wants to go the exact same way as me, but even further! He’s already offered 20. That’s 40 out of his ludicrous negotiation-starting high point of 60. He’s nonplussed. I’m frustrated. The driver points out what appears to be an easy-ride going by, and the kid and I run for it, but it’s not-for-hire, plus it’s stopping where we’re standing and staying there for the night. Tired and perplexed, I don’t even go back to the trike and begin to walk home instead. It occurs to me that he just really didn’t want to drive us, even at a premium price. He decided that he would only take us if he really got away with murder. He certainly doesn’t lose money during the day - otherwise there would be no trikes on the road – and he stood to make even more here. I walked home sort of to spite him – if you’re going to hold out for everything, you’re going to get nothing, my thinking often goes – yet it seems that this is basically what he wanted. On I walked, thinking about this driver #118 and wondering if I should have negotiated differently, or longer, while counting the vehicles that passed. Not a single public utility vehicle, so I don’t know if the kid I was waiting with ever passed me or not. And then, at the EXACT moment that I reached my house, Trike #117 goes by, fully loaded with people! Now I’m unsure if it was 118 or 117 that I was originally talking to, as the paint jobs appeared similar. Either way, he got his money, or he got his secret wish to stay, and I arrived home at my apparently pre-destined arrival time.

Monday, May 26, 2008

A project beginning


One of my new projects is to try and create a supplemental livelihood for fisherfolk families, the idea being to increase their income first, and to also try and reduce pressure on the fishery by having less people dependent on it as a livelihood (which can lead to overfishing - although, really, commercial fishers are the major problem in that regard). Having been inspired at a training I went to, my counterpart and I developed a plan to introduce this supplemental livelihood project based on creating goods out of recycled materials - out of used juice patches, for one, but also out of ironed plastic bags, a new idea which is starting to catch on, but hasn't really been done yet in my area. [Curious about ironing? Check out this website.] After a few introductory meetings with local officials to build support, I met with some fisherfolk one afternoon that had conveniently already been organized by a provincial employee, and showed them some sample products and a video on the technique. When I came back the next week to give more information and do an actual demonstration, I was floored to see that one of the girls had already taken the idea and ran with it, far surpassing anything I hoped to demonstrate, producing the most creative bags and prints I had ever seen with this technique. I borrowed them for a week to show off. These are all created from plastic bags ironed together:

Orcas frolicking under the sun

An orca in a colorful sea

A small handbag

An orca handbag

... A week went by and we returned for a third meeting, and I was again floored by what had been produced, this time in only 4 days:







These bags are basically market-ready, in my opinion, and the enthusiasm that's been shown so far makes me feel like even if a large amount of people don't take to the project, at least a small group of people can really make something of it. We're meeting on Friday to talk business plans and group names, and then the plan is to develop some more sample, initial products for sale. I'm going to help market the goods locally, regionally, and possibly even internationally, if some of my North American readers dig it. Bags will probably be the starting point, but I'm hoping that a wide range of things can be made - sails, kites, umbrellas, rain jackets, whatever would benefit from a free, durable Tyvex-like material.

Here's a picture of the community organizer, Daisy, on the left, who's my main counterpart for this project, and some of the most enthusiastic members so far. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Friday, May 16, 2008

One Year in the Philippines!


Yes, It's official, I've now been in the Philippines for one year. And oh, what a difference one makes, if you will compare my just-arrived-after-a-long journey, freshly buzz cut, heaviest weight of my life ID photo with the one I took last night.

But sadly, I am apparently moving farther away from the culturally "proper" hairstyle.

And I've eschewed pants and shoes at the office for shorts and flip-flops every day. At least my hair's not blue, and I don't have a shifty look on my face, right?

I also just sent out a mass email, and posted it as a note on facebook. If you're not my facebook friend, or not on the list, and you want to read this year update, give me your email address.