Welcome to Craig Bosman's Peace Corps Blog

Welcome, visitor!

Below this post is the blog I created and maintained during my 27 months of service in the Peace Corps. I was a Coastal Resource Management volunteer in Amlan, Negros Oriental, Philippines from 2007 to 2009.

After leaving the Peace Corps, some volunteer buddies and I backpacked around Southeast Asia for a couple months, and I returned home to Seattle. Back home I snowboarded a lot, spent time with family and friends, helped out my parents with their used book business, worked for the Census, volunteered for a political campaign, and finally settled in for a year working at my alma mater, the University of Washington. Now I'm at UC Berkeley studying for a master's degree in public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy.

The posts below are presented in reverse chronological order as originally written and posted. Enjoy!

Craig

So, this is how it ends

It's been a very long time since I sent out anything or even posted on my blog, and I hesitate to even write this, uncomfortable and pressed for time as I am in an internet cafe in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao, Philippines. But seeing as my 27 month Peace Corps service has come to an end, thus marking a major transition in my life, I should probably write something (also, my mother won't stop harrassing me to do so.)

When I applied for the Peace Corps, I wanted to use my skills to help people, to fully experience a new culture, learn a new language, travel, and have unforgettable experiences. It hasn't always materialized as I imagined, but reflecting on my experiences, I think I have achieved all of these things. Since the last time you may have heard from me, I've written and not published, I've photographed and not posted. Someday I'll synthesize all of this coherently, I hope. For now, here's a quick update.

I left my town of Amlan, Negros Oriental one week ago after a busy time wrapping up projects, saying goodbye to my new family and friends, attending despedidas thrown in my honor, and trying to get some alone time to make sense of it all. The end came quickly and felt rather abritrary, being based on 2 years in town rather than any seasonal, cultural, or work-related event. Leaving my town was harder than leaving Seattle, because I don't know if I'll ever be back in the same capacity, though I do hope to return to visit multiple times.

I spent the bulk of my time over the past few months setting up a public library, working with high school students to design and (begin to) paint a huge mural, helping the municipality get a new speedboat for the volunteer coast guard, marketing and developing products made of recycled plastic for a supplemental livelihood project with fisherfolk, and a bunch of other stuff. (I'll post my official Description of Service when I get a chance.)

I've also had the chance to see a lot of the Philippines and have some amazing experiences -- caving among mummies in Sagada, climbing the tallest mountain in my province, swimming with whale sharks in Sorsogon, and enjoying simple things like mountain biking, snorkeling, soccer, and tennis in my town.

For the past week I've been in the forbidden province of Mindanao (there are rebel activities and violence that plague much of the province) but the places I have been are totally safe and absolutely beautiful. We've been whitewater rafting, hiking up volcanoes, relaxing on white sandbars, riding motorcycles, scuba diving, and indulging in great food. I'm soaking in the best of the Philippines for one last time before I move on to travel for a few more weeks. With some Peace Corps buddies, I'll be flying to Thailand tomorrow and spending about a month traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, before heading to Korea for a week+. I arrive home on September 24 and will be promptly kidnapped by my parents and whisked away to Lake Chelan for some quality family time before returning to Seattle to hopefully attend every remaining Mariners game of the season.

I'm not totally sure on my future plans, but here is what I have for now: I'm studying right now for the GRE and plan to take it in October, then spend the first couple months back in the US visiting people, attending copious amounts of sporting events, enjoying the northwest life, and applying to graduate schools for a Master's in Public Affairs/Public Policy to start in 2010. I'm only about 65% sure of this plan right now, it will depend on doing more research into schooling options, where I get in, and how much money is bestowed on me. After the application process is done, I may look for work in the Seattle area or consider a short-term international assignment.

When I was last in the United States, the economy was humming along, Obama was a junior senator, the Sonics were stil in Seattle, the Sounders weren't in the MLS, nobody had ever heard of Sarah Palin, T-Pain, Soulja Boy, or Autotune, iPhones did not yet exist, streetcars had not yet returned to Seattle, and I don't remember texting being very popular. Obviously all of these things have changed, and I am very interested to see what else has changed. For example, I can't recall offhand how many new cousins I have that I haven't yet been able to meet.

Although I have had a fantastic experience in the Peace Corps, with all the ups and downs, I am looking forward to being back home and getting to see everybody. I'm sure it will be an overwhelming experience with some reverse culture shock, but I'm hoping my long road home will help with that and that I'll return to the US a couple years older, a little bit wiser, and ready to start the next step. I'll send out my contact info in the US once I get everything figured out. Thanks for reading this and for all your interest and support over the last two years!

Peace,
Craig

The Story of the Flood

Alright, I've finally gotten around to editing and revising my flood story, which was mostly written during the ordeal or in its immediate aftermath, and therefore captures the events and emotions quite accurately. I put more time into this than anything I've written thus far for this here blog. It's too long for a blog post, so I've published it via Google Docs and it's available for viewing here:

http://tinyurl.com/craigflood

Now a brief update [spoiler alert]:
- I have moved back into my house and things are, incredibly, more or less back to normal.
- The plane tickets that I was buying when the flood hit resulted in a great trip to the Bicol region of Southern Luzon. I got to visit some friends, climb some mudflows on Mount Mayon, and most awesomely, swim with enormous whale sharks.
- My camera wasn't fixable, so I have no photographs of either the flood or the trip, although I'm trying to get some from neighbors and friends.
- I have a little over 4 months left in the Peace Corps, and this feels weird to me.

Horrendous Flooding

Some may have already heard the news, but we had another flood, and it was way, way worse. This time I didn't make a funny video because my camera, stored about 7 feet high, was broken in the flood. I am ok, but my house is not. At least it's still standing -- lots of people lost their houses and a few lost their lives. I lack the time and energy to write the essay I want to write about this, and the experience isn't yet over, anyway. There's still mud to clean, 4 days later.

In the meantime, I urge you to read this news article if you want some more information:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20090209-188325/Landslide-flood-kill-4-in-Negros-Or

I will write more in the coming week.

The "Easy" Ride

Waiting outside to go to the city,
No buses will stop; they show me no pity.

Time after time, they drive right on by,
I throw up my hands, yell swears, and ask, “Why?!”

Sadly resigned, I ride jeepney at last,
I am not amused; we're immediately passed.

The driver, it seems, is looking for riders,
He sees possible pesos in all standing road-siders.

In braking he's harsh, in traffic he lurches,
The Catholics cross themselves as we pass churches.

Knees knocking knees, a woman's breastfeeding,
I focus my eyes on the page that I'm reading.

A screaming young baby's disrupting my nap,
A rather large lady sits right on my lap.

I can't move my legs, or not bump my head,
Each minute riding this fills me with dread.

With tapping of coin, I at last disembark,
Time has passed slowly, it's now almost dark.

Fresh air and free legs, a new lease on life,
It’s great to be rid of the "easy ride" strife.

Next time, I resolve, I'll make the bus stop --
If not by my gestures, I guess I'll throw rocks.

-------

*Author's note: the smaller jeepneys in the area are called "easy rides." In other areas, they are known as multi-cabs, which is much less of a misnomer.

Whoah!

...It's almost the end of January.

Quick update: Malaysia was awesome. I will collect my thoughts on it sometime, but not here. But you can view pictures from the trip here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2366406&l=20ac2&id=10701003

While I was there, I met some folks who were teaching in Korea, and their various visitors. In the second week of January, 3 of them stopped by my site for a few days, which was really cool. They had a good time.

I've been delightfully busy lately. Creating dive tourism brochures, designing tickets, writing and editing a coastal resource management plan, relaunching recycled goods livelihood products (this one is fraught with the most missteps and setbacks), and setting up the municipal library. We have a small staff now, and we're hoping to open sometime in February.

Socially, I went to the Sinulog festival in Cebu City a couple weeks ago. It was pretty wild, and there were way too many people, but that's all part of the fun. I didn't really take any pictures, so I encourage you to check out www.sinulog.ph for more details. And then this past weekend I was up in Manila yet again for what is essentially a Peace Corps ASB meeting.

HEY, ARE YOU READING THIS? Cool, hi. I bet you have some books. Do you want to donate some of them to our library? Get in touch with me. Thanks!

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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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)

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.

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)

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.