Goodness, it’s been quite some time since I have written in my blog. We’ve been pretty busy here, lots of celebrations and piyestas. Christmas was a blast here, we went caroling all day around the Barangay and collected money for our piyesta. Then at night we had a dance party near the Barangay captain’s house. For the piyesta we had a benefit dance the first night, followed by a rest day (hahahah), then a beauty pageant the third night which I had the honor of judging. Lots of fun! Then for New Years I went to Boracay, one of the most out of control touristy places here in the Philippines with about 40 or so other Peace Corps Volunteers, madness absolute madness. Not sure I am interested in ever going back though, once was enough. I gorged on amazing expensive American food all weekend, but was sure happy to get back to my typical Filipino ulam and kanin… After returning from Boracay, the whole municipality was just preparing for the Biniray Festival. All office work was put on hold. We spent our days making our costumes and decorating the town and we spent our nights practicing dance moves and drumming. The Friday before the piyesta started, we took down the statue of the Santo Niño in the church because it is normally protected in a glass case high up set in the wall. It was one of the most fascinating things I have ever experienced. As they brought it down, crowds of people came rushing up to the front, it was like a mosh pit, like a celebrity, people being trampled, people taking photos with their cell phones, people shoving their way to the front to wipe their handkerchief on the statue, the Philippine National Police acting as body guards and crowd control. All for this statue, the symbol brought by the Spaniards during their colonization. Apparently as they were trying to leave Romblon, they tried seven times to bring their Santa Niño symbol, but the sea was too rough so after the seventh attempt they left it on shore. So now as part of the tradition, we take bangkas out and make seven loops off the pier. The next day at 4 am everyone from my Barangay headed to town for mass at the high school followed by the parade around the town. Almost every Barangay participated in the parade, they each have their own tribe, unique costumes, and drums, and they compete for best costume and best sound. Soo fun, Filipinos really know how to party, I was pretty lasing by 10 am hahah, shots of brandy flowing left and right. Then the rest of the week there was an event in the town plaza every night: women’s night, Barangay night, tourism night, Romblon National High School cultural show, Holy Rosary Concert, etc… We also had a photo exhibit in the center of town showcasing the work we do with SIKAT and through the Department of Agriculture, livelihood projects and a wealth of information about community based coastal resource management.
Anyways, I really enjoy being at site, I feel very content here, I never really have the urge to get up and travel. All of the volunteers have just been visiting me at site! I really lucked out with my placement. Work has been slow in the office with the piyesta and all but next month we are starting a coral propagation project. So we will be using SCUBA to place down these cement domes in sandy substrate to create an artificial reef. We will be collecting small pieces of branching Acropora hard corals and creating a nursery where they can grow a little larger before we attach them to the cement structures. We will be hosting a training event and I have invited a couple other Peace Corps volunteers to help out. Should be fun!! After that we will be starting our fisherfolk and boat registration for the year 2011. That means we will be going around to each of the 31 barangays among the four islands in the municipality and visiting with the fisherfolk. This should bring in a lot of money for the local government unit. I look forward to meeting all of the small-scale fishers here. Hopefully my Tagalog is sufficient to carry conversations with them… We will also be going around to the other marine protected areas and removing crown-of-thorns, the ferocious coral-eating sea star. Starting in March, we will also begin a bird survey off of San Pedro point, where I had mentioned earlier about creating a bird sanctuary ecotourism destination. We have the balinsasayaw here, the infamous bird that creates nests made of saliva which are sold on the market in Manila for up to 200,000 PhP a kilo ($ 4,762 a kilo). It’s illegal to take, purchase, or sell these nests but there are many restaurants still selling these on Palawan. They make their nests in caves or off steep cliffs, and we are going to work on protecting their habitat.
I found a house that I am going to move into next month. It is actually the old house of my host father when he was growing up. It’s right down the road from where I am living right now. A simple little concrete house, two bedrooms on a good plot of land. I had a few options but I settled on this choice because I really wanted to stay in the same community. I have developed relationships with the people here, and it has really helped to integrate with a host family here. There was a much nicer house closer to town, made of marble, right on the beach, land to make a garden, yard, porch, pool table, couches, beds, TV, oven, complete with all the appliances, the works really and for a good price, only the equivalent of about $70 a month, but I don’t know anyone in that community. I could see myself just getting off work, heading home, and having a big ol’ house to myself and no one to talk to. And there is not a People’s Organization there either. Here in Agnay there is a very active group of people passionate about conserving their marine resources so this is where I am meant to be, even if 9 km from town. At least it should keep me in shape while I am here, riding my bike everyday to town. I love the people here, they treat me like family, they watch out for me and I truly feel very welcome and safe which is why I want to stay here. Everyone in this Barangay is literally related to each other, they are one big extended family. I love them.
