Off to Church

On Saturday afternoon we arrived at Sitio Pongpong (yes that really is its name) so that my mum could visit the small church there on Sunday morning. Although the church is tiny and has only rough log benches to sit on, it is filled on a Sunday, and the volume of the singing would raise the roof if there weren't so many holes in it. Braving the prospect of splinters in our rear ends, we took our place on a log which had been left vacant for us, and which formed part of the the the front row (that log there on the right in the picture !).

 

Dogs, and the odd chicken, wander freely through the church during the service.  In fact one of the people gathering the collection accidentally stood on a sleeping dog, leading to a riot of yelps and confusion.  

The fact that the church is so basic somehow makes the effect of the service and the enthusiasm of the people is all the more moving, and the place has a great feeling to it.  Once again we were made very welcome. In fact, we were received as honoured guests.  We passed on a donation of the equivalent of £10 to the members of the church, which they decided would be spent on white curtain material for dressing the church and tables at the forthcoming fiesta, and on buying flower vases for the church to replace the cut-off water bottles currently serving that purpose.

After the main part of the service was over the congregation continued busily planning their annual fiesta for the 28th May. However they were worried that they had no volleyball available to allow the proposed young people's volleyball tournament to take place.  Since two young members of Mearns Parish Kirk had donated a pound pocket money each to the benefit of the young people here, we decided this money should be used to buy the youngsters of Sitio Pongpong a basketball.  This meant they could go ahead and have their tournament. Since the people here are fanatical about basketball, you can be sure the basket ball will be very well used even after the tournament ! 

After church had finished, we gave out some of the donated pencil cases, pens pencils, and balloons to the children in the congregation.  They were all delighted with these, and very soon children were appearing from all around to join in and receive a balloon and a pencil case. The people were all very interested in seeing a picture of all the children of Mearns Parish Kirk, and sent a big "thank you" to the children and adults who had sent these gifts to their village.  

Before we left they made me promise to go back there on the 28th May to join in their Fiesta, which should be great fun !

That Sinking Feeling

Oh dear !  It seems my postings about my folks' visit omitted any pictures of my dad.  As a result, my niece, Holly Beth wondered why her grandad wasn't in the photos. Had we lost him ? Was he still going around and around on the baggage carousel at Manila Airport waiting for someone to claim him ?

Well the real reason is that he was acting as photographer, so was behind the camera. But to assure everyone he is well and having a good time here are some photos of him trying his hand at paddling a local canoe, complete with rattan poles as outriggers to give it more stability.

Unfortunately they didn't give it quite enough stability and he managed to sink it ! 

Fortunately the water was only about 18 inches deep at that point, so instead of the canoe plunging to a watery grave, no harm was done. 

Instead, it was quickly bailed out and was afloat again in no time.   

In fact the water in the bay at Barobo is so shallow that the locals build little huts way out far into the bay where they grow seaweed and farm fish. 

 

The purpose of the huts is to let them guard their seaweed and make sure nobody steals it. The purple seaweed is then dried along the roadsides in the village and then sold as food at local markets. 

Suitably refreshed from planned and unplanned immersion in the sea, we set out to do our second mass distribution of the gifts sent from Mearns Parish Kirk.  I will post details of this in the next day or two, once we sort the photos (there are hundreds of them !) 

Not “All Work and No Play” !

Although there is a serious side to working here it is certainly not 'all work and no play'.  Far from it in fact.  Mindanao has some really wondertful scenery, and some spectacular golden sandy beaches with very few people on them. 

One of my favourite places to go for a night or two is Kansilad Beach, just north of Lianga in Surigao del Sur.  Kansilad is about one hour from the small town of San Francisco, Agusan del Sur, where I live. 

The road is quite good until you get to the coastal town of Barobo.  After Barobo the surfaced road ends, and you need to negotiate a very rough and steadily deteriorating dirt track in order to complete the journey. I think there's meant to be a road there somewhere, beneath all the mud and bumps !

Finally you get to a small beach resort, which has great chalets for rent. One of them is on stilts over the water, with wonderful view of the beach and the sea.

Little wooden fishing boats manned by fishermen in 'chinaman' style straw hats ply back and forth off the beach.

The sun shimmers across the water, creating an expanse of sparking ripples on the surface, before setting in a rosy glow behind a forested rocky hill where the macaque monkeys live. In the opposite direction a mangrove swamp provides the setting for a fish sanctuary, which has helped to improve the fishing in the bay.

A beautiful palm-fringed, golden sandy beach completes the scene and makes the place truly idyllic. 

My parents went there with me last weekend, and fell in love with the place. In fact the sea was so warm that my mother went swimming in the sea for the first time in her life at the age of 67!  I couldn't believe she had never been swimming in the sea before (although she was in her 50s before she learnt to swim).

So what was the secret that triggered this momentous event ?  The answer lies in the fact that the beach at Kansilad goes out gradually for a very long way, with the sun beating down on it and heating it up until it is really warm.   

Apparently she has always found the sea too cold – even in hot countries – until she discovered the Philippines ! 

The end result ? Before we left we had we booked in again for next weekend ! 

I guess life really is a beach after all ! The hardships of being a VSO volunteer, eh ?  Its a tough job, but someone has to do it, as they say…

From Scotland with Love

My parents arrival failed to get off to a flying start - they missed their flight to Mindanao and ended up stranded in Manila ! As there wasn't another flight for two days I got on the return leg of the flight they should have been on, and joined them in Manila.

However, the time was not wasted as we ended up seeing some fabulous Good Friday celebrations at Quiapo Church (The Church of the Black Nazarene).  All the statues from the church are paraded through the street on top of trucks, tricycles and just shoulders, with people trying to touch them or throwing up cloths to be rubbed on the statues for a blessing.  Quite a sight, with thousands of people crowding the streets !

My parents brought loads of goodies which were donated by members of their church - Mearns Kirk – for giving to the most under-priviledged children here – clothes, pencils, pens, pencil cases, balloons and stickers. 

As there are a lot of street children in Manila, we gave out a few of these items during our brief stay.

These went to families who live on the street and keep their few posessions in plastic bags hung on the trees and railings where they sleep. 

However, the first large-scale distribution of these gifts took place near the coast in Mindanao, at Barobo.  Our 'test run' was in a village I had visited a few times before, and where I had  been struck by the obvious poverty and dishevelled clothing of the children.  It is also a place where the children had always been very friendly and welcoming, and flock onto the streets whenever something novel or interesting occurs – like foreigners appearing.

 

We took a tricycle there, then sat down at the village well and began blowing up baloons.  Pretty soon curious children (and adults) were appearing from nowhere.  I started distributing pencil cases containing an assortment of pens, pencils, a rubber, sharpener, stickers and a couple of balloons (uniflated ones!).

My mother had previously sorted the clothes into bags according to age it was for and if it was boys' or girls' stuff, so she got out her bags and started matching up clothing to kids, and handing it out, making sure each child got at least one item.  Those children who looked in greatest need got an extra item or two – including a very small boy in a falling apart t-shirt, which completely failed to conceal his modesty ! A poor wee soul indeed ! 

All the kids were incredibly polite, patiently (but eagerly) waiting their turn rather than grasping or pushing to get things. Parents and older kids had also gathered round, and helped ensure the process was really very orderly. 

A group of teenage boys also got stuck into helping to blow up balloons, though they did ask if they could keep one each !  One woman asked "When are you coming back ?" and joked "Can you bring some clothes to fit me next time ?"  and an elderly gentleman asked if he too could have a baloon please (we gave him one!). 

All the stuff was obviously greatly appreciated, and the parents and kids were clearly delighted to receive the goodies.  As we left the street looked like a carnival with lots of balloons around and all the children and parents waving us off and urging us to come back soon !

So thanks to all those at Mearns Kirk for all the stuff they sent – you certainly made those kids' day that day !

Coffee from a Civet Cat’s Droppings

The Philippines produces one of the world's most expensive and coveted kinds of coffee. It comes from the droppings of a nocturnal, cat-like animal called the palm civet.

Civet cats have a taste for the sweet, red coffee cherries that contain the beans. The beans pass through the civet whole after fermenting in the stomach and that's what gives the coffee its unique taste and aroma. 

The droppings collected into two containers – one for the old ones, which resemble chalky beans, and one for the fresh ones, which look like yellow beans in gravy.  Gravy…?? No, best not ask.

The beans are rinsed in forest streams (at least that's a relief!) and then dried. It goes through some kind of natural processing, which makes it oily and aromatic, with an exceptionally good flavour….like fermented plum and dark chocolate with hazelnuts.

And I though they said "you can't pooh pooh things before you try them".

Hmmm…  Should I add it to my list of sustainable, alternative livelihoods for promoting to upland communities, I wonder ? 

Survival Tips for Travelling in Mindanao

Extracts of Article by Penelope C. Sanz, Mindanews, 2005 

A local paper here recently published “dos and don’ts” for travelling around Mindanao.  Since my parents are about to visit here I thought it might be useful to provide a summary of this guidance, just so they are warned!

The ‘must have’s in your survival kit are: a shawl, flashlight, loose change, a plastic bag, a bottle of water, and tissue paper.

Never leave home without a shawl. It protects you from dust and UV rays and is useful cover when you need to pee in the middle of nowhere. Shawls also keep you warm in air-conditioned buses, as drivers always put it on full blast to keep their seat by the engine cool. This is a constant cause of bickering. Passengers holler at the  driver because the bus is like a freezer. The driver snaps back “pasagdihi ko kung gusto ninyo mabuhi” (let me be if you want to live).

The “last trip” of the day can mean a full vehicle. There’s nowhere to go but go “taplod” (sit on top of the jeepney or bus). Try to find a seat in the middle, but chances are these are already taken. So you have nobody or nothing to hang-on to. What do you do? Pray! Also, try not to look down the cliffs if you can help it, okay?

Don’t be surprised to find a chicken, goat or even a large pig traveling in the vehicle with you.

Never sit beside the window. Scallywags along the highway sometimes throw rocks at passing buses. Besides, if the bus rolls over, you don’t want to get squeezed between a heavy weight male and the window.  

The flashlight. Landslides are common during the rainy season. You may need to walk in darkness and heavy rain over a kilometer of mud to get to a bus on the other side. Flashlights are also useful when the bus breaks down in the middle of the night in some God forsaken area.

Transferring buses is mayhem, with everybody scrambling for seats. You may need to clamber up the side of the bus and wiggle your way in through the window (be prepared for bruises).

Grandmas will watch your things for you – just be prepared to endure an inquisition for the rest of the journey. The tricky part is she will probably be matching you up with her son or nephew.

Never try to eat a full meal at stops. The bus will go whether you’re finished or not. Instead survive on the biscuits, boiled eggs and peanuts sold through the windows by vendors.

Coins are needed for using the comfort room (WC) – prices range from P 2.00 to P 4.00 – depending on what you need to do (yes, you are meant to declare which it is). They are also effective in hushing up preachers who step into the bus and conduct biblical sermons.

Keep P 500 handy to give robbers should a hold up occur. Better that than your cell phone, which should be kept hidden as much as possible.

Nighttime checkpoints are a real inconvenience. Soldiers can be overly eager and suspect all boxes of containing arms.

The plastic bag is for puke. You may not be “dagaton” (easily nauseated) but the kid beside you or a pregnant woman might be.

Habal-habals (motorcycles) are very accident-prone. If you can afford to hire the whole habal-habal, great! If not, the two seats behind the driver are best (they seat about 8!). On a long trip you may need to seek shelter from a sudden downpour in a hut along the road. In insurgency areas, check first if it has foxholes or underground tunnels. It’s better to catch pneumonia than be caught in a crossfire. Listen to the habal-habal driver’s instructions. In rebel areas, if he says never point or dare to look at a certain hill or mountain, obey!

Be careful with your questions. Sometimes people easily open up to strangers. A simple ‘kumusta?” (how are you?) could release a torrent of emotional trauma. Let them cry.

What else? Prayers help a lot. You need them when you’re fording a river and there’s a sudden flood, or when the bangka (boat) you are riding in stops in the middle of the sea and there’s a whirlpool gaining momentum.

Whew! All you can do is just have faith and hope for the best.

Life on the River

 

The river where work is the Andanan River, which can look really quite beautiful at times - especially from a distance ! It is about 100 metres wide, but only about 2 metres deep. However, it does have a lot of problems. 

The Provincial Governor describes it as "a headache".

Illegal logging has wiped out almost all native tree cover, although it was completely forested in the 1950s.  Some locals did once report the illegal loggers to the authorities, but all that happened was that the loggers found out, and threatened them. Nothing was done to stop the logging.  It is very dangerous to get mixed up in such things, as "forest-related violence" is a major problem.  

A lot of the uplands has been converted to agriculture, bananas, coconut or rubber plantations. Vegetables are grown in rows running vertically down the steep slopes, with no use of measures to stop soil erosion.

Huge amounts of sediment wash off into the river and are carried downstream, turning the water into something that looks more like flowing, watery mud than a clear, sparkling stream shimmering in the tropical sunlight. Bobbing along merrily in the water are illegally cut logs from within the protected area, floating downstream to collection points.

However the real 'piece de resistance' is the municipal garbage dump, serving 100,000 people, and is not so much on the banks of the river as in it !  Whenever it rains the water washes the garbage off the banks and carries it downstream where it gets into the irrigation systems of fields and causes skin diseases amongst the people living there.

The good news is that the Provincial Government has issued an Order telling the municipal authority to stop dumping rubbish there, but at present it is still operating and no alternative site has been identified. 

The tributaries are very attractive in some places, and have even managed to retain remnants of the original vegetation.  Given the large amount of rainfall we get here (about 3,500mm per year, which is seriously wet) and the steepness of the slopes, it is not surprising that there are a lot of waterfalls, some of which are very beautiful.

The local Environment and Natural Resources Office confidently says that there is no water pollution in the mountains.  However, as far as I know, no-one has ever tested the water.  What we do know is that in Mindanao there is a lot of illegal cyanide fishing and also a lot of small (and large) scale mining which uses mercury and other noxious chemicals to extract gold. And guess where it ends up…..  

On top of all this, bribery, vested interests and lack of political will leads to non-enforcement of those environmental laws that do exist.   

My task here is to prepare a management plan for the area which will solve all the problems and also provide secure and improved livelihoods for all the poverty-stricken residents. 

Easy-peasy, eh?

Home Sweet Home

The accommodation is pretty basic here. Most people here in the rural areas of Mindanao live in Nipa huts or rough timber shacks. 

Nipa is palm fronds woven into rectangular panels which are then used for the walls of the house. Most of these houses are very small. 

In the Agusan Marsh the Nipa huts are built onto log rafts, so that they can float up and down as the water level in the marsh changes.  Quite ingenious. There is also a floating school. 

However, they do sometimes sink ! 

And as to toilets – what a luxury !

In the marsh no-one has a toilet, and in the mountains about 75% have no toilet facilities. 

I do have a toilet in my house, though, but dont ask too may questions about where the effluent goes once the loo is flushed !

Schistosomiasis and other waterbourne diseases are widespread in Mindanao.  I wonder why ! 

I have asked colleagues if anyone here has hot water in their house (I certainly don't) and they could see no reason why anyone would want hot water on tap.  Only the very poshest of the hotels in the big cities have hot water to cater for those 'soft' foreigners who want such ridiculous things.

There is a shower attachment on the wall of my loo (they are called 'Comfort Rooms' or 'CR's here) but I don't use the shower as the water is too cold.  In order that my morning wash is not with perishingly cold water, I wash by almost filling a bucket with tap water, then putting in a kettle-full of boiling water. I then throw the water over me with a plastic pan.  It works quite well really.

The whole of my CR is about 1 metre square, so it's a bit tight for space, and you have to be careful not to soak the loo roll when you wash.  Imagine it as being a bit like having a toilet inside your shower cabinet, and then just to make it a bit more cosy you tuck it in under the stairs so only half of it is standing height. There is no sink in the loo – the only sink is the kitchen sink in the main living area.  

Still, my house is really quite luxurious by local standards, and is made of concrete blocks.  One of the girls that  arrived at the same time as me is getting the "authentic volunteer experience" living in a Nipa hut in Eastern Samar where the rats come in and play with her food !  Rats are quite common here really.  I photographed these one while sitting in a eatery / restaurant place near the coast.

Strange Things to Eat

Some of the foods found if the Philippines are strange, exotic or weird to European tastes.   

Durian 

Philippinos are particularly fond of coaxing foreigners into eating durian.  Durian is a large spiky fruit which is opened up and the slimy white coating of the seeds inside is then sucked or chewed off the seeds. 

The local saying is that durian "tastes like heaven but smells like hell". 

Hotels have notices on their check-in desks banning guests from bringing durian into the hotel,and airlines also ban passengers from transporting it. All because they know they will not be able to rid the room or the plane of the stink afterwards. 

I have tried it and although it doesn't taste too offensive I can't say I thought it tasted very good. I believe it's an acquired taste.  However it is a sort of 'initiation' foreigners are expected to go through, and the locals always really appreciate if you give it a try. I do have one advantage in eating durian – I have a very poor sense of smell !

Lechon Baboy 

Much more palatable is the local delicacy which is found at all major parties or celebrations – lechon baboy.  This is basically a whole roasted pig, skewered on a large pole and cooked over a fire.  I think the skin is glazed with a sugary substance as it is always a very golden orange colour and beautifully crispy.  

Balot Pinoy 

Incubated duck eggs (balot pinoy) are also a great favourite here.  The eggs are incubated to let the duckling embryo develop and then eaten. You can buy them at different stages of inclubation, with those which are incubated for the longest being all feathered and crunchy. The whole thing is eaten (except the shell). 

Waste not, Want Not 

 

 

 

 

Very little of an animal is wasted here.  When you see chicken for sale in the market, it will often be split up into the crown (breast), legs, feet, the head, and the intestine.  All is eaten.   The little street barbecues that you find everywhere almost always have chicken entrails on a skewer, and chicken heads on a skewer, all waiting to be barbeced.

Doggy Doggy  

Dog is also eaten here, mainly by the indigenous people for whom it is a traditional food.  There is a lot of fokelore about its health-giving properties.  I saw a dead dog hung up on Christmas Eve, being prepared for the table by having all the hair singed off.   

Baboy Ritual  

My husband Bill and I once attended a traditional ritual by the Manobo people in which a pig was traditionally slaughtered and then cooked for the whole village.

I must admit I was apprehensive before hand, expecting lots of struggling and squealing and gore  However I was to be surprised at how quickly and efficently the pig was killed by a long sharp knife skillfully inserted into the jugular vein.

The whole village then gathered and a ritual was gone through involving 'gifts' of food to the spirits, before everyone joined in eating the pig. Nothing was wasted – even the blood is collected and made into a kind of soup/stew dish.

What am I doing here ?

Well here it is – my first attempt at writing a 'web log' or 'blog'.  I hope you like it and find it a useful way of keeping up with what I am doing here during my two years as a volunteer Watershed Managment Adviser based on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.I arrived in the Philippines in October 2005 to work for the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office as a Watershed Managment Adviser.  The post was arranged by Voluntary Service Overseas, which means I don't get paid much (just a local salary of P14,000 a month, which is roughly equivalent to £150 UK pounds) but I also get the use of a motorbike and a mobile phone and get my rent paid for me, so all in all its not too difficult to live on what I get.  Food is very cheap, and you can easily dine out and have a beer, all  for just P70.  There are not too many luxuries available here to spend money on, so it is possible to live quite cheaply – or do I mean there is nothing much to buy !

 My main task here is to survey and define the charachteristics of the water catchment of a particular river here – the Andanan River – so that we can develop plans to conserve and protect the area for the future.  Part of the area is a Protected Forest Watershed, although many of the trees originally in the area have been cut by illegal loggers, so there is little or no old growth forest left. The cutting of forests and the use of 'slash and burn' farming techniques (called 'kaingin') have also been contributing to serious problems of soil erosion and sediment in the rivers.  As a result the irrigation dam which the river supplies can only irrigate 2,500 hectares of rice fields, not the 5,000 hectares it is intended to supply.

The area is very important, not only as the source of water for the irrigation dam, but also as the source of  drinking water to the population of a big town, Bayugan, with a population of around 100,000 and also in providing all the daily needs of the people living in the mountains.  The area also has a lot of important habitats and species present in it, including the Philippine Eagle, Philippine Tarsier, various species of parrots, and much more.   

There are about 12,000 people living in the mountain areas of the watershed, including a large number of the indigenous people  of the area, who belong to the Manobo Tribe.