I was uninvited from my highly anticipated trip to the mountains. Instead, I was supposed to attend a two-day dyeing training close to home. On the first day I showed up late, because I was waiting for my old language instructor to stop by. (He was on a sales trip with his SUV-driving uncle. Unfortunately, when I introduced his uncle to Bebie, Sonny’s wife, he spewed his fear-factor sales pitch: “Buy this TV radiation screen I am selling for the low price of 50% of your monthly income. Or you will die. Don’t worry you can pay next month. See, I already installed it.” After she agreed, he told her that if she badgers her friends into buying one too, “I will give you a 10% discount.” I felt pretty bad that I had brought the salesman into Bebie’s home, but she told me not to worry, when he comes to collect, she will just return it.) After they left, I biked over to the dyeing training to find out they’d started early (which NEVER happens in the Philippines) and their pace was so swift that there’d be no need for Day 2. Go tell that to the mountains!
Please follow the link to open a photo gallery regarding this post in a new window. Mangrove Gallery. (My first new gallery in over four months! I was happily forced to work fast for a local newspaper deadline. I have some more galleries in the pipeline. I just need a kick in the rear.)
The weekend brought the 23rd birthday of Casey, the only other Peace Corps in the area. To celebrate, Casey organized a mangrove reforestation. (According to Mangrove Action Project, which is a great website, “mangrove forests are one of the most productive and biodiverse wetlands on earth. Yet, these unique coastal tropical forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world. They may be disappearing more quickly than inland tropical rainforests, and so far, with little public notice. Growing in the intertidal areas and estuary mouths between land and sea, mangroves provide critical habitat for a diverse marine and terrestial flora and fauna. Healthy mangrove forests are key to a healthy marine ecology.”)
One of the science teachers Casey teaches with is very eager to raise awareness amongst the next generation regarding local abuses of natural resources, and to inspire the youth to not just learn about it, but to take action. Casey has latched on to him in a big way. After all, it’s not every day you find someone whose salary barely allows him to feed his family to be enthusiastic about securing the environment for the generations to come.
Edwin is the man. On an exceptionally hot weekend, he donated his free time, and joined Casey to give a mangrove lecture to interested students and community members. Under the mid-day sun, Edwin’s armpits oozed copious amounts of sweat, and churned up all sorts of excitement. The guy was more passionate about mangroves than the aforementioned salesman was about TV radiation. It was great. Little kids stopped playing with old bike tires, and women came out of their homes to hear Edwin preach reforestation.
If I’d ever heard the word mangrove before I came to the Philippines, I probably thought it was a Jim Henson creation. Now I know mangroves are important for a number of reasons. Fish like to lay eggs in mangrove areas, and young fish learn to swim there. Birds enjoy hanging out in mangroves, and mangroves provide a filter for pollution. Over the years the mangroves here have vanished as the peaceful people of Bohol have used the wood for building homes and for cooking, without any consideration for reforestation, leaving the coast desolate and muddy.
After a fast, fun, hectic mangrove improvisation game, we all headed for the mudflats and let the planting begin. Everyone was happily planting the propagules (seedlings) stomping around in the mud. (It’s pretty easy considering the mud. No need to dig a hole, no tools necessary except your own two hands.) After we covered the planed quarter hectare, the kids insisted on planting until we ran out of propagules. I can’t wait to do it again, and I plan to invite Casey, Edwin, (and how could I forget Turning, the fisherman who plants mangroves with his pint-sized kids, almost everyday, and with no financial compensation) to Inabanga for a lecture/planting here.
To cap off the birthday weekend, Casey prepared a huge feast, including the best vegetable curry I’ve ever had outside an Indian restaurant, as well as all the coconut wine we could find (most sari-sari stores sell out on the weekends.)
Filipinos are always delighted and a little confused when they encounter foreigners who can speak or understand Cebuano (a language that isn’t used officially in schools or legal documents.) Usually, their first guess is “you are a Mormons?” The second guess is “you are having a Filipina wife!” They usually proclaim to anyone around that they’ve found a kano (short for “Americano,” which is the term for anybody who is white) who can speak Cebuano. Then they warn “di pwede molibak” or “you cannot backbite.” talk behind theback!”
So when Casey and I get together and make small talk in Cebuano, they often inform us that when we go back to America, we will be able to talk dirt about our friends and family, and they won’t have a clue. Any sort of conversation about using Cebuano in America brings an abundance of laughter all around. Little do they know that acquiring this backbiting skill is the bona fide joined Peace Corps in the first place!
It’s storming here in Bohol for the first time in a few weeks. Someone just asked me if there’s lightning in America. Yup! And thunder too?
Posted by dbs at September 2, 2004 04:51 PM