Under the Sea

[outrigger on our bangka - in the Leyte Gulf]

9.22.09

Week four of training has been our busiest week so far. We conducted our first coral reef assessment, which included being dragged behind a boat while snorkeling and observing coral cover, and a reef fish census. We took a pumpboat an hour out into the Leyte Gulf to reach the small reef and successfully avoided the many sea urchins to get our snorkel on.

After a few hours of snorkeling the choppy waters, we counted and ID’d different fish and coral species – well, kind of. Since we’ve never seen coral before, it all pretty much looks the same right now, and we won’t even go into the fish ID … but we have another snorkel trip in a few weeks and should hopefully get the hang of telling all this stuff apart by the end of training. (We're working on getting better photos, but taking them from the boat is always tricky).

[on the boat]

We left the reef mid-day, just in time to get some wicked sunburns. The sun is so much more intense here – Brandon is always impressed at the high angle of the sun = perfect for panels!

In language class we’ve been learning food and cooking terms, so we had a group cookout on the beach on Friday to practice. Not a bad way to spend a class day. We cooked both Filipino and American dishes, played some word games, and got to relax with everyone under the nipa.

[view from the balcony at our host family home]

On Saturday we had our first medical session on common parasites in the Philippines. Let’s hope we never have to use that info. To uplift our spirits after the parasite lecture, we went to an excellent beach party with most of the other Leyte PC trainees. The party was held at a local village captain’s home, right on the water.



Filipino hospitality really is amazing – the family provided plenty of food for us and even constructed a special party area just for the day. Afterward, the Kapitan led us in videoke, the Filipino party staple, with classics like “She Bangs.” I try to image US government officials getting up and gyrating to “Don’t Cha” by the Pussycat Dolls and suffering no shame, but it just doesn’t translate.


[Leyte trainees]