Month 1

12.17.09

The first month at site has found us very busy and not busy at all. We haven’t done much “real work,” other than a report on a Coastal Resource Management plan. But we HAVE judged two beauty pageants and learned to dance the cha-cha and local traditional dance, the “amenudo.”

Thankfully, Brandon’s counterparts have community organizing backgrounds, and they’ve emphasized that our first month and a half should be spent integrating into the community. Indeed, if community members don’t know and trust us, we won’t get anything done anyway. So we’ve spent our first weeks meeting public officials and leaders of people’s organizations and attending social events. People are starting to recognize us, and we’re treated less and less as formal guests.

[take 1: a rare clear day, view from our room at low tide]

[take 2 (this isn't a black and white photo): what it looks like most of the time right now. december-january is rainy season in our province. the dreariness actually reminds us of home! and has really cooled things off]

On the work front, we’ve had the opportunity to meet several fisherfolk organizations – groups of fishermen and their wives (who often sell or process the fish) who are organizing to access capital and funds for projects and equipment and help stabilize prices. One group lives right on the Pacific and is starting a pedicab (bicycle taxi) business as an alternative livelihood, while the women make and sell beautiful shell craft necklaces. After our meeting, they took us for a walk along the beach and showed us a former sand quarrying site. As an organization, they were able to put pressure on law enforcement to stop the quarrying (by local construction companies) that was destroying their shoreline.

We also attended the induction ceremony of a second fisherfolk organization. Before the ceremony, the members attended a three-hour environmental education session about marine ecology and the dangers of fishing with dynamite. We were highly impressed with their attentiveness – I can’t imagine a group sitting through a three-hour lecture and showing such interest after working all day back in the US! The officers of the group were sworn in by the mayor, the president looking very proud, and we all ate a wonderful dinner and danced for several hours.

When we asked our counterpart if she was tired after such a long day (it was 10pm and her day started at 6am), she remarked that she felt energized by working with communities who were so committed and enthusiastic. Before the ceremony and lesson, the group had held a thanksgiving mass, thanking God for their new organization and its promise. “This group really gets it. They see the big picture. They’re doing this holistically and they have their priorities in order. I really like working with them,” she said. We felt the same way.

[one of my favorite things, colors on the line]

We don’t have many photos to help tell our tales, but we’ve had some great cultural moments. Our town’s fiesta was this month, with nine nights of cultural shows, concluding with the much-anticipated “Miss Tourism 2009” pageant. We were asked to be judges months ago, so we’ve had time to mentally prepare. There were five contestants competing in five rounds. The scariest moment came during the sportswear competition, when one contestant, dressed as an archer, continually pointed a sharp, metal-tipped arrow right at the crowd with a trembling arm. One girl twirled fire and another did an interpretive dance that concluded with releasing a dove into the audience. It all finally wrapped up at 1:30am – they take pageants very seriously here.


We were also invited to take part in a great tradition called the “mananita,” where a group serenades a friend in the early hours of her birthday. A flat-bed truck full of our coworkers dressed in their pajamas picked us up at 3:30am. We drove to the birthday gal’s home with guitars and tambourines and proceeded to sing our way into her house. After a half hour of cheery songs – all with the basic theme of “you’re a wonderful person and we love you because you’re you” (how great this made everyone feel – smiles all around!) – the celebrant fed all of us! We had a filling but quick meal (by Filipino standards), then loaded back into the truck. Most folks went on with their morning routines, but we went back to bed. Look out friends and family – we’re bringing this tradition back with us!