Work has been slow-ish here due to the election season and all the corresponding bans and restrictions. For example, community organizing by municipal employees is not allowed, so our counterparts haven’t been able to work with us on community projects. Also, all funds are frozen, so our proposals are sitting on a desk somewhere. There are good reasons for this, like keeping corruption in check, but it has made it difficult for us to get our new projects off the ground. But we are trying to focus on all the unique experiences we get to have here. To keep spirits up this month, we had been looking forward to several big events, which all converged over the course of two weeks:
Volunteer Invasion
First, almost all of the other volunteers in our region came to visit Guiuan for Holy Week. We were nervous at first about how to accommodate 16 people here, keep them entertained, and still remain sensitive to the religious holiday and our community. But somehow the nearly week long visit was practically perfect.
We used their visit as an opportunity to see some sites in our community that we hadn’t yet visited and also took them to some of our favorite spots:
[We rented this sweet ride on the first day. We squeezed 17 giant Americans into this thing.]
[First stop was the wave watching point on the Pacific side. This was a new spot for us and is now one of our all-time favorites. We were here at low tide and explored the many tidal pools full of little creatures.]
[We brought a picnic lunch and avoided the midday sun under this overhang, which is underwater most of the day]
[Second stop was the famous tuba (palm wine) brewery. A local fisherfolk group produces and bottles this stuff as a secondary livelihood project. We’ve become pals with the president of the association, whose house doubles as the brewing headquarters. In his backyard he’s constructing a “tuba resort” for folks to sip tuba while watching the sun set over Leyte Gulf. He and his wife were amazing hosts, showering us with all kinds of food and tuba concoctions. Their favorite: mixing tuba with grape Tang…]
[Last stop for day 1 was another of our favorites, Sapao Beach. Right in front of this little island there’s a great natural swimming hole, with rocks set in a circle around it to perch on. We’ve heard that soldiers during WWII set up a diving board on this spot. While we were here I stepped on an octopus, which retaliated by latching onto my foot, sending shrieks of ‘There’s a CREATURE on my FOOT’ echoing off the nearby cliffs. It ended well for me, but not so well for the octopus, RIP.]
[On Friday, most places were closed, so we relaxed at a small local resort and kept up some American Easter traditions as well]
[The mayor graciously offered us a boat to use for Day 3, so we took a trip out to the islands in Leyte Gulf. The local bantay dagat (coast guard) served as our three man crew for a half day on the water.]
[Our main destination was tiny Pearl Island, a giant clam sanctuary run by our regional Bureau of Fisheries.]
[Folks spent the morning snorkeling the sanctuary and checking out the clams, which were the biggest and healthiest most had ever seen. Giant clams don’t produce pearls (so I’m still confused about the whole ‘Pearl’ Island thing), but they do act as great ocean filters.]
[Pearl Island is also a great spot for napping and picnicking, our other two major activities for the day]. On Good Friday, we woke early to watch the “stations of the cross” procession, where scenes from the last days of Christ were reenacted in the streets. Unlike in the US, emphasis during Holy Week here is on Friday, not Easter Sunday. Most of our community spent Thursday – Saturday in their homes or attending daylong church services, and almost all businesses were closed. On Sunday, the town came alive again and families picnicked at the beach.
After the visit we realized just how lucky we are with our site – many thanks to the Peace Corps Placement gods. Compared to other communities, we have plenty of transportation options (some sites have none), internet access, plenty of outdoor activities to keep us busy (as you can see), and even a small grocery store. On the other hand, we have one of the most “isolated” sites in our group – it’s three hours to get to the nearest city and an hour and a half to the next nearest volunteers. With everything we need here at site, we rarely have to leave, which has been great for getting to know our community better.
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