X-posure!

I spent the last week in Bulalacao, a small fishing village which is only 4km from Kawayan but like another world. It's beautiful little place situated in a natural cove. Their main industry there is fishing and the production of children. There are so many kids (who barely left my side) that run wild like small mammals! But I enjoyed hanging out with them: swimming in the sea and eating sea urchins, napping under the Talisay tree, general frolicking and laughter. Also we have a new youth group there (4 total now). I'm getting concerened though because we can't just keep singing God songs forever. "But how can you teach us anything if you can't speak Bisaya?" one little fellow asked me in a mixture of his and my language. Very true, wise one, very true. Most people, especially the youth, I'm finding, speak less English than I thought they would since English is no longer the medium of instruction in class. I'm getting lazy with learning the lingo, but I know I must try harder.

Anyway the people of Bulalacao are very poor. Most of the men are fishers and each morning their tiny bangkas (boats) arrive on the rocky shore filled with large beasts of the deep (see new pics). Everyone gathers around to see the catch o' the day. The way of life there is so simple, so communal. Always people around to sit and talk with. I brought Don Quioxte thinking I'd need a diversion from the boredom but I barely had time to pick it up.

For the week I stayed with "Boy Lagao" and his family. Lagao is a very common type of fish, and he earned his name from his profession: fish seller/monger. Although poor, my host family was very generous, and had a certain dignity about them despite their circumstances. With four children in the house it was lively and I really felt like I was part of the family. Overall it was a great experience. ****1/2!

In other news, we distributed 15 piglets to families in the micro-credit livlihood project I've mentioned. The process went on not without drama, but all seems to be going smoothy now.

Also, we're painting the convent. It's good to pick up the ol' brush again.

And more, so much more, but my fingers and eyes grow tired...

Love 'n blessings to you all!

Move Like a Jellyfish

At the crack a dawnin’ Fr. Pejay, Berto, and I walked to down to the pier with goggles and spears in hand. Weather’s been stormy for the quite a while now but this morning the sea was like glass. Lots of junk floating though. It’s a traditional Filipino custom to toss plastic wrappers and other non-biodegradable stuff into the sea. It still astonishes me and I cringe with disgust every time I see it happen. I try to admonish when I think appropriate.

(As an aside: I started a compost pit here in the convent. We dug 3 large holes in which we will cast our kitchen waste, leaves, grass clippings, etc. Last January, the local government indefinitely suspended all garbage collection in Kawayan, and now people are expected to deal with their trash in whatever way they see fit. This usually means burning it all to hell but I think that’s bad for the environment, right? So I found out we can sell a lot of our waste (i.e. hard plastics, glass bottles, and scrap metals) but I’m at a loss for what to do with the bulk of our trash: plastic baggies, wrappers, and paper. For now I guess they will continue to burn in that fiery pit, but I’m open to suggestions. Anyone?)

Anyway back to my story. So most of the time the sea looks very clean and underneath are many colorful corals and pretty fish, which Pejay and Berto are happy to shoot. I’m trying to make it my custom to swim everyday, like for exercise, but today I did not stay in for long because my left forearm promptly became wrapped in jellyfish tentacle which stung it real good. I’m told human urine is the cure for sea urchin mishaps, but apparently it has no effect on jelly stings.

dark clouds

Haven’t seen the sun for several days now. It rains throughout the day but only periodically with varying intensity. The temperature has been relatively cool and damp. It reminds me much of Seattle and this makes me miss home and hate this place.

I’ve noticed that I’m kind of snappy with people around me, and due to language/culture barriers I often think that I’ve given off a bad impression of myself. Several times now I’ve surmised that people are after my money. And the instant status I’m given by being an American I find to be both a blessing and a curse. I catch myself recalling my travels to other isles of this archipelago and thinking they are better (e.g. beaches are prettier, people friendlier, grass greener etc.) than the one on which I’m committed to live.

But what stings me most are the intensely bittersweet, phantasmagoric daydreams which visit me randomly throughout the day of previous chapters and characters of my life. How rich the past seems to me now! The freedoms I once knew, the complexities and intricacies of “modern society,” the culture I’ve always either taken for granted or despised. These things I miss, but what affects me most of all is the recollection of all my friends/family. Conversations and shared moments are relived, all to the effect of reminding me of how uniquely dear they/you all are to me. How good it would be to bottle you up and take you all with me wherever I go, just as we had been at one time! But the river of time just keeps moving us along. I need not go into the senti details, for I’m sure you know what I mean.

Anyway, here on the Phlipside there seems to be, at least on the surface, such a nonchalance, an indifference even, about human interaction, that I wonder if I’ll ever find true friendship here. This concerns me but then again it is still very early and I’m aware that what seems apparent on the surface is not always true.

All of these perceptions most probably have to do with my subjective inner state of being. Symptoms of the “culture shock” I’ve heard about. And like the rain these dark, brooding moods pass as quickly as they appear, and I am once again awake to the present. I have yet to seriously dwell upon the question of whether or not I’ve made a mistake in coming here, but I pray, and I ask all of you to pray for me, that I will have the courage to face that storm if/when it visits.

good works

The other week I attened a seminar given by the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Naval on "micro-credit," unaware of the fact that by attending I would be required to "echo" this seminar back in our parish. So echo I did this past week to 50+ of our parishoners, albeit in the merchant tounge of my birthplace. Appropriate though given the topic. I invented some simple accounting method for our forthcoming "livelihood project:" swine fattening. The concept of the project is simple: provide a familiy with a piglet on loan basis and they feed it until it becomes fat and ready to be slaughtered. By that time the price of the pig will have more than doubled. When it's sold, the initial price of the piglet will be given back to the parish but almost all the profit will be kept by the family. I'm excited about this project because for me, at least in theory, microcredit embodies all that is good, combining justice and charity and applying it as a corrective to the market forces of our world which make it easy for the rich to get richer, while the poor continue to struggle to get past the threshold of mere survival. I think since everyone here is already busy, I will have a key role in this pig project. Much to learn methinks, but I'm greatful for the oppourtunity to learn as well as to help some folks earn a little more dough. The people here are poor indeed, at least materially, but more about that to come later I'm sure.

Youth ministry is going well also. Of the dozen or so separate barangays, two (Mapuyo and Burabod) have formed youth groups each with about 20 - 30 kids. I've been meeting with both groups weekly for several weeks now. Usually I play guitar and they sing Church songs, an activity which they really seem to like. It is a beautiful scene and I imagine God is pleased with this. They are all so pure, so full of joy and kindness! Yesterday they saw me swimming in the sea and then they surprised me by organizing a picnic at the beach, cooking sweetened casava balls and gathering mangos and bananas. We swam and ate and played like the Lost Boys in Neverland in this our tropical paradise, until dark clouds gathered in the West and told us to go home. But we were tired by then anyway. Everything in it's time. The wind thrashed as I went home on motorbike with guitar in hand but the downpour did not begin till I lay on my bed, tired and content.

Don't Fear the Reaper

We have several dogs that hang around the convent and every night at about 2:30 am they begin howling their haunting melody. It lasts only for a few minutes but it's lound enough to wake me up and disturb me. The people here believe they howl when the spirits arrive to pray in the church each night. Creepy. There are other stories too. There's the one about the fairy Maria Benita who lives somewhere on the mountain, Mt. Panamao, which looms over our little hamlet. Supposedly she seducced some American dude who eventually crashed his plane into the mountain. Details are sketch. There's also the oft mentioned "wak-wak," named because of the sound it makes. It's the Filipino cousin of the vampire as it feeds mostly on human blood. However, it's capable of taking the shape of animals other than bats (eg pigs, dogs, bats, frogs, mosquitos?) During the day it's a normal person living amongst us but at night it rubs some potion under it's armpits and then you better watch yo self. wak wak! Supposedly there's one living in Bulalacao, a neigboring barrio. The alleged wak wak is an immigrant to Biliran from a neigboring island, and I suspect that it's simply the fear of the "other" that has caused his alientation by his neighbors. I'm curious to meet this fellow when I stay in Bulalacao for a week on "exposure" next month, yet I must admit I do feel a tinge of fear for the wak wak has many tricks ups his sleeve... A side note to this fear of the "other:" Before I came here several Filipino relatives / friends of the family expressed their apprehension for my staying in this region of the country due to the infamy of its residents in the dark arts of poisons. They supposedly befriend you, invite you inside for a bite to eat, and then you die! But not to worry since people such as these live only on the "other" side of the island... or so I'm told...

I spent much of today pulling ticks off of our new puppy. Her name is Saturday. see new pics of the pup plus other assorted adventures.
gotta jet. much love to you all!