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.