the whole trip--the way it came about, the way it was planned, the way it was executed--was surreal for me.
i met lito over email because i had contacted international care ministries (www.caremin.com) to find out about their "transform" program. unfortunately, the person that i contacted wasn't available, so lito was referred to me to answer any questions that i may have. well, as it turns out, we had more than questions and answers to exchange. after our meeting over topsilog and toron, his heart for busuanga and my desire to fight trafficking found its match. from there, we found ourselves financially supported from cornerstone (www.cornerstonecrc.net), and made contacts with local pastor and other people in busuanga. and then, few more days and weeks passed: we were on the plane to busuanga, palawan.
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| From Palawan - June 2010 |
hello, palawan.
when i got off the plane, i couldn't believe its stillness. how do you explain absence of noise? it was as if i were underwater, or experiencing the shocking silence after having bombs go off around you. (no personal experience, just from movie clips) anyways, the word "peaceful" would not have done justice to its stillness.
| From Palawan - June 2010 |
the ride from the airport to coron, the more visited part of the busuanga island, was green. the airport and the surrounding area had been a ranch, owned by one of marco's men. there were sheep grazing and in some aspects, i can imagine that i was in new zealand.
the first stop after meeting pastor albert and pastor al, who traveled 4 hours on dirt road + waited 2 hours due to our filght delay, was an eatery in coron. markedly more developed place due to its neighboring island, boracay, we were able to find authentic filipino "street food, but cleaner". they were worried that i might not enjoy it, but i never say no to food. :) top that with my buco juice, everything was perfect.
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| From Palawan - June 2010 |
yum
within ten minutes, i was bit by mosquitoes (or maybe one sucker did the whole thing by itself) in six different places, which i did not find too amusing. of course, lito and pastor albert were surprised that my skin would react to the bites in such ugly manner. apparently bites don't even show when they, on a rare occasion, get bitten.
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| From Palawan - June 2010 |
ouchy
during lunch, we found out that we couldn't meet with municipal officers because they were on leave to a meeting in puerto princessa, palawan. we had to modify our schedule and visit the hot springs on thurs, instead of on saturday. that way, i could have a whole day with the busuangan people, without worrying about traveling 8 hours on the road, going back and forth.
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| From Palawan - June 2010 |
warm/hot water, overlooking the ocean. beautiful!
after talking about our vision for the trip, we started on our journey to busuanga. the road was mostly unpaved, some places very rocky. we went over make-shift bridges because the four bridges they had were old and broken. one of the bridges collapsed with a dump truck, which paralyzed the driver. :( anyways, i saw discrepancies in government spending, where some villages had paved road for 100-300 meters because of the "barangay captain knew someone in manila"-type of deals. to make things more outrageous, the former governor of busuanga decided to pave the road to president GMA's personal retreat house, over the main road that is used by everyone else.
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| From Palawan - June 2010 |
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| From Palawan - June 2010 |
anyways, we finally arrive at pastor al and pastor albert's con-joined houses that were built by themselves.
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| From Palawan - June 2010 |
must have been a taxing journey, because i couldn't stay up for dinner (FRESH CRABS!!!). i ended up taking an 8-hour "30 minute nap". when i was woken up to be transported to my real bed, there was a brown out across the entire village (which apparently is very common) and i was more disoriented than i normally would have been, being woken up from a sweet slumber. everyone thought it was so hilarious how i couldn't navigate in the dark.
well, that was my thursday. couldn't believe it had only been a day.
i will share my accounts of friday and saturday, but if you wanted to see all the pictures, i shall not stop you. :)
your experiences are amazing, as are you. I can see how being there, living there, can change you. You knew about some of this I'm sure, but living it must certainly change your appreciation for things. The fact that you are so open to everything and so willing to try everything makes you the best person to represent this organization and the outside world. In fact, you probably make them think "foreigners" are better than they really are. Or, perhaps they realize its you who are special. However, you are human so use your anti-bug spray! Buco juice huh? ok, I've got to try it. I think you definitely need to rewrite your resume. And, include "fed giraffes" too :)
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