Ray and Jeanne Burnham's Volunteer Experience

The Philippines via Paris Episode 1
Friday 14 December 2007
White Beach, Boracay Island, Philippines

Manila: A Big City With Big Problems

We flew to Manila on Finnair via Helsinki and Hong Kong. We left the our daughter Erica’s Paris apartment at 8 AM Monday morning November 26 and arrived in Manila the next day November 27 at 1 PM. Manila is 7 hours ahead of Paris and 13 hours different from Ottawa, so we were suffering from jet lag again. We were very glad to be met by Raymund Villanueva, the CERV manager in Manila. He drove us to our hotel in Malate, the downtown tourist area of Manila where we would spend the next three days before transferring to the CERV headquarters for our pre-assignment training.

Manila is a typical third world city with a population of 11 million. The traffic jams are continuous, the smog is ever present and the poverty is in your face. Otherwise, the people are friendly and helpful and we enjoyed our visit but a few days at a time are enough. It was a 40 minute walk from our hotel to Intramuros, a walled city founded in 1571 by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi at the mouth of the Pasig River. It withstood attacks by Chinese pirates, Dutch forces, and occupation by British, American and Japanese forces but was finally destroyed by US bombing during the Battle of Manila at the end of WWII. It has been extensively rebuilt and is both a thriving community and a popular tourist attraction. We visited San Agustin Church, the only building left intact after the bombing. The interior of the church was being set up for a choral music festival starting that night that we didn’t attend, unfortunately. The adjoining museum was more extensive and interesting than we had expected. We spent several hours learning about the history of Manila especially related to the various religious orders.

We continued on to Fort Santiago guarding the entrance of the Pasig River. We walked on top of a small section of the walls surrounding the whole area to get the view of the river and surrounding city. Gardens lead to the remains of dungeons where hundreds of Filipinos and Americans died during the occupation of Manila by the Japanese during WWII. There is a museum dedicated to Dr Jose Rizal, a revered poet, executed in 1896 for inciting revolution against the Spanish occupiers. In fact the entire fort is a memorial to all Filipinos who have died for the cause of freedom.

As part of our orientation, we returned with Raymund Villanueva the next Sunday to visit Casa Rosa, a restored collection of nine houses built around inner courtyards for the extended family of one of the Spanish gentry. A visit with Raymund to the National Museum of the Filipino People extended our knowledge of the people and cultures of the Philippines.

Shopping seems to be the national pastime in Manila, especially in one of the new mega malls. Customers lined up to be first in at opening time in the morning and stayed to purchase and eat in the food courts all day long. The only disconcerting aspect was the security check at the entrances. Guards checked purses and bags before allowing customers through the door. Manila does not want a repeat of a Mall bombing that occurred last October. There was one near us, anchored by the giant Robinsons Department and Grocery Stores. We visited to purchase water and other items we had neglected to buy at home. Unlike our stores, there was no shortage of sales personnel. There was at least ten times the number of helpful and friendly staff to serve us that we encounter at home.

After having dinner and attending a performance of traditional dancing at a local restaurant, Ray and I returned to our hotel to receive a note from Raymund Villanueva telling us there had been an attempted coup that day and there would be a curfew from midnight to 5 AM. That was the first we had heard of any trouble. We watched the news on TV that night and the next morning, then got a first hand report from Raymund. He has three jobs, one is manager of the CERV project and another is with the media for a small community newspaper. The current government of the Philippines has a reputation for being corrupt and the people have openly called for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroya (popularly known as GMA). There had been rumours that something was to happen during the trial of two men involved in a similar coup attempt in 2005. All the media, including Raymund, were at the courthouse to witness the two accused walk out of the courthouse and take over the luxury Peninsula Hotel. We were not staying at this hotel. It was way above our meager budget and in another part of the city. Raymund luckily had just left the hotel to return to his vehicle when the military stormed the hotel. He claimed he had a better view of the proceeding from outside than those journalists who were still inside hiding from the bullets. Raymund told us that the biggest error the coup organizers made was not ensuring that they had public support for the coup. Besides, the population were not thrilled at the prospect of a military takeover.

We took a taxi the day after the coup attempt to the CERV headquarters in Quezon City, a suburb north of the city. The almost one hour trip in heavy traffic passed by the worst squatter’s slums we have seen in any city we have ever visited. The roads were bordered by endless rows of flimsy huts. The city periodically bulldoze the buildings away from the road but the people just return to build again. The alternative is land far away from the city with no schools or facilities. Children play next to the road and their parents shop in the makeshift stores set up next to the shanties. Life goes on.

As part of a city tour the next Sunday we went past the infamous Smoke Mountain, named for the ever-smoldering remains of a mountain of garbage. Several years ago the mountain collapsed killing hundreds of residents who make their living combing through the refuse for anything of value. The city closed this dump site and greenery partially covers the mountain but a large community still lives there eking out a living.

CERV chooses to operate from Quezon City because of the lower rents and quieter atmosphere. They managed to rent a large house that is still badly in need of repair as after 2 ½ years of operation. CERV operates on a shoestring, and often finds they must make up the deficit themselves. Nevertheless, they believe in their mission to help the Filipino people and work on strengthening their projects in Quezon City and on the Island of Tablas, in the Romblon group of islands, where we are posted. There are three projects on Tablas where volunteers are currently employed for one to six months. A volunteer doctor works in a clinic in San Agustin, there is an Environment project to grow and replant mangroves in a fish sanctuary in Carmen, a small barangay (community) about 4 km north of San Agustin, and a School Maintenance project where an elementary school is being painted in Sugod, another 3 km farther north.

Our visit to the CERV house in Quezon City started out with a celebration. Andrea, the daughter of Eden Navia, the Tablas Island coordinator, turned nine. Several Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and friends were on hand for her birthday. Andrea was dressed in her party clothes for the occasion. Dinner consisted of all Andrea’s favourite foods, canapés of marshmallow, hotdog pieces and cheese, fried chicken, spaghetti with tomato sauce and sliced hot dogs, all washed down with Coke. Dessert was a big chocolate cake decorated with icing flowers and inscribed to Andrea. After dinner Andrea opened her presents, the favourites being a new denim dress and a Barbie rolling school bag. Little girls are the same everywhere.

Saturday morning Ray and I were joined by a third new volunteer, Carly Bannon from Melbourne Australia. We spent a long and informative day going through the history and cultural idiosyncrasies of the Philippines and learning a bit of the Filipino language. English is the second language of the Philippines, but a few words in Filipino do help to break the ice. This project is a family affair. Our lessons were given by Raymund, his wife Pom and Eden, Pom’s sister. The Philippines project was inspired by a GVN affiliate, an Orphanage in Nepal where another sister works. We learned more about the Environment project from Jeremy and Ben, two New Zealand fellows who just finished six weeks on Tablas while we were at CERV headquarters.

Ray and Jeanne Burnham

The Philippines via Paris Episode 1
Friday 14 December 2007
White Beach, Boracay Island, Philippines

Long Beach: Rice Three Times Per Day

It was a long, involved journey from Manila to Tablas Island. Raymund drove Eden and the three new volunteers to a bus leaving Quezon City for Batangas Port. Dr Kelley Wulfkuhle, a third year resident in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Burlington Vermont, is volunteering through CERV at a clinic in San Agustin on Tablas Island. She had raised over 2,000 $US, more than the annual budget of the clinic. She and Eden had bought 6 boxes of medicines in Manila and taken them out to the island the week before. Eden had bought medical supplies in Manila with more of the money so we had an five cardboard boxes in addition to our own luggage to take to Tablas. Luckily there were porters at every spot on our journey to help us.

The bus ride was about 2 ½ hours to the port of Barangas, south of Manila where we bought food for supper and boarded a large ferry prior to its 5 PM departure. We had reserved beds for the overnight trip. We claimed our four upper bunks in a large room that held about 200 upper and lower bunks. We were lucky. The choice for those without a bunk bed is to sit up all night in the canteen or put down cardboard to sleep on the floor wherever there is an empty spot. It was not a quiet voyage but amazingly I did sleep off and on. Carly and Eden fared less well as there was a party going on in the lower bunks below them. A large band and a multitude of supporters were traveling to Sibuyan Island for their annual festival. Plates of rice and pork were being passed out to 20-30 people and beer was being consumed. They were in a party mood but really very well behaved. We almost wished we could join them for the festival.

The Philippines are an archipelago of 7170 volcanic islands, the second largest archipelago to Indonesia. Tablas Island is the largest of the Romblon group of islands. We landed at Ondiogan on the east coast but our destination was Long Beach on the northwestern tip. About 1:30 AM the captain announced that we were nearing land. The boat was arriving one hour earlier than scheduled. Our entire luggage was tied onto the top of a jeepney and we climbed inside. The jeepney has a jeep front end and an elongated body. The sides are open and inside, benches for passengers run along each side. A third bench ran along the middle of the interior but it was piled with additional luggage. Off we went into the night, arriving at a crossroads about 1 ½ hrs later. We transferred to a waiting tricycle, a motorcycle with a covered sidecar. This is the most popular mode of public transport in the Philippines. Jeepneys ply the more popular routes and tricyles, either powered by a bicycle or a motorcycle take you everywhere else. The third mode is a “single”, a ride on the back of a motorcycle.

The view along the coast to Long Beach couldn’t be seen in the dark that night.We got to appreciate the view later traveling back and forth to our projects. Tablas Island is a long line of high green mountains falling sharply to the sea. Any area flat enough between the mountains and the sea is planted in rice, the staple diet of the Filipinos. The road to Long Beach follows the sea coast around small bays and rocky points. Small patches of concrete road alternate with long sections of rocky unpaved road. I wondered if there was any correlation between how the residents voted and whether they got their section of the road paved.

There are several rice crops in a year. No sooner is one field harvested than it is tilled and planted for the next crop. Some farmers till by hand using a water buffalo and others use a large roto-tiller. Planting and harvesting is done by hand. Once cut the rice is separated from the stocks and laid out on tarpaulins at the edges of the road to dry. Almost no one has a car and the singles and tricycles know not to trample the drying rice.

Our hosts for the month, Sali and Rey Mores have one of the best houses in Long Beach, so we are lucky. The outside is unpainted concrete but the inside is well decorated. We have our own bedroom and the shared bathroom has a flush toilet and a cold water shower. There is no dishwasher or washing machine. Everything is done by hand. Most houses have a toilet but it is bucket flushed and you shower by pouring cold water over yourself. Most Filipinos do not see the need for hot water in such a hot country. We are adjusting.

Sali is a school teacher in the local elementary school and Rey is a manager for the Romblon area for SiKat, Center for the Development of Indigenous Science and Technology (the acronym makes sense in Filipino). Sikat promotes and manages 14 fish sanctuaries in the Romblons. They have no children of their own so they take care of nieces and nephews when they go to High School. Mycel, who has lived with them for 12 years has now completed her training to be a teacher and is hoping to pass her last exams and get a teaching position next year. Mycel’s half brother Roseller, 13, in his first year of High School and Rey’s niece Caren, 15, rounds out the household. Everyone pitches in and helps with the chores without grumbling. That would never happen at home!

We share all our meals with the family and yes, rice is served at every meal. In fact the same food is often served at each meal. We have fish, chicken or pork with most meals although the pork tends to be much fattier than we are used to. Vegetables tend to be variations of squash or greens grown in the backyard garden. We have also had papaya, served ripe as a fruit or green and grated as a vegetable. Everything is served in bowls from which we help ourselves so we can take what we like best and sample small portions of unfamiliar foods.

Everyone leaves early in the morning. School starts at 7:30 AM and we have been traveling to our assignments early so breakfast is often over by 7 AM. We return for our lunch and a rest then go back to work on our afternoon assignment, then return to join the family for the evening meal about 7 PM.

The first day we were not expected to go to our volunteer placements. We were encouraged to catch up on lost sleep and explore on our own. Long Beach is a fishing village, a Baracay, spread along one road parallel to the ocean. The hills are too close to the ocean for any rice paddies in Long Beach. There is an elementary and high school and an outdoor community center where boys play basketball, another national obsession. The only stores are tiny mini-marts selling goods from a wooden booth at the side of the road. San Agustin, 10 km away, is the main market town.

If you walk down the road you will probably followed by several dogs, three of which live at our house. You have to exchange greetings with everyone you pass and answer queries of “What is your name” and “where are you going”. If you stop to answer you better be prepared to stop and chat for Filipinos love to talk. Otherwise you just quickly tell them your name, which in our case is “Tatay Ray and Nana-I Jeanne”. Elders are always shown respect as reflected in their names. We are Father and Mother while the younger volunteers are Ate or Kuya, Older Sister or Brother.

Carly, Ray and I were all assigned to the Environmental project. Alexis Rife, from Arizona, has been with the project for three of her six months assignment. Scott Ince, from Melbourne Australia, arrived the week before us to spend six months with CERV. Ray and I visited the Fish Sanctuary where the project is located. There is a nice bamboo hut with a thatched roof, built by a previous Peace Corp volunteer, with space for education sessions and a small mangrove nursery. An extensive raised walkway was built some time ago through the mangroves but a succession of typhoons has destroyed almost all of it. Our main jobs will be to fix up the nursery, plant mangroves and start more seedlings. We will leave the walkway repair to future volunteers.

We continued on to Sugod Elementary School where we met Vincent Embile, a CERV employee and Collette Perry, a volunteer from Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories. Collette lives with Tess and Felix near the school in Sugod. It took Tess and Felix five years to save enough to build their simple three bedroom home and they are still paying for it with loans taken out of Tess’ teaching salary. Their money is spent on educating their five children for now so the inside remains unfinished. Two daughters are attending college in Manila, one on scholarships and one son pays for his transport to high school in another community by making and selling caramel candies.

This is the first time the Sugod School has welcomed volunteers. The Principal, Flor, a friend of Eden’s, asked to be considered for help as soon as it was available. Painting one of the school buildings a bright yellow with white jalousie windows bordered in blue is the maintenance project this year for CERV. The school was built with German funding and painted by the community in 1994 but the government does not provide any maintenance money. Several of the buildings were in need of new paint and CERV is providing the materials and workers.

We were not scheduled to start our Environment project that day so we decided to return in the afternoon and start painting.. With four of us working we made great progress. The teachers are all very appreciative and the children are sweet. At each break time we have an audience of several children watching silently or asking “What is your name”. Their instruction is in both Filipino and English but their English is still in progress, hence the questions that they have learned in class. We enjoyed the painting experience so much that we returned Thursday and painted all day, with a break to return for lunch with our host family. We intend alternating between the Environment and the Painting projects during our stay here.

We travel back and forth to our projects by tricycle driven by our trusty driver, Typhoon. His real name is Rodel but when a typhoon was named Rodel several years ago he acquired the nickname Bagio, which means Typhoon in Filipino. The Anglo volunteers all call him Typhoon and he seems to like his new nickname. Typhoon’s ambition is to buy his own tricycle as he rents his current vehicle Typhoon lives a few km from Long beach with his wife and three young children in a typical simple home without electricity or running water. He has kindly invited us to a birthday celebration for his son who turns three on December 23, just two days before our grandson Atticus.

Friday afternoon the whole gang of volunteers, including Dr Kelley, took the boat from San Agustin to Romblon Town on Romblon Island, next to Tablas. Romblon has a restaurant with Western food and Internet, both lacking on our part of Tablas.

The 1 PM boat was not the most comfortable we have been in. The interior of the long wooden boat is only 2 ½ M wide. The cabin at the back has two rows of benches designed for the tiny Filipino people, not larger Westerners. Ray and I sat squished onto one bench with our knees almost hitting our chins and our heads scraping the ceiling. We were advised to sit on the right hand side as those windows were more likely to be open. Our seats although cramped proved to be better than the spaces chosen by the others. The rest of the group started the 1 hour voyage on the roof over the front of the boat but were driven inside by the rough weather when we were in the middle of the channel. They ended up in a cramped storage space under the front deck and got wet from waves breaking on the bow and coming through the cracks in the decking

We found a comfortable room in a hotel in Romblon Town and found an internet. I had just started this Episode when the power went out. That was the end of that. When we returned to Long Beach, I switched to writing on my host’s computer, which does not have Internet connection, and saving it on a memory stick I brought with me.

The gang of volunteers was joined by Mycel for dinner at the Revolution Restaurant. Mycel had been invited to join us for the evening so she had come over earlier with Rey Mores, who has an office in Romblon. We had pizza and other western dishes. One person even had roast beef. Ray and I called it a day just after 9 PM but the others carried on. Karaoke is big in the Filipinos and the group found a club where they could sing along with varying degrees of success – Mycel was voted the best.

Collette and Kelley were staying another night on the island at San Pedro, a small beach resort about 12 km from town. The rest of the gang was returning to their homes on Saturday but Ray and I decided to join Collette and Kelley at San Pedro. Collette took the first two sessions of a PADI diving course at Marble Beach, next to San Pedro. Kelley, Ray and I spent a lazy afternoon sunning on the beach and swimming. The small crescent beach has corals just a few feet from shore. I had my snorkel and mask, plus new fins bought in Manila so I was anxious to try them out. The water was warm and clear. Much of the coral has been killed by typhoons and illegal fishing practices, such as dynamiting but it is coming back and there were quite a few fish to watch. The only danger for us was black sea urchins but the water was deep enough to swim safely over the long black spines.

The food was good and the atmosphere relaxing but we had committed to come back on Sunday. We opted to take the big boat back to San Agustin, a much more comfortable option. We were back in Romblon Town by noon and were told the boat the boat would leave at 2 PM but to be at the dock at 1 PM. That meant we had time to have lunch and wander around town. Romblon is the biggest source of marble in the Philippines and one section of the town is devoted to marble carvers selling everything from small souvenirs to large statues. Marble is heavy so we just looked and didn’t buy, fearing carrying around extra weight on our travels.

We returned to the dock at 1 PM, got on the boat, found seats and were surprised when the boat departed at 1:20 PM. We expect schedules to be a little late, but this was very early. The motto is “Be Prepared”.

We arrived back at the house to great excitement. Sali and Rey’s home is surrounded by the homes of other relatives. An Aunt lives next door, a brother lives next to the Aunt and another brother and a sister have homes on the hillside behind their home. Rey helps them out whenever he can. The sister’s home is in danger of collapsing and the family is unemployed. Rey is preparing to help build them a new house on better land behind his own home but there is a large Mango tree right where the house will sit. The Mango wood is also useful for lumber to build the house. A tree cutter with a chainsaw was on hand to take the tree down. Ropes were attached to the Mango to ensure it fell safely and most of the extended family was on hand to watch the action. The tree cutter sawed a big notch on one side and then cut properly on the other side. That is when the saw got jammed in the tree. Rey’s brother climbed up a coconut palm tree to attach more ropes and Rey climber another to do the same. Finally the tree was secured and everyone pulled on the ropes. The saw was released and the tree came crashing down, but not where it was expected. Fortunately it landed in a better spot than was planned and no one was hurt. To think we spent all that money to hire men and equipment to take down a tree at our house this summer and all we needed was a man with a chainsaw and multiple relatives.

We did work with the others at the Fish Sanctuary environmental site. Our first chore was to clear the beach and mangroves of plastic refuse that continually washes in with the tide. As in every country, every purchased item comes in a plastic bag and candies, soap and shampoo comes in individual packages. San Agustin has a dump but there is no garbage pickup in the smaller communities. Add to that the common practice of tossing plastic anywhere but in a garbage container and you have a problem. It is particularly important to keep the fish sanctuary are clear of debris so five of us filled rice sacks and biodegradable plastic bags with rubbish.

The mangrove nursery at the sanctuary is in the process of being expanded and we wanted to make sure the neighbouring chickens, pigs and dogs didn’t disturb the new plants. That meant rebuilding part of a fence surrounding the Fish Sanctuary hut. We dismantled an inefficient fence, dug holes for more fence poles and attached plastic mesh fencing to the poles. We were helped in this chore by three local men who are assigned to the project by the community as guards and general help.

We also managed to plant mangrove sprouts this week. The whole volunteer group, both the School painters and the environment side combined to plant at low tide. It was hard work planting in the rocky soil. Ray and Vincent made holes with crowbars and the rest of us planted sprouts and drove a bamboo stake next to it to protect it from the tides. About 50% of them survive but some are starting to look like mangroves.

Future environment projects include planting more mangroves, experimenting with starting mangroves from seeds collected from existing trees and caring for the mangrove nursery. CERV will also be gathering statistics to monitor the effectiveness of the mangrove replanting project.

Collette’s birthday was December 11 and her family, Tess and Felix, invited us all to a celebration on the beach. We stopped our projects early in the afternoon and gathered at a nice bamboo platform built at the edge of the ocean. Tess and Felix barbequed pork kebabs and served a delicious noodle salad, fried chicken washed down with buko juice, young coconut juice with bits of the jellied cocnut meat floating in it. It is very good. Our dessert was another specialty. Buko Salaq is coconut milk mixed with raisins, nuts and other fruits and served frozen or very cold. I thought our feast was enough for 20 people but we didn’t leave many leftovers. This has been typical of the hospitality shown us and we appreciate it.

Collette arrived at school on Wednesday with photos of the morning’s excitement. The houses around her were awakened by the frantic squeals of a pig. A 4 m long python was trying to devour it. The python was killed and the pig was saved. The python was skinned and will provide dinner for several families.

As you may have noticed from the heading of this write up, Ray and I are at White Beach, one of the best resort areas in the Philippines. We are taking a long weekend to relax, swim and catch a few rays. It was a long voyage from Long Beach, starting at 4:30 AM so we are extending the weekend to Monday. Typhoon drove us in his tricycle to San Agustin where we took a jeepney to Looc. This was a 2 ½ hour milk run picking up students, goods to be sold at market, shoppers and even delivering laundry to another town. Typhoon advised us to ride up front with the driver. That was good advice. The inside was packed, there were passengers hanging on the back and more were on top with the bags of produce. We arrived in Looc just in time to board a wooden outrigger boat for another 2 ½ hour trip to Boracay Island. At least the inside was more spacious than the boat to Romblon Island. The boat measured 4 m across and we didn’t hit our heads on the roof. They even rolled down tarps on our side when the seas got rough between islands. Even so, the swells came through drainage holes at floor level and soaked my feet. That didn’t matter as we had to wade in the water to get ashore at Boracay.

We felt we needed a treat when we finally got here so we are in a nice Nipa hut made of bamboo with a thatched roof. It even has a flush toilet and a shower. The beach area is lined with restaurants, bars and shops. There will be lots to choose from during our stay.

We are staying with our host family right through Christmas and New Years before moving on. The town is already in a holiday spirit and the children have been coming door to door singing Christmas Carols. The local high school is raising money to buy its own sound system so of course we contribute. Rey, our host is head of the committee organizing the annual town Fiesta on December 28. He hit us up for a donation for prize money awarded to participants in several organized games, including a basketball tournament. We intend to continue with our volunteer projects through the holiday season, but it may be difficult with so many parties.

Until next time

All the best

Jeanne and Ray Burnham

The Philippines via Paris Episode 2
Saturday 29 December 2007
Long Beach, Tablas Island, Romblons, Philippines

Long Beach: Christmas and Fiesta Time

Our last episode ended with our arrival in Boracay. It is a Philippine tourist Mecca, but we enjoyed ourselves. The main street runs parallel to the famous white sand beach but there is a warren of back streets that have sprung up to accommodate both tourists and workers. We stayed on one of the backstreets on the quieter south end of the beach which proved to be a good choice. Every third building is a dive shop selling tours to one of the many dive locations on the reef just offshore. We were only interested in snorkelling. A dive shop employee pointed out the perfect spot reached right from the beach near our hotel. It suited our needs perfectly.

The most talked about topic in Canada is the weather. There is no weather channel here, we just get what we get. We came in December thinking it was the beginning of the dry season. I guess that is true but it still rains almost every day. The tropical rains sometimes come hard but they are seldom long lasting. People carry umbrellas but that is more for their original purpose, to shade them from the sun, which is hot when the clouds clear. That means life for us goes on as usual. We have not had to cancel any activities for rain. We just wait until the shower is over. It doesn’t matter if we are a little late. This is the Philippines after all.

Back on Tablas Island, the schools were in their last week before closing for Christmas. Ray, I and our fellow CERV volunteer Colette managed to finish painting the school building we had been assigned. The building we painted had two rooms. One was the joint Head Teacher’s office and Teacher’s lounge. The other was a Grade 2 classroom and an empty space that was supposed to be the library. Obviously there is no library. In fact there are few resource3s for the students. There are few text books. Grade 2 had one portable blackboard on which the teacher wrote out the lesson. Small pieces, not a whole page, of lined paper were handed out when written work was required. Much of the reading is done out loud, sometimes very loud, but the children were always well behaved. No talking back or lack of respect was shown.

The school gardens, including a pond and a green house, were the most elaborate and well kept I have ever seen. The first 40 minutes of each day is devoted to Life Skills instruction. This includes having the children weed, trim by hand and care for the gardens. They do an excellent job. The children also cooperate in keeping the classrooms tidy. There is no school janitor so the school room is swept and picked up by the students several times a day.

Thursday 20 December was the children’s last day at school. Classes were minimal so there was more time to play their favourite game of Flipper. The playground area was filled with a multitude of this version of baseball. A flip-flop is thrown and kicked instead of a ball and bat. The kids love it.

The teacher’s provided a special Christmas lunch for the children of rice, pancit, a rice noodle dish with slivers of vegetables and meat, spaghetti and orange drinks. The younger children were dismissed after lunch but the Grade 6 class had a dance. The music was mostly rap or modern rock but there were loud squeals if a boy was brave enough to ask a girl to dance, especially if it was a slow number.

The children didn’t go to school Friday but the teachers were there, cleaning up and waiting for their Christmas party in the afternoon. The festivities began when the guests of honour, Colette, Ray and I arrived after 4 PM. Speeches were made thanking us for our work, carols were sung by the staff (all 11 of them including the Head Teacher), and we were instructed in some of the local dances. A full buffet had been prepared by Tess, the acknowledged best cook, and the rest of Colette’s host family. Besides the usual pancit type dish and fried chicken, Tess had prepared her speciality, Fish Relleños. Fresh fish bought that morning had been boned and the flesh taken out with a spoon. The fish was mixed with hard boiled eggs and other spices, stuffed into the skin and deep fried until the skin was crispy. It wasn’t cholesterol free but was delicious. We ended our meal with a Boracay cocktail, which was the local version of home-made Bailey’s. We were certainly impressed by the teacher’s hospitality as well as their ability to accomplish as much as they have for the children with so little.

The waters off Tablas are warm and clear but the beaches are more of the Mediterranean version, pebbly with added pieces of coral. We have swum a few times and it was very pleasant. The Saturday before Christmas was Colette’s last weekend on Tablas. She suggested we hire Typhoon, our trusty tricycle driver to drive us down the coast stopping frequently to photograph the most scenic spots. He was a good tour guide all the way to San Agustin where we called on Scott, another CERV volunteer, and invited him to join us for swimming at the Fish Sanctuary where we planted mangroves. A floating platform is anchored offshore near some good coral beds but the piece de resistance are giant clams that have been transplanted to that area. We saw quite a number of larger sized fish amongst the corals, and a giant clam. It wasn’t huge but it was quite impressive to me.

Preparations for Christmas and the annual Long Beach Fiesta, held on the week between Christmas and December 28 in honour of their patron saint, Señor Santo Niño, the Christ Child, were in full swing. Rey Mores, our host, was chairman of the Fiesta committee as well as an active member of the church. Rey spent hours on his computer making a program for the fiesta and raising funds for prizes for the events leading up to the final dinner on December 28. We contributed P500 which meant we got a full page advertisement in the souvenir program he was preparing. We protested that a one line item was enough but that is not how it is done. Everyone is assigned space according to the size of their contribution.

Street beautification projects were in progress. Long Beach is one long street parallel to the ocean. The entire length was strung with streamers. Pepsi provided streamers of small advertisements interspersed with white flags. Other sections had streamers of small white or coloured plastic bags that billowed like small balloons in the breeze. Workmen painted bamboo stars that were set up along the road over Happy Fiesta signs. Rey had a very ambitious project going on at his house. The church needed a suitable Christmas decoration. Rey and other members of his family used bamboo poles to construct a wedding cake tree. Each layer was covered with pieces of yellow rice sacking and then each layer was painted with a circle of red poinsettias. The tree was strung with Christmas lights and a red star was placed on top. It was impressive both in the daytime and lit up at night.

The house was filling with relatives coming for the holidays, two of Sally’s Aunts and Mycel’s brother came before Christmas. We had no plans to paint or plant mangroves. The timing was perfect to go to Romblon, use the internet and have a small holiday. We would return in time for Christmas Eve with the family.

Sunday we took a tricycle to San Augustine and the 8 AM boat to Romblon town. Rey Mores had suggested we try a new resort owned by the Plaza Hotel, where we stayed for a night last visit. Transportation to Punta Corazon Resort was included so we agreed to try it out.

We sat in the back of a small pickup truck and headed out of town past numerous marble cutting shops. We had understood it was only 2 km out of town but it was longer than that over the worst access road to date. At a fork in the road the truck took the right fork instead of following the sign pointing to the left. Our route, good only at low tide, took us on the beach past a dump, through mangrove trees and across a basketball court. The alternate route at high tide is up a steep hill on an incredibly bad road, then down to the beach again. The truck parked on the beach and the driver and assistant walked with us farther along the beach to a 30 M stairway leading to the top of a hill. The resort, with just seven rooms, was on the opposite side of a point from the beach, down another set of stairs, closer to the water. Our room was on the bottom floor of a three story building with a nice balcony from which to enjoy the view. A main office building had a restaurant and bar area facing a large concrete tidal pool that filled at high tide. We swam out from the tidal pool using our fins and snorkels to see the fish amongst the corals. We were the only guests. I have to think the difficult access is the reason. I challenge anyone less fit than we are or carrying luggage to make the same trip. If remoteness and quiet is what you crave, this is the place.

On our return to Romblon Town Monday morning met Scott, a co-worker with CERV, at the internet. He had had quite an experience getting to Romblon that morning. Part way across to Romblon one of the outriggers on the boat broke. The crew tied the outrigger and started off again. They didn’t get very far before the outrigger completely fell off and was lost. With only one outrigger the boat was in danger of capsizing. Somehow the boat managed to make it to an island offshore from Romblon where they were picked up by another boat that had left from Long Beach and taken the rest of the way to Romblon. With that story we took a larger ferry back to San Agustin later that morning.

The parishioners worship at their small village chapel at 6 PM for the nine days before Christmas. The priest, Father Nelson Motia, is based in Carmen 5 KM away but has responsibility for eight chapels. He would be in Long Beach twice that week to lead the service. We had promised to attend on Christmas Eve. We arrived just in time for the service and squeezed into the packed church. It was a candlelight service, more from necessity than aesthetics. The power went out soon after the service began. With all those people packed into a small place the temperature quickly rose. I was lucky. A woman sitting next to me whipped out her fan and vigorously cooled both me and the lady sitting on the other side of her.

Our entire host family are members of the choir and Sally plays the guitar. The choir do not perform solos, rather they lead the rest of the congregation, who obviously know and enjoy the selections. There was one English carol and the rest of the carols and the service were in Filipino. Of course we didn’t understand any of it but we could follow enough to stand up and sit down at the right times.

We weren’t sure what to expect on Christmas Day but it turned out to be a busy time with hordes of relatives, friends and neighbours coming to pay their respects. Everyone was offered food and drinks and the children of close relatives were given small gifts. We took this opportunity to exchange gifts with the family. They seemed to appreciate our Canadian souvenirs plus gifts we had purchased in Boracay and we were pleased with our gift made of Romblon marble.

A surprise for us was the arrival of gangs of small children who came to door asking for candy or small coins, just as they do at home for Halloween. Rey had told us he saves up P5 coins to give and we had bought a small bag of candy that we added to his collection. Even this large amount wasn’t enough. I think Rey’s reputation for generosity is well known and at least a hundred children were greeted. At the end all the small coins in the house were gathered and thrown into the street to the glee of the last group of children.

Christmas afternoon was the time for the 3rd Birthday celebration of Typhoon’s son, Cedrick. He arrived to take us to his home for the party. He said the road was too steep for both Ray and I to ride with him on a single motorcycle so he had enlisted a friend to help transport us. It was a long steep road up the side of a mountain to a point north of Long Beach. It would have been easier had the road been paved all the way but one section was very rough. Road repair is almost non-existent in the Romblons. Typhoon parked in front of a house by the side of the road and led us the rest of the way, downhill for ½ km through the jungle.

Typhoon’s family and several neighbouring families were waiting for our return to start serving the Birthday meal. There is no electricity or running water at Typhoon’s house but the family managed to put together a veritable feast for their guests. We had a toy motorcycle for boy and some souvenir stickers and pens for his two sisters, Carmel and Cathlyn, even though it is not the custom for every guest to bring a birthday present. I was surprised that many of the neighbours left soon after eating. Another neighbour was celebrating a 65th birthday the same day and they didn’t want to miss a celebration. Typhoon insisted on walking back to the road with us but we chose to walk the 2 km back to our house on our own. The route downhill was pleasant with views of the ocean and some of the neighbouring islands.

Sally and Mycel had organized a team of women to compete in a street dancing competition as part of the Fiesta. I had helped copy several folk dances onto a CD and Sally drilled the group in the street in front of the house. Food is a big part of the celebrations and pork is the meat of choice. A large pig was purchased and taken to the back of Sally and Rey’s house to be slaughtered. I couldn’t get over the contrast in activities between the merry dance tunes played while the women practised in the front of the house and the squeals of the pig behind the house. Filipinos know this is just part of life.

Thursday morning December 27, the second to last day of the fiesta, started with a church service when the statue of Señor Santo Niño was blessed by the priest. At the end of the service the parishioners assembled for a procession through the village and down to the beach. Three boys, carrying a cross and candles led the way behind Señor Santo Niño who was carried on a platform by four men. The street dance groups followed behind, dancing to music played on a portable CD player and blasted out over a loud speaker carried on a tricycle. I thought Sally’s group was the best dressed. They all had straw hats banded with a yellow bow and black t-shirts and slacks with a colourful sarong tied on as an overskirt. The procession halted on the beach in front of three pump boats, the kind that service the route between Tablas Island and Romblon. The boats were festooned with streamers and children were climbing aboard. We were invited to go for a ride too so we climbed the gangplank just in time to take off. We circled the bay seven times, commemorating an attempt by the Spaniards centuries ago to take the original statue of Señor Santo Niño from Cebu, the capital at the time, to San Agustin. Fierce storms forced the return of the statue to Cebu that time but it eventually made its way to San Agustin safely. We made the voyage safely despite recurrent rain showers when everyone took refuge in the small cabin.

Later in the day there were games for the children and a volleyball tournament for the women; Mycel’s team won handily. The most popular was a version of the Mexican piñata. Candies and coins were places in a clay pot, one for the adults and one for the children, and suspended from each of the basketball hoops at the community center. Contestants were blindfolded and pointed towards the pot of goodies. One after the other they tried to break the pot with a long stick, until finally one person was successful and all the children scrambled to gather the treats.

Friday, the last day of the festival was a day of basketball games and visitors. Overnight guests had been arriving at the house all week and copious amounts of food were prepared. Family groups from neighbouring bangays (villages) came, paid their respects, ate and left all day. It was even busier than Christmas Day.

The final ceremonies and dance were held on the basketball court at the community center. In the late afternoon the showers began and we feared for the party. Fortunately the Gods were listening. The ceremonies were delayed but the crowds arrived and the fun began. Miss Long Beach, chosen in part for her ability to raise funds for the fiesta, and the two runners up paraded in with their escorts to preside over the festivities. Beer was consumed and the participants, including young children, danced the night away.

The fiesta was a success; a fitting end to our time in Long Beach. We left on the ferry the next day to explore more of the Philippine islands. We will not soon forget the hospitality of the people and especially our host family, Sally and Rey Mores and Mycel, Caren and Roseleer.

Ray and Jeanne Burnham