Isang Linggo sa Bikol

One week in Bikol
Bikol Journal- rough copy










Day 1 Sunday 7/13/08
Arrive at 5:30AM
Sleep till Breakfast at 7AM
Church at 8AM with Monsignor
Board Bus and being tour



Trouble on Mayon Volcano

Bus breakdown for 4 hours in New People’s Army territory where taxes are often demanded of those from outside to fund NPA military campaigns. Can be dangerous I hear.
We rode a Jeepney back to Polangui with some folks riding on the roof.























Day 2 Monday 7/14/08
Board Bus to meet NGO contacts at Social Action Centre – SAC – Kuya Nick























Afterwards we travel to visit Mayor Jesse Robledo of Naga City
Afterwards we read our introduction poems at Ateneo University – Naga and there was great pancit at the after poetry performance dinner.






















Day 3 Tuesday 7/15/08
Board Bus to Legaspi and SAC
Scheduled meeting with Governor Joey Salceda postponed
Jensine, Mike and I meet with Public Planning and Development Officer for the Province of Albay Marcario Pavia.




Afterwards we go to meet Nong Rangasa at CIRCA. Mike and Jensine get coffee. I have a great meeting with Noong.







Day 4 Weds 7/16/08
Confusion about bus departure time- we board and end up being 30- minutes late to meeting with Governor of Albay – Joey Salceda. His staff drive us up to meet him at the Govenors House above Albay.

He is gruff at first and then warms up. Brilliant conversations.

Jensine and I get a ride from Governors staff to the Van Terminal and take a van to Naga City. We say goodbye to Kuya Nick and adventure on our own. We hand write receipts that van drivers/ticket collectors sign so we can be reimbursed. We eventually make it to Naga, 30 minutes late to meet with the Mayor, but we text message ahead to inform them. Good conversation and his staff gives us a ride to Ateneo Univesity de Naga where we pick up 4 copies of the local paper. It has an article about Tita Ruth and AFAP.













Day 5 Thursday 7/17/08
Return to Legaspi
No pressure or early appointments
Lunch at a restaurant where we run into the Mayors Aid, ordering food for an upcoming meeting.
Afterwards I go to visit with Nong Rangasa again and get more information. At 4pm we have a closing ceremony with the SAC workers and give them gifts.

Back in Polangui, after dinner we have a group meeting about the NGO experience. The administrators call me out on making a mistake in taking the bus and being late to meet the Governor. I own the my actions and model being accountable. There is further debriefing with other group members and a tone of blame and dissapointment. I speak up about needing to make mistakes as part of the learning process for students and staff and encourage people to be accountable, but also create an environment where we can try and fail, but still learn. It shifts the dynamic of the conversation and I think the rest of our visit.




The Pajack (bicycle sidecar) originated here in Tiwi.





















Day 5 Friday 7/18/08
A day of touring around and sightseeing with Monsignor. We see 2 different Barangays where approximately 800 people in each one were buried alive by landslides from hurricane REMI in 2006. A welcome arch stands before a field of dark lava earth. There are buried houses, ½ buried houses and people living their lives. RR track and a trestle for the one train route was destroyed during the storm and has not been rebuilt. There is no train from Manila anymore.

We visit Tiwi and the Mayor – Jaime Villanueva- buys us Halo Halo drinks. They are delicious. I ask him about his climate change mitigation plan and he tells me about their inclusion of the content in teachers curriculum. We also stopped by a local textiles and handcrafts manufacturer. Such beautiful things all made from Abaca. Before the invention of Nylon and it’s use for rope, Abaca was one of the most valuable exports from this region to the US and elsewhere.

Afterwards we returned to Polunghi and were treated to an incredible lunch served up by the Sisters at the church. There was real spaghetti and it was delicious. Not kechup and hot dogs with red food coloring, sugar and salt over thin noodles. That’s the norm and as you can tell, I’m not into it. We had an incredible feast and then Allan asked to play the drumset. Edwin brought out Charity’s guitar and then the church staff brought out more instruments. I went outside to try and get my teacher Ate Peth to try and learn to ride a bike. She refused. We played Sipa with the young boys at the church before rejoining the others and leaving back to our bus. We drove to Legaspi to visit the downtown marketplace, which was rather meager. Allan and I hung out and bought pasalubong gifts.

Outside there were BMX freestylers and skateboarders in the town square.*
Walking back to the bus we ran into my new favorite person, Nong Rangasa. I remain so very impressed with the depth of his program and also overjoyed to know world class climate change implemenation work is happening here.


Saturday 7/19/08

We had another day of sightseeing with the Monsignor. We went to a black sand beach resort with warm warm water and some sharp rocks and played around. What a fun day! There was my attempt to climb a coconut tree very briefly as well as some break dancing and cartwheels. While there we were treated to fresh buko- coconut. Here is shot of Allan and I drinking up. YUM!!!!


I was inspired to try a full upper body mud mask and then make some faces at a camera. The mud made me itchy afterwards and I’m glad for the amount that I sweat here. It seems to have cleared everything out of my pores just fine.
After dinner we boarded our bus and departed back to Dasmarinas. There’s been trouble with the bus or at least some uncertainty about it running during the whole trip. We got a dirty batch of fuel at the start of the trip and it’s been a crash course for our drivers on diesel filter cleaning and fuel system priming. About 10 minutes from our destination after an all night 7 hour drive the fuel filter was too clogged to drive. After numerous breakdowns and lots of practice our drivers have the process down to an art and had us back on the road in 20 minutes to complete our journey safely.



* Skateboards are expensive and wear out pretty quickly. In a country where the average daily wage is $4-7.00, the youth riding skateboards or specialty bikes are probably the middle class kids. Bikes are common here, but not the main mode of transportation. I see adults riding small bikes here. They have wide 3 speed style upright handlebars and also a support on the top tube to make it easier for children or family members to ride. There are also many bikes with banana seats. I think that bikes here are used by the whole family. With handlebars than can accommodate a wide range of hand positions and also banana seats that can fit a smaller, larger or double riders, the bikes here are set up for everyone to use.