Some Time in the Water and Some Time in the City

This was outside of my door, facing east, at sunset. The picture looks nice, but it doesn't do it justice.

During the school calendar summer vacation (April-May) there were a group of students who stayed in my office as part of their on-the-job training. They are all the people wearing blue in the picture.

Last year I was part of a mass mangrove planting in our town.  Here are some pictures from the one year inspection on the planted trees. Most of the pictures are by another volunteer (Frances W.) who came to help me with the inspection. Pictures she made will be captioned with a (FW) at the end.

About 1 hectare of trees planted last year. (FW)

One of the Peoples' Organizations (PO) that was responsible for one area planted. 

L to R: Glenn (One of our office staff), Mr. Gellendo (the PO President on this island), and myself. (FW)

Where should you plant a mangrove tree? The Zoological Society of London would like you to know. 

Surveying one area. (FW)

Selfie! ...and the only one of 3 that makes me not look bad. (FW)

The food is always better on the islands. (FW)

Yet another sunset picture. (FW)

This picture has a good story to it. I was kind of disappointed when I walked up to this area because many of the trees near the shore look dead. As we got up closer to them the man walking us to the area explained to us that the leaves had been eaten off by some goats. After inspecting the little trees, this seemed like a good story. They were alive, but they just did not have leaves. (FW) 

The last survey location was in the Poblacion (town center) of the municipality. In the background is the Port of Talibon.  

 Last week I had a great time as my sister, Anna, and her boyfriend, Phil, came to visit the Philippines. I didn't take many pictures because many of the locations were repeat visits for me. One new thing was getting to see inside of the San Agustin Church in Manila. It is the oldest in the city, and one of the few large buildings to survive WWII.

Inside the San Agustin Church

Inside the San Agustin Church

Inside the San Agustin Church

Inside the San Agustin Church

Inside the San Agustin Church

Also in the last couple of months, my work counterpart, Alex, got married. From L to R: Dr. Mona Lisa Cruda, Juvy, Alex, and myself. (Photo by Scorpio Arts Studio)

This is what happens when you give me a nice camera to hold....I just sit around, waiting to take a picture. This was on an island in the south part of Bohol. (Photo by Yixin Chen)

"Watch out for Shapeshifters"

The last two months (March and April) went by really fast; it's hard to think that I am over 1/3 of the way through my 27 months here. The next few pictures are from Siquijor. The small island is known for its mystical occurrences and supernatural events.  I did not really see anything too weird, but it was well worth the trip to see this pretty little island and the Healing Festival.

Marissa, Alicia, and Ali walking up the mountain.  

It was a wee-bit steep. 

The beach at the place we were staying in Siquijor.

It was just an average beach as you can see.

This is a picture of Bohol on the way back from Siquijor.

Just one of the many cute little animals that comes in my office every now and then.

This was from a conference on how to zone and plan in your town's municipal waters.  This was toward the end of the workshop, and Geoffrey (our Head of Coastal Law Enforcement) is giving an update on the progress we had made since the last workshop.

Just a table... I thought this was a good use of the macro setting.

This is at a meeting where a community was establishing a new Marine Protected Area. People from our office and the regional Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources were present to help them sort through their paperwork and make sure everything was in order to submit their application.

This is just a chicken.  As you can see, this is a chicken that will not put up with your nonsense.

A Visit from the Ambassador and Lots of Pretty Flower Pictures

It's been a while blog viewing world! I haven't posted in over 3 months... sorry..., but I'm back with a post of things I did in February!  So check out the story in pictures below!

Toward the beginning of February Bohol got a visit from U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg.  As the Peace Corps Volunteers on the island, we were invited to the nice reception for him at the Bohol Tropics Hotel.  He was here to witness the signing of a new initiative and to look at the ongoing recovery from last year's earthquake.

ECOFish is a joint program between USAID and the Department of Agriculture.  It works quite a bit with organizations and local governments to help protect the Danajon Bank.

And there's the bank!

ECOFish people are cool.  Who just want's to see a triboard?  No one does.  They built a boat display for the ambassador's visit.

Another display at this event was a local chocolate maker.  Miss Dalareich does make some really, really good chocolates, and here is a box of her tableya.  

This is the day after the welcome party.  One of the ambassador's activities was a snorkeling trip with the ECOFish group.  In this picture Ali and Grace are talking to one of the guys from USAID about something... This is why blog posts should be more timely... then I could explain what was so important.

This is the group that was on the boat.  The picture contains the ECOFish admins, two fisherman from Ubay, a couple of people from USAID, a Philippine National Police Maritime officer, a Philippine Coast Guard member, the three Peace Corps Volunteers on the island, and the Ambassador Goldberg (the guy between me and Ali). 

February was a very busy month.  I spent the last two weeks of the month at In Service Training in Cavite.  Here are some pictures from IST.

On our free day we went to the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.  One thing there is a natural history museum.  It had some cool and slightly creepy things inside.

This is a shell catalog.  It was really neat and impressive.  as you can see, there are lots of shells in the Philippines!

This is a monkey... there were human fetuses too, but I'll spare you all that.

Creepiest thing there.  I think it's a civet, but the decomposing face makes it quite creepy.

The school also has a large botanical garden.  The pretty picture below are from there.

                       

Selfiestick... 

I really don't know how I ended up here...but it was kinda cool.

For Diana! 

What a way to end the trip than with buko pie!  Buko pie is made from young coconut (which is called buko).

This was at the end of the first week which is called Language Camp.  We were all had classes in the languages we speak now, and had to take another language interview to prove our efficiency in the language.

The next week was a Project Design and Management workshop.  All of our Filipino counterparts traveled to Cavite, and we spent a few days working on creating a mock project and presenting it to a small group.