But, first I had to cancel with my friend, RPCV, Rich White-Smith, who had forwarded info on a Yoga Retreat - Friday-Sunday. I was looking forward to that - massage and meditation - but the fishes and reefs were calling to me...he well understood.
I arrived to work packed and ready - snorkel and mask the most important gear. Fridays are PE days, and I was sweating while monitoring the maze of activities. I heard that it was Alexandra's 6th birthday, and that Rubina, the mom, was bringing food for a celebration. So, although she had missed school Thursday from a fever, they were still planning on going. Fridays end at 12noon, but no Rubina....at 4pm she arrived - in a car full of people. Kawawa (poor me). I stuffed my face with delicious pancit (the most popular food for birthday celebrations - which the celebrant is responsible for purchasing) and a lemon cake topped with meringue (yum) from Grande's. Then, at 5:30pm, I walked rather dejectedly to the highway, thinking I needed to do something, since my great options had bombed.
Up at 6am and washed the windows, swept the floors - and still avoided sewing the curtains to cover the under counter storage. And then - a text message. Not a Peace Corps notice of a typhoon or earthquake, but a request from the VP of the Chamber of Commerce to attend a meeting at Mitra Ranch - Rancho Santa Monica (home of a former governor and the current one) and to help formalize The Palawan Mango Growers Association.
I'd been waiting to work with the Chamber and was thrilled to go...plus, Mitra Ranch is beautiful - I've written about it before on this blog - high above everything, it's like Mitra was looking down from Mt. Olympus...a piece of heaven.
The reason that the Mango Growers are collaborating is to have a voice in a 25+ year old problem: the Mango Pulp Weevil, 5-9mm of disgusting insect that loves the delicious flesh of the mango, and ruins it for us humans.
When I saw this picture, I first thought of the Beany Babies that Ashley used to collect, and I assume are still in the attic...but really, thinking of sharing my mangoes with this - yuck.
Anyway - in 1987, this weevil apparently arrived from Malaysia, and appeared in some Palawan mangos - by 1995, the government put a formal quarantine on export of Palawan mangos - around 250,000 trees...and devastated the island's fruit economy. As things typically go here - a government group was formed and assigned to find a way to eradicate the pest....and they have been funded for the past 20 years...but done little work. Again, typically, there is no oversight - the committee reports on its progress not to anyone here, who are the victims of the pest, but only to itself, in Manila. In 2009, the Department of Agriculture gave Php 1,000,000 to this committee to speed it up. There are several growers, the Chamber, and the local agricultural department, who want to rectify things, and who want an understanding of what is being done. The scuttle but is that there is only one study being done, and it is not related to the need....so it goes here. What is exciting is that this small group of doers is organizing to have a voice!!!
So, Bart and I arrived a little early - I found that we were meeting here because a key player was the brother of the governor - Ramon Mitra - who upon introduction, said, "Welcome to my father's home." I don't know - it just sounded so romantic....and looking out from the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired veranda, I could imagine what it might be like to live in that grand time. Sir Mon-Mon, as they call him, told me that his father had used the root stock of the indigenous Palawan mango that was a hardy variety (but not tasty) and grafted to it the sweeter variety. They rarely irrigated their mangoes because it was too expensive - and they were Ramon said that the stock was well adapted to the climate and terrain. Mon-Mon had been out wrangling goats that morning - the goats were being used to clean up the land under the mango trees, which, after the quarantine, had not been coddled.
We just stopped the meeting and watched - and took pictures. I've never seen anything like this - the cloud kept descending, until its force came close enough to the water to uplift enormous quantities so that you could see the pressure indentation in the ocean, with the outer walls being sucked up into the vortex, now a funnel several thousand feet in the air!
Something I will always remember - miraculous to watch.
Then a torrential rain as we continued the meeting on the huge veranda, served meryenda and Cokes by the staff. Smiling, Mon-Mon asked us if we wanted to try out the new zipline - oh boy. Everyone but me was shy - Let's go! Bart demurred, but the rest of us accepted the gift and caught the last zip before they closed - grabe! Three separate lines - nothing as exhilarating as the Canadian zipline that Katie and I nearly peed over ... but a lot of fun. The next time, Mon-Mon encouraged me, I should try going head first - "Like Wonder Woman." I kind of don't think so....the 2nd line had no tires to cushion your stop - directly into a massive tree (only the arms of the attendant stopped you) ..... caroming down that line, eyes fixated on that fast approaching, stationary slab was rather disconcerting; I don't think I'll be flying.
And, now, instead of snorkeling in Roxas, I'm searching for the legal requirements to establish a non-profit Association via the SEC in the Philippines - so glad that I just let the weekend unfold.
Sarah Anderson 
Löki Gale Tobin 
Nicole Fiol 
Austin Land 
Zachary Pullin 
Kirsten Kensinger 
Jon Schmidt 
