Beyond the Peace Corps and Through the Looking Glass: White Sands Island, Aborlan

The Peace Corps encourages (up to a specific dollar amount) that PCVs share their expertise and help out other PCVs with special events. This is known as a PDO (Professional Development Opportunity) Petra invited 6 other Peace Corps Volunteers to help her with a 2-day PDO activity designed to teach high schoolers about HIV and gender issues, including sexuality. Some of the PCVs traveled 12 hours, first by banca, bus and plane to get here - and she rewarded them (and me, the crasher - perhaps because I had helped with her last PDO on gender issues) with an amazing trip to an island off the coast of Aborlan. She apparently had been there before for a day visit - but a few of her fellow teachers were accompanying us to spend the night - on a night with a full moon. I didn't hesitate when she asked if I wanted to come along - Siempre!!!

So, I went with some of my favorite people in the world: my anak here - mga lalake Matt and Will and mga babae Petra and Krystal. Matt and Krystal, who are married, are with me here in Puerto. Petra and Will teach high school - Petra in Aborlan (about 2 hours from Puerto) and Will in Narra (another 45 minutes south). The out-of-province attendees were Jon and Emma from Luzon and Mel(issa) from Romblon.

We all met at Petra's and rounded up snacks and of course Tanduay rhum and coke...then walked across the street and asked the trike driver to take us to Hanging Bridge where we were to catch the banca. For the first time I felt average height - everyone except Emma and Krystal was taller than me!! But, the folks around us certainly stared - we were giants.

Hanging Bridge was literally the end of the road - and the poorly crafted bridge (I cut my hands in 3 places just walking to the middle) linked folks to the north side of hanging bridge, where an entire community thrived.

Hanging Bridge was busy! Even the pig tied out in front was active - I loved him, my first pure black pig

Two boys gathered the boat's fishing net and proceeded to pull it into the banca - then sat for a long while separating each side of the long netting and wrapping it carefully for the next day's fishing.

People came over the bridge to go to town - trikes fill up with people - I counted 8 in this one.

And others covered sacks of rice with a tarp and waited for a banca to arrive to transport the bags home

Schoolchildren came home from their studies and walked arm in arm across the bridge

and Will took a pic of me on the rickety bridge

Two little girls posed for me

As did a young couple

We waited quite a while - first for Sir Clem to show up, and then for the banca to arrive...but, one does not get irritated here - one accepts. I'm sure that I'll reacclimate when I return to America, but it is pretty wonderful to feel that way. I really, really wanted to get to the island before dark so that I could snorkel
(I usually take my mask and snorkel, camera and laptop everywhere I go, just in case)....but, it really didn't matter, so I sat and watched the activities around me.

Finally, the banca arrived, but only 5 could fit - so Petra and her fellow teachers went to set up the campsite
and told us that it would return for us.

I thought that the island would be a ways off, so was surprised when it returned so quickly - but, as it turned out, it was a completely different banca - and the island was quite a ways off. Originally, I thought we were going to Sombrero Island....which my supervisor warned me about - "There are Nice People Around on Sombrero - be careful." He went to the trouble of texting a pastor friend who lived on Sombrero and asked him to keep a lookout for us and let the NPA know that we weren't worth kidnapping. We motored through mangroves, into the open sea, and arrived on the shore of a totally sand island - White Sands Island (or so we were told).

It was quite small - perhaps the length of 2 football fields and perhaps 30 feet in width - and totally sand. You can see that it was getting dark - and I knew that we had to leave the next morning by 6am because we were being interviewed for the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary at the radio station in Narra....so I quickly threw my things on the sand and went for a snorkel.

It is very sad to see all of the dead coral here on Palawan - there had been little restriction of dynamite fishing and cyanide poisoning (fishermen pay off the government officials and continue their practices) - and tourism contributes also to the killing when bancas toss their anchors onto the living coral. It is probably not surprising that many (most?) fishermen think that coral is rock - some think it is a plant....but few know that it is a living organism - an animal.

So, I paddled around dead coral for a while before I happened on some plants, with many fishes - I saw two that I'd never seen before - one a brilliant royal blue and black - about 2" long and the other bright black and white. It was strange being in the middle of the ocean with just that island....I didn't venture too far out, but returned at the far end of the spit of land...and started shelling. I wandered up and down and found some pretty little shells, but it wasn't much of a place for shell gathering. However, I wile away my time this way when I can - meditation of sorts.

Returning to the campsite, I saw that Petra's friends had staked up two lean-to sort of structures and had even started a fire. I didn't know then that everyone had eaten, and only after a couple of rum and cokes was given my 'plate' of food. It was getting dark at this point and Matt told me that my food was squid and barbecue pork - he said that the squid tasted funny, so I didn't eat it.

But, the sky was on fire - to the east, the moon rose - an enormous gold ball, unfurling a wide expanse of gold
to our shore.

On the west side, the sun was setting and the amazing clouds here were making Picasso sketches as the sun
died down...and one brilliant star became clear.

Magical.

The moon shone the same color as the bonfire

and back lit the banca as they brought it up.

Before long, we were rummaging through the lean-to for snacks

and sitting around the bonfire talking (and texting!)

Around midnight, I think, Petra's friends gathered the young PCVs to play some sort of a grid game. I hadn't even had that much to drink and I couldn't understand the rules. But, my camera captured some of the plays..

and some other weird maneuvers going on in the night

At last look, the moon had turned to platinum....
and most of us slept (COLD - maybe a first for me!)

I heard the boatmen talking most of the night, and heard them when they roused,
at 3am. I finally arose at 5am when it was starting to get light and scrambled for
my camera - I could see that it would be a beautiful sunrise.