So many islands, such little time

Monday, November 16, 2009

Colombia

Cartagena Colombia is overwhelming my senses. The old walled city is a giant maze of churches, plazas, flower covered balconies, Spanish architecture, art, music, fresh fruit, horse drawn carriages, cobblestones, and beautiful women.

From the top of one of the walls you can gaze at the old city, glance to the ocean on the right or across the bay to the skyline of the city. It is spectacular. Surrounded by over 1 million friendly Colombians, I am quickly learning the culture of this Caribbean town and looking forward to exploring the diversity of other parts of the country.

A friend I knew in Honduras was randomly here the first few days, she is fluent in Spanish which has helped, and we had a blast together. It was perfect to have someone for many of the events as they were intense and sometimes intimidating. We went to the parades, and spent the evenings wondering to different plazas, listening to music and drinking rum.

We also made it to a discothèque one night for some dancing, it was quite the place. She has moved on and we may meet each other again in time, but our adventures were pretty fantastic, I hope you enjoy them.

Fiestas all week

I have been very lucky to have arrived on the week of the Independence Festival for Cartagena. During this week of partying they celebrate being the first area to win independence from the Spanish. Also during the festivities they have the National Beauty contest and the winner will go on to represent Colombia in the Miss Universe contest. Each day a variety of events take place in the streets and even one on the water, this lasts over a week and it is a big party every day.

The main event, the parades were spectacularly bizarre, and a blast. Fortunately my friend and I were warned of some of the customs and we able to prepare for the event. Basically wear shitty clothes and bring nothing important. Water, foam, cornstarch, and even oil are all fair game.

The giant cans of foam sold on the streets are a soapy substance that looks like snow when blasted at a distance, or when shot at close range a stream of soapy silly string looking substance, luckily the soap substance smells nice and just brushes off or fades rather quickly.

The other thing that occurs is children cover themselves in black oil and beg for money while threatening to rub it on you. This custom seems to have gotten a bit out of had and got pretty annoying, but I learned to carry small change and just try and avoid them.

The first day of parades was the children’s parade, beautiful costumes, loud music and dancing. The next day November 11 is the actually day of independence. We watched the parade on the street and found ourselves covered in foam and corn starch from head to toe.

It was a blast watching the people on the streets covering each other. Being gringas we were more of a target then others but we found that if you don’t make eye contact you have a better chance of not getting sprayed, but we still were.

Also being fair to the Colombian tradition had our bottle of rum with us to partake in the celebration. This helps a lot when you are being covered with any and everything.

The next parade we decided to watch from a distance as the floats carried the beauty Queens along the road by the water, it was fun to see the event from a safe foam free distance.

The following day the beauty queens were on boats waving happily to the crowd. On final day of events I joined the family I am staying with to the parade on the road near their home.

We were in a great spot and had a chance to see the parade close up. I was lucky to only get a little corn starch and foam thrown on me. I will say I kind of like the foam, but probably wont miss it too much.

Volcan del Totumo, 150 feet of mud

This was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, I will try and explain with words and pictures but I don’t believe that will do it justice.

We took a tour bus for an hour outside of Cartagena. As we arrived at the volcano I was surprised to see it was a giant mound of dirt 60 feet high with two sets of steps up to the top. It was explained to us that this village lives solely off the tips they receive from tourist that visit. We would have the chance to get a massage, have someone use our camera to capture the experience, and have the women wash us and our clothes. We are asked to provide each with a tip. We were instructed to bring only the bathing suits we were wearing and a camera.

We ventured up the steps while looking out at a gorgeous bay and mountainous area. Once at the top we looked in the 20 feet wide hole of mud to see several people laying on top of/in the mud as the 2 worker men slid them around and into place for their massage. We waited our turn while watching in awe, confusion, and uncertainty. As I climbed down the ladder the cool mud swallowed my body and the man instructed me to lay down with my head in it, he painted my face, all but my eyes and mouth and gave me a massage.

Once he was finished he slid me over to the corner so I could enjoy and soak on my own. The hole was very small and the men just kept letting more people enter and no one was getting out, it was a bit awkward. And the mud is so thick that it is hard to control your movement, you can’t swim and unless they slide you around or you hold onto something it is pretty hard to control your movement.

The heavy mud on my body and in my suit made it difficult to climb the slippery ladder out. Once I made it out one of the men guided me to a platform and he sloshed the mud off of my body for me. Weird.

From there we slowly went down the steps to this area where women were waiting, they walked us through lilly pads and had us sit down, the water came to my neck, and they washed us. She also had me remove my swim suit and she washed it as well.

They guided us back through the lily’s to shore and we were finished. And that was it. Later on as others finished, each of the people that had helped us came for their tip. We were told that fifty cents for each of them was a minimum, I think we gave each person $2.50, it was well worth every cent.

Quinceañera

In Colombia the girls fifteenth birthday is much like sweet 16 in the states but it is a big deal. I have been lucky to be a part of this event for the child in the family I am staying with. My friend Claudia who is also traveling was nice enough to join me to this event, as a guest, and my translator. According to the family their party was very different from a typical Quince Anos party, usually it is a fancy family dinner.

This was very different, a lot of whisky and music. We made the mistake of arriving at the party to early, and this was after a day of parade events and drinking. So we sat in one of the several chairs set in a large square in the driveway. We chatted and drank and as the night wore on we got very hungry. We were then pleased to see them bringing around trays of food, the first one was pork rinds, and we were offered some off the try (to me this is like giving someone one Pringle and walking away) the next tray was tiny strawberries. At this point Claudia and I are tired hungry and drinking whisky as they served it to us, getting drunker. Because my Spanish sucks Claudia gets the opportunity to breach any awkward situation we get ourselves into. So she asked about food and they told us after the Mariachi band.

Of course there is a Mariachi band, can’t have a party without one of those. So the band comes walking up the road and plays several songs. At this time the birthday girl is standing proud with the family, and she is in tears. So dramatic, she must really be a women now. She defiantly looks like one, she is gorgeous and could pass for 25. Anyways by the time this is over there is still no food in sight so we sneak into my room for some trail mix that mom packed for the trip. It sounds silly but we just needed something. As we exit my room we are caught by the oldest son. He questions what we were doing, Claudia tries to explain that we were hungry and their was trail mix, but from his reaction he must have assumed we were doing what most people think you do in Colombia, (sniff). Pretty funny, you probably had to be there.

Anyways we waited about another hour and at this point the mariachi band has gone and a new band is on the way, they are to arrive at midnight and stay till 6. Oh and did I mention the speakers for the music are hanging on my bedroom window, the music is actually louder in my room then at the party. We are both too exhausted to think at this point. Claudia decides to venture home and I am so exhausted and hungry I pass out happily in my bed and sleep thought the blaring music all night. The next morning I wake up early to head to town and I find a big pot that had been full of food. Looks like they finally had dinner sometime after midnight. I guess we should have know.

And that is the story of my first Quince anos party. Muchas Gracias

I hope you enjoy the many random photos.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Good Bye Philippines

At Pandan in the market

Nice clear day

In 369 days around the world,
I have,
Lived in 6 different countries,
Made a home in 8 dwellings,
Quit 6 decent jobs,
Slept in 27 beds
Flew on 21 airplanes,
Watched television 11 times,
Emerged on 214 dives off of 16 boats,
Fell in love with 3 dogs, 1 kitten, and too many people to count.
And now I am home

The last 3 months in the Philippines have been an embrace of the culture. The staff at the resort touched our hearts and took us into their homes. Our last week’s goodbyes were a challenge. As a goodbye gift we surprised the 6 staff members (Amore, Reigna, Pressy, Loida, Victor and Anthony) with a giant bag of rice to share along with frozen chicken halves and cans of fish for each. We gave them the gifts between paydays and you could tell they were happy to have something to bring home to their families to eat that night. The feeling of giving so little that helped so many families was intense. The giant bag of rice cost us $25 and will be enough to feed the 6 families for a week. Of course after this first experience we could not help ourselves and donated another $25 for them all to share, it is hard to believe how far money goes in other cultures. Our last night there we took all of our leftover things and left them for them to share as well, lots of sheets, books, food, etc. I also prepared a disk for each of them full of the pictures I had collected of them and their families in the past months. We made an effort to attend graduations and parades and photograph these moments for them, on many of the occasions that they could not attend. I also gave them all several pictures of the reef in the area and the fish that they can share with others on their DVD players at home. Perhaps it can help people to learn more about saving the fish in the area. The final goodbyes were very teary eyed, and we left them one last surprise in the morning a giant sign in their language wishing them love and goodbye.

The big bag of rice

Pressy and Loida with the chicken, fish and rice gifts

Reigna and Amore

Victor and Antonio

In our last months there we saw so much culture. Here are a few quick stories to share, they are all pretty random and don’t fit together but I thought some of you might enjoy them. And of course tons of pictures.

The other day I went to Pandan on my own while Russ was busy diving. On the way back I waited for over an hour at the bus stop. There was a local woman there with her child, she was dressed in western clothing, nicer then what I was wearing, and taking care of her 6 year old bribing her with treats like any family. At the same time the mom was holding a live baby chicken in a plastic bag, with only its head sticking out. Funny how this seems normal to me now but made me stop and think how shocked most of my friends would be to see such a thing. The woman was taking a baby chicken home on the bus to raise for food. After a while I noticed she was struggling with a hole in the bottom of the bag and the chicken was struggling to get out. I gave her a fresh bag to use and the guy next me helped to make a hole for the chickens head, she was very thankful.

The last few days the sea has been very rough and we have helped to pull the boat in and out of the water a few times. They are very good at it, which makes sense as they have been doing it their whole lives. We all work together which is fun. They use 3 logs and several palm fronds to help keep it from sinking into the sand. We then roll the boat up or down one of the logs till it comes off then we move the log to the front and keep pushing, it is pretty quick. They also use a big winch thing made of wood and bamboo, it is the same thing they use to pull in the nets. You could tell that the fisherman helping us had been pulling I boats all morning along the coast. It was gave a wonderful feel of community.

Pulling out the boat

Yesterday we went to Pandan to go to the market, use the internet and have lunch. It was nice to get away. There are a bunch of doctors here from Manila to give free surgeries for 2 days. The hospital was crowded everywhere with people, waiting from 4 am on. They did all kinds of surgeries from circumcisions to removing tumors. Nice of them to come here and do this, just sad to think of the people waiting there all day to try and get an operation to save their life and perhaps being turned away.

The resort finally put their dog Stein to sleep today, and tonight they will eat him. And as weird as it sounds to our culture I feel no room to judge. I asked one of the 19 year old girls if it was true they would eat him and she asked me, “You don’t eat dog in your country?” I replied no, she said, “but you eat chicken, and cow and pig?’ Yeah she has a point, why not eat dog. She was excited to try Stein, because she and the other staff had only eaten native dogs and they were excited to try a healthy well fed Dalmatian. In the end after cooking him for days to make the meat tender he still tasted the same as a native dog. I went on to tell her about us eating insects in Thailand and she thought that was pretty crazy. I guess if the opportunity was there, I would try one bite of dog, you only live once, and it can’t hurt to try. I would prefer it to NOT be Stine. It is food, and when there are many hungry people and small children then best not to let anything go to waste.
P.S. I DID NOT EAT DOG

Me and Stine (RIP)

We got a new kitten, with Stein gone they can have a cat again (he liked to eat them), it is very small and cute and in need of lots of attention to get healthy, but it is doing much better. When we found her she was smaller than my hand and starving with a big cut on her chin and eye. After a week of fish and rice, some cleaning, and lots of love she is strong and healthy and so hard to say goodbye to. The locals are used to cats being everywhere and they treat them more like chickens, animals, not pets. I think after seeing us love her so much they may even pet her and give her some love now that we are gone. To help remember us they named her Russhall, A combination of our names. So sweet.
Minny and the kitten

Bernie told us an interesting story the other night. There was an Austrian Missionary that came here many years ago and he picked 20 women to send to nursing school in Europe. Most of these women then fell in love while they were away and this is where all the foreign residents come from that live in Antique (the local province). It is interesting to see how one man can make such a difference. These women went away and came back with an education, many with rich husbands and the ripple effect to their families and the community was huge. Hundreds of people in the extended families are benefited by the resources used to support the rich husbands and building their homes. I assume this cost the missionary a fair amount of money but to look back on it he really did make a difference.

After going to Pandan the other day, one of the girls came to me the next morning wondering if I had lost my wallet in a Jeepney the day before. I did not think so but when I went to search for my wallet it was gone. I guess the person that found it gave it to the driver and he came by and asked the security guy if we had lost it. I did not even notice, it took one more day to get it back as the driver only passes the resort twice a day and I missed him both times. When it was returned the $10 cash was still there as well as all of our cards. What a relief and what a pain it would have been if we had lost them all. I gave him a gracious tip for his troubles and honesty.

We went to see the Elementary school graduation. We arrived on time and like most things here, they were running late. There was another graduation down the road and the mayor of the area was still there so we had to wait for him. The children of age 5 were in bright pink graduation gowns and caps. The 6-9 year olds were all dressed in their nicest clothes and covered in makeup. We have noticed here that it is a status symbol to wear lots of makeup, you want people to know that you can afford it (unlike in western countries where your makeup should make you look pretty but be hidden) so here it is very bright. The girls have the most vibrant colors of lipstick. While we were waiting for the mayor we enjoyed the nice wholesome music of America Rap/R&B. The young children knew every word and loved dancing along to it. People were selling ice cream and the kids were trying to pass the time. One of the school teachers was happy to speak with us and I requested to see the classrooms. She told us that there are 4 teachers for the 80 students, one for kindergarten, one for 1st and 2nd and also one for 3rd and 4th . The classrooms looked like any classroom. As the graduation began they were talking in the local dialect and suddenly we heard them mention “Phaidon Resort” and then they said something about Scuba instructors, they were welcoming us for coming to the graduation. It was very nice of them to consider us. We are white and we are noticed, we are used to it, but here we were recognized. The children walked with their parents to the stage and the graduation began. The kindergarteners were recognized one by one, with all the classes they commented on how many were girls and how many were boys, not sure if this is normal or not but it seems a bit odd to me. After the kindergarteners students from the other classes were awarded ribbons for things like best attendance, and parents received best parent and so on. This seemed to go on for a while with the congratulations and the parents pinning the ribbons several times. After the ceremonies each class prepared dances. The first one was the 3rd and 4th year students. The song was oddly “Knock 3 times on the ceiling if you want me” a very provocative song and the dancing was extremely sexy. From across the dance area Russ and I exchanged glances of shock by the humping dance moves the children were making to the opposite sex. And the last dance with the kindergarteners was again very provocative. No wonder they have so many kids so young here.

Gradaution dancing

Kindergardners wondering what to do with thier diplomas

We went to a meeting with the fishermen and the leader or President of our Barangay Tingib. It was challenging. We are trying to accomplish a few things on the beach/sea in front of the resort. We wanted to educate the fisherman about more sustainable fishing. They use drag nets here and it takes everything off the bottom and if they don’t want to eat it they leave it on the beach to die. My slide show was to show them that they are killing things that they cannot eat but the nutrients these fish provide help to feed bigger fish and help them grow. We were also trying to get acceptance to put our small artificial reefs nearby. They told us we can put them 450 meters out, they have no concept of distance, and this is 30 meters deep at least and much father then they go. The fishermen that do not speak English looked very angry. As a group they are not nice people and are very powerful here, the local workers at the resort are scared of them, and would not accompany us to this meeting. The government is run by money and power (like all are) but the corruption is more acceptable publicly here. The barangay President did seem to understand what we were trying to say and that we had a good point. We want to increase tourism and we don’t want them to stop fishing, just learn how to do it more sustainably. We showed them all some videos, tons of fish pictures and we came away from the whole thing with not much. They agreed to try and not throw dead fish on Bernie’s beach; this is what he really wanted. And we established that we could put the reefs really far from our beach near a reef 200-300 meters down the beach. It could be worse, as far as I see it, we may have changed one person’s opinion on fishing and the reef or at least made them think and that is all that matters. The meeting was held outside on plastic chairs near the children playing. The kids even got a chance to see some of the photos, they were thrilled by a short video I made of a real Nemo. Every little bit helps and it is interesting to try and understand their ignorance and that it is not their fault they are just set in their ways.

We followed up on this by going out and trying to save the fish. As they were bringing in nets and we saved tons of them, including 2 very unique hairy frog fish. I brought with me a translator to explain to them that I just want to save the fish that they cannot eat and they did not seem to mind. It may make their job a little easier, one less thing for them to do. It seems that normally they throw the fish back but sometimes they are too late. We know now which ones they think are poisonous so we can start throwing them back right way, as well as any special ones we may find. I did find one Nemo, and even though they eat him I just could not help myself, had to save him, and the locals just laughed at me.

Goodbye sign for the staff