Diving with Sea Turtles

So after my town fiesta last month I headed to Dumaguete City, which is located in southern Negros, the big island just east of Panay. I had two Peace Corps conferences/workshops to attend. The first was the Solid Waste Management Conference attended by about 60 people consisting of volunteers and their counterparts working with solid waste. The theme of the conference, funded by USAID, was “Keep it Simple,” in an effort to remind us to do the little things that can help rather than get overwhelmed with the huge problems. The sessions were set up as an open forum where people could express their ideas and opinions of what projects have been successful and which haven’t and why. Every group was also given an opportunity to present what they had been working on at their sites. It was great because some people were experts in one topic while others could listen and learn, while the next topic would have the roles reversed. It was really just a great opportunity to gain a wealth of information from people all over the country. At the conclusion of the conference we took a field trip to one of the few sanitary landfills in the country as well as a livelihood center that exported quality products (like wallets, purses, and bags) made from “trash.” Overall, the conference was awesome but I was a little sad my mig/counterpart Rodel couldn’t make it (he got hung up doing some post-fiesta work in San Joaq).

Volunteers love those crafty bags.

The good news is that Rodel was able to attend our PDM (Project Design Management) workshop which was also held in Dumaguete City. This workshop focused on how we identify community assets and needs. The main emphasis was to keep the project community driven in order to maintain sustainability. Our example project focused on improving the health and water quality of San Joaquin. It started off small but ended up snowballing into a very ambitious 9 month project with fairly detailed time management planning. Rodel loves the whole plan and is eager to get started…I’m a little more skeptical with the way other projects have gone but we’re going to give it our best shot and “we'll see”- lantawan ‘ta –feels like I’ve been using that phrase a lot lately. We definitely have a need for a project like this according to new statistics gathered by Doc regarding cases of reported water borne diseases which have progressed the past three years. I’m going to see an engineer in Iloilo City this week about hopefully obtaining a Bio Sand Filter (that thing I was talking about a few months ago) as a demo for the town. One of the goals of our plan was to start building these filters but like I said, lantawan ‘ta…

So after the SWM conference and PDM a lot of us figured we should take advantage of being in southern Negros while we were there. This included a trip to Valencia, the site of fellow volunteer Peggy. In Valencia we took a nice little walk to the 200ft drop of Casaroro Falls. This was pretty much the most impressive waterfall I have ever seen. It seemed like something out of a movie. A few of us took a quick swim (quick because the water was freezing) and then headed back to the Dumaguete in order to leave for Apo Island. Apo Island is a protected marine sanctuary off the coast of southern Negros. Apparently a PCV assigned there in the 70’s was a big part of converting the island to a sanctuary. Because of this, and the fact the owner of the dive shop was a former VSO, we got a big discount on both diving and lodging, which was nice. We were only able to get in two dives but we managed to see 3 sea turtles (two hawk-bills, and one green) as well as two sea snakes. There was also a plethora of coral and tropical fish but I was most excited about the turtles and snakes since I hadn’t seen them before. There was one moment when a turtle decided to take off from his comfortable resting spot to grab a quick breath of air. I decided to swim alongside about 4 feet away. He didn’t seem threatened by my presence and just kind of floated through the water like a bird floats through air. It was definitely a memorable experience. After the two dives I was beat and it felt good to sit down to a hot meal, a couple beers, and best of all some good conversation with friends.

Casaroro Falls

Well, I’m really excited about next month. My Mom, Dad, Quinn, and Brad (who might as well be our brother) are coming out to the ‘Pines for a 12 day visit. Right now the plan is to spend a little time at my site in San Joaquin, then off to Boracay, followed by Palawan. It’s going to be real exciting and I’m sure I’ll have some good stories for the next post. Until then, Keep on Rockin!