Top Shells and Christmas Parties!

Launching Top Shells in Binduyan

Well by the strange mixed up title you must be wondering what top shells have to do with Christmas and the answer is simply nothing! However the two are what my life has consisted of for the past two weeks. At approximately 7 am on Friday morning Alicia and I boarded the service bus at WPU to head to Binduyan to participate in a top shell launch. WPU has an aquaculture site in Binduyan (the community Alicia and I are trying to develop a tourism and environmental plan for) and they are trying to grow and produce top shells. Top shells are a great source of income for the community, when polished down they can be used as jewelry as well as to make mother of pearl items. We arrived to the community after an hour of bumps and turns in the very old and rickety bus. Maam Arlene, the head researcher of the Trochus (top shell) project was very excited about the whole thing, she immediately called out "time is golden! Lets have our breakfast so we have lots of energy for the deployment of the shells." My immediate thoughts were... is this woman Filipino? (Due to the rush rush nature which I have yet to see from any Filipino) and is it really a good idea to eat a ton of fish and rice and then jump into the ocean? haha well after scarfing down some fish heads, dried fish and of course rice were we down on the beach counting out shells to put in 12 of the cages for deployment. Some of the researchers were gearing up with scuba equipment while the rest of us stuck to a mask and snorkel. My true environmental dork came out and I was giddy with excitement to be a part of such a neat experiment and experience! After deploying 6 cages it was time for lunch. Maam Arlene seemed a lot more Filipino, I mean, relaxed by this point and lunch lasted over an hour. I will admit I wanted to wear a sign that says "Could you please speak English so I know what is going on." However patients and manners persevered and then we were off to deploy some smaller cages as well as the other 6 cages. Then of course have a snack before we pack up to head back to Puerto. Food is the upmost importance here in the Philippines. Nothing happens without it; meetings there are snacks, conferences there is pancit (a noodle dish), parties always have food and even when we were invited to mark exams we were marking them while eating random snack items. However this snack item before leaving Binduyan was awesome. The snack was biko! Biko is a delicious sweet snack made with sticky rice and toasted coconut. Some of the researchers made it over a fire and it was scrumptious! All in all the day was fabulous and exhausting!

Christmas is a HUGE deal here in the Philippines. Decorations go up as early as October but you can see them as early as September. People say Christmas is celebrated in ever month that ends in ber and I believe it. I have been wished many "Advance Merry Christmas's". Monday past was the WPU Fishery and Marine Technology Christmas Party and of course Alicia and I were on the guest lists! We made a big pot of Chili and hopped on a multi cab to school. Let me tell you.. if you want to get funny looks just be a foreigner with a pot of chili in your lap on a multicab in Puerto Princesa. We arrived at the school and still had to make our way to the party. I was lucky and got to ride on the back of Sir Fidel's motorcycle to the hotel where the party was held while Alicia, Maam Lyca and Maam Ian took a tricycle. Only one person at the party had ever had Chili before and everyone was quite confused that you do not eat it with pasta or rice! The spicy-ness was a bit much for some but everyone was happy to try it. We were given nice coffee Mugs as Christmas presents! I love mine, it has hearts and the word hugs on it, and have tea almost every morning from it :) Anyways there was karaoke, which I of course belted out and they even opened the pool to party goers and we got to go swimming. Swimming was awesome seeing as it was a blazing 34 degrees! At the party we were informed that the next night it was WPU night at the Bay Walk and us interns were expected to perform. Alicia and I just looked at each other like what? We thought the performance was the karaoke we just sang. Not knowing what to say and not prepared what so ever we just smiled. Luckily Maam Lyca came to the rescue and said due to not enough practice time we will perform at the next one. Whew! Im so happy she cancelled for us. WPU night was a huge shin dig!! The entire town of Puerto Princesa came out to see it. The president of the school's band played, the choir sang and the students performed amazing dance routines! The criminology class did an awesome martial arts show that even involved rings of fire! Alicia and I got honorable mentions due to being the international interns and had to stand and wave to the entire crowd. I think the staff were very pleased we showed up to the event! I was delighted to be there.

In other exciting news, Flat Stanley has arrived in Puerto Princesa to accompany Miss Jen on her many adventures! My good friend Cheryl is a teacher in Manitoba and one of her projects for her students is the Flat Stanley project. The story of Flat Stanley is about a boy who is flattened by an oversized bulletin  board. Due to Stanley's shape he can be easily mailed or now a days emailed to his friends all over the world. The project was started in 1995 by a school teacher named Dale Hubert and is meant to aid kids in their writing skills, they can write to each other about where Flat Stanley has travelled or whatever the teacher chooses for them to write on. I was so excited when Cheryl contacted me to be a part of her class project. I printed Stanley today, colored him up and then found a place where he could be laminated. His first trip will be to Manila with me tomorrow! I am heading there to get my Chinese visa for my Christmas trip to the Great Wall!

Myself and Flat Stanley