Classroom Conversations

Today we had an earthquake drill. The have a special bell that goes off that tells you we need to pretend there's an earthquake and you are to run and find cover under a table or door frame in the class. The bell that's near my class wasn't working, so it took us to realize it was time and what that faint buzzing in the distance was.

As we hid under our tables for the minute before we evacuate one of my grade 12 IB students says:

"Miss is the bell isn't working how would we know if a real earthquake happens?"
Me: "Well you would feel it."
Student: "Oh, I never thought of that!"

And I'm the blond one.

Exploring Hundred Islands

           After our rocky start to the trip, we opted not to get up for sunrise to take photos, after all that was what Sunday was for! The alarm when off at 5am, Danette begrudgingly went over, turn it off, went back into bed, we all looked at each other, then rolled over and when back to sleep. With the exception of Natalie who never woke up in the first place and could easily sleep through an enemy attack during an earthquake and never now it was happening.

          We woke up, got ready, packed our bags. I threw my stuff into my camera bag, towel, sunscreen, sunglasses, more sunscreen, hand sanitizer, kindle, debated taking another kind of sunscreen but realized that two was probably enough. There was only so much space and certain things took priority. Then there was our sunscreen party, five teachers in a room in our bathing suits making sure all our backs were covered. It was this that Jack and his lady friend walked into, and she promptly turned around and walked out. She didn't have any shorts, only jeans, no bathing suit. The bathing suit thing didn't surprise us. Filipinos generally don't have swim suits, especially those from lower classes, they just wear their clothes swimming. Which can be fine, as long as its not jeans. So we gave her some shorts, went to breakfast, filled up our cooler with drink and started our adventure!

 

All Aboard!

 

              This is our Bonca driver, Lito and his two sons, the youngest in the back was named Jason, the older boy wasn't as talkative. The boys help out on the weekends, Lito's hope is that soon the oldest boy will be able to save up enough to get his own boat one day. The youngest boy, Jason, attends a local school during the week sporadically and helps out his father when he's not there. These schools are usually run by the church and there is always more kids than they can accommodate, this can leads to first come first serve basis everyday for school, if the one room class is already full the extra kids can be sent home. This does not happen everywhere, usually in the more rural areas, other place has systems where they only take the top kids based on testing, other areas it works on an every other day system. Our Bonca driver and his kids were great, they took us to their favourite places, showed us some amazing snorkel spots. I was shocked when they went snorkeling with us, I believe Lito and his boys are the first Bonca drives I've meet who can actually swim.  

 

                The water was beautiful.  The islands were carved away lime stone. Many of them had no beaches, just cliffs. The first place we stopped was Governers Island. We paid our park entrance fee of a grand 20 peso each (about 50 cents). From there we hiked up to the view point at the top of the island.

 

The whole path was made out of these uneven stairs made from a combination of concrete and chiseled away rock. 

The view was amazing and well worth the sweat. 

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              After this we climbed back down and while we were hanging out on the beach we were approached by a man wanting to know if we were interested in going helmet diving. It was cheap and I figured what the heck. They put a gaint, heavy space helmet looking thing over your head that is attached to an air hose that runs up to a compressor that pumps in oxygen. The air pressure keeps the water from filling the helmet. The helmets were a one-size- fits-all which is a lie, because what fits the average man does not fit me. This caused mine to not sit on my shoulders well and it had to be perfectly balanced on the outer edges otherwise it would slip and one of my shoulders would go up into the head whole. But that aside, it was a cool experience and a good introduction into what diving would be like. We were just under 10 feet down and surrounding the roped off area was giant clams and some coral that's seen better days and fish. There were three guides down there with us, they would bring us around, point out different things. The best was the "nemo" fish, who properly are called clown fish, but after the popularity of the pixar movie everyone here refers to them as the nemo here. So we found him, and his friends. There were plenty of sea anemones around, in each one was a different clown fish family. The guides would capture these fish (I have no clue how they didn't get stung) and bring them to us so we could play with them and hold them. They really the only fish that care that your there are interested in you. They then gave each of us a small bag of cooked rice that we could slowly open and watch the fish come and feed. It wasn't too long until I was surrounded by bright blue and yellow fish. Lastly there was the giant clams which when you touched or pushed the water towards they would snap shut cause a cloud of sea dust to puff up around them. It was a lot of fun. We were told that they would email us our pictures of us underwater as a part of our package, but it has yet to show up in my inbox. Oh well, it was still a great time, you'll just have to take my word for it.

 

               The next place we went was to an island that had a cave/tunnel carved out through it by the water currents. This is the island and the smaller mouth of the cave where we exited from. Here our bonca driver set anchor and we all got out of the boat to snorkel, he seemed eager to show us the tunnel. He and his boys swam around as we looked at the coral and fish. Slowly we made our way toward the mouth of the cave. And that's when it hit me, the current, no warning, just a strong push to the left and into some coral.  My left foot got the worst of it, once I returned out of the current's stream into calmer water I inspected my foot for damage. Sure enough there was two large pieces sticking out of my heel. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt like a bitch. The salt water wasn't helping. I was able to pull the larger of the two piece out, which elivated some of the pain, but the other coral was in there good, and I didn't want to pull it out and leave small pieces in there. Plus its a little difficult to do while floating in the ocean. 

               I embraced my inner hardcore awesomeness I continued snorkeling, making sure to give coral a wide birth. The tunnel was beautiful, the coral dissipated revealing a white sand bottom, the cave walls were dark and gave way to a circular space, the Pantheon, down to oculus in the top. Small stalactites hung from the ceiling, the valleys in between, small coffers, creating homes for little bats. Their cries echoing in the rotunda. The light danced on the blue green water as we all gazed up at the view above us. A small shallow area was in the middle of the cave where Jason, the young boy, stood, shins below the water, hands on his hips as he look triumphant towards us, king of the cave.

               Lito lead us down a path a dark tunnel. I was the last one to enter, and as we snorkeled down it was dark, there was small rays of light that I followed reviling the silhouettes of those in front of me. There was the odd time where I simply swam into darkness ahead of me with hopes that there wasn't a rock wall to meet me. I got to the end met by several of my fellow explorers and more light. There was a small hole that we would have to crawl out of, which would lead to the cave's exit picture above. It was a tight fit for some of us. I may be thrown around by currents easier than others, but luckily my small size did come in handy here. We skirted around the island looking at the coral and fish, I made sure to respect a good distance between myself and the coral this time, unnecessarily sucking in while I swam over some of the shallower areas.  We came back to the anchored boat, climbed in and assessed our battle wounds.

           My foot, Brandon's side took a beating from an underwater rock archway he swam through, Danette's leg from the tunnel, Jack from climbing back on the bonca, and who knows what else. We were quite the sight. Remember when I said that my camera bag was small and I made sure to pack only the essentials. This is when I regretted leaving my first aid kit in the hotel room. The fuck was I thinking? So armed with my small bottle of hand sanitizer, a role of paper towel and a knife from Lito, we went to work on disinfecting cuts and bandaging wounds. I performed minor surgery on foot, cutting out the remaining piece of coral (seen below pre-op) and two smaller pieces around it. That's right Graeme, you're not the only future surgeon in the family. Rockstar.

              Next came lunch on own private island, Scout Island. There we ate, looked for shells, tanned, read our books, swam and relaxed. We stayed for two hours and then headed back out again to our next location. The Coral Garden.

 

            The coral garden was appropriately named, it was a wonderful snorkeling spot where various colours and fish were all around us under the water. There was a diving platform we docked to. Once on there, there was a large group of Philippinos getting out of the water, who I assume was an extended family. No sooner than we had stepped off the boat than they wanted to have their picture taken with us. Its a common occurrence that I've talked about before, but in tourist spots here we often quickly become the tourist attraction with our pale skin and interesting coloured hair. Before long every boy in the family is being encouraged to take a picture with Heather and I.  We politely escaped and dove into the water. Well as polite as you can be. 

          The coral was amazing, however with the relentless stinging of my coral wounds I was overly cautions, looking for deeper water, something that had a good five or more feet between myself and the coral. It doesn't help that salt water magnifies things making everything seem closer than it is. But in this quest for "safe" water I ventured out into a deeper area where the coral began to disappear, and that's when I saw the first one. Giant clams, and I mean GIANT CLAMS! They were huge, four feet long, two, two and a half feet wide. And like the others we saw early they would react to being touched or water disturbed near them, clasping shut. It was amazing, and there were hundreds of them, stretching out on he ocean floor as far as I could see.

      

 

         We went to this other small island where there was a rather unimpressive cavel/tunnel that ran throught he center. Currently a large blue tarp and plywood block off the end of the cave, so perhaps in its original state it was a little more exciting. But soon arrive our new "friends" we had meet on the diving platform. There were more pictures taken with us and then individual shots again. It was awkward, and I'm sure I'm now apart of several random guys facebook profile pictures. 

         Once we returned to the boat we told Lito to take us the long way back, the sun was starting to set, but we wanted to see a little more of the landscape around us.

 

He took us to a cove where there were ducks, and then they quickly fled our noisy boat, off into the sunset. 

 

         Lito had one more stop planned for us though. As we approached the island we saw mangrove tress lining the edges of the shore. We docked, Jason helping to pull is in, and settling to the shore to find crabs hiding in the rocks. Lito and his eldest son got out and  lead us down a narrow path. As we started up a narrow slop that's when the smell hit our noses. Guano. Soon we were in the mouth of a cave where hundreds of large bat circled and filed out to feast on the emerging bugs. Later we found out that this island was appropriately named Bat Island.

 

 

      Back to the boat, disinfect my cuts again. And then we set out into the setting sun, like a movie. We were tired, soar, but we all agreed, this trip was great. 

 

  

           As we drove back to shore we saw the  fisher man set out crab traps for tomorrow morning. It was a good day.

           We had a great dinner of fresh fish and seafood. I doctored my foot with a proper first aid kit. None of us made it up in time to watch the sunrise over the islands on Sunday. We had a lazy morning, ate breakfast, checked out. We looked at the market, then drove back to Subic, it took us less time in daylight and it helped that it was Sunday, both church day and major boxing fight was taking place.

To Hundred Islands We Go

One of the couples I work with, and am friends, with planned a weekend get away to Hundred Islands National Park. They had a friend that was in town visiting and its a fairly easy 4 hour-ish drive up the coast to what we've been told is a really nice island hopping/snorkelling spot. 

So my colleague's friend "Jack" was from the States and within 6 hours of arriving in Manila he fell into the classic Philippines white guy situation. He met a Filippina, she was 20, which isn't creepy as it normally is because he was only in his mid-thrities, she spoke minimal english, she had very little education and we're pretty sure she didn't have a job. Regardless Jack was hooked, and she was now attached to him. Just imagine how shocked we all are to hear that he showed up in Subic with a complete stranger to stay at our friends house. To make matters worse she was terrified of hanging out with our group. Which would make for an awkward trip. One of the main problems being we had rented a van for us to all drive up in and now with the extra person we all didn't fit. The problem was easily solved when she convinced him to take her on a trip to go see her family up north. From there they would meet us at our hotel at a Hundred Islands. 

On Friday after school we headed out on our adventure, we dodged animals, trikes, and thought we were lost for a little while, but we managed to get there in one piece around 9:30. The main problem being we hadn't stopped for dinner on our drive and by this time we got there we were starving, but everything had closed. 

                                                    

We had booked two rooms, one five person room and one two person room. When we arrived Jack and his friend were already there, the room that they had put them in had a double and two twins. The air was an odd combination of stale mould which only complimented the decor -everything was covered in pink frills or brown floral. We asked to see the other room we had book and found only a double bed. Turns out the double with two twins was a five person room, which made no sense to us, but perfect sense to the man who worked for the hotel. Which lead to a lot of strong discussion between us and the hotel workers. All the while Jack's friend had locked herself in the bathroom and was not coming out. 

It was 10 o'clock, things were closed, we were starving and our hotel was one bed short. So we did what any experienced traveller would do, we left our bags in one of the room and when knocking on hotel front doors to see if they would feed us or had other rooms. We found one place that had one 2 person room and another one with two double beds and a pull out couch, the rooms smelt a lot better and the bathrooms had considerably less questionable stains. 

As we solved the first problem we were still plaugde by the fact that we hungry and no one was opening their kitchen for us. Then came along this little old lady, she shuffled out on the street, and told us she would make us food, We entered a living room with a long table and benches in it, across was a small tv in the corner which was playing a Korean soap opera dubbed in Tagalog, there was an empty unplugged freezer under the window. She asked us what we wanted, we told her whatever was easiest. She smiled at us, missing one of her front teeth and said "Chicken. Fried?" I wasn't sure if that was a question or a statement. We were given glass bottles of Spirt and a beer for Brandon. She went into the back kitchen and soon the sent of cooking had wafted into the living room, it smelt amazing, only adding to our starvation.  When the food came out there was a huge plate of rice and fried chicken, the Colonel has nothing on this lady. It was amazing. We left a generous tip for her and her hospitality. Went back to our original hotel gathered our bag drop the key off at the front desk, and relocated to our new place. They told us the would get a bonca boat for us for tomorrow. We feel asleep fast with the hope of waking up early to get some good sunrise shots over the islands.  

The Dangers of Being an Art Teacher

I started clay with the grade 6s. We're doing slab work, making a box that looks like a Christmas present. They're very excited. Very needy. And still believe in Santa?

Normally when you cut clay you do it with one of these:

We don't have those because they never arrived with my supply order. So instead I was using this:

Which is just aluminum sculpture wire, around the same gage as what a clay wire cutter would be. 

Mistake. Those wooden handles are there for a reason and not just for grip. No, they are there to prevent you from cutting your hand when you cut the clay. So now I have a nice little cut that spans over the palm side of my right fingers. Its shallow, but it's making life difficult. I managed to get the clay cut and on a bright note I managed not to bleed on the clay. 

Weekend Trip

Tomorrow after school me and several teachers are driving up the coast for a weekend adventure. We're heading to 100 Islands National Park for a weekend of island hopping, bonca rides, snorkelling and beach relaxation.

The best part of this is that I, Dana Hoit, am packed by 8pm the night before we leave. This never happens! That's a full 20ish hours before we leave. I'm impressed.

I'll post pictures when I get back!

Also one month until I'm back in Canada.

Guess What I Found In My Class?

TERMITES!

I went to go pull out the stretchers for canvases for my student who are starting a painting unit only to discover that they were all falling apart and covered in termites. By the way for those of you who have not seen them before they're gross.

So now I have no stretcher and my class need to be fumigated. Oh the joys of living in the tropics.

Bohol Day 5: Whale Sharks!

This isn't my picture, I don't have an underwater camera, but this is what they looked like!

On our last day of vacation we did the one thing that I have been looking forward to and was terrified of since I first started to look into the Philippines. Whale Sharks! They are the biggest fish in the world, and completely gentle however their size is still something to be concerned about.

Before I left for the Philippines my sister and her husband gave a gift of the Lonely Plant Philippines to aid me on my travels. One of the fist sections of the book were the top 10 things to do while there. The picture that immediately caught my eye was that of people swimming with the whale sharks. People dwarfed by these massive creatures, and apparently it was perfectly safe... 

So as I've done my traveling slowly things from the top ten list have been crossed off the list, but the whale sharks still remained. So at 5am we set out on a bonca boat, leaving behind Bohol, heading to Oslob, Cebu to experience the whale sharks. Our boat was filled with two people from Germany, an older Irish man who had left his wife behind on Bohol for the day and a young couple from Singapore. It was a 2 hour ride to get there, it was rather peaceful as the sun began to rise and take full force on to the day. By the time we arrived at 7am to our destination the you could already tell that today was going to be hot.

We made our way to another smaller bonca where we paddle the grand 5 minutes down the beach to the main station where were given the rules, no touching, keep 4 meters between you and the whale shark, make sure to stay away from their tail and don't wear sunscreen. The other rules were all about safety, the sunscreen didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially considering what other pollution went into the ocean i doubted my SPF 50 would really do much damage to the whale sharks. So all though I didn't put any more sunscreen on, I didn't shower off the sunscreen I had already applied that morning.

We paid our fee, got our gear, then set out to see the whale sharks. They were close to shore and were attracted by the once man in a bonca throwing krill into the water. As we got out there you could see the large black shapes that would pass you under the water. Then a head would emerge. It had a moth like a giant cat fish, minus the whiskers. I was one of the fist ones from our boat to jump in, and as I turned behind me I saw a 20 foot long whale shark, pass beside me. Everywhere I looked I could see them I was in a middle of the group. They're friendly and do not attack humans, they're rather indifferent to us, but it is their size and getting hit with their tail that you have to be careful of. At this point I was clearly not following the 4 meter rule at this point. So I tried to move away from the pack, which I was clearly in the middle of to what I would consider safer water.

It was at this point that I noticed that the mouth piece to my snorkel was not working correctly, it was way to large for my mouth and therefore I kept getting in mouthfuls of salt water and krill, which makes it more salty and disgusting. So I swam back to the boat dodging whale sharks, and managed to swap out my gear for a better fitting one.

I began to explore breathing freely and enjoying the view, the largest whale shark the I saw was around forty feet, the smallest around twenty. They were all breath taking. I would swim around and see one watch it for a while, trying to stay the safe distance, but i feel like I was always around 2 meters away, despite my best efforts. Then i would look to my left and realize that there was another whale shark headed straight for me, mouth open looking for krill. As fast as I could I would swim away. But this became a constant problem given the number of whale sharks around us. I was entrance by them, following them through the water. I lost tract of time and another bonca boat driver had to get my attention, apparently it was time to go back. Everyone else was back in our boat and ready to go.  Feeling bad for making them wait, but also feeling cheated out of whale shark time I swam back our boat and head back to shore, where I finally got a chance to shower off and we started the next part of our journey, the bus ride to Cebu city.

We went onto the road and had to flag down the bus to Cebu. It was a holiday weekend and we were in the province so there was little room and no air conditioning. The bus took us along the coast through amazing scenery, stopping every now and then to pick up more people or drop some off. The seats were full and soon there was no standing room left. Still the vendors still managed to squeeze on trying to sell their pork rinds and green mango with shrimp paste. It took us three hours to travel 100 km and when we arrived at our destination Dad and Terri were both relived and frustrated. We grabbed a cab to the airport, first going through the MacDonald's drive through to get a snack before we flew back to Manila.

In Manila I left Dad and Terri behind so they could explore the city for a couple of days, and I then headed to bus terminal where I managed to just miss the last express bus to Subic and instead took the milk run to Olongapo city. I lucked out without having anyone sitting beside me, I was able to sleep for most of the 3 and half hours home. After a trike, then a taxi I managed to get home at 1 am where I checked my email and then went to bed knowing that the next day was going to be long, but the whale sharks were well worth it. 

Bohol Day 4: Exploring the Interior

On our fourth day in Bohol we went to explore the Bohol interior on the actual island of Bohol. This was one of the things that I was looking forward to the most. Tarsiers. Cute, cuddly, smallest primate in the world, head rotation like an owl, and can jump 5 meters. I was very excited. So we drove to the Tarsier sanctuary first through rice fields and small villages. 

And then we saw one! And then another! In total we were able to see three of them. As much as I wanted to put my hand out and hold it, and then put it in my pocket and take it home with me, I wasn't allowed. Apparently because of their size their bones are very fragile and likely to break from improper handling. Plus the whole wild animal thing.  However, when I went into the information pavilion I was a little disappointed to see that there were images of the British Royal family holding them, along with major Philippino celebrities and politicians. Famous people get to have all the fun. 

After our Tarsier experience we went to a hanging bridge. This bridge was created by woven bamboo and stretches over the length of the Loboc river. It was beautiful, but because it was raining we quickly continued on to the next part of our tour. 

The Chocolate Hills! This is one of the must see destinations of Bohol. They're given the name because in dry season they turn a deep chocolate brown colour and are supposed to look like Hershey kisses. Right now at the end of the rainy season they are a lush green. Oddly, the hills can only support grass on them. These hills are actually the result of uplifted ancient coral deposits that then through weathering and erosion have taken on this identical look.Over the Island of Bohol there are well over 1000 of these formations. However, the local legend is that they are teardrop of a heartbroken giant.

Our next stop was the Loboc river cruise. We had a lunch of traditional Phillipino food, on the boat and set down the river. 

We docked at a hut on the side of the river where we were treated to some traditional dancing by both children and adults. 

Here the children do a traditional dance/game where they jump over the bamboo sticks are they are slide back and forth to the music. If the kids aren't quick enough your feet can get snapped up in the bamboo. Think of it of double dutch but with bigger stakes. 

As we left the boat there was a group of men playing some traditional music, the Spanish influence was clear in their music and songs.

Our last stop before going back to the hotel was a statue honouring the Blood Compact. In 1565 there was a treaty of friendship between the Spaniards and the Phillipinos. It was a tradition in which both parties would cut their arm with a dagger and poor the blood into a cup mixed with wine, which was then drank. It was a sign of good faith and a connection between the two parties involved. A statue was erected in the spot where the compact took place, just up from the harbour where the Spaniards anchored. 

That night we had dinner on the beach where we were amazed to see one of the most beautiful sunsets ever. It was an early night because the next morning we were headed to Oslob, on the island of Cebu to see the whale sharks. From the tiniest primates one day to the largest fish in the world the next.