Farewells, mouse war, a slack line and yet another illness

Date: 12 November

Last week Sunday was a very sad day for me. My roommate Neasa and her husband Mike left us after having been here for nearly five weeks. I’ve missed them! I spent most of Sunday sleeping in the Nipa hut (insert pic of Nipa hut) and just being a little miserable because I had so grown used to having both of them around. Neasa was a great roommate to have too –we shared a bit of the same freakiness for cleanliness & hygiene (which by no means is at all freaky here at the base since the overall level of hygiene in this place is abysmally bad), shared a few brief bitching and moaning sessions 9out of which one got actually even noted down in writing since we felt the list was so long there surely must be something we volunteers can also do about) – and of course all those dives, surveys and moments on the boat waiting for the other survey team to finish. I think throwing lifevests into the sea and converting them into horses for a race from one end of the boat to the other ranks quite high on my list of silly things done with Neasa.  She also was a master of practrical jokes that always got blamed on other people - since everyone thought Neasa would be too nice and proper to pull such nasty jokes on others. Like the additional 2 kilos in Gareth’s BCD pocket – not to mention those underpants with a cock on the front of them that found their way in his other BCD pocket. Or painting Jon’s pointer – or “bumstick” as it’s known here as he uses it equally for poking innocent people in the bum as pointing out things – pink with white and baby blue dots. We also pained Jon’s emergency whistle pink and even decorated it adequately with marine life. Even Gareth the Frogfish made it on Jon’s whistle. Anyone, would you like blow Jon’s pink whistle? ;)

Roomies!

Trusty Rusty has had a new cover of (pink) paint and gets handed over to Gareth. handover ceremony was short but touching.

Jon's "pink whistle"

I’ve also declared a war on the mice – rather unsuccessfully though. At the moment the mouse is winning about 6-0. A few days before Mike and Neasa left I woke up one night having a mouse running over my face and my shoulder. A mouse in my bed. Charming. It had somehow gotten under my mosquito net. I jumped up rather fast and nearly screamed – but in the end did not because I felt embarrassed to wake up my roommates just because of one silly mouse. It took me a good while to chase the mouse off me and out of my bed. I’ve concluded that I must obviously look like a granola bar since the mouse is so keen on my company (so far the most popular item that has been eaten in the rooms by mice has been granola bars). 

Also Nigel and Gareth got woken up by a mouse in their bed the night after that happened. There’s no food in the rooms that is not kept in an airtight box – hence we were not really expecting a visit from the mouse. But they are everywhere, running up and down the bedposts almost every night. I asked if we could have mouse traps but it seem they only have glue traps at this part of the Philippines. I find the glue traps a little disgusting so I decided not to get any. Gareth bought some and so far has caught at least 4 mice in his room. Not bad. Maybe I should do the same. They do spread illnesses – and I really don’t need another one to share my bed with. Thanks - but no thanks. Death for the mice!

They are cute - but only as long as they are not in my bed.

 Dan and Nat arrived in the November arrivals group – Nat with dive trainees and Dan with qualified divers. Our plan with them was to start a fitness programme – which yet to date needs to be started although Dan’s already been here over a week. We’ve taken turns on being sick, having to prioritise Science Development Programme and Nat’s Advanced Open Water course. Yet. There’s been one item that has been superb (that great that I’ve even decided to forgive Jon for making me give the lilo to the evil children - Or as Jon likes to put it, giving the lilo that was not even mine to Tata’s sweet little children ). The superb item is the slack line. The awesome slack line. It’s better than a tight rope – but technically it’s the same. It’s a line in between two trees or poles that you first attempt to stand on, then try to walk on. Eventually you’re supposed to be able to do awesome tricks and throw amazing flips on it. That is, if you did not break your neck before getting there. So far we’re still just at the stage of trying to learn to walk on it, and then extend the length of it. But it’s absolutely fantastic. I’m loving every moment on that rope. I’m even loving every fall off it. It’s worth the few seconds of balance I’ve managed on it :)

A couple of days ago I caught a mystery virus that seems to have been going around at the base. Not that many people have had it though, just Nat, me, Gareth and Tracey. Fever and a stomach bug. Lovely. Not. Spent 2 days in bed feeling sorry for myself. Well, I actually spent that time in bed sleeping off the virus. AND feeling sorry for myself. Haha.

Tomorrow is Saturday and Saturdays are for fun dives! Hooray! We might do some pointy dives for the Science Development Programme in the morning, then going over to Phil&Ron’s scuba resort over on the other side of Sogod Bay. In the evening it will be party – and the last Saturday for Gareth and Jon. I shall miss them a LOT when they leave. I think everyone here will miss them.  I don’t think I’ve managed to keep a serious face in their company for longer than minute. Bloody nutters.

Gareth torturing an innocent child at Napantao school where we went one afternoon to do the "Fred the Fish" coral reef protection story for kids

10 surveys, 3 frogfish, 2 injuries, one inflatable crocodile and lots of stupid rules

Date: 01 November 2010

Status: In the mood for whining - and also reviewing the first 4 weeks

It’s been nearly four weeks now. It makes me feel like looking back a little and thinking about how has the reality (so far) matched the expectations. This will be more of a brain dump than a structured analysis. I’m on holiday :)

The best part has been the science, the surveys and the people. I’ve just really enjoyed learning about the corals, the sealife, doing surveys with my head down and feet up in the water. That’s good – because that’s why we are here.

My biggest surprise has been that I’m not bored yet.  I thought it would be too quiet here and I would get bored quickly. So far I’ve been bored only momentarily and found ways to entertain myself – like taking a lilo or a crocodile out in the sea. Boredom reduced instantaneously.

The worst is the silly rules. It’s like being on a kiddie summer camp. We did have kiddie summer camp rules in the military camp on the peacekeeping mission in Eritrea – but that was almost understandable since it was a crisis area. They seem to have a similar line of thinking here at coral cay as they have in the army. Rules that don’t really make complete sense but are imposed since they were put in place. I’ve taken the stand that I’m not going to argue with the rules but I don’t agree with them. One of our other volunteers, expressed it even better: “I’m not arguing with the rules I just think they are stupid.” Amen. You could not have selected better words, Jon.

Here’s a few examples on the rules. You can only leave the camp on Sundays and you are only allowed as far as the nearest village (about 40 minutes walking) and you have to be in the company of at least one other person (volunteer or staff). Even on Sundays you must be back by 5pm sharp. I know because I was once back at 5.45 and the project scientist and scuba instructor gave me a go for “reporting back late”.  (Am I 5 years old?)

The rule of not leaving camp also means I can’t go for a run –ever. On weekdays I can run up and down the hill to the nearest shop – and on Sundays it’s pretty much the same as I’ll never be able to find another volunteer here who wants to go for a run. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

That's enough of whining for one blog post. Moving on.

We’ve seen some nice creatures on the surveys which makes up for a lot of the stupidity. Last week we did several surveys on a transect that had frogfish, midnight cowries, mantis shrimp and one big orangutang crab. Not bad at all! I’ve managed to do 10 surveys in total so far and am only looking forward to more. 

Froggie (Photo: Jakob Blom)

Midnight Cowrie (Photo: Jakob Blom)

Orangutang Crab (Photo: Jakob Blom)

 We did one of our Saturday fun dives at the survey site area too since the survey teams who have been there have kept raving about the site. I’ve been on almost every survey done at this site so I’ve been a happy bunny. The great thins is also how much more you see on a dive now that you know what the things that you see are called. Sponges have somehow turned from weird colourful lumps into really fascinating lumps (haha - they are still lumps!), feather dusters are really interesting, sea stars have now got names (weird latin ones though) and corals just look completely different. Even algae is almost exciting. I’m turning into a marine life geek here soon. But it’s ok – most people here are a lot worse than me so I pass for a normal person.

On a survey (Me, Mike - don't know who is in the background. Photo: Jakob Blom)

Looking less glam trying to find the shrimps while doing the Algae&Inverts role (Photo: Jakob Blom)

Jon & Gareth after finishing the survey. (Photo: Jakob Blom)

Gareth & Neasa. (Again Jakob's photo)

 Well, maybe not quite. I’ve also managed to get a reputation for being a little bit weird (“a proper potty” as Mike expressed it) for taking a lilo and an inflatable crocodile out for a little spin in the sea. According to the audience I gave the crocodile a good humping. It probably wasn’t very far from the truth of what I looked like on the crocodile paddling with my arms and kicking with both legs. But it’s ok because the crocodile really liked it. It said so.

The Croc

I’ve also managed to gather some injuries and they will keep me from diving for a few days. I got a small scratch on my leg from pole dancing on the flag pole. The flag pole surface was not nearly as smooth as a proper dancing pole and as a consequence I got a scratch on my leg. It was only a surface scratch but it did not like getting wet and seeing salt water twice a day during the dives. The wound was not healing, it only getting worse by day and eventually I had to decide not to get in the water for a few days. We had two public holidays when we did not dive and following that I’ve also stayed out of the water. It’s just not fun not being able to dive, boohoo…. 

Leg looks prettier when covered up

I’ve been boat marshalling for the survey teams. Since I can’t get my leg wet I’ve had to use some acrobacy to get on our boat. We don’t have a jetty and hence need to wade in. I’ve been piggybacked to the boat or hopped on one foot and climbed in on the side of the boat where the water is shallower than by the steps. A bit of a pain for the people who have been piggybacking me. I must have looked hilarious too having hanging from the side of the boat trying to pull myself up on the boat deck.

Boat Marshall slate

Today and yesterday have been just boat marshalling days. A little boring – but made myself useful with saving one fin that fell in the  sea. Probably the only useful thing I’ve done. Tomorrow still off diving but after that I’m hoping to get back in water.

Inside of a tunicate (Photo: Jakob Blom)

Christmas Tree Worm (Photo: Jakob Blom)

Synaptid Sea Cucumber (Photo: Jakob Blom)

Most photos on this blog post are from Jakob Blom, another volunteer. I can't take that good underwater pictures!

Hit by swimmer's ear - ouch!

Today is day 11 and I definitely have not kept up with my blog or diary. We have had exams and lectures every day and there just has not been time between classes, dives and revision to write. Blogging is just simply impossible – the only internet connection that is available works on a wireless dial-up USB modem – and it does not really work at all. I can see my email inbox, but I have not been able to read a single email yet, haha! Uploading a blog post on Google blogger is just a mere dream…

I started getting mild pain in my ear two days ago – but I was too excited about the diving to react to it much. Yesterday morning it was just that bad I had to stop diving. Bugger. We’ve cleared most of the exams by now, except for the practical ones – which require diving. I missed out yesterday’s two invertebrate exams (“pointy” exam and invertebrate trail, today’s fun dive and today’s fish exam (“fish validation”). It’s not too bad, I can do them next week and I’m not the only one who has missed exams but it still makes me feel like I’m wayyy behind the schedule. Petchy even told me the schedule we have is “in the ideal world” because people always fall sick, in particular we tend to get lots of ear problems here. I would still rather be done with the exams now than having to do them next week. The plan for the next few days is to also go through Reef Check survey method, the CCC survey method and practice CCC surveys (Reef Check does not really require any practice since CCC survey method is far more comprehensive than RC).

Lecture & exam schedule

The rest wading in while I'm shore marshalling with my sore ear

Anyway, I’ve been trying to kill time by wasting it absolutely instead of doing much of anything useful. I started off pretty well yesterday with doing some revision on invertebrates and algae although I knew I was not going to be able to dive. However, I failed to do any revision on fish (which I really need since there are just too many silly little fish to remember. Just go on a reef and try to learn the names of the damsels, gobies and blennies that you see and you’ll know what I’m talking about… We do not of course need to know all of them, we only need to know certain target species . Still, trying to see which of the little damsels on the reef are target species, which are not and how many of them are out there is a rather annoying task. Fish move. Damsels move muchisimo. Counting damsels on a well populated reef is like trying to count ants in a busy nest. 

Exam time

Getting kitted before the in-water exams

 Apart from revision, I’ve also focused on playing useless games on my iPhone. I am currently particularly hooked on a silly frog game where nothing happens. You just bred frogs, take them to happily hop in a pond and breed them again. Colect little presents and decorate their froggie habitat. Take them to the pond again. Breed them again. Run out of space in the habitat. Nothing happens. But the frogs come in so many different pretty colours. Besides, could there possibly be any activity that is not better than studying for exams? :)

Frog game

I also tested out our laundry well today. As we do not have any running water, we either have bucket baths in our bathrooms or go to the well nearby to have a bath (yes, also a bucket bath). I don’t actually mind. The views from the well are quite nice. We can see the sea, the banca boat and the beach. I’ve had showers in much worse places than this one. The laundry washing point is next to the “shower” well so it also gets nice views. We can also leave our laundry with a local lady once a week. She charges rather reasonably for the washing. However, I figured that considering I only have a limited amount of clothes and only one bedsheet and towel, I might as well do my laundry myself since I can’t be without my towel or bedsheet. So, this morning I had a little stroll with a bucket to the well and washed all of my dirty clothes to the great amusement of the local teenagers. Obviously they do not see white people doing laundry by hand too often. They were almost as entertained as the two guys who were staring at me showering on the first day here. I did still get all of my t-shirts, underwear, bikinis and bedsheets washed, rinsed and hang up on the laundry line.

My bed doubles up as the laundry line today, haha.

We also went for a little stroll in search of the local rum (Tanduay) and apple vodka with one of the other volunteers. We are strictly speaking only allowed to the nearest village shop which is about 200-300 meters from the camp, up the hill. However, if that shop does not have the things you need (or if they are closed which happens about 5 times a day) you may need to get a little creative with the rules to ensure sufficient supply of goods (such as alcohol – what could possibly be more important on a Saturday night than that?) I even tried having a beer before the allowed time. CCC rules say we are not allowed alcohol before 5.30pm but because today is a cloudy afternoon I though at 4pm that it’s already beer time. So, as I realised it was only 4pm I found another cap from the used caps cardboard box (it happened to be a pepsi cap) and put the cap back on the bottle. Sigh. Now I’m sitting on the porch talking to Rosie about having a beer now, NOW, NOW, RIGHT NOW although it’s only 5.15pm. We just really need beer. Who invented this no beer before 5.30pm rule?

So, life here is rather nice and quiet. And beer deprived. But hey, even that’s an improvement from our little military camp in Eritrea that had a “no sex” rule. Here only beer drinking time is limited :)

That bottle of San Miguel with a Pepsi cap on it

PS. Did I yet mention that yesterday (when I was not diving due to the ear problem) there was a second sighting of a whaleshark on our house reef by one of the groups doing their inwater tests? Two sightings of whalesharks while diving in less than two weeks... again a few people getting their names on teh “whaleshark spotting wall” – but not me...

Drinks fridge

Bar rules

Surviving the latin names of corals - and the hangover

Saturday 9^th was partially a “jolly” day with less science activities. We went for a jolly dive in the morning in on one of the dive sites nearby – and we actually found a warty frogfish! Very happy with that although my photos of the frogfish are absolutely rubbish. I really need to improve as  a photographer before buying an expensive camera – or maybe I’ll just buy the expensive camera and I might be able to take similar photos to what other people take with a piece of junk J

Warty Froggy

Moray

Chromodoris annae

After lunch we had another coral lecture to finish off the target species and went for a “pointy” dive in the house reef. I dived with our education officer Lea which was really nice since she has been with Coral Cay for a good while and is very good at the species identification. I could even “ask questions” on the other species (as much as you can “ask” underwater where you cannot speak).  We also found a feeding coral and a comet. (For those of you who do not dive: A comet is a fish that pretends to be a moray eel with a fake “eye” on their tail.

After diving and washing up the gear I went for a swim. I managed to do one hour of swimming in the open sea although I was dead scared of the titan triggers on the reef, haha! I thought they might chew some additional holes on me booties which would be less pleasant. I haven’t seen any jellyfish here yet but I still wore my short wetsuit to protect from the smaller stingers – a good idea because there were some in the water and one of the nasty buggers decided to sneak under my wetsuit. Well, they did not sting that hard so the Finnish princess survived her first open water swim in the Philippines J

I also made my way to the well to “shower” and since there was no audience of local men this time I even managed to wiggle out of my bikini under my towel and get changed. Little things are sometimes so difficult here – like trying to get a good bath and staying reasonably decent. Aseady noted, I’m sure the local girls don’t bathe in their bikinis therefore I shouldn’t really blame the local men too much for standing staring at us – but it still feels kind of odd trying to have a bath with an audience.

In the evening we had a party and got some Tanduay with coke and beer to bring to the beach and made a nice bonfire. I think I went to bed about 5am after dancing with Lucas, Lea and Lance on the porch for a good while, haha. I think the rest of our little survivors group only went to bed about 5.30am.

I woke up at 8.30am and could not sleep – as usual when I drink. I just completely lack the ability to sleep! We tried to figure out how the stove works but the gas kept turning itself off as soon as you let go of the switch, therefore I gave up on it and decided to have some toast with peanut butter instead as Neasa and Mike were kind enough to give me some of their peanut butter (They were probably the first people to get up this morning). I also managed to do some revision on the coral although I was rather braindead. I would really need to study some more but my brain cannot take any more latin names before its had a good rest. I seem to be on kitchen cleaning squad but considering Joe who is the staff member to explain to me and Gareth what needs to be done in terms of cleaning up the kitchen  is not around we won’t be doing it quite yet (he might do some cleaning too I hope!) I decided to sit down on my bed and write my diary/blog instead. I think it would be a good time for a nap now – it’s about 11am and I should really sleep some more.

Learning about corals and killing a dive computer

Day 3 08 Oct 2010

The porch cleaning really turned out to be the easiest task in the task list. Nice. My cleaning buddy (our science officer Petchy) swept the porch after breakfast and I mopped it. Took me perhaps 5 minutes. Max.

We started the morning with a lecture on corals - mainly with the Acropora family. We got a list of species in the family and a picture of each during the lecture. Then we wrote the names down on our dive slates and went for a “pointy” dive and tried to find the species that we had just seen in the lecture slides. 

In the classroom

 The first dive was not too difficult as twe did not even do species, just coral growth forms. Otherwise the diving went rather well although our WelshmanGareth had a little stumble. His dive buddy Jesse was pointing out for him a scorpionfish and as it was really well camouflaged Gareth did not spot it and thought he was asking him to identify another coral form by its general form and shape. So Gareth took out his slate and pointed out to his dive buddy that the scorpionfish is a “sub-massive” form of coral. Well, you could call a scorpionfish submassive – but calling it a coral is rather pushing it. :)

Some of the target species: Tubastrea micranthas - handily surrounded by anthias as its name indicates

A "submassive" scorpionfish

After lunch we had another lecture on corals and went into more detail on hard coral types and had another pointy dive. I was rather struggling with the latin names and trying to differentiate the corals from each other.  We only need to learn about 250 species in total and this includes fish – but finding the specific 250 that we are looking for and being able to distinguish them from all the other life forms in the sea (for example, there are over 500 species of fish in this area…) at this stage feels very challenging. I‘ll probably laugh at my difficulty in finding them in the first few days by the time I get to end of my 10 weeks and become a coral guru (I hope at least! Haha. )

I even had my first workout today after the second dive. We are not allowed further from the camp on weekdays and Saturdays than the small shop in the village. This shop is about 300 meters from the camp. Not that far – but it happens to be on top of a steep hill. I managed to run 5 times up and down the hill and around the base building but then I had to give up although it was only 35 minutes of running. I did some situps, weights and stretching after that to get into a good one-hour workout. That made me feel very good about myself. Now, I just have to keep up with doing these workouts.

After dinner we had yet another lecture but this time on educational programmes that Coral cay runs to create awareness of environmental protection in the local communities, in particularly among the school-aged children. It was really interesting to hear from Lea and I’m looking forward to playing a role in our “Fred the Fish” play or going to the schools to do some fun activities with the children – or even having them visiting our base.

The highlight of my day was however that Joe saved my dive computer. I ran out of battery after the first dive on the first day. I really had not checked my battery levels – so stupid of me going for an expedition for 10 weeks!  Luckily our project scientist Joe’s spare battery for his Oceanic  fit my Suunto Vytec and Joe even helped me change it. I was so grateful – and so happy! My computer is back, hooray!  I take back what I said about hating Joe for seeing the whaleshark. Actually I love him, haha.

My Suunto Vytec

Coral Cay Philippines: Days 1 & 2

I left Manila on the morning of 6^th October to catch a flight to Tacloban airport on Leyte.  The domestic terminal in Manila is rather modest and of course does not have for example screens with information on where and when flights are departing. That would be totally excessive in Philippines, informing people of their flight status!

With only minor delays I made it to Tacloban, having already found a Welsh bloke called Gareth at manila airport. Gareth was also on his way to Coral Cay Conservation project but he was going to spend 8 weeks on the project whilst I’m here for 10. We picked up another 4 volunteers in Tacloban – some of whom had already been in Philippines travelling for some time. All of us were staying with CCC for reasonable times, the shortest being Jacob with 4 weeks here and longest Cheryl with 26 weeks (!) with Coral Cay.

First night was rather chilled out: The usual introductions round, settling in into our accommodation and relaxing out on the porch. 

Coral Cay Base. Kitting area on left.

Gear washing tanks

Laundry line. Scuba shack in the back.

 After a bit of site orientation and some information on diving standards and Coral Cay, we had a short break before our dive. Me and Cheryl spent it cleaning up the cupboards and the bathroom in our room. The rooms were – oh well – as expected in a place that has dorm rooms, lots of people staying short terms and all cleaning done by the volunteers. That’s all I say.

Lounge and dining area

Kitchen

Sogod Bay area map

Wall painting of some of the target species

More wall decorations. Most of the indoor walls are painted with marine life.

The gang having lunch

My roommate is Cheryl and we got assigned the “Dirty Damsels” room. All the rooms have got marine life related names such as Saucy Sweetlips, Prawn Stars, Nudi Haven, Groping Groupers and pretty painted pictures on the doors. Our room is rather spacious and there is kind of an ensuite bathroom. Kind of an ensuite since the bathrooms are attached to the rooms - but there however isn’t any running water in the rooms. A bathroom without running water kind of takes some awesomeness off the term “ensuite”.

My room door

The so-called ensuite bathroom :)

We’ve got two buckets  in the bathroom. One of them we fill up from the sea with salt water – for flushing the toilet – and the other one gets filled up either from the tap behind the kitchen or from the well – fresh water for washing up. NO hot water, in other words – not that anyone really needs it when cold water is about 26 degrees. The recommended place for bathing is by the well as the well water is free of charge and for the tap water Coral Cay needs to pay for. (The building that we use as the base is actually given to us for free by the local government who is renting it and giving it for Coral Cay to use. )

After our “cleaning break” that we proceeded for a checkout dive on the house reef. The house reef is very pretty with lots of beautiful corals and reef fish. However, my dive experience on the reef was rather overshadowed by the fact that the one of the other teams saw two whale sharks… I can’t believe their luck, seeing a whale shark on the house reef (!) on the first dive. Lucky bastards. (I hate you Mike! I hate you, Joe!)

After the dive I experimented on the bucket bath by the well. Although Joe had warned us about it during the site visit, I still found it both hilarious and somewhat disturbing that two local men stood by the well where we do the laundry looking at me throughout the time that I was bathing in my bikini, washing my hair and rinsing off the salt water. Surely local girls don’t stand around in bikinis having a bath but still – it was just unbelievably entertaining watching the expressions on their face. They were literally staring at me. I thought I may need to collect their eyeballs from the ground after I’m done. Mysteriously enough their eyeballs stayed in their sockets and I did not get to feed them to the dogs.

Path to the "showers"

The well aka "the shower"

As if that wasn’t enough of an introduction to the local culture, once I got back to the base and was walking around taking photos of the place, our security guard who had sat down at the nipa hut waved me over and started doing introductions. He wanted to know my name, age and where I’m from. As I told him that I was 35, from Finland but living in Singapore he also shared with me that his name was Marvin, he was 42 years old and widower. Obviously he was looking for a new wife. He wanted to know whether my job in Singapore pays well. I said to him not so much but compared to Philippines salaries in Singapore are probably quite high. After this he explicitly told me he is looking for a new wife. So I was on the right track about his intentions. Oh well, he was a nice guy but I don’t think I will be his next wife who lives in Singapore and sends him his monthly allowance back so he can continue his comfortable life of doing nothing.

The Nipa Hut (and Marvin in it)

After dinner we had a lecture on Coral Cay and continued chilling out on the porch. We also found out what cleaning/helping tasks we were assigned to for the next day. I was on the porch cleaning team. Did not sound too difficult, I’ll find out tomorrow what it includes.