I got one night back in Manila from Cebu to pack up my
stuff, and flew into Tagbilaran’s airport almost 12 hours after I touched down.
Background on Tagbilaran, my new home:
Tagbilaran is in the South of Bohol, right across this
little straight between it and the large island of Panglao right off Bohol. It
is the provincial capital of Bohol, and by far the largest city on the island;
in fact, it’s the only city. It has the airport, and the biggest boat terminal;
it had the only malls and cinemas; it had the bus and jeepney stations to
everywhere else on the island; heck, there was even wifi here.
It’s basically the one place on Bohol that is continually
connected to life off of the island-most of the rest of the island is sleepy
small towns, beautiful beaches, a few resorts, the attractions I talked about
before, and lots and lots and lots of isolated, tiny villages and towns that
speak little English, where everyone else knew each other, and everyone farmed.
It was country; it was a bit like being back in the American south, to tell you
the truth.
But, just because Tagbilaran had a museum, a few malls, a
movie theater, and (this is the real sign of a city in the Philippines) a
MCDONALDS did not mean I was in Vegas. A few blocks away from the two main town
squares in every direction was rice fields. Right across the bridges on Panglao
was sleepy countryside, with a few resorts sitting on top of the hills,
gleaming down on the bright blue waters of the strait.
The UCCP church, at whose offices I was sleeping, was on a
hill overlooking the strait as well. There were perhaps 75 people at the
services I went to (though, of course, more people went to the Boholano service
than the English one). They showed two movies in the cinemas, and after I saw
Thor 2 and Captain Phillips twice each, I really didn’t want to see them again.
This was a city of 90,000, but it was really just a large town-everyone pretty
much knew each other, the streets were quiet all hours of the day, and as soon
as the sun was down, all the businesses were closed and most of the people were
at home.
I arrived with almost no information from Cobbie. I had a
woman’s first name, and was told this “Juvy” would recognize me at the airport
and have a sign with my name on it (snazzy!). But, of course, I had to wonder
what would happen if we missed each other, as when I stepped out of the
airport, I was mobbed by 20 or so middle-aged Filipino guys wanting to know if
I needed a ride.
As pretty much the only American on the flight, I was a
target, and the pedicab drivers always think that the American guy wearing a
t-shirt, flip-flops, and a week of disheveled facial hair has lots of money to
spend and are easily taken advantage of. I am routinely charged triple what
native Filipinos are charged in transportation where there is no fixed price,
and its almost comical when I start bargaining and the drivers realize that Im
not some American high roller but am making 40 bucks a week or so and im not
spending it all on a pedicab ride, thank you very much.
Luckily, since I was about a head taller than the guys
surrounding me, Juvy was able to recognize me, beat the guys back, and
introduce herself to me, as well as to the girl with her. She picked one of the
guys out of the crowd, and after a quick conversation in Boholano (which by the
way is a subdialect of Bisaya aka Cebuano), we got in the back of the guy’s car
and were off to my new home.
My living arrangements:
I stayed at what I think was the headquarters of the
conference (aka presbytery) of Bohol? Im still not sure, since I never really
got a full explanation of what the building was, but it’s rear overlooked the
strait and Panglao island really close to the UCCP church. There was an office
with AC and wifi and plugs, and then a sort of living room/dining area, a
voluminous kitchen that looked more like a small auditorium or play practice
area, and a water pump out back with a couple of CRs (bathrooms) which had a
few glorified squattie potties and which were basically outside.
There also were a couple of rooms full of bunk beds on the
ground floor (and apparently one upstairs for the women?), and I was told to
pick a bed and set up shop. There was no AC, a weak rotating fan, and two
windows, both opaque and curtained, one open to the street noises right outside
and one open to the kitchen area.
My first night, I slept with these older men from Silliman
University in Dumaguete, I think from the Medical Center. They occupied the
rest of the beds in my room, and were all very nice-I asked if they knew Cobbie,
and, typically, they did. I also was given zero information about what I was
doing, when we started, or any schedule of any sort. The guys told me that I
could join them tomorrow, that they were going to this town and I could come with them at 6:30 am.
That sounded a little early to me, but I had no control or
anything, and was eager to get out there and help whenever, so I said sure, and
set my alarm for (sigh) 5 AM. Meanwhile, it was 10, and I was tired after doing
some relief: I had helped to pack these relief bags for the next day that
night, but in doing so, one of the girls who was helping gave up her seat and
her job and just sat in the corner…so I felt kind of awkward. The relief
packages were just orange juice and chocolate crackers-it seemed like it was
just junk food snacks, not really help for hungry families or anything, but
whatever, I didn’t control what food was available.
Anyway, I sat in bed reading, while the guys kept the light
blaring and kept talking and laughing long into the night. I figured that since
we were leaving so early, they would go to bed early like I was trying to do,
but I have since learned that Filipinos simply do not need as much sleep as I
do. At least, its FAR less than 8 hours a night. From my roommates in Manila,
to the Tac-ans in Mindanao, to the group I stayed with in Leyte, to even Cobbie
and Dessa, going to bed late and waking up super early is just a thing that
everyone does in the Philippines.
My theory lies in the enormous consumption of coffee here:
seriously, most Filipinos have 5-6 cups a day, and almost everyone has it even
at 10 and 11 at night. One guy told me it helped him sleep better. If I had
coffee at 11 PM, I would be awake until lunch the next day, and would then
crash for the rest of the afternoon. Coffee and I just are not great friends,
digestively, energywise, and dependencewise, so maybe that’s why I always feel
like the most tired guy in the room and the one who’s sleeping most, but I just
can’t do coffee.
Anyway, I was trying to go to sleep with these noises all
around me and this light literally directly in my eyes while I was reading.
Eventually I gave up and rolled over, but I can distinctly remember saying
“finally!” to myself when the lights were turned off around 1:30. I remember
too waking up at 5, then 5:10, and then at 5:20, and then at 5:30, and
gradually convincing myself that I didn’t need a shower after a short sweaty
night’s sleep. I finally climbed out of bed when one of the guys from my room,
who had already been awake and showered (and must have fallen asleep after 1:30
because I heard his voice as I drifted off to sleep talking to his friends),
poked his head in to wake up everyone else and tell them breakfast was ready.
There were about 6 or so guys that lived at this house,
cooked meals, and washed everything, from clothes to the dirty dishes. They
lived in the other bunk bed room, a fact I learned both from observing them
retreating back to their living quarters late at night and from the bumps and
loud talking and laughing from the other side of an apparently VERY thin wall.
At the beginning of my stay, I thought that they were fellow relief workers,
but I learned as my stay lengthened that they were just a bunch of nice guys
that made food for everyone and would be my largely non-English-speaking
housemates for my two week stay.
Because of these guys, though, every meal was a Thanksgiving
style feast, usually with 20 or so people spread across the two long benches.
As is customary in the Philippines, rice, fried fish, soups, and an assortment
of vegetables were served in great quantities for every meal of every day. From
breakfast at 6:30 AM to dinner just after sunset, I could expect a plentiful,
healthy, FREE, and delicious meal from these guys; the only problem was, each
meal was identical, and even the nicest meal can get old after having it 10
times in a row.
All the same, during our delicious, frantic, and bustling
meal, with Bisayan being spoken rapidly and lots of laughing, I went and
grabbed my stuff and we all met outside at a small collection of vehicles on
the busy main road of Tagbilaran. I didn’t know what to bring, so I did the boy
scout thing and brought my backpack and anything I thought I might possibly
need for a day out doing relief work.
The guys from Silliman beckoned to me and told me to squeeze
into their already overfull truck, which was started and was almost pulling
away; like the last chopper out of Saigon, I rushed over and crammed myself in
next to these guys I met only last night, and our (thankfully) airconditioned
pickup zoomed away.
I was ready for us to head into some kind of refugee camp,
but after about 2 turns and maybe 3 minutes, our truck came to a stop outside
of a collection of buildings and a sign that said “Bohol University”.
Puzzled, I got out with the very unpuzzled Silliman guys,
who chatted with the security guard at the mostly empty university (I think it
was Saturday) and walked in, again beckoning me to follow them. Still confused,
I grabbed an iced green tea at the cantina area while we waited inside the
school grounds on some benches. What we waited for, I’m still not sure, but I
talked with one of the guys, and he just said we were waiting for some people.
Cobbie and Dessa had told us that one of the things we
should be ready for in the Philippines was to “hurry up and wait”. This was a
perfect example of that. I had been roused from a terrible night’s sleep at
5:40 or so, with it still dark outside, and with food on the table. I had been
rushed outside and barely made it into the overfull truck, thinking that I
almost was left behind for the day.
Then, for about an hour (luckily I remembered my book), the
guys from Silliman and a few other helpers from another car sat and stood in
this University, which seemed to be a meeting place for our relief caravan. I
wondered again why we had to wake up so early and rush through all of this only
to wait for an hour for the other people to arrive, but, as I still wasn’t sure
what was going on, I just leaned into it, found some shade, and read my book
while I had some tea.
After that hour or so, Juvy, who I had not know was there,
waived her hands at me to come over to her, and told me (again, as if the
shuttle was leaving earth during the apocalypse) to climb into another truck,
quickly. Again, I rushed over and got into a nice AC’d pickup with a roomy back
seat, said hi to the guy driving and the lady I was sitting next to…and then
waited for half an hour again, for what I assumed was more people. Hurry up and
wait.
Eventually, with the back of the pickup crammed full of four
people, the AC on full blast, and Duncan still confused about what we were
doing, where we were going, etc., we pulled away from the University. There
were two giggly college-age girls from Mindanao there, who told me I should
visit their hometown of Cagayan De Oro, and one older lady, who spoke little
English, but, all in all, it was a car full of laughter and excitement for a
day of relief work.
Juvy was in the front, and now that she was in a car with
me, I was able to ask the salient questions of what we were doing, where we
were going, and details about the earthquake. She said that she was afraid I
was lost, or was picked up by strangers and taken somewhere earlier when I rode
with the Silliman guys.
There has been a lot of worry from my local friends of
abduction on different islands, but, after the worst thing that happened to me
in 6 months was my wallet was stolen on a bus, my anxiety about such things has
faded away.
After a couple of hours stuffed in the truck, with various
parts of my body falling asleep, we turn off the main road (there are no
highways in Bohol, only unmarked two lane roads) and go down this fairly
unfinished gravel road. It is one lane, and up and down some pretty steep
hills, and every few hundred feet we can see giant rocks that were displaced
from hills during the quake. I am glad we are in a pickup.
We finally reach a small hillside village. I marvel at the
local church that passes us on the right. It looks like those pictures of
buildings that were bombed in wars. It’s a skeleton of steel, with a roof still
standing, but there are holes in the roof, and there is only one wall left
supporting the structure, the rest being reduced to the large blocks of rubble
that surround the now open air church.
After meeting some people in the barangay hall and parking
in the village square/basketball court, we drive back up the hill to the
church, local villagers waving all the while. As we get out, and I volunteer to
carry the relief goods, there is a lot of gawking directly at me from the
locals. This is always awkward for me, but apparently never for them-I am
probably the only white or American person they have ever seen.
The inside of the church has all the pews lined up and
filled with kids of all ages. Most of the kids are staring at me, but, being
less shy than their older counterparts, they ask for hi-fives and the girls ask
what my name is while they giggle. Because most people can’t pronounce “Duncan”
very easily, I usually go with Frank, but this time I say Dirk Nowitski, Power
Forward for the Dallas Mavericks.
Seeing their eyes go big, I say
“Just kidding, just kidding, no, no, I am not actually Dirk
Nowitski. I’m Lebron James, of course.”
I continue to get giggles and stares from the kids (who
finally were convinced I was Tony Parker) and adults alike as we unpack the
goods and start sorting them. Some of the people in the other car, who
apparently all know each other and came together from Mindanao, are chatting
the whole time, and some chat with me, ask me questions, and kind of jokingly
make fun of me for the attention the locals are giving me.
Our morning is spent pretty satisfactorily sorting out food.
We give the kids their orange juice and chocolate (part of this balanced
breakfast), and since they eat it with gusto, I assume they are probably not
used to free food, especially not since the earthquake, or at least anything
with sugar in it…and then I realize that they might just be kids, in which case
they are just wolfing down the sugar because they like sugar.
As this is happening, the other half of the people are
measuring out certain amounts of rice, toiletries, canned goods, fish, the
whole nine. I start helping the group, and, as one, we move some of the pews
around, and start stacking the bags and checking the contents.
This is the first time in a while that I have felt that I am
helping out in a meaningful way. I am rushing around, packing goods, moving
bags, counting, checking, and chatting with my fellow workers from Mindanao.
After about a half hour, we had finished packing all the packages, and a
fair-sized crowd had made their way up the little hill to the little church,
bringing people of all ages. As we set up the packages for distribution, the
people had filled the remaining pews, and it was almost like a packing play, as
our stage was set and our audience seated.
Hot, sweaty, and with little bits of rice on my hands, I was
told to grab a seat and rest since my work was done. Though it was only a half
hour of moving stuff around, it was rewarding stuff, and I could see the
hopeful, anxious, and (typically Filipino) friendly looks on the faces of the
locals. I was offered the same snacks that they had given the kids. I refused a
few times, then saw that they had a ton extra and that the rest of the workers
were taking them, so I grabbed one myself and thankfully crammed the chocolate
and orange juice into my mouth.
It was around then that Juvy came up, almost physically
grabbing me and pulling me away, and said it was time to go. I looked at her
bewilderedly, thinking that I was spending the day there distributing the
goods. I at least had assumed that I would be with the same group of
Mindanao-based workers, and was surprised when we hopped back into the black
pickup truck (where the blessed A/C greeted my hot face with wondrous whimsy)
and drove off without the other workers.
I asked Juvy where we were going, what we were doing, what
was going on, etc., and she, as the organizer of the work, apparently had to go
check on all the sites to make sure that they were doing alright and helping
however she could. I, as her unofficial guest/worker, was to accompany her
wherever and whenever she went anywhere. So, once again, we were off to what I
hoped was another good site to help more people.