Rainy July

SIBAT

Travel is tricky during the rainy season (June-September), and for the past few weeks the rest of SIBAT was working on the Mid-Year Assessment. For me, that's meant a lot more office time!
I understand the necessity of writing reports on site visits, submitting grants, evaluating employees and making long-term plans, but lately I'm wanting to spend as little time in Manila as possible. I think about the lush mountains and winding roads in the mountains to the north, and begin to loathe the crowded, smog-filled, traffic-jammed streets of the city. Hopefully I'll be travelling again come August!

SIBAT celebrating a triple-birthday at the new restaurant

Of course, Manila isn't all bad, and in some ways it's getting better- SIBAT opened a restaurant! How this came about is a total mystery to me. There had already been a very small store with not much foot traffic inside the same building as our office. Then suddenly, they've opened Sibol People's Eco Store and Cafe down the street! If I had stumbled upon this place- a store with organic rice of all colors, bountiful produce, Kalinga coffee and a whole variety of goods for sale from local organic sellers- I would have been giddy with excitement. Not to mention that the proceeds are funding the projects of this awesome NGO.

It's run entirely by people who worked either in the office or on the organic farm. At first my mind was boggled by the idea that no formal licensing or approval was necessary- just rent the space, start cooking, and open the doors. The only official who visited before we were allowed to open was a priest who conducted a short ceremony that involved everyone lighting candles, saying some prayers in unison, and the priest splashing holy water from a tiny plastic Virgin Mary shaped bottle.

Ate Del, the head chef, and Rox, SIBAT employee
turned restaurant manager!

My favorite part about visiting SIBAT's farm in the province of Tarlac was the awesome meals. Freshly picked veggies and fruits prepared perfectly by Del, a SIBAT farm employee of 20 years. Now, Ate Del is the head chef at Sibol People's Cafe, and the farm suddenly seems like a much less desirable place to visit! I don't know how much say Del had in her new job assignment, in a city where she doesn't have a home or family. Originally her placement was to be temporary while she passed her cooking expertise to someone local, but finding someone with her level of skill and work ethic has been proving difficult. Though I really do enjoy her being here & I will miss her cooking, I hope they find the right person soon.

A poster I made for Sibol People's Place

Aside from stopping by the restaurant and helping out here and there, I've also been focusing on SIBAT's No to GMO advocacy campaign. I'm learning a lot about the science and politics of biotech and agriculture, and simultaneously about the difficulty of organizing passionate, busy activists. Since February I've been serving as secretariat for the NO2GMO coalition- a loose group of 20 or so organizations committed to preventing the rise of GMOs in the Philippines. Since the coalition started almost 10+ ago, it's been an uphill battle trying to plan events, schedule meetings and organize mobilizations, since all the members have full time jobs with their own NGOs. In the past few months, two events have progressed into the design-invitations-and-confirm-venue phase only to be cancelled. Luckily, at our last meeting the coalition settled on a less ambitious idea than those we'd previously discussed. Starting in August we'll be offering a kind of service- if a group of people are interested in finding out more about GMOs, they can bring us in to give a short seminar series. So far it's looking good, with potential "clients" being another NGO in the area and a fancy organic weekend market downtown. I'm excited to see where this coalition is heading, and glad to be playing a role in its growth.

Kota Kinabalu

KK Harbor Walk

An exciting First happened in the month of July, when I packed my backpack and took a flight to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. I was travelling by myself to a place where I didn't know anyone. Though it was only a 3-day trip and I've traveled quite a lot in the past, I had been hesitant about the idea of going solo. For one, safety- my flight arrived at 1 AM, and I was concerned about the prospect of making it safely to my hostel. Would the taxi drivers speak English? Would they drop me off in the right place? Would they rip me off? Not to mention all the much-worse things that women worry about when doing anything alone at night. Secondly- would I get bored? Surely there would be plenty to see in a new, foreign city, but without companions to share observations with it could get lonely.
Very happily , I can now report that it was a great experience and I am excited about the new doors that have been opened now that I have conquered my fear of tables for one!

Beach sunset

As anyone  who has experience with budget travel can confirm, it's actually quite easy to meet people in hostels and join in group activities. I wrote about this a little bit in my previous blog post about Bangkok/Siem Reap-- sometimes the strangers you meet can really be the best part of a trip. But on my first day, I declined an offer to join an island hopping tour in favor of spending a day with myself. I loved being able to wander through this small coastal city at my own pace, stopping to read whenever I found a nice seat with a view. There are some things that you just can't do when travelling with other people. For example, I really like to explore grocery stores in new places. I hardly ever buy anything, but I feel like you can tell a lot about a place by its grocery store selection. In Manila groceries there are often entire isles dedicated to corned beef, tuna, or condensed/evaporated milk. Contrastingly, there is almost always a section dedicated to herbal remedies and tinctures. The selection was much the same in KK, but I still ducked into a mall grocery store for almost an hour to escape the mid-day heat.

The Ramadan Bazaar near my hostel
(not my picture!)

I also managed to see a lot of beautiful sights, eat great food (I had printed my HappyCow.Com list of vegan restaurants and carried it around the whole trip), and get a sense of what the city was about. I was taken aback by how not crowded everything was. The wide, clean walkway along the harbor was a striking example of how nice cities can be when they as packed-to-the-teeth with humans as Manila is. I felt worlds safer and more relaxed in the downtown area, and enjoyed being able to explore without having to keep my fist clenched around my purse and my eyes scanning crowds for potential criminals.

It was Ramadan when I visited, so that could also have contributed to the decreased number of people out during the day. The state is about 65% Muslim. Because they are fasting between dawn and dusk, there were less diners in a lot of the restaurants, but when the sun began to set there were a bunch of Ramadan Bazaars that opened sold pre-made meals, exotic juices and cheap snacks. I tried a few of the brightly colored, coconut-coated glutinous-rice desserts - I will definitely miss all the sweet rice creations of Southeast Asia when this year is over.

Making Friends

The next day, I was ready for some company. Since I had the same morning plans as some of my hostel mates I decided to join forces.  We had a nice morning exploring the famous Gaya Sunday Market and beyond, but come lunch time I was set on checking off another place from my Happy Cow list, so I decided to go my own way. I'm so glad that I did, because otherwise I wouldn't have met Chloe, my KK Guardian Angel. After placing my order at a small, Sunday-only, vegetarian food stand, I was immediately joined at my table by another solo-diner. She had heard me double checking the veganness of my order, and was eager to meet another vegan. Within a few minutes we had plans to go to the beach that evening to watch the famous Borneo sunset, and to travel to a nearby waterfall the next morning! Chloe is Malaysian and has been living in KK for a while, plus she's a vegetarian with a car, so I really couldn't have dreamed up a better travel companion. Along with one of my new found hostel friends, we all walked the beach until sunset, ate at an incredible veggie Shabu-Shabu restaurant for dinner, and spent the next day relaxing by a beautiful waterfall.

Natural Beauty

As soon as I got to the beach, I noticed beautiful, intricate patterns all over the packed sand. Crabs scurrying in and out of their tiny holes was something I’d seen before, but these crabs were different. They were artists. As they dug for food in the topmost layer of sand, they rolled up the sand they’d already inspected and left it in perfectly round balls along their path. Their paths were strikingly beautiful. They formed flowers, concentric circles, endless spirals.  The tinier the crab, the smaller the medium with which they created their installations- the smallest bubbles were the size of cous-cous. The larger crabs, still less than an inch across, were creating balls the size of a pencil eraser. The whole beach was transformed into a museum. A hybrid natural history and modern art museum. Every step footprint created a new blank canvas, and the encroaching tide would soon clear the whole slate.

The trip was a great mix of getting to know a new city, new friends, and myself.  I'm sure it won't be my last solo vacation.

Budget

Also-- not to rub it in-- but the cost was pretty unbelievable:
Flights: $71 Round Trip
Hostel: $7.25/night - $21.75 total
To and From Airport transportation: $20 total
Food: $10.50 total
Other (entry fee,buses,souvenirs): $6.50

Total for 3 day trip: $129.75
Total to extend my visa if I had stayed in Manila: $150
Escaping Manila for 3 days, while saving myself from a trip to the immigration office: Priceless

Nathan's adorable 4-year-old cousin, Julia

Also...

• There was a typhoon! Lots of wind, fallen trees, and 3 days of intermittent electricity. Otherwise, it wasn't very damaging in the area I live in. The storm woke me up around 5am, and I came downstairs to curl up in a blanket and watch the action of trees trashing around outside the window. Having seen some of the water-front makeshift homes that some people in Manila are living in, I couldn't stop thinking that for some people this must have been a terrifying morning. Luckily, Manila spared from the brunt of the storm and overall the damage was minimal.
• The more time I spend with Nathan's relatives here, the more grateful I feel that we ended up spending this year in a place with family.  I can't imagine how much more difficult this year would be without their advice & friendship.