Love from the islands x

#lamave’s oslob #whale #shark research team discussing data collection… Another day at the office ;-)

Sharing the view of #bohol island in the #philippines with a motorcyclist. Such a beautiful day x

The past few weeks have been HOT, summer has hit and my life, which usually hovers around simmering point, has over boiled and seems to keep scalding me.  Indeed it seems that at the moment, just like an out of control cook, many of my dishes are overheating and for the life of me I have no idea where the switch is to turn them down…no idea at all. 

Fortunately I’ve worked out that if you keep switching the pans/roles in your life, then you avoid one pan exploding, however this does mean that the rest of your dishes are always pretty hot to handle….and my goodness stumbling around the village juggling hot pans certainly paints quite the picture, especially when you’re known to be as clumsy as I am ;-)

Indeed it seems that, ever since we’ve moved into the village, I’ve been truing my hand at being mum, patient, mechanic, whale shark researcher, data nerd, artist, chef, doctor, nanny…so many roles, that for a while I think I lost “Sally” in a pile of labels, that is until I realised that the real me, was attempting to sneak out of the house and into the sea, a ‘then-forbidden’ place for a girl on ‘dry-ear arrest’. 

As you can imagine ‘dry-ear arrest’ does not suit me and after a week of battling my desire to jump in the sea and actually managing to stay on dry land, it was time to see the doctor once again to hopefully have the OK on my ear.  Not too tricky.

Not too tricky, unless you live in Leyte, where I believe, though correct me if I’m wrong, the day is not complete without a random spanner in the works.  And on this particular day, it seems the mechanic with the spanners went to town!  While Dan and Ev, the newest members of our team were out on the water chasing sharks, Verena and I were at home.  I had my ‘i-need-to-go-in-the-water’ hat on and Ve, well Ve took a turn for the worse.  A not very well feeling in the morning, spiralled into a full blown fever during the day, hot flushes, and a temperature dancing around 40 degrees C and I was getting a little worried.  I think I won’t be the only one going to the doctors this evening.  As the day went on, I become more and more like a worried mum, and once Evelyn had returned from the boat, we managed to get Ve, who was as floppy as a pancake and clearly on another planet, into the car and off to the doctor.  Fortunately the doctor was in town today, and as we rocked up in our little van – now with steam coming from beneath my seat – of course the radiator decided to over heat today of all days – Ate Amie from the Pharmacy’s face looked more than a little concerned as we half carried Ve to the doctors room.  Her face, which must have been a mirror image of mine, showed wide eyes and a look of concern.  The doctor wasn’t there. 

The thing about the Philippines is that usually a text can solve anything.  Filipinos love to text.  Fortunately so do Filipina Doctors – “it’s going to be okay, she’ll be here in 20 minutes”…

20 minutes later and ve has been administrated antibiotics for an infection and we’ve been told to keep an eye on her fever (Phew no dengue!)…I got the ok on my ear and so having spent another small fortune on drugs we drove home to be reunited with Dan. 

Dan?!  Where on earth is Daniel?  It’s 7pm and its dark.  His boat came back at 5:30pm, where oh where could he be?  Pacing the kitchen, trying to work out the possibilities of where Dan, a white “Americano” (actually legit this time- a true Americano) could have disappeared to in a small provincial town and I am stumped.  A quick run round the village armed with a torch – in the KASAKA hut?  The sanctuary? On the sea wall? The waiting shed?!  Hmmm nothing.  OK plan B Knock Knock…

”Trinity?” (slight panic in the voice)

“o maayong gabii (good evening) sal”

“Trinty, Jen…I’ve lost Dan!?”

Trinity’s face suddenly filled with worry and her jaw fell to the floor  (oh my goodness…does she think he’s been kidnapped?  Drowned? Oh my goodness!? Breath, totally just having a beer somewhere….but where? It’s not as if there is a bar in the village…is there?  They kept that one quiet ;-)….).

OK quick plan – I’ll run home again, hopefully he will be back by now, if not Ev and I will start searching the village in case he’s hurt himself and can’t get home…

Home.  NO sign of Daniel

ADRENOPAUSE flushing through my body (Adrenopause: hot flushes brought on by peaks in adrenaline, usually of a distressing nature).  Breath.  Man I feel like a mum.  Is this what its like to have children?!  I’m so sorry mums of the world, we all are, this is horrible. 

 OK torches-check

Phone -check

Ve – she’s ok. Still high temperature, but stable. Ve – “ok?”… “mmmmmuuuugghhhh”

“OK Ev, I’ll do a round of the…. “

“DANIEL!!!”

“Oh my goodness WHERE have you been!”

And as I stood with the look upon my face that most “mothers” have when their children reappear from a period of disappearance – relief, joy, anger – you know the ‘I want to hug you and hit you with a baseball bat at the same time’ look, Daniel went on to explain how Vanessa, one of the tour guides had found him sat outside our locked house (abandoned by the girls) and had taken him into their home and fed him…even though he was still dripping wet from the sea and wearing a rash guard onesie….  Oh provincial life you never seize to amaze me, what with your kind hearts, loving arms and crazy ways.

Thank goodness for community.  

#sharks #beer and #conservation Ale,president of #lamave spreading the message of conservation at an arts expo in #cebu #city

The only way #LAMAVE girls leave the province is via private boat…thank you very much Jumica and blue star resort in Bohol for ‘shipping’ us back to civilisation. Hello Bohol, hello new adventure! Salamat kayo!

SO much whale shark LOVE at the moment…

Not only have our LAMAVE team here in Southern Leyte just identified the 500th Philippine whale shark on the worldwide ECOCEAN (whale shark identification) library (www.whaleshark.org) ….but we’ve also just had some other brilliant news….we’ve only gone and had the longest individual whale shark match in the Philippines!  

P-004, one of the first sharks ever photographed in the Philippines, was identified for the first time in Southern Leyte in 2006…a couple of weeks ago our LAMAVE team re-sighted and photographed the very same shark in Pintuyan waters - a whole 7 years later!  Wit woo….go us ;-) - results like this makes all the hard work worth it! :-)

An amazing result underlining once again the importance of the Bohol Sea for the conservation of these giant fish!!

Since we’ve moved into the village we’ve built up quite the fan club, in fact it seems no matter where we go or what we do, someone is always watching…

The children in particular are absolutely facinated with the ‘americanos’ that have moved into their village…they smile from doorframes, peep through windows, peer from within boats and occasionally (though I am trying to phase this one out) miraculously appear behind you, stood beaming in the middle of our kitchen!  Unfortunately, though they are undeniably cute with their big eyes full of wonder, I’m not quite ready to adopt 100 filipino children and find myself gently shooing them out of the house ;-)