So after MONTHS of procrastination I’m finally getting around to writing my last blog! I think I’ve been avoiding it partly because I forgot about how fast paced Canadian lives are (I’m sure we’re quite relaxed compared to some countries but compared to the Philippines, we Canadians are stressed out and on the go all the time!). The second reason is probably due to my re-adjustment back to school (from January to about ….now). The third and most significant reason about why I’ve been avoiding writing is the fact that I didn’t really know what to say. How could I sum up 6 months of adventures, experiences, successes and failures in one little blog? It seems only yesterday I was too afraid to cross the roads and would cringe at the site of intestines on a stick. Now I’ve learned to dodge through traffic like a pro and I almost enjoy the greasy taste of Isaw. How time flies when you’re trying not to become road kill (or avoiding eating organs for dinner) and acquiring an iron stomach.

My last few months at work were a whirlwind of paperwork; governance workshops; marine protected area proposals; socio-economic studies and performance evaluations. For the most part a whole-lot-of editing, proofreading, compiling and sorting (part of the joys of being an intern). I would travel to some nearby places on weekends and I joined a few sports teams to make some friends and keep in shape (all that rice I was devouring was starting to show!).

For one of my last weekends I was invited by a friend to go to an island a bit farther south than Los Baños called Gaspar Island. He met some of the locals while island hopping and has started going back twice a year to supply the children that live there with school supplies and books. I figured- “sweet, a practically free trip to an almost deserted island and all I have to do is play with some cute kids and give them clothes. I’m in!” Needless to say the trip didn’t turn out to be exactly what I was expecting… It was much better.

It was a “quick” 12 hour trek consisting of: two 1 hour Jeepney rides; one 3 hour bus ride; one 5 hour ferry ride; and another 30 minute boat ride. Gaspar Island is the first in a series of 3 islands named for the 3 wise men, Gaspar, Balthazar, and Melchoir. It’s about a kilometer long and half a kilometer wide. There are no roads, electricity or running water; no shopping malls or grocery stores, dentists or doctors. Around 30 families live on the island, about 50 children. There is only a small 4-room elementary school so the kids all have to leave the island for further education or become fishermen like their fathers.

It was a pretty incredible sight coming to shore and having 50 wide-eyed little munchkins staring up at you. They were pretty shy at first, especially since I don’t think many of them had ever seen white skin before; but they warmed up to us pretty fast. Having grown up around TV’s, CD players, ipods, and computers, it was funny to watch the kids’ faces when you put headphones in their ears and pushed play on an ipod. It makes you realize how MUCH we actually take for granted. Our weekend was spent playing games, learning dances, and looking for shells in the corals, basically just trying to tire the kids out before they tired us out (it never worked, we were always the ones collapsing from exhaustion at the end of the day).  We would fall asleep on the beach watching the stars and every morning we would wake up to children watching us, waiting for their game of “outplay the adults” to begin.

These children were incredible. Many of them had rotten/broken teeth; there were cleft lips and kids with sores and scars; ALL of them had lice; but I’ve still never seen such happy faces. They have no “toys” but use the environment around them to play; games with shells and rocks, playing with old broken fishing nets, or (my personal favourite) standing in a circle and singing while 2 people in the middle shake their butts.

The second night after the kids went to bed the parents came out and sat and visited with us on the beach for a bit. Someone had a small guitar and they played and sang beautiful Tagalog folk ballads for us. It was hands down my favourite moment during the 6 months and probably one of my most memorable ever.

It was one of the first times I’ve really realized that just because you have no money it doesn’t mean you can’t have a fulfilling life. There’s no denying that these people were poor, but no one could say they weren’t happy. Some say that simple lives are bad and depressing, uninspiring even; but at that moment, I don’t think I’ve ever been more inspired. These people live in a world where they are almost completely self-sustainable. They collect rainwater, grow almost all their own food, catch fish and raise livestock.Fishing is their livelihood, without it they wouldn’t be able to live on the island. It was at this moment that I realized how significant WorldFish‘s work actually is. It was created to help communities like the one on Gaspar Island. It solidified the work that I was doing; making me realize that just because my work wasn’t filled with action 24/7 didn’t mean that it wasn’t important. I was able to be around people that our work directly affected. The survival of the village was dependant on the fishing industry. This village is just one of thousands in the country where fishing is their complete and total livelihood. For many of them, without the aid of funding for new aquaculture (fish ponds, hatcheries, boats, nets etc..) or the protection that the Marine Protected Areas bring in they wouldn’t be able to survive.

Seeing and discovering all this helped me link the office to the ocean. It suddenly didn’t matter if I thought that editing proposals was boring or that governance workshops were not the most exhilarating part of my week. It was meeting the people that these workshops and proposals were for, and interacting with the children of whose parents depended on the continuing existence of organizations like WorldFish. Working for an international NGO, experiencing how things get accomplished and finally making connections with the people those accomplishments affect was really inspiring. For me, it was the perfect end to a pretty amazing internship.

- Steph

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