In Memoriam

Last week, I was notified that my great aunt, "Lola Enchay" passed away. She was a younger sister of my grandfather and a longtime resident of Cagayan Valley province. For those of you not familiar with Cagayan Valley, it's the second most-northerly province in the Philippines (only the isolated Batanes and Babuyan islands are more north). It's largely rural; most of the province is mountainous or at least hilly, but the areas near the coast are very flat and largely agricultural. It's also really far from Manila; when he was my age, my dad would travel to Tuguegarao, the capital of Cagayan Valley, from Manila in a 24 hour bus ride. When traveling there in May, it was supposed to take us about 8, but due to construction, it took us about 12. The road through the mountains is only two lanes, so they often limit it to one lane for several miles at a time. Here's a shot of a holdup as we were entering the province of Neuva Vizcaya from Nueva Ecija. This shot looks exceptionally harrowing with the line of buses and tractor trailers, which shared the road the entire journey with cars, motortricycles, and the occasional dog.

The highway (if you could call it that) passes through towns both large and small, ranging from small cities with internationally known institutions (the Science City of Munoz, home to groundbreaking research into the agronomics of rice), World Heritage Sites (the city of Vigan and a coquina church in Paoay) to small clusters of homes with chicken-filled yards extending into the street. Most towns looked something like this:


For the rest of this article, I'm going to focus mainly on the town of Abulug, located at the northernmost part of Cagayan Valley. Like many areas of the Philippines, the local language is not Tagalog (the national language), but Ibanag, a language with about 500,000 speakers. Oddly enough, in Ballesteros, the town just before Abulug, the local language is Ilocano.Abulug, like many other small communities in the Philippines, has a mix of what most Americans would describe as "traditional" lifestyle and "modern" innovations (I'm going to comment on this is another post because I have a very strong opinion on developing countries). Many houses there have electricity, are pretty solid, and have some form of plumbing and running water in the vicinity. Here's the home of my aunt's family, which had all of the above and a quasi-functioning toilet (it doesn't flush automatically; you do have to throw a bucket of water into it):

Okay, so that's a really bad picture and doesn't demonstrate anything other than that they have a corrugated roof, walls, and flowers. Maybe I'll find better ones later. However, compare that picture to this one:

and you get a pretty good idea of what housing is like for many rural Filipinos. The bamboo house below looks like it's made of grass, but it is actually made of a combination of bamboo and various tightly woven native fibers, leaves, and grasses. They are generally woven while the fiber is still green or wet, so it hardens as it dries.

Infrastructure varies a lot as well. As we were leaving Abulug afternoon, we came a across a road that was being paved for the first time ever.

This is probably shocking to my suburban readers. However, considering that their are very few four-lane highways outside of Manila and very few medians or even lines in the road, this wasn't surprising. Then again, those of you who live in or have traveled through some rural areas of America know that there are places in this country that still lack paved roads. When many people don't even have cars, a dirt road still suffices.

What I loved most about Abulug was the presence of palm trees. I don't know why, but trees in lines always strike me as particularly attractive.

The estuary and beach on the edge of Abulug:

I really like palm trees:

My favorite picture in Abulug, however, is of the gacca clam. This small clam (about two and a half inches long at most) grows in brackish and saltwater flats and appears to be in the family Donacidae (there are Donax clams all over the place here in VA). You can eat one of these my simply opening it like a normal clam. Or, you can stick it in your mouth and try to open it with your teeth. Guess which method I tried...
PS I'm really busy with work and also am lacking in the internet department. I've got a number of draft articles on the way but never have time to proofread them. Thanks for reading and look out for more!

Moved in, and more articles to come

So, it's been WAY too long after my last post. However, I have been incredibly busy since returning from the Philippines and have way too many stories to tell at once. I plan to release the first of my Philippines essays this weekend.




The reason why I've been so busy is that I've finally moved down to Virginia Beach. I moved here last weekend but didn't officially start work until yesterday. I am currently living in a three-bedroom apartment shared with three other employees of my agency on the second floor of a modular house. It's pretty cool and all, with it's sustainable bamboo floors and solar-powered water heating.

What's especially unique about where I live is that my house is located at the convergence of three unique neighborhoods. For those who are unfamiliar with the area, the Hampton Roads metro area is home to the world's largest naval base, as well as significant Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard operations. It's a hub for international shipping and a major center for innovation. It's a historic region, home to the first permanent English settlement in America and the first seat of the oldest elected representative body in the Western Hemisphere. It's also a remarkably crowded tourist haven. The house is located at the intersection of three roads:


To the West comes miles and miles of subdivisions full of houses that all look the same. This part of town is home to the first time I have encountered a Walmart with a grocery store. This part of Virginia Beach is so desperate for a glimpse of normal urban life that they had to artificially construct a hill our of garbage in order to give variety to the landscape and built the only tall building in Virginia Beach. To add to their desperation, they creatively named it "Town Center."
To the east lies the beach community of Sandbridge. Many of you may have vacationed in Virginia Beach and recalled a busy boardwalk packed with high-rise hotels, seafood restaurants, and body-to-body beaches. That's not Sandbridge. Sandbridge may be slightly crowded on weekends, but the community itself consists of rental homes. Much of Sandbridge has no public parking, so the beach remains relatively quiet. This is what it looked like on the afternoon of July 4th.

It's also 20 minutes south of the touristy Oceanfront (separated by miles and miles of subdivisions), so it gets slightly less crowded. That said, Sandbridge gets enough traffic that, on multiple occasions, I have had to wait a few minutes trying to turn out of my road due to the large volume of vehicles. The refuge is located south of Sandbridge and looks kinda like this:

More on that later.

South of me is the area known as Pungo. I will probably elaborate much more on Pungo due to its unique nature, but it's a combination of new, big houses, soybean fields, and swamp. Those who follow me on facebook know that during my runs through Pungo, I have been repeatedly yelled at and insulted by passing drivers.

Finally, there's Back Bay, a bizarre natural landmark consisting of 9,000 acres of water, swamp, farmland, sandy forest, pine forest, and even beach. Ah, but not sand-covered-with-reddened-skin beach. This kind of beach: Our beach is closed to surfing, swimming, picnics, and sunbathing (normal beach stuff), but it's a great place for a long quiet walk and superb photography. Both of my mornings thus far have been spent on the beach. The first was a sea turtle nest relocation, and the second was a bird survey lasting for about 10+ sandy miles from Sandbridge down to the NC border. It's a great place to view shorebirds, and I've even seen dolphins swimming not too far from shore. The beach is covered with shells of all sorts, as well as the various live crabs and mollusks that inhabit its sands.

That was a really long post. I'll definitely elaborate on some of the things I've mentioned, especially the various neighborhoods and the state of the beaches around here.

Thanks for reading!