The Daily Hum

When you settle into a new place and begin to feel comfortable, part of that level of comfort comes from a knowledge of what is “normal” in that place.  The way people are, the way traffic moves, the way stores and street sides look, the smell of the air, the look of the sky… these are noticed with a sharp, constant level of awareness when first arriving, but quickly develop a monotone hum of life as one feels settled.

So before that hum is too distant, I wanted to take the time to note some of those daily, under-the-radar realities and habits that have developed, as best as I can recall for now…

• Every public building has armed guards who check all bags that people carry, in order to prevent bombs and other criminal activities.
• Every building and shop has a guard that monitors the entrances/exits
• Many people cover their mouths with handkerchiefs because of the pollution/smog
• People stare – some discreetly, some openly, at the uncommon white skin, especially when coupled with my dark-skinned colleague
• In order to cross a major road, you often will just run – hoping you run faster than the cars and jeepneys coming toward you
• Road sides without sidewalks are dark grey dusty, scattered with small stones and trash
• When exiting the office (with fairly cold aircon), walking outside is like walking into a warm blanket of heat, though the positive sensation dies off in a few meters as you begin to sweat from the beating of the sun
• “Palm trees” (my ignorant name for all trees that could bear fruits like coconuts) are everywhere, especially when you look up, among more traditional leafy green trees
• Ducking (due to the short roof) and crawling over legs and people to get a seat on a jeepney, sometimes nearly on top of someone else, then repeating it to get out, often stumbling a few times
• Heading home, the hordes of young people eating street food from vendors – deep fried boiled eggs, kebabs, fried chicken, and more
• Being called to for attention from vendors, “Good morning, ‘mam’; Hello, ‘mam’; Would you like…, mam?”
• Constant honking from jeepneys and taxis especially, when passing, when encouraging passengers to board, when asking whether you want a ride…
• Pop music blaring from the street entering the closed windows of the office
• Restroom behavior – “CR” (comfort room), often no provided soap, and tissues in the bin
• The mixture of heat, commotion, smog, and dust which is every morning and night on the travels to and from work for thousands of Davao residents
• Sweet shops everywhere offering a whole variety of baked goods (yum! It’s been my adventure to try and taste them all; good thing I’m here for nearly 6 months…)
• Carrying an umbrella every day, and using it either for sun or rain
• To-go food being put in plastic bags (not Ziplocs – thin plastic bags which are tied shut)
• All purchases at stores being put in plastic grocery bags, double-tied (in the middle and from the sides), then with the receipt stapled to the bag.  Have fun opening that bag again or reusing it!
• The way you can tell a cheap roadside (sit down) eatery from a more established roadside eater

In retrospect, perhaps many of these are initial “obvious” new things, in time I may discover the smaller nuances that are more below-the-surface.  In any case, I hope to keep noticing, and taking note…

 

p.s. If you’re a regular reader, you may have noticed how several posts sometimes arrive at once.  This is thanks to when I have adequate internet access.  This may (or may not) improve shortly.  In the meantime, feel free to scroll around if you want to see everything that’s new!

This week’s food adventures

Forget the name – an egg tart (I think) that you sprinkle coconut on top. Delicious!

Ostrich ice cream!! (made with ostrich eggs)

One of my favorite dishes so far! Bicol express, the coconut cream sauce is AMAZING with a lovely bite to it.

Santol – Had this fruit first in a juice and enjoyed it, so bought one to try and whew is it sour! Sounds like some people soak/dip it in vinegar and add salt. We’ll see…

I also had a warm seafood salad at the expat deli (delicious), and enjoyed my first avocado shake (also delicious – it’s made sweet).  I also had crispy bananas, and several new pastry delights from the street-side sweet shops.  From a street-side vendor, I also finally tried the Orange Ball. (Don’t yet know/recall its name)  It’s a deep-fat fried hard-boiled egg, served with a cucumber/onion salsa base, extra salt to add (DOES NOT need it), and spicy sauce (didn’t try) – it was good, as most deep-fat-fried things are. 🙂  If I don’t cook, nearly every food adventure is new, so unfortunately not all get chronicled.  But it’s all been quite tasty!

Happenings from Week 4

This week …

A bomb (IED) was set off in a busy nightlife area in Cagayan de Oro (see map on “About” page for location – opposite side of Mindanao, on the North shore in the middle).  The scene was cleaned up quickly and thus police are struggling to find more information about it.  No clear idea yet for who may have been behind it.  Six people died and 28 people were injured.  Such sadness for the unnecessary loss of life!!

A major rainstorm came and when I exited from the free Japanese film I was watching in a theatre downtown, the street was flooded and gave me no choice but to go barefoot through the deep water until I got to higher ground.

We visited Crocodile Park (most of the photos came from this), and considered many questions of justice.  It being much like a mini-zoo, we considered questions of justice for the animals.  It also had a “tribal village” set up that was made to try and replicate tribal homes and showcase their lifestyles.  This had, as expected, a “tokenizing” and tourist/money-driven feel to it.  We spoke at length with one of the craft stall vendors, who was a bead artist from the T’boli tribe.  She explained how her tribe was among the fortunate ones to have kept their cultural arts alive – especially thanks to a Catholic school and its priest (though I couldn’t grasp the full story here, I wondered if there were many other questions of justice to ask about that situation).  I asked if the “Tribu K’Mindanawan” setup at the Crocodile Park was a respectful and encouraging celebration of the Mindanao tribes, and how she felt to be a part of it.  She had come to the realization that she was not comfortable in this setting, but as of yet wasn’t sure whether she could pursue any other venue.  The artisan explained that the tribe was approached by the park organizers, and without a lot of people strong in marketing or entrepreneurial work, and without start-up capital, the women artisans (who supplied the arts and craftworks) had limited options to further their culture while also bringing in vital livelihood support.  So while they may wish for a more supportive venue, there are gaps and needs that must be met before that can be realized.

We also considered questions of justice as we ate for a nice meal at what I affectionately/teasingly call the “expat deli” across the street.  While it’s at times comparable in price, it also offers options that are 25-50% above market value elsewhere.  Clientele is often mixed background, with Pinoy (Filipinos), white folks (backgrounds uncertain – European, Australian, South African, American I have seen), and maybe one or two other varieties thrown in.  Tonight while getting a pedicure done (a service rendered extremely inexpensively with an option on nearly every block), a South African gentleman recommended another expat hangout.  We had a lively discussion – he was passionate about the Philippines having lived here for six years, and said (among many other things) that he’s met about 5 good Americans… most, he feels, are not a positive contribution to life in Davao.  Based on the rumors I’ve heard, I fear I may in time have similar conclusions, though I hold out judgment for now.  On the flip side, all three of the women working were in their second marriages / partnerships and were quick to assert that Filipino men were NOT to be trusted.  So if we believe everything we hear about everyone, so far I’m out of luck with Filipinos and Americans both…

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Land conflict – roots of political conflict

An armed “skirmish” occurred Sunday afternoon, yet another example of why it’s important to work on land conflict in Mindanao:

“…the fighting between the MILF and MNLF armed men in the area is not political in nature but more driven on land conflict.”

http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2013/07/22/milf-mnlf-clash-hampers-flow-of-transportation-in-northcot/

This week in food

Absolutely THE MOST refreshing, wonderful, tasty dish I’ve had since I arrived.  Perhaps because it’s a fresh salad, but it was so tasty too.  A pomelo salad, eaten at Jack’s Ridge.  I was over the moon.  Pomelo, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, perhaps a squeeze of some kind of juice (but maybe not), a few pieces of soggy but fried onions maybe (hard to decide what it was).  Absolutely delicious.

First time cooking cassava, I made a curry dish with eggplant (long, slender type), banana (while there are many varieties, I finally chose the one that was closest in sweetness to what we have back home, even though for this dish it would’ve been better to have less sweet cooking bananas), mushrooms (straw mushrooms, or kabuteng saging according to wikipedia) and the spinach-like leaves that I like.

Other delights this week included new fresh juices, including watermelon, green mango, and santol served at the training.  I also discovered “buko juice” is coconut juice. 🙂  Also unsurprisingly tasty.

Week 3

Photos from a CRS training and a trip to Jack’s Ridge, a resort/restaurant area overlooking Davao City, only about 1.5 miles from our house (though up a steep hill/mountain).

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The Wealth Sharing Annex

I feel quite inadequate to say anything about the agreement made between the Philippines Government and the MILF on the Revenue Generation & Wealth Sharing annex of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, but it’s the main action recently in the peace process so it seems amiss for a peacebuilding intern to not attempt some commentary.  Please recall my disclaimers on this blog.

In October 2012, the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) was signed, signaling a formal peace agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government of the Philippines (GPH for now), who had been in on-and-off fighting and on-and-off negotiations since 1997 when an initial ceasefire was signed.  The FAB left several annexes for further discussion, three yet unsigned as of last week – wealth sharing, normalization (demobilization/disarmament), and power sharing.  Amid rising frustrations that further negotiations had not progressed, the peace panels resumed their talks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to hopefully make some progress.  In late-night and extended sessions, the MILF and GPH agreed to the Revenue Generation & Wealth Sharing annex provisions last week.  This annex sets out how the Bangsamoro region (officially receiving powers through the peace agreement, though in effect is an expansion of the previous Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao [ARMM]) will relate to the national government in terms of financial resources and taxation, including revenue generated from extractive industries prevalent in the region.  Among many complicating factors, the Bangsamoro region has been an area of significant poverty and higher deprivation with little support from Manila.

Many are celebrating – yet one step closer to a final peace agreement between the MILF and GPH.  Many others, however, are skeptical.  Where are the provisions for the indigenous people living in the Bangsamoro region with conflicting claims to the new authorities over land use and occupation?  How will the indigenous groups, who are not part of the peace negotiations, have a share in the financial resources of the region?  Additionally, other groups such as the break-off Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), are not satisfied that this peace agreement will bring what is needed for the region and are asserting their discontent through violence.

I admit to having skepticism ever since the FAB was signed last fall.  While a peace agreement is something to be celebrated, I was also surprised at what sounded like nearly unanimous celebration.  The agreement was only between the MILF and GPH.  The Philippines has many fighting groups at different stages of peace agreements and conflict, and there is no way that one agreement with one group can be seen as “comprehensive.”  Additionally, the internally conflicting and dissatisfied claims from the Moro National Liberation Front [MNLF] (who feel the GPH never fulfilled their promises from the MNLF-GPH 1996 peace agreement), the BIFF, and the indigenous peoples of the region have unmet and unaddressed needs that will need to be answered for the new region to be successfully functional and supportive of an inclusive governance system.

One participant on the CRS course last week mentioned that there is a recurring pattern with fighting groups in Mindanao.  One group signs an agreement with the government while a dissatisfied break-off group continues the violence only later to be the ones at the negotiating table while a new break-off group forms.  Example: MILF formed when MNLF was negotiating an agreement with GPH, the BIFF formed when the MILF is negotiating with the GPH.  I found her analysis intriguing.  While “peace” is forming, violence continues.  Is it necessary, or even possible, to simultaneously have all discontented groups forming agreements to live peaceably with each other in a nation?  When will peace come to Mindanao?  Will “peace” – however it is defined – ever “arrive” in Mindanao?

 

Links of interest:

http://www.opapp.gov.ph/ – Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process (you’ll note also by visiting this that there are many peace agreements/processes, not just with the MILF)

http://www.mindanews.com/mindaviews/2013/07/16/peacetalk-the-unacceptable-status-quo-and-the-annex-on-wealth-sharing/

Language Immersion

This week, I’m sitting in on an Advanced Conflict Transformation workshop as part of one of the Peace & Reconciliation programs that CRS runs, “Peace & Governance in Mindanao” (PGM).  The workshop was a gathering of people from 7 different local partner organizations of CRS that are involved in running the PGM program throughout different areas in Mindanao.  Project managers, training coordinators, and Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning Officers (MELO) from the partner organizations were present.  Additionally, they brought with them traditional religious leaders, local leaders with official government-sanctioned roles responsible for resolving conflicts, and local government leaders from the areas in which they work.  The workshop aimed to expand and introduce conflict transformation, mediation, and peacebuilding skills for those in attendance.  The training is hoped to be a part of the support structure for improving peacebuilding practices in local communities to address conflicts in a nonviolent manner when they arise, including through strengthening existing resolution structures.

The content of the workshop is not new for me, having spent many years in leading conflict transformation trainings.  I was hoping, however, to learn about the approach that CRS trainers took in the running of the training.  What models were being used, what style of presentation and engagement was used, and what seemed to be different in this workshop from the workshops and trainings I’ve led in the North American and European contexts?  I also was interested to see the participants’ learning and particular take-home challenges from the workshop, learning more about their contexts, backgrounds, and experience.

However, my experience has been significantly affected by the role of language.  While the first day mixed use of English and Visayan, the group gathered discovered that Tagalog would be the most accessible language to use since that was the more unifying language (people who speak Visayan generally also know Tagalog, whereas those who know Tagalog may not know Visayan).  The reduction of English from public and private speech, therefore, significantly changed my ability to understand the nuance of what was being presented and discussed.  This was a great disappointment for me.  I could follow along with the general topic being discussed, thanks to the infusion of English words here and there and my very basic Visayan that can cover times like “morning” “afternoon”, etc.  However, this meant that I was missing the particular nuance which was the main reason for my attendance – in what ways was the material presented, how were the issues framed?  What new concerns were people bringing in engagement with the material?  I was able to see the tools used (e.g. when/how small groups were used, or plenary discussions, or written work, or skits and energizers, etc), but lost the specific learnings and new insights that I was hoping to gain.

Is this therefore a “waste of time?”  I’m sitting through a training of concepts I’m intimately familiar with (though I’ll be the first to say there’s ALWAYS something you can learn) that are presented in a language I do not know.  Perhaps.  But I’m choosing against this view.  While this is a disappointment for my expected learning desires, I’m trying with great determination to gain some learning from the training/experience. In fact, I was able to take in a session on learning about the community justice system as part of the training, and to my delight the presentation had the basic concepts written in English therefore allowing me to learn a great deal about a system for which I had many questions.  I’m attempting to be proactive in my conversations with people to learn more about their contexts and experiences, and because of this (and luckily choosing some with a decent grasp of English), have had some beautiful conversations.  I also recognize the value in the experience itself – the experience of immersion in a language which you don’t understand is again an opportunity to practice patience and learning what it’s like “from the other side.”

The history of colonization in the Philippines has had significant effect on language, but its power of exclusion has also been felt through language.  For just one example, through the Spanish when land claims needed to be written and processed in Spanish, this disenfranchised many who did not have access to that language.

Therefore, this is yet another opportunity to “feel” the privilege I carry and live with on a daily basis.  Not only do I speak the majority language in my country, but I also increasingly speak the most unifying international language that gives me access and flexibility across the world.  Throughout my travel to Mindanao (not least also in my travels in Europe and elsewhere), from passing through Tokyo, Japan and Manila, Philippines, there was always an English translation – on the plane and in the airports.  While English is a national language in the Philippines, I’m fairly certain it’s not a majority language for all people in the Philippines, and certainly not a national or majority language in Japan.

So to sit through a workshop immersed in a language for which I have no knowledge is a taste of what is “normal” for millions of others around the world which do not have the same access to power and communication as I do.  I know I will not become fluent in Visayan in six months, and that the time spent getting as close to it as possible will be a loss of time for other learning that is (apparently) more critical, so I’m sure to experience this throughout my time in Mindanao.  Yet I am eager to learn as much as I can through that which comes naturally through immersion and my willingness.

Week 2

While the week had more than going to the beach, that was the part that was most photographed. 🙂  To Paradise Island, a bit touristy jaunt across the water on the edge of Samal Island, just a 5 minute boat ride from Davao City.  We enjoyed the water, the atmosphere, a visit to the beach’s mini-zoo, and an escape out the back of the beach to the “real life” on the island.  While we didn’t explore much, we enjoyed tasting fish crackers, engaging with a young family whose daughter was VERY excited to speak English with us, and about a dozen people desperate to give us a ride on their motorcycles or other transport to get them some cash for the day.  I also enjoyed watching a free Spanish film at the independent theater newly opened a few blocks from my work, and surviving my first run outdoors which took me to a famous local shrine up a very big hill.

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The 1% Wake-Up Call

I’ve always considered myself privileged, and part of the global 1%.  I knew I never had anything close to the upper echelons of wealth in the US, or even the upper-middle class, and have lived relatively close to the poverty line myself (both above and below it), but I knew my relative global wealth was significant.  I have traveled to less well-off places before, most strikingly very rural villages and city townships in South Africa where I first learned about “bucket baths” and all sorts of other realities.  But this past weekend it hit me again with new vigor.  I realized that I had grown up my entire life with use of, or access to, a washing machine.

Oh the wonder!  To put in your clothes, go on about your business, and return to collect them.  I’ve long practiced no-dryer drying practices but have very rarely hand-washed more than one piece of clothing at a time (those fine, delicate things which say “hand wash only” – most of which I wash on the gentle cycle).  However, this last weekend, I spent 3 hours washing my clothes by hand, desperately unsure whether I was cleaning them enough (thinking that I hadn’t been so successful with last week’s attempt).  With such time spent in the work, between thoughts of the pain in my back and the shriveling skin of my fingers, I had ample opportunity to ponder.  I considered:

• The millions, in fact, billions of people whose worlds include hand-washing all their clothes.
• The time-saving benefit of having few clothes
• The inventions that actually save time, but use a significant amount of water and non-renewable energy
• The role of women in the home and at the workplace as it relates to meeting household needs, including washing clothes
• The role of household help and the relationship between the employers and the employed
• The difference between those who can afford household help and those who can’t
• The people whose job is household assistance for others
• My own expectations and opportunities derived from my not-chosen identity as a person of privilege
• The differences of our lives that arise not thanks to our worth, but merely to location of our birth in physical and socio-economic terms

These are certainly not new questions for me, but I find them worthy to be reconsidered at different times in my life.  In the past few years, I’ve been considering poverty and privilege through the experiences of my homeless and struggling friends in the US – who face a real, but different kind of poverty and daily reality than those on the margins of society in the Philippines.  Processing new experiences in the Philippines will continue to help me expand my learning – learning that never ends, but endlessly cycles.