That's all, folks! ;)

I often have a nagging voice in my head, that keeps questioning whether what I've done or achieved is good enough, and whether it's time quite yet to rest. Port Barton in that sense is a really good place: The town has a certain atmosphere to it, which seems to say "Just do nothing. It's ok!" It's hard to describe, but I could understand why people would want to come back to it.

On my last day, we took these pics with everyone from Singapore and the staff.

I left the resort on the 14th of September. In Singapore I stayed for a night in the Crowne Plaza at the Airport. Might be the best hotel ever for me. I had floor-to-ceiling windows and perfect views of the runway!

Then onwards to Bali on the 15th. Just to fall sick. Had fever all the way through until today (20th), the day on which I'm travelling back to Germany. Kinda feel deprived of my Bali and Singapore experience to which I was looking forward to so much. Anyway, such is life, I guess!

The entrepreneur Paul Hawken recently said in a graduation speech: "When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse." In many ways, this is also a good summary for my time in the Philippines starting this social enterprise. To learn about some of the wrongdoings in society and damages done to nature was painful. At the same time I had incredibly uplifting experiences talking to people who have the passion and capabilities to work against destructive forces.

By now, my "replacement" has taken over. We had 3 very intensive days of handover (i felt sorry, her head must have been spinning!). She seemed to have a great start. In her very few days, she achieved a lot of things already. Which kinda makes me think whether I made most efficient use of my time there. Oh, there's the nagging voice again...

Hitler's Nutrition

So, we're trying to be a social enterprise. I think most would agree that taking part in corruption is not compatible with that. Seems intuitive. So far, so good. As a business in the Philippines, we have to pay taxes on our income. However, in this town there seems to be an established way to do this: You pay the tax collector a small bribe and then you report whatever income you want. Still, it seems like there is a "standard" of how much "underestimation" you do. For resorts, reporting somewhere between 10% and 30% of actual income is silently agreed upon. What does that mean for a social enterprise? If we pay the bribe, that would be illegal, so not good. If we report real income, we'll disrupt the current balance in town, because then it will look funny at the tax authorities why some resorts make so much more money than others. That would certainly not help us in gathering support for the projects we would like to implement. It would actually hurt the very community that we are trying to support. Hm, tricky....

It's encouraging to see, though, that there are many other initiatives that are also trying to involve the community or try to protect the environment. Like Pasyar Developmental Tourism, a travel agency that specializes on experiences that are community organized (like a Mangrove Paddling tour close to Puerto Princesa). And the resort next door, who gives shelter to turtles until they are grown up so that they don't get eaten by other animals.
Also, they launched a fish farm (which is basically a collection of cages that are put into the sea) here in Port Barton. That means that the locals can work on that instead of taking the fish out of the ocean. Having these cages in the bay might not be the greatest thing from a tourism perspective, but if it keeps the fishermen from pouring cyanide into the ocean, I'm happy. Cyanide, by the way, was Hitler's choice for ending his presence on earth. So another reason why it is a really stupid way of catching fish that are meant for human consumption.

Pictures only...

Really slow day today. I wanted to go a resort on one of the Islands (http://www.coconutgarden.palawan.net/) to discuss the reserve zone in the ocean with the owner. But then the same ocean wasn't very cooperative with waves too high. So I stayed on the mainland.

Hence, just two more pics of the surroundings.

Fleck-Weck, your trusted laundry shop

Here is one for my German friends. A local laundry place in Puerto called "Fleck Weck". Translated literally from German into English (with slightly different spelling) it means "stain removed". I'm sure this isn't a coincidence, but still wonder how this piece of German language made it into the name of this random laundry shop.

This is the jeepney I took today back from Puerto to Port Barton.

And this is the view I had for some three hours.

Language DJs; How (not) to make friends in a supermarket

It seems like most countries which use English as one of their languages (or where English has a strong influence on the local language), a term for a mix between the local language and English exists. It usually ends on “glish”. So that would be “Denglish” in Germany, “Singlish” in Singapore, for example. With English and Tagalug (Filipino) as official languages, the Philippines seem like a natural location for such a term. But I have to say I was a bit surprised by the choice of languages that I was given at an ATM today. See yourself:

In my very first few days in the Philippines, some teenagers in Puerto Princesa started talking to me. Really seemed like normal young people to me, maybe like 14 years or so of age. Then one guy was asking for my number. I thought that was awkward, but then it seemed rude to me to say no, so I told him. Later that day, I left my cell phone unattended for an hour, came back an had like 12 missed calls. Soon another call from the same number. It was the teenager, asking me to meet him. Then I was annoyed, replied I’m busy and hung up. Two more similar calls. Then I started to get text messages along the lines of “Baby, I really need you tonight”. Funny. So that was a learning right there. Yesterday, I went shopping. When you go from one level to the other, you have to leave your bags at the security.
At the hotel room, I found this note in one of my bags.

As much as I would like to believe that the security guard would like to be my friend because of my character, style, and because he whole heartedly agrees with my views about how to protect the environment in this country, I somehow don’t think that’s the case. Probably more some joke like the one I experienced earlier. Or he’s trying to get money. Of which foreigners, as we all know, have endless supplies.

I spent the day at the Underground River today, 2 hours north of Puerto Princesa. It’s a long river that goes through the caves in a mountain. You paddle through it in a boat and explore all the stone formations and countless bats with a flash light. It was really impressive, especially the larger caves, like a dome with natural statues in it and water constantly dripping from the ceiling. If you ignore the boats in front of you and behind you, it was really like Indiana Jones exploring the world. If you take them into account, it was like Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld. ;)

Anyway, so the Underground River is trying hard to win a place in a semi-official worldwide chase for the “New 7 wonders of nature”. (http://www.new7wonders.com/) So arriving at the entrance you’re led to the registration desk, at which you basically had to put your name and signature into two lists. Fairly easy, so of course nobody asks what this is for. The second list said “New 7 Wonders Visitors List”. So, somehow I became suspicious and was asking what that list is for. I was explained that they submit that list (easily hundreds of names per day) as votes for the underground river to the contest. How cheap is that? I don’t like being fooled, so I wasn’t happy. Knowing that it is really not a thing to do to get angry in public in an Asian country, I didn’t say much. But it’s really stupid. Not only were people fooled in signing some petition, but also they supposedly “voted” for the underground river before they have even seen it. Precisely a few minutes before they have seen it. I was assured that usually I should have been explained that this was a vote. Yeah, right, how stupid do you think I am?

Hey, now a live guitarists starts playing really good music at this place! How cool! I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Puerto.

After the underground river I went to tour the mangroves in that area on another paddle boat (just for the record, there were always people who did the paddling _for_ me ;) I enjoyed seeing some hard wood trees, i.e., tall trees that in most other parts of Palawan were cut by the loggers. So and around these trees, you do get “real” rainforest. Very cool. They tour was organized by the community locally. Since we also would like to do some community led activities in our resort in Port Barton (the no-take zone also would need to be co-managed by the locals), I was interested in how it works. Before I was even introducing myself with that intention, the boatmen told me that this is a community-based thing, and that he is a volunteer in this. I guess every visitor now would think “man, these people are actually giving up their time to paddle me around their nature, which they want to preserve." At least I was thinking that. And was comparing that to the locals that I have in Port Barton, who happily put poison into the ocean to catch fish for a few Euros, destroying nature for years by doing so. So, I asked more, wanting to understand how they could do this for free. They have to feed their family after all. Turns out, they get 80% of the revenues. Grrrrrrrrrrr! I think the idea of them getting paid makes perfect sense. But why did they have to say they are volunteers? If they get 80% of revenues, I’d say they are the best paid volunteers in the region.

Tarzan and city boy

Do you take a hot shwower and electricity for granted? Well, I did. Until I started living in the jungle. To be precise, at a resort where people come and pay to spend their vacation, but still the no-hot-water and no-24h-electricity thing kinda makes you appreciate these amenities after a while. So now I escaped the jungle for a few days. I am in Puerto Princesa, the main (and by some standards only) city in Palawan for some meetings and to buy items you don't get in Port Barton (like a laminating machine). My much anticipated hot shower still wasn't meant to be though, because for some reason the warm water in my room doesn't work. I'm not sure if they understand why I was so disappointed. (Oh, yes, I am spoiled. :)

Had a meeting last night with some people about the no-take zone. I sent them a power point presentation with my thoughts about it in advance. A page for example would look something like this.

They were getting pretty excited about it. It's encouraging to see somebody be excited about a powerpoint presentation (well, and/or the content..). Really can't recall having seen that degree of excitement in my 2 years professional experience that taught me how to make these documents.

A sound you will never hear in a Muslim country....

Today I talked to another resort owner about the no-take marine reserve. Everyone seems quite supportive. I know it's not that easy, because there have been attempts before which failed in execution. Still, it's nice to see people get excited about the concept we are proposing. Hopefully when (if) I come back in a year or so, the zone is actually established!

When you walk around rural areas in the Philippines, you often see that people have a pig on their premise. Soon I had to learn that they do not keep it because they think it is such a nice pet to have, but rather see it as a source of nutrition. So at some point in time, it has to be slaughtered. This morning was one of those "point in times". I know, because you can hear the pig at any place in the village, no matter where it is being killed...

Much in contrast to that, here are some more views of the beautiful Palawan sunsets we get to witness on most evenings.

Bookworm

You know how there's this idiom "Bookworm", i.e., a person who reads a lot? So, here at the resort we have a table with books for guests to read. It is mainly made up of books that guests have left here at the resort. Since I wanted to have a place to put up the new computer for guest use, I decided to clean up that table and use half of it for the computer. So I went through the books to see which ones could be thrown away (half of them were written before I was born, I think) and was thrilled to see that worms were actually eating some of the books. So, are these now called "bookworm" as well? Probably not... Anyway, so we threw the books and also the table away (the table got attacked as well), because I wasn't sure if these are modern bookworms that are also into IT these days.

Tonight I am spending most of my time teaching the staff how to use a computer. For some of them it is literally the first time using a keyboard. Fun stuff! :)