tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11836255131174616612024-03-13T13:18:02.509-07:00wasabionthegoWallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-60801893813003100222014-10-27T18:43:00.000-07:002014-10-27T18:43:01.074-07:00Reflexions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Palanan, Isabella, 14<sup>th</sup> of October 2014.</span></b></div>
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When I finished writing the “change”
post I had become quite intrigued by the following question: why should I sit
eight or more hours daily on this very same chair ever again? Do not get me
wrong, I loved my job. Making smartphones just a fraction smarter is the
easiest way to explain what I did for a living. I mean the ‘what’ side of my
work was fascinating, more so if you are versed towards technology and telecom
that is. It’s rewarding to make life of
many just a tiny winy bit easier. However, I am less happy of how it is done.
So today I want to put it all into perspective by comparing it with the hunter-gatherers
of Palanan.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--udK-gGla7I/VERpU2qSEuI/AAAAAAAAA5o/yjDcIIh2ZL4/s1600/SmallPlanet-2014-09-23_19-06-49_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--udK-gGla7I/VERpU2qSEuI/AAAAAAAAA5o/yjDcIIh2ZL4/s1600/SmallPlanet-2014-09-23_19-06-49_1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Planet made from a bird's eye view.<br /> Kanaipang white beach at the top-left.</td></tr>
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The Agta wake up with the rising
sun. After a breakfast made of any leftover food in the house, he or she decides
what he feels like doing. This depends on the conditions (e.g. tide), weather and
his state of mind. Some are more into fishing, collecting shells, trapping
lobsters… you name it. Some trips are as short, time to catch a 5kgs moray eel to
feed the family for some days, some more than a week to gather lots of goods to
trade later. Some are in groups, some alone. Or quite often whole families
decide to go visit neighbours for a few nights. Once again no planning, texting
or arranging. Just living a happy, fresh and mostly simple life.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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After this necessarily simplified
view on Hunter-Gatherer work, one can already see the major difference with
office work. For example, where I was the day scheme was simple. 9 o’clock,
morning meeting, today’s tasks are more or less discussed and imposed on
members. I must admit proactivity has a tiny place, maybe because I am in a
‘tech’ company. So I am ‘free’ to come up with ideas for about 4% of my working
time. After a discussion with a guy from the innovation department, he
convinced me to invite fellow workers to meet over lunch once a month to
discuss new technological ideas. As soon as I invited people for the first
event, I got in return invited into my boss’s office, where he stood, looking
angry. If I wanted to start a meeting with other people, and despite being outside
working hours, I would need to organise something with management and HR. This
of course takes months to setup, he said.
I agreed, only to realise this just meant I couldn’t do it. Apparently I
needed to be free over my lunch break, to impress my boss for 18 more months. I
know this is an isolated case, but what matters here aren’t the exact details
but the mentality behind it all. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s another instance, apparently
part of my contract states that I don’t own any code I write during my time at the
company. This includes naturally what I produce in the office, but strangely
what’s done outside it too, even purely personal projects. Could this even be
possible? I googled it today, not sure why not before. Maybe I fouled myself
thinking this was just one more paper to sign, but I can tell that yes my
memory is correct and yes, it can hinders the life of many. None of this felt
right when I was working there. After 8 months in the wild, it still does not.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To try and make sense if this, my
first reflex is to invoke Hobbes. I have given much of my freedom to the company,
but in return I am entitled to superpowers right? The first which came to mind
is security. What do I mean here by security? Well, working for a big company
gave me the security to know that my salary is very likely to come into my bank
account at the end of each month, on the 28<sup>th</sup> to be precise. If I am
sick I have a subscription to extra-public services which entitle me to a nicer
room in the hospital and faster access to healthcare. All this comes in a 52
page document explaining all my entitlements. As everything is set down I am
left with very little leeway. What if my disease is not on the list? What if I
would like to be paid every other week? Then, too bad. What if they change the
rules at a time of their convenience? Well again, nothing to do with me. Now,
it is true, I am free not to take this job, but then I face all the other rules
and networks which bind me to my society.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MXPPtN4gV5o/VERpUHzTicI/AAAAAAAAA5g/pDJJJpqYSOY/s1600/SmallPlanet-2014-09-24_07-17-30_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MXPPtN4gV5o/VERpUHzTicI/AAAAAAAAA5g/pDJJJpqYSOY/s1600/SmallPlanet-2014-09-24_07-17-30_1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Planet made from a bird's eye view.</td></tr>
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Let’s go back to the
Hunter-gatherer perspective for a moment. I think I learned one of the most
important lessons here in Palanan, where the mountain range protects the coming
of roads and with it, a big part of modern society. Where some parts feels like
living in the 50’s; there are no supermarkets and a big proportion of time is
spent sourcing and preparing food. Some parts even feel like the 1850’s. Like
the Agta’s camps without motors, water supply or electricity. They do it all with
manual strength, animals, rivers, sun and moon light. But even more, the one
element missing is security. They have no shoes and many poisonous snakes, no
ropes and climb 30 meters trees, no food stored and unpredictable food sources.
What then happens when things go astray? Most of the time, they don’t. To an
extent, and through the times when I joined foraging trips, I can tell you how
physically challenged I felt. It is not
that I am that unhealthy but more that they trained for this type of life. Their
lifelong practice and skills goes a long way to protect people. But then, as unescapable
as the finitely of life, accidents and difficult situations happen. For
example, we met the first and only blind Agta of the region. His disability
means he can’t do any daily activities nor provide for himself. Having an extra
mouth to feed is demanding and the solution is for him to travel every now and then
from one camp to another. So the problem
is solved by a strong community spirit sharing the burden. Similarly, when a family don’t have enough
food to provide for every mouth, their neighbours share their supplies. Sadly
this security is not so prevalent in our communities anymore, for I believe the
state and its rules are meant to replace it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After all of these considerations,
I can now come to the point of closure. But before this, I want to make it clear
that, for me, freedom is never infinite as the freedom of one stops where the
freedom of the other begins. Now, even if Mr Hobbes wasn’t completely wrong by
stating that one must give some of his freedom in order for society to be
possible at all, I am unsure of him agreeing with our present one. I understand
the trade-off but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel a bit robbed under the current
circumstances. I am, for example, very interested to know who really supports
warlike state interventions? Or how much of our taxes we would like to see attributed
for weapon design instead of school, education and health? The question of who
should control the money making process is another good one to ask. As I’m
pretty sure the results are contradictory to the current situation, why is it
that we call our system democracy? Maybe the voice of society no longer belongs
to the people. A democratic society is an equal partnership where each has the
same power toward decisions, is it not possible to tend more towards this
simple system?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have now seen two opposite ways
of allowing a group of individuals to live together. It’s difficult to tell which
one I prefer, given the vast differences in settings, such as access to resources,
healthcare, agriculture or even electricity. After these few months I am surer
than ever that our system in Europe can be rethought and rehumanised.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Love to all,<br />
Wasabi.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-61818952198291822972014-10-19T18:42:00.001-07:002014-10-19T18:43:27.815-07:00More fun in the Philippines<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After precisely 240 days in the
Philippines, we left (whop). Happy to have made some great discoveries during
this page of our life and to have achieved most, if not all, of what we planned
from the distant city of London. We are now on our way to the Japanese
megalopolis and a few weeks of well-deserved holidays before the coming New
Year. Before turning to the next page I would like to share a few feelings
about my short-term adopted country and our time there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First, there was the initial
reason to come to the country, the Hunter-Gatherers Resilience Project. I so
glad to have been a part of it. As it was spoken of in length on this blog, I
won’t go into more details now and simply write how thankful I am to Dr A.
Migliano, head of the project, to have trusted and welcomed me into the team.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So to the Philippines itself: I
must say that the tropical weather has its good and bad. Good in that there’s
no need to have such a place as inside as the temperature means one wear a
T-shirt all year round. But the rains are here the strongest I ever witnessed
and far outdo anything in Europe. Rivers can spring to life in a matter of
hours and the winds break trees. Despite those little inconveniences, I now
understand why half of the animals of the planet live in such conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The people of the Philippines are
of a kindness I never saw before. Not only is everyone jovial, helpful and
relaxed, but also ready to go out of their way to transform a bad situation into
a better one. In the remote town of
Palanan, this is even truer. Of course, at first everyone stared blankly at us
when we arrived, but after the novelty passed we are still always greeted.
Usually, when I get hailed in the street, it is to try and sell me something, a
reproach or threat. Here, when I get called at it is because people just want to
chat. From the kids who always ask my name and proudly practice their English
skills, to the shoppers who are always curious about our plans and work with
the Agta, I had many impromptu discussions. The only time I saw something
similar was the smallest village in the centre of France. Having lived here for
years, my grandmother knew everyone and everyone knew her. It looked like a little bit of paradise when
I first went there. I wonder and hope to be able to live in such a place in the
future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet while people are like super
nice here, the culture just doesn’t feel the same. I am unsure if this is
because of the Americanisation of the country, but sometimes I have the feeling
I fell into the movie “Idiocracy”. Many things from TV shows or ads are
sometimes beyond words, like mocking some Americanism which was already a joke
itself. Good example is the cultural slogan seen everywhere in the country: It
is more fun in the Philippines. Fast-food,
big corporations, super shopping malls rule here. It’s all about customer
service, except when you have five sale assistants stalking you trying to
pre-empt everything, then it’s just, overwhelming. But well, at least these titbits are
unexpected and always make us laugh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Motto</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QsWztVdakiA/VERlh4TnoKI/AAAAAAAAA48/7wE2FNcuQqw/s1600/IMAG0491_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QsWztVdakiA/VERlh4TnoKI/AAAAAAAAA48/7wE2FNcuQqw/s1600/IMAG0491_1.jpg" height="320" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcome to the Hotel Sofia</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VbX8Apy-gps/VERlaBKl0pI/AAAAAAAAA40/LKVdyIu5bEQ/s1600/IMAG0492_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VbX8Apy-gps/VERlaBKl0pI/AAAAAAAAA40/LKVdyIu5bEQ/s1600/IMAG0492_1.jpg" height="320" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speaking of a chocolate-filled bun</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IEfGMubOXTw/VERlyqLB75I/AAAAAAAAA5U/4065th2qgnM/s1600/IMAG0511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IEfGMubOXTw/VERlyqLB75I/AAAAAAAAA5U/4065th2qgnM/s1600/IMAG0511.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your text here</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The food…. Well Filipinos love
their food. It plays a very important role in their culture (actually I am sure
this is the case in all cultures). If you walk pass anyone eating you’re told
“let’s eat” as sharing food with anyone without is really fundamental here.
However, the food itself… I think the best way to explain the Filipino palate
is, deadly sweet. Sugar reigns supreme here, often in savoury foods. Having a
sweet sausage was a first for us. Sadly,
with the rapid development of the country I won’t be surprised if the next
major health crisis will be obesity and diabetes. The love of processed foods
here is astounding. But after 8 months I must admit that Abbey eats rice like a
Filipina, which means lots of it, all the time. Even through almost every hector of land here
is devoted to rice the country still has to import it. Seriously, that much
rice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As many wondered, I guess the
thing I miss the most here, despite you know, people, is the outlook for the
coming times. Since my earliest memories I have always been looking forward to
the future, the invention of new technologies, the developments of art and to a
deeper understanding of ourselves and the world. All of this had very little
place during my stay, except for the short periods of time where I was able to
access a decent speed Internet, which means nearly never.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Speaking of what comes next, we
will continue writing here about our travels, all the way home. After this, and
as I enjoyed the experience very much this year, I plan to carry on blogging
about technologies, music, photography and product/business ideas I come up
with. Abbey has plans to start a cooking blog with a tasty meal per week (not
to fulfil gender stereotypes or anything). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Stay tuned and do not hesitate to <span style="color: #1f497d; mso-themecolor: text2;"><a href="http://wasabionthego.blogspot.com/p/ask-us-anything.html">ask us anything</a></span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love to all,</span></div>
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Wasabi.</span></div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-45391526877068227072014-10-13T04:22:00.000-07:002014-10-13T04:22:00.690-07:00Welcome aboard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today we are flying together from Cauayan City to Palanan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In order to have an idea of the trip here is an old Google Maps I found in the attic.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8tKRL2SUalc/VBGO2eliuWI/AAAAAAAAA0U/PbzWE-GyyFk/s1600/map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8tKRL2SUalc/VBGO2eliuWI/AAAAAAAAA0U/PbzWE-GyyFk/s1600/map.jpg" height="395" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We are now five minutes into the flight and just reaching 2000 feet and 80knots of ground speed. The plane, an old seven seater from Cessna is outputting her full 325 horsepower and will stay at full throttle until the last moment before putting the flaps out for landing.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">The pilot announces once again the altitude, speed and itinerary over the radio. This information is used for synchronisation between small airplanes as the instrumentation cannot detect other aircrafts.</span></td></tr>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B6Cw8ySjUK0/VBGELiyKE0I/AAAAAAAAAzQ/mGJ8ZXoHR50/s1600/DSC02308.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another three minutes and we are now flying over the rural area situated before the mountains of the Sierra Madre. We can see how the cement roads become dirt tracks and how the shapes of the fields show the manual agriculture system. In comparison, the fields around Cauayan are three to four times bigger.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wNAPX6NeTPg/VBGEMN6vuAI/AAAAAAAAAzU/5-lZHcBqDhE/s1600/DSC02312.jpg" height="424" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">Looking at the picture after shooting it, I am impressed by the capacity of the camera to see through the distant haze. One of the few cases where the human eye sees less details.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here we are, the mountains. This formation makes the creation of roads difficult. A project exists since ten years, with construction supposed to start in five. This represents the safeguard of many cultural aspect of life in Palanan and at the same time the distant dream of a better integration with the rest of society, cheaper goods, better medical system and hopefully an ATM.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">Entering the Sierra Madre. Each valley is here filled by a river. The mountain chain provides seventy percent of the water supply for the Luzon Island.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After slight turbulence we arrive to the other side. A band of land only about five miles wide. The plane is now heading north and on the right side appears Didian. Situated in the middle of the primary forest otherwise called jungle, where seven Agta camps exist. Also it is here easy to witness the influence of the non-Agta farming activity slowly replacing the forest by fields, mainly rice and corn.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">At the point of convergence of the two rivers is situated the Agta Camp of Dipagsanghan, can you spot it?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">Answer of last question. This huge beautiful tree at the North of the camp marks quite a spiritual place as a few tombs are situated at his feet.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thirty short minutes have now passed since our departure and the plane is lowering from the previous 4000 feet. Speed is a bit over 120knots and soon the town is here.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">Here the fields cover most the ground surface and right after the hills is the Ocean. Notice how the middle third of the landing strip is made of bare ground and full of potholes. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">When in town we are staying in the only two stories house close to the tarmac. From the terrace, I like to watch the plane land and take-off two to five time a day to bring people and cargo from 'mainland'.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We are about to reach our destination. I hope you had a good trip and enjoyed the view from up there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As for us, this as our 23rd flight of the year. Seven more before coming home in December.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">A company as recently starting using this massive 19 seater plane to deserve the city. The state of the tarmac became a real danger so the cementing of the rest of the landing strip has now started and should take about 3 months.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wasabi.</span></div>
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Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-18101533732541910892014-10-06T07:00:00.000-07:002014-10-06T07:00:00.088-07:00Fishing: tools, techniques and practice<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear all, todays article is about sea creatures and how to catch them, in case you are ever stranded and starving....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just as a side note, we are currently in camp 6, which is the remotest area we have explored so far. Didian is 47km from the closest town, or a days boat ride away. All is great and I will summarize this trip in pictures and words later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For now let's start with the tools used for fishing. We are going to go from the commonest to the least used objects amongst the Agta. It is worth noting that this order is more or less the contrary for the local non-Agta population.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The batek, so widely employed that in Palanan, the local dialect, fishing is said to be mag-batek. The main version of this tool is made of an iron rod between 60cm and 1m called the pana.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> It is sharp on one end, with a nail to stop fish from escaping once pierced.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SKK2kUGNppM/U_ThSVqBjjI/AAAAAAAAARs/ZO8BTJb9RMk/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SKK2kUGNppM/U_ThSVqBjjI/AAAAAAAAARs/ZO8BTJb9RMk/s1600/7.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; text-align: start;">Batek: focus on the front nail.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The other end is U-shaped in order to fit the elastico. This is, as the name suggests a loop of rubber, which comes in all size and shapes, open on one side and closed again by a piece of string that will lodge into the U of the pana. The last part, which is optional, is a piece of nylon string linking both parts. The string acts to keep the pana tied at all times in order to avoid loosing it.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; text-align: start;">Batek: focus on the string piece.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> This is a requirement for fishing in the sea and only an option in the rivers where it is usually pretty easy to recover the pana once shot. Speaking of the sea, here the design is enhanced to create a real speargun. A wooden structure supports the pana and a bent nail acts as a trigger. Once again see pictures for a clear illustration. I had the luck to find a pana in the sea and a friend made the rest of the batek for me.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LVij-d0ynFE/U_Tku1-YolI/AAAAAAAAAS8/MuwV3rK55SE/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LVij-d0ynFE/U_Tku1-YolI/AAAAAAAAAS8/MuwV3rK55SE/s1600/4.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; text-align: start;">My batek freshly assembled.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The panas are also used in a group of three in order to go cugita spearing, i.e. octopus. The technique is quite complex and I wish I could share the video footage with you.Once the animal is spotted, hiding in a small coral hole, the Agta spears the three panas with a certain twist of hand in order to attain some specific point in the beast. Then, it is all about turning and twisting. If the animal proves resistant then a big rock permits to crumble the coral and access the octopus hiding in a now ink-filled mini lagoon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In third position, comes the classical fishing lines, only used by the Agta at the coast. The idea is to go on a small boat with as much as 30 lines, with many big hooks and bits of octopus. Then throw to the depths, and wait. From my experience this was mostly carried out at night time and the yield wasn't great: nothing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last but not least, are the nets. They are used in all possible ways with different results. At the coast, it is deployed by walking out in shallow water and throwing it from a rock into the waves. Trying to capture fishes from a boat, all of this works. Hard to tell which technique works best, it is only sure that the yields are comparative to mag-bateking or slightly reduced. Inland, and on the rivers, I only witnessed one occurence where a small net was set accross a shallow river. Then a troop of ten or so mag-batekas came downstream driving the escaping fish to their end. This technique seemed very efficient.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As we are talking about nets it is worth noting that in the rivers a different structure is used. Made of a vine rope with banana leaves attached, the tool spans accross the whole width of the channel and is dragged up- or downstream. Even if this does not block the passage of the fish it certainly makes them turn as they do not dare to cross under the leaves. On the other side, the mag-batekas are ready to throw their panas in to the manufactured school.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had the chance to get hold of my very own batek at the coast so I went to try a tool a 8 year old Agta kid is the master of. After half an hour of work I had shot maybe thirty times and not even grazed a fish, nowhere near a catch.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dw5ifQccoLA/U_Tku5cs8LI/AAAAAAAAASU/Fj-NUwpzn84/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dw5ifQccoLA/U_Tku5cs8LI/AAAAAAAAASU/Fj-NUwpzn84/s1600/5.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; text-align: start;">The fish killing move.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> In the meantime our companion caught five small fish and five shrimp with her barehands! Not the most promising start for me.Then, in Caniapan it took me a bit of time to get the technique right as I kept getting the wire caught in the rubber. But after watching and following a kid the day before in a lagoon it felt more like the pans could defeat a swimming animal. Thirty minutes and thirty shots later I still didn't get anything but I was getting closer. Maybe , I thought, my batek is at fault as the pana is old and bendy. I needed to be sure. I aimed for a small fish swimming near to shore. The elastic strung, the spear takes speed and get stuck in sand, and to my shock, this included a fish. It worked, I caught the first fish of my life and even if it did not constitute a nice meal for me, it did for a crab logging near our tent.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; text-align: start;">Catch of the day.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To conclude our fishy tell, in the river it is hard to spot any fish as one fights strong currents, whereas the sea is more forgiving. That is why, I guess that with a life of practice people get usually half a kilo of 10-15cms fish from the river per trip, compared to up to fives kilos at the coast, with individual fish reaching 45cm and nearly 2 kilos.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, and I also went octopus catching. This resulted in 4 hours of walk in the sun and no animal spotted by me or my companions. Fortunately, a man of the group and called me over to demonstrate the extraction, which I captured on video and include here a picture from it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Love to all,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wasabi.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14947764399787908027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-65253480022930467982014-09-29T03:26:00.000-07:002018-04-01T03:07:41.740-07:00Anthropology Corner: Health and Wellbeing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So a while ago, actually a really long time ago now, I wrote about some of my work with the Agta. Observing children is only one part of my research, the rest of the time I run around after the same children attempting to get anthropometric data. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropometry" target="_blank">Anthropometrics </a>simply refers to the measuring of people (thanks Wikipedia) and basically means that on three different occasions now I measured height, weight and skin-fold thickness for all the children and adults we meet. For children, this is particularly important as a measure of their growth and development. Skin-fold thickness is also a great measure of fatness and malnutrition. With this data, we are able to understand the physical status of the population, compare this to other populations worldwide and to try and understand the causes of any abnormalities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anthropometry has been used by biological anthropologists for many years as it is easy to conduct in different field situations. Even so, it is often challenging trying to find a good spot you can be sheltered from the burning sun or pouring rain which also contains a flat, hard surface and big enough to move people around in. Actually, I don't think we have ever managed to find all three, and often we send kids running all over the shop trying to find big pieces of wood (or rice grinders, benches, cutting boards...when needs must!) for the weight scale. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But health is composed of main more things than simple height and weight. With an individual's anthropometrics it might be clear that they are malnourished and stunted but it is not clear why. This might be because they simply are not eating enough, or they have a parasitic infection (basically intestinal worms) or a bacterial infection such as TB. So even with all the limitations caused by a lack of infrastructure, we are currently working on conducting blood, sputum and even stool tests to try and really understand the Agta's health. Working with the local medical services we are helping to screen individuals with some key diseases, primarily TB, worms and anemia, and facilitating their access to treatment. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FdnYEZQupiM/WsCnr5v5_jI/AAAAAAAAK1I/Lo_QT9GSV2o2Zn9UUlJvemvnWHKhMS_FACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/DSC04232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FdnYEZQupiM/WsCnr5v5_jI/AAAAAAAAK1I/Lo_QT9GSV2o2Zn9UUlJvemvnWHKhMS_FACK4BGAYYCw/s320/DSC04232.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is something I am really happy to be involved in, as for me it's important to directly help the population which does so much for me (I mean where would my </span>Ph.D.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> be without them!). </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Hunter-gatherers have been a quintessential component in the development of Anthropology. However, there are now less than 50 hunter-gatherer groups remaining worldwide, and those which have survived are often referred to as fourth-world peoples: they lack socio-political and economic representation in developing nations and are increasingly marginalised in terms of access to resources and health care. So to help change this, I am more than happy to be kicked by the occasional child (it's OK they forgive me again once the </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.4px;">lollipops</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> come out!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">That's all folks,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Wasabi</span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-46140117855892473942014-09-22T01:21:00.000-07:002018-04-01T03:08:43.436-07:00Anthropology corner: the endangered, tree hugging primitive.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While I was writing the previous article on Agta fashion, trying to say something witty about the archetypal tribal man or women in modern-day conception, I realised that stereotypes are an interesting and reflective topic itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What is the image of a hunter-gatherer for most people? I think in part it is based on the native American's we learn about in school and watch in the movies. This is the reason for the 'tree-hugging' title; the message often is that foraging people are at one with nature, in-tune with their environment, friendly with all living creatures because this is what they rely on as their daily bread. I don't know about all the different groups in the world (and it really is important not to make assumptions) but certainly, the Agta do not conform to this image. They may rely on the surrounding environment for fish, birds, pigs, rice, fruits, and yams etc. but this doesn't mean they won't extract these items with force. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;">For instance, birds are kept alive for a long time once they are caught, handed around as playthings for all the children to interact with. This is actually very hard to watch...and you find yourself wondering why are they not more sentimental to the creatures they rely on. My best explanation is that they can't afford to be; food is constrained, meat is limited and takes a great time and energy to procure. Imagine walking for 3 hours to Tesco's only to come back with enough for one day so you will have to hear right back tomorrow. I guess then no part of the animal can be wasted, you can't see the bird as a friend, or be a fussy eater cause it looks too much like the thing it is (most westerners, including me I think suffer from this problem - mash it, process it so we can </span><span style="color: #222222;">disassociate from it</span><span style="color: #222222;">). So maybe, this heavy handling of animals is wrapped up in the idea that animals are food, to be dominated by humans.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Of course, this doesn't mean that the Agta don't want to protect their food sources. They dislike non-Agta </span><span style="color: #222222;">overexploitation </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">of the environment (which is often illegal in the national park, such as electric or poison fishing) as it heavily reduces their yields. But the Agta are also sometimes living on the knife-edge with no food stored facing unpredictable conditions. Therefore, their first concern is survival and increasing their food intake however they can. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">So, why endangered? Recently there was a photography booķ called "</span><a href="http://www.beforethey.com/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Before They Pass Away</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">" which featured different hunter-gatherer populations from all around the world. The premise is here that </span>it is<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> important to visually document these cultures before they are lost forever in the mists of </span>globalisation<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> and acculturation. The </span>tagline<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> itself states "Jimmy Nelson forces us to see, to understand and to remember before they pass away" referring to these peoples as "the last resorts of natural authenticity". </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">It's true that the world is smaller, increasing levels of education and globalisation mean you can find coke everywhere and the </span><span style="color: #222222;">similarity</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> between peoples is increasing. However, the concept that it is only the</span><a href="http://wasabionthego.blogspot.com/2014/08/anthropology-corner-agta-fashion.html" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;" target="_blank"> extremely exotic</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> which is authentic, seems to me problematic. It is a form of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book)" style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Orientalism</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">, or the creation of the strange 'other', which removes the actual people from view. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Agta, like parents worldwide, want their children to have better chances and lives than their own. For </span>them<span style="font-family: inherit;">, this means education and integration with the rest of Philippine society. These two things drastically increase key development measures such as life expectancy and health and wellbeing, so not such a bad choice right. So in part, the people beneath these endangered exotic layers are actively seeking to become more like their farming </span>neighbors<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>because<span style="font-family: inherit;"> simply put, their life chances are better. However, this doesn't mean the Agta will be lost forever </span>except<span style="font-family: inherit;"> for an appearance in a few bits of obscure anthropological texts. Our project is titled 'resilience' for just this reason; populations are dynamic and change is continuous but change doesn't mean extinction. The conversation about endangered peoples often lacks this perceptive, the idea that people actively are able to integrate into society, change with the times but continue to differentiate themselves, and take pride in their own history and diversity. Just because they don't continue to plaster themselves with paint </span>or mount<span style="font-family: inherit;"> war raids on neighboring groups doesn't mean the peoples will be lost forever. The work of a fellow anthropologist, </span><a href="http://www.socialsciences.leiden.edu/anthropology/organisation/faculty-staff/minter-tessa.html" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Tessa Minter</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, with the Agta argues this point extremely </span>well<span style="font-family: inherit;"> and demonstrates the importance of removal of such stereotypes as they have </span>real<span style="font-family: inherit;"> impact on future development, health, </span>and<span style="font-family: inherit;"> land right policies in the real world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />So to the last stereotype - the </span><span style="color: #222222;">primitive. Western culture has been built upon ideals of natural, innate progression. We started as stupid cavemen, made some fire and some wheels, then some tools and a few more things now deep underground, til one day we got intelligent enough to realize that the best way to live is within societies so we created modern day civilization, in the form of nation states and so forth. </span><span style="color: #222222;">The implication of all this is the concept of the primitive, individuals who simply aren't advanced or intelligent enough to create a 'higher culture', thus are separated from the rest of humanity. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;">Such perspectives are horrible and lead to foraging people's like the Agta to be referred to as 'not people' but more animal. </span><span style="color: #222222;">My field of study specifically examines how people adapt in and function in different environments. The one essential point here is that there is no natural progression - evolution doesn't necessarily make things more complex or </span><span style="color: #222222;">civilized. Rather evolution </span><span style="color: #222222;">simply optimizes the best solution which is wholly dependent on the environmental context. </span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">So it is never </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">appropriate</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> to refer to groups such as the Agta as </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">primitive, rather their social systems and their behavior is simply a product of the environment they live in. For example, I study childcare and how this is shared with the whole community. Children spent their younger years being looked after by a whole array of individuals, from close family members to just older kids in camp. This is interesting as families in the west are isolated and are not so reliant on social networks for child support. We have wealth, infrastructure and a state instead. My point here is that it is the environment and the needs which arise from which dictate our behavior; an Agta moving to England other than being very cold, would be lively to change how they raise their children. The difference that exists between people is in part a result of such influences. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span> <span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For me, these are the three key stereotypes which living with the Agta has completely dispelled in my mind. Living with the Agta creates a sense of normality, of people sharing life with people which are often lost or </span>ignored<span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">That's all folks,</span><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-32533428288872047222014-09-15T08:28:00.000-07:002014-09-15T08:28:00.548-07:00Speak<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For Tristan.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember being puzzled when I discovered on my very first day of
engineering school that the first three days were entirely dedicated to a
seminar on communication. Even more so, when during the first hour I learnt for
the first time that while words matter, 70% of actual communication is
expressed by the body. Fast forward a
few years later and I like this idea a lot. This sort of physical telekinesis
that links us and the agreeable feeling not being a machine simply transmitting
a flux of perfectly formulated data. The space for interpretation, guessing and imagination. With hindsight I am not sure on how this figure of 70% was
ever calculated and at the same time convinced that there is quite some
latitude in non-verbal communication. A simple example would be to watch kids
meeting and playing together at the park. Or me playing with kids in a camp
called Djabbut. The game was then called how many photos can we take before
getting tired and the answer is at least 500. So to make this first answer short
and clear, I am amazed at how much communication is possible without using a
single word.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have two great examples here to share with you.<br />
The first one is very straightforward. In a camp called Kaniapan, there is a
girl about 8 to 10 which is called Monika, or Awet depending who you ask. I
noticed at first how much she was staring at us and finally found out that she
is deaf. Nonetheless, we had a good time playing to catch all sort of animal in
the camp in glass bottles, laughing at the horrible faces we had in photos we
took and going on adventures around the camp. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jh_FgwH_PCo/VA3EZGXYWHI/AAAAAAAAAy4/cqcnjb8in9Q/s1600/DSC03660.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jh_FgwH_PCo/VA3EZGXYWHI/AAAAAAAAAy4/cqcnjb8in9Q/s1600/DSC03660.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fitting Monika's new green bracelet.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Number two is a bit closer to you, especially if you are using the mobile
version of our blog. Angry birds, Doodle Jump, Flow Free, Flappy bird...
Despite being as young as 5 and having a style of life as different as could be
from ours, I can tell you that it takes about 10 seconds for the kids, and
adults alike, to get to grips with my phone. I also happily shared it for them
to make photos and video clips. The one way to make a whole camp laugh is the
slo-mo video mode where I get footage of kids and me doing all sorts of jumps
and acrobatic stunt.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_mAFxecIrk0/VA3EVz4X_pI/AAAAAAAAAyk/Cenz8Uq0aek/s1600/DSC02953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_mAFxecIrk0/VA3EVz4X_pI/AAAAAAAAAyk/Cenz8Uq0aek/s1600/DSC02953.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captivating screen.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, answering the first question communication with no words is possible.
Of course understanding simple things like the aim of the trip you are gladly
invited to join is a plus. The one thing that is complicated is that in the
place we work people use mostly a dialect called Paranan, with no book or dictionary
available, as there are only 1500 speakers. Most of them also understand
Tagalog, which is the main Filipino language. After now 7 months, I must say
that my skills in Tagalog are pretty awful. I guess the mixed language
environment pushed me to a strategy where I learnt quite a few everyday words
and expression, but I do not know which language they belong to. Nor do I
understand anything about constructing a sentence. Despite this, I can go
around greeting people in the morning with a nice 'Mapiya Dimadimang'
reproduced here by adults and kids respectively.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781141&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781142&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I can carry on asking how was the night fishing, if they wish to share a
cup of coffee and their plans for the day. Where it may get a bit awkward for
me is when then we are having our cups filled with the warm beverage and I want
to carry the discussion. Let's see, I can tell them the coffee is hot, but I
guess they have figured that out by now, or should I simply say good morning
again? Well, the good thing here is that, the Agta don't expect you to interact
based on the ground of physical proximity, and in French the concept awkward do
not really exists, so you can relax and enjoying watching the camp activity
quietly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course sometime this isn’t enough, either the Agta start to chat you and
fully expect you to answer or when you actually need to express more
complicated thoughts than ‘here is your coffee’. This is where our Team of Translator came in
handy.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VZDZbDO96xk/VA3ETTDsEJI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/B9qmUQRjscI/s1600/DSC02496.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VZDZbDO96xk/VA3ETTDsEJI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/B9qmUQRjscI/s1600/DSC02496.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ate Christe, Girly and Aima</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It took some time and effort to find them, but I must say they are doing a
great job. For translation of course but also by helping us understanding the
local traditions and organising our trips to different camps. They
negotiate prices in shops and convince people to welcome us in their camps
when it is our first trip there. We share all the good as well as the difficult
situations together and I must say that I will miss our companions when we leave.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8raSUQBCuvA/VA3EVE4GHNI/AAAAAAAAAyY/f9--5vajI4g/s1600/DSC02695.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8raSUQBCuvA/VA3EVE4GHNI/AAAAAAAAAyY/f9--5vajI4g/s1600/DSC02695.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Medical survey at Didikeg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F3zNuztfYMw/VA3EVNmhdsI/AAAAAAAAAyc/J5j3Eca3fHY/s1600/DSC02051.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F3zNuztfYMw/VA3EVNmhdsI/AAAAAAAAAyc/J5j3Eca3fHY/s1600/DSC02051.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time to cook dinner</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ok, I must admit it, the lost in translation effect is real and comes into
play often unexpectedly. One night we were in Cauayan city in our Favorite
Restaurant, Amorfino. And as often when back in town our appetite was about
half what it was when in England. And because I love those Cheese-stuffed chilies
of their I explained that I wanted to order only a small plate of them, being
ready to pay the full but not to waste those tasty starters. She asked me quite
a few times to repeat what I was after. I repeated one more time: a small plate
of chilies.<br />
And here we are twenty minutes later with a waitress very proud to bring me a big
full plate of very small chillies… <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I must agree I digressed a bit here so as a conclusion to this article I
share here more audio clips in order to share with you the happy sounding
language of Palanan.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anin : Awesome, sick bro, amazing.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></span>
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781134&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781135&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Asus: Dammit, WTF?, whoops.<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781136&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781137&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
And finally, some extracts of conversation. The first about how cool my recorder was and the second about medical matters.<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781139&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166781138&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
</div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With love,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
Wasabi.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-90842038553038740632014-09-08T00:43:00.000-07:002014-09-08T01:46:21.339-07:00Diving in Bohol and Other Underwater Adventures<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not all
work for Wallace and I as we recently took a week’s holiday in Bohol, a smaller
island in the south of the Philippines.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Bohol is well
known for its chocolate hills, named due to their brown colouring which occurs
at only one time during the year. We arrived during the wrong season, so just
lots of green hills (and a typhoon somewhere nearby which brought wind and rain
to make the motorcycle ride an adventure) but I guess ‘hump shaped green hills’
isn’t such a tourist grabbing name. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gurNe3e7m7M/U_TYZjz8jBI/AAAAAAAAAQM/ZryHXDMU9NE/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gurNe3e7m7M/U_TYZjz8jBI/AAAAAAAAAQM/ZryHXDMU9NE/s1600/7.jpg" height="400" width="292" /></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">It’s
also equally famous for the native tarsiers, which according to one postcard
are “the smallest monkeys in the world”. Sadly neither these points are true,
being that tarsiers are primates not monkeys (all monkeys are primates but not
vice versa, a sticking point for any biological anthropologist so please excuse
the lecture!). Also I am sure the pygmies marmoset is smaller (please google
image as super cute). However tarsiers are very rare and very cool to see in
nature. Unfortunately due to an
accidental 7 hour motorcycle ride, with multiple wrong turns and Wallace
wanting to take the ‘new and unexplored route’ to the tarsiers, we didn’t get
to see any. So with extremely sore bums
we had only the postcards to see what real life tarsiers looks like. But, our
sadness was not too great as the main reason we came to Bohol was due to first
class dive sites. A perfect setting for our first oceanic diving experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">In very south of
the island of Bohol, connected by two bridges, is the tiny Panglao Island. This
was our base for 9 days, as it had both a home reef you could freely snorkel on
and lots of dive boats you can travel to Balicasag Island on. This is a marine
reserve, its highlights being loads and loads of fish, eels, turtles and
beautiful undamaged reefs (see pictures!).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kIwzYNc7W_g/U_TYYF8J4HI/AAAAAAAAAP0/FzFWIhVWHiU/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kIwzYNc7W_g/U_TYYF8J4HI/AAAAAAAAAP0/FzFWIhVWHiU/s1600/2.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">We did 5 dives at Balicasag, going
to 21 metres down the sea wall (accidentally of course as our PADI open water
qualification only allows us to go to 18 metres, oh no!). We were a bit nervous at first, being that we
hadn’t dived since October, which was in a murky 8 metre lake near London. The
idea of suddenly diving off the sea wall, with 35 metres between you and the
sea floor is, concerning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7FnKaAaKqAM/U_TYYMcCHMI/AAAAAAAAAP8/1tru6B3EGxc/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7FnKaAaKqAM/U_TYYMcCHMI/AAAAAAAAAP8/1tru6B3EGxc/s1600/1.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> However, the beauty of the drop is astounding, you
dive in the clearest of waters so you can always see the surface sun and the
sealife soon takes all your concerns away.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For our final dive, we had overcome
our fears and did a night dive. It really was like exploring a whole new sea,
all the species change and you really can’t see beyond your flashlight beam
(hence no pictures, sorry). You definitely don’t want to fall too far beyond
your local guide then, just one massive black expanse of nothing! Yet the bioluminescence which occurs at night-time
is wonderful; you just move your hand through the water, with the flashlights
off, and the water is suddenly full of lights, like underwater fireflies. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WHQjfL8uPrE/U_TYYodqKXI/AAAAAAAAAQs/O0tY2YCCMc4/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WHQjfL8uPrE/U_TYYodqKXI/AAAAAAAAAQs/O0tY2YCCMc4/s1600/4.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall we saw
loads of crazy animals, like the frog fish (again please google image), moray
eels (see below), fat lipped fish, cornet fish, scorpion fish (no touching as
seriously poisonous and painful) and lots of different (and kind of minging)
types of sea worms! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eB1i3ZNftPc/U_TYZIaWSzI/AAAAAAAAAQo/Yb4vMJkEbGA/s1600/6.Moray%2Beel%2Bin%2Bits%2Bhole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eB1i3ZNftPc/U_TYZIaWSzI/AAAAAAAAAQo/Yb4vMJkEbGA/s1600/6.Moray%2Beel%2Bin%2Bits%2Bhole.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">The only thing missing were sharks, those who know me know
my love (obsession…) with sharks so I was sad when none appeared during our
dives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">However, I
wasn’t too sad as we had previously, back in our April tour of the Philippines,
snorkelled with a whale shark in Donsol (the very southern tip of Luzon). This was slightly more crazy, and less
relaxed than hanging with turtles in Bohol. Firstly, there are like 100 other
tourists diving into the water at the same time. The water is pretty murky
(which is actually the massive amount of plankton which attracts the whale
sharks to Donsol, whale sharks being of course mainly non-meat eating and
behaving more like, you got it, whales!), and as you put your head into the
water very little is visible but your guide is dragging you along knowing
something you don’t. At this point you are kinda stressed as even if whale
sharks won’t eat you they are massive, some as big as 18 metres and are
officially the largest fish in the sea. And this is a massive thing you can’t
see. Until suddenly you put your head under the water and you do see it, like
RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3nM3EId7whM/U_TYaFhCOJI/AAAAAAAAAQU/RDgVWms9iPM/s1600/8.%2BWhale%2Bshark%2Bin%2BDonsol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3nM3EId7whM/U_TYaFhCOJI/AAAAAAAAAQU/RDgVWms9iPM/s1600/8.%2BWhale%2Bshark%2Bin%2BDonsol.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"> This was definitely a swearing occasion for me as its
massive mouth, scooping up millions of plankton, was open around 3 metres in
front of me. But after this mild first
panic, suddenly all my love of sharks came back to me and I got to swim along
with it for a good few minutes. It was bliss and wonderful to be alongside such
a beauty of a fish.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"> This was only ruined
when all the other tourists caught up with us and pushed and kicked to get a
closer view. It’s sad really that’s this
is how we have to witness such a creature, and this is how some people
are. But it’s still worth it when you
have those few minutes along with the ‘gentle giant’, as its referred to in
Donsol. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, in the
theme of sealife, we have just returned from a couple of weeks at a coastal
camp in Palanan. This place is an extremely stereotypical tropical beach. This
got green forests and palm trees, white beach situated on a big lagoon which
acts as a sheltered breeding ground for many baby fish (many, many tiny nemos,
otherwise of course known as clown fish). It is has a large underwater cliffs,
the path the boats follow to come in the bay. Like the Grand Canyon underwater,
it forms a big contrast of shallow and deep water, and is home to some big
fish, including massive moray eels (lucky only witness once already caught as
apparently they have an extremely bad bite).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"> So while we were not watching
children, taking measurements or asking questions, we had our snorkel gear on
and explored the reef. This place would make a beautiful diving spot, but I
hope it isn’t sold out to tourism because then the Agta would be forced off
their beach homes to be replaced by beach side villas. This is a very real
threat as the politicians here are trying to buy up the beaches, to be ready
for development as soon as the roads are built.
For me, I hope it stays just the way it is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Love to all,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Wasabi.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14947764399787908027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-45157325911235173382014-08-25T07:00:00.000-07:002014-09-08T01:44:48.593-07:00Hunting: tools, techniques and practice<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hi all, the bluetooth keyboard works great and my motivation is at best since France won the first match. Just kidding the actual reason being for once we have 3 relaxing days after about a month of non-stop work, so it feels great to write a bit here. Today let's speak about Hunting.</span><br />
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This activity is equally practice in the coastal and inland environment and people usually specialize in one type of it. The tools used here are firstly the traditional wooden Busog, bow, in conjonction with the panas,arrows. </span><br />
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In fact, the latter have a special trait: the arrows head is not fixed to the body but instead clipeed on it and a rope of a few meters linked both parts. It help understand this by saying that the bow is used for hunting wild pigs which lives in a dense jungle environment. The idea is that the head of the arrows stick to the animal and the shaft gets stuck when the pig attempts escape through the vegetation. Then, the hunter would run and finish the job with it's Atak, knife. I say knife as the tool is also used to cut food and repair things but we are here speaking more of the dagger type with it's blade spanning a good 40cms.</span><br />
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After the traditional hunting, which we witnessed many attempts which produce no yield, comes guns. There are actually three disctinct types.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B6woRWLXST0/U_TXhE1dYfI/AAAAAAAAAPM/9lh9-o4t4-w/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B6woRWLXST0/U_TXhE1dYfI/AAAAAAAAAPM/9lh9-o4t4-w/s1600/1.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From the top of the image, the first one called bomba is actually the least powerful. Being an airgun, it shoots small metal pellet, the same you would in a funfaire. The main difference being that it is much more powerful. The mechanism allows to load enough air for five shots before reloading making it a very efficient tool. It is used to hunt Ibungs, birds.</span><br />
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The second gun is soberly called 22 because of its caliber and the same sort of gun you would expect a farmer to own in england. Each cartrige costs the equivalent of a pound or about ten times more than for the bomba. The use of it is unclear as it did not seems to be selected during the differnet trips I witnessed.</span><br />
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The last type of guns are called Posphoro and actually modified shotguns. The cartridges are not available in the region so the people change the mecanism to add a side trigger. The gun is filled with three matchboxes worth of phosphorous matches heads, hence its name. Then 3 small rocks are added and the whole load is squeezed as far as possible into the cannon. The trigger is then a bent nail that, with the force of a taunt spring, which has such intensity as to make the phosphorous explode projecting the rock and matches at a great velocity. As curious as it seems it is the tool of choice for pig hunting. We witnessed many agtas walking in the forest with their guns but havent seen the formers in use.</span><br />
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In another category Agtas are the only people allowed to use traps it the national park; 30 maximum at one time per person. They are clever bits of engineering where a bent wooden stick is released and tightly encompasses the animals leg to prevent it from escaping. Sadly I only got them explained to me but not seen or photographed. I have however an image of a funny little tool.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T6KUh5FhgH4/U_TXhGSgQII/AAAAAAAAAPQ/nB99A1ZHt7M/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T6KUh5FhgH4/U_TXhGSgQII/AAAAAAAAAPQ/nB99A1ZHt7M/s1600/2.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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Being similarily made with a wood stick and a rubber band, it is similar to a slingshot expect there is no Y-shape and the projectile clips on the rubber itself. The latter is made of a nail, sharpened at one end and fitted with lots of plastic bag pieces at the other. The former permits to pierce the occasional bird where the latter is for finding the projectile amonst the trees. It is ironically called an icepick, the shape suits the name but, but strange as the Agta don't know what ice or snow look like.</span><br />
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So what about the practice? We have been invited a few to partake a hunting trip and I have been to one with Nonoy, a cool guy from Cemento.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D7UkOg3L1nM/U_TXh5S8xaI/AAAAAAAAAPY/gwOZwIDZFnI/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D7UkOg3L1nM/U_TXh5S8xaI/AAAAAAAAAPY/gwOZwIDZFnI/s1600/3.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We headed early in the morning to the close-by jungle and followed some sort of trail, otherwise called a muddy torrent. After an hour of hard climb Nonoy started making noises, bird noises. He explained that the way was to speak and convince the birds to come and meet their end. With his voice and a bamboo tool he was indeed able to answer calls and soon enough we were crouching on the ground as a inquisite flyer was in the area. I am saying in the area because at this point it was impossible for me to spot any moving animal. Only the usual jungles noises and cracks. Nonoy aims, shoot, the bird fell like a stone.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jYsnObZbt_g/U_TXh5Z0i6I/AAAAAAAAAPU/YQOntb-1ZKw/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jYsnObZbt_g/U_TXh5Z0i6I/AAAAAAAAAPU/YQOntb-1ZKw/s1600/4.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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He is not dead but still he goes directly into the bag, to stay fresh I presume. And the day goes on. Hours of hard walking through the jungle and a few birds later I start to be more aware of the surroundings and see the birds despite their grey and green camouflage. In fact, the shooting seemed to be the easiest part with target being between 7 to 10 meters away. In fact, the birds were so unaware that even after Nonoy shot a bird on a branch it's two companions didn't budge and met the same fate a minute later. One shot, one bird is Nonoy's mantra and that day he did not fail.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y20Av6Xsq0M/U_TXiEiilAI/AAAAAAAAAPg/hxr4u2ZaQCM/s1600/5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y20Av6Xsq0M/U_TXiEiilAI/AAAAAAAAAPg/hxr4u2ZaQCM/s1600/5.JPG" height="478" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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We came back late afternoon, and boy I was tired. Nonoy may not be fast in the action, but his stamina seems to be without limits. This was a great day out.</span><br />
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We will head to another camp with bird hunters in a couple of days and I am bringing cartridges this time with the hope to have a go at shooting. I tried in the camp and manage to hit the target OK. Maybe I can get a bird too.</span><br />
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With love,</span><br />
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Wasabi.</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14947764399787908027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-10605490315952268442014-08-20T11:08:00.000-07:002014-09-08T01:45:07.210-07:00Change<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Palanan Isabela,
Philippines, 22 of June 2014.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Today, I am 27
and I have just, or will soon, reach a mileage of one billion heartbeats. This
number makes my head spins and awakens in me the urge to share some reflections
with you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V2i25wdeGY8/U_TVu8hROVI/AAAAAAAAAOw/T29QBy3JHpg/s1600/DSC02290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V2i25wdeGY8/U_TVu8hROVI/AAAAAAAAAOw/T29QBy3JHpg/s1600/DSC02290.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Before the 17<sup>th</sup>
of last September I was following the path. No, not the spiritual one, simply
that which spans from the exit door of my engineering school to a nice comfortable
life. A person in a bubble among bubbles, not too happy nor too sad. Not to
scared, nor too confident; just in the middle. But then, as the yes man I sometimes
am, I had to quit my job for that new project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Following my love
all the way to the Philippines for 9 months of anthropological fieldwork, I
have ended up sharing this segment of my life with a population of
Hunter-gatherers. And today, we are half way. Four shorts months since the
departure from London and who am I? I am not quite sure of the answer, all I of
know is that I have changed. This is simple to know because when one changes,
he does not remember who he was before. I have souvenirs of course. The first
day at work, and the last (where all the secrets are shared at the pub). But
yet, this is not the me of today. I have seen more, experienced more, and had a
good glimpse into some other bubbles. This changed my perspective on life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">I remember
reading with interest about this blogger who decided to live with only 100
types of objects and made a book out of it. People here can do so with 30, 20,
10 distinct objects and live a good life. I remember I was feeling quite good
about doing half an hour of exercise per day and being outside for 10 minutes
after my lunch. Here inside does not exist as the Agta house consists of a banana
leaf roof and a bamboo floor one metre from the ground. Even the richer farmer’s
houses do not have windows and often large opening on their sides. </span>As for
exercise, this is not a thing here as everyone is active most of a day and
often very strong indeed. Lastly, I was quite proud, upon arriving in a new
place to always make the time to invite my neighbours to a welcoming drink or
two. Here the Agta are the closest, tightly knit group of people I ever encountered.
You want some novelty? Why not pack your stuff, walk 5 hours and spend a week
in another camp. No reasons are needed: you walk, you arrive there, you live
there. As simple as it gets.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">This radical
experience made me reconsider the way I lead my life. What is work and how much
of it is needed? Why should I sit eight or more hour a day on the same chair
over again? Communities or Societies? All of these subjects will be discussed
in the next post: Reflexions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">One more thing: my
hair. For roughly a year I let it be free and grow as organic and unconstraint
as possible, waiting for an event to give it a good shape. That’s it; today I
put words on my state of mind. And to be honest I am glad it happens, as I was
slowly getting blinded by this volume on my head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Love to all,</span></div>
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Wasabi.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14947764399787908027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-3468748931663646362014-08-20T11:06:00.001-07:002014-09-08T01:45:35.375-07:00By the way <span style="font-family: inherit;">Palanan Isabela, Philippines, 19 of August 2014.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="goog_261145609"></span><span id="goog_261145610"></span><br />
We are now into our last leg of our fieldwork (argh where has time gone!) and our time in Palanan. We have been busy written articles for the blog, however we haven’t quite managed to get them posted as the web has been just beyond our reach. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The good news is that we have now caught up with the internet (thanks again Flow!), and will publish all the articles we have created in the last months, over the forthcoming weeks.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3yWwse8IKfU/U_TU4NSQY7I/AAAAAAAAAOo/rVodim8-Hgk/s1600/2014-04-04%2B21.35.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3yWwse8IKfU/U_TU4NSQY7I/AAAAAAAAAOo/rVodim8-Hgk/s1600/2014-04-04%2B21.35.06.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh and here is a random snapshot to keep your eyes amused. Yea that's right, there is such a thing as an Agta doll. </span><br />
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Love to all,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Wasabi.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14947764399787908027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-16416495409640350462014-08-08T05:58:00.000-07:002014-09-08T01:53:51.164-07:00 Anthropology Corner: Agta fashion<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wWcbU_5dBXk/U-TG934z4sI/AAAAAAAAAOA/lTd64FJ2U9M/s1600/3.+Norma+sporting+subang,+long+maniqec+and+pinanas-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wWcbU_5dBXk/U-TG934z4sI/AAAAAAAAAOA/lTd64FJ2U9M/s1600/3.+Norma+sporting+subang,+long+maniqec+and+pinanas-s.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Norma sporting subang, long maniqec and pinanas</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When anyone starts talking about foraging peoples an image of isolated, untouched tribes comes to mind. People who are at one with nature, high from various jungle plants and creepy crawlies, and adorned with face paints, multiple bamboo piercings topped off with large head dresses only matched by accompanying tiny grass skirts or loincloths. Yet, this is just a stereotype, one which foraging populations from the South America conform a lot better to. For the Agta, it may be better to say they dominate nature (but more on this later), they don’t lick any frogs (that I have noticed…) and are more often seen in baggy basketball shorts then loincloths. I am not the type of anthropologist that studies material culture (i.e. the visual representation of a culture demonstrated in clothes, jewellery, art and so forth), yet with some beautiful photography from Wallace I think it important to demonstrate how the modern day Agta looks like, and how they actually beautify themselves.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N1CVn4g73l0/U-TG9wgu8vI/AAAAAAAAAOE/IyG-L0YeIuM/s1600/4.+close+up+of+pinanas-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N1CVn4g73l0/U-TG9wgu8vI/AAAAAAAAAOE/IyG-L0YeIuM/s1600/4.+close+up+of+pinanas-s.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Close up of pinanas</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The most common piece of jewellery of any Agta, be it man, woman or child is an maniqec. Maniqec </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">are necklaces made of plastic nylon which various brightly clothed beads are threaded on to. Most often the maniqec is made very long and coiled around a women’s neck. For men, it is normally only one layer of beads, so not to interfere with fishing or hunting activities. Most often, the Agta tell you the maniqec is simply for beauty. But there are many different explanations. Some will tell you it is for curing sickness, as an unseen spirit is best treated with a very beautiful and colourful maniqec. Single girls are also meant to wear brighter beads, but really this seems to be a personal choice. Like most aspects of Agta life they may all think differently but always correctly; you have the freedom to think of any explanation.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0ynvTIjRto/U-TG-WpJAYI/AAAAAAAAAOM/2tEjD4RqDTU/s1600/7.+Little+Erik+with+biscal-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0ynvTIjRto/U-TG-WpJAYI/AAAAAAAAAOM/2tEjD4RqDTU/s1600/7.+Little+Erik+with+biscal-s.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Little Erik with biscal</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly the importance of the thickness of pinanas, or bracelets made from twisted thread, varies.These small pinanas are impressively made by simply twisting and twisting the string until it makes a loop which is then stretched over the hand to fit tightly with 50 or so others of varies different colours. The thickness, say some, may be a sign of morning; black pinanas are worn when a family member has died, the thicker they are the recent the event. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When these twisted threads are made into a neckless they are called Ulay. They can contain a wonderful array of colours and black threads often indicate death, or that someone just likes black, or that was the colour available in a resource poor world (no easy assumptions here).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When a pinanas is worn on the upper arm it is called a biscal, which shows that the man or boy is handsome (or very cute as is the case for young boys). Some special ones have little balls or fabric, like pompoms! All these items are still relatively common among the Agta of all ages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, some fashions like g-strings, subang (or stretched ears stuffed with flowers, leaves, or thread) and padit (scarification) are now only now evident among the older generation.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y2gyRfqua80/U-TGFlWlJuI/AAAAAAAAAN0/nbIuX1ZWMMA/s1600/1.+Roger+in+traditional+attire-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y2gyRfqua80/U-TGFlWlJuI/AAAAAAAAAN0/nbIuX1ZWMMA/s1600/1.+Roger+in+traditional+attire-s.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: small;">Roger in traditional attire</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Really this is an effect of coming into contact with non-Agta populations and the Born Again or 7-day Adventist (I know, a random sect to find in the middle of nowhere) churches who have a strong influence over some Agta communities. So now the younger generation can be ashamed of the old ways, so the girls wear normal earrings, and the men wear same clothes as any other Filipino (but the older ones do profess that a g-string is good for keeping cool!). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jveDu3EIO-U/U-TG9ypUlhI/AAAAAAAAAOI/3THWTAYs90A/s1600/6.+Unok+with+biscal-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jveDu3EIO-U/U-TG9ypUlhI/AAAAAAAAAOI/3THWTAYs90A/s1600/6.+Unok+with+biscal-s.jpg" height="640" width="425" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe it is because these displays have little, if any, ritual function, that they have started to disappear as the population itself is under pressure to conform to local farming norms. However, everyone will tell you one thing: all these things show you are a strong, beautiful Agta, so I think there is no risk of the cultural identity of Agta dying out just yet. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZJkY5DxcLtY/U-TFciDg_zI/AAAAAAAAANs/uiAcxdvaoO8/s1600/8.+my+collection+of+piananas+and+ring+gifts-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZJkY5DxcLtY/U-TFciDg_zI/AAAAAAAAANs/uiAcxdvaoO8/s1600/8.+my+collection+of+piananas+and+ring+gifts-s.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">My collection of piananas and ring gifts</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wasabi </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14947764399787908027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-79687523444722324422014-06-04T07:22:00.000-07:002014-08-09T03:50:03.297-07:00Tech Corner: all about power<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We have decided to organise a bit the posts and to sort them into categories in order to change a bit the mood for time to time. So here we are Tech corner 1: Power!</div>
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One does not need very long in Philippinnes to figure that the organic way of life, where organisation and schedule is a lot more flexible that in the UK, is also reflected in the way electricity works. Or doesn't. So in Manila, no problems reported so far. In smaller towns like Cauayan, power is supposed to work but often, say 20% of the time it is not the case. A walk down the streets of the city center shows that small shops often own very small generators that they put on the pavement. Middle size structures such as restaurants were out of electricity, which have to be accounted for when choosing a meal. Big structures like the hotel we stayed had a massive generator which can nicely power the whole place including the air conditionning and WiFi but for some fortunate reason not the TVs. I am not sure what to make of this. Anyway this was our experience of Cauayan and in some similar places like where we stayed today, there was only 10 minutes with no power, during my shower naturally.</div>
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Do not worry as hot water does not exists in Palanan, the place where our study takes place, so the last two months of fieldwork makes me feel ok about fresh showers. In fact in our little town power is available from midday to midnight and provided by a generator situated about 10 miles to the north on the seaside. I guess this makes it much easier to refill the tank rather than having to transport the combustible all the way. So in between the different Agta camps visit, we are coming for a day or two in the town for some culinary delights, more when I have all the pictures ready, and charging all our devices. </div>
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Amongst them is powergorilla. This is a clever piece of gear in the form of a battery that can hold 10 phone charges or 2 laptops ones in a small 700g brick. We also use his brother called solargorilla which is nothing more than a solar panel which in theory give lots of watts and in practice is ok to charge the smartphone and occasional gameboy when the sun is out but not much more. For example, the panel is supposed to replenish the powergorilla but so far our attempts did not prove sucessfull, maybe the summer sun will help. Update: it takes around two days to fully charge the powergorilla on a bright sunny beach...not so bad.</div>
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The last piece of kit I have in stock is a gravitylight. I was very proud of it when I bought it via a crowdfunding project, even more when I received it after one year and an half of waiting and only 5 days before flying. So the concept here is to use the gravity, in the form of a bag filled with 12kgs of rocks/bricks/small amounts of dark matter to create some vertical force and move a dynamo. In fact the system is very similar to a grandfather clock with the weights giving the energy for the system. There the rocks moving from 3m to the ground create about 0.1Watt for 20 minutes which with the modern, LED lamp efficiency gives the same sort of light that the one from your smartphone torchlight function. I was really excited to receive it and meet the makers in London and have tried it in UK. Here it is a bit more tricky as we usually have lot of weight already when packing so I haven't tried it yet. Same for my intention to give it, notdone so far as I have only one lamp and am looking for the place it could be the most benificial.</div>
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I know this post does not have much information on our life with the Agta so I add here what power they are using: for the lights in the house most places use empty glass bottles filled with kerosen, a sort of unrefined petrol, and a piece of rope to support the flame and avoid to burn the whole oil at once. Unfortunately this precarious solution can sometime claim lives as the glass explodes. I also witnessed for the first time yesterday a house wih a light bulb powered by a motorcycle battery.</div>
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Oh and just one last thing as we speak power. During our holidays with Family we went to visit a friedof a friend in Manila. She works for a NGO helping young in Slums getting jobs. The project in question is called 3S and a simple business: solar panels on top of a container which charge many small lamp situated inside. The lamp are then rented out for 5 pesos a charge to the families in the slums providing them with aeconomic and sustainaible way of getting light in the evening. What a great idea and it seemms to work very well as the place was crowed as we visited an hour before sunset.</div>
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Next tech corner will be about transportation.</div>
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Love to all,</div>
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Photos:</div>
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1. Gravity light.</div>
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2. Inside the container for the 3s project.</div>
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3. Gorillapower and Solargorilla</div>
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love to all,</div>
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Wasabi.</div>
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Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-53824913964437290422014-06-04T06:56:00.001-07:002014-06-04T06:56:49.815-07:00Camp: Dinipan<p dir="ltr">After the first two camps, and during the 6th week of this story we were off for a holiday as my mother came for a grand tour of the Philippinnes during an intense 16 days trip which saw us going from volcanos to paradisiac islands and ending in the mountains. This will be told in a video I will make when a powerfull PC is available.</p>
<p dir="ltr">After these three weeks we return to lovely Palanan and ready for the next adventure, Dinipan. Dinipan is situated about 15 kilometers south of the town and is peculiar in the fact that it is the only place we heard of Agta owning land. This represents about 7 hectares of rice fields which they were busy harvesting during our visit. Most adults were there from dawn to 3 in the afternoon away getting the crops needed for the rest of the year, especially during the moonsoon time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Luckily this didn't mean we lacked activities or adventures. Many times we were invited by kids to participate in the array of games they played. Also one of our interpreters was not available so we employed  a girl from the local univestiy, ISU, who was very eager to spent time with the kids. So we had myriad of games to learn and experiment with.</p>
<p dir="ltr">On day 5 we had a bit of a scare. As we were casually sitting around a house at coffee time Jomar, the chief of the village, said he had to shared some important news with us. As a matter of a fact he had heard some distressing news from several people when he was in the south a few days back. Jomar explained that an argument occured in a camp about two hours to the south and as a result two westerners and several agta families were shot dead. The grieving families were now seeking revenge, headhunter style, meaning going to any nearby camp to reclaim the lives of lost kin. This tradition was still alive until the 1910s or so and we were told it is practised in a place such as palanan due to it's remoteness and seclusion, remember no roads to get there. So what do we do? The interpreters looked a tad white and suggested a swift trip to town to find out more. We needed more info. So off we go into the small forest leading to the nearby village to enquire with it's captain. No sign of weapons sticking out of the bushes and trees on the way but we are still on guard. The place looked busy, but only for the planning of the next fiesta, music and rum, due to happen in a few weeks. Fortunately they agree to gave us a few spare minutes. The captain asks us want we know at the present and listens carefully. Then, he sits back in its chair, as for taking a moment to think, and laughs. My friends I have heard of no such story. Our land is very peaceful and you are welcome to stay around as  long as you want and join for the upcoming fiesta. He offers a round of coffee. <i>Chou blanc.</i> We decide to call our friends in town and make our way to the signal point. This refers to the few points where mobile phone signal is available. In fact with the distance and landscape the coverage of antennas gets very patchy so there are often dedicated 1 by 1m space for mobile phone use. In our case this is between two trees on the right side of the road just after the basketball court.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In town, one week later. We have heard 10 different stories about what happened in the south such as an arguement over fishing, or mining or some sort of misunderstanding. The one common point between all of them is the absence of headhtuners. It seems that contrary to exotic concepts of tribal warriors running amok (the phrase to run amok orginates from a pacific population in which temporary insanity led men to literally go on a killing spree, called an amok), even the remotest areas of the Philippinnes is safe. As for the conclusion of our story it<br>
just may have been related to the fact that Jomar told the story and then left for 3 days. It seems it was an Agta style warning to ensure we behave well in the absence of the master. Sadly the Agta have been tricked many times by westerners coming to try and evicate them and tear up the land in the search of <i>the precious</i>, well in this case gold.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The last notable anecdote of camp number 3 takes place one night at around 2AM. The weather outside haven't been great for the day with heavy rain and a bit of wind. Abbey, half-asleep informs me the strong wind is engulfing the tent and forming air pockets under it. The tent is indeed moving a bit. A quarter of an hour later I awake again. This time something strange is happening. I can feel something lifting my mat and I quite effortlessly, like I sudently had the power to levitate. Light on and lets try to get it. The floor of the tent indeed is moved by a slow oscillation. As I put my hand on it to understand I finally get it. Water, about 10 centimerters of it as guess. As we step outside we get a picture of the situation: the water is above my ankle, it is time to get a move on. We put all our possession on the former mats, now safety rafts. Bags are packed up and off we go half naked in the pouring rain shifting 10 meters to the top of a micro hill, as opposite to the very bottom. The tent definitively works well as the only annoyance was the smell of damp we had for the following week, but hey this house can nearly swim!</p>
<p dir="ltr">This is it for now, the next episode will be about Caniapan, our first excursion to the ocean and it's white sand beaches.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Love to all,<br>
Wasabi.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">11 of May.<br>
We have now been gone for 80 days and are visiting our fourth camp near the ocean. We have been here for about 4 days and life here is very good. Our camp is on the beach and the Agta are very kind to us. This camp is pretty big so there is more things such as a volleyball and basketball court giving it a nice taste of holidays. Work is pretty intense though as there are more than 100 people living here in 19 houses. More about those two weeks in the future, today I would like to tell you about the inland camps.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The strip of land the Agta live on is squashed between the ocean and the Sierra Madre moutain range. This creates two main environments; the foothills and rivers, and the shore. So far, the three camps we visited are situated at the end of the rice fields of surrounding villages and just before the moutains. This allows the Agta, to have good access to their hunting and gathering spots, as well as being close to farmers in order to trade goods or occasionally help in the field in the form of cash labor.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Djibut-</p>
<p dir="ltr">Our first stop was a small camp of 6 houses where the Agta live in the middle of the rice fields. In fact, they have an agreement with locals where they take care of the surrounding fields in exchange for 50% of the rice harvest. The first contact with the Agta was quite strange as many of the Amerikano, i.e. strangers, coming here, do so for mining  as a rumor is circulating that the moutains contain minerals such as gold. Anyway, the Agta didn't really know what to make of us at first, although they warmed to us after a couple of days. I guess, with hindsight, it  takes a day or two to be accepted and not only seen as an attraction. Many kids are seeing puti, white people, for the first time. Not much other than our work happened that week as it was still the rainy season - at some point we had to stay 2 days and a half in the tent waiting for the weather to improve.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Cemento-<br>
Twenty minutes walk from Djibut is Cemento. During our stay in the former place, many Agta coming to visit were asking us when we would come to stay with them. We went there on week 4 as the rain was still very strong and the first attempt we made to reach the place failed. For information, the camp is an 1h30 walk and the main hurdles are mud and a big river. Our second attempt was quite an adventure. After finding people to help carry the food for the week, we set on the trail and arrived to the river. It was very big and we couldn't directly cross. We knew a boat man was living nearby and was usually available if one can scream loudly enough for him to hear the call. After 15 minutes of calling, we were now maybe 20 on the river bank and no sign of the banka, boat. Looking for a possible solution to cross without getting the equipment wet, we found after an hour a place in the north where the river was much wider and deeper. This helped a lot as the main issue was not the height, but the strength of the current. In fact, even a meter of water is enough to be dragged and to fall into the water where it is quite hard to get back on your feet, which means having to swim and getting everything wet. And also some of the fellows in our group do not swim. Just in time, the boat man appeared as we were already in deep water. With his help, we were back on track. At about 4PM, 2 hours before the night we arrived to Cemento, or rather, in front of it. In fact, the camp lies just on the border of the second river, and we had to cross it. Once again, the usual boat as nowhere to be found, and as the night was coming upon us we wondered what to do. This is the point where it got a bit messy as the porters wanted to go home to attend their cattle, our tents were still in the first camp waiting to be moved, and the boat was still missing. After spliting the team and quite a lot of misundertstandings, we ending up with the porters finding the boat, part of the team crossing the muddy jungle at night to get stuff from the other camp, and the athlete and your narrator crossing the river twice more to get some tents which ended up half soaked. Even a small and charming looking river can be secretly tricky! Nevertheless, we had arrived and the fire was going strong.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The rest of the week was really fun. Everyone was happy to have us around. We brought a volleyball, that pleased the kids and adults alike. One evening, I told them about football and we had a good game. The result was a small pitch with 2 rows of 10 people furiously shooting the ball at each other trying to break the lines of the opponents, and score between the banana leaves marking the goal. Even mums with babies on their backs took part in the fun.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We left the camp a feeling a bit sad, like a holiday cut short, and promising to come back to say hello in the summer months.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Photos:<br>
1. Agta houses in Djibut<br>
2. Group picture at the end our stay in the first camp.<br>
3. Football game in Cemento<br>
4. Arcelli and Marianne.<br>
5. Juliet and Jan-Paul in Cemento.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Love to all,<br>
Wasabi.</p>
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So now that our holidays are over it's time to think about work again... and I realised that while quiet a lot of you know that a) I am an anthropologist who b) lives with a foraging population in the far north of the Philippines, it is not so clear what I actually do with my day and what this means in the grand scheme of anthropological research. So I thought I would spend the time to give you all the low-down.</div>
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My main area of research is children, their wellbeing and who cares for them. This is an aspect of anthropological research called cooperative breeding. It is argued that no human mother would be able to raise lots of children by herself, so she is helped by other mothers, her mother, her partner and her other children, siblings, cousins and so forth. So it is interesting to study these relationships with the Agta as hunter-gather groups are, in general, very cooperative in many aspects of life.<br />
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It is almost if the Agta have an informal creche system. At different times different mothers will go out to collect food, work in a field or go visiting someone, leaving a large horde (I literally mean horde) of kids behind normally with one m<img height="16" id="rbk0o1wybhn8" src="data:image/gif;base64,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" width="16" />um and a couple of babies. It's funny how all of a sudden the kids run down to the riverbank to greet the returning parents and grab the food (all I hear is excited mumbling of "ielos, ielos"..."mmmm, masarap"... basically translated into "potato like thing, mmmm very tasty"). I can't tell you yet (but I hope to before our journey is over) if there is a system to this, but the mum's certainly depend on one another and their oldest children (both boys and girls). </div>
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So to systematically study this (in the hope of someone giving me a PhD as some point - please!) Wallace and I conduct 9 hour observation periods on children of all different ages, from babies to those aged around 5 - 6 years old. I have created data collection sheets which I fill in every 30 seconds, recording who is around the child of interest, who tells them off, who plays with them, cuddles them, or teaches them. This way it's possible to understand who cares for children, how much and what type of care. It's just for me to work out why later :)<br />
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In total with Wallace's invaluable and wonderful assistance we hope to be able to study over 80 children before the year is finished. Which will produce over 720 hours of observations, or 86,400 data points! So far we have observed 42 children so we are well on our way with many more to go, phew..</div>
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What is great is that we spend hours with families and become fast friends with the kids and mums alike. That's all for now folks, more anthropology in a few weeks!</div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-54157323032446250862014-04-13T01:12:00.001-07:002018-04-01T03:09:56.229-07:00A camera in Agta hands<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So as some of you may or may not be aware, I spend around about 6 hours a day watching children of various ages (I will explain why in some later post as that's too much like real work). The upshot of this is that they get used to my presence quickly (which I love of course) and playing with my gadgets. In one camp the child leader, Marinel (who is a wonderful person and I miss already) would simply grab my phone and start taking photos until there was no battery left. So I thought I would I would show a selection of the best Agta photography.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-75025073758251681612014-04-11T07:32:00.000-07:002014-04-11T07:32:02.694-07:00Back Online and on the road again<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hello,<br />
We are now at day 48 of our trip and a summary is needed:<br /><br />- everything is going very well :)<br />- So well that I didn’t find much time to write here as all our new life is exciting and quite full on.<br />- out of 6 weeks we have camped with Agta people for about 3.<br />- the rainy season is now starting to finally go away which is good for our study.<br />- Only 2 attempts at crossing rivers out of 10 didn’t go as planned. Mostly because of the very heavy rains. Once we had to go back to town and the others half our stuff got wet but no big deal in the end. By the way, my preconceptions here were blown away, yes even with 1m of water a river can be very tricky to cross without falling.<br />- Internet is so slow in Palanan that checking emails takes 10 minutes and connecting our PC to Internet is not possible. I am planning to get a keyboard for my phone if I ever find one, 15 electronic shops so far and counting. So to contact us no FB or Twitter but: <a href="mailto:kenavor@gmail.com">kenavor@gmail.com</a><br />- I have 4 articles nearly ready to be posted, which will be in the coming weeks when we are away from keyboard and close to the jungle :)<br /><br />------------------------<br />
For now, we are on holidays. We left Palanan and met my family in Manila City and flew to Legazpi in the South-East of Luzon Island. We gonna now tour the Philippines in the next two weeks and visit everyday a bit more of the country. As a starting point we went on a trek today on the Mount Mayon, the most active volcano in the World which erupts every couple of years or so. <br />
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As the trek went on we came across a massive field of volcanic rocks that formed from the lava. It was actually very hard to go on this moon-ish landscape and the rock break to gravels and roll all the time. Abbey’s legs now bear witness to lava being nasty even when cold…<br />
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After escaping the black field we reach camp 2 which is situated at 1200m of altitude. A beautiful landscape and rice meal later we were ready to go down.<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-u3nWvU9akGs/U0f6rheOWEI/AAAAAAAAAuM/ojw68GduGwU/s1600-h/DSC008304.jpg"><img alt="DSC00830" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-7JnkKZwQY60/U0f6t6g7sDI/AAAAAAAAAuU/QsaE4UERj84/DSC00830_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" height="293" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="DSC00830" width="432" /></a> <br />
Next adventure next time.<br />
Love to all,<br />Wasabi.</div>
Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-4666415837425315572014-03-03T00:07:00.000-08:002018-04-01T02:48:11.352-07:00The Hunter-Gatherers <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So who are the hunter-gatherer team going to explore the depths of the Philippines? Well as you're asking....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Mark </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Mark is on of three PhD students conducting research in the Philippines. In his spare time Mark enjoys hunting, honey collecting and spear fishing - lucky for him then he gets to study this for the next year. He has spent time digging up paleo-aged objects in the Turkana basin, but is now </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">interested in the evolution of cooperation and food sharing in the A</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">gta.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>Dan</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Dan, also a PhD student, is coming to the Philippines to study the evolution of egalitarianism. Alongside his interest in <i>Homo sapiens</i>, Dan can't wait to get out and meet all the diverse array of wildlife the Philippines has to offer, particularly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_crocodile" target="_blank">San Marino crocodile</a>...</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Katie</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Katie is the newest member of the Filipino Hunter-gatherer team. Her research is focused on the relationship between the Agta and the National Park in which they live. As Katie comes from a conservationist background she will be joining Dan on all his jaunts into the jungle, maybe discovering a new species for western science... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span> <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>Rodolph</b> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Rudy has been exploring the use of participatory filming and participatory mapping with the Agta community to understand conflicts between local tribes, government, conservation and economic initiatives. He produced a range of wonderful videos and photography which can be viewed on his </span><a href="http://rudyks.wix.com/rodolph-schlaepfer#!services/cihc" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;" target="_blank">personal website</a><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Andrea is the lead investigator of the Hunter-gatherer project and my supervisor! She has been working in the Philippines and with different hunter-gatherer populations worldwide for many years. For more information on her research about the evolution of human body size see her </span><a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/academic_staff/a_migliano" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;" target="_blank">UCL website</a><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Philip is about the come to on his third fieldwork trip (so probably the most experienced of us all)to the Philippines, and has been working hard on Agta Aid so he can bring the Agta children books and other educational materials. Philip also has kick-arse presentation skills, demonstrated in this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn1aIs2O4vU" target="_blank">Agta Aid video</a>!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">And of course you can find more info about the Hunter-gatherer resilience project and about Wallace and I on the </span><a href="http://wasabionthego.blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;" target="_blank">about us page</a><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> of the Wasabi on the go blog.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: white; font-size: 28px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 39.20000076293945px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Rodolph Schlaepfer</span></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-21521659623323457962014-02-23T17:01:00.000-08:002018-04-01T02:46:29.195-07:00Goodbye England...Welcome Manilla<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So after the months of planning and multiple goodbye parties and drinks, we have finally set off on our adventure.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">It was a bit of a squeeze getting all of our personal things alongside </span>the project's equipment<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> into two backpacks. This finally achieved, and </span>us<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> transformed into turtles, we headed off to Heathrow for our 14.5 hours direct flight to Manila with Philippine Airlines. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Having a non-stop trip was awesome, as was the half-full plane so we could stretch out across multiple chairs and Wallace didn't have to deal with being my human cushion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span> <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The journey and all our connections went off without a hitch, and soon everyone was saying 'Mabuhay' to the Philippines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So to the sound of the Filipino alarm clock (noisy cockerels which are ubiquitous across the country), we have woken up to our first morning in the Philippines. </span><br />
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Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-66792442309256469512014-02-15T15:40:00.000-08:002014-02-15T15:42:53.333-08:00One week more...With current weather conditions you would have thought we couldn't wait to escape the winter storms and flooding. But in fact we are staying for one extra week, we now fly a week today to Manila. But there are many more airplanes in the sky...<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-64409143574353097032014-02-12T12:44:00.002-08:002018-04-01T02:43:53.925-07:00Philippines, Palanan and Beyond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So when we say we are going to the Philippines for the best part of a year, it doesn't really paint a vivid picture. The Philippines is a vast, diverse country comprised of hundreds of islands, many with completely different ecosystems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The capital, Manila is huge and feels like a combo of colonial Spain, Asia, and consumer-driven America. I am sure Wikipedia will tell you the land-area it covers, but take my word for it – it’s massive and endless. Yet, it’s in complete contrast to where we will be sending the majority of our time – Isabela Province in north-east Luzon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The Philippines is broken down into provinces, forming the local government like British counties. Isabela is the second largest of these and comprised in part by the Northern Sierra Madre National Park. It is Sierra Madre mountain range which has kept the Agta and others living in Palanan so isolated from the rest of the country.</span><br />
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/GbuC5uqfTVjbeLzjQmkBnlXjHYO6d3HXF3xG4AmqsUbhLKfzeAxRrZ7gXoGU_H52WGIQT2e1BtKLEkP-emmmm3TBK2WCGhoO-LE8whD9zcv_zb3SSLQ4z9LpWPUxiwPlIL8V1wlwTo8" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/GbuC5uqfTVjbeLzjQmkBnlXjHYO6d3HXF3xG4AmqsUbhLKfzeAxRrZ7gXoGU_H52WGIQT2e1BtKLEkP-emmmm3TBK2WCGhoO-LE8whD9zcv_zb3SSLQ4z9LpWPUxiwPlIL8V1wlwTo8" style="border-radius: 1px; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" width="325px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Yvf6_LQO5yyClRLVH_og7dsZbUJI15fP-CBbz3OocsTp59q4zc8Cqgu3o5dvDavPBMdjFGMMIWcGsTEm-C0Q0qeMvaCci40aJXrg5kmDw4Zf7diPcuMjzcq2ycmPhEXLkUlpQEdlq94" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/GbuC5uqfTVjbeLzjQmkBnlXjHYO6d3HXF3xG4AmqsUbhLKfzeAxRrZ7gXoGU_H52WGIQT2e1BtKLEkP-emmmm3TBK2WCGhoO-LE8whD9zcv_zb3SSLQ4z9LpWPUxiwPlIL8V1wlwTo8" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Most of the inhabited areas of Palanan are to the east of the mountain range, physically cut off from what everyone refers to in Palanan as the ‘mainland’. You might as well be on an island – the only way in and out is by 10-hour boat from Dilasag in the south or a lightweight (and rather old) airplane from a nearby city. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The cause of this isolation is clear in the relief map below as the mountain range slices the province in two.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; text-align: left;">So after traveling for a couple of days from Manila, you reach Palanan, a town the Lonely Planet describes as ‘at the ends of the world’. So yes, this is a tiny town in the watershed of a river running through the last untouched primary mountainous rain forest in the Philippines, but there are Coke and karaoke so let’s not get too carried away with exoticising the place. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">However, Palanan is famous as the leader of the Philippine revolt against Spanish colonial rule was captured here, bringing the revolution to a close. There are a mini memorial and museum in Palanan dedicated to the event – a tourism hot spot. Actually, due to its inaccessibility, tourism is a non-event, with very few people braving three-day mountainous jungle trek. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Not to be confused between the municipality called Palanan and the town, which also called Palanan locals refer to the town as Bayan, meaning, rather unoriginally ‘town’ in the local dialect, Paranan. But it makes the distinction well. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Bayan is small, and you get the feeling that everyone definitely knows everyone. And everyone knows when non-Filipinos are in town – it takes a while to get used to being stared at.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Out of the populous of 16,000 around 1,000 are Agta; a historically, physical, genetically and culturally isolated foraging population who were the original inhabitants of the Philippines. In contrast to the majority of the population the Agta are not rice farmers, but rather they live off marine, river and forest resources which they eat or trade for other objects. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This isn’t because they don’t have contact with the farmers because they do and have done for centuries, as well as the Japanese invaders, American troops, Christians from every nationality and American and Dutch (and now British!) anthropologists who took great interest in the area. Why they have maintained their lifestyle is in part a mystery which I hope to study, but they conduct it in a beautiful and ecologically diverse landscape which includes coral reef, beaches, watersheds, rivers, mountains, and rainforests. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">So hopefully, with the descriptive prose, maps and photos the picture of our next year are now vivid in your mind…… next time I will tell you more about the UCL Hunter-Gatherer Philippine Team.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183625513117461661.post-3930120817476103612014-02-05T08:08:00.003-08:002014-02-26T00:01:48.350-08:00Welcome<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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and thanks for tuning in to <span style="color: orange;">Wasabi on the go</span>. This first post is about our plans for the upcoming year.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-33vG4edcXQ8/UvJiPTlDVLI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/wq-EGzAbYoU/s1600/Isabela_1627_6462-E.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-33vG4edcXQ8/UvJiPTlDVLI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/wq-EGzAbYoU/s1600/Isabela_1627_6462-E.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Agta Hunter, 2011, <a href="http://www.jacobimages.com/">Jacob Maentz</a></td></tr>
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2014 is a special year for us. We are in for a big trip stretching from February till the 10th of December. We will be back just in time for the Christmas. The first aim is to conduct an anthropological fieldtrip as part of the <a href="http://www.adapting.org.uk/">Hunter-Gatherer Resilience Project</a> @ UCL in London. More about this in the next post, for now let's focus on the big picture.</div>
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As I first looked at the trip on Google Maps I couldn't help but wonder why, if I was to do half the trip around the globe, I would not do the other half too. This is a somewhat childish idea that I have in mind, how fun is the idea of walking always in the same direction and ending up at the starting point. So, we are taking a few weeks off after the Philippines for this. </div>
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Let's have a look at the big picture, we are flying:</div>
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- On the 15th of February: <span style="color: orange;">London </span>--> Manila</div>
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- 21th of October: Manila --> Tokyo</div>
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- 8th of November: Tokyo --> Los Angeles</div>
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- 18th of November: San Francisco --> Washington DC</div>
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- 1st of December: Washington DC --> Reykjavik</div>
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- 8th of December: Reyjakvick --> <span style="color: orange;">London</span>.</div>
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We have the flights but not much more at the moment. So lots of planning ahead, do not hesitate if you have been to some of those places to fill us with ideas and info. You may also have observed the discrepancy between LA and SF; this is to give us a good opportunity for a nice road trip across California.</div>
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Oh, and this is how it look on a map:</div>
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<iframe height="400" src="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/embed?mid=zWkzIat2CgT8.kIjh51nqTI04" width="700"></iframe><br /></div>
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This is it for this week, stay tuned for next episode on the 10th of February.</div>
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Love,</div>
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Wasabi.</div>
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Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17276847010519182009noreply@blogger.com2