the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

September 18 and 19, 2005. Had a Basic Orientation Seminar at the University of San Agustin, then a meeting with other cluster members of the Alternative Law Groups in the Visayas. got to do a bit of sightseeing in jaro, videoke and ballroom dancing (this was our meeting break ;-) and eat, eat, eat! didn't bring my own camera so had to borrow a digital one =(

  Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia (everything's kinda crammed, but i tried to cover the whole experience in as little space as possible)   If you think you’ve seen all that Cebu has to offer, look further. About four hours northeast of Cebu City is this province’s most unexplored piece of paradise: the Camotes Group of Islands .   Camotes, with its green hills and rocky cliffs, is clothed with an air of serenity even from a distance. A land bridge hidden by mangroves connects its two biggest islands, Poro and Pacijan. The 158-year old church in Poro, standing amidst a neighborhood of century-old houses, is testimony that these islands have somehow preserved their tranquility despite pressure from the rest of the world to move faster, live louder, build bigger. At the port, the water is so clear that the bottom is visible even by moonlight. But it is in Pacijan Island , in the town of San Francisco , that nature speaks clearest.   The night winds blew fierce ...

a continuation of my Camotes album , this time, people and their local crafts.

WARNING: raw musing! (but no comprehensive updates this time) i wonder if with all the bus and plane and boat rides i take, it's actually the world passing me by and not the other way around. just a quick run-down of the month so far (and to be): 9-10: Boljoon, Cebu 15-17: Workshop in Guadalupe 18-19: Iloilo City, Iloilo 28-29: Quezon City and in between (the times when i HAVE to stay put), the walking and dancing in the rain, and lunching and writing under my old, old acacia tree when i'm feeling stressed out at the office. after all this, bantayan again to continue our research on dynamite fishers. i am constantly in transit as a rebellion against the idea of being bound by four walls and chained to my too-mobile computer day and night (a situation that, if i might say, i've brought upon myself). but after the mad rush to catch the boat or plane to the next destination, what then? i can only go so far. even if i get to go to all the countries in the world, on the other en...

i call these "exercises" because they evoke--nothing more, nothing less. i started writing them out of a strong feeling for an image (or a strong image for a feeling), rather than out of a need to communicate some profound philosophical truth which was how i used to define poetry. so these may not be so "resonant" and "anthologizable", but it's much more liberating =) hopefully, these will evolve into something more significant hehe. the first one i wrote today for our poetry reading on saturday (see my calendar), to be accompanied by a dance (but no music =), so it sounds more like my "traditional" poetry than the others that follow. still needs more revision and thought (the "crafting" stage), so read at your own risk. comments are very welcome =) ========== Sunrise in Boljoon The rains have turned the sea black, the clouds are low on the water. In the distance, a tinge of crimson bruises the sky in places that must be east...

Start:      Sep 27, '05 Location:      NYC my beautiful mama's turning 45 =)

Start:      Sep 24, '05 5:30p Location:      Montebello Hotel, Banilad, Cebu

lost and found by Jeneen R. Garcia published September 10, 2005     My kid--if I ever have one--will probably grow up nameless.   I do not think it a lack of creativity as much as fear--a fear of naming. While my favorite neighbor Ana calls her black cat Caesura, her car Colette and her laptop Justa, and my online friend Kahlil sleeps with a camera called Thirdy, I cannot even bring myself to call some close friends by name to their face.   Names for me are both convenient and frightening. A name singles out your pet askal from a hundred other dogs on the street. It distinguishes one fish from another; if they once all looked alike to you, knowing their names makes it easier to remember which one’s better for kilaw , which one’s good for sugba . It certainly helps in finding your kid at school, or visiting a sick relative at the hospital. Names keep conversations from getting confusing, as in THAT guy and THIS guy and THAT other guy.   Names are the official br...

Start:      Sep 17, '05 6:00a Location:      Provincial Capitol, Cebu City Walk from the Capitol to the City Hall, and then coastal clean-up at Carbon market. September is Cebu Coastal Protection Month, so there will be actvities throughout the month, but September 17 is International Coastal Clean-Up DAy, so there will be beach and river clean-ups, as well as SCUBASURERO in Mactan and Moalboal.

Start:      Sep 17, '05 Asia Pacific's Cities and Communities Unite for a Greener World Sydney, Australia -- From Manila to small Island Nations in the Pacific volunteers across Asia Pacific will take to the streets, parks and beaches next weekend to clean up, fix up and promote green living in their community. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers from 29 Asia Pacific countries are expected to take part in the annual Clean Up the World Weekend, celebrated globally on the 16th - 18th of September. Held in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Clean Up the World campaign, now in its thirteenth year, empowers over 35 million people in over 110 countries to take simple, positive steps to improve and protect their environment each year. "Our 2005 theme 'Green Cities Green Communities' is encouraging people around the world to look at ways they can reduce their environmental impact across the areas of waste, water and energy. This is of p...

Pictures of our dogs at home in Davao. Just had the roll developed after my Boljoon trip .

September 9-10, 2005. Was feeling claustrophobic in the city, so decided to go off on the long weekend by myself to Boljoon, which I've been wanting to visit for the last 5 years (imagine, 5 years worth of frustration =P). Left the house at 5am Friday morning, got on a bus, and took a 2 1/2-hour trip to southeast Cebu. And i'm so glad i went even though i wasn't sure what i'd find. Rented my own cottage by the beach, took as much time as i wanted to write, snorkel (it was beside a marine sanctuary), read poetry by the rocks in the rain (o ha!), wait for the sunrise, sketch, take walks in town, make friends with kids and old-timers, and shoot...in short, everything i want to do but hardly have time and SPACE to. it was wonderful! God is great =) more stories coming in my journal. PS forgive the (fat) pictures of me mixed up with everything else. when you automate things, it's easiest to just lump everything together. i discovered it's not so bad, after all, to a...