the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

 a fter almost nine years of writing poetry in english, i finally wrote not just one, but two (!) poems in cebuano the other weekend. i already put it in my head that i had to have something of my own to read at Bathalad’s 7 th Bantawan sa Bathalad at Kahayag (poetry reading in Cebuano, every first Wednesday at 7:30 pm) on February 1.   and so, as i was falling asleep Saturday night, the words started tumbling out for the two poems. actually, i don’t think i could’ve written them any other way, as i would’ve been too afraid to start. since i had two half-poems when i woke up the next day, i had enough courage to push on and finish them Sunday night (had to keep them out of my mind during Sunday school and church, otherwise i wouldn’t have been able to do anything else), revising them by Monday lunch time, ready for reading on Wednesday evening.   i wrote these directly in cebuano, thought them out with the part of me that’s become cebuano, because the sensibility of...

Over the past year, I've taken quite a lot of pictures of the kids in Oslob, in the particular barangays I've been to. But i'm posting here the most recent one I took, on Earth Day (April 22), after a crown-of-thorns clean-up in Sumilon Island , Barangay Bangcogon. One of my summer trips . I'm also including here the very first pix of myself (hehe) on Sumilon, as well as portraits of some of the people who protect the island.

February 24 to 25, 2005. After a few hours in Alegria in southwest Cebu, we proceeded to Oslob on the east. For the first time, I used a cable release on my camera. This is the result of my experiment capturing the moonrise. Next time, I think I should use multiple exposures instead to avoid the streak, but I haven't tried that technique yet, either. This is the same town where Sumilon is.