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.

This is just a peek of what we did last Earth Day . Will post better pictures once i get the whole cd from CCEF , the sponsoring org. I wrote a press release on the activity. Unfortunately, the news version isn't online. I wonder why. I still want to write a feature/ essay on the experience. All photos by Evangeline White, wife of marine biologist Alan White and co-founder of CCEF. That's me in the neon yellowgreen "shorts" and blue fins ;-P

Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia My first time in Sumilon, the skies were gray and low over the sea. But even that dullness couldn’t keep the island’s emerald tongue of water from surprising the deep blue of Bohol Strait. Sumilon Island, 15 minutes by boat from Barangay Bancogon in the southern town of Oslob, is home to a 32-year old marine sanctuary, the oldest in the country. It is the shallow waters of the sanctuary that sparkle green even from the highway overlooking Bancogon. With stands of forest on a hill in the middle of the 50-hectare island, and lush mangroves surrounding a freshwater lagoon right beside a long stretch of white beach, Sumilon was also declared a municipal tree park in 1990. A lighthouse and a Spanish-era Moro watchtower stand on top of the hill. Sharp rocks line its coves and cliffs. These, and the intricate patterns of trees shaped by wind and salt, hint of a wildness in the island’s natural beauty. Underwater, the view is as breathtaking. Even beyond th...

February 25, 2005. As people were remembering EDSA in MAnila, I was in Sumilon, supposedly to clean up some crown-of-thorns starfish. Ended up walking around the island on the pathway right on the cliff. It was my first time to see everything (technically, not everything, since I still didn't get to see the lighthouse and the watchtower), because the last time , I just took a boat around the island after the dive. The view overwhelemed me so much, I wrote a story (yes, a true one, on what's happening there now) on it when I got back home.

Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia first published in Destination Cebu, August 2004 Twenty years ago, with an underwater desert fringing its shores, the irony of Sumilon Island would not have escaped anyone. One of the two oldest marine sanctuaries in the country, the Sumilon Island Fish Sanctuary was established in 1973 by the Silliman University Marine Lab (SUML). The Municipal Council of Oslob, a town 15 minutes away by boat from Sumilon and 120 km south of Cebu City, also passed an ordinance declaring the entire 50-hectare island as a marine reserve. Fish and corals, already abundant to begin with, teemed more than ever in the waters off the uninhabited island. A decade later, only sand and rubble covered its silent depths. Muro-ami had dramatically changed Sumilon’s seascape. Muro-ami is a fishing method used in reefs where skin divers pound corals with weights to scare the fish and drive them towards a large net. As many as 200 divers are used for this operation, sometimes incl...

July 18, 2004 - Sumilon is a small, unihabited island about 3 hours south of Cebu City. It has a forest in the middle, a Spanish watchtower, a lighthouse, a lagoon, and a marine sanctuary that was established way back in 1973 (!), at the same time as the famous Apo Island in Negros Oriental. Even with muro-ami going on there in the 1980's, really large corals have now grown even outside the sanctuary. This was my first time to take underwater photos =) Used a disposable camera with a maximum depth of 50ft. Read the full story in my journal .