Playing Sailor for 20 Days

Maybe some of you are wondering were did I go the last four weeks. Did I abandoned my blogs? Did I go to some pit and failed to go out alive? Nah!

Like what I said in my farewell post, I was sent by our office to a ship for a project. So there, I live in a ship for almost a month and walked on land just for few hours.

I did miss land, but I did not kiss it like the shaken sailors during the Age of Discoveries.

Finally, I got a glimpse of this island

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That island is Corregidor Island. The island that used to be the formidable fortress against enemies who desire to attack Manila until it was destroyed by the Japanese during the World War.

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I did not go to Corrigedor Island but I just looked at it from afar. :-)

I also got the chance to see Manila from the sea. Yeah, Manila is too smoky and the air is polluted. It is no wonder why some Metro Manilans are suffering from respiratory illnesses.

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Hazy Manila in the early morn.

I am also lucky to reach the town of Bulan. Finally, I could say that I set my foot on my father's home province, which is Sorsogon in Bicolandia.

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Bulusan Volcano is shown in the photo above. Unfortunately, there are clouds blocking Bulusan's peak.

Almost a month away from home. Almost a month away from the Internet. Almost a month feeling the rocking of the sea whenever you wake up. Well, at least I experienced part of a seaman's life.

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Visit my other blogs Digital Think Tank and Ahab Reviews and Tips.

Also drop by the blog of my good friend, the Frumpy Mom.

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Finally, I am Back!

Finally, after four days of intensive work in mapping the middle of Manila Bay, I am back online.

It seems that I missed a lot of things during those four days. My e-mail inbox is full of unread messages and my Facebook account is filled with new notifications. Checking my Google Reader showed me that I have a lot of new blog posts to read. I also discovered that SocialSpark approved my latest paid post for payment within 30 days.

You are right my blogger friends. After a string of unfortunate events, I am now rained by good things.

Since Saturday, we started working to map part of Manila Bay. I am thankful to the Lord that He gave us fair weather during those four days. I am also thankful that I accomplished many things and no untoward incidents occurred.

So, my dear blogger friends, I am sorry if I failed to blog hop these past days. I will catch up on all of you now that I am back in action.
 
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There are Those Days...

There are times in our lives when it seems that the heavens are conspiring against you. Those are the times when unfortunate events befall you like the way dominoes fall one after the other. Well, I guess that this week is a week of bad luck for me. Since Monday, a string of bad events occurred. 

The worst event is Wednesday when my LG KU380 fell to the sea. I got the phone back (courtesy of the kids who dived for it in Manila Bay) but it conked out. I had it cleaned by a technician, but still it didn’t work. I have doubts if my phone will be functional again.

I could have left the phone under the sea but I didn’t. It has a sentimental value for me since it is my gift to myself after I received my first year-end bonus. I felt so bad Wednesday night that I thought that I was the most stupid person in the world.

Add that event to the stress and tension I felt for my current mapping project of the Manila Bay, plus the other bad events (which I will not say here so as not to burden you my dear readers), and I can say that I have a hell of a week.

Experiencing unfortunate events is not a problem for me because I know that those events are part of our lives. However, if those events occurred in a short amount of time then it not farfetched to say that the spirit of a bad fortune had me as its target. 

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Fishing in the Polluted Manila Bay

I couldn’t help but feel sad for the current state of the Manila Bay.

Manila Bay is the body of water that covers the seas to the west of Manila City and the nearby provinces. It is the best harbor in the Philippines and majority of sea vessels enter Manila Bay to reach the busiest ports in the country. Before the Spanish Colonization and until now, Manila Bay is the main source of food for many Filipinos. Old people still say stories of how beautiful and clean Manila Bay is. Now, due to neglect and irresponsibility, it only serves as the largest sewage and dumping area of Metro Manila.

Last week, I saw Manila Bay up close, when we did a project at Centennial Park in Navotas City. I could see and smell the sorry state of Manila Bay. The water is totally darkened and volumes of trash are floating everywhere. The smell of Manila Bay is sickening. The bad thing is that the odor stuck to our skin after we did the project for the whole day.
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The black sea. Notice the trash floating on the water.

To my surprise, I saw a group of children fishing on the Manila Bay. They told me that they started fishing since 6:30 AM and they are fishing their lunch.
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 Kids still fish from the Manila Bay.

They are using nylon threads with hook and weight at the end. Once they feel something tugging their nylon thread, they will instantly tug the thread to catch the fish. They use “ipis dagat” (sea cockroaches) as their bait. A kid said that he have a hard time catching the ipis dagat because they ran very fast. Ipis dagat are plenty on the sea walls and rocks beside Manila Bay.
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Ipis dagat everyone?

Fishes still live in Manila Bay. The kids already caught many fishes since early morning, which is enough for their lunch. The fish is not larger than the size of a regular cellphone. They fry it or cook it by vinegar (kilawin). However, I am concerned with those fish because it is possible that it ingested the filth and poison in Manila Bay. It is possible that eating those fish poses great risk to those kids’ health.
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Fish for lunch.

Fishing is still a sizable industry in Manila Bay. I saw large fishing vessels coming from Navotas Fish Port. The fish port is still one of the largest drop-off points for fishes and marine foodstuff in the country.
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 Fishing vessels berthed on the Manila Bay coastline.

Manila Bay is an important part of the Philippines. However, because of our neglect, it became one of the most polluted seas in the world. I hope that the government’s effort to clean Manila Bay will continue. I do hope that the Filipino people will also learn to respect Mother Nature and stop throwing trash on rivers and waterways, especially the ones that are connected to Manila Bay.

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