Working in the islands

Our work brings us to different places and working for environmental NGO brought me to one of the most remote islands in the Philippines—Tawi tawi. Taganak Island is one of the 6 of the 9 islands of Turtle Islands that comprise the transboundry conservation project meaning it geographically spans two countries Philippines and Malaysia. I love traveling, being a mountaineer and a diver I do not find constant traveling a burden as part of my work at all but a bonus to be able to travel and at the same time be paid for it. Doing environmental conservation work in remote islands opened up opportunities to immerse myself in a new community, a different religion and culture.

I was blessed to be able to know the people of these islands. During one of our 3 to 4 month long fieldwork, I learned to live simply going back to basics like fetching our water from a well using a small pail with a rope filling the bucket doing this everyday sometimes I do this ritual of sorts at night under the moonlit sky. It was not a burden at all for the novelty of the experience made me feel alive. Our office is beside the beach and at night the waves actually lull you to sleep in the morning there is the beach only a step away from the backdoor of the office/staff house and working in the community of a different religion was a challenging one but that did not stop me from expressing my Catholic faith there were about four Catholic Christian families. In the small chapel we have dry mass, we pray the rosary and that is our Sunday... a priest only comes once or twice a year in these parts.

I realized that there are many things to be thankful for that we now have at hand and going back to Quezon City I felt overjoyed at the convenience of piped-in water and when I went to mass again for a long time, I was moved deeply (parang sasabog sa tuwa ang puso ko—ed)by the beauty of the Eucharist celebration.

(Daisy’s memoirs of Turtle islands, 2004)