By the way, i am a nurse by profession. I've experienced working as a public health nurse. You might be wondering where, well it's in the province of the most popular Maguindanao. Anyways, i won't talk too much about my experience as a PHN but rather my summer loving last May of this year.
I was assigned particularly in Bongo Island. It's the lone island in illana Bay within the Moro Gulf in the north coast of Cotabato City. Islanders use small ferry to and from Cotabato passing the Pulangi River. Mostly Iranons live there and the main produce is copra, fish and other marine products.
While i was circling around the place for the "Ligtas Tigdas campaign"; a special nationwide door-to-door vaccination for children who are at high risk of getting measles, i took advantage of to see some of the beautiful scenery here. I also went swimming and night fishing with my brother who happens to have the same purpose with me. My cousin and some of his relative served as our tour guide.
The place was beautiful, a never-been-touched island. Texting seems to be the hardest thing to do. No electricity, we only used generators or jeepney batteries to brighten up the night. No water, just rainwater. And the food, not much of veggies but so much of fresh seafoods, of course. My fosters parents deliciously cooks seafoods. For the first time, i ate fishes that i thought was never meant for eating and just meant to be in the aquarium. Although i suffered from diarrhea afterwards, i still enjoyed the meal they served.
By the way, i only have few photos. My memory card got corrupted so the photos from my first visit was gone with the virus and had a dead battery on the second day. This was all taken during my second visit and during my so-called summer loving.
The first photo is an example of a small ferry, and that's Pulangi River. There still a big ferry to accommodate passengers and products to and from. By the way, we are riding a pump boat. if you don't want to ride a public ferry, you can rent a pump boat to and from Cotabato. The second is on our way in the middle of the sea, while the third is Kuya Pawi. He went with us, he served as our tour guide since her family lived there.
This is one of my favorite scene. Bongo island is surrounded by this minute island.
That is Bongo, just a small part of it. As you can see, the place is still virgin.
And these are the samples of the fishes i ate. it took me a while to think if i will really eat them.
Because i really pity them being fried.
They are the kids i play with, the sons and daughters of my new found distant relative.
My new found friends, even though i do not understand them. Language barrier, you know.
That's i guess around 6pm. The view is so great, the sky, the sea.
I super love this photo. a brown & green sea urchin, it's really cool. It walks and it dies when smoked.
The color is so amazing. it's not sharp, obviously touching it won't hurt.
The black sea urchin that hurts. I accidentally stepped on it and it pierced through my ipanema.
It really hurts, badly hurts.
On the morning of our second day, we did this seashore hunting thing.
Looking for some shells to eat on a summer sunny day. And guess what we found. Next.
An octopus. My friend over here found it, he's mute actually.
So he was just yelling, i thought he found something deadly, it was just this. And yes, i was really happy.
While they were busy collecting shells to eat, i was busy collecting this, starfish.
I kept it in the sand but in the morning it was gone, gone with the sea. Too bad i wasn't able to bring it home.
We came this far. We almost reached the end of the other side of the island as well as that small island. Unfortunately, the struggle didn't came to success because of the strong wave. Look at them, almost eaten by the huge wave.
After the long hunting, we took a walk back home and we came to pass by a small cave.
They said that, monkeys live there.
But unfortunately, we didn't saw some. Only some monkey-look-alike.
By the way, this is the only coral reef i got to take. But they have beautiful reefs, different colors, i guess all kinds was there. You can see just merely looking at it without even emerging your face to the water. The water is so clear and clean, even in the shore you can see some just like this.
On the next day, we had fishing at noon time.I got maximum sun-kissed skin after this. It was my first time fishing in the sea. They also taught me to swim. Oh yes! It's an irony, i love to beach but don't know how to swim. I've been trying but i just can't. We also had night fishing, that was one hell of an experience. I might not have taken photos of us in the middle of the sea, bet on me i will not forget it. That was an experience worth the talk, not to write. Anyways that's all for it. And here we are, the islanders.
That's my cousin Tato. This is my brother, his name is Khan, and Black.
And that's my Summer Loving.
Have A Nice Day.
^__^
