Mutya ng Pawikan

The above picture was taken with the winner of the "Mutya ng Pawikan" pageant (loosely, and less poetically translated as "miss pearl of the sea turtle" pageant) at the first ever Pista ng Pawikan (sea turtle fiesta). She is wearing her outfit from the "Recycled Wear" contest. It is made of newspaper. My favorite in recycled wear was the girl who made a dress out of old CDs. it was beautiful. The other Americans in the picture are other PCVs who came to help out w/the event. It was a two day long environmental education event focusing on sea turtles & the marine environment. A sort of celebration of natural resources in honor of World Turtle Day. The theory being that people need to be aware that their resources are unique & something worth appreciating before they can learn to respect them, only after which there is a chance they will be willing to conserve/sustainably manage them.

I organized the event as a sort of introduction to coastal/marine ecology & conservation in the community. The next stage is teaching environmental science in the grade schools & training high school teachers in how to integrate environmental topics into their science curriculum. Hopefully by the start of next nesting season (beginning in December) we will have established a volunteer Bantay-Pawikan ("protector of the sea turtles"). They will be in charge of nest monitoring & continuing the environmental education program when I leave in a year.

The Fiesta was a two day long environmental education event focusing on sea turtles & the marine environment. The event included a film showing (The Lorax and BBCs Blue Planet – it is always interesting showing communities who depend so heavily on the sea what it actually looks like down there. Though they know where the fish are, and some dive using wooden framed goggles, wooden flippers, and spear guns, but most have never seen a coral reef), information booths, face painting, sea turtle mask making, an environmental treasure hunt (which involved out-of-school youth planting trees, picking up trash, writing environmentally themed poems etc), an attempt at a coastal clean up, and a riverbank rehabilitation project (planting native vitivir grasses on a steep riverbank).

The highlight of course was the pageant, which was one of the most entertaining spectacles of which I have ever been a part. No public event is complete without some awkward gesture by the foreigners, which came during an extended intermission when we were (without warning) called on stage to entertain. Filipinos are great at impromptu spotlight sessions, and after being here two years I’m pretty much immune to this type of awkwardness so we hopped up on stage and began singing “Buhay Kubo,” a favorite Filipino children’s song. Luckily everyone in the audience knew the words and sang along with us.

While I would definitely say the event was a success (literally everyone in the three surrounding communities was present), there were a few major shockers, such as the contestant who beat a beautifully constructed sea turtle effigy to bits & then walked off stage crying as part of the talent portion. Or during the question and answer portion when another contestant answered the question "Why are sea turtles important to our community?" by toasting the crowd with "Because their eggs are the most delicious! Cheers!"

Hey, at least it got people thinking about sea turtles...