International friends, geographic isolation, etc.

April 2, 2011

Lately I have been spending my days at the airport, WAITING for a possible flight to Palanan. There are no flights. The weather is either bad in Cauayan, or bad in Palanan. In this flight you go through the Sierra Madre mountains, which are ~6,000 ft. The plane only goes 1,000 ft, and weaves thru the mountains. If the clouds are too low...well, you can imagine how hard it is for the pilot to weave through the mountains.

The cool thing is, in all my days (~7) spent at the airport, I have met so many new friends. A really cool Dutch crocodile ecologist who I got to hang out with 3 days straight, 2 sweet Indian boys who are aviation students, along with some Iranian and Iraqi aviation students who are also very kind and interesting to talk to, a really rad and intelligent American pilot/flight instructor from Bloomington, Indiana, and all sorts of friendly Filipinos from the Palanan area. I have my first ever friend from Iraq – very special.



People can't get back to their homes in Palanan – this weather was unexpected. I have been hearing people talk about the plan to build a road from Cauayan to the Palanan area...it's a complicated topic. The roads are hard to maintain because of landslides, and also the NPA always interrupts the creation/maintenance of the roads. (The NPA is the armed guerilla of the Philippine Communist Party) In some ways, not having a road isa good thing – it's cool that Palanan and surrounding barangays are isolated from the mainland. But, in some ways it is a travesty – especially when a typhoon hits, like last October. The Agta are especially affected – left with little natural resources and absolutely no medical supplies.

Of course, right now, I am wishing there was a road. Heh heh.

Until next time...