In Defense of Reading Two Books At The Same Time…

I feel that I am the poster child for someone with ADHD. My mind wanders from topic to topic, idea to idea, and it drives my wife crazy. One of the symptoms of my problem is that I often find myself reading more than 1 book at the same time, something that is easy for some people, but a bad idea for me, one book the distraction for too long with the other. So, this past year, I have made a kind of pact with myself to try and abstain from multiple books at the same time.

This past week, however, I have been deviating from my little oath, reading two books at the same time. One of these is called 'The Control of Nature' by John McPhee, a book mom brought to me when she visited just a couple weeks ago, and the other, a book entitled 'Sleeping with the Devil' written by an ex-CIA Agent, about our addiction to crude oil from the Middle East and subsequent shady relationships we pay to maintain in the hopes of keeping the Saudis happy.

Now, these are two books that one wouldn't normally put in the same category, but I was hit by some striking similarities in the subject matter. In 'The Control of Nature,' the author spends the first part of the book detailing our control of the Mississippi river, one of the top ten largest rivers in the world, a river that drains about a third of the continental United States. It tells of how the first settlers in the Southern Louisiana area staked their claim on hundreds of thousands of acres of low lying swampland, shifting alluvial floodplains that were home to some of the best farming in the world due to periodic flooding and the shifting riverbed. They looked at this area, and shortsightedly, unknowingly, built their cities, first New Orleans, then Morgan City, and others, in one of the most volatile and difficult-to-control river systems you could imagine. To guard against floods in their new found civilization, the inhabitants first built earthen and rock dams at high cost. As the cities have flourished since, and real estate has become more valuable, a system of earthen dams and levees that was once merely expensive has become a fortress of millions of metric tons of concrete built higher and higher to control more and more water as impermeable surfaces all over the Midwest put a higher volume of stormwater runoff in the river. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to control a river system that wasn't meant to be controlled, but the sad truth is, that we cannot go back and move the cities and industries that are now established in a virtual river bottom. We have no choice but to build the levees higher and higher, the dams thicker and thicker, and spend more and more tax money to maintain our version of what ought to be.

The second book, 'Sleeping with the Devil,' is an incredible peek into the alliances that we have built with rich Saudi princes and royals to maintain assured energy reserves. Just like with Southern Louisiana, we staked a claim a long time ago in the wealth that is sitting in the middle east, namely Saudi Arabia. We built friendships and strategically placed military installations to maintain the balance of power, to keep those families in control so that we could protect our interests. In effect, we took a snap shot of the political and cultural climate of the middle east, and chose to freeze it, keep things the same as long as we could, much like we decided to do with the Mississippi river delta. But here's the thing that I think is the epiphany, culture and politics, just like a huge shifting river delta, moves, and has a natural progression, and if you try to halt it or control a natural process, there are monumental costs that will have to be paid to maintain that balance. In 'The Control of Nature', the Author alludes to the reality that there will be a storm that will undermine the dams to such an extent in Louisiana that they will fail and there will be massive destruction. He says that even the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledges that they cannot keep this up in perpetuity.

Much in the same way, the author of 'Sleeping with the Devil' charges that we have held the cultural and political progression of Saudi Arabia at bay for a long time, but it is inevitable that the Sultans, rich, stupid, and behind the times, will be ousted, and the United States, with its incredible assets at stake, will experience a massive economic meltdown as 60% of the world's oil is suddenly is in the hands of a populace that has endured the punishment of a totalitarian regime for the past 60 years while the U.S. was abetting the whole thing. He, too, claims that this situation is inevitable, and the signs of a frail regime and boiling constituency is already there. He states that it may be in the United States' best interest to take the oil fields in Saudi Arabia by force before they fall into the wrong hands during political conflict, but whatever the best strategy, it is clear that our situation is not very solid. These past few weeks as we all have been watching the situation in the middle east unfold, it has become very clear that the less dependent on assets in that region we can be, the better.

Anyways, that is a long, drawn-out explanation for why I think it may be okay for even the most attention-deprived people to read multiple books at the same time. If any of you have read the books and have another take, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Sitting on a Bench

This past Wednesday, between an excruciatingly mind numbing meeting with the local clergy (long story) and a brief period of nausea dealing with ineptitude at the Municipal Hall, I walked down to watch the ocean. Babatngon, if I haven't mentioned it enough, is a gorgeous place, like much of the Philippines. The islands are riddled with jagged rocks coming out of beautiful aquamarine water, all this with a mountainous backdrop of lush green cogon (tall grass) strewn hills, and from the shore of district 1, where I chose to sit, you can see the peaks of Volcanoes on the nearby island of Biliran. I count 5 nearby islands that you can see while just sitting there.

I sat down on a wooden coconut lumber bench with 6 other men, the oldest men in town, hanging out, as they do every day, on the bench, watching the tides relentlessly rise and fall. The group of old men, their white hair and laxidasical conversation remind me of similar groups I've seen, old guys sitting outside country gas stations in Briery Branch or Keezletown or Woodstock back at home in Virginia. The way they just sit, in a hurry for nothing, and seemingly content to sit the day away, talking with old friends. Two of the guys are pensioners who used to work at the municipal hall, one of them was a politician back in the day, and the other three guys are fishermen, guys with money attained from their children who support them financially. To be sure, these guys wouldn't have been in the same social or economic circles when they were younger but these six guys now spend most of their days talking together, as time, the great equalizer, has brought them full circle.

The old fellow closest to me, a man who sometimes makes crab traps in his spare time, asked me a few questions, about what I'm doing here and when I'll be going home. I told him a little bit about Peace Corps and what we hope to be helping with here in the Philippines. Then he asked me if I read the Bible, if I had ever heard of the 'Babelli.' I didn't know at all what he was talking about, so I asked him to repeat a few times until he finally said, 'The story of the tower of Babelli. Everyone understood each other before that, and then masina hi God (God was mad))' I told him that yes, I had heard of the Tower of Babel, and we talked some more about it. Then he asked me if I am Catholic, I said no, and I explained some of the differences between the Protestants and Catholics, and the different protestant denominations. He seemed relieved because then, under his breath, so the others couldn't hear, he told me that the town is full of Catholics, but they are sinners, are on a very dangerous road. Sure that he was talking about the excesses of alcohol, or the propensity of people here to be less than honest, I asked which commandment the Catholics are breaking. He turned to me, and in the same low voice, with eyes wide and vehement, said 'Engraven images, many many engraven images!' I put on my best serious/consoling face and agreed 'Yes, many many engraven images indeed.'

We continued to sit for a few minutes, and then I left for my afternoon class at the high school, the six old men still talking away with one another, about the weather, or their wives, or the latest news, or something else, and I just wondered if the old men sitting in front of 257 grocery in Briery Branch, Virginia, might have been doing the exact same thing.

Field Trip!!

If you've seen my pictures and posts up 'til now, you would probably have noticed that I have become enamored with teaching science to a first-year class of high schoolers these past 8 or 10 months. Several projects and ideas, for one reason or another, have not gone as I had planned during service. However, I offered to teach this class since the usual teacher was unavailable, and I have developed a real affinity for all of the students. I know where many of them live, I have fished with some of their parents, and have taught environmental education to many of their siblings in other schools where I have gone. While teaching science, I have also discovered the incredible lack of opportunities that hinders the students' educations. Many of the students literally walk up to 5 kilometers through the rain just to come to school. Several of those who live further away have to cut out a day or two a week so that they will have fare to ride the jeep to school. After they have arrived to school, the students don't even have the basic assurance that their teachers will make the effort to come and teach them. So I decided that we would take a field trip.

Within the large municipality of Babatngon, about 20 kilometers away from the high school, there is a regional Agricultural Research Station. Many of the students have driven by the facility on their way to town on special occasions, but none knew what the facility is there for. I started going around town, trying to find out who would be willing to rent out their jeepney and driver for half a day so that we could take the kids on a field trip. I went to the Research Center to schedule the date and see about some sort of tour or presentation. I bargained with a driver I met one day until he agreed to take us, for 4 hours, to and from the Agricultural Research Station for 1000 pesos($22). When I told the kids we were going on a field trip on Wednesday in 2 weeks and how they had to get signed permission slips, they were ecstatic, begging to know what we would do and where we were going. For a couple days, it was the talk of the class. Then, as days wore on towards the trip date, excitement waned, kids stopped talking about it, sure it wouldn't happen, that I had forgotten and things would fall through. On the Tuesday before the trip though, I reminded the students to bring their permission slips, still excitement was low, but the kids treated the permission slips like an assignment, not something that would really be happening. I was even unsure of how the whole thing would pan out.

On Wednesday, I walked to school like every day, and saw a small jeep sitting beside the road, driver standing with a big smile, ready to go on the field trip. I went into the classroom, and started checking off names of students who had their permission slips and 5 pesos as their contribution. 35 of the students turned in everything and we went out to the small jeepney sitting beside the road. I hesitated, seeing how we could never fit all of the kids inside, but the kids rushed to the jeep, girls jumping inside and filling it up, and boys, as is the culture, clamoring up the ladder of the jeep and piling on top. I was horrified to think how quick a teacher in my position in the states, taking a jeep full of kids, half of whom were riding on the top, would get fired. But, the apprehension went away when the principal piled in right beside us, eager to go along, oblivious to the safety hazard. Selena, free from classes for the day, climbed in the back with the girls serving as chaperone #3.

We arrived at the agricultural station at 9:00 am. We played simon says and talked about rice fields until our tour guide came and fetched us 30 minutes later. The students all were invited into the main conference room of the Eastern Visayas Agricultural Research Station and sat down in swivel chairs in an air conditioned room with a powerpoint slideshow playing in front. They were blown away, shivering from what was the first air conditioning many of them had ever felt, watching a series of pictures on a piece of technology none of them had ever seen before. It was a really big moment for many of them, and as the manager of the research center spoke, many of them were in such a new environment, it was a little to much to be taking in. (Before giving each of the students a banana for snack, I gave everybody a squirt off purell which really threw them off. )

After a short presentation, we went to see rice fields planted with different hybrid strains for higher germination and faster growth. They showed us ornamental plants, genetically modified fruit trees, and one man even showed everyone how trees are grafted. Boys in class who I have never been able to reach suddenly were alert, intensely watching as people were working with their hands, employing new scientific ideas and techniques to make agricultural production more efficient. I realize activities like the field trip are unsustainable and last for only a short while, but they were learning things about their community, its potential, and professional life that I could never have shown them in the classroom. It was a huge day for 35 kids who don't have many opportunities and it cost about $26, bananas included.