Nasidman Island

Last week, April 11 - 13, I made a 3-day trip to the opposite side of Panay Island.  The trip to the Ajuy area is as far-distant as is possible to be from our place at Tibiao.  Our destination, Nasidman Island, is about 2 km. off the coast of Panay, in the Guimaras strait which separates Panay and Negros islands.  The google-map with driving routes/ times below shows our starting and ending points, but the drive times are optimistic, being more like 6½ to 6¾ hours for either route.  I chose the familiar southern route for our trip outbound, and decided to "see something different" via the northern route on our return.

LATER: I placed a Google-map satellite view of Nasidman Island near the bottom of this posting.

 Our start-time of 4:30 a.m. wasn't favorable to photo-taking;

here, we are 3 hours "out" at a fuel stop in Iloilo.

 We arrived at the departure point for Nasidman a little before 11 a.m. The trip was pretty uneventful.  As it was low-tide, the boat had to stay about 150 feet off-shore because of the shallow contour.  We had been prepared in advance for the likelihood of wading to get into the boat - no surprise.  The rock-wall to the right will show in another photo at high- tide, later in this posting.

The bottom of the "strait" is covered with rounded stones

which are various irregular sizes, and rolly/ slippery.  I found
I had to be pretty careful to keep my footing - - with a camera

and cell phone among other items  including my "donkey"
(KJV) that I didn't  want to get wet.

This photo from later shows the sort of cleated "ladder" 

which was provided for boarding - - none too steady as

the boat bobbed up and down with the small waves.

 First mate and second mate provide various helps to the

captain - - notably, helping to push off, as the boat was 

QUITE grounded after the addition of about 15 passengers.

Nasidman is the island to the right, ahead.

 I was sitting towards the stern and couldn't see much of

our approach.

A few hours later, making an extra trip to "mainland," I got these views of what the approach would have been like.

.

I never thought to take a picture of the pathways on the island.  They are about 4 to 6 feet wide most places, suitable ONLY for walking.   There are NO VEHICLES on the island, except for a few "BMX bicycles" (mountain bikes) which are allowed to ride in the mountainous areas away from the settlement, PLUS a very few "toddler cars" which seemed to be pedal propelled NOT battery driven (+ mostly pushed by older children).  The walking distance from the boat landing to our farthest point was about 400 yards. 

The occasion for the trip was the semi-annual April meeting of our church "Association,"  which by voluntary participation coordinates activities of the members for projects which are larger- than- local.  The church group at Nasidman Island hosted the meeting as an opportunity to showcase their building, which is nearing completion

This is an amazing, large structure for its area.  Every material

would have to be hand-loaded and unloaded, carried by canoes

over to the island and carried by hand and foot for at least 150

yards up a moderate hill to the site.  This would include the

cement and cement blocks, roof structure, steel re-bar, and

quite likely the sand and gravel - - these materials can't be 
taken from the ocean  because salt content interferes with
cement.  The building appears to be 40- feet wide x 60- 
feet long,  with posts 10- feet and 12- feet tall.  

The roof framing is all factory-made heavily galvanized steel,

and the roof covering is all either epoxy or powder-coat high-tech

material which is much more durable than the more common

but shoddy "galvanized" corrugated  roofing.

Activity in progress gives an idea of the "scale" of the room.

To the left is a restroom and utility building, with a kitchen

area under a roof-extension in between.  Note also a 

10- kilowatt diesel generator set at far left.

There is NO utility- electricity on the island. The municipality has a generator which runs a network of street-lamps along the pathways at night.   These 2 generators are the only ones I HEARD in use although there are probably others. Most of the houses seem to use solar panels with the usual battery-storage and inverter systems to operate lights and appliances.  At the guest house where we stayed, there seemed to be no problem with operating several lights and electric fans all night long.

 30 yards from the front of the building is a community well

which provides clear, good quality water for general usage;

I noted that the cooking/ drinking water came in 5- gallon
jugs from purification companies.

 .  The locals used this area for bathing-while-

clothed, as a needed cool-off from the above 90° F. heat.

Several 4-liter buckets tied to lightweight poly-rope were

 used for drawing water, then dumped into larger buckets

for carrying.  Amazing how fast someone with practice

could get a bucket of water up to the top.

The well seemed to be about 25-feet deep.  On our second day there the usage outpaced its water supply for a few hours, with the typical 1-gallon  "dippers" coming up nearly empty.

A few hours later, the water level was up enough for continuing use.

This sign near the well is similar to others posted along the pathways, reminding residents to keep things clean and tidy and notifying of a 300-peso penalty for NOT.  PAHIBALO is close enough to  the word Prohibited to be a reasonable guess in-context, and the word shampoo appears in the notice.  I wouldn't want shampoo (or any kind of poo)  in my well, either.

Later the first day, I made a return-trip to the Ajuy port. At the boat-landing, I found a boat-crew unloading these filled water-jugs onto the island;  it seems like fresh water is one of their main-stay cargo items.  I had a 10-minute wait until the boat was unloaded and ready to go. 

Leaving the island, the "first-mate's"  job is to pole the boat

into deeper water, and away from other boats also "parked,"

then turn it around so the engine can be used.  

There is no reverse-gear!

I quickly finished my errand at Ajuy, and returned to the

boat landing to find this boatman loading 10 or 12 water

containers (some were like "Culligan" 5-gal round bottles),

easily walking along the rock-wall.  THIS is the wall shown

above, when we were embarking for Nasidman, and the high-

tide is apparently about 5 feet above the low-tide level.
  
To get to the boat, I had to also walk out on that wall - its wet

and irregular surface causing me to be pretty cautious.  As

the boat was rocking in several directions, I found it prudent

to sit down on the end of the wall and try to ease into place

on the boat - - but of course the nearest hand-hold on board

was about arm's length beyond my reach.  Well, I made it OK.

This photo is just after we pushed off; the boatman, working

by himself, is just beginning to turn around so we can motor

on out of there.

Back on Nasidman, 150 feet from the boat-landing is this well- 
appointed house where we spent the 2 nights that we stayed there. 

About 12 of us slept on foam-mats on the covered balcony.

The house faced toward the boat landing area, which had an extensive fish-drying area covering enough space for several houses.  Nasidman Island is a prosperous fishing community, with solid, nice houses and an abundance of fish in the drying-process - - all hand-work but on a large commercial scale.  Likely these are wholesale-sold to dealers for large cities that are within viable transport-distance.

   

I have lived in a hard-scrabble fishing community for 6½ years, and it was an eye-opener for me to see anything better than hand-to-mouth survival come from fishing. 

HERE's the difference in the two situations, as far as I can guess:  Our area, Tibiao, is on the "outside" of the Philippines, facing an international sea, where huge trawlers from everywhere can also fish, and deplete the number of fish by unregulated over-fishing. Nasidman Island is on the internal sea-passage in-between Philippine Islands - - so

no foreign vessels will provide competition. 

 Look at the map which began this posting, for a quick reference. 

This satellite photo of Nasidman Island shows that the main settled area is the north-east edge; the rest is quite steep and rough hillsides.  The remainder of the island not in the photo is slightly larger than what is shown.  1) The boat-landing area is at the top of the photo, with the blue roof of our guest-house clearly visible nearby. 2) Following the pathway south along the east side, there are TWO other paths branching off inland, and the church building is the large red-roof  in between them near the end of the first one. 3) The elementary school occupies the rectangular space in-between these two paths.  The boats visible along the shoreline are all of similar size and construction: double-outrigger canoes, about 25 feet long.

The Island was a pleasant and peaceful place to visit for lack of several things which plague every other place I have been in the Philippines: Vehicles, as mentioned above;  Roosters, apparently NOT raised as sport-fighting cocks on the island, as there is only occasional crowing and not a constant bedlam of idiot-birds screeching out their "trash talk;"  Dogs, apparently only in reasonable numbers and not allowed to bark, whine, and howl 24/ 7;  Hyper-Amplified Sonic Garbage of all sorts, also absent - what I DID hear while walking around sounded like music and was at a very reasonable volume, no danger of cracking my molars.   In short, the Island People are apparently above-average in civility, intelligence, and consideration for others (USA before 1970), and they have a NICE place to live.   

NO sunset photo, this time.  This is a few minutes after 5:00 a.m. on  Saturday morning, looking west over Guimaras Strait towards Calabasa ("pumpkin/ squash") Island as I walked along the main footpath shown in the satellite photo. 

We enter Holy Week - the week we remember Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection - with a certain sense of AWE each year.  There is a mixture of solemnity and joy in this annual memorial, and the events of the "larger world"  somehow seem a little smaller.  (Even though we hear of such things as Notre Dame in Paris burning - incredible!).

Wishing for all of you a congenial continuance of A.D. 2019.

TJ and Bernadette Larson

Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines