Cat nap

If I believed in reincarnation I'd want to come back as a domestic cat. I can't imagine a more blissful life than napping 6 times a day, getting back rubs when I wanted them, scratches under the chin and on the side of the face. Yep, life would be pretty sweet.

And that's how it seemed for this cat in the Philippines. I spotted him just minutes before I came across gigantor-pig. He seemed very happy to be stretched out on the side of the sink, not caring if he left orange hairs all over the clean dishes, and staying cool in the shade. While I was still feeling the high of such gorgeous surroundings, I couldn't help but wish we could trade places, just for forty winks or so.

Monster pig

One of the most remote places I visited for work in the Philippines was a place called Kalamansig, which was a four hour drive from the office, then an hour on a boat, and then a short trip on the back of a motorbike. Following a very smoothly run food distribution, I ventured off to find a bathroom, which is when I stumbled upon the giant above.

I remember writing a blog post about this pig, which went along the lines of "I saw a tail swishing from around the corner. It was too high to be a dog, but too low to be a cow. I walked around the corner and was greeted by the sight of the most ginormous testicles," which I then compared in size to the bull statue on Wall St in New York (it's a big statue).

This pig was a monster; it was about the size of a large Shetland pony, or a baby hippo with an overactive thyroid gland. I wish there had been something around to provide a better sense of how big it really was. This photo was taken around the time that there was a lot of talk about H1N1, the swine flu, and I imagined that if this guy was a carrier, that the whole island of Mindanao (the 19th largest in the world incidentally) would be infected by him, single hoofedly.

A lucky kid

The ongoing conflict in Mindanao has displaced over 200,000 people. Many of these families have taken refuge in temporary camps, with a lucky few being moved into longer term barracks or structures. I visited one such area, which was situated on top of a hill, which had a spectacular view but no access to water, and the land was not fit for agriculture. People had to walk a few kilometres to access clean water and some how transport it back up to the shelters in the containers you can see in the photo. Some families had managed to save their livestock, mainly chickens, but I noticed a face poking out at me from around the corner of one of the shelters; a lucky family had managed to save their goat.

The Story of Mangy

I hadn’t planned on telling the story of Mangy so early on, but in light of recent events, I thought I should share a success story. When I moved to the Philippines I was very lucky as a staff house had just been established; my colleagues had spent previous months (and in some cases years) holed up in a nearby hotel. I’m not entirely sure how the cat family came to be part of the household, if they came with the house or just smelled the food, but Grandma, Mum and the kitten soon became part of daily life. Grandma and Mum were named for obvious reasons, but it took a little while to decide on a name for the kitten: Mangy. She was a pathetic looking thing, I was initially scared to go anywhere near her because she looked so terrible. But sure enough, I caved in, and would spend a lot of time curled up on the couch outside on the patio with Mangy curled up beside me. I started giving the cats milk every morning, and my leftover dinner every night. Soon enough, it became clear that Grandma was pregnant again, and then there were another three tiny kitties to admire. Well, as is the way of life, two of the kittens didn’t survive very long, which was very sad indeed…particularly as I found one of them one lunch time. Throughout all of this upheaval, Mangy became more and more outgoing and interested in the world around her, and became stronger and healthier and much less ugly.

Mangy is one of my happiest success stories...I don't know where she is now, but I hope she's thriving.

Bathing Buffalo

Water buffalo are a precious commodity in Mindanao, the largest island in the southern Philippines (and the 19th largest island in the world). Buffalo can plough land, drag heavy loads, and produce milk. So, people take care of their buffalo. The west coast of Mindanao has been plagued by a long running conflict for many years now. I worked there for a few months and was lucky enough, even in an insecure environment, to be able to see a lot of the area while observing food distributions.

The area on the opposite side of this river was experiencing shelling on the day this photo was taken; we could hear mortars exploding in the distance, probably only a few kilometres away. We were conducting an assessment on food needs for people who had left their homes on the other side of the river the week before, and were now living in makeshift shelters, with bamboo frames and walls made of sarongs or old rice bags. We could tell these people had already been displaced by fighting before, as many of them already had rice bags marked with the logo of the agency I was working for. I heard stories of people who'd been forced to leave with only the clothes on their backs, and perhaps some cooking utensils if they were lucky. A number of women told me that their husbands had returned to their homes to try and save the livestock, and they were worried that they wouldn't make it back to safety.

This man had managed to bring his buffalo with him, and it was obvious how precious they were to him as I watched him brush the water off their backs after their bath.