All Systems Go!

When I was smaller, between 300-400 cm, my dad let me sit shotgun as “copilot” in his little 6 seater. Before the prop started whirling at full capacity, we always did a checklist. Seatbelts – check! Head phones – check! Fuel – check! Wings – check! For every worthy adventure, I feel a checklist is in order. My checklist for CrowdFunding:

Project – check, Project Description – check, Rewards – check, Blogs – check, FaceBook – check, Website – check!

Despite being slow out of the gate, I have the distinct feeling of already beating the odds.  My field site is in a remote corner of Busuanga on the north side of Palawan in the Philippine Islands. Beautiful pockets of coral reef and amazing fishes are abundant. Electricity and internet…. not so much. There is a handy solar panel that fuels my trusty little MacBook Air and at night sometimes we splurge and turn the generator on for an hour or more! Oh the melodious sound of power, drowning out the crowing of inbred roosters in the night. yes, the night. Dreams of coq-au-vin.

Electricity – check!

There is one lonely cell phone tower that everyone uses. You Load up with prepaid phone cards. If too many people are texting or calling at one time… well, you just have to wait your turn. The other feature on my phone is “Radio”, which I think means it streams the local Filipino station into headphones. Note: get headphones.

Phone – check!

A Dongle and MORE phone load for internet capabilities on your computer. This lets one squeeze out slow emails and leaves one with memories of what it felt like to download.

Internet – check!

iMovie, a fascinating program that enables one to put together homemade footage into a wonderfully cheese filled SciFund project PSA. My laptop has become irritated and exhausted with iMovie. Their abusive relationship has been up and down the last few days, it is apparent that they are asking too much from one another. I suspect Miss Mac has more important things to occupy her space with. The heat and power situation has tempers running hot. It ended with a 9 hour stint of “Finalizing Project”.

Video – check!

We beat the heat, the humidity, and the 3rd world rural resource availability.

All systems are go!

Finished Video:

island kids

island kids

The mornings here are very nice. Calm.

The insects buzz in the dry tropical forest. Cicadas. The Tuko Tiger Gecko calls out his TuuukO! Tuuuk-O! The soft lapping of the bay up and down the shore. The peeping of the chicks, crowing of the roosters. I finally found a local coffee that is palatable to my foreign taste, 6 hour journey to the little town. Totally worth it.

There is a small village on the other end of the beach, hidden behind the mangroves. At a glance you would think you were completely alone.

Morning is when the kids paddle by on narrow bamboo rafts to go fill their water jugs for the day. They sing as they push their way across the water. The acoustics of the calm water elevates their innocent little voices. A homemade songs without an end. Is it just to pass the time? Is he singing about the village, the ocean? Family, the canoe, the fishing? There is something so dear and pure about a childs voice, regardless of the language or culture. It warms the heart every time.

Today one little boy is completely without clothes, it must be laundry day. From working at the school, I know a lot of kids only have 1 pair of clothes. He can’t be more than 6 years old. This is not like back home, kids sent to school with a lunch box full of neatly plastic wrapped food. No bike helmets, no training wheels, no bike, no coloring books or reading, no cartoons or baseball teams. Just the ocean and your family village. This little one paddles by early every morning to get water and bring it home. He then fishes the reef with his little brother in mid morning. They float over the reef on their small bamboo rafts dipping their heads in the water searching, searching, foraging for food. giggling.

SciFund Challenge #2

SciFund Challenge #2

Mermaid Islands is partaking in SciFund Challenge Round #2, the largest Science Crowdfunding project on the internet, has launched its second round at http://scifund.rockethub.com. The goal behind #SciFund is to give scientists an incentive to get out there and begin to couple outreach to the earliest stages of their research programs. Participants create videos about their research, and encourage them to create rewards for donations that involve the general public with their work on into the future.

I wanted to share this with all of you coral reef enthusiasts and scholars because I found this to be an interesting new way for student and professional scientist to engage the public, get the word out on their fantastic research, and even fund parts of their project. (And one of the projects is mine).

http://www.rockethub.com/projects/7533-how-to-use-education-to-protect-a-coral-reef

The Mermaid Islands Corporation

Introducing my supertastic nonprofit:

The Mermaid Islands Corporation works to educate children and fisher folk in the third world islands of the Coral Triangle on the benefits of local reef protection. The Coral Triangle is the center for marine biodiversity in the world and encompasses The Philippine Islands, Indonesia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The Philippines are a hot spot within The Coral Triangle, meaning that due to ocean currents, there are more documented fish, corals, plants and invertebrates in this small piece of ocean than any other place on the entire planet. This biologically special place is threatened daily by the common third world problems of overpopulation, ignorance and hunger. The Mermaid Islands Corporation provides resources for learning labs that illustrate solutions to these problems. The Mermaid Islands Corporation is working to alleviate future pressure of destructive fishing practices (such as dynamite and cyanide) through education, understanding and reef protection. 

Teaching kids how to read in Busuanga, the Philippine Islands

check us out at:

www.mermaidislands.com

& see more fun pictures on FaceBook

Ode to WordPress

O WordPress O WordPress,

will you be mine?

I have a small nonprofit that needs a nice home.

There are so many servers, hosts and sites I have roamed.

Yahoo, PayPal, GoDaddy, Dream Host

I just need a place for updates to post

My tropical school is really in need

of an easy way for donations to seed

All we need is a site and a reliable payment portal

but haven’t got resources to master Html, Php, redhat & sql

Will this Blog site bring a solution for me?

or will I be forever stuck with this incompatible Site Solution jamboree

Please be mine