Fun, Guns & Explosions

We stepped out of our respective vehicles onto the limestone-tinged dirt at the barracks of “Saber Tooth” Second Battalion of the Philippine Army Special Forces. In Bohol, events have tended to start later than the scheduled time, so by 11am we finally arrived and were greeted by the ready Lieutenant Colonel Brawner and his troops. Like many Filipino engagements of which we’ve partaken, the sounds of pop music were in the air–this time the Battalion’s own group played for us songs such as Katie Perry's "California girls" and "I wanna be a millionaire" by Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars.

After a brief presentation of the officers of the Battalion, we enjoyed a “boodle fight” that was prepared for us. A boodle fight is a military style of eating in which a long table has been prepared and food is displayed on top of banana leaves. Participants eat using their bare hands and jugs of water are prepared on the side to wash hands before the "eating combat". The tradition had been modified from one employed at the United States Military Academy at West Point The mayor of the city of Carmen, the Honorable Conchita “Che” Toribio Delos Reyes joined us. We had met her a few evenings earlier at a sporting event.

Soon after dining combat had ended, the band was belting out “I gotta feeling” by the Black-Eyed Peas. The soldiers joined our hosts and us in a dance and soon it was time to take the song's advice and lift our cups, mazel tov. The soldiers broke out shots and shared them with a few team members and fellow troops.

 

We said our goodbyes to the Lieutenant Colonel and his troops as well as the mayor and headed to the Butterfly Conservatory of Loboc. There, we learned about the stages of metamorphosis and even saw a butterfly unable to reproduce because it is half male and half female. The photogenic butterflies made excellent models for our photography. A brief respite of homemade ice cream was followed by a trip to Bohol Limestone Corporation (BLC), which is partially owned by a Japanese corporation. The President of the corporation is our wonderful host, Victor. At BLC we learned about the mining of limestone. We awaited a blasting operation which showed us the way that limestone is typically removed from the earth. Limestone is a useful mineral; for example, cement consists of about 80 percent limestone.

After the mine tour, we went to the top of the mountain and enjoyed fresh coconut water–nature’s Gatorade. There we also visited the mine’s nursery; the mine has implemented a reforestation experiment and currently is filling the area with hearty pine trees.

The evening ended on a floating restaurant on the river with our gracious hosts. After dinner, we went firefly watching and spotted snoozing egrets in the tall palm trees with a floodlight. Singing and farewells abound as we recognized that this was our last night in Bohol. One more day of activities tomorrow and the coast of Bohol will move farther away from us as we hop the ferry back to Cebu–but the experience gained here with our hosts learning about their land cannot never fade away nor can the friendships that we have formed.