BUSHCRAFT CAMP FOR KIDS IN BLUEWATER MARIBAGO (VER. 2)

THIS BLOGGER RECENTLY SIGNED a Memorandum of Agreement with BLUEWATER RESORTS, represented by its corporate marketing officer, Enrico Monsanto, as resource person for a series of bushcraft events in 2018 designed for children in all its recreational facilities located in Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort, Lapulapu City; Bluewater Panglao Beach Resort, Bohol; and Bluewater Sumilon Island Resort, Cebu.

The first of this is at the Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort. Participating would be children from the Dolpo Kids Club, from guests, walk-in registrants and from the staff of Bluewater Resorts. I would be expecting the presence of the parents and nursemaids too as was the last time I did this same activity last year (March 25, 2017). In fact, parents last year joined the kids carve their own bamboo spoons.

But before this, there was a teaser video released by Bluewater Resorts about the summer-long activities offered by their facilities for children and Bushcraft Camp for Kids is one of these. In fact, members of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild made themselves available for a video shoot right inside Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort. Please watch the video:

Before 08:00 of March 17, 2018, I was already at Allegro Restaurant with Mr. Monsanto. With me are Jhurds, 8-year old Jacob, Jonathaniel and Jingaling. They will assist me during the Introduction to Bushcraft for Kids. I have subdivided this day-long activity to a Plant ID Tour, Primitive Cooking, Elementary Firecraft, Blade Safety, Knife Dexterity Exercise, Animal Snares, and Simple Shelter Construction    

A couple of Japanese minors and a Korean joined a handful of Filipino kids as I talk about the essence of bushcraft. Then I point to each and every tree that would help them find water in case of survival and other helpful plants which harbor useful parts. This was possible during the Plant ID Tour around the confines of Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort.

Considering that a bamboo is the most common plant in the tropics even in temperate parts of Asia, the idea of cooking food using a bamboo as an improvised cooking vessel is shown to the kids and parents alike in Primitive Cooking. A two-meter pole of green bamboo is opened with a knife with the aid of a stick. That done, rice and water are poured into and then a fire is started.

The kids are also taught how to create a fire by a magnifying glass and by a ferrocerium rod during the session on Elementary Firecraft. With a fine downy material, the kids shrieked in delight as they create fire when they scratched the ferro rod over it. Fire by solar magnification took time to evolve but with a charred clothe, a smoky ember appear, blowing it to life when placed among a bundle of dry tinder. Thick smoke erupted then fire.

The next topic is Blade Safety and it is this part where it is most difficult to proceed since the children would be exposed to harm. The edge and the tip of a knife are parts where it is sharpest and, therefore, harmful. Extra care should be undertaken when handling a knife, especially during the practical exercise. Close supervision would be properly exercised by my staff.

The kids are attentive during the lecture on the procedures of handling a knife, repeating it over again as I see fit and proper. It is very important that the direction of the strokes should be away from you and should be slightly downward. Then you may have to choose your most comfortable position and engage work in the safest location. Engaging in conversations while working is discouraged.

A knife at rest should be returned inside its sheath and it is forbidden for anybody to walk around with an unsheathed knife. Then there are rules how to pass a knife from one person to another. All of those are the most important and the children are now ready for the Knife Dexterity Exercise wherein they are made to carve a spoon from a piece of bamboo. Parents joined their wards, as well as the Bluewater staff.

After an hour of close supervision, the children proudly showed off their bamboo spoons. They have achieved this work on their own, mastering their fear and timidness and, once they have gained confidence on this single moment, they would be comfortable handling a knife with responsibility. Then a demonstration is shown to kids how an animal snare work and how to construct a simple shelter. The day is capped off by tasting the rice cooked in bamboo.

I consider it an honor and a sort of redemption for my brand of outdoor activities, to be accepted and trusted wholly by Bluewater Resorts, a certified green hotel and resort, to propagate bushcraft on their recreational facilities that involve children. Although bushcraft uses blades as tools, it is a child-friendly activity which nurtures the creativity of the child and aids the child the value of life skills, which is now beginning to wane due to easy access to WiFi and the electrical outlet.

This writer, who have toiled to create this blog from scratch and for which many original ideas came forth which animated the local outdoors scene from its dull one-dimensional existence. The Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp, the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild, the exploration and establishment of the Cebu Highlands Trail, the Thruhike, and the formation of the Camino de Santiago of Cebu, are all fruits of this blog which fired up the imagination of outdoorsmen who wanted variety.

At the end of the day I am more than satisfied that people – children most specially – are getting interested again on the long-neglected skills of bushcraft. It is not spectacular compared to most outdoor activities which has an abundance of supportive corporate names. Most often it is maligned and misunderstood and I have to fight it from within to remove those wrong misconceptions. I weeded out the wrong practices which popular and social media are erroneously propagating.

That rare opportunity and, forthwith, being associated with one of the best green hotel in Southeast Asia, gives a prestige which I have had not expected before. It is something that I would watch carefully when traversing over opinions and contents in social media. What I digress would surely reflect to names that I am currently associating myself with. It is an unfamiliar territory but I would not want it in any other way. It is just right. 

It was a long journey for me, jagged and steep, running against the wind to corner an elusive prey. I am now on to that special place where dreams become a reality. The sheep is now snarling like a wolf but it is just a harmless shadow. I let it be and so I claim my rightful place under the sun.

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PINOYAPACHE GOES SCUBASURERO

AS THE WORLD’S POPULATION increased, so is garbage produced by humans. These garbage found its way to the coastlines and in our world’s oceans. It is so sad to note that most of our food comes from the sea where most of these waste end up strangling the marine creatures to death or, worse, are found inside its intestines. It is inedible matter and it is death knocking at you soon.

Coastal cleanup campaigns have been here for many years like the annual SCUBASURERO, which was first adopted here in Cebu thirty-two years ago. It is no different from the previous events and it is still participated in by professional and novice scuba divers, resort workers, celebrities, marine biologists, environmental advocates, civil servants, coast guard and navy frogmen, media, bloggers and, for this year, a couple of bushmen.  

Today, September 16, 2017, I got invited by Project Blue for the SCUBASURERO. This is in observance of the 32nd International Coastal Cleanup Day which would be held on selected foreshore and coastal areas of the country. For this particular activity in Cebu, I will get to witness and participate as a blogger and as participant at the Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort, Barangay Maribago, Lapulapu City.

Also coming with me is one of the founding fathers of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild – Ernie Salomon. Both Ernie and I are not here on a picnic. We are here to literally wet our pants on an environment that is part of the domain of bushcraft. This time we will not forage food. Instead we will seek out garbage and barely visible items that do not belong to the sea. We will be spending time as volunteers for the coastal cleanup.

Erik Monsanto and Ryan Salutin of Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort welcomed us and invited us to take breakfast at Allegro, the resort’s main dining hall and restaurant offering buffet-style service. Joining us on the table is Balbino “Ka Bino” Guerrero, a noted local tour guide specializing in cultural and historical Cebu. He is wearing his trademarked hat popularized by Dr. Jose Rizal. It is always a wonderful time in Allegro.

 

This is my first time to join a SCUBASURERO and I am prepared for salt-water immersion. Volunteers slowly arrived and boarded a water taxi from the beach to a sandbar that became an island across the lagoon. Overhead, a couple of F-50A/E Eagles whizzed by, currently the pride of the Philippine Air Force. The sandbar is now populated by people with wetsuits and there is someone talking from a megaphone.

We crossed over there and the program is about to commence. Free tanks of oxygene were provided by Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort to support this advocacy and divers were much happy to use it and add the minutes to their dive logs. Tents were also provided as shaded resting areas. Drinking water, meanwhile, are made available free for everyone. It is a very warm day and the coolness of the sea beckoned everyone.

The cleanup commenced after a general briefing by the Lapulapu City DRRMO and the assignment of areas to the volunteers. When I was younger, I yearned to swim underwater like them but opportunity never knocked on me. As I piled up in years, I content myself with skin diving. It is expensive, you know. You do not spend for it one time. You need to visit the reefs and deeper water regularly and you spend more for that.

Facing the Hilutungan Channel is a marine sanctuary. No one had cleaned up this part and I waded underneath the jetty and found unbroken bottles, rusty cans, a piece of plywood and beer cans amidst a forest of sea grass. As I go deeper, I see transparent nylon lines and slowly pull it from underneath the grass. At its end are ingenious contraptions that caught a 6-inch grouper and an elver. 

The underwater traps were left there for a purpose. It is illegal to catch fish with any means from a marine sanctuary. Whoever that person be, he was using his head. I admired the person’s ingenuity and the stealth to achieve that. So bushcraft. But that does not mean I totally agree with him. Let us respect our laws and let us protect marine sanctuaries. These are the breathing places so our stocks of marine resources could recover.  

As I returned with the retrieved garbage and the traps with its catch, Erik hand me a rubber suit large enough to fit me, plus a pair of fins, a mask, a breathing apparatus, a full oxygene tank and an instructor. I was caught off-guard and, then it came to bear on me, that I fancied these things when I was younger. You see, one of the skills that I was very interested of learning in my early years was scuba diving.

I never have that chance, specially now that I do not have the means to engage in it. But, today, I have all the opportunity. Why not? Bring it on. My instructor proceed with his job as he gave me field instructions and safety procedures which would have taken an hour or more to learn in a normal learning environment. After 10 minutes on dry ground, I used the valves to deflate and inflate underwater, navigate in two meters depth and remove water from my face. Standard entry level instructions.

After a half hour of tracking an underwater trail, fighting the current and my buoyancy and re-learning to breathe through my mouth, I felt I have done much for the day. It was a good experience to be swimming underwater with oxygene and I felt a little of motion sickness and a little of nausea. One thing that I missed that would have stabilized my diving were dead weights. Lacking that, I exerted more effort to fight buoyancy and the tide.

My windpipe is burning and dry as I detached the tube from the mask to the breathing apparatus. Slowly, I remove tank and flippers and set my sights to the dispenser, hoping I could squeeze cold water. By now, the volunteers began to gather the garbage on the sand. Someone begins to document the things placed on a weighing scale. A voice from a megaphone elicits a lot of clapping hands, signifying a successful event.  

The tables are now ready for a boodle-fight meal and everybody picked his own place around the tables and proceed with stuffing themselves with the food. I joined the sharks in a feeding frenzy in the middle of the day on the middle of the sandbar. I looked around and I see Ernie. He is wearing the same dry clothes I last saw him. I thought he was also given dive gears. I did not know that Ernie is one of those typical people who are afraid of water. Typical bushman.

We later learned that the garbage retrieved today totalled close to one ton. That is a lot. Where could the garbage came from? A few were dropped accidentally, carelessly and more of that were deliberate. Most of the garbage were brought in by tide and current. We do not know how much volume of plastic garbage passed by the coastlines of Maribago that have escaped our discovery? It could be more. I know it is more.

SCUBASURERO could only do less. It is done just once a year. It is also expensive because organizers and establishments provide pressurized oxygene tanks so garbage could be brought up to dry ground from the shallows and depths by volunteers who are into scuba diving. Nevertheless, because of dedication, some individuals and organizations have not lost faith and continued to pursue this advocacy for 32 years.

These garbage came from people and places far away from here and I know it started from streams and culverts near our homes. It is washed away during heavy downpours and dumped where stream meets channel waters. When will we start disposing our garbage properly? We love to eat food from the sea and do you know how much poison we unintentionally eat every week? Please do not allow plastic and other waste to reach the sea. Help in your own small way.

The 32nd International Coastal Cleanup Day is brought to you by the Ocean Conservancy, the Lapulapu City Government, the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office, and by the greenest resort of Mactan Island – Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort, spearheaded by their own Project Blue.

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BUSHCRAFT WITH DOLPO KIDS IN BLUEWATER MARIBAGO

SURVIVAL, TO A CHILD’S EYE, IS A WORLD that is associated with home entertainment. This genre is the most popular staple in reality TV shows. It is remote and the audience does not really experience the austere conditions and hardships that the show would like to impart, never mind that it is scripted and in a controlled environment, complete with support crews, like a medical team and a safety staff.

But the real world of survival is not even that close as those shown on TV. There are no drama. No dialogues. There is only torment. Anger. Uncertainty. Silence amid the turmoil of the world and the inner you. Perhaps, tinkering with an acceptance of an unacceptable fate. Survivors go past those stage and they live. Some live but their souls got lost along the way.

On a lesser note, BUSHCRAFT, an old-world way of adapting into the wilderness to carve out a livelihood or a calling, is fast becoming a recreational outdoors activity. Although a close cousin to survival, the term is still alien to the majority of the population in the Philippines, much more so with the young generation. It uses more brains than brawn, and a tool which, in this case, is the knife.

Bushcraft and Survival are my expertise and I am usually called on to teach these things to individuals or by organizations. It is not unusual for me to find minors in my trainings. In fact, I encourage parents to expose their children to be out of doors all the time and make themselves more useful and productive, instead of being wired to electronic gadgets and the power cable. Would handling a knife be a part of that? A parent may ask. 

 

You know, it would be absurd to expose a child near a knife, much more so encourage them to touch it. You are right. No sane and responsible parent would allow their son or daughter tinker with any sharp-edged instrument and, in most homes, it is tucked away from their reach. But I have seen sheltered kids feeling lost or scared or outright careless when they happen to come into possession of a knife. It is scary indeed if they hurt themselves or their playmates.

Could we do something about that knife thing? No. I cannot teach bushcraft with plastic knives and a make-believe world. I love to train them the real thing. Develop their confidence and make them responsible adults someday; expose them to the joys of the real outdoors; stimulate their senses; and work their creativity juices to a high gear. They do not stare at a knife. They use it with their hands with adult supervision, of course.

There was a time when a knife was given as a gift. It was the happiest moment in a boy’s life, for, in his eyes, he is accepted as an adult. It happened because the giver knows the recipient is ripe enough how to use, keep and care of the knife. It is a rite of passage. It is not anymore. We live in a different world with changing values. The old ways are discarded for something politically correct, metrosexual and superficial

You simply cannot earn your first knife if your hands are soft and lazy. A child must be taught how to use the knife as a tool and he practices it on his spare time until such time his confidence would increase his level of skill. In much the same way, a child skilled in making a fire prepares himself or herself to the business of simple life skills of cooking and eating. The child becomes self-reliant and how self-reliance is now a rare commodity, is it not? 

 

In the backcountry, kids use bigger blades as if these were light and small and carve things from nature. They have developed great dexterity through constant use and they have formed their own values with these tools. I had been exposed myself to working with bigger blades when I was young because there is work to be done and, ironically, I grew up in a big city. Adults would guide me and encourage me as painful blisters marked my palms.

You might wonder why I and those mountain kids still have complete digits after using much more formidable blades, almost all of the time unsupervised by adults? The secret to that is education. I would not allow a minor, not even an adult, to touch a knife without being educated in knife safety. They cannot proceed on the next instructions without that. For this particular education, I have raised it into an art, as a necessity, to remove accidents. 

One day I was called by the staff of Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort, located in Lapulapu City, Cebu, to introduce kids to a day of bushcraft and survival. These kids belonged to the Dolpo Kids Club and their age range are from 7 to 14. Fourteen girls and boys showed up on March 25, 2017, and all were accompanied by either parents or minders. I have worked before with kids in a corporate setting like the City Sports Club Cebu last November 2016 and I know how to proceed with my program.

Since I would be working with kids, I brought my protegees, the couple Mark and Mirasol Lepon of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild. Both had taken the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp in 2015 that I organize annually and are active bushcraft practitioners. Both are working full time in health lifestyle counselling under Herbalife. They are some of my best people and I am confident they could fulfill their tasks easily. 

 

I brought only a cache of small knives, purposely unsharpened, as a safety measure. They are a William Rodgers, a Fame Kitchener, a Condor Bushlore, a Mora Companion, a Knifemaker Camper, two Seseblade Sinalung, a Seseblade Matavia, a Victorinox SAK Ranger, a Victorinox SAK Trailmaster and a Browning linerlock. Since this is not an all-knife show, I pitched in my Fire Kit and my spools of cords for the different aspects of a bushcraft activity.

It was my first time to visit Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort and I was impressed by the staff, the service, the food and the neat paths to the beachfront. It is in a hidden cove among many resorts that line the Hilutungan Channel. What caught my attention is a huge strangling fig that seem to be the center that held together all what is aesthetic of this prestigious resort. I was amazed that it was preserved by management inspite that it is on prime space good for more expansion.

Kids, when they get bored, do not have a flexible attention span. You have to engage them where they are most interested. Making fire would be a good start. These kids do not have the opportunity to experience making a fire. They have adults to do that for them. It is much safe for a home that kids are kept away from safety matches, butane lighters, electric and LPG stoves. However, curiosity would kill the cat.

Kids, being kids, are bound to be tempted to touch these things that are off limits for them and that is when things go wrong. Teach them why is that and expose them how to make one. With a ferrocerium rod. They see these things on TV and probably got amazed why a mere spark from those produce fires? After a short but practical lecture on fire safety, the kids got their wish producing tiny meteor showers on soft downy material and small wood shavings.

 

After an hour of smoke and heat and slaked wonder, we observed an hour of noonbreak but, once it was over, the fire sessions continue on their own instance. I would rather have the course of their learning dictated by their own unhindered progress. When they reached a point that they have had enough, I turned their attention to MarK and Mirasol. Right then and there, they witnessed how a fire is made by rubbing two pieces of bamboo. It raised their astonishment a higher notch.

From there, I produced a short piece of bamboo pole, opened it with a knife and place it above the fire made by friction method. I poured water into the hole and then rice. They were amazed to see these novel sights. How in the world could people cook rice in bamboos? They know only that metal pots and earthenware do that function. I assured them that it is for real but we all would have to wait for the result.

While the waiting would have a big effect on their attention span, I showed them three bamboo poles, bound a cord on one end and spread the poles on the sandy ground. I placed a cheap laminated nylon sheet over it and it becomes an instant shelter. Their satisfaction rose higher now and I directed them to a row of hedge where Mark have set up a couple of different snares.

To entertain them, I imitated a monkey and a hen, activating the two crude machines as my hand got caught on each of the looped cords, eliciting laughter. Catching better their attention now, I proceed to the serious business of survival tool making. There are no short cuts to there as a knife would have to be used. That is where my knife safety session is introduced. Repeating where it is most crucial and visually showing how a knife should be held and the proper execution of knife functions. Safety first.

Grouping them according to age, they formed a circle sitting on the ground, hand them the materials and a knife each. They baton, chop, shave and whittle bamboos to their desired shapes. Mark and Mirasol helped me supervise their progress. The kids were having fun and their parents joined and helped their kids. They saw their kids developed confidence with handling and working with a knife as minutes wore on.

You do not learn these things inside a classroom nor appreciate it much from watching online videos and survival TV. The real stuff is better, right where the action is. It was a beautiful scene, child and parent working to produce their best hand-made spoons. The kids showed off their creations proudly and nobody got nicked by a knife. Education is the key. The day’s session ended after that and they get to taste the rice perfectly cooked in bamboo.

My appearance to teach Introduction to Bushcraft and Survival to the Dolpo Kids Club in Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort would not have been possible without the participation and cooperation of Bluewater Resorts, thru Mr. Erik Monsanto and his assistant, Ms. Fresha Endico; the recommendation of Mr. Gian Carlo of Adrenaline Romance; and the support of Mark and Mirasol Lepon of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild.

Likewise, to my sponsors who provided me the wares to share my skills and knowledge and  in my adventures like AJF Knives of Liloan, Seseblades of Pangasinan, the Knifemaker of Mandaue City, Pacing’s House of Barbecue of Navotas City, Alan Poole of the United Kingdom, Markus Immer of Switzerland, Derek’s Classic Blade Exchange of Iloilo City, and Jerome Tibon of Lapulapu City. Thank you all.

The significance of the ancient strangling fig only tells me that Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort is a green resort. They saw the connection between the environment and their business better than the rest crowding every inch of coastal beaches in Lapulapu City. They do not have to modify the skyline and the land features and create a make-believe environment. They work around it and blend with the surroundings.

They have my greatest respect and I highly recommend Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort or any of their facilities to friends and strangers. It is good to know that we have a green resort in Mactan Island.

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