Last Saturday, I got invited to go to Samal, Bataan for the International Coastal Cleanup with Coca-Cola Foundation. Although my schedule was quite hectic, it was difficult to refuse this admirable cause. The meeting time was 5:30 a.m. at King's Court. I arrived there exactly on time. We were then given our official T-shirt and our breakfast Mc Chicken Fillet. We waited until 6:30 for our other blogger companions to arrive and then headed off to Bataan.
Coca-Cola Group Pic with Mayor of Samal Bataan
At around 9:00 a.m., we arrived the Samal Municipal Hall. It was raining but we didn't mind. We were led to walk at their boat yard. We were to cross the three boats to go to the other side. Upon reaching the other side, we had to walk for around 30 minutes in the muddy trails until we reached the beach side with tall Mangrove trees.
Crossing three boats to the other side
short trek
Muddy Trails and my feet
My gloves
Upon reaching the site, everyone started to do their clean up. I brought out my gloves and shared the other to a fellow blogger who didn't have any. We were given sacks to be filled up. There was a lot of trash that picking them up one by one seemed endless. Its a good thing that it was a concerted effort because it was really tiring to bend and pick up the trashes especially those stuck between the Mangrove tree roots. I did my best and picked out as much as I could until I could already feel my heart beating. Soon, the sacks I filled were carried by the guys towards the boat pick up point. It was carried by the boat to the dump truck parked by the boat yard.
everyone picking up
me picking up
guys dragging the heavy sacks of trash
We were supposed to plant mangrove trees too but the shore was higher because of the rain. But it's not as high as it is when the tide is high. Kuya Erson taught us that the highest root of the Mangrove tree is the indication of the highest point of the water. Based on our observation, the highest root was way taller than us.
I forgot what this is called but its my first time to see this!
Dead Bangus
Boarding a boat
View from our boat ride
Dump track by the boat yard awaiting our sacks of trash
After the clean up, we walked back to the previous trail. We noticed that the fish ponds there had dead Bangus fishes, according to Kuya Erson, they were poisoned so that new batch of fishes will soon be replacing the old ones. We then rode the small boats back to the other side so it would be faster because the water was rising.
Bataan Local Delicacies
Claiming our Lunch Food Stubs
When we arrived at the Samal Municipal Hall, we all ate our lunch. We were so tired so it was the best time to eat! We bought some local delicacies and headed over to our bus. We filled out the Coca-Cola International Coastal CleanupData Sheet and left for Manila. It was tiring but it was a lot of fun! Thank you Coca-Cola Foundation for having us.
It's only been a few months since we started blogging so when we heard that the Gadgets Magazine Blogfest 2.0 will be held at Trinoma Activity Center, we thought it was a good opportunity to meet fellow bloggers.
Although there were a lot of tempting booths, we never had the time to check the out because we arrived fashionably late.
The talks have already started so we missed a few. When we arrived Kiva, a loan institution, demonstrated the vital role of social media in its operations. Through its Facebook, it has kept the public updated with its projects and showing how their clients have progressed from their loans. After that Coca-cola discussed blogging as a medium in sharing the Corporation Social Responsibility activities of good companies. They also introduced the Good Blog Award. The main message of the talks is the bloggers can be social agents of change.
The buffet was opened while Mr. Noel Cabangon played his guitar and sang local songs. I got the food because Kurt was enjoying the show so much he didn't even mind the food at all. I've never seen him that excited about shows before. (see Kurt's video recording below)
A glance at the buffet table made me realize that the food were from Contis. There were shanghai bites, beef strips, pancit and sweets.
After dinner was the raffle that everyone was waiting for. I was the first to get picked out and I won an ASUS Cleaning kit. I haven't figured out what's it for yet but it has some brush and a small spray bottle. Kurt won a case of canned Sprite. Some of the prizes were bigger and better like speakers. The grand prize was an one of ASUS new monitors. It must have been awesome!
After the program, I met some of the bloggers from Blogger Manila and the founder himself, Mr. Jonel Uy.
Overall, the event was a success. There were a lot of bloggers that participated and we got a FREE Gadget Magazine and some Coca-Cola products too.
