Coastal Village Part 3: Sitio Barobohay

Sitio Barobohay was my last coastal villages in Hinatuuan, Surigao del Sur. It is a sitio (maybe similar like a hamlet or RW in Indonesia). There are only 20 families lives in this place. The place itself is quite unique, it is located in a slope of a hill kind of, it's so remote and makes you think who has started living in this place?
This sitio is quite hidden; to get there you have to pass a bumpy roads, hills, bridges, and steep way to enter the sites.
Why is this area interesting for my research? well, as you can see (although maybe not so clear here),   there are more aquaculture compare to the land for housing. That means the surrounding environment has changed so much in the last 30-40 years. This changes somehow I assume would bring affect the the livelihood of its people surrounding. Thats basically what I want to see here. Did I get what I want? well, you're about to find out :)

there are some ponds that already abandoned

I stay with Nanay, she is a housewife/sitio activist/ community organizer. Her husband works in a fishpond, he own a small hut there. He stays there most of the time and rarely come home. They have four children, two of them in Manila (which is very common there when they grow up either go to big cities or work as a migrant worker) , one is married and lives nearby and one still living in the house. One interesting fact is this family used to own a fishpond but since they experienced failure in harvesting and the maintenance of fishpond costs them a great fortune they decided to sell it and her husband works as the watchman instead. They got their share around 20 % of the total harvest.


Ladies and gentleman let's now use our gender lenses to observe the situation in this Sitio. Yep, you can put your bra on your eyes if that helps :)

By saying gender lenses, I means let's see it from every possible point of view. Almost everyday, Nanay are occupied with the household chores starting with cleaning the house, gardening, washing, preparing food (although her husband seldom eat at the house), fetching water, sewing, and this just go on and on. You may think that this is a usual habit but try to ask a question on their economic resilience. I am not here against a housewife but I believe that one still need to maintain his/her economic resilience. This family income generates from the husband salary and luckily they have coconut share also (every 3 months). Food and daily need is their biggest expenses.

They are looking for libo'o, no matter how old they are-no matter how hard it is. Looks like fun?

So, what have changes in terms of environment related to gender issues? The development of aquaculture somehow limit women access towards their environment. Their activities might not give the family big bucks but you know what this actually more sustainable. The fact that they are still able to do something to support their family gives them a sense of pride, it helps them to gain their confidence and it surely more environment friendly. I dont really want to go through this debate of mangrove-or-aquaculture but I think whatever that is it should be environment friendly and can be accessed and benefited for men and women. Any macroeconomic policy that related to the environment and have a good intention on increasing 'people' income should have a positive impacts toward the grassroots community especially women.

Freshen up after a muddy exercise down in the mangroves.