Crabs For Beer

When I was snorkeling constantly in the late '80's, around a great place in the P.I. called "100 Islands", I started something new with the locals. Four of my friends and I, out for the day to snorkel, went into the water to catch crabs.  We were carrying a tow sack and we each had a pair of "grippers"; an extended arm with pinchers on the end that we could open and close. We used these grippers to pick up the crabs from the bottom, which is a lot better than doing it by hand. The water ran about 5 to 8 feet deep, and crystal clear. It was so clear that it looked like you could reach out and touch the bottom, even tho it was 8 feet deep. We initially came up with the idea of catching crabs from a local guy who said that we could sell them to him. And we wanted to snorkel anyway, so we said "What the Hell!" We did this for about 3 hours, then we took a break on the beach, under a little local store that sold beer (of course). We didn't drink very much as we knew we would be going back out to snorkel again.  We're not stupid.
While we were resting, the lady asked us how many crabs had we caught. We counted them and found out that we had caught about 32. Some were very good size. We were talking about buying another round of beer, when the lady said that she would exchange beer for crabs. Now that is a hell of an idea! The locals really love that crab meat. We asked our "local" buddy, who was with us, what would be a fair exchange. so we made a deal with her, and she got all the crabs and we got a lot of free beer. It works great for both sides. We were in a van, so we could take the beer back with us for later. Some of the other locals were already buying up the crabs for dinner. They could go get some themselves easily, but they were working or busy.
She asked us if we were going back out for more, and we said, "We sure are now!". We went out again for another 3 hours, and this time we caught about 45 crabs. You don't just scoop all of them off the bottom. Most of them are hiding under rocks, and you have to go down to turn the rock. When we got back to the beach, there was a crowd at the store buying crabs, and they knew we were coming in with more. We "exchanged" all the crab with the lady, again for beer, called it a great day, and went home with our "catch".
About a week later, our local buddy came to my house and told us that the lady was asking if we were going to come back.  I talked with my friends, and we decided to go again. So, we did the same thing all over again. This developed into a "thing" once a month. We took other guys with us, whoever could go, and enjoyed the day. The cool part was that the locals knew when we were coming, and alot of them would go with us. We would sometimes bring back over a hundred crabs.  She didn't want that many at a time, so they set up a fire area, and they boiled many of them right here on the beach. Everybody was sitting around eating crabs and drinking beer.
It continued to develop over the next two years, as every time we went, there were more people. The owner of the store actually had a large nipa hut built just for this. It could hold over 50 people. Sometimes there was almost a hundred people there.  When we asked them why they would come for this, the answer was a bit surprising.  Most of them just wanted to "hang out" with the Americans. They knew we were G.I.'s. They wanted to "talk English", and watch how we acted. We had developed a social event in that area! It was pretty sweet!
It hit us that we were "ambassadors for the U.S.", whether we chose to be or not. If there was a person a bit too drunk, and started to get belligerent (it happens), the group would take care of them or settle them down, or make them leave. The G.I.'s would not allow one of our own to embarrass us. The locals felt the same way, and quickly got rid of any troublemakers. We never had any real problems. There were even, later on, "baranguay tanod" there all the time. These are local guys that have been elected to enforce the local law. They are not police, but work directly with them. They are responsible only for their district. They know their people; who lives in that district, and who doesn't. It helped out a lot. They carry nitesticks only. No guns. And they will use them only if they really need to. The locals who started to "get out of hand", which were very few, would be quickly escorted away, and told they were not welcome the next time.  This was like a semi-organized event!
When I finally PCS'd out, this had grown into a big deal, with almost 300 local and military people coming there together to catch crabs, just snorkel, drink on the beach, tell stories, and just talk directly to each other about everything. It works! I am proud I was one of the original founders! The store lady (64 years old)  more than quadrupled her business, became fairly well off,  and became our "adopted mother". Her store became three stores. She knew all the G.I.'s by name well, and treated us like we were her sons. If she said "get some firewood"; we jumped. If she told us to "clean the place up; we jumped. Did we have to? No. Did we mind? No. We had the run of the place, and could do just about anything we wanted to. It was a great getaway! About 3 years later, I was able to go back to the P.I. for a 30-day visit. All of my "buddies" were gone, of course. I was so curious tho, that I hired a van to go back there. They did not know I was coming, but I went back on the first weekend of the month, which wass always the time that we did this. I didn't expect much. I was in for a surprise! There were trikes, vans, motorcycles, and cars lined up all over the place. I was thinking, "this couldn't be for the same thing!". It was! When I walked up to her main store, the lady came running out to meet me! She was crying! Many of the locals who remembered me came running to me to welcome me back. I was a bit shocked. The lady turned on a microphone (of coure they had a karaoke machine there), and made my introduction to everyone who did not know who I was.  It was touching. She told them that I was the one who started this event, and that I was her son, returning home. Of course I got popular very fast, with all the local people recognizing me when I went to their town. It was the only time I have felt a bit like a celebrity!