Season 6, Episode 4 — Coffee & Geography
The conversation with Marvee Sambajon, joining me from Lucena City in the Philippines, was joyful from the start. And as the conversation unfolded, what really struck me was the gentleness with which Marvee moves through the world, and the reverence she carries for the places and people who have shaped her.
When I asked Marvee about her sense of place, she didn’t claim a singular rooted identity. Instead, she described her life almost like a series of chapters stitched together — childhood in Lucena City, high school in a different province, years in Manila working in television, and later life staying with her aunt in Rizal while working in a marine science laboratory.
Each place left a mark, but what stood out most was how she talks about encountering communities that have existed long before her — particularly her time in the northern Ifugao region, home to the famed rice terraces.
She recalled how the community welcomed her through a ceremony in which everyone drinks from the same cup. And she spoke with such care about being invited into Indigenous spaces, saying that the experience left her feeling “small,” “humbled,” and deeply aware of the privilege of being welcomed into places and stories that are not her own.
What seems to be a common theme with the discussions I have had for Season 6 so far, is that good geography should be a reminder that the world’s oldest landscapes and communities don’t just give us data (nor should we we ‘treat’ them as data); they give us perspective.
Three Summers at Sea
One of the joys of speaking with Marvee was hearing her stories of documenting marine scientific expeditions. She spoke about boarding a military ship for the first time with little briefing and even less clarity about what she and her cameraman were expected to produce. She joked about them becoming “annoying” simply by doing the sensible thing — asking what the purpose of the documentation should be. But it was clear that those months shaped her deeply.
She described working under the equatorial sun, moving between vessels and islands, filming scientists who were entirely unused to being asked what they were doing and why. Because of her presence — her questions, her curiosity, her genuine willingness to learn — they had to practise explaining the work of marine science to someone outside their circle.
Marvee said that it sparked her passion for science communication, especially around plastic pollution and algal blooms — issues she says many Filipinos understand in fragments, but not in terms of the processes and systems that drive them. Her work now focuses on helping bridge that gap. Not by lecturing, but by listening, learning, and translating complexity into human terms.
🔗 Philippine Marine Science Institute (UP MSI)
🔗 Philippine Rise (Benham Rise) Expedition
The Ocean’s Stories, and Ours
I asked Marvee why her recent communication work focused on issues like marine plastic pollution and algal blooms. The Philippines is an archipelago. The sea is not a boundary — it’s a presence. A provider. A transportation network. A source of food security. A cultural foundation. And yet, she said, many people still think of pollution as something that happens on land: landfills, roadside waste, air quality.
She wants people to understand how much of that waste enters the ocean, how pollution impacts fisheries and livelihoods, how processes like nutrient loading can trigger algal blooms, and how local practices differ from city to city.
Crochet as Calm, Creativity as Care
After storms and science came the quiet of crochet.
For Marvee, crocheting started during the pandemic, when she and her colleagues lived inside their TV station for months to keep the news running. Crochet became a refuge — the counting, the repetition, the tactility of yarn, the ability to make clothes that actually fit her, and the sustainability of “frogging” and remaking garments instead of constantly buying new ones.
She held up one of her handmade phone and hard‑drive cosies, proudly sharing how she gives her electronics “a little crochet hug.”! Such creativity is geography too. The things we make are shaped by where we’ve been, carry and in some cases a survival instinct (or at least something to keen you sane!)
What I loved about this chat was the mixture of vulnerability, humour, groundedness and lived insight. It reminded me why geography is never only about the physical landscape but also about the emotional terrain we travel as we move through the world.
Marvee carries her places with her — Lucena’s familiarity, Manila’s intensity, Ifugao’s humility, the ship’s storms, the lab’s discoveries, and the solice in her yarn basket. And I’m very grateful she shared them.
Videos produced by Marvee:
🔗 Treasures from the Deep: West Philippine Sea
🔗 Treasures from the Deep: Verde Island Passage
Geogramblings 