1,000 Farmers

6/28/10

We have been so busy with a huge project with 1,000 white corn farmers that we have not been able to keep up with our blog. The white corn farmers are dry subsistence farmers whose crops were first wiped out by a typhoon and their second crop by the drought. (Refer to Blog 3-29, "North to Tuguegarao") We were blessed to find two wonderful partners, first the human interest story department of a local TV station (ABS CBN) and the Philippine Marines. For this project we held a workshop for 200 farm families at a time teaching them how to organically grow a garden of vegetables and fruit to supplement their diet. Each day a new group was taught by agriculturist in class for 4 hours and in the fields for 4 hours. We slanted this to mom's and kids thinking they were the ones who would tend the "kitchen gardens" near their homes while the men worked in the fields. We were wrong 2/3 of the participants were men. After the training the participants received fruit and vegetable seedlings. They also were given corn seed and fertilizer for up to 2 hectares. The turn out was phenomenal. We had people lined up at the door hours before the class started. The people were so enthusiastic and grateful, that they willing volunteered for hours setting up and hauling in by hand over 225 tons of corn seed and fertilizer. ABS CBN helped with the organization of the project and had the contacts to get the government and local support we needed. Also because we had the events covered by the news media LDS Charities received a lot of good press. The Marines were fantastic, they provided crowd control, registration and individual instruction for the hands on field work. We flew up there with ABS CBN last week-end to check on progress. Here is a quote from a text message we received from the news reporter that says it all: "We are AWED at what we're seeing here! (if awed is the right word). The seedlings have been planted, backyards that used to be idle for months are now homes to squash and ampalaya seedlings. Neighbors lent their idle backyards to those who have no space of their own, 4 to 8 farmers sharing with the plots. This is bayanihan at its BEST!" We have give credit to where credit is due and acknowledge the Lords hand in blessing these humble farmers. I'd like to end this with another text message quote from Brother Hector, he is the farmer we visited in the first place and it is his family that is pictured in the 3-29 blog. "Prayer works best when nothing else works at all. When the situation is hopeless, prayer fosters hope. God never leaves His people alone, without a witness or guide. Living by faith sometimes means walking in the dark, but it never means living without light"

Dumagat Kids

6/11/10

We had a great week. We were able to present 50 wheelchairs to people who needed them, made by people who are in wheelchairs themselves. I don' have pictures yet. What I do have here are pictures of the most fun things we have done in the Philippines to date. We were able to travel with a local news crew 5 hours up into the mountains (Dona Romedios, Trinidad, Bulacan). The last half was in 4X4 trucks, you can see the river we had to cross. The family pictured had to walk two miles over the mountains to reach the school where we were handing out the bags. They were very proud of their heritage because they were "pure tribal blood" not mixed with lowlanders. LDS Charities provided around 2,000 school bags that contained, in

addition to school supplies, 2 white t-shirts , soap, toothbrush, and a multipurpose washcloth hand towel that folks use here for all kinds of things. The foundation we are partnering with is busy traveling by foot, plane and boat to reach the other indigenous people. This is the only time we were able to go along and we had such fun. The children were so polite. They were also very curious about us, and a little scared. Many had never seen a white person before. One little girl through a translator said this was the first time she ever got anything new. Given the fact that there is no transportation in the mountains, except for a couple of horses and a few motorcycles, and the closest town is hours away that may be true. The small school we visited only went to grade 6. If students want to continue their education they must live away from home. This is not realistic unless there is a relative outside the village who is willing to take the student in.

Cebu and Borongan

6/9/10

We spent last week traveling, and it was nice to get out of Manila, but surprisingly to me also nice to get back "home". We first went to Cebu, an island south of us in the middle of of Philippines. We needed to look into a wheelchair manufacturer. We also took the opportunity to visit the new Cebu Temple before it is dedicated. It is beautiful and I have included a picture. From there we flew to Leyte and hired a car and driver to take us the four hours across the island to Eastern Samar. There we stayed in a small town call Borongan. It is a nice little town right on the Pacific Ocean. The beaches are clean, unpopulated and the water invitingly warm. Sunday we attended a wonderful little branch there which was really fun. We didn't have access to a car, there were very few in town, but we rode the tricycles (motorcycle with a modified sidecar) to get around. The purpose of our visit was to get things organized and contracts signed for the water project we are starting for the four barangay located in the hills about 20 kilometers east of Brongonan. Everything went well and the project will start this week. LDS Charities is paying for the contractor and materials, the people are providing the labor. It all goes according to plan we should return in September for the ceremony where we turn everything over to the citizens of the four barangay.