Lake Buhi

8/19/10

Here we are on Lake Buhi, one of the most beautiful places we have seen in the Philippines. We came here to investigate a potential water project. The people of the barangay or village are experiencing many problems with water borne illness. When tested 67% of the water was contaminated with e-coli. In addition to diarrhea there have been outbreaks of cholera and typhoid. They currently have two water sources that are open springs.

To get to the barangay we needed to travel 45 minutes across the lake in a rickety wooden boat. The boat had a flat bottom and so it was driven right up on to the shore where we literally jumped off, traversed a rice field, and hiked up a slippery hill. Quite a feat for two old fat folks. Our meeting was held in a tiny catholic church where the villagers did a great job of making their case for a water system. The purposed system would capture water high on the mountain in a spring box and pipe it down to the village, thus preventing the current ground water contamination.

LDS Charities does not just give stuff away so the residents will need to provide sweat equity and attend educational classes in the village to learn how to run and maintain their water system. Another source will provide material for the people to install toilets, currently the people use the great outdoors, thus contributing to the contamination.

1,000 White Corn Farmers

Our 1,000 White Corn Farmer families project is finally finished. What a relief, and what a blessing. We were fortunate enough to visit some of the people who went through the first session at the end of June and they are so proud of their vegetables and fruit gardens. They are also happy with their corn that is now almost a meter high. There were actually 1,057 farmers who went through the program, and when you consider their families that is more than 5,000 that benefited. We have witnessed the power of the Lord paving the way and making things happen. When asked some of the farmers, “What has this project meant to you?”, the responses were heartwarming. One man said, “Now I can sleep at night know there will be food for my children” another said, “Selling the excess vegetables and fruit will allow my children supplies so they can go to school”. We were so incredibly impressed with the caliber of our volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this happen for their community members. Brother Hector, the original farmer we talked to and I wrote about in a blog on 3/29/10 was a key player in this process.


1) Bags filled with corn seed that was for about 200 farmers

2) Farmers heading home with no room for people except for the roof

3) A group of farmers that stopped to post for a group picture

4) Individual family heading home

5) Volunteers helping farmers fill out their paperwork. Many can't read or write

6) Donna helping fill the LDS Charities bags with corn seed

7) Transportation provided by one community for a group of farmers










8) A women who was overheard telling her neighbors that her vegetable garden was a gift from the heart of the Mormon Church