New Agriculture Project

3/26/11

This first picture is a woman dry rice and corn. We are starting a new agriculture project in Tuguegarao. Seventy families have come together to form a coop. These 70 families have been broken up into groups of 10 with a leader that represents them. These are poor families that need to grow food to supplement their diet and perhaps sell the excess. The local government provided them with a daylong seminar in home food production. Also their soil needs some revitalization and so they were instructed in composting with given a kilo of earth worms to speed the process. LDS Charities chipped in with seeds, cement, sand, gravel and cement blocks to make the worm beds. Dennis and I took a random sample of the before pictures and will go back just before harvest time to record the after. We had so much fun visiting the various barangay sites of our new project. In the process we came across many of the recipients of our white corn farmer project of almost a year ago. People called us into their yards to show us the harvested corn crop that was from the seeds from the original batch we passed out. (Like the great grandchildren of our original seeds) We also saw vegetables that were from the seeds gleaned from the original seedlings we distributed. We noticed several people had also taken the initiative to grown seedlings ready for planting. It was so rewarding to see that the effort put into that project is perpetuating and people are still reaping the benefits. The last two pictures are families getting ready to build their worm beds and preparing space for their gardens.

Return to Lake Buhi

3/23/11

Lake Buhi is one of our favorite places in the Philippines. The weather is usually cooler, and it is situated where there is more cloud cover and thus rain or at least a mist often. It kind of reminds me of home. The people, of course, are open and friendly, the local government is innovative, proactive and out to serve the people of the region. As mentioned before in blog 8/18/10 we are doing a huge water project there. This time we went to check on progress, attend a graduation ceremony for people who learned how to manage the administrative and maintenance part of a water system. Also we brought two special supportive wheelchairs for people with CP. We brought with us a medical screening team from Mabuhay Deseret. This is a charity group started in the Philippines by an eye surgeon and ex mission president. They do free eye surgeries, cleft lip and pallet, clubbed feet, burn constrictors, and prosthetics for below the knee amputees. In addition to the surgeries they have a huge house where they provide housing and three meals a day for the patient and caretaker as they prepare for surgery and recover. In the case of clubbed feet this can be very lengthy because it is done in a series of castings. They do this all free of charge for the poor. The screening was very successful they were able to identify and set up surgeries for over 150 individuals, and others that they could not help were referred to other potential sources of services. In our everyday lives we are so often bombarded with images of evil things people do and it can give one a dim view of the world. In this field of work we are engaged in we are so blessed to meet and associate with the exact opposite. There are definitely angels among us, and we are so privileged to know them. One such person is Dr. Calveria lovingly referred to as Doc Batoy. He comes from relative wealth but works out of a humble clinic in Buhi. Included is a picture of him being pushed around his clinic in one of our wheelchairs by a young patient. Another picture is a 21 year old young man with severe cerebral palsy in our chair. The last two pictures are water pipe being carried up the trail and Dennis speaking at the graduation ceremony.

The Gift That Keeps Giving

3/22/11

Last Christmas we came across a request for LDS Charities to help finish a Comfort Room (CR). That is the Philippine terminology for bathroom. It was a small cement structure divided in half with room for a toilet on each side. They had started it but only had done about half the work and needed a little over $200 dollars to finish it. LDS Charities would not consider funding it because it was a communal toilet for a squatter’s community. We don’t do projects where there is no clear title to the land or at least written consent from the owner. It was really unhealthy situation, these people were doing their business wherever. I wrote about this group in our blog dated 12/19/10. Anyway Dennis and I decided to forgo Christmas gifts for ourselves, no big sacrifice because we want for nothing, and pay for materials to finish the CR. We didn’t think anything of it; we just took their list and went to the hardware store, bought the supplies, had it delivered to the site, and took the next flight back to Manila. With the exception of one person we tried and have been successful in remaining anonymous. To our surprise our simple gesture has turned into a big deal and a real blessing for Sitio Fatima, Barangay Tugbongan. Members of the local LDS Church along with community members made it a work project and finished the work. The whole community turned out for the dedication ceremony, including the Barangay Captain and council members, even the mayor came. The officials gave speeches, the local Catholic Priest blessed the toilets and refreshments were served.

The first picture shows men examining the two door CR. The second shows the water seal toilet, it is flushed by scooping water from a near by bucket into the bowl. The third is people sharing a celebratory snack.

Wheelchair Training

2/26/11

For years LDS Charities has been providing wheelchairs in at least 90 countries throughout the world. In the Philippines shipments of as many as 2,000 chairs at a time have been turned over to government organizations. Usually large publicized ceremonies were held, even in shopping malls, where needy handicapped individuals would be brought up to the stage and put into a wheelchair. The organizations including LDSC would publically be thanked profusely. The individual would be plopped into a chair and sent on their way with no consideration to size or type. Aside from providing a chair the purpose seemed to be to glorify the giver at the expense of receiver. Fortunately that is all changing. LDSC is realizing that putting an individual in an ill fitting chair can actually be harmful. An example is a woman we know who cannot straighten up and sits permanently bent over far to one side. We asked her why and she explained she was born with spinal bifida and as a child her family could not afford a wheelchair. She was “awarded” one by a well meaning organization. All chairs were one size appropriate for an adult. As a result she could not support herself with the arm rests but slumped to one side. She developed scoliosis because her spine grew crooked and her rib cage sort of protruded out her back leaving a large hump.
In keeping with this new policy we have just finished training seminars in four venues located in far flung but strategic locations in the Philippines. Each three day session covers assessment, fitting, and methods for teaching the handicapped individual how to care for and live in a wheelchair. On the final day we had potential recipients come and each trainee fits, and instructs at least two handicapped individuals. The recipient goes home with an appropriate wheelchair. With us we had four trainers from the United States: two experienced physical therapists, a nurse and a wheelchair technician. We trained key individuals in our partner organizations that serve the handicapped. They in turn are eligible to train additional people in their organizations. In keeping with the new goal of,”Do no Harm” we will no longer provide wheelchairs unless the individual has been assessed and fitted by a certified and trained individual. This program has been so successful. The people who go through the program are very enthusiastic and even feel so bad for the previous practices.
Dennis and I were in charge of logistics: arranging travel, hotel, venues, catering the meals for participants, printing materials, assembling tool kits, acquiring and shipping in all the appropriate wheelchairs, etc. Remarkably it all went as planned; the only exception a catered lunch that gave the whole bunch (thirty) of us food poisoning. The pictures are: a happy family after Dad receives a new chair, one of the groups trainned, new trainee doing an assessment, a young amputee in his new chair, training how to manveuver a curb.

A New Year

1-19-11

Christmas is a big deal in the Philippines. It starts around the first of September and builds to a peak on the 25th of December. Even humble huts are festooned with lights. Our office officially closed on the 23rd but in reality most people took off sooner. We attended two potluck dinners with other stranded Americans but mostly it just passed a few hours for us. We spent the rest of the time waiting for the appointed time to call our kids. It was boring, sad and lonely. We could hardly wait to get back to work. However that was disappointing because there were only a few people who showed up. The time between Christmas and New Years is like a continued holiday here. All our contacts and partners were out until Jan. 3rd. So Dennis and I decided spend a few days in Subic. We’ve been there before and it is one of the few places in the Philippines that hasn’t been de-jungled. This is a big area that used to belong to the US military it was a huge base, like a city. It was a key US location during world war 2 and Vietnam. It was given to the Philippine government, and they have maintained it as a resort area. You still have to pass through gates and check points to get in. It is like a slightly run down beach community you would find along the California coast. Because it belonged to the US the jungle is still there and the wildlife has not been eaten to extinction. There are even crows there, and monkeys troops. The monkeys are aggressive and scary. There is a cheesy wildlife park we visited there called Zoobic, thus the pictures.

New Years Eve was like World War Three. All the eleven million people in Manila were constantly shooting off some type of explosive devise. We were warned not to go outside because of stray bullets from the celebrants shooting guns into the air. Obviously not a wild threat because the news reported people killed and injured by stray bullets the next day.

I'm glad the holidays are over and we are back to work now and busy as ever, thank goodness.

Barangay Tugbongan

12-20-10

We just returned from Cebu Island where we investigated a potential water project. This community was different in that it was an urban area. We will not do a water project there mainly because the people have access to the city water system. They do have to pay for it, and perhaps that is the problem. Never the less it was an interesting trip, and gave us insight into the challenges faced by many urban communities. I understand why rich communities build walls, and form compounds with guarded gates. Idealistically (with my western middle class culture) I don’t think it is “right “but I do see the point of it. The population of the barangay we visited was over 5,000. There were 3,400 registered voters and over 2,000 others, referred to as “squatters” who are only estimated. As I could see there were broadly three categories of people living in this Barangay. First and smallest group were the economically successful folks, who had money and most likely commuted outside of the community for work. They had running water, indoor plumbing, and trash pickup just like in the states. The majority of the people in the middle were fishermen or unskilled labors working in and out of the barangay. If they didn’t have water piped into their houses they had a community pump that they paid for it monthly or as they used it. These folks usually have a water sealed squat toilet. You dump a scooper of water from a bucket to flush it and the waste goes into a septic tank like thing. If not the water seal toilet then an old fashioned outhouse. Finally there were the squatters; these are poor semi-transient people who build their homes on vacant land. This particular barangay is along a tidal plain that is mud when the tide is out, but has access to the ocean when the tide is in. The squatters have built their huts in this area so they are close to a food source (ocean). Their houses look like forts kids make with scraps of this and that, all crammed together like eggs in a carton. These poor people live in conditions that are unhealthy, unsanitary and unsafe. There are no toilets so the human waste goes under their homes into the mud, as does all the refuse that comes with thousands of people crammed together in a small space. There is a hose from which they can purchase water. The cost is about 2 cents a small bucket. That is a lot when you have nothing so if bathing and washing of clothes take place it’s when the tide comes in. However with all the waste that tidal flow is polluted. The squatter’s camp is full of little children and dogs that followed us with curious faces. The dogs were skinny and covered with sores. The kids were dirty but cute. One poor boy had big sores all over his head. They were mostly scabbed over, but they looked like what I saw on the dogs. I was told the squatter kids don’t generally go to school, or access the barangay health center which is financed by the government. When I asked the barangay health worker why, her general feeling was that the parents are ignorant of the benefits, didn’t care, or didn’t trust the government. A community worker told me that the squatters are lazy and don’t want to work. To prove her point when we walked through the area she pointed out all the people sitting around playing cards and gambling. When we talked to the barangay captain (like our mayor) she was conflicted about the squatter issue. She felt compassion for these poor folks, but also realized they were having a negative impact on the community. In addition to the ecological damage and pollution she reported increased robberies, vandalism, drugs and alcoholism. They recently instigated a volunteer barangay security detail where men walk the barangay in shifts all night long. In the richer areas residents are banning together to set up check points and hire security guards. Some have increased the height of their walls and topped them with barbed wire. They are like prisoners in their fancy houses.

Blessed are the Peacemakers

12-10-2010

We have partnered with an unlikely group of individuals who are incredibly helpful in promoting the Lords work of serving others here in the Philippines. I am talking of the Philippines Marines. We have become good friends with the officer in charge of humanitarian activities and the Marines have been a tremendous help on several official and non official projects. This is particularly true in the southern regions of the Philippines that have historically been an area of conflict and civil unrest. Local politics are dominated by oppressive families who with private armies are a law unto themselves. There have been many kidnappings, bombings, and murders. Due to safety concerns we are not allowed to travel there. However the Marines are there and have decided to dedicate 80% of their efforts in that area to humanitarian projects. They believe that peace can be better served through acts of kindness, rather than aggression. To this end we have worked together on water projects, agricultural and livelihood projects, wheelchair distribution and school supplies for children.
Dennis and I have been involved personally, not through LDS Charities, in helping the Marines gather toys to distribute to children in the Muslin regions of Basilan and Sulu, in Mindanao. They put on a “Winter Celebration” (Muslins, so no Christmas) where they feed the kids, play games and give each a gift. Yesterday the Major General was coming to pick up the toys, and we felt so bad because due to time constrains we only had a few things to offer. We had even contacted the US Marines trying to hook up with their “Toys for Tots Drive” but we were too late. Our version of a “Christmas Miracle” happened when just hours before the general's arrival the local mission office called and asked if we could use a toy shipment. It was heaven sent! A mother of a local missionary from Canada had been collecting toys all year that she was able to ship to the Philippines free of charge in a huge box. It was a generous and much needed addition to the supply of toys. We were overjoyed and the Marines were so excited, “like kids at Christmas.”
Also included in the box was children’s clothing and canned food. We have another personal project and that is Mabuhay Deseret, a house for poor children and their caretakers to stay while the patients recover from free surgical services. They had sufficient toys but were in need of food and clothes. We were so happy to spread the blessing of the Canadian woman’s efforts to them.
We are so humbled and thankful for the knowledge that the Lord truly is involved and blesses us at every turn. He is mindful of the needy little Muslin kids in Mindanao, and even the Philippine Marines who are striving so hard to be peacemakers.

These pictures I added later, they are of the party that was held