Delije Tree Planting

Well i'm behind on updating stuff, these pictures are from about 3 weeks ago, mabey a month. Anyways I'll begin with an update of what I have been doing and working on. The past week has been one of my best weeks at site yet. This is due to many reasons. I began meeting more people, I'm considering joining the biking club here in Miagao, the past week I have attended two rides with the members, one 65k and one 50k, both were on roads. It is currently to wet to go riding on trails, what the members tell me but I think they just don't like mud. I have been told there are some really good mountain trails in Miagao. I guess I will just have to wait till after monsoon season for them to show me. I am also on a basketball team for my LGU, (local gov. unit) and we had 3 games last week, we won all three. There are some really really good players here, and as most of you will know I'm not the most gifted b-ball player but I can hold my own. I look at myself as a good role player, good defence and good passing. It works well here cause defence is noones fortay, as a matter of fact they play mostly zone even in pick up games. I normally get to luxury of guarding the big or fast guys.....like I said, I hold my own. I also have gone to a couple cockfights in the past week, yes it has been a busy week, and I won at both, nice to get a little extra pocket money. Work wise another volunteer came to my LGU and gave a presentation on a technology on converting rice hulls to charcole which my mayor seemed very interested in. I am excited about it, but the technology was developed for sugar cane so we have to do testing to see if it will work for rice hulls. If it does work it would limit the logging of trees in the area, increase income for farmers, and provide a disposal for one of the largest solid waste problems in the area, rice hulls. It is still up in the air, and I'm not diving into it until I return from a 3 week training I have coming up in Sept. Anyways so thats enough blabbing for me....

Like I started with saying, about 3 weeks ago I organized a small reforestation program with the H.S. I have been working with on Solid Waste Managment and starting a youth ecology club. I got the local Dept. of Agraculture to donate 350 seedlings and the students collected almost 100 more. We met on an early Sun. morning near the highschool, along with member from the Miagao bikers club, and the University of the Philippines Green Thumbs club. From there we hiked about 4 or 5k to a watershed area and proceded to plant the seedlings. It was a fun poject, I learned a lot from it, and the children appeard to have a really good time as well. I had one of my fellow volunteers come from his site and assist as well, you'll note him in the first and last picture as the other white person.

This picture is before we left on our hike to Delije.


Once we reached Delije we had to hike through a seris of rice fields.


The children had differant jobs, these were two of the boys running around digging small holes for the seedlings.


This picture was taken once we finished planting all the seedlings. There are some of the H.S. children as well as the local Brgy officials.


Well thats all for now, I leave next week for my 3 week training. I'm sure i'll have some fun pictures of that once I return. I'm also stopping by Cebu City on the way to my training for 2 nights. It is the second largest city in the Philippines and is known for the amazing hand made guitars that the locals produce, I will be purchasing one. Not that I know how to play, but I got time to learn.

Metting the Governor of ILOILO

The ground breaking for the Secondary Growth Alliance Market I have been working with took place about 3 weeks ago. The Mayor had invited the Governor because he had assisted in the funding for the High School construction as well as for the market. Below is the picture of the stage he and other guests spoke at later in the day. Unfortanitly most the day was plauged with rain, but it is that time of year. Either way I thought the backdrop was a nice picture.


The below picture is during the ceremony for the ground breaking of the Market. I've been to some other ground breakings in the Philippines and it is very much the same at each. The man holding on to the string is the Governor, the man to his left is the Mayor. You'll see me tucked to the back on the right hand side.


Below is a picture of the mountains that day, from the site of the future market. Obviously rain was in the "air." On our way back to the town that early evening, the gov. was late due to a land slide blocking his way, we ourselfs got a flat tire in some of the hardest rain I have ever experianced in my life. You might say its just rain, but i wish I could convey its magnitude to you. I was inpressed with nature, very wet, but impressed none the less.