Friday October 2, 2015

Yesterday was our day to check on our LDS Charities Sustainable Living project recipients in Batangas and Cavite Provinces – both south of  Manila.  We left our apartment at 5 am and traveled southwest to Tanza, where we met up with Elder & Sister Soleta, a church service missionary couple, at the local McDonalds for breakfast. We were only 15 min late.  This is acceptable in the Philippine culture and a big improvement for us.

After breakfast we drove to the recycling business of the Elder and Sister Gorriceta, another church service missionary couple, about a half hour away.  We got there about 8:30

The Goricetas are one of our Service Missionary couples called to work helping the locals with sustainable gardens.  Sister Goriceta received her degree in agriculture and animal husbandry and Elder Goriceta can fix anything.  They are perfect for this call to help the poor become self-reliant.   Elder and Sister G. are amazing people.  They showed us around their business warehouse.  They had a large table where 6 ladies were sorting garbage.  This is industrial garbage, not kitchen trash.  These women are friends of Sister Goriceta’s from Church.  They have worked for her for 7 years and are all enjoying the success of the business.  Elder Goriceta fixes everything that comes through their shop.  Their home is small, lovely and furnished with reupholstered sofas and chairs they claimed from the trash.  

There is a section of their warehouse that is Elder Goriceta’s work shop.  He got the stove from the LDS temple kitchen remodel.   He restored it and it is now for sale.  Their place is full of odds and ends that might be useful to someone, all cleaned and restored and in usable condition.  

When they first received their call to work as Service Missionaries sustainable fishing was part of the recovery plan.  They decided they were not going to teach something they had not succeeded at themselves.  So, they started with a sustainable fish project. Sister G. read about it and decided they would give it a try.  She told Elder G. and he just made it happen.  I will enclose pictures.  They have several kinds of fish, but the ones you will see in the murky water are tilapia.  The tilapia tank bottom is soil.  The other fish are in a cement tank.  They also have vegetable gardens and fruit trees that are producing well.  They are the living example of living what they teach. We spent about 40 min in the warehouse then headed out. A

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During their investigation they discovered the farms they are working with are not suited for sustainable fishing.  They are dry farmers.  When the rains are gone there is not water source to cover fishing needs.  So they focus on small animals and sustainable gardens.

The previous pictures are from the Gorriceta’s warehouse fish farm.  I left with several ideas I would like to try once we get home.   The time was too short and off we went to visit our farmers.

Our first visit was to a young farmer.  His wife just had a baby.  From what we heard she does most of the work on the farm because he hires out and works in a rice farm not far from their home.  Farming is not done in a U.S. traditional farm style.  It is done for the economy of the land and efficient production.  Two complimenting crops are often planted in the same ground. Like the Papaya and Pineapple you will see in the pictures.  This farmer received tree starts, vegetable seed and they have baby pigs.  The trees are doing well, the garden has been harvested, and the pig has had a batch of piglets.  The pigs are not pink hybrid like we have in the U.S., these pigs were native to the area and they are vegetarians.  They eat roots and grasses so the farmers do not have the expense of buying feed.  The pig produced a littler of 6 but only 3 survived; not because they were not healthy but because the sow lay on the others and they died.Add capt

The homes back porch kitchen

Farmer is walking from his home to greet us. Add caption

chicken native to the area are taller and skinnier than American chickens Add caption

Pineapple and papaya grow together

 ineapple and papaya growing together.  LDS Charities give fruit trees and vegetable seeds as well as instruction to help farmers become more productive.  The project lasts 1 year with follow up monthly during that period of time.  This farmer and his wife have done very well.

The next farmer had a combination of pigs; pink like the traditional U.S. style pig and the black native pig.  The pink sows were huge and had been penned up awaiting the arrival of their litters.  The native pig must have a shorter gestation period because the piglets were well on their way.  This Native pig had 8 piglets.

We visit another farm, but they became less and less desirable locations in my estimation.  The last one was in a darker area, complete with termite hills and ant armies marching from one place to another.  A colony of ants caught my attention.  I watch the ants which started (what I could see) on a tree coming out of the roof of the farmer’s home.  They traveled down the tree to the base of the home then across the plastic pipe at the base of the house around the corner and down the side of the house.  They were moving somewhere.  They were about 10-15 abreast in constant motion.  Some of the ants were carrying tiny white pods.  I assumed they were ant eggs.  I don’t know where they were going, but Sister G. said they have become pests and that they can destabilize the ground and the walls of the buildings will fall.  We are not talking major construction; we are talking bamboo and cement block homes.Add caption

The native black pig eats underbrush and root.  There is no added expense for grain feed which is important to these poor farmers. The meat is tender and leaner than traditional hog pork.  This little piggy will not go to market. It will be given to a new farmer to help begin his sustainable farm. Each farmer can keep the original pig and two piglets from each of the first two litters.  To help other farmers,          they are to pass on piglets and what they have learned to help lift other farmers in the area.  

This is a carabao, the farmer’s primary energy source for plowing the garden.  Chickens are part of the small animal program.  They provide eggs as well as occasional meat.  This farmer is now producing enough to feed his family and even has some left to sell at his road side stand.  Sister Soleta bought all the coconut and a vegetable root he was selling.

 Below picture: Sister Gorriceta and I holding one of the new piggies from the 3rd farm litter.  Boy did that piggy squeal when the farmer tried to catch her!  She seemed to calm right down when I started to talked to her.   I bet she has never heard English spoken before. Add caption

This has been a wonderful way to learn how the farmers of the Philippines live.  They are the bread basket and life sustaining force in the Philippines, but they along with fishermen are the poorest populations.  LDS Charities has projects to help both populations.  They are given small animals, tree starts and garden seeds, along with counsel on how to plant sustainable crops.  This is what the Benson Food Initiative is all about.  We are so fortunate to be able to learn from these very humble people.  They love the Lord and pray for His Grace to survive.  The Benson Food Initiative is an answer to those prayers.  It has allowed them to have extra each month to sell in their little road side stands.  One farmer has been able to feed his family as well as buy another piece of land.  He has increase.  He is blessed.  These farmers are not members of the LDS church, but they are God’s children whom He loves and we feel privileged to work with them.

It's been almost 3 month.  We still miss you, but we are certain you are busy with good thing in your own lives.  We trust God is taking good care of you as he is of us.

Love, 

Gma and Gpa

Elder and Sister Webb 

Dad and Mon

Norriss and Carol