Research and relaxation

This week was spent researching for our final projects and brainstorming ideas for what to do on the farm. It is a lot harder to find work on the farm when we are given little direction and everyone already has their specific sites and doesn’t need additional help. But, we are looking forward to helping with rice planting in July. Additionally, it’s been hard to think of projects that can be completed in our short stay that will not only have a lasting impact on the farm but will also be continued on once we are gone. Along with Emma, a French intern, we are planning on reconstructing and completing a composting area by the vegetable crops. This should take us about a week, spending a few hours every morning clearing the area and prepping for compost. Luckily, my internship spring semester provided me with information and knowledge on how to compost and tips on creating a successful composting pile. We are looking forward to creating and completing something meaningful and useful.

Additionally, we have noticed that Filipinos in general do not have any regard for waste disposal and the sidewalks, communities and farm is littered with trash. We are planning to attend a few schools that students from the community go to in order to give lessons on the environment and why it is important to throw away your garbage. In addition to school lessons, we are planning to create signage around the farm and install more garbage cans to encourage the community and farm members to properly dispose of their garbage. Hopefully this project and our effort will outlast our stay here and continue to encourage a clean and eco friendly farm village.

On Friday we had the ability to visit five other GK communities in the area! It was awesome to see how much GK has affected the lives of so many Filipinos and to learn about the progress of each individual community. They are all unique in their own way and have different sources of incomes and livelihoods. I am looking forward to learning so much more from each community we visit.

Chickens and Volcanoes

6/12/2017 (Monday)

This morning Jill, Laurence, Jake and I woke up early before breakfast to go on a run. We were able to run down towards to the animal farm and explore a little bit more of the farm than we’ve seen previously. After breakfast we were given an official tour with Sophie, a MAD intern from Germany. There were other guests on the tour with us from the Philippines so we were able to hear their stories as well. We stopped into Plush and Play to learn more about that enterprise and the toys they are making. Plush and Play is one of the enterprises on the farm that utilizes the sewing ability of the Titas to create the first Filipino produced toy. After the tour we got to sit down with Tito Tony, the founder of GK. He told us the history of GK and his mission and vision for the community and SEED students in the coming years. One SEED student, Danilo also spoke to us. We heard his story during graduation but we got to hear more insight into how he felt about the farm and what progress was being made. Then we were able to help some SEED boys harvest mangos. It was hard but fun! They are collecting enough mangos to fill 14 crates for an order in Bel Air. The mango trees inside the farm are the most abundant and successful in the country so they are able to make a generous income on mango harvests.

Jill picking mangos

After lunch we cooled off in the pool again. Having the pool so close to our rooms is very convenient but could be dangerous this summer. After dinner we went to the Sari Sari with the french interns. The Sari Sari is a little karaoke bar/shack a 5 minute walk down the road. There was no karaoke tonight but it was a great way for us to get to know the other interns better and their role on the farm. Jake and I talked to William most of the night. He is also an engineering major in France so it will be great to work with him in the future on any engineering programs on the farm. I also tried Red Horse for the first time, a popular Filipino beer. The saying goes “Red Horse kicks hard” and it definitely does.

6/13/2017 (Tuesday)

Today after breakfast we cleaned 2,000 duck eggs for The Golden Duck. The Golden Duck is another enterprise that specializes in golden duck eggs and duck burgers. The golden duck egg is a twist of the traditional Filipino salted egg where the eggs are flavored with turmeric, giving it the golden color. We met another french intern Marie, and a Filipino, Karen. They were so much fun to hangout with and made the cleaning much more enjoyable. We made plans to sing karaoke together at the Sari Sari the next night, I can’t wait!

After cleaning we met with Mai and Lucas, another french intern, to go over our 7 day challenge. For the next 7 days we are required to complete the list of activities on our challenge. It is a great way to get to know the farm better and the community members. Jill and I also were assigned our community Tita, who will be our second mom on the farm. We spent the rest of the day exploring the farm and trying to complete things from our 7 day challenge list. Jill and I met our Tita, who asked us to call her Ate Carla. She has 5 sons, Victor, King, Clark, Naugt-Naugt, and Kai. They all live in one house with her husband and his mom. We learned they’ve been living in the community for about 9 years, which is right around the time it was built. Also, her husband painted all of the paintings around the farm, and their sons have picked up on drawing and their pictures are hung all around their house. The boys are so welcoming and lively, Jill and I played with them for hours, never getting bored. I’m looking forward to spending a lot more time with Ate Carla and the boys.

After dinner we went to a despedida for one of the french interns. A despedida on the farm is a farewell party for anyone thats leaving after a long time. There is traditional Filipino food served on a long table and everyone eats together with their hands. It was such a cool experience and another great way to meet more interns on the farm.

6/14/2017 (Wednesday)

This morning we helped Tito Vick plant and water lettuce after breakfast. The boys misunderstood their Tito and we all thought we were planting rice. It was less exciting but we were still able to learn and experience another aspect of the farm. Tito Ver, the boys’ Tito, along with Tito Vick and other Titos are in charge of planting the vegetables on the farm. There is lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables that are all given a separate section of the farm.

Watering the lettuce plants

After gardening, Jill and I wandered the farm for about an hour looking for the bees. We were finally able to find them with the help of two boys from the community. The bees here looked more like ants and there wasn’t any honey that we could see. Im hoping I can meet Jayson soon, who is in charge of the bees, and learn more about beekeeping.

The six of us went into the community after lunch and met Tita Celia, Danilo’s mom. She owns a small shop in the community with snacks and drinks, we will definitely be stopping by frequently for snacks. We made plans to come back the following day to have lunch with her. We got two new roommates today, Maiki and Xavi, they’re brother and sister. Maiki lives and teaches first grade in Singapore, but went to Boston College, and Xavi lives and goes to school in America. They’re Filipino and their parents are on the board of directors here at the farm. The farm has been a great place to build relationships and connections with people all over the world with people I would’ve never had the chance to meet before. Maiki and Xavi are so much fun, but unfortunately they’re only staying for 5 days 😦

The eight of us joined Tito June that afternoon to learn about his vermicomposting. Right now he is taking the sweet potato stems from the Bayani Brew enterprise after they use the leaves for tea. He places the bottoms of the stems at the end of his box, and distributes the smaller parts of the plant throughout a large box. In the box are African Night Crawlers that help break down the plants. When it rains, the rain and nutrients flow down to the end of the box where the stems are and once they start regrowing roots they are taken and replanted in the fields. And the excess dirt and poop are used for fertilizer for both the farm and to be sold outside. It is an awesome and perfectly sustainable system. I can’t wait to learn more from Tito June about composting. He also has the best dad jokes, and I’m looking forward to more laughs with him.

After composting we went into the community and introduced Maiki to Ate Carla and her boys. We spent the next few hours there playing and entertaining them. Maiki was able to help us talk to Ate Carla a little more because she knows some Tagalog. After visiting with Ate Carla, we stopped by Tito June’s for a quick sing a long. Tito June is very good at the guitar and we were able to sing some of our favorite American songs with him. We finally made our way to the Sari Sari with Marie and Karen after dinner. We sang so much karaoke and it was so so fun! I might’ve gotten booed for my poor performance at singing Whitney Houston but I definitely made a name for myself in front of the French singing Friends in Low Places.

6/15/2017 (Thursday)

Jill, Maiki and I woke up early this morning to help make breakfast at the Grassroots Kitchen. I attempted to make a couple dozen sunny side eggs but was failing miserable so I got demoted to cutting mangos. The boys got two more roommates today, Ryan and Kai. They are family friends with Maiki and Xavi and their dad is also on the board at the farm. They’re originally from Seattle but live in Malaysia. After breakfast we all went to the chicken slaughter which was very…interesting. I did not participate in any of the killing but I plucked about 5 or 6 chickens after they were dead. I think I found my calling in life as a professional chicken plucker because I plucked the chickens faster than anyone there. Besides the Filipinos of course, they can do a whole chicken in like 2 minutes.

Once we cleaned ourselves up we met with Mia and Mai and began our tour of the enterprises. We went to Plush and Play first where we heard Fabian, the French intern who started Plush and Play, talk about the history and success of the business. After we had lunch at Tita Celia’s. It was delicious, but I couldn’t eat the chicken, I was still a little scarred from that morning’s slaughter.

We toured the rest of the enterprises after lunch. We went to EriSilk Ambension first. There they make silk and cotton from silk worms. Their harvesting is sustainable and no worms are harmed in the process. They make scarves, headbands, towels and bracelets. Next we went to First Harvest, which makes AMAZING peanut butter. I will definitely be buying tons of jars while I’m here, it is so delicious. We learned about how the process works and the history of Tita Dell who is the head of First Harvest now. We then toured Oasis, the five star hotel on the farm. It is a really cool hotel that they are working on better marketing for currently. It was crazy to see these huge rooms when people in the community just a few yards away are living in houses smaller than one hotel room. But it is also another great way to provide jobs for community members and to generate income for the farm. After we went to the Bambo Villa to meet with Kuya Shannon, the CEO of the farm. He told us his history and how he got involved with GK. Another SEED student, Mais also spoke with us and told us her story. We heard her talk at graduation as well but it was cool to learn more about the progress of her enterprise.

6/16/2017 (Friday)

This morning we were supposed to help make lunch after breakfast but they didn’t need us by the time we arrived. We took advantage of our few hours of free time and spent a few hours at the pool. It was very relaxing but the sun tired us out quickly. After lunch we were given our internship program for the rest of summer. It was very confusing and overwhelming at first. It seems like we will be working constantly the rest of summer and we won’t be assigned a specific mission like we were originally told. I am a little disappointed because I wanted to focus most of my time on composting and the solar energy projects on the farm but this program will help us see every aspect of the farm and we will definitely be able to make more connections. We are hoping as the week unfolds the program becomes more clear and less overwhelming. We went to help the mango harvest in the mango orchard. King, Ate Carla’s son, was there helping with his cousin Sander. I think he is finally starting to warm up to Jill and I, since he’s been very shy every time we’ve gone to his house.

We went to the community to watch the boys play basketball against community boys. The boys got yet another roommate, Shamir, who goes to high school with Ryan and Kai, and his cousin, Tim, from England joined us. The boys, specifically Laurence and Xavi, were total show offs during the game, but the community boys are really good and could keep up. Basketball is a huge community event here and the six of us want to repaint the court for them and get them new nets eventually. Jill and I stopped by Ate Carla’s to get our laundry and play with the boys briefly before bed. I will miss them the most when I’m gone, they are so funny and playful.

6/17/2017 (Saturday)

This morning Laurence, Jake, Jill, Amanda, Danielle, Jackie, Mai and I woke up early and began our trek to Tagaytay to climb the Taal Volcano. We ate lunch in Tagaytay at a restaurant called Bag-o-Beans which had an amazing view of the volcano we were about to climb.

We took a boat to the volcano and hiked up. It was very steep and hot but the view at the top was totally worth it. The volcano is surrounded by lakes but inside the crater is also another lake. We didn’t hike down to it but it was such  beautiful view. We spent about twenty minutes up there enjoying the view and having a mini photoshoot. Everyone wanted pictures with the Americans, which seems to be a trend here. Especially since Laurence’s afro really stands out.

After our hike back down we drove to Manila. We bathed ourselves in the bathroom with wipes, which definitely got a lot of looks from the Filipinos. We grabbed PIZZA!!! for dinner before meeting Maiki and Xavi. They took us to this really cool bar, Finders Keepers, in Manila. There was a live DJ and we danced the whole night. Laurence and his afro were living it up on the stage and everyone was recording him. We had so much fun and slept the whole bus ride back to the farm. We didn’t get back until 4am, but the day was definitely worth it.

6/18/2017 (Sunday)

This morning we slept in until lunch since we didn’t get back until 4 am the night before. Then we went into Angat to get more pesos, load our phones, and get chicken for dinner at Tito June. It took us about an hour but we were able to trike into town and navigate around by ourselves for the first time. We then had dinner at Tito June with a few of the French interns. It was very delicious and we had another sing a long with Tito June. Overall the day was relaxing and chill, just what we needed after our long weekend.

First Impressions

6/9/2017 (Friday)

We have officially arrived in the Philippines! Our 15 hour flight was Hello Kitty themed including the toilet paper and the gate in Taiwan. It was very interesting and definitely made the flight go faster. Once we arrived in Manila, Tito Mon and Kuya Mellord picked us up from the airport and drove us an hour or so to the University of the Philippines, Los Banos, where we will be staying the first two nights. The drive to UPLB went through the city of Manila, our first glimpse into the Philippines. It was crazy to so clearly see the economic disparity prevalent in the Philippines. There were slums for as far as you could see that lead directly up to the sky scrapers of Manila. The hotel at UPLB was very nice and clean, but not having any toilet paper in the bathrooms is something we will have to get used to. After we settled in, Kuya Mellord dropped us off in Los Banos where we had Jollibee for dinner and explored the town and campus for an hour. Jollibee is like a cross between McDonalds and KFC, not very authentic Filipino food but still very good. Jill and I fell asleep around 6pm because of our jet leg and slept right through the night.

Photos from UPLB

6/10/2017 (Saturday)

This morning we woke up early for our 8 hour orientation lead by Tito Mon and professors from UPLB. We learned about Filipino culture, history and language. Learning about the Spanish colonization in the Philippines helped explain the similarities I’ve noticed so far between the Philippines and Central/South American countries that I’ve visited before. We had our first authentic Filipino meal for lunch and it was delicious! Following orientation we went to dinner at a restaurant with floating tables. I ate fish straight from the bone for the first time, it was an interesting experience! We were also serenaded by a group of 3 men, similar to a Mariachi band which was another example of Spanish influence. It was a great first look into the culture and food we will be experiencing the next two months.

Dinner

6/11/2017 (Sunday)

The six students going to GK woke up at 5am to head to the farm. We got in just in time to watch the graduation of the 44 SEED students on the farm. SEED is the entrepreneurial university on the farm that kids from the community and all around the Philippines attend to develop business and enterprise skills. The graduation was an amazing first look into the farm and how it functions as a farm village university. Two of the students spoke during the ceremony and we got an insight into the totally impoverished lives they used to live, and now they can speak up to three languages fluently and are creating businesses and futures for themselves, their families and their communities. Following the ceremony we had lunch in the cafeteria and met with Ate Joni. Ate Joni briefed us on the farm and what we we can expect during our time here. She explained that we will  have our 7 day challenge, which is a week of just familiarizing ourselves with the farm and talking to as many people as possible. Following the 7 day challenge we will be assigned a mission that we will work on for the rest of the summer. Mai then showed us to our rooms which are very nice and air conditioned!!! Our dorms are right by the pool so we took a quick swim before heading in to Angat for dinner.

View from the pool

Mai took us into Angat for dinner, walking around and full body massages. We took our first tricycle ride into the town, which is basically a motor cycle with a side attachment and we all piled as many people on as possible. The city of Angat is very different than anywhere I’ve ever been. There are people out every where are open shops and carts selling things on every inch of the sidewalk. I feel very out of place since everyone was staring and yelling things at us to get us to buy something. Especially since we are with Laurence, who is tall and has a huge afro, we really stuck out in the city. But everyone has been so nice and welcoming to us, the Filipinos have truly lived up to their stereotype of being friendly and hospitable. I cannot wait to make many more friendships and explore more during my time here.