The church where our office
is located is being painted (for the past several weeks). The paint smells are very hazardous and the
days we have stayed and tried to work we have felt sick afterwards. Today when we went and it was still being
painted we decided to drive some of our area and see if we could find some
resources to help with self-reliance in the Philippines.
In San Quintin we found the
Provincial Agriculture office. We went
in an introduced ourselves and explained why we were there. The Staff was very gracious in showing us what is being
done to help the people of the Philippines.
We were so impressed with the facility and the staff and especially all
the beautiful trees, plants and seedlings there. They also have a tilapia fish farm where they
raise thousands of fingerlings for distribution throughout Pangansinan. They also have livestock that they are
raising using organic principles which keeps the odors so low you would not
realize their were animals there without seeing them.
One of the businesses we have
found that is good for people to start in the Philippines is Organic
Farming. A family here can rent a very
small lot if they do not have enough room where they live and by growing
organic vegetables they can make a very good living. Two weeks ago we visited Our Farm Republic
and talked to them about teaching classes to people interested in this
business. Today we stopped at this
facility to see what they do and to find out if they teach classes that people
in this area could attend without having to travel so far. What we learned was awesome.
They asked us to write a
letter to the Governor asking if we could participate in what they offer. Tomorrow morning we will deliver the letter
to them and they will hand deliver it to the Governor on Monday.
They have over 15,000
seedlings that they need to find homes for.
These include a variety of different fruit trees. They also have Dragon Fruit plants that they
have started from cuttings. These trees
will produce Dragon Fruit within 1 year.
This fruit is expensive and they can sell it for 120 pesos / kilo. Two pieces of fruit equal approximately 1
kilo. This is very good money. The Dragon fruit produces from May to October
making it a very good income crop. They
will provide the cuttings and teach the people how to take care of them and
other organic farm crops. If we get
approved for this it will be a great blessing to many families.
They also showed us this
fruit which is called Magic Fruit in the Philippines. Other countries call it Miracle Fruit. If you eat one of these berries, you can then
take the most sour fruit and when you eat it the taste will be sweet. You can read more about this here http://www.gayot.com/lifestyle/health/features/miracle-fruit-health-benefits.html
They also have dwarf versions
of fruit trees that would be too tall to climb and harvest the fruit.
We Also saw this fruit although it was a week or so from being ripe.
All in all there were more wonderful things
to see today than I can share here today.
Hopefully our letter will find favor with the Governor and there will be
more on this to come in a later posting.
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