a valentine seed

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Please welcome the new addition to our Giraffes family, SEED! He was born this Valentine's Day. :)

It was such an amazing experience to really see how a batchmate of mine--who you've known for years--became such a graciously loving mother. Ah, the gift of creation.

Of course, I got too trigger-happy and documented as much as I could. Well, if the baby's this cute (ahem, MY grandson), who could resist? :)

Our baby SEED! :)

a google valentine's

via google.com.ph

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Oh, Google. You never cease to amaze me.

For this day, Google's logo offering is a video with Tony Bennett's song "Cold, Cold Heart," which talks about a boy who tries to find the perfect gift for the girl he loves, but fails to impress her.

Click on this link to watch the entire video. Or better yet, go directly to google.com to catch it before this day is over!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! :)

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call for support

Hello friends,

Last February 6, 2012, provinces in the Visayas were rocked by an earthquake with magnitudes ranging from intensity 5 to 7. While a tsunami scare and numerous aftershocks were experienced in Cebu, the city is relatively unaffected. Work and school activities are now in normal flow.

But the neighboring province of Negros Oriental was not as lucky. A total of 10 cities and towns sustained death, casualties and damages to life and property. Some 12,000 families in Negros Oriental are directly affected by the earthquake, according to a February 9 report published on the Philippine Daily Inquirer. On February 8, Inquirer reported that some 45 people were confirmed dead, most of them from barangay Planas in Guihulngan City, the hardest hit area. As per report of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council as of February 7, more than 70 are still missing in Guihulngan City and the town of La Libertad. Irrigation facilities and rice and corn plantations were likewise damaged. As of today, there are seven towns that don’t have electricity, water and access to mobile communication.

In PBSP, our initial response is the allocation of PHP 50,000 for disaster relief operations. We are now requesting more individuals to provide cash and in-kind donations to be provided to the affected families in Negros Oriental, especially those located in Planas and La Libertad.

Funds collected will be used to purchase water, medicine and relief packs following the SPHERE standard to provide caloric requirement for a full week for a family of six consisting of the following: 

• 8 kg of rice
• 1 kg sugar
• ½ kg monggo
• ½ kg dried fish
• ¼ kg salt
• 3 cans of sardines
• 1 pint cooking oil
• 1 bar detergent soap

Please contact us via email at pbspvro@pbsp.org.ph | rbbarrientos@pbsp.org.ph, via landline at (032) 232-5283 or via mobile phone at +639228588506 for details and inquiries. 

For your cash donations, they may be deposited to this account:

Account Name:                    Philippine Business for Social Progress

Account Number:                 000260034010 

Bank:                                   Unionbank Cebu Business Park Branch

Kindly inform us of your cash donation before or after the deposit so we could accordingly acknowledge you. The first round of our disaster relief operations is scheduled next Wednesday, February 15, at the earliest. 

Thank you very much.

 

Coppice-ous wonder

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In all IFS farms I visited, I consider the madre de cacao (Gliricidia sepium) as the centerpiece of it all. A farm, specifically upland farms with contours, must have hedgerows to prevent soil erosion to take place. In past years, farmers (specifically in Dulhogan) usually make riff-raff like hedgerows, but with the madre de cacao, they no longer needed to do this.

These are the reasons that in the IFS technology, the madre de cacao is the prime choice for hedgerows:

• It is a nitrogen fixing plant in itself. Thus, it helps other plants surrounding it to get nutrients for their optimal growth, nitrogen that this tree fixed itself.
• It has high growth rate, and it is also perfect for trapping in/holding soil.
• It also has a high coppicing rate (dali siya manilinsing), especially when you cut off its branches. And with its hard-quality wood, farmers can cut off its branches for firewood AND help it coppice. 

See what a miracle plant this is?

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Backpacking Buhisan 2B: Toong

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Cliffs with grass. A river more than ten feet below, which leads to a waterfall. Fine sunshine. Fine weather. My adventure for this day was shaping up great.

Until my foot slipped on a loose rock of a slope and tripped, bringing Sir Leo with me in the fall. The fact that the farm where it happened was not as steep (thus, no damage has been really done except for a slightly bummed bum and a more bruised ego) did not assuage the humiliation I felt. Of all places, of all those hours of “practicing”, I tripped on a very relatively safe slope. Gah.

This day was intended for the documentation of the remaining individual farmers of barangay Toong, Cebu City. I am particularly excited for this trip because we would be exploring a possible ecotourism site—waterfall, to be precise. Another would the fact that we’d be trailing more ravines in this trip than those two days combined.

This truly was the farthest trail we’ve taken because of those mountains we crossed; the distance from one farmer’s house to the next is twice than the previous trip. It was also on this day that we experienced being rained on while traveling. Fortunately, rain fell exactly when we stopped at a farmer’s house for lunch. When I went inside their home to help prepare the food, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the farmer’s son is one of the Bosconians who were given trainings on basic carpentry and masonry, a livelihood component we also implemented for this project. Alfred—that’s his name—shared that he was already using the skills he learned in strengthening some posts of their home and is planning to look for work after harvest time. I am glad to find out that the training helped him boost his confidence and that it provided him the security belt he needs for his family.

See more photos on my Posterous

Alfred’s family is one of those who had the largest farmlands to tend. Almost 2/3 of the total farmlands we visited are tenured by them. He joined us for the remainder of our adventure after lunch since he knew the best—and shortest—route from their farm to the falls.

tremor horror

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Last Monday, I was walking back to my office with my co-workers from lunch, just talking about something nonsensical when they both stopped in front of me. A bit clueless as to why they stopped, I was about to ask them if they left any of their things at the canteen when our German co-worker, Janina, suddenly asked: "Did you feel that, too?"

I could only stare at her in befuddlement. I didn't feel anything unusual.

It was only a few hours later, after I've already witnessed how the employees scampered away from our building (right after I realized that I should be feeling something shake because an earthquake just happened), how my panicked officemates trapped in the elevator and stayed in the office shared their stories, how our head office issued a half-day due to the severity of the 6.9-magnitude-earthquake-and-level-2-tsunami-alert situation, how I had to walk from Mabolo to Mandaue because no PUJs are available (and my panicking mom is calling me to come home right now), how my other co-walkers ran without their shoes and with desperation in their eyes because the tsunami is right behind us (and I looked and saw...nothing), how I gave up so many vacant seats for the other passengers to go to Liloan because they are going to die, how blessed I had been because while people were scampering to get a ride home I was actually offered a vacant front seat by a PUJ driver because I just calmly stood there and listened to all the chaos...that this day would never shape up the way I expected it to.

The earthquake had not been so severe in Cebu. Let's pray for our brothers and sisters in Negros, who are more affected than we were, and help in any way that we can.

Today, many of them had no water to use while we await for more aftershocks to happen this week. If you can, please send your help to friends who live or work nearby Negros (like what we did) so they can give your donations to agencies there that are on top of the area's relief operations. A gallon of water costs PHP40.00---imagine what you could do with that amount.

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Backpacking Buhisan 2A: Toong

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The second day of my backpacking trip had the most challenging route I’ve ever taken so far.

Whatever notion I had in my mind that since I had experienced some mountain treks for years I would be totally ready for this certain day, ALL OF IT was wiped out the moment I saw what I was really up to. Also, Buhisan may be part of the entire Central Cebu Protected Landscape but it is totally different from the Mananga Watershed—which I frequent. Buhisan’s mountain ranges are mostly rocky AND slope-y, and if you are not careful, you’d easily slip down and hurt yourself. But with the officers and members of the Toong Volunteer Farmers Association with us, I had enough mental leeway to experience the day meaningfully.

Toong is one of the smaller barangays located within the Buhisan Watershed and Forest Reserve. And since most of its land area is particularly mountainous, most of these locals have to contend to living and establishing farms on slopy areas. It’s amazing how these locals are so used to running on these trails with their big baskets (locally called a bakat) on their backs, relying on nothing but their leg power to ensure their safe and balanced tread back to the barangay proper where they would transport their produce to the marketplace.  And it equally makes you glad that the IFS technology is really intended for these farmlands since its format prevents soil erosion and siltation to the dam.

Compared to Dulhogan, it took us an entire day to monitor and document seven farms—that speaks how far the farms are from each other (we actually crossed more than two mountains). It gave me a complete immersive experience since I had time to rest on some of the houses of our farmers, prepare food and eat with them during lunch (that chicken left a great aftertaste for days) and just listen to their life stories.

See entire gallery on my Posterous

Backpacking Buhisan 1: Dulhogan

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“Wake me up again and I will butcher you with my comb (which happens to be the only thing I could grab in my sleep-induced mind).”

Naturally, knowing how murderous I can be when woken up at a time I do not wish, my younger siblings picked up all the pillows I did not use and made them their shields. I still laugh thinking at that day I was woken up early. But this is not the story you should know.

The day was meant for hard work. A few days earlier, I was commissioned to photograph all the farmers from the Buhisan Watershed and Forest Reserve who we helped improve their farm produce through the Integrated Farming System technology. The concept behind this is simple: they cut the trees and clear large areas of their field because they need livelihood. Through this technology, they do not need to clear more areas of the watershed because they can fully maximize the potential of their farmlands, however small it is. And by harvesting more income-generating crops, less people will cut down trees for additional income. The best part of it all is that the technology utilizes an environment-friendly approach, you have forest and fruit trees as your borders, so, in your own little way, you are contributing to the watershed.

When I say I had to take all individual farmers, I meant every. Individual. Farmer. Wherever their farms may be located (slope-wise, altitude-wise, and length-of-trail-wise). I was apprehensive at my own skills in defying gravity and staying in one place, but I have Sir Leo with me, our technical officer, so it was all good in the end.

Throughout the day, I had to utilize balancing acts, crawl on steep slopes to get better angles of shots and face my fear of heights. Nothing of these things mattered though whenever we meet each farmer who gave me a lot of new discoveries! Like how this barangay, in particular, grow cassava as its major crop since the sloping and weather is perfect for it.

See the full gallery on Posterous