Just when I think we have the cat by the tail something new happens. The other night at the last presentation on "The Forgotten Carols" a brother approached me to tell me about a Pig Farming Co-op program that in located in Compostela about an hour or so from Cebu. Supposedly this Co-op is inviting individuals who want to join their co-operative for a minimal fee to just raise 10 piglets every cycle just like Pagtambayayong. The BIG difference according to this brother is that with the Co-op there is NO FINCANIAL investment or loans required on the part of the grower. This Co-op delivers the piglets, the feeds, the inoculations - EVERYTHING and after 4 months (the cycle) they pick up and sell the pigs, guaranteeing the grower a set price +/-Php 3,000 per piglet or Php 30,000 per cycle.
I had this brother speak with Mary Ann hoping we can obtain more information about this Co-op so we can investigate its legitimacy and see if this is something we should be pursuing for our members as well. If our members would be satisfied with making just that much each cycle with no anticipation of individual piggery growth then WHY NOT, especially if there is no financial ?obligation on the part of the grower?
We are going to meet with this Co-op on January 5th.
Saturday January 2nd we returned to Bogo for our inaugural meeting for the Bogo Hog Farming project. I was so concerned that we would have a small turnout but the room was packed and the interest was certainly much better than expected. Mary Ann and I made the presentation to outline all the guidelines for the Pagtambayayong Foundation project. We covered everything for who qualifies for this first go around to estimating their potential income for 4 cycles (each cycle is 4 months). I then presented the concept of what a "3 YEAR BUSINESS PLAN"is and how important it is to work hard, be dedicated, and sacrifice for the next 3 years to reach that plateau of a guaranteed future success. I outlined for them some projections of potential income they could make once the reached the 3rd of building their pig farms and investing in their operations. You should have seen the smiles on their faces but I had to remind them this it not day-dreaming but is a REAL DREAM that can come true.
I will say that we left the meeting much more enthused than before we arrived and with the help of Brother Bock I think we will see a number of families enter into the project within the next 30 days.
We visited this new CO-OP that was providing hog farming assistance. We met with Mr. Ebonito R. Allvio, General Manager of the Compostela Market Vendors MPC. We spent about 45 minutes getting a review of the community co-op that was started about 15 years ago. It all came about because Mr. Allvio was noticing that the local vendors were being abused by foreign money lenders charging 20% a month to loan money to local businesses. After some investigation he approached the town mayor with a plan to resolve this problem and to better help the residences get ahead of the game. So he started this community co-op and became a member of NATCCO the National confederation of Cooperatives.
From there this co-op has expanded into many various aspects from teaching people in fisheries, piggeries crop growing and other mercantile ventures. Of course our interest was in the hog farming program.
We spent some time going over the details of his program which included swine fattening as well as swing breeding, and came away with the conclusion that this was certainly another option we needed to pursue and present to the members of the church in the areas between Liloan north to Carmen.
With the help of Mary Ann Balen our SR Manager we will put together a prospectus and outline to send to the Stake and Wards covering this area. Hopefully it will give some of our members who are desiring to become Self-Reliant the opportunity to look into this program and decide to participate.
Off to Bohol Island for a couple of days of adventure, training and Self-Reliance work. This will be the first time we have taken our car to the island. With everything that needs to be accomplished we just could not justify calling upon our friends the Holladay's to transport us about the island. We took a supposed 2-hour Lite Ferry Shipping trip to Tubigon. From there we will drive approximately 1 hour to Tagbilaran where we will be until Saturday afternoon. We decided to boat to Tubigon simply because the cost to Tagbilaran is very costly and it is a 5 hour boat trip. Cheaper going to Tubigon and much shorter in time travel.
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| The Lite Ferry |
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| Loading Captin |
We arrived at the dock at about 11:15 not knowing what to expect since this was our first time taking the Lite Ferry. We were asked to just wait outside as other 18-wheelers and larger trucks were loaded. They just kept coming and finally at about 12:15 they waved us on. We were probably one of 4 cars on the ferry. It was packed to the brim. Finally at about 12:50 the ferry departed. Now remember I said the trip was to take 2 hours, but after 3 hours and 15 minutes we arrived at Tubigon. YES it was a slow boat to (China) Tubigon.
We got to Tagbilaran at approximately 5:45 PM to check in to our hotel. Our meeting with the Tagbilaran people was to start at 6:00 PM at the Stake Center. We thought we knew how to get to the chapel but after taking one wrong turn we had to back track, arriving at 6:00 PM just as everybody else was arriving.
This training was for the newly called Stake Self-Reliance Specialists and her assistant. The meeting lasted about two hours and by 8:30PM we were talked out so we departed our ways and set out for our hotel. We spoke with Brother Cacho earlier who is arranging for us to see a pig farm operation Friday morning before we head out to Calape.
Thursday we had scheduled to be our free day to do some sight-seeing. Elder & Sister Halladay our friends joined with us at about 8:30 am and we set out for the Danao Adventure Park to do some zip lining which we have never done but thought it would be exciting. It was highy reommneded by Sister Darby after she and her son went there. The Halladay's had never been there but had heard about the zip line adventure there. We drove about an hour thinking we were going the right direction and we were, until we stopped and asked a local for our final direction. After about 20 minutes of dirt road we came around a corner and came right up to a under construction. No workers and no road left to go on! We just sat there and laughed concluding that the Danao Adventure was simply an adventure in trying to find it.
We decided to give up on the adventure park and went back to Carmen to see the Chocolate Hills that are so famous here on Bohol. It was worth the 30 minute drive and an awesome sight, like everybody said it was. They look like giant gopher mounds and are brown most of the year.
After visiting the Chocolate Hills we decided to go and see one of he other highly recommend sights, the rice terraces. Rice is a big commodity in the Philippines and is grown everywhere but the terraces are something to behold. This has been on our bucket list ever since we arrived in the Philippines.
We certainly were not disappointed. Up north of Manila are some terraces that are even more spectacular, so we've heard, that cover entire mountains.
On our way back to our hotel we passed through the man-made forest on Bohol. Mountains of planted trees they started 100 years ago. The trees make a natural tunnel to pass through.
We had to be back to our hotel to be picked up at 5 PM for our evening activity. We had arranged to go on the Firefly kayaking river trip. Jenee loves the water so we thought kayaking would be fun and relaxing. We arrived at the sight at 6 PM and after the paddling instructions we boarded our kayak with Jenee up front and I in the back. Who do think did most of the paddling?. . . . . I really did enjoy watching Jenee move the kayak along the river! She only caught on near the end of the trip.
The Fireflies are only located on certain Mangrove trees along the river. During our leisure float we saw 5 trees that had concentrations of flies. They were so packed that each tree looked just like a lighted up Christmas tree. Pictures were impossible to take - SORRY. Jenee remarked that it reminded her of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. I agree. Beautiful!
At the end of the float they provided us with a Filipino dinner which Jenee selectively enjoyed but I did not indulge in, I just have not become accustomed to Filipino cooking.
Friday morning we hooked up with Brother Cacho to make a visit to a gentleman who had a hog growing operation. Brother Cacho told us a little about this man but nothing to what we discovered upon our arrival. We went to this corporate office where 6000 employees work doing all kids of office administration duties. We were invited into the office of Mr. Marlito C. UY who we discovered is the wealthiest man on the island of Bohol. Not only a millionaire but a billionaire. He owns several malls through the Philippines as well as land development and pig and chicken raising.
Our intention was to see what they did in the way of hog raising and if there would be an opportunity for our members to learn from them and start their own hog business. WELL, we discovered that the hog project is so massive and so complete that when one goes to the farm you have to take a shower )probably an air shower) and put on their farming clothes before you can enter the establishment. They are not just a small hog demo farm, they are a massive hog production farm that supplies pig meat all over the Philippines to retail grocery stores, restaurants. We hope to return to go there.
Mr. UY was very receptive to us. Brother Cacho has met previously with him and discovered that he knew about the Church and in fact has a good relationship and working experience with us to the point that he was very open to see how they might be able to assists us in our hog farming venture. He requested that we forward to him the MOA we have with Pagtambayayong and they will review it and see what can be developed. They are always looking at ways to expand their operations as well as help the local citizens and will give our proposal some serious review and consideration.
We will pass all this on to Mary Ann for her follow-up and hopefully we can all return and talk about developing a working relationship with Mr. UY and his organization.
After dropping Brother Cacho off at the hotel we headed back to Calape where we had a Self-Reliance Training that evening. We took a detour through Cortez which took us through the mountains of Bohol, a trip we have never taken. The countryside was beautiful, no poverty just beautiful open land with very nice homes ( for the Philippines) along the roadway. We were so impressed with the ride and with the natural beauty of Bohol.
We stayed at our favorite place on Treasure Island, the Isla Hayhaya Beach Resort. Back to the Calape Dist. Building for our 4:00 meeting with President Nueva along with Elder & Sister Saballa and Elder & Sister Bell. President Nueva is a new District President and Elder and Sister Saballa are the newly called CSM and District Self-Reliance Specialists. Elder Saballsa was previously the District President. Elder & sister Bell are MLS missionaries for the area and wanted to get involved in Self-Reliance so they could help the local members.
We spent two hours going over the basic material of Self-Reliance and then answered any and all of their questions. We scheduled two Self-Reliance firesides and one Graduation for the end of this month. These people are GREAT, what more can I say. They work together so well and are so desirous to help the members become self reliant.
After the meeting we invited to take all of them to dinner but other appointments made that difficult. However we did take Elder & Sister Saballa back to our Beach Resort for dinner and for some time to get to know them better. We just love this family. When Elder Saballa was the District President he would do anything and everything we asked of him in relation to self-reliance. He is so on top of things that we know they will be successful. They shared with us their conversion story, which we love to hear from the members. Each story is filled with their own path to conversion and the trials and challenges they faced. It is really something to hear them tell how once they heard the restored gospel message they just could not get enough. Instead of having the missionaries over once a week, it is daily if not twice a day and within a week or so they are converted and baptized. REMARKABLE people and REMARKABLE stories.
Saturday we headed for Tubigon to get on the Lite Ferry at noon to return to Cebu. We were there on time and got boarded - one of only six cars this time. When I got our tickets they had no tourist seats available so they just gave me what they had. I did not give it any attention until we boarded the ferry only to find out we were on bunk , most of the boat was just that! I told the purser that we requested a seat and he directed us to just go and sit in the air conditioned luxury section.
When the pursers came to check the tickets they approached everybody but us so we just sat there and played gin. The trip home only took 2 hours because of the light load. There were plenty of people aboard but as I said only six cars so that made the load very light so we could speed.
This is a holiday week here in Cebu. It is called Sinulog which is a Catholic religious event celebrating the baby Jesus. It is filled with LOUD music, extravagant dancing and fireworks beyond one's imagination.
While we were on Treasure Island where our hotel was in Calape they were celebrating this event as well. It was a group of young kids all decorated in traditional costumes dancing down the street.
In Cebu, people come from all over the Philippines to engage in dancing, music, competition and partying for this religions festival. It is equal to our New Orleans Mardi Gras. The hotels have been filled for months so we all decided not to get involved in the traffic and congestion surrounding this event, especially because it is on Sunday, but were glad we got a small taste of it on Bohol.
Here are some of the sights and decorative dress of the event here in Cebu.
Tuesday the 26th we conducted our Career Workshop for the returning missionaries. Jenee and I have been doing this for months and enjoying it every time. But two weeks ago Mary Ann got a directive from Manila that the Career Workshop was to be discontinued and that Self-Reliance was to replace it. The new My Plan program for missionaries was to have been out months ago but it was held back because of development issues so the PEF director in Manila Brother Franco arbitrarily decided to stop the Career Workshops and replace it with Self-Reliance without the Area Presidency's approval.
He nor Mary Ann has ever seen our presentation for the returning missionaries from both missions their last day here and particularly of the positive response we were getting back from the missionaries the Mission Presidents Wife and the Mission Presidents. Jenee and I were a little, YES a lot disappointed being told to JUST STOP. After discussion and support from Sister Darby, Mary Ann relented and told us to carry on until we go home in April. According to Mary Ann we are the only remaining area holding the workshop under the request of both Mission Presidents. From the response and feedback from the Missionaries attending our workshop they indicated how much they loved our presentations and as I said previously said, we discovered the same after they reported back to their mission presidents.
We will shorten it by one hour to add the Self-Reliance materials at the end, at which point the missionaries seemed to "tune out" and lose interest.
I concluded the workshop with my transition to my Temple Recorder experience and talked to them about attending the temple upon their return home. I told them that once their missionary tag is removed they will miss the mantel attached and one way to keep the mantel close to them is to attend the temple at least once if not twice a month. Ending the workshop on a spiritual note has made all the difference and we feel we are sending them off well prepared both temporally as well as spiritually.
Sister Darby and Sister Hargrave will take over after we leave. They have never presented our 4 modules so it will be interesting to see what happens. I would assume they will revert to the Self-Reliance suggestion as Manila has requested until such time as the My Plan program actually is introduced here in the Philippines.
In our staff meeting Mary Ann presented to us the material and directives presented by Salt Lake and the Area Office. April of 2015 the Area Presidency sent a letter to the Stake/District Presidents throughout the Philippines announcing that the Self-Relinace program was to be Priesthood Driven and no more pushed or directed by the full time SR Missionaries and SR Managers. At this conference the final (strong)directive was given, to STOP our activities until the Priesthood is properly trained and they step forward and make Self-Reliance Priesthood driven.
Wow, this changes everything we have been doing. There was no kind of accountability placed on the Stake/District Presidents. It resembled what was introduced in the very beginning when the SR Managers and Missionaries did the beginnings roll-out, without any direct reporting or accountability back to Manila. We are somewhat confused. This means that we were on HOLD with the Firesides we are hoping to do, until we can contact the Stake/District Presidents and schedule a training on the new Priesthood Driven initiative enabling them to train their Bishops/Branch Presidents and Specialists - we are no longer to directly train Bishops or Branch Presidents as in the past. After we show everything to them, they will take the material that we provide and train their Bishops and Branch Presidents to hold firesides to present the information to the members of the church. We are to assist when the need arises.
Without any materials given to us by Manila or Salt Lake I developed our power point presentation covering the three phases of the new directive. The next day Mary Ann forwards to all of us her version of a presentation to use it at our 3 upcoming firesides. I felt hers was lacking in some information, so I forwarded our presentation for her review to do as she saw fit. I also asked her to consider involving Sisters Darby & Hargraves in developing the final presentation since they will be doing 90% of the training going forward. She agreed with that and we all met and came up with a wonderful training presentation now.
It has been a merry-go-round trying to get our upcoming graduations confirmed. E-mails, texts back and forth for weeks between the SR Manager, the District SR Specialists and us the SR Missionaries. Finally this afternoon we got the confirmation for both graduation in Calape as well as Bogo, so what was a tentative plan for weeks is definitely now a GO.
Our final activity for this month: return to Calape. We love Calape and the great people we work with there. We will surely miss them when we leave.
We arrived on Bohol one day early so as to take one day and do some sight-seeing and take advantage of some of the adventures on the island. Upon arriving we got a little breakfast at McDonalds and then headed out for the mysterious before-mentioned Danao Adventure Park to do zip-lining. This time we found it, taking us approximately 1.5 hours from Calape. Once there we registered and paid our fees and went directly to the zipline. This is a FIRST. Jenee did not think I would try it once I looked at the gorge that we had to go over. But once there, there was no turning back. WAHOO!
Jenee went first and I followed her. We went (480 meters) across this deep gorge (240 meters high)with a running river beneath us and then had to return back the same way but on a different zip line. I have to say that this was cerainly exhilarating!
Here are the pictures of our adventure.
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| The Gorge |
Well, we did it. Now we can cross it off our bucket list of things we want to do before we get too old. Can you believe this - a 71 year old man zip lining?
Saturday we picked up Sister Ballen and Sister Hargraves from the pier at 11:00 AM as they were coming over for the Calape Graduation at 3:30 PM. We took them back to the Isla Hayahay for lunch. After a little rest and food we attended the SGMB graduation, a very nice event for everybody. The Halladays surprised us by coming over from Tagbilaran to attend the graduation so we had them join us at the Hayahay for dinner together and visit. They are returning home in March so we wanted to visit with them as much as possible until then when we are on Bohol. They are dear friends. (We had taken Mary Ann and Sister Hargraves back to the pier to return to Cebu)
Sunday was a day full of almost everything. After church The Saballas joined us to travel to Talibon for the first of two firesides. This is a small branch held in the small upstairs area of a business building. We had about 40 present as we made our first SRS/PEF Fireside presentation. As much as we love doing this it is difficult because these members in the outlying areas barely speak English; we had to have the Stake President interpret for us.
After that meeting we had to return to Calape for our second fireside at 5:30 PM. It was a one and a half hour drive so we had to hurry. The second fireside was much better than the first with about 50 in attendance. Much more interaction than the first but we came away from it feeling good about the interaction and information shared.
We are really going to miss the Calape members, especially the Stake President, his counselors and Brother and Sister Saballa - the CSMs and Stake Self-Reliance Specialists. They are great people with enthusiasm and who give their all. We just love them and their support and work that is done with Self-Reliance in their district. We can certainly say that we are turning over to Sister Hargraves a District that is in good hands and well on their way in Self-Reliance.
After taking Elder & Sister Saballa to their home in Loon we returned to Tubigon to get our return tickets on the Lite Ferry at midnight. We sat around waiting to board the ferry which took place at 11 PM. Everybody has their own cot to sleep on while on the ferry. so we just laid back and tried to rest during the two hour rip. Finally at 2:15 AM we arrived back in Cebu to hit the sack, ready to wake up to start a new month - February 2016.
This weekend turned out to be GREAT in every way both adventurous as well as in Self-Reliance. Time is shortly closing in on us so we are trying to make the most of what is remaining.
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