Preview of last week’s adventures

Dear all, so much is happening at the moment that I hardly have time to sit down and update you about it. It will follow, I promise.

Here is just a quick preview of last week’s adventures:

Sleepover in Cangumbang with “Stockbrot und Nudelsalat” and three additional meals for all the kids

The start of a livelihood – Cangumbang Community Garden

Another source of livelihood – First batch of Peanut butter from the “Peanut Butter Club”

One step further towards the start of a new nutrition project for another 45 kids initiated by Charlie

Tonight, I’ll do it again. Sleepover with “Stockbrot”, Karaoke and lots of fun to celebrate my farewell, to celebrate their amazing work on the garden and to get more food into these kids. Your generous donations help me to realise all of the above and so much more. Thanks a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

Future Funds

Last week I had the honour to conduct the “Future Funds Group” in my community of Cangumbang. The group was founded end of last year by a former volunteer to encourage mothers to save money and micro-finance future loans for income generating activities. The mothers meet every month to bring their savings, revise their goals and support each other in reaching them. Savings range from 20 Pesos (0.40 Euro) to 1000 Pesos (20 Euro) per month.

 

During the last meeting we discussed various ways of saving money and making money. Ideas for income generating activities evolve through food productions, farming and selling handicrafts.

 

Making peanut butter was one idea that they really liked  – especially after they tried the one I made 🙂

However, although the recipe is from our perspective really cheap  (70 Pesos / 1.50 Euro per jar) and the return seems to be really high and easy to generate (50 Pesos / 1.00 Euro) the women are in no position to “just try”. If they are going to invest in the ingredients it has to work our perfectly. Therefore, we will meet up again tomorrow and I will bring the ingredients for our first batch of peanut butter. The women will try to sell the produce to generate their own capital for the next production.

There are more ideas to generate income (pigs, chicken, gardens, stores, equipment rental, etc) – all of them have in common that they require a starting investment. I will try to find ideas and committed people over the next 1.5  weeks. If you wish to support any of these visit my fundraiser.

Mission accomplished – My first peanut butter

I made it! And it was “MARASSA”

I bought my trial batch of 1.5 kg peanuts at the TACLOBAN market and took them to BLISS to fry them in our Centre – over-fried as it turned out later. Ok, I admit, some of them have been quite dark 😉

 

Next step and destination was the peanut butter grinder at the PALO market. A bit hesitant at first the grinder was cleaned for me  and my peanut (1500g) and sugar (250g) mix went in.

 

Out came the almost ready peanut butter, a happy customer and a lot of happy peanut butter grinders.

 

The fourth and final destination for the peanut butter was our project centre in CANGUMBANG. After combining the ground peanut sugar mix with a bit of butter (100g) my first batch of peanut butter was ready to serve.

The kids and also the Nanays liked it and I received a “MARASSA” (delicious) from all of them 🙂

On Tuesday I will meet with the Nanays in Cangumbang and produce another batch together with them.  The Nanays will try to sell it. The VfV feeding projects will take some of the quantity to secure some base revenue. If all works out we will have created a small additional source of income for the Nanays and a nutritious food for their kids.

I have to tribute my success to my teachers – Nanay Virgie and her friends. They gave me the recipe and a step by step explanation last week.

To show her my gratitude I went back to her house yesterday and gave her a jar of my first peanut butter. Another “MARASSA” – yeah! But she was also honest enough to tell me that I had burnt the peanuts 😉
Also my peanut butter friend Vic Vic influenced this story! So I am also thankful for her.

It’s almost unbelievable how happy peanut butter can make you. I look forward to teaching the women and I really hope it will become a form of livelihood for them.

Saturday meal at the dumpsite project in Sto. Nino

After I had visited Sto. Nino for the first time during the health check and seen the horrible reality for the families at the dumpsite I felt really strongly about going back there. I asked Mano John, the coordinator of the dumpsite project, to accompany him to his project last Saturday. At 7:30 am Mano John, Marie (another volunteer from France) and me set off and two jeepney rides and lots of waiting time later we arrived at Sto. Nino. On today’s agenda was a meal and a school bag for every kid.

While we helped to prepare the meal, Mano John gave a school bag to each kid. The bags were given to the project by a donor and seemed to be old Japanese leather school bags. The kids loved them.

The speciality of the day was the nicest congee I had ever tried. Lots of garlic, ginger and calamasi (local lime/mandarin) gave the congee made with ground pork, egg and squash the perfect blend of fresh and hot and sour. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It was absolute comfort food and I will definitely make it at home some day.

A nice difference to my project was that all kids were there at the same time and ate together. The older kids were responsible for serving. Together with the local Nanay that gave thanks with a short prayer and enjoyed their meal together. And unlike in my project the volunteers got a portion too and sat down with the kids. Although it felt like steeling from the kids at first is was a really nice experience to share the meal and the community with the kids.

After the meal we spent a bit more time with the high school kids and I taught them how to make friendship bracelets. I’ve done tons of these when I was a kid and I’m super excited that I still remember. I’ve walked all over the city to find proper thread, made a few samples and felt like I was 10 again. The kids were really fast to pick it up and appreciated the gift of the material and the learning which was the biggest gift for me in return.

 

 

An actual “free” day well spent – I enjoyed it.

 

Just another day “at home”

Breakfast: For more than three weeks now I get a hearty start into the day at 6:30 am (weekends 8:00 am): Regular: 1 egg, 1 mango, 2 slices of toast, 1 3-in-1 coffee (sugar, creamer,coffee) – Alternating: 3 fried bananas or Puto (filipino rice cake) or french fries or pancakes. Being used to not having breakfast at all I usually have coffee, mango and bananas and pack an egg sandwich for lunch.

Dinner: Dinner or any meal in the Philippines consists of rice (lots of rice) and viants – side dishes. A normal family would probably have rice with one viant. We always get 3-4 of which at least 2-3 are meat or fish. Dessert is always amazing filipino mango or pineapple.

We housemates always of dinner together. We are supposed to be home by 6:30 pm. It’s a funny feeling when you have to be “home” by a certain time everyday. Last week, there were four of us as David’s wife visited.

Our host-parents don’t have dinner with us. They sit on the sofa next to us watch TV, sleep or offer us some nice dinner entertainment. They have their dinner after we’re done. As there is always too much food they eat what was left over.

 

All in all the homestays are a great concept – An opportunity for us to get in touch with locals and share our experiences with other volunteers and an opportunity for the homestays to generate some income.

I’m just not too sure if we will ever become friends 😉

Fuer dich, grosser Bruder :-)

Outdoor cooking and the other side of the coin

When we arrived in Cangumbang yesterday we were greeting with the news that there was no gas for cooking. What seemed like a big challenge for us is normal for the families in Cangumbang. We went upstairs to wash and cut the ingredients while the Nanays downstairs prepared the stove. When we came downstairs the rice was already boiling and the wok was ready for the adobo.

 

 

While Lesley and me were just pretending for the pictures and complaining about the smoke in our eyes, the Nanay did the cooking and showed us how a “real” adobo is prepared (we will definitely have to increase the amount of oil and salt to match the recipe.

 

We spent our “free time” with the kids. Aren’t they adorable?

 

Since we did the cooking outside we thought it was a good idea to have the meal outside, too. We set up tables and chairs and the kids enjoyed their outdoor meal.

The heartbreaking aspect that we did not consider was that all the other kids who are not part of the program saw and watched us. The centre is in a central spot in the village with lots of space for the kids to play around. Many kids spend their afternoons there with their friends or siblings. 37 sponsorkids are part of the program – 120 are not. When it comes to “feeding time” the sponsorkids on the list hold out their plates and receive their meal. Most of the other kids walk away, continue to play and wait for their friends and siblings.

But some of them stay in the centre, at the side or in the corner. After the first batch of kids has received their portions they come closer, look at us with big eyes and open hands. “Give me.” “Give me feeding.” Me, me, me.” We were told that the budget is for the sponsorkids only, that all other kids get an extra meal on the weekends and that we don’t have to worry about it.
Still, it is absolutely heart wrenching – how can you say “No!” to these kids.

 

A million thoughts race through my head…

Portions for the kids need to be big and nutritious – Is it better to make a difference with a few than not reaching anything with many?
It is easy for me to spend a bit more – does it make a difference to “spoil” them for 6 weeks and leave them to themselves after I’m gone?
Only the kids who come and ask have a chance to get an extra meal – what is with all the other kids who we haven’t even seen around the centre?
Sometimes we give second servings or extra meals to kids. Even then some of them come back for more without a “Please” or “Thank you” – can we expect them to be grateful and respectful or is it just our arrogant principles that don’t mean anything when you’re hungry?
All of us volunteers “complain” about too much food in our homestays and how easy it is to gain weight in the Philippines – how come it is only easy for us and not for the kids we feed?

I guess it’s hard to find proper answers but it is a very welcome change of perspective to think about it.

 

The peanut butter friendship

The health checks last week left a very deep impression on me. Especially on the Monday after I just couldn’t stop thinking about all these tiny kids. We discussed with the other nutrition volunteers what to do to get them bigger. We agreed that peanut butter was a good idea as it has lots of calories and protein. And we had heard that many women in the community make it at home.

As a cure to my racing thoughts last Monday I went for a walk towards downtown. Finding all this was good distraction.

I came across lots LETSON street stalls – a delicacy in Tacloban and in the Philippines, suckling pig – Spanferkel.

 

The group of ladies sitting at one of them started to engage me with the usual questions: Hello? What’s your name? Where are you from? How old are you? Are you married? Do you have children? Why don’t you have children? When are you going to have children? And so on…  I had an awesome time with them, listening to their stories about the typhoon, their families and their children.

When it started to rain Vic Vic (lady in blue) did not hesitate a second to offer me a ride to town. Still thinking about the tiny kids and how to get/make homemade peanut butter I just asked Vic Vic whether she knew where to get peanuts and how to make peanut butter. Jackpot! Vic Vic makes peanut butter and just happened to have a jar in her car which she gave to me FOR FREE.
We exchanged numbers – “So that I can invite you and show you the city.” That night I got her first text: “Gud am, des Vic Vic, ur new friend, who took u ride to downtown.” What a lucky encounter with the amazing Filipino hospitality.

Two days later we should see each other again as it was Vic Vic’s wish to show me the big sites of Tacloban. Together with her best friend from church, we started our journey from Bliss to the MacArthur Landing Memorial park. The park commemorates the historic landing of General Douglas MacArthur in Leyte Gulf at the start of the campaign to recapture and liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation on 20 October 1944.

Second stop was St. Juanico bridge. With its 2.16 km length the Tacloban citizens believe it to be the longest bridge in Asia. It connects the island Leyte with the neighbouring island Samar. We drove from Leyte to Samar and back again.

 

After that I was delivered back to my doorstep. I took the chance to place an order for homemade peanut butter with my new friend.  It is definitely better and cheaper than in the stores, it is good for the kids and I hope it will support Vic Vic.

My delivery was ready another two days later. We met at the wet market in downtown and Vic Vic showed me the peanut butter grinder.

In the meantime I had gotten the recipe from other Nanays in Bliss and am now on a mission to make my own peanut butter for our nutrition projects. I will also try to teach some of the women in my project how to make it to give it to their kids and potentially even sell it to make some money with it. I’ll meet them next week and I will keep you posted whether my recipe works.

Today’s special: Playtime, Chicken Curry, Peanuts and beautiful evening light on the way back

People Power Anniversary Playtime – a public holiday on which they remember the revolution that restored democracy in the Philippines in 1986

Chicken curry is one of favourites and luckily also the kids like it. The best part is the coconut milk – freshly made at the market. Yum! For extra calories we gave each kid a handful of peanuts. Some of them couldn’t get enough whereas others told us that the peanuts were not “cooked”. After some investigation we found that peanuts are not eaten raw or without roasting them.

 

On the way back we got the tricycle to stop to capture the beautiful evening light. The picture doesn’t give justice to the really special atmosphere. What a beautiful country!

Today’s special: Menudo and the Selfie-Stick