The roasted pig was a different treat for Christmas. This 34 kg pig was roasted at least 2-3 hours on a bamboo stick over charcoal. It was awesome. The skin was the texture of a hard torilla and absolutely delicious. The meat of course was equally delicious. The meal consisted of rice in a woven coconut leaf basket (lower left); a number of different meats of pork, chicken, hamburger; and spaghetti. Later a dessert of fruit cocktail was served in young coconut meat and juice mixed with carnation milk. We sure ate our fill.

We discovered in late November that everything and everyone shuts down for at least two weeks around Christmas and New Years so we decided that would be a good time for a holiday. We were acquianted with a lady in Manila whose family lived in Cebu and that is also where our missionary friends, Doug & Marla Sharpe, who we met in Peterborough over the past year also live. It seemed ideal to visit this island about an hour flying time south of Manila.

We arrived here on December 19 and it has been a wonderful experience. Girlie, our Manila friend booked us into a small resort with a swimming pool and next to the Carmotes Sea...so a choice of chlorine water or salt water. The salt water is awesome...we float like a cork. Now looking at us that may be hard to imagine but it is reality. We keep forgetting to ask someone to take our picture but hope to soon prove it to you.

On the 20th, Saturday evening Doug called and arranged a ride to church for us with a local lady, Mylene, who lives close by. Mylene, still a total stranger although a sister in the Lord, called and invited us for breakfast before church. During the day she informed us that she was taking her family to Manila on a holiday so if we would bring them to the airport we could use her SUV for the next 10 days. Wow...that was an unexpected blessing but sincerely appreciated. This has allowed us to visit and travel well beyond our expectations.

This is also the first time I have actually driven a vehicle (beyond an ATV) in the Philippines and it sure takes some getting used to, especially night driving. Probably near 10% of vehicles have no lights or so dim you can't see them. Then there's the many bicycles and tricylces also moving around in the dark. Sometimes 2 lane traffic turns into 4 or more lanes with motorcycles darting in and out of everywhere. But we're catching on to the 'madness' and seem to do OK by the Grace of God.

These four people were our closest companions during our visits to the various municipalities. Circling around the table to my left is the Provincial Veterinarian, Dr. Naui; his assistant and agricultural technologist, Sergio Galamgam; a member of the Provincial Planning and Development Council, Willie ----- (never figured out his last name) and the Senior technologist with the Department of Trade and Industry, Gigie Turingan. Here we are finalizing our report and planning for our exit conference on December 15.

On Decmber 15 we provided a number of recommendations, most significantly suggesting that a comprehensive school fresh milk program be the beginning market for a new dairy industry. It would be a measurable market according to funds available and coupled with potential production The province of Isabela has the highest (17%) below normal growth rates of all school children (totalling 160,000 children) in grades 1-6 in Region 2...an area of 5 provinces in Northern Luzon. A milk feeding program in some individual schools has already shown a significant decrease of the BNG rate. A government support of 10,000,000 pesos ($250,000CAD) would already help over 10,000 students and require 6500 litres weekly. Certainly a small weekly volume by Canadian comparison but a start here for 10 farmers milking 10 cows producing 10 litres daily. To feed all of them would take 160 million pesos with a requirement of 100,000 litres per week. Although the current raw milk price is over a $1.00CAD, it would be virtually impossible to accomplish such a volume even if the funding would be available.

My premise is to not overwhelm them with large numbers of animals because all dairy technology from producing forages to feeding cows; breeding cows and handling milk production has to be learned from the most elementary level. Furthermore if forage production can accommodate these animals on 2-3 hectares as suggested by agricultural studies...then the return per hectare will be at least double or triple the returns from corn or rice on lesser quality land.

I had someone ask me yesterday...can I breed my beef heifers artificially? Would it be OK to breed them to Holsteins to upgrade them to milking animals? The dairy knowledge base is very limited and will require considerable guidance in the foreseeable future...but not without potential or hope. It can happen here. We have heard and seen magazines from Vietnam and Thailand that it is happening in those similar tropical countries. China's dairy industry is growing 20% annually. With a strong initiative, the Philippines can do the same.

Unfortunately we are having some technical difficulty with a group of pictures from around the exit conference on December 15 so we can't show any of those photographs. We can tell you that the conference went quite well and all our recommendations will be considered. The Governor herself did attend a portion of the conference and said that she would give serious consideration to a Provincial school fresh milk program. Everyone seems agreed on the possibilities. Now comes the task of implementation. The Provincial Veterinarian has committed to establishing a demonstration farm (if funding becomes available) and at least two private entrepreneurs have approached us for further direction.

The exit conference does end this particular project however we are anticipating another recall to this area to help establish some farms in Isabela and to further the program to the other 4 provinces in the region.

Again my appologies for such a long hiatus on our blog. We will continue our posts over the next few days but right now I have run out of time again. We have to visit internet cafes and it's long past lunch time so have to bid farewell to satisfy and maintain our bodies.

What is very unique here is that crops can be planted year around. This is corn field fully tassled and filling grain while right beside it is a newly established crop. As you drive the country side, this is normal sight especially for rice fields, many will be just freshly planted and within eyesight you can watch group of people harvesting a ripe field. Growth is truly 365 days and also means that forages can be growing and harvested everyday of the year.

A bit out of order but here is a municipality re-bagging rice for family rations of 2-5 kilos to help in the flooded villages.

December continued to be a very busy month with almost a race for time. We still had numerous visits to make and we found out that everything shuts down for the Christmas and New Years holidays for full two weeks. Therefore our exit conference needed to be no later than Dec. 15 because we were booked as a guest speaker for the Regional Economical Development Council on the 16th, the 17th was a staff meeting and the 18th a Christmas party. As I mentioned earlier, the holidays start early here...apparently Christmas music begins in September. It was already in full swing when we arrived.

Rivers tend to have deep ravines but here you can see how high the water actually rose.

Vast hectares of drowned crops. How discouraging for the farmers and in most cases crop insurance isn't even considered or available.

I appologise for the lapse in updates. I didn't even realize that it has been almost 4 weeks since the last update. Time has flown by in our busyness. What happened in Isabela around Nov 20, while we were to the south in Batangas Province, was a major flood. The next few pictures will demonstrate some of the damage although we did not see it until early part of December when we returned to our central headquarters. Thousand of acres flooded eliminating rice and corn production in the areas adjacent to the rivers. Our home in Ilagan was within one foot of being flooded fortunately, however the humid musty smell still greeted us as we returned on Dec 4.

It was apparently a monsoon rain that lasted for about 6 days of almost steady rain...not that hard but steady and volumous. Unfortunately I can't find a telling picture near Tuguegarao, where 3 weeks later grass was still hanging from road side power lines and mud in 2 foot mounds was pushed back from the paved road by a road grader.

Concerning the damaged crops, they all had to be replanted and seed supply was difficult to obtain. While visiting San Pablo, they were still waiting on seed by Dec 9. Most communities handed out rice rations for those most significantly affected by the flood. Many municipalities that we visit we busy repackaging 50 kg sacks into 2-5 kilo rations.

Let's keep a eye on the future

This facility in the province of Bataganas is a practical building for a small farm to milk dairy cows in a clean environment as a barn can be. This farmer has a dozen cows milking in a double 2 unit milking parlour. The cattle are pastured but also fed in a concrete manger. The entire area has a concrete floor to eliminate the mud and filth of the previous picture.

The ultimate lack of hygene

On a wet morning this is not a pleasant chore under these conditions.

After the fun it's on the road again

An early morning visit to some backyard farms milking carabao.

The Hotel hostess with the mostess! Noime is a most gracious hostess but this time it was her turn to be on the receiving end.

After a guessing game for the ladies, the MC asked each team to appoint a male...possibly the largest male on the team. It was pretty obvious after a few minutes what she was up to...you should try sucking down 4 ounces of ice tea in 2 minutes. But the big guy did win.

It's not all work and no play

We were invited to a baby shower at the hotel we were staying in Santiago City, Isabela. Our friend Noime Liangco owns this hotel we have the honour of being her guests whenever we are in Southern Isabela. About one month ago she and her husband had the opportunity to adopt a baby that had been abandoned. The hotel staff decided to give her a baby shower and of course we were invited as well.

This a view of the 'Low Cost Housing' discussed earlier. Potential inhabitants apply and provide the labour to erect their home and receive it gratis from the municipality through a national government program. Ten units have been built here and further 90 are projected for the future on a 3 hectare donated property. When residents move in they are encouraged to grow a vegetable garden as well as keeping a few goats.

And of course there has to be a group picture.

Our Assessment Travels - Week 5

This is one of the municipal presentations. Usually the Mayor and some staff are present as well as a number of interested farmers and ranchers to listen to our presentation and a further Q & A session. This is followed by a tour of the community viewing some of the local attributes of agriculture and municipal initiatives. Upon the conclusion of this week we will have visited 11 municipalities as well as the state university and a ranchers co-op. We will then provide a report to the Provincial Government recommending next steps.
The biggest challenge will be getting some indivduals willing to take that first big leap of faith into a new business. The most often asked questions are of financing and where they can source dairy cattle. Dairy cattle in this country are very scarce and most dairy farms in other areas are in an expansion mode Most of the potential entrepreneurs do have some finances but seem not to understand that a sound business plan will go a long way to source additional financing and even some government grants. I hope to meet with some financial institutions soon to develop a dairy relationship and business plan requirements.

Dairying in Isabela

In this small community a number of carabao are milked each morning. The residents are members of a Co-op so they collect all the milk together and this was this morning production. Most of them don't milk in the evening, leaving that milk for the calf. The milk is strained through a cotton cloth, put in sparkling clean glass 'former gin' bottles, and offered for sale first to the local customers for about $1.50Cdn, the unsold bottles are taken to a market in the nearest town. This milk has never been cooled and could be 12 hours old before it is sold...imagine the bacteria count! Not to be cynical but this is the starting point of the dairy industry in this province.

We feel we are having an impact however to make some changes. This past Saturday we facilitated a group of about 20 to visit Batangas Province south of Manila to view the growing dairy farms in that area. If you look at some earlier picture posts you will see some of the same farms that we visited. Our participants did express a desire to see change in their home province and felt that real dairy businesses could also happen in Isabela...a dream that can come true with some aggressive, persistent, dedicated effort.

Today we visited another municipality where the mayor was very supportive, willing to contact a family of 2 doctors in the US and a lawyer in Manila whose 50 acre farm is just lying idle...an excellent opportunity to begin a dairy farm here. Yes there is hope! We just have to be patient, but aggressive and persistent in our prayers and our work. We're convinced that God is at work here with some imminent break throughs.

Dairying in Isabela

Here the farmer has a little cement pad with a stall for the animal to stand in. Note that these animals like to kick so the near rear leg is tied back to avoid any injury or a dumped milk bucket. Most milk stalls we've seen are much less 'suffisticated' than this one...usually a mud floor even under the roof line of a house. After ten minutes or so of individual pulling of the four teats about 3-4 litres is removed and the remaining amount is left for the calf to 'feast' on since it is hungry enough to exert the extra effort of finding the last drop.

Dairying in Isabela

A series of pictures on dairying in this province. What you see here is a carabao (water buffalo) and her calf. The calf is actually stimulating the cow for a minute to be milked by hand by the farmer. The calf is taken away and the farmer proceeds to milk. Carabao milk let down is extremely slow so this methods seems to help but the hand milking is still a significant chore.

Cathy calling her Mom

Just imagine...this call was being made miles from the main road 'in the middle of nowhere'. We rode in on a rugged, muddy road then walked into the hills about a mile. Here we were treated to Filipino food, including a freshly cooked goat and tripe (chopped innards) soup. The dogs got the bones! We had six armed guards with us for protection...from what, we don"t know, but the Mayor sent them along with us just to be sure. Guards are quite prominent here but we have yet to see any action...not that we're looking for it!

The common mode for short haul transportation

Can you imagine 12-15 people piled in and around and on top of this 125cc Honda tricycle...not as a feat but a regular occurrence. When I occupy the side car, there is not enough room to accomodate Cathy...Filipinos will easily put in 4 and 3 behind the driver's seat, add 4 on top, 4 standing across the back! There thousands of these on the roads travelling 20-40 kph and also open side cars that carry pigs, cattle, lumber, and any other goods you can think of. Sometimes 8 metre steel rods are transport tied to the roof and dragging on the road behind. Lots of ingenuity when cost is the major factor. Travelling in town costs usually 10-20 pesos or 25-50 cents Cdn.

Pictures of our travels

Finally a picture of our 'home'. Unfortunately we haven't been there for almost 2 weeks and after 6 days of steady rain the Cagayan River has overflowed its banks and apparently the water has reached the road directly in front of the house. The side walk you see is actually lower than the road. The housekeeper has assured us that they have removed our possessions to higher ground. Two years ago flood waters filled the house in excess of one metre...so if that's the case this time we don't anticipate returning there by the end of this week.

Week 3 & 4

Hello Everyone,
As I said we will TRY to update the blog every week-end, however our weekly schedule doesn't always get us back to our home in time to visit our internet source before closing at 5 on Fridays. Internet is still a struggle here...I wish there was a better way.

At least this time I was able to post a few pictures that I should be able to edit but still haven't figured that out. I was hoping to write a few lines between each but that too has slipped my comprehension...oh well I'm sure you'll forgive me.

We've had considerable stressing news from Canada lately. Although we left after Cathy's Mom had bladder surgery to remove a large tumour we have now been informed that it is an agressive terminal cancer that is already affecting her kidneys (one has burst and has to be drained via tube and colostomy). The doctors are hoping the drainage will strengthen the kidneys that radiation may be performed to slow the aggression. The stressful part for Cathy of course is that she is again on the other side of the world like in the spring when her father passed away.

A very close and dear friend of the Vink family, Gerald Kastein, has also passed away this past week. Gerald also had terminal cancer and again although we said our final farewells prior to leaving, it still leaves an emptiness in our lives. Our hearts are sorrowful for the loss to Trudy and all her family.

On the 'home' front here in the Philippines I feel the progression is painstakingly slow but not without hope. I have been assigned to visit an additional 10 municipalities within the province of Isabela, we call them a Local Government Unit or LGU's (kind of like counties in Ontario) in addition to the LGU of San Pablo where we were in March thru May. We spend about 2 days in each first discussing the anemities of the LGU and further the potential of getting local entrepreneurs to start dairy enterprises. We discuss the potential of a new industry locally, provincially and even nationally. Although as you can see from the pictures there are areas outside this province, principally south of Manila, where dairying is occuring to some degree. On the second day we usually do a tour of the LGU especially those areas most conducive to growing forages and milk production.

In our most recent visitation in San Mateo, the Mayor, who was one of the tour participants in September, is a most committed and active supporter of our initiative. This LGU is noticeably progressive under his leadership and offers real hope for a beginning dairy enterprise. We met a 70 year old individual who is currently chairman of a local cooperative, who in 1990 started a dairy operation with holstein cows. In 1995 with the signing of the World Trade agreement, additional milk imports were allowed here that essentially dried up his market. He was adamant that a viable, sustainable market is first and foremost, which is my premise as well.

In a meeting with the National Department of Education I learned that about 20% of school children in this province have below normal growth rates, the highest of all provinces in the Philippines. I was shown statistics that where there was a school milk program these below normal rates declined considerably during a milk feeding program. When children went home for their summer holidays (and probably no milk), upon return to school the below normal rates had again increased. Milk's goodness cannot be denied!

A school fresh milk feeding program supported nationally, provincially and locally is a prime beginning market that would give farmers and processing a chance to find the necessary maintainable volumes in a given area while searching out more permanent markets for increased volumes.

As I mentioned in our last blog further exciting news about future projects has been forthcoming. First of all we have been told that based on the even limited success so far in San Pablo of last May and the success of the reverse engagement in Ontario in September, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) although after many years of support has withdrawn its direct support to the Philippines through CESO, has agreed to a further 5 year support for dairy projects in Northern Luzon. The Regional Director of the Department of Trade and Industry, also a member of the Ontario Tour, is preparing a further re-engagement throughout the 5 Provinces of this Northern Region and suggested that I should be the volunteer point person...quite daunting but also exciting.

Now to describe the pictures a little, beginning at the lowest one on the blog:
1. It is real winter when you fly near the north pole...the shortest distance from Toronto to Manila is over the top of the world. Although it does feel any different still an interesting experience!

2. Our plane in Hong Kong, a 2 hour stop over before the final 1.5 hours to Manila

3. It's now the evening of the second day as we arrive in Manila...actually good for the body clock to be able to go to bed. The body clock seems less affected travelling west as opposed to east.

4. The next morning outside our hotel in a Manila suburb called Mandaluyong. We took a rest day on Wednesday and met a previous acquiantance who picked us up at 4am Thursday to visit dairy farms 2 hours south of Manila in Batangas Province.

5. Who said there weren't dairy farms in the Philippines. These cross breds under a New Zealand style management are producing about 18-20 litre average per day.

6. Baby calves enjoying self feeders already on pasture.

7. Batangas is known for its coconut groves which can be renovated with forages and offer excellent shade with great air movement.

8. Heifers look good under these conditions...essentially unseen in our northern destination.

9. Without forage renovation these coconut groves become jungles of wasteland. I have been using these previous pictures as examples of initiative and potential in Isabela where Mango groves can also be renovated to provide similar success.

10. We visited a trade fair in Tuguegarao, near San Pablo. The Processing Cooperative was promoting their milk products selling about a 100 litres of milk per day during the week long Mall exposition. When I left in May they still were only processing 11 litres per day. Milk is still only coming from backyard 1 & 2 animal farms, left overs from nursing calves and home use...still not a 'dairy industry' but more than it was. We now hear of farmers purchasing cows and breeding them to calve in nine months, etc. Simple progress but PROGRESS!

11. & 12 I can't get rid of the duplicate but Cathy deserves profile on her birthday...she's now in her 60th year - the count down to her pension. WOW!!

13. Before I left in May this little girl (9 years old) showed up at our friends' door in San Pablo, scared, malnourished and virtually speechless since she only spoke in her dialect. Although she has yet to begin school since school acceptance is based on spelling her name, her disposition of happiness is remarkably improved. She will begin school next June in kindergarten but better late than never. The poorest of the poor yet can now look toward a future.