Now I'm reminiscing the days I spent in Cordillera area, where I had some decent time and experiences with great people of CGN, and local people.
What brought me down there was the job that I used to work on casual position(now I'm working on proper one), it's called KEEP(Kiyosato, Educational Experiment Project/ Yamanashi, Japan). which has a partnership over some projects of CGN.
My boss offered me to stay and work as an intern staff to acquire some knowledge of what's going on in cordillera area and how CGN staff struggle for the better future of it.
It was just 3 months that I worked down there but I dare to say I've seen, heard, learned, considered, and experienced quite a lot about the lifestyle, culture, history, social issues, the way people behave, the way they think of the things. They infused into me pretty much.
Let me pick up just 3 points that I'm proud to share through my experiences of 3 months.
Otherwise we never know when we come to the end of the story.
#1 Workshop through the way of art
I've often made a companion on the workshop in highlands, mainly my duty included documentation, reporting on SNS and preparation. My concern was to learn about sponsoring scheme, PDS cycle(Plan Do See) in terms of implementation and key points to lead the workshop to success.
(Explaining the purpose and approaching method to the particiants in Sabangan, a town of cordillera area)
I understood that the understanding and helpful attitude of the participants and the local government were essential. CGN staff always told me that workshop would be never held nor ended up successfully without their positive and cooperative mind.
(He shows that entertainment is necessary when the teachers practice workshop to the children. It is a scene of dancing show with the eco-bags that the ladies made out of used shirts on the right picture. You see how much they were enjoying)
CGN staff are advantaged not only at the high quality of the workshop itself but also at the ideas for the participants to enjoy, the preparation they made with the local government before workshop carried out and the careful mind to the participants, that made the great victory.
The participants are also the great workshop makers when they made such a huge laugh and good atmosphere through the workshop, that made me realize that fact that the Philippines people are natural born entertainers.
(Two councilors came to say congrats for the great work of our workshop.)
Sabangan is the village we had workshops frequently and it is our good partner to do CGN's mission in terms of their understandings of the environmental education. They squeezed up many requests to us and many people are enlightened to discuss the social issues including environmental stuff. It is obvious that CGN gets highly positive expectation and more potential to keep their missions.
(These two are the pics of theater forum over their history and social issues, another way of environmental education)
I have to confess that it was after I joined the workshop that I understood how art is related to environmental education. It means it's not that easy to make out without seeing it by your real eyes.
You'll see that there are many crops hanging on the tree of workshop with arts: deep and comprehensive understanding about that topic that you chose after you practiced well, made a big effort in a team environment; you may realize that you don't need so much things if you want to express something you want to or if you want to teach something. The good thing is the participants have an access to reach the opportunities to realize the things above by themselves through the workshop.
CGN is outstandingly unique NGO beyond the others in terms of its approach to the people in the highlands who wish to keep their indigenous culture and lifestyle rather than obtain too much physical development. More and more supports and social concerns should be one their activities.
#2 Fair trade projects of arabica coffee and agroforestry
One of the most important projects of CGN. Supporting the farmers by instructing the growing methods, monitoring and buying the products leads to their sustainable life keeping the environment clean and safe. Agrofrestry is also the sustainable way to keep the environment by making use of the natural character of the trees.
Many farmers grow the sayote(a sort of gourd) in cordillera. However, even the huge amount of the sayote doesn't bring them a good income and which urge them to plant more, which ends up with devastating the mountains, ground pollution and taking away the function of dam, which put the people in danger of losing their lives when the typhoon hits them.
(This is how the sayotes are planted. Arabica coffee seedlings are just embeded under the sayotes)
Arabica coffee beans are demanding. It needs high altitude, the big temperature gap, certain proportion of shady spot and so on... The sayote fields in cordillera meet these conditions at moderate level.
3 years is essential until harvesting. And these bothersome conditions sometimes exhaust the farmers and got them back to sayote farmers. Also there are a lot of cares needed through postharvesting that the farmers have to keep putting much effort on. CGN's mission is being patient and staying the same side with the farmers, monitoring and instructing, encouraging and bringing the price of their efforts. Their independence is the aim to reach.
(Left pic is seedlings bed and right one is the scene that the Japanese instructor, Hiro-san is explaining the point of postharvesting)
Agroforestry is going in the same spot as where araica coffee is planted.It's because each tree has its own natural character that does good for the environment and some helps the arabica coffee growing better.
(MOKUSAKU = wood vinegar in Japanese. An organic way to fertilize and pesticide by making use of the natural wood vinegar after charcoal making)
Some of the CGN staffs are educated or trained overseas and imported many useful and effective methods to cordillera.
The situation gets more and more severe in cordillera as the farmers use more chemical stuff or destroying the mountains(even though it's against their will that they don't wish to do that..). I'm sure that arabica coffee planting is the best way to take in terms of eliminating the negative effects of farming, meeting the market and consumers and bringing the stable and good income to the farmers.
#3 Great people that I met
One of the biggest crops that I got while my stay was meeting many great people and making nice friends. Actually I haven't expected it wasn't going that good.
Mariko-san, CGN director. CGN staffs. Hana, manager of the guesthouse. The Japanese friends in Baguio and guests of the guesthouse and local people.
It's quite harder to say in a word how significant it was to make friends with the Philippines friends than how many friends I made. We talked varieties of the topics over the countries of each other, culture, lifestyle, social system, the meaning of the development and what we can do together for each other etc...(of course including how to get drunk, how beautiful the girls of own countries and some embarrassing stories!)
I love the way the Philippines people enjoy their lives, I'd dare to say even when they are not physically rich. I like this phrase that my friend say in Kabayan: "We laugh even when we are hungry. We laugh even when we die"
This is something we the Japanese somehow lost or dying to get. People are really"human like" in the Philippines, especially cordillera, not robot like. It seems like you guys are pretty sure how to enjoy your life since you're born. More and more the Japanese people are coming over to your country for English study, business or maybe escape from suffocating situation in Japan. Some of them will miss out what I found but some will not. Please stay or even more opened to us, let us learn from each other.
Hana is another intern staff, became a manager of the guesthouse, with the great energy and positive attitude for everything. She is devoting person and making a good sense of making a nice atmosphere. Awesome.
It is so much appreciative that Mariko-san gave me a chance to experience many things. She is full of active and positive mind and activities, making a new relationship with the people and the things at high layer, catching the people's mind. I respect so much and learned a lot from her. I'd say she is a "typhoon kinda person" but of course in a good way; involving many people and things and outputing something meaningful. Everybody loves her.
Finally I say thank you to you guys and your country but I never say goodbye because I will stay involved with you and your country as a staff of KEEP over some projects in Kalinga, sponsoring projects for CGN. Also I'm planning to give a new try between CGN and KEEP to kick start another exciting program and I hope it goes for more than years. I wish I'd be something needed.
Iyaman, Salamat, Arigatou, ありがとう
Kazuki Murata/ 村田一樹