On our Earth Village front yard sits thousands of sacks worth of shit. This is lately the everyday chore on the months COVID-19 locks down a global economy - we harvest and sift through countless quantity of carabao crap funneled from across the extensive reaches of the 18 puroks of Barangay Bacungan, home to a population of five to six thousand Filipinos, native-born or emigrated to these islands.
The Power of the People ferment within these mountains of manure. As the Philippines is paralyzed by a pandemic, our extensive village in Puerto Princesa in Palawan perceive these piles of poop as the passkey to unlocking some deeply disabling planetary problems. Everyday, our red multicab truck sets out to collect fertilizer ingredients that multitudes of local villagers now stuff into sacks. Besides these, seaweed, chopped banana trunks and coconut husks are also considered currency. These many commonplace bio-wastes laying around their fields and backyards are suddenly part of local trade, what in Barangay Bacungan is officially agreed upon as Local Money. |
Fifth - Thanks to their strong leadership, active purok presidents have mobilized hundreds of villagers who were willing to harvest the bio-wastes, in exchange for rice sacks delivered to each village. At this time, we are barely able to collect the materials piled up in plenty of purok centers, village stages, homes and fields. One barangay kagawad has committed his truck free of use to assist our one exhausted multi-cab to deliver these materials to prevent a backlog of material from accumulating.
Simultaneous to these, we have various Bayanihan projects ongoing this April to May: 1.) we are able to resolve a major water crisis in Maranat Tres and Dos (thank you Surge from Dubai for sponsoring a secured water well, tank and filter system), 2.) livelihood concerns in various puroks and 3.) some seed saving-backyard gardening processes around Bacungan. For interested partners, our next developmental phases for May to July are: 1.) production of organic soap (bath, dishwash, laundry) for converting used graywater for fertilization of rural and urban home gardens, 2.) Bacungan community cafe, organic market and tribal crafts shop in Magarwak community, 3.) permaculture meets nutrition courses in our training/dialogue spaces in Puerto Princesa City and 4.) helping communities around the world with similar conditions as Barangay Bacungan and Puerto Princesa City access information and possible donor systems. |