Tablas Island Mari Norte Tiger Grass Brooms

Barangay Mari Norte Tiger Grass Brooms

 ‘Tiger Grass Capital of Tablas’: the making of these speciality  brooms unfolded as we explored the village.  Tiger Grass was drying everywhere:  covering the road, on the roofs of houses, on top of a jeepney, yes everywhere. 

We visit the home of the Barangay Captain and discover that he is in San Andres attending his neighbor’s funeral.  We later meet him on a motorcycle on his way home.  The Captain’s sloped concrete driveway is covered with (you guessed it) Tiger Grass. We make our way to the storage room/work area for making Tiger Grass brooms.  Nine people are employed at the Captain’s workshop making these brooms.  A conversation with the Captain’s wife raises concerns about input costs and selling price leaving very little margin for the business.  It was also noted that the middleman marks up his purchase price by more than 100%.

We make our way through the Tiger Grass covered street to another home where broom manufacture is happening.  Boys along the way are beating the seeds (chaff) out of the Tiger Grass.  The grass must be at the right stage of drying to be able to dispel the seeds.  Lots of effort, lots of dust at this stage. 

To start theTiger Grass broom making process,  this  little girl is separating the upper portion of the tiger grass flower (the large drooping panicle) which will be integrated to expand the density of  the head of the broom.  CESO volunteer Allan Sorflaten watches as another worker sorts long and strong stems that will be used to form the basis of the broom handle.  .

The handle is firmly compacted, then tightly bound.  Lots of strength is required to make such a good firm durable handle. The middle picture shows  strong wire threaded down the wall to the handle maker  so he  can roll, pull, tighten and secure the broom head.

Next the broom head will be fanned out and decoratively woven  to hold the fan shape of the broom.

Mari Norte Tiger Grass Brooms are of sought after because of their durability, dust capturing capacity, lightness.  Excellent for dusting, light sweeping, chasing spider webs.  Better than a vacuum cleaner

The Captain of Mari Norte Barangay driving his motorcycle on his way back from his neighbor’s funeral. 

Tablas Island Mari Norte Barangay

Travel to Mari Norte Barangay

Distance to the remote Barangay of Mari Norte has to be measured in time due to road conditions.  The usual mode of transport to Mari Norte is motorcycle.  Estimated time, one and one half hours.  The climb takes one up steep inclines,  often washed out by heavy rains.  In fact, we had to wait for a day when no rain was forecast so that the road was dry.   Road surface varies:  excellent gravel, rock, clay with sections of the road poured concrete.  The concrete is a small one lane road.

  Few vehicles except motorcycles navigate this road.  With the four wheel drive pickup, we had to stop and back up to navigate this curve!  Only brave people live in Mari Norte! One third of the way to Mari Norte we stop to admire the breath taking view of the West Coast: San Andres Municipality.

We meet a Barangay elder, a brave soul who lives an isolated life in these hills, along with his wife and daughter.  He warmly welcomes us to Mari Norte and proudly tells us that he went to university for two years.  We meet  him again on the way back,  a  long walking distance from his home.  He was  carrying a tree trunk he had specifically spent several hours hunting for and to be used as a plow. 

We continue without seeing any sign of habitation for miles.  These hills are mostly void of trees.  It is said that they were once tree covered, harvested about 100 years ago.  The forest did not regenerate and the land is extremely poor.  Lower down,  people do cultivate the  hills and  travel  by motorcycle to check their farm. 

Further down, vegetation is thicker.  Copra is the main cash crop.  Some consideration has been given to a tram line that would transport farm produce to the valley below, a vertical distance of about 1000 feet!  After some time we begin to see wild Tiger Grass growing.  Mari Norte must be near.  It seems so far!  And to think that people are coming  from Mari Norte to our workshops at  San Andres!

Tablas Island Mari Sur Barangay

Mari Sur Barangay

San Andres as a Local Municipal Unit or LGU is divided into 13 Barangays or villages.  It is amazing how  each Barangay has such individual character.  The population of the LGU is between 15 and 16000 people. 

Mari Sur Barangay is a short drive from the town of San Andres.  The road to the village narrows as one begins the slight climb.  One experiences tranquility as one approaches.  We are met by  the Barangay Captain Jovita Guro. 
 Our guide points out that                                                            Jovita is presently the only  female captain in San Andres.

This Barangay is an excellent rural community to visit, merging traditional with ingenuity in adapting agro resources to find a product to meet a need.  The community exhibits vibrancy.  The central square is a meeting place for young and old. 

One lady is skillfully winnowing mung beans using a handmade large tray woven from palm fronds.  A fish man is selling fish from the sea from his motorbike.  An elder is making a stiff broom from coconut .  Young boys can practice for the upcoming basketball competition.  Goats nurse their newborns in the shelter. 

Local materials from the surrounding forest:  coconut, palm, mahogany wooden and  bamboo are skillfully crafted  to make the traditional homes.  A unique little stone church beckons.  People have decorated their fence with egg shells to celebrate Easter.  

Rice is farmed on the flat land.  Farmers use the road as a platform to dry rice. Motorcycles, jeepneys and tricycles are used to move the product to market.

A Fish Farm is operated to provide fish when weather does not allow fish to be harvested from the sea.  Copra is harvested by farmers in Mari Sur.  Tiger Grass is drying along the roadside.

We visit a Tiger Grass Broom making family. 

Nito Baskets, another hand crafted family operated business.  Vines are harvested from the forest in very long pieces.  The vines must be straightened and clipped to prepare them for the basket maker to weave.  One basket takes Moses Martinacio many hours to hand weave.

The lumber industry is important to Mari Sur.  Palm and mahogany wood  are sawn in the village mill from trees harvested locally.

An opportunity was recognized.  Left over scrap wood was being discarded.  A chair making industry was developed to meet a need, that of chairs for schools.

John Rey Mordel took over his uncle’s goat farm eight years ago.  His herd numbers 108 momentarily with 80 ewes.  The ram is 8 years old and although gentle, demands respect with his officious curved horns.  John says it is easier to bring goat feed( grass, legume tree, mulberry) to the goats which he chooses to house on the second floor of the family built goat barn.  The floor is slatted allowing the goat manure to drop and be bagged to sold for fertilizer.  The goats are raised to 5 months of age, average weight 13-15 kilos and sold.  He has one female milking so breeding goats for milk is possible.

Untouched by urban development, the intriguing and ingenious close knit Barangay of Mari Sur offers its residents security from the fluctuations of world stock markets! 

Manila, Philippines

Face to Face With History!

Little did we realize how dynamic a tour of Manila would be and how history would again come alive in our new living situation at the White House in Agpudlos, San Andres, Tablas Island, Philippines.

Manila takes no back seat to any other of the world’s leading cities for its banking district, its traffic or its unique character. Our first impressions came after midnight having unloaded into a terminal where all passengers had easy access to luggage carts (good news)! No one hassled us for money. We were met by Fred, the CESO rep who had a large card with our names under the ‘S’. The people lined up on either side of the very crowed road looked like they were at the race track all crowed against the fence. Fred text messaged the driver, Bong who took about an hour to make his way through this crowd to pick us up. The trip to the hotel took longer than the flight from Hong Kong! The traffic was unbelievable. We were fascinated by the gypsy buses. We later found out that the chassis are imported from Japan and each is uniquely built from all kinds of different aged parts. We laughed to think that we talk about our vehicles, identifying them by the year they were manufactured. Gypsy buses represent many years! They are privately owned and sure provide character to the city.

Our hotel, the Malvar, was a great spot for us. We were able to walk to a large mall that allowed us to shop, eat and enjoy the sights. We took a city tour that proved to be most interesting. The banking district of Manila:

They have done a great job of preserving history. Fort Santiago is where 600 Filipino died in 1945, victims of imprisonment by the Japanese. This same location was the site of the execution of Jose Rizal in 1896. His written works ‘fanned the flames of the Filipino revolution to gain freedom from Spain.

Our next stop was at the American Cemetery and Memorial to 6000 US soldiers who gave their lives to end the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Below is one small part of the walkway where each name inscribed in marble. From the air, the burial ground is shaped like the American eagle.

Although we noted that a main battle occurred North of Talbus Island, little did we know how real this site would evidence itself in our living situation in San Andres.

Fast forwarding to our ‘place ‘ in San Andras , we are told that the place where we are staying, known as the White House was a ‘great’ house and that Japanese soldiers occupied the house for two weeks. Dario, the Ministry of Agriculture representative who is our guide, driver and mentor here, introduced us to his father who had to flee to the mountains during the invasion. His father says that they watched the airplanes bomb and sink the destroyer, witnessing the gun fire and the explosion (October 24, 1945). It was at the White House location where we are living that persons from the area were brought to be questioned. Dario’s relatives witnessed the beheading of a Filipino person here  by the Japanese soldiers. No wonder they say there is a ghost in the house!

IDF Honors the Sorflaten's

IDF really outdid themselves when it came time for our leaving.  Ousssematou had said just wait until you see what they do  but even in our wildest dreams could we have imagined all the ingenious ways they found to thank us.

We were asked to stay in our office while they prepared for our farewell.  They brought us a one month old baby born to one of the ‘Promoters’.  This baby was so perfect.  We were relieved to find that she is HIV negative thanks to her mother taking the proper drugs during pregnancy. We began with a Christian and a Muslim prayer.   

Joseph Tafrie honored us with a special Thank You.  He is Chairperson of the Integrated Development Foundation Board.  We gained such respect for him in his leadership capacity in Farm Organization work, and his commitment to IDF.  Greetings and special recognition came from a representative of government,  especially thanking  us for the practical training in bead work.  Aishatu)touched our hearts to the core by telling us that she is newly diagnosed with an incurable disease and intends to follow through with more testing and treatment.   Amah animated his thank you.

Of all the surprises they had in store.  The Cameroon is famous for its fabrics made using the traditional wax print with all spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing done at its factory in Douala. There were outfits for both of us, each special.  Aishatu had made a shirt for Allan and an outfit for Lydia.  IDF gave Lydia a dress.  Since John Baptist and Lydia were both teachers, special fabric made to honor teachers was made into an outfit for both Jean Baptist and Lydia.  Oussematou is a twin and Allan has twin sisters.  To honor Allan’s sister Gwen, Oussematou had twin dresses made. 

Both Henry and the shoe mender named Henry Mua, an 18 year old orphan whom we had met in Wum made the trip to Bamenda from Wum for our closing.  They  presented us with ground nuts.  How fitting.  Ground nuts are an important source of protein in this area.

 

Oussematou’s reviewed  of our six weeks stay using pictures that took us through our journey with IDF (Wum, Bafut, Bana-Farming God’s Way, Nutrition Workshop and more).

The biggest surprise of all.  They commissioned a painting that encapsulates our time with IDF.  Amazing really.  In the background is the map of the Cameroon.  Each aspect of our assignment was represented: agriculture, beadwork, good food for good nutrition and the peace dove. IDF IS AND WILL FOREVER BE PROUD OF YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY AND DEDICATION TO HUMANITARIAN SERVICES.

Incredible really.  Wonderful.  What completeness.  What joy!

Restaurant Eating in Bamenda

Restaurant Eating in Bamenda:

First Impressions are not always the right assessment. 

We were introduced to three restaurants initially.  We won’t count the Ayaba Hotel although we did eat there once.  The second time we went there, they hand wrote a menu of what they could serve that night.  Our apartment was very close to the hotel so we did venture about three times to view the big screen TV and have a beer but beyond that, we choose to eat at home, usually barbequed fish picked up on our way home plus great new potatoes freshly dug, carrots, cabbage, okra and fruit (papaya, avocado, mandarin, and the dependable, delicious bananas).

The Alizan, right across  commercial street from IDF. You take your own life in your own hands to cross the street.  There are NO rules for traffic except everything but people have the right of way.  You have to look both ways on both sides of the two lane streets.  You are watching not only for cars and multi scooters but hand carts, people running, people moving their portable stores (this may be a sales person with their store on their head, examples being dried beef slices, cassava, yam, eggs, big deep fried balls, bananas, sliced papaya, coconut wedges, often children selling or carrying smaller children, sometimes begging, the brush man, the towel man, the cell phone salesman, the toilet paper man, the women sell the fruit and vegetables, the men the dry goods.  Sometimes a person is carrying an umbrella and base that is actually their store.  Anyhow, to cross the street, one has to be really alert to all possible moving object as well as the stationary stores spread out beyond the side walk.  This crossing is just as confusion as the list of possible obstructions you may encounter, moving or otherwise.

So, once you have crossed the street and found the little opening that is the top of the stairs for the Alizan Restaurant, you part the blowing curtain and enter the restaurant.  The atmosphere is friendly.  Waitresses compete to serve us.  They knew we tipped well.  The buffet was the same each day.  Salad.  A platter with shredded carrot, cabbage, onion garnished with sliced tomato, onion, green pepper.  Accompanying dressing was a typical to the Cameroon, liquid mayonnaise like olive oil based very appealing dressing.  Next, fried fish in sections, chicken roasted, fried plaintain, cassava,  huckleberry leaves with salt fish, fresh watermelon for dessert.  We enjoyed the place daily for the first two weeks with one exception.

The New Century Restaurant:  Oussematou highly recommended a restaurant on the very rough street behind IDF, no name.  The first time we went we ordered omelette.  Allan ordered cheese omelette.  The said if he would give them the money, they would go buy the cheese for the omelette.  I ordered sardine omelette (for the lactose intolerant).  Again, they offered to go buy the sardine for the omelette.  We enjoyed vegetarian omelettes!  We didn’t venture back to this restaurant until the staff decided to go one day.  That day was really fun.  Jean Baptist acted as our waiter to order.  He did a great job.  I ordered chicken with salad, Allan a vegetarian omelette.    I loved the chicken, just like the old fowl my mother used to cook in the the oven in the wood stove!  What  great flavour.  Hence the comment, first impressions are not always the right ones.  We later returned for a repeat meal.  Again excellent food.  Spaghetti omelets are the rage but we never succumbed to them. 
We returned to the New Century Restaurant with the staff of IDF and had a great meal, lots of good laughs, excellent food. 

The PresCraft Cafe:  This is an upper class cafe as confirmed by the number of white people that frequent this cafe.  They have a daily soup special (often tomato, sometimes pumpkin) with the best bread in Bamenda, homemade.  (Bread has been a problem here.  The whole wheat diabetic bread gave up the ghost.  For a couple of weeks, we noticed moulded bread set aside in the one of two stores that sold it when it was available.  Then it disappeared from radar.  The French bread sold in street carts was suspect by Allan and I will admit that the sweet coconut bread is advertized as sanitarily prepared!  Even crackers gave us grief.  We tired quickly of the rusks, dried bisques, too sweet  bisquits and settled for soda crackers often due to lack of alternatives.  Once I got on to making Swedish pancakes using 3 egg whites, one egg, that became our standard Breakfast.    Back to the PresCafe.  Very good food but very slow.  Great coffee.  Good food.  Lovely atmosphere.  Run by the Presbyterian Church and operated by two women.  Oussematou was not happy when it took us almost two hours one day to have lunch but we did enjoy the couple of lunches we had there.

Sister Rose`s, the prize winner.  .  We went as the IDF staff the last night of our stay in Bamenda.  The best fish, excellent plantain and huckleberry.  We had most of the meal in the dark due to a usual power outage but still, the best food of any restaurant. 

Rotary Connections in Cameroon

Rotary Connections in Cameroon:

We met with two veteran Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Bafousam, a club well respected by Rotary International . This club has supervised three NGO’s in the Cameroon providing leadership, expertise, training and organization skills necessary for successful Rotary Project International work.

We met with Rotarian Samuel Awetua, an Agro Veterinary Engineer by training is Executive Director of the Sustainable Livestock Foundation (SFL) in his office in Bamenda.

The Rotary Club of Bafousam, partnering through Rotary International with Rotary Clubs in Ontario have given technical input, village organization, support in kind to impressive projects over the last 20 years.

http://crcid.org/Documents/Brochure%20Cameroon.pdf

As promised during our first visit, one of his technical support staff delivered power point presentations that show some of their project work over the years. Amazing what 22 Rotary groups in Ontario together have done to help in applied projects in the south, south west and western part of the Cameroon. The slide shows are available on request.

The dress making involved 18 communities and covered all types of machines from treadle to surger, all manner of construction, school uniforms, dresses, bags- very practical skills.

In the Food Processing project,

the Rotary Clubs have funded 13 cassava mills, two corn mills and 140 hand processing mills for a total 290 households in 22 village communities.

The Girl – Child Education and Literacy is a counter measure to cultures and traditions practiced by some communities that denied girls the right to education. Also included is assistance to orphans of both sexes that could not afford the cost of education. As of today, more than 1500 school pupils sit on desks thanks to Rotary and 280 pupils have their fees regularly paid, four primary schools have audio visual aids and maps while many more are still in need.

A personal comment here; it is the condition of the schools that most upset me in the Cameroon. Seeing teachers working without the most basic of resources (no textbooks, no workbooks, dirt floors, boards for student work and I mean a board, not a slate, a rough brown board). There is so much to be done. I so respect the focus that these projects have set to help those fortunate to be able to receive Rotary support.

On a daily basis, we saw children selling on the street obviously not in school. We saw school structures that would make you cry, wondering if they were abandoned buildings. We saw children used as child labor, making crushed rock out of stones day after day for example. We have made a point to be positive but this, along with women used as beasts of burden causes us to break silence and portray a realistic scene.

Hence, accolades to the Hand Up project and the work they have done in schools.

Sam Awetua said 250,000,000 over the 20 years, ($625,000Canadian). Funded by 22 Rotary Clubs in Ontario, Rotary International, CIDA, individual Rotarians and private individuals. 

Because IDF works in a large area, a number of Rotary Clubs are represented in the area. Oussematou arranged for us to travel to Bafousam to meet with Rotarian

Yemele Paul, a dynamic owner of Winsoft, a great office supplies store, and High School Physics teacher. He is International coordinator for International Rotary projects in this area, a job he has been very dedicated to for many years. 

http://www.saugeentimes.com/486%20Sandy/Dec_23_newsletter-final.pdf documents a Rotary trip to the Cameroon by Ontario Rotarians to review some of their project work of twenty years. Here you will meet Paul and Sam Awetua again. Note the picture of the school bus from Nova Scotia Rotary-) It is also interesting to note near the end of this excellent report, arrangements are being completed to provide charitable tax receipts for individuals who wish to contribute personally to aspects of the Hand Up development program.

Currently Rotary projects for the Rotary Club of Bafousam involve ‘clean water’, vocational training and agricultural improvement. The second time we met with Rotarian Sam, he had spent the morning with village training on how to mix feed for chickens, goats and cows using locally grown produce, working with the blind.

Where to from here?

That is for our Rotary Club and district to decide. We will provide the International Committee with information of potential project work. One thing that we were really pleased to see is that Rotary is alive and well in the Cameroon and very effective in what it does. The needs are SO great. I recall a statement Garth Coffin made a number of years ago, something to the effect that Rotary works when a lot of others things don’t!

Lydia Sorflaten