Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Bagsakan 2

More pics from Bagsakan. Villasis is considered the vegetable capital of Pangasinan. You are expected to haggle on the prices which they WILL try to spike even in mid conversation. Agree on a price, then add it all up wrong and give you a higher total.



Bagsakan

Photos of the Villasis Bagsakan, the central vegetable market.


Tuesday, March 15, 2011

GK Walk January 18

The GK Namnama Village first 5 houses as of January 18! Taken at the 6 km GK Walk from Municipal Center of Villasis to Barangay Piaz.

The first houses of Namnama

Visiting the first houses of Namnama Village back in November.












Kids making friends in the dirt.











DJ and his buddy ArJo













Arnie discussing plans












Vic and Marisol and Mary (M still pregnant)






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Monday, March 14, 2011

Puto

On the road to Dagupan most every day that we were visiting Henri at the hospital, we would pass through Calasiao, a town known for it's street long strip of puto vendors. The booths are all lined up in a row, each with the name of the lady in charge of that particular booth painted prominently on it. And all these booths are beneath a larger sign that says Calasiao Puto Producers Association (or something like that. I'll try to find a picture of the sign.) Anyway, if you stop for a few seconds to look, like mermaids, the vendors, who are mostly young women, would start waving to you, hoping that you would pick their particular booth to do business with. I had always remarked to Marisol, that one day, when we have time, I'd stop and buy some Puto to sample. Sure enough, as I got out of the van, every vendor began to wave to me, "Sir, sir!" Basically, I chose the nearest one, Alegria, as you can see by the pictures, paid my pesos and returned with the loot! DEEELICIOUS!


Sunday, March 13, 2011

Enchanted Farm




These are photos taken from our trip to one of the well established GK villages, Enchanted Farm in Bulacan. The pigs in the first photo above are generating methane waste that will be used as a natural gas source of energy. The kids in the 2nd and 3rd photos are members of the village Rondalla, an ensemble which consists of the Spanish Bandurria, guitars and drums.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Zoobic Bay

Ok, so it was Subic Bay we went to, and not Cebu. We will go to Cebu in a couple of weeks.

Instead, we took the whole family to Subic today in order to visit one of the outlets for Human Heart Nature, the business that sells products made by GK villagers. Marisol and her mom are considering throwing their support to Human Heart Nature, by becoming distributors.

Afterwards, we went to "Zoobic Safari," the local zoo. The kids had a blast, actually seeing tigers up close, as they ate chicken (like what you get from the grocery store, not live) from the hands of their feeders. The interesting part is that we were inside a caged safari truck, while the tigers were right up against the truck, eating from the openings in the caged bars. To further clarify the picture, the tigers were roaming free (as free as they could in a zoo setting) while we were in the truck, seeing the tigers crawling all over the truck to get to the food.

Theo even got a chance to get up on stage and have a snake put around his neck. He was a real trooper! The crowd loved him.

We also saw, among others, crocodiles, snakes, and ostriches.

Even saw some men dressed in native costume, doing ceremonial dances to please the crowd.

As much fun as we had, couldn't help hoping that the employees were paid well, and that the animals were treated well.

It was a long , but fun day.