What's up now

It’s our sixth week on the farm now, and we thought we’d update you on what’s been going on for the last little while.

The Coffee:

The processing area here on the farm is running fairly smoothly now. The rain shelter, constructed with bamboo and heavy-duty, transparent plastic, is finished and in place, providing protection from rain for the drying coffee beans. We now have enough drying space to the handle the current production levels. The fermentation process seems to be going well and improving the beans too. And we finally have a decent depulper! It separates at about 80% without cracking too many beans. The quality of the coffee here is slowly improving.

We’ve recently been visiting some of the farming communities that Hineleban buys coffee cherries from. Some of them are deep into the mountains, and just getting there is an adventure. The other day we literally drove down (and then back up) a dried up river bed. I thought the jeep we were riding in was going to tip over a couple times! The purpose of these visits is to meet the farmers and introduce Coffee for Peace as the buyer of their beans. It’s been an interesting experience, as we’ve heard the questions, concerns, and complaints of these farmers who are our target communities to aid. They’re struggling with making ends meet, which is both depressing and motivating for us as we work to improve their situation. Many of them work for less than three dollars a day, which is ironically about the price of a cup of coffee. It’s sobering to hear their stories, but also gives us reminders of why we’re doing what we’re doing.

We’re looking forward to having Stacy Toews of Level Ground, who is our coffee importer in Canada, visit Peacebuilders, Coffee for Peace, and specifically us on the farm to see the operation here in November. It’s a little bit nerve-wracking to think of this coffee expert scrutinizing the operation, but we’re excited to hear the feedback from our buyer.

PAR:

On the 10th of October we traveled to Malaybalay for the fourth and final Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) seminar with the group of pastors from Region 10 that we have been training since August. The difference between this PAR session and the others is that this session focuses more on how to apply what you’ve learned in PAR in the real world. It was very inspiring to see how these pastors have taken the PAR message to heart and are extremely motivated to use their learnings. Bishop Efraim Tendero, the national leader of Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (of which the Region 10 pastors are members) gave the address at their graduation dinner and it proved to be an inspiring speech, encouraging these pastors to be inclusive and active. The pastors are already putting plans into action to promote the peace and reconciliation values they’ve learned, which is very exciting for all of us at Peacebuilders to see.

After 3 days in Malaybalay, we traveled back to the farm with the entire staff to do another PAR training for the Values Formation Officers here. This group did the three PAR sessions consecutively, so it was an intense three days. The sessions were mostly in Tagalog and Visayan, so Keith and I weren’t required to attend, but we did participate in the Armed Conflict Area Survival Training (ACAST), which is part of the third session of PAR. Although Keith and I had done ACAST back in February, and I had done it once before that when I was in the Philippines in 2010, it was fun to participate again and refresh our memories about what to do in crisis situations.

After PAR was finished we had the first chance to sit down with the entire team and John and Renee. We had a really fun night of singing, talking, laughing, making promises to get healthier, and hearing some of John’s crazy stories from his adventures around Bukidnon. It was a really special night with everyone.

New Staff:

As one of our initiatives at the farm and the surrounding area, Peacebuilders is placing Peace and Reconciliation Teams in three of the communities that the Hineleban Foundation works with. There will be three teams of three people (one leader and two support staff) who will be working on community development and peace and reconciliation advocacy. We’ve hired four new staff members for this assignment so far, and we’ve had the chance to get to know them in the last couple of weeks as they’ve been living with us on the farm. They’re all younger than us, but seem like great people with excitement and enthusiasm for their new assignments.

Unfortunately, one of the new staff members had to leave suddenly last Saturday. You may have seen in the news that nineteen members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were killed in Basilan by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front last Tuesday night. The AFP ventured into MILF territory without informing the MILF of their presence, resulting in the death of nine AFP soldiers, and who knows how many MILF (that info is usually not mentioned). One of these AFP soldiers was our new staff member’s cousin. His family, who live in Luzon (the Northern part of the Philippines), naturally became extremely worried about him staying in Mindanao after this family loss, so they told him he had to leave. It was sad to say goodbye, and he seemed quite upset to have to leave, but we trust that somehow things will work out for him and his family. Consequently, we are now looking for another staff member.

Speaking of losing people, we’ve had quite the week: John’s mom passed away peacefully on Thursday afternoon. She was 93 and was very ready to go, so it was mostly a blessing. Also, our Kuya, Elwyn, lost his father on Saturday after cardiac arrest. Finally, an Italian priest who has been working in Mindanao for 30 years was murdered last week outside his church. He was a friend of Peacebuilders and an amazing activist for the poor of Mindanao. It’s been a bit heavy with all these losses recently.

Another Adventure (Keith’s turn to write):

We had been saying recently how awesome it was that neither one of us had really gotten sick during our stay. So far...

Last Sunday we went down with the team to Cagayan de Oro city to do a little grocery shopping. While we were in the city, we decided to get a pizza to take home with us that we would eat later that night for super. After a long evening run and a staff meeting, Jenna and I got set up in our room to watch a movie (Ghostbusters, naturally) and enjoy our Garden Special pizza from a favorite local pizzeria, Yellow Cab. Dinner was great and, as always, Ghostbuster was a huge hit. (Side note: I’m really sad that we won’t be around at Halloween, so we thought this movie would curb our Halloween appetite a little bit.) Upon waking up the next morning I knew I was in trouble. Little did I know it would be a record breaking day for me. Shortly after our morning coffee break, I excused myself to our house and spent the next several hours in server abdominal discomfort. Jenna joined me at around noon. I’ll save the unpleasant details, but suffice it to say Jenna and I were very sick.

Read this at your own risk: I should tell at least one story to let you know just how pathetic Jenna and I were by the end of the day last Monday. We went to sleep at around 8:00 PM, but I was abruptly woken just before 9:00 PM. It was time to puke again; this would be my fourth trip of the day. I leapt out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. I should note that for that past two weeks we have been sharing our house and the one bathroom it has with as many as four other people, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that the bathroom was occupied. Feeling the urgent call from the deepest parts of my stomach, I quickly made my way out the front door, into the yard, and down on all fours. It must have been a real sight to see me in nothing but my boxers trying to purge myself of the rottenness within. By the following day, we were both several pounds lighter and completely exhausted from whatever it was that lurked under the surface of our once favored pizza.

We are now recovered -- after a full three days in bed -- from our little adventure and won’t be eating that pizza, or anything at all from Yellow Cab, during the rest of our time here.

Speaking of the rest of our time here; most of you do, but some of you may not know that we have officially decided to return to Vancouver before Christmas. There are a number of reason for this, the biggest of which is the fact the most of the Philippines shuts down for at least a month surrounding the Holiday and rather than finish on somewhat of a idle/bored note, we decided to come home for Christmas so that we can be with our friends and families for the holidays. We have the full support of Dann and Joji as well as the people we report to with MC Canada.

So we’ve only got 51 days left in the Philippines and it feels like some of the best things will be happening during that time. Most notably, Dieter gets here in one week from today! We are so very excited to have someone visit us here, especially on this beautiful farm. Although we know the ten days will go very quickly, we’re looking forward to introducing Dieter to as much of our lives here as possible.

Cobra Count:

The official cobra count is now up to 6, but before you get too concerned for us, here’s how they all came about.

1. Cobra number one, or Uno as we shall now refer to him, was found on our first day here. He was hiding inside a water line near one of the irrigation pipes when he was spotted by one of the workers. Uno was struck a number of times with rocks before being beheaded by the farm manager, Neko. Uno’s skin is now dangling from Neko’s belt as he dried it, preserved it, and wrapped it around some wood to make a sheath for his machete.

2. Cobra number two, or Grimm because it was already dead, was found inside the first compartment of a water tank. We did not kill Grimm because, as I mentioned, he was already dead.

3. Cobra number three, or Tiny Tim because it was only 10 inches long, was found crawling in the grass just underneath the water tank. Tim was placed on a log, inspected, decapitated, then skinned while its body was still moving.

4. Cobra number four, or Kitty, in reference to being a scaredy cat, was found inside a water tank, but refused to come out to be killed.

5. Cobra number five, or Arnold as we shall refer to him as out of respect for Arnold Schwarzenneger, was found in the gym. Arnold was beaten with a stick and baseball bat by Cesar, one of the drivers here. Arnold didn’t last long against the Louisville Slugger.

6. Cobra number six, or Night Stalker, was found in our bedroom yesterday. Night Stalker was only 4 to 5 inches long and I quickly cut its head off.

Well, that’s about all for now. We’re off to Davao tomorrow for a meeting with Tim Froese of MC Canada, and are looking forward to seeing the staff and baristas again. Until next time!