We departed for a beach landing at Claveria, but not in the planned spot as the swell was too great. Instead, we beached at another location near the somewhat dilapidated and sheltered jetty before boarding the Jeepneys back to the planned landing location.
As we pulled up there were loads of young people in various costumes doing all sorts of dancing to the loud music being played over the PA. And we were greeted with speeches and welcomes from quite a few people, including the impressive local mayor. I reckon she will end up in the national parliament sometime soon.
Once the formalities were over were enjoyed some more dancing and music. To their credit, the youngsters must have put many hours into rehearsing for this event and making their costumes.
Next we were invited to help bring in a ‘traditional’ fishing net . . . except it went about one km out to sea and was about two km wide – and it started raining. Nice try, but we all gave up as we were on and agenda.
From there the six Jeepneys were separated into two groups . . . we did a drive around the town of Claveria not really understanding what the guide hanging off the back was saying. Luckily Lorraine started talking with the young lady in the front seat and relayed the information to all of us in the front of the vehicle.
Our first stop was St Maria Eco Park . . . which was a church and a few historic buildings from WW1 and WWII. We saw how they made some concoction of cassava and rice into something else – not quite sure what, but it was tasteless. They also showed us how to make coloured candles from recycled wax, which was not very exciting.
Next we visited a rice field – some of which had been left for us (and other groups) to harvest with a sickle, even though the last crop was actually harvested some time ago. We were also shown how to beat the rice to strip the seeds – and to winnow the final bits. It was very interesting, but frankly I would rather use the machine which does all of this without much effort.
Our penultimate visit was a lookout which gave us a good view of the town and the bay – and of course there was another photo opportunity.
The last stop for the day was at a prototype silk production facility. The Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFIDA) provided a complete set of equipment and a production facility to Claveria to develop a sericulture industry in the town. It has one silk weaving and processing centre, one cocoon processing center, four silkworm rearing houses, and one young-age rearing house. The three-hectare mulberry farm was already established. The land was donated by a benefactor Filipino woman living in the USA.
Then it was back to where we arrived on the beach to be farewelled by a big crowd and given some presents. We arrived back on the boat just after midday and had lunch immediately.
The boat started heading for its next destination while we attended various lectures about this and that - some were good and others note. Note to self, skip certain 'expert' lecturers.
No comments:
Post a Comment