Happy Easter from the Philippines

and if you want to see our church, here is a song to Mary, the Holy Sheperdess, the patron of the town, and a lot of views of the school associated with the church


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the parish is still in mourning for three members (including a nun) who were killed a few weeks ago in a car accident...the driver who was badly injured is a member of our cook's extended family, and is still in the hospital and being sent to Manila for rehab.


here is a film with photos of the farming areas in our area


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A good film about local farming. I love how they show both waterbuffalo and the handplow...the handplow is gradually replacing the waterbuffalo, because it is easier to prepare the rice fields which are thick with mud in order to plant the rice...

We have both...and two threshers. The waterbuffalo is better to plow for veggies (rice requires several plowings to to prepare the thick mud) and for fields distant from the roads, we use the waterbuffalo to pull our smaller thresher to be closer to the harvest.

There is a newer, lower carbon "dry" method of rice growing, but that requires more chemicals and so we still "fertilize" the old fashioned way: Plow under the weeds and rice straw (and add chicken manure)...after they rot and the mud is smooth, we then plant seedling, and keep the fields wet so that the weeds don't grow.