The Philippines

Day 4

We drove to the city of Angeles where we visited a quilt shop. It took so long, but very much worth the drive. There is this couple (Rouel and Blessie) that owns a quilt factory that makes the most amazing, completely hand pieced and hand stitched quilts. The quilts are pieced and sewn together in the factory and then they are sent to a home where a mother and her family quilt them together. This provides a way for the mother to remain home with her children while still being able to bring in some income. As you can see from the pictures the quilts are amazing. It was so hard to choose which quilts I wanted because they are all so beautiful and unique. I finally chose a lap quilt for myself and my mom and Edy bought us a quilt for our bed for my birthday. It is beautiful. Thank you Edy.

Jason and I with Rouel and Blessie. They are such kind and giving people trying to make the world a better place. We had a wonderful time visiting with them and having lunch at their restaurant. The lap quilt I bought is the red and white one right behind me.

To be able to pack 3 quilts home in our suitcase they bagged them and then sucked out all the air.
The landscape along the way; rice fields.

After we went to Angeles we drove down to Subic Bay. Look carefully at the picture below. Those aren't just leaves in the tree...they're BATS!

In Subic we took a JEST (Jungle Education and Survival Training) course. We didn't have a lot of time so we did the short course. We took a 30 min. hike through the bamboo forest and our guide showed us how to cook rice and fish in bamboo. It was extremely HOT and humid, even with the afternoon rain.

Of course, to be able to cook rice and fish you need to have fire. Our guide showed us how to make fire using just bamboo. First he cut a bamboo branch in half, then with one half he scraped off very fine shavings into a ball which he then shook to get all the "dust" out. He put the shavings under one half of the bamboo and cut a small slit in the middle. He used the other half of the bamboo to push back and forth, very quickly, across the small slit he had cut. Voila...fire. Jason helped him out.

Next to Ralph and Edy's house is a beautiful mango tree, but the mangoes were too high to reach. Just outside the room we stayed in is a ledge that Jason and Ralph were able to stand on to harvest the mangoes. But even with the height of the ledge they still needed something to reach a little higher. Ralph designed a mango picker from a long wooden pole with a wire "rim" attached to the end. Under the rim was a plastic bag to catch the mangoes. With the help of the mango picker, Jason and Ralph harvested about 30 mangoes. Unfortunately they weren't ripe enough for us to eat while we were there. Even though we weren't able to eat these mangoes we did have plenty others. Mangoes are one of Jason's favorite food and the Philippines has some of the best. He ate at least 3 or 4 every day. I loved them too. They were delicious.

Happy Harvesting.