Guess What Fruit This Is

It looks like any tropical fruit found in the Philippines, doesn’t it? It is sweet, and has lots of seeds. Can you guess what fruit this is?

Photo taken in BuDa (Bukidnon-Davao Road) at Fr. Franco’s.

New hand line law to boost tuna trade

Members of the tuna hand line fishing fleet in General Santos City are pleased at the passage Republic Act 9379, which sets practical manning and registration requirements for hand-line operators and fisherfolk. Hand-line fishing is an important component of Mindanao’s fishing industry, 80 percent of which is centered in General Santos City, the country’s “Tuna Capital.” The sector consists of 2,500 outrigger boats, employs over 40,000 fishermen, and lands over 30,000 MT of high-value tuna each year. The SOCSKSARGEN Federation of Fishing Associations and Allied Industries, an industry-wide organization supported by USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program, was instrumental in advocating for the law’s passage. (GEM Program)

Meeting with Blog readers in Cagayan de Oro

After leaving the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Bukidnon, our journey continued, and soon we ended up in Cagayan de Oro City.  I have been to CdO many times, so it was not a new place for us to visit, rather a stop along the way to other places that we were excited to see.  There was one thing, though, that would make Cagayan de Oro an interesting experience for us.  We had made a schedule to have lunch with Ed and Luanne, who are long time readers of this blog and also of several other blogs that I have.

We ran about 30 minutes later than we thought getting to Cagayan de Oro, but thankfully Ed and Luanne were very understanding, and we were happy for that.  Our plan was to meet them at Countryside Steakhouse in Cagayan de Oro City, which is on the grounds of Limketkai Mall.  Countryside is our favorite restaurant in CdO, and as it turns out, it is a favorite of Ed and Luanne too!  Maej and Mandy had never tried the place, so we were looking forward to bringing them there so they could give it a try.

I found both Ed and Luanne to be extremely nice and a pleasure to spend some time with!  I only wish that we could have stayed a little longer to know them better, but you can be sure that we will make another visit to them in the near future.  Of course, if they make it down to Davao, I will be very happy to see them here as well!  Ed and Luanne have lived in the Philippines for over 20 years now, and are involved in Missionary work here.  I was both impressed and also jealous when I heard their Bisaya language skills at use in the restaurant!  My goodness, they talked just like locals!  Luanne offered me some pointers and promised to put me in touch with a school that they attended for their lessons.  Thanks for that, Luanne!  Feyma and Luanne seemed to really hit it off when we met, they are both interested in cooking, and having that common hobby really brought them together!

We had a great lunch at Countryside, had great conversation with Ed and Luanne, and overall, had a nice time in Cagayan de Oro!  We will certainly be back again soon!

The Monastery of the Transfiguration

After making a stop to visit Father Franko in Buda, we headed further into the Province of Bukidnon. After passing through Quezon and Maramag, we quickly reached Valencia City. Just a short ride from Valencia is the Monastery of the Transfiguration, which is quite an interesting place. The Monastery of the Transfiguration is the home of the Benedictine Monks of Bukidnon. The Benedictine Monks manufacture a number of food products, and the proceeds of selling these items support the Monastery and it’s projects.

The most famous product produced by the Monks is “Monks Blend Coffee” which is an excellent coffee which is sold all through the Philippines. In addition to the coffee, the Monks also produce roasted peanuts, peanut brittle, peanut butter and a few other items. Of course, being at the place, we had to sample some of their products! So we did make some purchases at the gift shop before leaving!

We visited the Monastery Chapel and it was quite beautiful. It was the first time that Feyma and I had visited this place, although we had heard about it for years. The Alter is actually a huge bolder! While the inside of the Church is quite simple, there is just something quite beautiful about it. Because the entire structure is surrounded with windows, you really feel at one with nature inside this Church!

After walking outside the Church and looking around the grounds, we heard some kind of commotion going on inside the Church. When we looked, there were some ladies inside the Church and they were pointing at us. I didn’t know what it was all about, but soon they came outside and we could hear them saying “yes, it’s him! It’s him!” Still wondering what was going on, the ladies approached us, and one of them, Gilda, said that she knew me from my blog! She told me that she had researched my blog when planning her trip to Mindanao, and she was so happy to meet me. I was also happy to get to know Gilda a bit as well. Gilda told me that her husband is working at the US Embassy in Manila. We had some photos with Gilda, and then it was time for us to head on to our next destination along the journey.

If you read this, Gilda, I hope that you had a wonderful visit in Mindanao! It was my pleasure to meet you!

The trip starts, a visit with Father Franco

Last Friday morning, as I said in my previous post, we packed up everything and took off for a weekend trip.  The travel companions for this journey were my wife Feyma, our friends Maej and Mandy, and myself.  We left Davao at 4:30am.  Mandy and Maej had asked if we could stop off and have breakfast with a friend of their’s, Father Franco.  Hey, free breakfast?  How could we say no to that?

As we headed up the mountains toward Bukidnon, it was still dark, and we were making really good time.  By 6:00am we arrived at Father Franco’s place, which is right on the border between Davao City and Bukidnon Province.  We pulled off the road there, met the Father, where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast.  Father Franco is an Italian Priest, and is such a genuinely warm person, but a real joker, so you have to be ready for a lot of jokes to fly!

Father Franco, though, has a vision, and he seems really determined to see it happen.  You see,  Father Franco wants to develop the small valley where he lives, and help the farmers there earn a better living.  It is his vision to show the farmers how to create more value-added products that can really increase their earnings.  For example, Father Franco has been making Sun Dried Tomatoes.  Now, regular fresh tomatoes are so cheap.  The farmer is lucky if he can get P4 per kilo for tomatoes.  However, if he dries the tomatoes in the sun, adds some herbs (which he can also grow himself) and processes the tomatoes correctly, he can sell less than a kilo of Sun Dried Tomatoes for several HUNDRED Pesos!  And, even at that price the local farmer would undercut the price of imported Sun Dried Tomatoes by a large margin!  What a wonderful plan Father Franco has to boost the local economy, help the farmers earn a livable wage, and improve the lives of thousands of people!

On his land, Father Franco is growing all kinds of herbs, lettuce and other crops.  His current project is testing the growth of Olives and Grapes!  These are new products that have not been grown in the area before, and by expanding the number of crops that can be grown, Father Franco can indeed assist the farmers in his community.

In addition to the vegetables and herbs he is growing, Father Franco is involved in other related pursuits too.  He has probably in excess of 100 rabbits there, which I enjoyed playing with.  I am pretty certain that I will soon take my kids up to visit with the Father and let them choose a rabbit to bring home.

We feasted on a breakfast of the products that Father Franco had produced from his crops there, and it was indeed a feast!  After we enjoyed breakfast, Father Franco told us that we needed something to assist with our digestive systems.  He told us that he could offer two choices:  First, Father Franco has a big cross on the crest of a large hill behind his place.  He told us that we could walk up the 300+ steps to get to the top of the hill, and that would really stimulate our digestive system. Alternatively, Father Franco has some Herb Liqueur  that he had produced, and we could drink some of the liqueur and it would help in our digestion of the breakfast.  We chose to enjoy some of the liqueur, albeit that it was only 6 am at the time!  It was quite enjoyable, and I must say that my digestive system was doing miraculously well.

After spending a couple hours with Father Franco, we headed off for the rest of our travels.  We did stop back to see Father Franco again on the way home, though.