On my birthday a couple days ago, I got a surprise cake from Morgan and the other IWU students here at GK. He pretended like he wanted to go on a walk with me and then led me to the GRK kitchen area where the rest of the IWU group was surrounding a beautiful fudge cake. There were also about forty French interns who were there to witness and sing along to my birthday song. It was very sweet of the IWU students to do that for me and made my day a bit more special.
The next day on June 18th, I experienced something that was a bit out of my comfort zone. I watched chickens getting slaughtered. There is no FDA approved slaughter house here in the farm so the farmers have created a space in the back of one of the houses for this purpose. Morgan was the first to hold the chicken down while the farmer cut the jugular vein and let the chicken bleed out. It was a bit gruesome. Afterwards, we all participated in the plucking of the feathers of the dead chickens. I got up the courage to do that and found it to be a very mechanical process. I did not, however, have enough guts to gut the chicken. Maybe next time I will gather enough strength to do that because now I feel like I missed out on an experience. Even Jessi, one of the other IWU interns, gutted a chicken. But Nate did not so I don’t feel too ashamed for my lack of nerve. That night there was a party at the Bamboo Villa. Tito Tony, the founder of GK, lives at the Bamboo Villa. It was a very fun night filled with dancing and singing. We also got to taste different Filipino cuisine and of course had mango shakes.
On Sunday June 19th, I helped with the making of mango jam. We had about 100 kilos of mangoes to peel and cut for the mango jam. It took us the whole morning before lunch and several hours afterwards. It was cool to be a part of the entire process from picking mangoes to actually making the jam that will later on be sold in other towns. That night we all went to the Sari-sari which is a little store where the French go to drink and hang out at night. There is also karaoke there. We hung out with them and played some cards which was super fun! I got a bit competitive. There was a lot of laughter and jokes shared amongst each other as well as French cheese and green olives.
Yesterday, we also helped more with mangoes and I met with Robin and Billy who are working in Kabutehan which is the mushroom hut. They are part of the mushroom social enterprise and are growing mushrooms in the hut. This is where I will spend half of my time. Robin is doing experiments on testing the pH of the soil for growing mushrooms. He is testing different types of vermicompost soil material and their effect on the growth rate of the mushrooms. Yesterday, I helped him test the content of phosphorous, nitrogen, and potassium in the different types of soil. I am glad that I am finally involving in the project that I intended to be a part of before I came here. Attached are pictures of the mushroom hut.
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