Work or Lifestyle?

Y don't U work abroad?

i was drinking tuba with some of the women and fisherfolks in one island barangay when one of my drinking friends asked me "so why do you stay here and not work abroad?"

i am asked this question too often.
my college friend once told me - "alam mo, hindi ko maintindihan kung bakit nagtitiyaga ka sa ganitong buhay...wala ka bang balak mag-abroad" (you know, I cannot understand why you have to endure this kind of life…don’t you have plans of working overseas?)
my former co-teacher asked - "bakit ka ba nagtitiyaga diyan sa trabaho mo eh puwede ka namang mag-abroad?" (why do you have to suffer that kind of work when you can always work overseas?)
my sisters tell me - "may, puwede ka namang mag-abroad anytime ah. ba't di mo gawin?" (you can work overseas anytime you want, why don’t you?)
my in-laws ask me - "wala ka bang balak mag-abroad?" (don’t you have plans of working overseas?)

so i ask myself - "wala nga ba akong balak mag-abroad?" (don’t I really have plans to work overseas?)

funny how i do a tunganga (literally, open mouthed) after asking myself this question...
funny how a part of me thinks i should work abroad to save for my children's education
funny how that part of me is saying that you don't get education in schools alone...that the exposure the kids get from going with me around samar is a great educational exercise

"wala nga ba talaga akong balak mag-abroad?"

but i have found my mission here...
i believe in finding one's own mission in life and pursuing that mission
i believe that finding one's mission defines one's happiness
and i am happy...
i have been happy for quite sometime...
actually since i came to samar...
since i started doing the rounds of the fishing and farming barangays

i get humbled when i compute people's monthly income during our livelihood planning exercises and realize that most of them earn roughly 1,7++ a month and yet they still manage to smile while computing with me...
i cried when i gave out my kids' old clothes to this family and heard their grandmother told the kids to fold them neatly so they can use them when they go to the city...
i cried harder when i heard that school children walk to school without breakfast and have to wait till lunch to eat...
i still cry...because there are still sob stories...

but how i would laugh
i laugh when i dance the cha-cha and the curacha in the barangays
i laugh when the waves hit the boat and mader beka starts to panic
i laugh when i drink tuba
i laugh after a successful meeting
i laugh when it rains while we are in the middle of the sea and we get wet
i laugh a lot...because there are also success stories...

so, wala nga ba akong balak mag-abroad?

wag muna ngayon... (not now…not yet)
marami pang dapat gawin... (there are still lots to do)

our Kenyan VSO volunteer once said - "but the very reasons for why you are working are sacrificed..."
he meant my kids...

my eldest wants to study in manila
he misses his old school...
he misses the fast life...
i just hope he understands in a short while...
i hope he appreciates the sun, the wind, not covered by smog
i hope he appreciates the sea, the sand, the waves...
i really hope he does...
i hope he gets educated by life, by experiences...
i hope he learns from people and the environment...
and enjoys while he learns...
i hope he does...

my youngest?
ah, well, he's still enjoying his feeling of being the baby in the family...
i just hope he stays happy...
i hope he learns...
and enjoys while he does...
i hope he does...

my soulmate?
love binds us. what more can i ask for...
i just hope he surrenders to his mission in life...
i hope he does...

funny how a write up about working abroad can end this way
ah, maybe, i just let my spirit be...

so do i have plans of going abroad?
if someone spends for my vacation, why not?

but to work?
ahhh, not yet
there are still things to do here...
people to meet...
missions to accomplish...
more happiness to feel...

but who knows? maybe when the kids become adults
me and soulmate can do missionary work...
where? abroad?

Written in August 2004, two months after the BIAGs arrived in Catarman, NS. Five years later, the author still feel the same. Happy-most of the time...insecure with the organizational budget-sometimes...Life is worth living : )

The kids are now happy too. Thank you. (Despite the brownouts :( no thanks to?)

Joelyn Biag
Executive Officer of SPPI

SPPI starts Piloting SE for Community-based Enterprises

Only this month, the SPPI test the Social Enterprise for Community-based Enterprises training in Rosario Northern Samar. The participants were the mudcrab farmers and members of the MCPAR a municipal wide organization in Rosario.

The objective of the training is to assess the mudcrab farmers if they are in the right track of the business and to motivate to work as a group and to transfer the skill in doing the sub-sector map as tool and guide in doing the business for them to locate other opporunities in doing mudcrab enterprise.

It was found out during the workshop that the income of the pond culture and fattening mudcrab farmers is higher than their expenses. It connotes that they need to strive more just to uplift their economic condition where mudcrab have big opportunities and potential just to earn more income.

Even your income is high but the net income cannot adress mostly the basic need of the households"Bisan pa dako an income an ginagawasan san iyo net income kasagaran san kada pamilya di gud nakakabaton san mga batakan nga panginahanglan" (quoted from the training)


The training conducted in two days HURRAY to SPPI training team and MCPAR mudcrab farmers.

Inspiring Story of LEDP partner, Cablangan

Since the start of the Local Economy Development Program (LEDP) in Brgy. Cablangan, Ericson Matias has been one of the active and excellent members of the Cablangan Livelihood Association Inc. (CLA Inc.).

He is one of the first members that have benefited the program of SPPI. The Livelihood Assistance Program or LCP has helped him a lot, especially in his daily needs. In this program he received loans amounting to Php. 10,000 pesos. He used his loans for his sari-sari store and the sustainability of his business he engage to hog fattening too.

Because of his good performance of paying his loans, he was recommended by the officers and members of CLA to avail the new program introduced by SPPI for entrepreneurial poor. Ericson is one of the good recipients of this program now, and a good payer too. For him, he has a stable income thanks to the program of SPPI.

As of now, he focused on the expansion of his business and the hog fattening and he plans to buy more pigs to be brought up, then build a wider pig pen. Because of his stable income, he already built his own house and sends to school his siblings.

According to him good dealings and handwork, and faith in God why he achieved all this in his life.

By Alma Saliente,
CDW, (Brgy. Cablangan, Mondragon, Northern Samar)

Kinis Trading Centre, Rosario

The Kinis Trading Centre is a non-profit trading enterprise for live mudcrabs in Rosario, Northern Samar owned and operated by Sentro Ha Pagpauswag ha Panginabuhi, Incorproated.

KTC works to develop the full agri-business potential of local agricultural development through the propagation of mudcrabs. It envisions further developing the mudcrab industry in the municipality and ultimately promotes the Municipality of Rosario to become the “kinis ” capital of Northern Samar by the year 2012.

We plan to offer a dynamic, unique and constantly evolving service to these farmers. Although, the enterprise is set to incorporate business practices and processes, our focus is on comprehensive social development. The enterprise will be directly supervised by the social enterprise specialists of SPPI whilst management will be facilitated through the guided capacities of the mudcrab farmers themselves.

Inspiring Story, Capul Island

"I am really convinced that farming will save us all from hunger," says 35 year old father of four, Ferdinand Magdaraog. He is a teacher by profession but farmer and part-time fisherman by choice. His love of growing and living off the land was reinforced when SPPI's Local Economy Development Program (LEDP) conducted a sustainable orientation activity in his barangay.

Ferdinand, or fondly known by friends and family as Nanding, attended the orientation on sustainable agriculture (SusAg). The SusAg sub-program of LEDP was promoting the FAITH program (Food Always in the Home), encouraging backyard gardening and vegetable production. Nanding explained his garden not just in his home, but land 200 meters away owned by his family otherwise unused.

He planted various fruit trees, bananas, palawan (a type of root crop grown in swamp areas), and a variety of root crops.

Two years later a family crisis arose, his wife, children and even himself became ill. Unable to get teaching work he was unemployed, had a sick family and a baby on the way; 2007 was the worst year of his life economically. Nanding told others in the community how if it was not for his small gardens his family would go hungry. He thanks SPPI for helping him realize the importance of gardens for food production.

By Teresa De Jesus Suan

Community Development Officer (CDW-Capul)
(May, 2009)