Tree Planting Activity

I like reminiscences.

Not the kind that keeps you up late at night because you need to alter them into written words just to comply a school requirement. Your mind could crack the moment you think of a whole page that you ought to fill with specifics.

It’s not that I can totally relate.

When you reminisce, you get certain thoughts from your brain and try to pack them with much more thoughts from the same brain, of course. Upshots are oftentimes detailed memories from your past experiences together with emotions that can make you happy, sad or whatsoever. The thing is, reminiscing creates feelings that can even help you with your school requirements.

So, here are my specific reminiscences:

It was nearly eight in the morning when I arrived at our school. Our field trip was scheduled that day and the agreed terms were to arrive at the venue before 8 AM or we would walk ourselves back from where we just came from because the trip has just been taken without our beloved presence. I was truthfully glad I made it that early. Moments later, engines started and we were kilometers away from our destination. 

While riding, we made fun by chattering about lighter stuffs.

I spent most of the trip with my eyes fixed on the places we’d passed. It was relieving to notice how green Davao City is by seeing lots of trees, grasslands and mountains along the way. My lungs were freed with fresh air, well, except at frequent times during that ride, I managed inhaling large dust particles included in the air, anyway, it didn’t matter. The sight alone gave me relief which, as a matter of fact, made me hold my breath for quartered seconds.

Later, our jeep took a turn and behold, there we were, safe and alive! Ready to plant trees, not to mention our excitement to take pictures amidst nature’s most picturesque sights.

We arrived at Tamugan River, Calinan after nearly two hours. We were then guided to gather under a santol tree for the orientation. The whole event was a part of DCWD’s launching of Tamugan River Rehabilitation – a step taken by the local government in partnership with the local citizens of Davao City. 

Different speakers from local government units stepped in front to give us insights with regards to the activity.

Meeting active people such as them was motivating. It kept me away from the present norm’s response to activities of this sort which is, sadly, cold. Insights given to us were short but enough to make us commence out Tree Planting Activity. I then found myself walking through wet grassland beside Tamugan River. Earlier, we were handed seedlings of Dao and Mahogany which are varieties of trees that can absorb more water from the ground. I planted three seedlings and hoped that it will grow. Seeing the rapid flow of water from the river gave me the idea why we were planting at that place. Trees are known to help prevent floods by absorbing water. Recent calamities involving too much water everywhere, which literally means flooding, here in Davao City were quite alarming as large number of lives were affected. By planting trees beside rivers, floods can somehow be prevented at a certain time in the future.  I am just so hoping until now that my seedlings will turn to full grown trees.  My mind would have been at peace if I didn’t forget to ask one of the people involved with the program about their further steps after trees have been planted. I would be merrily relieved if they will make some follow ups.

After the tree planting activity, we gave lots of smiles as cameras were taking shots almost everywhere.

It’s great to be involved in such activities especially when pictures were taken afterwards. 

Later on, we ate our lunch at the locality’s gym where presentation relating to Water Management In Davao City was brought to us. Good to know those people are really doing their jobs.

Engines started again and we were heading home. We took different route which was the exact opposite of what we had earlier that day. The view was the same though, except for the air. It was smelly. Our Professor decided to include the route for us to know where the wastes of Davao City were dumped. My concern was in people residing near the dumpsite. They will have that foul smell for the rest of their residing days on that place. I wonder how they managed to stay there.

And the rest was history.

The clock was evident. It’s time to end my reminiscing and start reacting. All of my efforts planting those seedlings will roll to deeps if relevant thoughts would not be gained. I think, by engaging myself to such activity, I was reminded again to be a better caretaker of the environment. The lives of those seedlings aren’t planted on mere soil but in my mind as well. I can help grow a tree inside me by doing my part for the environment’s benefits, even in my own simple ways. I so hope too that the said tree will also grow and its fruits would manifest in my actions.

I’m exceedingly grateful to our Professor, Engr. Ernani Villacencio, for reminding us about how to take good care of the environment.

Home: Earth

               Sometimes I find myself musing about ideas implied in films like 2012 and laugh silently as I often concluded such thoughts were totally silly. I was quite oriented with the belief that it’s simply impossible but as I wandered through deeper understanding about what’s REALLY happening nowadays, I stumbled upon concrete proofs that Earth is drastically facing its own destruction. Studies and computations summed up in Mayan calendar couldn’t convince me still, yet supporting scientific facts and even personal experiences slowly give me goosebumps as it was obviously concluded that human race is highly responsible for it.

                Earth is slowly nailed to its said end as we, humans, are in a hurry to survive to the point that we forgot that real survival lies behind taking care of our only home. All would eventually fall to nothing if the ground to which everything stands collapsed.

                God packed us ample of reasons to wrap delight and fun out of doing our roles as caretakers of Earth. These pleasures are from greeting the early morning sun as its rays gives off specks of rainbows that make a flying flock of birds along a distant horizon technicolored to the complexity of twilight emerged from shadows cast by the moon between chunks of leaves. Even cicadas’ sound at night and dawn’s breath of fresh air hit the benefits of meeting Mother Earth. Yet, the majority of us no more linger on this lighter side of the scene. Instead, they chose to optimized possibilities to the cover up offshoots for their own expense. Soon, the paradise that was meant for us will turn to pandemonium as evil was given miles after miles to rule thousands of minds.

                Various signs of the alleged doom are evident even in newspapers as recent calamities and disasters are taking the front pages. Earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires, tsunamis and even landslides and floods here in the Philippines are only few to top the list. Though most of it were brought by nature itself, it can’t be denied that it was triggered by abused done by humans.

                I, for once, believe that almost everything has an end. Earth, in its glories and parodies is no exception. Humans have to develop ways to optimize the use of anything for better living while possible offshoots of it on the environment are inevitable. It’s just hard to accept that the countdown has been set faster that even the most pessimistic scientist ten years ago couldn’t predict what’s happening now. Humans aren’t limited to do what it wanted provided that any action made must be based on pondered practices or beliefs that we are liable to whatever will happen and that we can’t blame anyone but ourselves if disasters would rise higher than before.

                Constant reminders indeed are needed for us to practice steps that could help. I’m glad that I was able to attend to our class when our teacher showed us a film about Earth and its phases from perfection to degradation. I needed the insights that I had taken from the film to remind myself that I play a vital role in taking good care of Earth and that I’m not just a passerby who appears and disappear without any parts taken on the scene. I want to help, not just to free myself from the burden of human race but also to take what God has commanded upon each and every one of us - to be good care takers of Earth. Doing so would give inward joy that could be an excellent way to make the utmost worship for the Creator.

                Though the end will eventually come at a time in the future, lending my willingness to do my part is a big leap to prolong Earth’s lifespan.

PaCEkatan 2011

Of the hundreds of days you spent inside a University – all sort: good or bad, lucky or inopportune, inspiring or discouraging, bloody or extremely well darn bloody and everything in between, there’s always that ONE day which brings much frolic to your senses you couldn’t prolong to contain it anymore.

So you smiled and smiled again as that day was doubled.

There’s no wonder what the label of that doubled ONE day was as a gush of ardent wind wrapped you tightly while you ushered yourself inside the university ground. You just then knew the meaning of grandeur simply by swiveling your eyes to any horizontal distance around you. Mobs of gossiping students matched in organizational shirts below each livid faces were in front of you and were cascaded with floats of various kinds typifying every course your highly competent and prestigious college has. On your right was a crowd of loudmouthed people blabbing with their mic’s on about the recently going on hustles and bustles. A colossal five-story building stood right at your left which fosters bright-minded jacks and geeks who were starting off a hell out of fun to rock hard with the incoming games, competitions, shows and performances. The sight alone made you want to get your net phone on and tweet about how excited you were only to know it was currently trending on, er, not on twitter but at least, on the local buzz.

Behold, ‘twas the time to be jolly as the point has just been marked to commence the king of all festivals in USEP – the PaCEkatan 2011!

After you had yourself hearing impaired from the cheers and claps, you walked and passed active scenarios. You imagined of filming a music video with a rolling camera focused on you, lost in a rapid flood of people. Suddenly, a bulb was lit inside your head along with the occurrence of a certain question that deeply bothered you.

What would you be, an active partaker of the events in the mentioned fest or just a passive onlooker?

You weighed critical thoughts. No doubt it’s great fun to feel free as a viewer of the events and leave the rest of the tiring stuffs to buckle with the working committee’s belt but the real fun lies when you let yourself in and lend a helping hand like there’s no other way to live but to help, seriously. Besides, everybody wants to be a part something, especially when that something produces an upshot worth the helping and even a literal hand, seriously again.

So you made up your mind to offer yourself to the volunteering team but so it seemed that all others decoded your conclusion and rushed on selling themselves to be a part of the team too, earlier than you though. Cheers to that as you got yourself a fresh cold slushy all over your head after being hailed loser like on Glee. 

The camera lights went off and that was the time that you took your senses back from its reverie and pinned reality hard on your mind.

Then you saw a bunch of familiar faces, united on working out with something. The similarity of the scene with your imagination was overwhelming. 

You ran and kick your butt on to partake with the job. The outcome was appalling. It was a finished banner of AECES embossed from multicolored background together with the written theme – More than what meets the eye, multiplied by what contains the mind, divided by one body of unity equals ENGINEERING. 

Urban Container Gardening

There have always been ideas so ingenious that you can’t help but to let your jaw drop the very moment you consider them. I was just pacing through my afternoon routine in school when this sort idea, the ingenious kind that I’ve mentioned earlier, hit right through me.

It was on the 9th of September when I attended a seminar regarding Urban Container Gardening. The seminar was initiated by our Professor in Environmental Science, Engr. Ernani Villasencio. It was a requirement for our subject and I was left without a choice but to attend. I came at the venue a bit late that I didn’t make it to the part where the speaker was introduced. So, I googled his name and it appeared to be Engr. Perfecto ‘Jojo’ Rom. He mentioned that he graduated in Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in Ateneo de Cagayan University and that his work about Urban Farming was known internationally as an efficient way to maximize agriculture in urban places.

He started his presentation by showing us slides of pictures after pictures that pinpoint subtopics in connection to its main topic. I was nailed down listening and digesting his wise and witty points. He tackled about farmers and how they suffered because of undeveloped agricultural methods in our country. I’ve seen corns with fungi in the presentation. They were yields that are not marketed because of pests. The presence of pests in crops is only one of the many problems that farmers encounter nowadays. The lack of efficient method in delivery due to rural routes that are not yet fully developed and financial support from our government were also added to their problems. Because of the cited problems, a lot of our farmers were force to shift chores and venture upon fields where the easy gain of money is an utmost pursuit. There were farmers shown who ended up being loggers, rebels, and men who make charcoals for a living. I empathized with their condition. It was sad to know that our government was just allowing some aristocrats to scarce small farmers from their basic supplies of goods so that they can get advantage by forcing these small farmers to use their packaged products. I wonder not anymore why our agriculture industry is struggling.

The effects of our struggling agriculture industry to our society were now evident. Flash floods and landslides in some places of the country where also shown in the presentation, like what had occurred in Davao City recently. Trees that hold soils and water together appeared into view as they are needed to prevent these calamities from happening. Due to industrialization and illegal logging (some of the people behind this were farmers before) myriads of trees were cut down. It could have been better if massive tree planting are implemented after some large areas were dilapidated by these trees, but based on observation, only a fraction of tree planting programs were done. The aftermath was a picture of scattered garbage and junks. From this, improper waste management then entered the scene which is also a major problem that has its drastic effect in the environment.

The presented flow led us to conclusion that we, people, have great hold on the events happening around us. If only we could have been better caretakers of our environment, natural calamities would not be as worse as what we’re experiencing now. We could do better than what we are doing now. Such would certainly lead to a better society as well as a better life for each one of us. In lieu to this, ways to improve our capabilities in taking care of the environment are trending in. We need ideas, ingenious ideas, about ways to help the environment as well as benefit ourselves from the process. Urban Container Gardening, which was the main topic of the presentation, is one of the few best ideas ever made.

Urban Container Gardening (UCG) refers to overcoming the restrictions of a metropolis and creating gardens in homes, no matter the size or lack of ‘natural space’. This idea from Rom teaches households and individuals to contribute to the Philippines’ food security program, as well as ecological sanitation and environmental protection through urban farming. UCG is a very promising way of supplying city dwellers with affordable and nutritious food. Some of the advantages are that biodegradable waste can be reused as fertilizer and contribute to overall urban environmental management.

2010-12 - Jojo ROM's yard with a lot of vegetables growing in bottles and other recycled containers. Jojo had built, right over a small pond, a wooden stand on which more bottles were to be placed, thus enhancing production in the smallest space (Photo Jojo Rom)http://desertification.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/small-yard-container-gardening-to-be-multiplied-for-all-the-hungry-jojo-rom-willem-van-cotthem/

“UCG can be done even if someone has no space in his/her house for a garden. “Instead of planting flowers and putting them on your window sills or on the side of walkways and hallways, you can plant vegetables and spices. And every morning, you’ll just have to get some fresh leaves from your ‘garden’ and have a nutritious salad,” he said. “Since veggies should be fresh when consumed and often refrigeration is a [cost] limitation, production of veggies near the places they are consumed is an advantage.

Urban farmer Perfecto “Jojo” Rom, an Agriculture graduate of the Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan de Oro, plants vegetables in plastic containers in his backyard in Davao City.(Photo by D. Fabe)

This doesn’t mean that production of veggies in rural areas must not be done, but urban gardening is a very promising way of supplying city dwellers with affordable and nutritious food. Some of the advantages are that biodegradable waste can be reused as fertilizer and contribute to overall urban environmental management,” Holmer said through e-mail.

Fruits and vegetable grown through UCG are also 100 percent free from harmful chemicals because they are grown organically, using the household’s own bio-wastes as fertilizers through composting. “Even one’s own urine can be used as organic liquid fertilizer. But this should be mixed with other bio-waste like rice wash in a strict proportion,” Rom said.” - 
http://businessmirror.com.ph/component/content/article/53-agri-commodities/15099-xu-graduate-practices-urban-farming-to-answer-food-issues

I was totally amazed by the presented process of UCG. It was like a total brain wash that I couldn’t think of anything more precise and efficient to produce a healthy urban environment than that of the UCG way, provided that people are found cooperating. I was left daydreaming for a while about having my own home and implementing UCG which flooded my mind with a lot of green, the kind that goes with plants of course, not the nasty kind of green. Lol. It was not a shock also that my classmates were inspired to do the same as we gathered discussing about UCG after the presentation. Not only did the agriculturist in each one of us was awakened, but also the part which wants to help the environment by doing the basics. We were reminded to do the proper disposal of wastes as well as its segregation. I was also excited about our incoming Tree Planting Activity as this, surely, will not only help the environment, but also help us to becoming better care takers of it.

Ideas such as UCG would only be equal to nothing if required actions will not be taken. I’m buying this idea and I’m hoping that the message behind it would accompany me as I follow Sir Rom’s example.