Snippets: Hda. Remedios

Taken July 1, 2003 at Hda. Remedios, La Carlota City. OMG! It's been 14 years and a few days ago!!! I found this photo in an old folder I saw in my external drive, along with a few other embarrassing shots of my younger days.

This is the result of the first Gawad Kalinga village waaaaay back when it started to build concrete houses in exchange of the nipa ones. It took a village to build one, with a target of fifty houses at the end of the year, schools and foundations worked hand in hand to building the structure. I was amused when I first saw this view, with the bright yellow carpeting the center and uniformed videogame-like houses in line, that's why I took this photo. Fourteen years after, it's still nice to look at, but the paint has faded and the flowers are no longer blooming with patches of dirt in between instead of the lush green, and the people back in their old ways, waiting, complaining, hoping. When GK first started, the women of Remedios were taught to make candles, snacks, and other small items that they might be able to earn a living on. I even remember buying some candles during one of their bazaars in the city's public plaza. The men where taught how to make organic compost fertilizers, about half a hectare near the entrance of the village was dedicated to producing sacks of it at a given time...but after two years or so they say a tornado or hurricane demolished the place and production stopped. My vision of a farm goes back to my remote childhood memories of when we'd go there for the fiesta wherein everyone was celebrating in their own little ways, and another distinct idea of what a farm might look that stands out in my mind is the farm from the simulation game Harvest Moon. I thought it was as simple as sowing seeds, watering the crops, and harvesting them after a couple of sunrises that makes it thrive...but no, that is far from the reality that I see, from the stories being said to me. It takes hard work, and the hardest of which is dealing with people unwilling to share in your vision. 

So...over a decade has passed, a lot has happened...at the same time, in the end, at least for most in the hacienda...nothing has changed. What brings down an idealist? Lazy cynics and unmotivated dreamers disincline to do the work, instead, they focus on the unlikely chance that one day heaven might open and hand them a million pesos, to which they can be happy with, that is until they spend it all on temporary amusements and a day's worth of fill. And while I hear success stories from other GK villages, with this one, it's the same story all over again...it's a sad one.