Bamboo Immersion Trip - Day 0

DENR, originally uploaded by suvajack.

Fatima Tangan, a bamboo expert who works for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Baguio City, opened up a window that has greatly impacted and influenced our vision of the Winaca project, as well as our lives. It all started after a short meeting with Fatima and a brief bamboo tour at the DENR. There, we were invited by Carmelita Berselona (aka Mely), a friend of Fatima and board member of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, to join her and a bamboo team of eight from Nagaland, India for an immersion program tour in bamboo production and processing around the Philippines. At that moment we knew that our instincts had to be followed. The group was leaving for Manila the same night so we quickly went home to pack. We were so elated by it all as it was last minute and had hardly any time to advise anyone of the special opportunity. Nevertheless, within an hour and a half we were on the road in a packed van en route to Manila with team Nagaland.

After experiencing one of the scariest rides of our lives down the mountain from Baguio (the driver must of thought he was in a race because he was passing vehicles in front of us on a dark two-way road with incoming traffic literally meters ahead of us, and not to mention with the rain and flooding), we finally made it to our hotel in Manila exhausted but safe.