Working Together

We're getting closer to rebuilding a safe main walkway through the village of the Badjao people, built on stilts over the sea at nearby Puerto Princessa. 

A group of Badjao regularly come to the farm to help with the huge amount of work in turning trees into cut planks and posts. Dong and I are busy everyday felling, chopping and slicing trees into planks and posts, but it is a lot of work. Things speed up when the Badjao come and help with the heavy work and I enjoy seeing how everyone works together and the area becoming a hive of activity.

Leftover posts and offcut slabs are very useful to use here on the farm, as well as smaller branches which we can use as cooking wood. Leaves go to the compost. We also collect up the sawdust which will be used for growing edible mushrooms. Larger logs that cannot be used are kept to one side and can be used to make charcoal... none of the wood is wasted!

Around 1,000 planks of various sizes are need to become walkboards and braces for the bridge. Bark has been removed from more than 100 posts and finally all the finished wood is treated before it is ready for use on the bridge. It is a massive project to help the Badjao people and it is great that we can work together on it.

Lots has been completed over the last couple of months and I have finished all the felling and chopping of the trees and most of the slicing, but it will take another one or two months to get everything ready to be moved to their village in one go in several large trucks.

To see lots more pictures, click here