Our piece of Palawan

After months of searching and looking at dozens of plots of land, we have finally found the right place. After weeks of negotiations, checking papers and talks with an attorney and government offices, everything is checked and complete… and the land is now ours!

It is a beautiful place that is only a five minute walk from the safe home where we work. It is a large plot of 3,500 square meters. We got it at a very good price because it has a right of way going through part of it. But that doesn’t worry us as it is only a quiet track – and the plot is so big we still have more than enough space for everything we have planned. The position where we will build a home is far enough away from the track that it won’t bother us.

It has loads of different kinds of fruit trees including coconut, mango, guava and avocado. There is also a small stream and a view of the mountains. It includes this small hut that I like to call ‘The Shack’, which will be a temporary shelter and store for materials while we build our home. It also means we can apply to have electricity connected to the plot. 

Gently sloping uphill, it gives us a nice overlooking view. It’s mostly very green and lush with lots of plants and at its top end, where it is higher, its dryer and has bamboo growing.

We are very happy with our piece of land, it’s a great plot in a beautiful area. It’s more space than we hoped for and will allow us to plant lots of fruit trees and keep a few animals after we are married.

We feel this is the place God has planned for us and we could never be able to own it without his help and provision. We are very thankful to Him for providing such a beautiful place for us to start our life together after the wedding early next year.

In the family way

We partnered with NGO Roots of Health to run a family planning conference, based at our centre in the Badjao village. Couples came to learn about family planning and receive free contraception.

The Badjao people have a culture of arranged marriage while still young (school age) and we are trying to teach the younger generation to finish schooling first and wait until they are able to care for a family. These early marriages often don’t last and leave young girls looking after their babies alone. For the young couples already married (and others with loads of kids), family planning is a great help for them to wait until they are ready.

The hunt for land

Time is running out to find a piece of land and build our first home in time for our wedding next February! So for much of our free time, Shiela and I are searching for the right place we can call home. 

Over the last several months we have seen dozens of plots of land spread throughout the area, but ideally we need somewhere near to where we both work at the KNA safe home on the farm. 

We have come close a few times, but there was always something wrong that stops us – usually something incomplete with the papers. You have to be very careful with documents here... there are some people that sell plots again and again to different people, often cheap, but the buyers can end up with nothing if not careful. 

So the hunt continues… but the more we ask and the more we look at, we keep meeting people that know of still more plots… so there is always more for us to see. We trust that God has the right place for us, and I hope to show you some photos soon!

Once we are married, we will go home after work several evenings a week and on our days off. Like the other couples here at KNA, we will still spend a few nights a week here at the farm, so there is always enough people with the kids. It will be a very simple home, but we need a place to call our own, some privacy and personal space… as much as I love it at the farm!

Veggie-licious

It is delicious eating our own home-grown organic vegetables from here on the farm. Self-sustainability is one of our aims and we are moving towards that with several large vegetable plots. Most of the veg that we eat now is home-grown.

Crop rotation is also important and we rotate the vegetable plots with the chicken or duck pens from time-to-time. Devis (in the photo) does a lot of the work on this. Work in the veg plots is never finished, but well worth it when they bring in a big harvest.

We grow organically and have several large composting areas, like the one you can see in the photo. Kitchen waste such as old veg skins are rotted down, mixed with animal dung and then dug into the ground to prepare for growing veg.