Talim Island - Lake Laguna

Greetings to all our family and friends!!

We find ourself back within Baseco Compound in Metro Manila, one of many large squatter communities within Philippines, back with what we would consider family.

The past week we have spent our time with Pastor Joey, a man who has very little and pours his life out daily within the lives of many with needs. His wife is paralysed and he has a family of 5 children and yet still helps families on the island. His unconditional life has impacted us and changed our lives, we have supported his work on Talim island, Lake Laguna for the past 7 years. 

This island is a dormant volcano and homes 33 barangay’s (villages) that are close to the water’s edge around the island. The water is pumped out of the ground from hot water springs...you could almost boil an egg!! We lived within the community amongst some old friends and met many new friends, we had the pleasure to experience their community life. The island is located 6 hours from Metro Manila, our journey consists of motorbike tricycles, jeepneys, bus and boat.

By no means is this a tropical tourist island, many of the families struggle from day to day to provide for their basic essential needs. To live with them and not be messed by the abundance I possess in contrast from their life to mine would be an understatement. The opportunities for work and financial provision are limited, the fresh water lake (Lake Laguna) provides a range of fish and many families have fish pens and work through the night with large nets on their small bancas (boats) to sell for the next day at markets on the main land. Sadly typhoons are a regular event during their cooler months and most fish pens are destroyed yearly and their fish escape. The poorer families walk to the top of the mountains to burn wood and make charcoal (uling) to sell for charcoal fires for cooking or grow sweet potato. We started pig farming as a micro business a few years ago which has been relatively successful. We target poorer families and offer them a no-interest loan which they pay back after 4-5 months when the sell the pig. We purchase piglets of approx 5kg and sell them 4-5 months later around 45-55kg. The family keep all the profits and the initial loan repayed back to us to buy another piglet for another family to start a small business. We really want to begin to grow this opportunity for the families on Talim island as this is a profitable small business for poorer families to provide fresh food and education for their children. If you are interested in purchasing a (few) pig(s) for a family please reply to my email on mattpin@hotmail.com or comment on this post. They are currently costing $60 (2500 peso) for a 5kg piglet. You donation just continues to bless many families because it never ends, it keeps being reused to purchase another piglet.

We were very blessed with all the people and their generosity they have shown us on the island. They might not have much but every night we were always given some food that someone had cooked for us. The children on the island also took Alex and Ashah under their wing, often Alex would be off and I wouldn’t see him for a few hours, and the girls just loved Ashah, holding hands and roaming around playing games.

We really love this place it does hold a special place in our hearts, its very peaceful, no noise of cars, no fumes, but there is a few smells of animals, mostly those that raise the pigs to sell. One of the women that we stayed at on the island came to us while we were out visiting, she was holding a chicken (it was alive!), and told us that this was going to be our lunch the next day, I must say it was quite delicious. Wish we could say more...love you all. Matt, Lisa and kids