May
is the month of flowers (Flores de Mayo) and is rather a very
popular devotion all over the Philippines to offer Our Lady a
flower each day. So the neighbouring children who are on holiday
from school at this time of the year, came to the Noviciate for
some Catechism from the Brothers, a rosary in the chapel, then
the procession to the grotto to offer each their flowers or flower
petals with the singing of hymns in Ilongo or English or Spanish.
Of course afterwards there were the necessary snacks and games
every day. So prayer did not need to stop for the heavy equipment
which carried on for some weeks its work.
A
D4 caterpillar arrived in May to begin the road around the property.
The road will serve to allow easier access to the rice blocks,
which are being enlarged but also to give a road for evening walks
on the property or a jogging path for the Brothers exercises.
This particular machine had the unfortunate problem of losing
one of its tracks every now and then, which slowed down the work
considerably. The young trees to the left are all Mohogany trees
which in several years will be able to be harvested and sold.
The
backhoe, arrived along with 3 dump trucks using the new road to
move around, which still had to cross the lowest rice paddie with
a 2 meter high road. The soil is being taken out of the rice blocks
which originally formed by manual work, and the terraces being
only an average of 10 or 15 feet wide. These are now excavated
out to be 40 or 50 feet wide and instead of the 10 or 12 terraces
there will only be 4 once completed. This allows us to use our
tractor in the fields which before wasn't able to manoevre in
them, as well reduces the number of dikes which need constant
maintenance, especially the cutting of the grass.
Another
view of the rice terraces which are very narrow and will be widened.
Our
second hand Kubota tractor and rotovator which is small by Canadian
or American standards (only 20 hpr) but has proven very useful
for many of the tasks on the farm. It is also came with paddles
that attach to the big wheels allowing one to move about in the
rice paddies in wet conditions.
We would like to encourage any benefactors to contact us or Fr.
Couture in Singapore to help us at this moment as the cost of
the work has pretty well emptied all the coffers of the Noviciate.
In the next installment of photos there will be seen the many
other works that have been taking place at the Noviciate for reasons
of security which needs to be considerably improved. A grand crown
to the property has been the erection of a 7ft statue. Watch for
these photos in the next installment. God bless from St. Bernard
Noviciate.
