April 14, 2021

Turning Over a New Leaf

We were finishing dinner with my family on Christmas Eve in our little Guiuan town on the Pacific coast when we learned that the forecasted tropical storm, which would be making landfall anytime soon, had evolved into a powerful typhoon. I knew that the house we were renting had resisted...

February 24, 2021

Planting Seeds of Hope

Being visionary in Eastern Samar is like going against the tides and monsoons in the Pacific. It was back in 2015, when I first met Luis Bayarong, the president of FEA Agrarian Reform Cooperative, in the small sleepy town of Guiuan. The town made into all major world headlines in...

January 18, 2021

Savai’i Cocoa Farmers Reclaim Back Their Lost Fame

“Bring the beans over here,” Leah says to a farmer, who came along with his two sons from Vaisala village. “70 kg of wet beans,” Leah records in her notebook and hands 140 tala over to the farmer. “This is twice higher volume what this farmer was usually bringing three...