Tilt-Bed Trailer for Micro Houses

This trailer is a thing of beauty in the way it is engineered. Jim Verploegen of Billings, Montana went over to Bohol for two weeks to lead the IDEA Philippines welders in building this 30′X8.5′ tilt-bed trailer used for delivering our micro or shed homes to the Cohen Village I home site and other sites. The basic trailer was donated to IDEA by NC Machinery in Seattle as part of a generator set. Jim has built many of these types of tilt-bed trailers back in Montana but he found it quite a challenge trying to find the right kind of metal on the island of Bohol. The IDEA Philippines construction crew is so excited to have this new piece of equipment because all could quickly see lots of application for hauling materials and equipment around.  IDEA would like to thank Jim also for the financial sacrifice in coming over and supporting part of the cost of construction of the trailer.  (the wooden deck has yet to be added in this photo)

Jim & Nita

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FOLLOW-UP ON HEARING AIDS

Dr. Gene Bukowski is a member of IDEA’s board of directors back in Montana.  For many years he has worked closely with Dennis Drake to further the cause of providing hearing aids to IDEA’s deaf children.  It was because of Dr. Gene that Starkey Hearing Foundation was introduced to the work of IDEA in the Philippines eventually culminating in the giveaway of nearly 2000 hearing aids this last November in Bohol.   We were so happy to welcome Dr. Gene here again this March when he came over for 10 days to follow-up on the more than 260 deaf children in the IDEA / DepEd classrooms that were fit with Starkey hearing aids.  In that short time he replaced problem aids, fine-tuned all the aids, and fit aids on kids that had missed out during the Starkey Bohol Mission.  Dr. Gene also able to bring over a new laptop and software for adjusting digital hearing aids and trained Jopeth, IDEA’s nurse,  in the use of this technology.  This equipment is a huge boost and moves IDEA’s Bohol Hearing Aid Center one step closer to being able to truly serve the island of Bohol and provide inexpensive aids to all those who need them.  On behalf of all of IDEA’s deaf children and deaf adults, thank you Dr. Gene and also a big thanks to CBM New Zealand for helping make this technology and training available to us.  CBM is a wonderful non-profit organization serving children and adults with disabilities around the world.  They have been partnering with IDEA Philippines for almost 20 years and continue to play a huge role in the development of our hearing aid program in Bohol as well as almost every other aspect of IDEA’s work in the Philippines.

Dr. Gene is testing the hearing of Walter, a deaf and blind young man who works for IDEA Philippines cleaning outdoor tables, sanding wood in the shop, and washing the IDEA bus..

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A House Raising Philippine Style

IDEA’s deaf families have been waiting a long time to finally see this day arrive.  The first four houses are finally being erected on the IDEA purchased one half acre property on the out-skits of Tagbilaran City on the island of Bohol.  The government red tape has been deep.  These micro homes are just starter units for IDEA Philippines deaf and hearing employees, both singles and couples.  The surrounding neighborhood was astounded by the fact that the walls of the homes were put up in one day.  IDEA has arranged that through the PAGIBIG government housing loan program the staff will be able to purchase this little house and 55 square meters of property for $35 per month over 15 years.  Most of the staff are spending more than this now to rent a rooms in pretty sketchy boarding houses.  It is hoped that all the homes in this project, dubbed “Cohen Village I”, will be completed within this year.

It was such a great honor to have Bill Griffin from Billings, Montana come over to Bohol to work with our mostly deaf men construction team.  Bill is a professional builder back in Montana and specifically came to teach the guys about the safe handling of pneumatic nail guns and some short cuts in speed building of these micro homes.  Bill is also one of Dennis Drake’s old buddies from his home town so the two of them got to have some “hang out time”.  Thank you Bill for giving so freely of your time and talents and for making the financial sacrifice of coming over to give IDEA a hand.

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Like One Big Happy Family

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This scene up at Bohol Deaf Academy one evening last week was not staged for the camera.  Dennis Drake just dropped in and found the deaf kids sitting around on the stage and at a couple of tables doing random projects and chatting.  The atmosphere was so very peaceful and so family like that Dennis reported that, ” it kind of took his breath away”.  There were no computers screens flickering, Game Boys or IPods in hand, no TV reality shows droning on but instead peaceful creativity.  There were no adults watching over them to make sure they were doing home work and the kids were really enjoying themselves.  So refreshing.

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Visiting Canadian Chefs

CESO (Canadian Executive Service Organization)teamed up with IDEA this February to help improve the food and service of IDEA’s various restaurant businesses.  Altogether the two Garden Cafes and Dao Diamond Hotel employ 14 deaf  cooks and bakers.  Some of these cooks have been working with us for almost 30 years and although they are quite proficient, there still is a great need to upgrade their knowledge and to keep our menus fresh in order to continue attracting the customers.  For this reason Dennis Drake put in an application with CESO for two well qualified Canadian chefs to come to Bohol to provide training for our staff.

The two chefs that volunteer turned out to both be retired award winning professionals who possess amazing amounts of knowledge and even more so, both are seasoned educators having taught for years in prestigious cooking schools in various countries around the word.  We at IDEA felt so fortunate to have been assigned such wonderfully qualified men who had such big hearts and were willing to share their skills with our Deaf.

Chef Bryan with the IDEA Pension House Staff 

Chef Ralph with the Garden Cafe Tagbilaran Staff

Chef Bryan Fordham was assigned in our operation at the IDEA Pension House / Garden Cafe Jagna, Bohol.  Chef Bryan’s specialty is pastries, cakes, and breads but also worked extensively with the manager in helping solve some of the operational problems.  Chef Ralph Graham was assigned in Dao Diamond Hotel and Garden Cafe, Tagbilaran City, Bohol.  His specialties were more on main dishes and sauces.  He also worked extensively with the management on helping them with some of the issues of kitchen operations and menu selections.

It was such a great pleasure having these two men with us for three weeks.  Although they really only scratched the surface in that short time, they really stirred the pot so to speak and got our cooks and bakers looking at new possibilities in types of food and revitalized the IDEA staff.  It was a good thing.

A big thank you to Chef Bryan and Chef Ralph of giving so freely of your time and talents and also to Mr. Matt Navalta (Philippines Country Director for CESO) and the citizens of Canada for making this assignment possible.

Kitchen Crew at Dao	Ralph, Dennis, Bryan	Chef’s Table Tasting
Chef Bryan	See Bohol Sights	Chefs and Snakes

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