Training Center – Page 24 – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2011-11-292018-09-23

Goducate Training Center cooks learn non-Filipino Asian dishes

One way by which the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, The Philippines, aims to work towards self-sustainability is to open its premises to visitors when the center is not in use for training. The restaurant is thus an important part of the center’s attractions. Hence I was invited to help widen the menu at the restaurant by teaching the cooks non-Filipino Asian dishes.

An important step in being able to produce an authentic national dish is to know what the real stuff tastes like, so the training for Bambi and Biboy started in Singapore and Malaysia. Their first week was spent tasting and tasting—well, eating and eating. On their arrival in Singapore earlier this month, we headed to Lai Lai Kitchen for a late lunch of some Taiwanese food of braised pork with rice and bubble tea. Bubble tea? What is that, Biboy asked?

The rest of the first week was food and more food in Singapore. The spread of the buffet at Buffet Town was eye-popping for them. There they sampled Western, Japanese, Chinese, and local foods. The selection of seafoods was Biboy’s favorite. Bambi was happy to be trying everything that came to the table. Biboy’s comment was that we must have eaten at least half a cow that night.

DSCN5142 — Biboy tucking into a tray of hot-stone noodles

DSCN5123 — Bowl of “laksa” (rice noodles, fish cake, and bean curd in spicy coconut gravy), the dish that Biboy would choose if he could have only one choice. Bambi’s choice was “kaya”, an egg and coconut spread.

DSCN5172 — Biboy and Bambi at EcoGarden in Johor taking a break from food.

The second week took them to Johor for more food and a few cook-outs in my kitchen. There were the kaya and bread making sessions and a sweet and sour pork and yakatori cook out.

The foods they tasted during their fortnight here included prata, laksa, kaya toast, nasi lemak, prawn mee, a whole range of Chinese stir fried dishes, dim sum, roast duck, char siew, and a fish-soup hot-pot. It was definitely a big change from their norm of rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice for dinner!

As to what they will offer at the Goducate Training Center restaurant, just wait and see.

Part two of their training will be held in January, when we will be cooking the dishes at the training center in Iloilo.

Guest writer Hau Chun, Volunteer from Singapore

2011-11-252011-11-25

A busy time on farm extension in Laguna

The Goducate Model Farm at Laguna has been a hive of activity, with staff and volunteers ploughing , weeding, and planting, and putting into practice all that was learnt during the 3-day training session by Ric Patricio and Vic de Paz from the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo.

The model farm was extended few months ago. An adjacent piece of land of 5000 sq m—ie, five times the size of the original farm—has been rented for 10 years.

2500 sq m have been allocated for sweet corn, 600 sq m for tomatoes, 600 sq m for bell peppers, and 1000 sq m for bitter gourds and string beans. The area between the drainage canals was planted with saplings of papaya alternating with lime, to prevent soil erosion.

Once the planting has been completed, work on container gardening and hydroponics will start.

The hope is that harvesting can start in February.

PA121496-400 — Learning about drainage from Vic

20111110_153440-400 — All hands on deck on the farm

2011-11-182011-11-15

Goducate trains its future leaders

Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilio, Philippines, is Goducate’s “university” for training its future leaders.

Recently I was there to participate in one of its “leadership camps”. There were 240 trainees who attended the 3-day session on leadership, the vast majority being university students or recent graduates. I hope that many of these will catch the vision of helping needy Asians to help themselves and enrol for Goducate’s full-time training program to prepare themselves to serve in poor communities throughout Asia.

The present pilot batch of 20 full-time trainees have just completed their 6-month training program. Some of these graduates will stay on as staff and trainers at GTC, while others will be sent out to communities in the Philippines, China, and Indonesia in the near future.

In 2012, we plan to enrol about 100 full-time trainees who will be trained in cross-cultural studies, foreign languages, agriculture, community health, literacy, livelihood skills, music, self-defence, etc. We hope that the training will instill in all our graduates not only the desire but also the ability to help Asians help themselves.