After eating our lunch at the beautiful Bamboo House Beach resort, we headed over to the village about 1km away. I really had no idea of what the plan was or what this place looked like or anything. All I new was there was some guy who can make clothes out of wood.
When we arrived, I was in awe. The place was truly beautiful! It was a village in the mountains with a river bed running through it (No water though, its been a dry year so far), homes made out of bamboo, people weaving baskets, kids running around, and trees shading most of the area. It was like something you see out of a movie or Nation Geographic! I loved it.
After a little walk, we arrived at the guys house. He had already prepped the wood to start working on making the skirt. The process involves quite a bit of detail work which is what the Jeepney people are doing a story on. Most of that work involves hitting the tree trunk with another piece of wood that causes it to soften and expand. Its really interesting and I dont know who could have ever come up with that idea.
We spent about 3 hours there as he went through most of the process of making the skirt. We also went around to check out the school just a few meters away. Jeepney will covering kids in school and at play in later issues of their magazine so we wanted to scout it out a little to see what possibilities there are. We also came across a bunch of locals working on a new bamboo home. These homes are very nice and typically run around 150,000 pesos (about $3,200). Bill started talking to a guy there about possibly doing a story on the process of building a home as well for future issues. All in all it seemed like a pretty successful day.
Seeing this Jeepney team at work was amazing. They work extremely well together and really know how to get a story. Im so happy to be included with these guys while Im here.
During the rainy season, this dry river bed is rushing with water
This is one of many clusters of homes within the village
They make a lot of baskets. Some of the larger basket can take over a month to make.
This is what he starts with when making the wood dress
You can see it is starting to break away from the trunk and soften.
Debbie is using Bill to show alternative ways of wearing this wood clothing.
Kids at the local school get ready to sing with their flag before going home for the evening
The kids love to have their picture taken.
New bamboo homes like this cost around $3,200 USD to build.
There are some efficient workers in this part of the world.
