Yesterday I imported about 400 slides and began to take notes. Bill came down for a few hours to give names and places so I could begin tagging the faces and geography. There were, it appears, several unphotographed hilarious incidents that I'll be relating elsewhere, but the stories are either typed up or recorded in Garageband. Bill & Marjorie's memory of the trip ('88-89) are impressively vivid and they remember many details as well as the finer points of the areas.
So their mission was this: to travel to Panay and help the farmers set up co-ops in order to sell their goods together rather than working as individuals. This involved the farmers buying shares and using the pooled funds to purchase things like generators and ice machines (for the fish farmers), locations, and other useful items in order to get their crops out to more buyers. These co-ops were directed by an elected board of the farmers who owned the crops being sold. The program through Volunteers Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA, now ACDI/VOCA) was funded by USAID.
Bill was there at two separate times, once in Iloilo and once out of Koronadal. The second time he went, he brought his wife Marjorie with him to help him take notes and accompany him. Due to the danger in Koronadal they left four days early, and the next volunteer in the area left prematurely as well. Marjorie did keep newspapers from the area with particularly standout (read: terrifying) headlines as well as relevant newspaper clippings and all of Bill's notebooks and maps. The town paper here in Iola published articles she wrote and sent back during their travels. These will also be scanned and digitized. They are helpful to get an overall perspective of the trips and the mission.
So their mission was this: to travel to Panay and help the farmers set up co-ops in order to sell their goods together rather than working as individuals. This involved the farmers buying shares and using the pooled funds to purchase things like generators and ice machines (for the fish farmers), locations, and other useful items in order to get their crops out to more buyers. These co-ops were directed by an elected board of the farmers who owned the crops being sold. The program through Volunteers Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA, now ACDI/VOCA) was funded by USAID.
I also discovered that not only did Bill work with VOCA in the Philippines, he also went to Poland on a similar mission. There are fewer pictures from that trip, so I'll be working on those as well. It seems there are not as many materials from that trip, but there are some photographs that will be added to the project.
Now, to work!
Oh my goodness. I cannot wait to see more photos and hear the stories. This is so cool.
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