Philippine Edition

Planting time! The rangers showed the 2 hectare planting area that Yusen Phils. adopted, which will be called Yusen Air & Sea Service Phils. Forest. We were divided into groups and each group was assigned a street of planting area to work on. All the same time Yusen employees enthusiastically dug in and got their hands and nails dirty and very carefully placed the seedlings into the ground.

Others work faster that they crossed their fellow employees’ streets to help in. Unbelievable, but all 800 seedlings were planted and done in just about an hour! The La Mesa team set a normal 2 hours for us. And we still wanted to plant more!

After a few minutes, the La Mesa team gathered us again for “sharing of experience”. Sir APT, gladly obliging to Mr. Val Mendoza’s request, spoke to the group. He thanked the La Mesa (Bantay Kalikasan Foundation) for allowing us to have our outing in the La Mesa Dam. He mentioned that, due to political rally which started the night before, three senior managers called him up asking if the tree planting would still push through. To which he answered, “let those people do their thing and we will do our own thing”.

Sir APT proceeded with his talk that, year in year out, Yusen Phils, holds its summer outing and this year, he wanted a twist. As he said “already we have bonded ourselves with one another and now, why don’t we bond our selves with the nature – thru tree planting? Tree planting would mean a wonderful and meaningful experience not only for ourselves but also the legacy that we will leave to the next generations.” He mentioned that this will definitely not be the last as it was realized that 2 hectares adopted was so little and few seedlings to plant. Same activity shall be done and could be this year or next year --- one thing is for sure, it will not be the last! He ended his talk thanking once again each and everyone who unselfishly contributed and participated in making the “outing” successful!

Yusen Phils. little commune with nature continue with a picnic of hearty “binalot” meal (variety of fish, meat with salted egg and tomatoes wrapped in banana leaves) right under the trees.

With stomach now full and heart filled with a wonderful feeling of having done something different and lasting, we hike back to the buses, and back to the city, back to our daily routine. But for sure, each and every one of these volunteers will never be the same. For now, they have left a legacy, a promise of clean air and clean water for the next generation of Filipinos.

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By: Francis C. Tejones / Admin

Yusen Philippines Summer Outing 2005 (cont...)
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