Mozzarella!

Guest Teachers, Simon Stack & Joanna Bulova

Tata Stack

"Hi Diane, Just want to share with you about Joanna being featured at the New England  cheese maker's magazine  - about her trip and cheese making lesson with the kids at the Learning Center."

http://www.cheesemaking.com

Making Mozzarella in the Philippines

Note:  We did a blog article in June about Joanne Bulova who makes cheese in Jamaica (and sells it in Kingston at a shop called "Uncorked."  She sent us this update:

... At the moment I am in the Philippines for 3 weeks visiting my son and daughter-in-law, who live here.  I'm attaching some pictures of teaching cheese making to a group of Filipino kids at a Saturday program for rural children called the Bright Lights Community Learning Center.  And the cheese we're making is Ricki's 30 minute mozzarella!  We're using whey to stretch the cheese since microwaves are not available.  The milk is fresh raw cow's milk.

The learning center is a voluntary Saturday program set up by an adventurous American woman (Diane Pool) who arrived here on her boat and decided to stay.  It's run on the principles of the open classroom school: the children choose their activities, the older ones help the younger ones, and  there are two staff members to provide guidance.

She (Diane) is hopeful that the children may be able to do the cheese making and actually market their product.
Joanna Bulova

FURTHER GOOD NEWS FROM TATA:  

"...An acquaintance from NYC who owns a restaurant and wrote culinary books about the Philippines food, is creating a pilot project in Dumaguete geared  towards creating community kitchens to make healthy, nutritious and hygienec food accessible and affordable to poor communities.  Her other mission is to provide jobs and livelihoods through the community kitchens by creating a market for artisanal products so that culinary treasures here in the Philippines don't die out. ....your program has major potential for participating in this project ...definitely a perfect collaboration that will meet your mission and theirs....."

The Bill Pool Sailing School

     judge a man, then, by that

     against which he must strive

     against what

     if not this soft night

     and the wind and sea

     against the myth

     he must become

     and his own will

     the ocean waits

     to measure or to slay me
     the ocean waits

     and I will sail

                         --Webb Chiles

We owe the whole program to Doug Schuch, an American sailor from North Carolina who arrived aboard his 47' yacht, FELLOW TRAVELER, earlier this year.  He specifically sailed to the Philippines, to Port Bonbonon, looking for a Community to immerse himself in, and it didn't take him more that a week to become an active and intregal part of our two Learning Centers! 

Doug taught photography initially, then moved to swimming and sailing for the kids.  The three dinghies he built specifically for the students to learn not just sailing, but boat building and maintainence, too.  The boats are here to provide others, also, with an opportunity to enjoy sailing, while generating a small income for the Learning Centers.  

On Sundays, Doug helps the kids rig their boats and set off, then Renato Dela Cruz (co-director of Bonbonon BLCLC) assists the students from another dinghy, as they learn to handle the boats themselves.  

Doug was kind enough to make a motion (passed) at our first Board Meeting of Bright Lights Community Learning Initiatives, Inc, that the name be the Bill Pool Sailing School, to honor Bill's memory in the founding of One Candle Schoolhouse.