A book and children's prayers

A book that’s different is Popong eats his rice, which our children and grandchildren should read. It’s written by Chat Garrido-Ocampo, who told me that this is probably the first children’s story book on rice, narrating as it does “the tedious process of growing rice to nourish little children with the aim of making young readers realize the importance of rice.”

Chat, community and employee relations manager of the International Rice Research Institute, wrote the story for her two sons, Anthony Manuel and Alvin Carlos.

Chat received funding for printing the book from the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) after stressing the following facts:

1. An ordinary Filipino eats about 100 kg of rice each year. In Metro Manila alone, about 70,400 cavans (3,500 mt) of rice are eaten each day, making it the country’s heaviest consumer, yet it does not produce rice.

2. Rice wasted as leftovers after meals amounts to 10 per cent of the annual harvest. This means that if we only cook and get what we can eat, we may not import rice anymore.

3. Many Filipinos, especially city dwellers, are growing old, not knowing how rice is grown or worse, how a rice plant looks like.

4. Appreciation for rice, science and technology is best imparted during person’s formative years.]

Chat and a team has gone to public elementary schools in Laguna to conduct story-telling sessions to elementary students “So that they will appreciate he value of rice and its role in our economy,” says Chat. “We particularly targeted students enrolled in public schools whose financial situation prevents them from having access to books on rice or getting exposed to organizations, like IRRI, which deals with rice.”

The 34-page book, illustrated by CERS intern Grace Dy of Xavier University Ateneo de Cagayan, narrates the story of a young boy, Popong, and his Wizard-of-Oz-like adventure into the world of rice through the help of the Rice Prince, who appeared in his dream. The Rice Prince shows Popong the important lessons of eating rice and not wasting it.

Schools and organizations who want to have Chat’s story-telling team talk about Popong, may contact Chat through the IRRI, or through the Bureau of Agricultural Research, Department of Agriculture, Visayas Ave., Diliman, Quezon City, through tel. (0632) 9288505, and 9275691, or by fax (0632) 9275691, or via DA’s website http://www.bar.gov.ph.

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Popong eats his rice is one of seven publications supported by BAR under its Special Publication Grant to support Government initiatives in modernizing the agriculture and fisheries sectors of the country.

The other publications are:

Taxonomy, Ecology, and Management of Invasive Species by Ravindra C. Joshi, Alberto T. Barrion and Leocadio S. Sebastian (editors). The 800-page publication discusses some of the old problems and introduces new ecological techniques for managing rice black bus.

Philippine Rats: Ecology and management by Grant R. Singleton, Ravindra C. Joshi, and Leocadi S. Sebastian (authors), featuring current knowledge on Philippine rodents, their ecology, systematics, diseases, and management.

An external review of PhilRice impact edited by Tess V. Rola, discusses the impact of PhilRice from 1997 to 2007 in scientific and development work.

The development of the lanzones industry in the Southern Tagalog region is written by Avelita M. Rosales, Virgilia D. Arellano, Merly K. Tuazon, Elizabeth R. Gregorio, and Thelma M. Lambao.

The O! may gulay recipe book, prepared and published by BAR, features the winning recipes by public high school students in a contest at the National Capital Region on Oct 4-6 2007.

The Research Output of the Fisheries Sector Program, Volumes I and II, prepared by the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department, is a compilation of the latest research outputs from the fisheries sector published in e-book form for easy access and dissemination.

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My friend Gerry Florendo of Baltimore, Maryland, forwarded to me an e-mail that had been forwarded to him by Jkopf. It contains cute letters children wrote God. I’m reprinting the letters to help us get over — a day of cooking and merrymaking and wining — and for us to remember that kids look to God as someone who can change the world, and grant them their young hearts’ desires.

“Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you keep the ones we got now?” — Jane

“Dear God, In Bible times did they really talk that funny?” — Jennifer

“Dear God, I think about you sometimes even when I’m not praying.” — Eliott

“Dear God, I am American. What about you?” — Robert

“Dear God, thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy.” — Jayne

“Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it.” — James

“Dear God, Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now.” Ginny

“Dear God, if you watch in churches on Sunday I will show you my new shoes.” Ricky D.

“Dear God, if we came back as something don’t let me be Jennifer Horten because I hate her.” — Denise

“Dear God, If you give me a genie lamp like Alladin I  will give you anything except my money or my chess set.” — Raphael

“Dear God, we read that Edison made the light. But in Sunday School they said you did it. So I bet he stolled your idea.” — Donna

“Dear God, If you let the dinosor not exstinct we would not have a country. You did the right things.” — Jonathan

“Dear God, please send Dennis Clark to a different camp this year.” — Peter

“Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.” — Larry.