Getting dirty for Mother Earth on a Friday...

Team #9 in their tree planting battle gear

Get your load from your friendly sari-sari store

Waiting for the banca

Scary but fun banca ride

Getting ready for the hike

Muddied and dirtied but still smiling

On a high from being surrounded by beautiful nature

Ooohhh... lunch... lunch...

Alright, that's not how big my foot is. That's all mud!

Friday was spent getting all dirty and muddy for Mother Earth.

The first batch of volunteers for the tree planting project that will run until October or November headed to Ipo Dam Watershed to plant some narra saplings. Hopefully, the saplings will fully grow and be the strong wood that narra is.

We were a big group. I'd say almost 100 volunteers from different departments. It was really great seeing fellow employees offering a day to do something good for the environment.

Neither the rain nor the muddy slopes stopped the volunteers from doing the brief hike to the planting area. No one was complaining, and it felt like everyone kept a bright and positive attitude the entire time despite the really gloomy weather.

It's not difficult to understand why. To get to the planting area, we had to take a banca ride for about 15 minutes. During the banca ride, you get a view of the remaining lush forests in the area. You get to see the simplicity of the lives of the Dumagats living in the watershed. And when you see all these great things, it would be difficult not to be positive and just thankful.

During the climb and the rest of the time, everyone was game to get dirty. In fact, that became the battle cry of the volunteers. "Let's get dirty!" And dirty, very dirty, did we all end up to be. But we were also very much green because we got to plant several saplings. Tey and I planted about 14 saplings I think.

It was difficult, but it was also fun. Even after we were all done, people were high with energy. Volunteers were comparing whose pair of jeans were dirtier, or whose foot had more caked mud. Hahaha! It was my first time to do tree planting, and the primary reason why I went there was to cover the activity but I'm glad I ended up joining the dirty work.

As long as it's for the planet, I wouldn't mind getting dirty once again.