is...
green rice fields and subsistence farming, meaning there is enough to eat, but not to sell. We visited a literacy program in a village there the weekend before Easter. One of the volunteers who lives and works there said she felt like she is camping out every day, i.e. the basics are all there, but not the extras. It's a good way to describe living here; warm and sunny, hard physical labor, and communal.
In general, Philippine's place a high priority on literacy. Unlike many areas of the world where we have visited, there is a general sense of optimism for the future, and for the next generation's future .