Archive for the ‘environment’ Category
At the end of the day, we thank God for what has been, we praise Him for he is faithful
Posted on: January 25, 2022
John’s Pond made during lockdown
Posted on: August 9, 2020
published by Sun star Sangal di kultura july 18,2020
JOHN’S POND GETS A FACELIFT DURING COMMUNITY QUARANTINE
People did a lot of wonderful things as the most uncertain situation persists during the threats of pandemic. Yet the dreamers continue to pursue dreams of creativity and purpose.
When the ”stay at home and isolation” became a by word, it was made into a reality by John D. Allan, isolating himself and wife in the retirement home beside the sea of Santo Tomas, La Union along Lingayen Gulf of the Western Philippine Seas. Most times would be spent in La Union while wife works at home and every two weeks will go up to Baguio. He continued to fulfill some dreams of “dig a hole here, cover it up and dig another hole.” In the small property enclosed with a fence of hallow blocks and interlink wires sits a bungalow house, a pond, fruit trees and a third of the property as a garden. The garden is actually a small farm field where camote, peanuts and sometimes rice were planted depending on the season.
During the community quarantine period, the property has made some development made on the right time in summer and as the rains come.
But the major improvement was the cementing of the perimeter of the pond which was finished just as soon as the rains come and the fingerlings were bought from BFAR and released in the pond.
Pandemic time was a time to bring to reality the dream of a nicer fish con duck pond. So together with a local worker and contacting a local sand and gravel supplier, they finally got the materials and worked on the pond while the water was still at a low ebbed, as it was still summer. The pond was manually dredged deeper, water was siphoned by a pump and the perimeter was cemented. The perimeter measures 60x80x7 feet deep. John would wake up early morning before the sun was up and with a shovel manually dredge the pond and put the sand on the edge of the pond as buffer.
While waiting for the rains to come and fill the pond, John made raised beds and planted some vegetables in one side of the pond. On the other side he planted bananas, tomatoes and papaya. As soon as these were planted the ducks came and started tearing them apart, thus it was another job to put individual fencing around the plants.
This is also the mating time and hatching of the ducks. In 100 quarantine days from 30 ducks, there were now more than a 100 ducks, with the first hatching at 26 ducklings followed by 42 another 24 ducklings. A dividing temporary fence has to be made surrounding the house so that the ducks are not able to invade the new gardens around the house. The rains came and the peanuts were uprooted from the field to give way to shallow pond of for the young ducklings. During QC there were three hatching, and when they first batch reached a free reign, the next came and they were caged. In the morning, they were fed in their cage and when they get released, out they go straight to the flooded field. At dawn, the older ducks are found in the pond frolicking and showing off strutting from one edge to edge of the pond.
Now, more than a hundred days of Community Quarantine time, the pond is completely enclosed, at least 2500 fingerlings of Carpa and Tilapia released. Early morning and afternoon sights are fun watching the ducks frolicking. The various plants are alive as the bananas, papayas and tomatoes joining the other plants lined up along the pond. It has become the center of activity during isolation and work at home mode. Now that the pond is done, John will start digging another hole and covering it after.
going back to South Korea
Posted on: July 10, 2018
AT PRESENT, the high level negotiations of the North and South Korea continues albeit with hitches and rhetoric.
But most of the South Koreans I met say they have relatives in North Korea and that the best would be to have just one Korea.
Two years ago, my husband and I visited the U.S Base in Seoul.
They had included a tour which included a visit to the border and the Demilitarization Zone; he went down the tunnel with all the other tourist, but I chickened out, scary for me.
After the tour and reading the literature he realized that they were there in the 1970s for a military exercise which unknowingly was to thwart a planned North invasion through the tunnels.
At lunch during the tour, our guide said that when some of the North Koreans came over to the South, they cooked their rice cakes with wooden saw dust because that was what they do in North Korea.
I love their rice cakes but with that story, I refrain eating them during that visit.
My first visit to South Korea was being a part of a winter school in 1993-94 through the Ullim Missions and Together in Christ Mission (Kapangan, Benguet).
It was Ruth Kim, the missionary of Kapangan who brought this school together.
We were in Seoul from November to January based in a house which also doubled as our training school.
That was where I had my first winter snow.
One afternoon I was sitting tutoring and all of a sudden we heard clapping and everybody went to the windows to witness the first snow falling, and eventually covering the grounds white with snow.
I remember it well as it seemed to have lightened everyone’s spirit.
Then this Korean man came and said “come we take snake” I said “no thank you” and he came three times and my response was the same. Until finally, he came with a plate and said, “Come.” And I realized he was saying “snack” not “snake” olala dummy me. The snack was delicious.
The winter school has two classes, the Koreans and the Filipino group. Koreans learning English and missions; the Filipinos were having a mission’s school.
I was teaching cross culture missions, and two Americans, Billy and Eddie, were teaching English. Ruth Kim was also teaching missions. Ruth was a persistent and God-loving Korean woman who has a passion for the lost.
Music was also briefly taught by Coppe Mero, but he left in less than a month and went back to the Philippines. Coppe and Adela Mero now have a ministry in Nagaland.
I lost contact with the other members of the training staff.
Our days started at 6 a.m. with personal devotions, followed by breakfast and lessons from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with lunch at 12:30 p.m.
After dinner was prayer for missions and our day ends at 10:00 pm where we can either watch movies, have chat time or sleep. But it looks nobody really sleeps in South Korea.
I remember one dawn, we were awakened and told to prepare because we are traveling to the prayer mountain, maybe the Koreans knew about it because they were prepared before the Filipinos.
And we went to Yonggi Chu Church or Yoido Full Gospel Church. It was huge and has cross monument before we go to the half circle main sanctuary.
Service was held at the sanctuary, where we were handed earphones for the translations. Translations included English, Japanese and other languages.
After that we joined a prayer group in a different area where we prayed though until midafternoon, it was lunch fasting time.
Watching how the Koreans pray put us to shame. They can kneel and pray for hours, with bottle of water beside them. After prayers we went to another church and they served us Ginseng chicken soup
There is a small whole chicken or chick in a bowl with ginseng and soup. It was a first time for me but it was delicious and nutritious, I ate it all except the bones.
Now we call the Korean prayer style as “popcorn” where everyone was praying at the same time.
Now, we join others to continue praying for a unified Korea, as most Koreans desire that to happen.
Many South Koreans have relatives left in the North. The boundary train can bring them as far as Germany if it were operational, but must past through the North.
May the Lord favor them.
SANTO TOMAS MOUNTAINS
Posted on: July 10, 2018
sangal di kultura published by SUNSTAR BAGUIO
For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name. (Amos 4:3)
In February, 2017 I was invited to Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Cordillera Administrative Region (DENR-CAR) by Pine Cone Movement to sit with a multi sectoral group to organize the Mount Santo Tomas Forest Reserve Council (MSTFRC). It’s main purpose of coming up with a master plan which should be an Integrated Sustainable Plan and regulate anthropogenic activities and mitigate destructive effects of the area. By Numerous meetings and consultations were done in the grassroots level and periodical meetings in the council level came up with master plan which was agreed upon by the members in Memorandum of Agreement signed last June 21, 2018.
The secretariat of the council is DENR-CAR and various agreements and implementing guidelines were reached with the community representatives, barangay leaders and the municipality of Tuba in the conduct of economic and agricultural activities as well as the inflow and outflow of construction materials. Checkpoints were established in the area manned by DENR, PNP and local counterparts. The checkpoint are key in the control of tourist that should be controlled, the inflow of construction with the purpose of minimizing additional structures and the monitoring other economic activities.
The DENR is primarily responsible for the sustainable management and development of the country’s environment and natural resources including the watershed, river basins and coastal areas by virtue of Executive order 192 s. 1987. But with the massive degradation of Mount Santo Tomas a multi sectorial participation was formed to be with DENR in this endeavor. In a way this should have been done decades ago, but a court order of May 6, 2015 has to be issued with Permanent Environmental Protection Order (PEPO) and Writ of Kalikasan and Continuing Mandamus by the Court of Appeals.
In my life time I have seen the demise of Carabobo mountain into Quinine Hill where trees, rocks and mountain was totally upturned and now we have a mountain of houses and steep narrow streets and alleys. The change in Aurora Hills similarly came, where we used the pine needles as slides down the slopes is just but a memory because we cannot even locate the spots with all the present war for space between buildings and roads. The ingenuity of the Igorots and the lowlanders had made it so, to change the landscape. So it is not a new thought and fear when people look up to Mount Santo Tomas and have some apprehensions. That if we continue to neglect our obligation to preserve our natural resources God’s curse will be upon our people and the mountains will come upon us.
I have fond memories of Mount Santo Tomas, for we climbed those mountains when we were in high school and during our hiking days as young professionals. And when our friends build homes in the slopes, we joined parties in their homes. But with a threatened balance of the environment those memories are pushed back into the recesses of recall because of the struggle to understand what people are doing in abusing the natural gifts and upturn God’s work into man’s work.
We are threatening our own existence for from the mountains comes our fresh air, water and natural balance, likewise a refuge from manmade problems. But how many of us realize the importance of keeping those natural mountains would defy God and nature.
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1751735/Baguio/Opinion/WeyganAllan-The-Santo-Tomas-mountains
THE DUCK SEASON
Posted on: July 10, 2018
DUCK Season is a name of a famous restaurant and there is also a Duck Season E-game. But duck season is the time my husband had 60 ducklings in two weeks’ time and this is how it started.
A few months ago, a young boy came to the farm and said he will sell ducks because he has to pay his tuition. So they agreed and the boy went home and got his sackful of five ducks. My husband was laughing as he was thinking of one or two for the pot. As it turned out, none of the ducks reached the pot. So one of his helpers got his male duck, a drake and so mating season ensued. Fortunately, two more ducks flew into farm flying above the fence. My husband informed the barangay that if there is someone looking for two ducks, the missing ducks are at his farm. Nothing happened so they have seven ducks and two drakes.
Then one by one the ducks started laying eggs, two beside each other on our east wall and so they had to place a covering and some straw for them. Then two were found in what was the previous chicken coop and one under the chicken coop. Amazingly, the eggs were increasing daily, with one duck sitting on 21 eggs and so my husband transferred some of the eggs to the other duck who was sitting on 15 eggs. And this has been going on for a few weeks, checking the eggs, transferring some and making sure they are within a nest. One day they found two eggs in the garbage dump, one duck laid eggs there and they have to make a nest for them and their laying mother duck.
Hatching is another event; the mother stays near the eggs and watches. When she sees a ducking starting to show its head, then the mother peck the egg shell and help the ducking burst into life. I still have to see that but that is the exciting story of my husband. And in this time there were minimal casualty, meaning all the eggs hatched. And this happened before the rain came. However, when the typhoon came and flooded the fields, one of the nests came underwater; my husband transferred some of the eggs in the nest which were above water. There we had eggs that did not hatch, of the 15 we lost five.
Now we have more than 65 ducklings. There are still wee ducklings that are caged with their mothers – two flocks still in separate cages. While three sets of ducklings are placed in a large pen. Their mother ducks, just stay beside the pens because if they are mixed with the ducklings inside they fight.
Last week the ducklings were allowed to roam the farm and I watched them. A flock would be with three mother ducks, but one mother ducks stands out and leads the flock teaching the ducklings to hunt food, the camote plants, the snails in the fields and other things they find in the water and in the ground.
Then one day as I watched the mother was teaching them how to clean themselves, that took a whole 25 minutes. She first got them away from the camote patch into the shallow waters. Then she surfed above the water to get their attention. When she had that she started her bath or self-cleaning lessons. She would flap her wings in the water and the ducklings followed, then she dips her wings, the ducklings did likewise. And it went on until all were cleaned then the ducklings were led in the edge of the flooded field and they continued cleaning themselves. We do learn something new every day.
Unfortunately, many refuse to learn and change. The City of Baguio just revived the Character city on the air. And the first airing last Wednesday was well responded with text messages coming in while the program was ongoing. This was anchored by Mary Perkins Langpawen with guests Rev. Abe Luis and myself as representative of Baguio Benguet Ecumenical group and Edith Dawaten, the Assistant head of the city’s HRMO. As I watched the mother lead her flock, how I dream of Baguio being led into one concerted effort to change and address our traffic, basura, tourism, market and other problems of our city.
Wish ko lang!
connecting dots
Posted on: March 9, 2017
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/baguio/opinion/2017/02/27/alan-connecting-dots-february-528058
Publish at Sunstar. Baguio City last Feb 27, 2017
CONNECTING DOTS OF FEBRUARY
To touch the soul of another is to walk on holy ground- Stephen Covey
This week seems an opportune time to reconnect with people, the past and the future. A time of reflection on one’s purpose on earth, the experiences in the past and connecting with the now and the time to come.
The 29th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Central Philippines was just concluded. Delegates are send back to the local churches inspired to testify to the Gospel of God’s grace. It was renewing friendships and knowing some new people, since it was 5 or so years ago that I have been a delegate to the convention. It is unfortunate that during these conventions those who go don’t attend all the sessions. Do they not realize that by choosing to be the representative of their unit, they deprive the others who would have wanted to be part of the convention? That it is not a personal pride but being a delegate bears with it not only a privilege but carries with it a great duty and a responsibility as a Christian connecting to other member of a congregation and society.
Another dot is the city’s festivities. The Panagbenga celebration will attract people from all over and from all walks of life – the good and the bad- into our already congested place. Prior to the street dancing and the float parade is the Ibaloi Festival. It is one where the Indigenous Peoples of Baguio are given significance and a chance to gather together to strengthen them as a people and as a part of Baguio’s melting pot. They have to assert themselves and refresh a history of the land and from there towards a future where their descendants can appreciate their roots and contributions to the city. How do we connect this with the other dots in our existence as a city?
Adding to the flurry of activities is preparation of several sectors for the celebration of the Women’s month of March. It has to be celebrated as more and more women issues have been raised towards everyone’s awareness. Compared to other countries, the Philippines is more advanced in accepting the role of women as a productive member of society. I have joined international conferences include the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) for a couple of years and it has made me have close contact with women leaders fighting for the rights and protection of women in countries. Though it is the same issue worldwide, it takes several forms. Human trafficking is a universal issue, but the form it takes in the Philippines is different from that of the Middle East, where women are considered a property.
EDSA Revolution of the 1980s is something to be remembered and celebrated today. This is so because some of our younger generation may not even have any inkling of what it is. I remember it too clearly when the political uprising was so intense but the people power emerged and we have the EDSA Bloodless Revolution. The religious played an important role in turning the tide of leadership and public support. People were urged to pray and remain in sobriety through media that was being strangled but the innovative spirit of the Filipino emerged and the airwaves were able to reach the homes of people. Ordinary people became the power that changed our society in the middle of the 1980s. The people were fearless because the campaign was for Peace in our land and to reject a dictatorship which strangled the democracy in this country. Many lives have been touched, but they are slowly going home to the Creator too.
A dot in history is the EDSA Bloodless revolution recorded as February 22-25, 1986. The revolution gathered more than two million people from all walks of life and came together to oppose a dictatorship. But we know that it was not a three day revolution, it was a series of events until the 25th including the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in August 21, 1983, the snap election where Cory Aquino was pitted against Ferdinand Marcos which resulted in differing counts of the COMELEC and NAMFREL.
In contrast to EDSA bloodless revolution, the present times is a bloody war against drugs and against each other. On one hand are people crying out for the sanctity of life and on the other hand, a strong “Duterte-Bato hero worship” to kill even without due process. How does this really connect with our spirituality and our past? We deserve what we have done, is what others say – but we should not compromise the century old value “all life comes from God, he gives and takest away.”
Sunstar Feb 27
SANGAL DI KULTURA
Refining Government service
God said “Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurities, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided.” Ezekiel 24:13
This week I have been processing papers in Baguio City Hall and in agency offices in San Fernando. It still bothers me that for an item in a process there are two or three signatories before it moves on to the second process item. It is taking me a hard time to accept that despite Citizens charter and the Anti-Red Tape Act, a SUMVAC activity has not been properly coordinated in the request of budget and even the setting up of chairs for the activity. I understand why the person next to me complains it is baffling, confusing and frustrating. I try to give maximum tolerance in dealing with government offices, having the experience of 3 years in government, out of my nearly sixty years.
Government is supposed to improve the lives of the citizens and protect them. Many countries will come up with means to attain this purpose, and many will debate on how government should do it. Structures are formed with the purpose of making live better. Yet in this most advance stage of technology and intelligence the ordinary person feels harassed with all the requirements to make his life better – be it to pay taxes or be it to exercise democratic assembly.
Closer to home this present administration came up with the Bottom-up-Budgeting (BUB). One purpose is for more participation, from those who are recipients of government programs.
This week another meeting was called to look into the process of a general assembly of skills training recipients, but still the organizers are looking for the proper venue to hold the assembly. It was also a time of reviewing the monitoring team’s budget. The Ugnayan ng Barangay at Simbahan (UBAS)—a partnership of local Catholic churches, the LBP, and the DILG for the observance of good governance principles at the community level will monitor the proper implementation of the projects. However, in the city of Baguio the local executive appointed representatives of church and Civil Society Organizations to form the monitoring team. I was one of those who form the monitoring team. After the first monitoring we conducted last year, my observation is that most participating agencies and representatives are not yet familiar with the mechanics of having recipients participate in the whole cycle of a project.
From the official gazette it states that at least 1,590 local government units have participated in the BuB program since it was implemented in 2013. There were a total of 42,221 BuB projects reported in the Open BuB Portal. Of this number, 13,712 projects have been completed as of December 1, 2015 (exclusive of dropped projects that were replaced, split, or merged). For 2016, about 14,325 local poverty reduction projects have been allocated P24.7 billion. This is an increase from P8 billion in 2013 for projects identified in 595 cities and municipalities.
It is unfortunate that some good government service cannot be sustainable because of changes in political focus of elected officials and the unchanging poor service of government employees and department heads. Those in career will blame the elected officials, while the elected officials say “it is your job to deliver the service being in those positions longer than us.” It is not the blaming game, it is not even the budget restrictions but it is a personal character that makes a person delivers acceptable government service. Despite the guidelines and the restrictions that a government person has to abide, still regular people suffer miserably in the hands of government. As God has challenged us to change, to be refined and to be clean – seemingly our government deserve the wrath of God.
Soroptimist International of Baguio
Posted on: July 17, 2016
50 years and beyond
How does one promote tradition for half a millennium?
The Soroptimist International (SI) honored the living presidents of the different clubs for continuing tradition of the best of women helping women and girls in its 50th year in the city of Baguio. Those present to receive these included Carmen Balajadia, Epifania Dao-ey, Philian Weygan Allan of SI Baguio. From SI Pines we had Flor Balaba, Imelda Bisnar . Rebecca Domogan received her award as the charter president of SI Hope. All of them received the Golden Award. Zenaida Cating and Dr. Milandre Rusgal received the Silver Awards for having served long years. However, there were eight awardees who did not make it to the ceremonies. The different clubs were also awarded as performing clubs. To grace the occasion were SI of the Americas Federation Director Virginia “Gigie” Penalosa and the City Mayor of Baguio Mauricio G. Domogan.
Was it the best way? Others may think otherwise. However, with the nature of the clubs where leadership propels the club into service, the awards committee considered it the most reasonable thing to do.
Soroptimist International Philippines was started by Mariquita Castello in1966 with SI Founder Manila, SI Davao and SI Baguio. On June 30, 1966 SI Baguio was chartered with 24 members, all belonging to the Who’s who in Baguio with Virginia “Gene” De Guia as President. During the February 26-28, 1971 First National Conference in Davao attended by 10 clubs. Gene De Guia was elected National President for 1976 to 1978. Since then there were eight members from Baguio who have served the national Board.
“Adopt a Barangay” was first recognized as SIPR’s identifying project in the 1970s. The adopted barangay of SI Baguio included Loakan Liwanag, Kias, Irisan, Hillside among others. The other clubs have adopted other barangays in Baguio and in Benguet. The clubs also adopted schools where advocacies in for the protection of women and girls were downloaded with partner PNP Women and Children protection desks.
Another milestone was the creation of the Northern Central Luzon District (NCLD) with SI Baguio, SI Pines, SI Cordillera and SI of Igorot last June 30, 2014. As the youngest district she hosted two national activities the “Winter Wonderland” at newtown Hotel with more than 500 attendees and the “Human rights Day” at Maryknoll Sanctuary last December 6-7, 2014.
Soroptimist program on Education, Empowerment and livelihood have helped communities in their struggles for meaning and development. This is the tradition that needs to be continued as the new set of officers took their responsibilities starting July 1, 2016.
Will the tradition continue? It really depends on women who are committed to serve other women and girls for the protection of their rights and claiming their rightful place in society – in business, politics, education and other sectors of society.
Ecology and life systems in the Cordillera
Summer is here, the birds sing, the flowers bloom and the soggy pathways beckon to the earth lovers and hikers. The sky paints a changing hue and the brown land turns into green, yet the inhabitants of the land hastens the changing of the earth and all that is in it.
In attempting to maintain ecology, there is a continuing clamor for the protection of the trees and the forest, yet every day I drive through Marcos Highway where one third of a portion of the highway is barricaded by Moldex for their construction after cutting all the trees on the slope of the hill. We have complained several times, Mayor Domogan was able to let them remove that barricade twice but such impertinence because the road portion is again overtaken by that barricade for the past two weeks. Also there is a growing protest over some construction going on in Sto. Tomas.
Baguio is the highest city in terms of elevation, in the whole Philippine archipelago and prides herself to be the only city without the fumes from tricycles, but that is no longer true. Tricycles of all sorts now run through the streets of Baguio from Marcos Highway to Kennon road to Trinidad road defying a City Ordinance No 28 s.2012 banning all tricycles in the city territorial limits. The ordinance was passed after a series of public hearings and consultations with bikers, motorcycle owners and riders, the taxi organizations, drivers and operators and the general public and after that the result was to ban the tricycles because of the terrain in the city of Baguio, a 45 degree road is too dangerous for a tricycle to climb because the cars following it are slowed down and once it stalls, the rest of the cars following are being placed in danger because of evading hitting the tricycle.
Ecology in the Cordillera is not something new, the Igorot culture tells us of a web in the environment. Our forefathers have an intense sense of commitment in the preservation of nature. To them the land, the forest, the waters coupled with the social institutions, the rituals and traditions are sacred parts of community life that are preserved and handed down from one generation to another.
Ecological imbalance manifest itself in the form of drought, famine, abnormal changes in temperature, increasing poor health and sanitation, pollution of water, air and soil. Include vanishing forests, dried up rivers and lakes and these all lead to a vanishing tribe. Retrospection tells us that such drastic changes in the environment made changes in the life systems of tribes in the Cordillera. The very tribes of indigenous peoples have been threatened by the source of life which is unnecessarily compromised. Source of life is the God given land, the forest, the rivers and the air. These are free, yet have been commercialized by few and suffered by most. Food production is the traditional life in our villages where rice, fruits, vegetables, cattle, poultry and river life sustains them. The ecological changed has altered that balance. Trees were cut faster than they are grown; forests are bared quicker than they are carpeted. Food source is threatened thus subsistence agriculture is looking at its demise. Free trade threatened the Benguet vegetable industry because of Chinese produce is dumped in the market.
We all blame it to climate change, but climate change aside from decades of natural occurrences, is also brought about by global warming because of human decisions, priorities and greed.
The life systems of the Cordillera changes, faster than we have envisioned it to be, yet when the end will come, we hope to see the Cordilleran standing tall when all have fallen.
BANA-AO SUMMER, ETCHED IN MEMORY
Posted on: August 17, 2014
BANA-AO SUMMER, ETCHED IN MEMORY
After a month long stay in the US, my husband and I are back to Baguio, the City we love and where we grew up. The month was well spent especially because we had chance to bond with friends living with Ed and Minda in San Diego and with Grace, Royce, Alan and Raquel in Arizona. Arizona was spectacular with the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and Sedona experience that further strengthen faith in the Almighty Creator God and the commitment of people to preserve the present for the next generation.
Now, we are back and the past days have been gloomy and rains come easy, very much different from the summers I remember growing up. As a child, summer usually is no school except the Vacation Bible School, more time to play with friends and relatives. As a kid, I spent a summer in Bana-ao with my grandfather Juan Weygan and another summer in Padang-an with my grandmother Pinggay Cuanguey. In high school and college, summer was a lot of activities that included; summer class in BSBT or in college, attending weddings and other community activities with my mom or friends, climbing mountains and following rivers, raising pigs, planting corn and camote in Quirino Hill, and selling sayote in the market.
It was then right after Grade 5 that I spent my summer in Bana-ao. It is an “ili”/community of Besao, Mountain Province sharing boundaries with Tubo, Abra and Ilocos Sur. My parents “paw-it” or send me off with Aunty Bernice (one of our relatives) who was going home to Bana-ao. We took the bus to Besao Central and slept in a relative’s home. At dawn we took the pathway from Kin-iway down to the river and up to Bunga passing the regular foot path that circuitously went through the mountain side underneath the pine trees besides rivers and tall grasses that occasionally wave when the wind passes. I remember we would take short rest to drink water from the brook that runs beside the pathway, look up the fruit trees for snack and take twigs for walking stick. By late afternoon we reached Bana-ao and I was left with my grandfather in his house which is also near the houses of our relatives. It was a new place, new people with a new language. My grandfather’s house was elevated with a wide sala, three bed rooms and a spacious porch with a connective dining room and the kitchen made of wood slabs and GI roof. But I was told that they had cogon roof before it was changed to GI. Underneath is where the chickens and other animals as well as storage were housed. He had a yard, with avocado trees, bamboo and other fruit trees. At the back of the house he had a camote patch lined with camoteng kahoy/cassava plant and soy beans. There was a pipe that brings water comes straight to the kitchen and near the front yard where neighbors also use to come and fetch water.
It was a perfect rustic setting, perfect getaway for a grandchild who was requested for the grandfather to come visit. I do not remember going to the rice fields or the kaingin but I know some of the people go there and sometimes when I wake up in the morning I will see my grandfather coming back home from bringing the carabao and goats to pasture. I remember that I had fun with the kids going to the river, to the church and to different homes. We never lacked food for they grow rice, fruits and vegetables. I can’t remember meat but I remember that fish came from the rivers that we would eat bare fingers (no spoons) and lick our fingers too. Milk came from goats which they add to roasted rice or soya beans for our drink. Coffee was abundant and sometimes I would sneak a sip from grandpa’s cup.
It was also the fiesta/festival of the church and me and my age mates danced to the tune of “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. I cannot remember what we did, but I saw photos in my Aunty Mary’s house which will continue to remind me of that summer in the church. We were in white t-shirts and in maong pants and we danced in front of the church with the community people seated around the yard and in the slopes overlooking the church. During the fiesta we had lots of food – rice, meat, camote, root crops and rice cakes which they said was a tradition in the community and we had visitors from different places who trekked the mountains for the day. The women and men take responsibility in preparing for the activities and the food that everybody enjoyed. Children were carefree and roam the mountains, either for fun or for chores. Then summer was over and I have to come back to Baguio not even able to remember the names of my playmates and their parents.
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