PreChristmas Events

I wanted to share the stories of 2 preChristmas events using pictures, but the net here at home in Davao is oh so slow it's taking forever to upload the pictures.

I don't want to resize it in a very small file size as I feel it would show great disrespect to the quality of the photos. Not that they are award winning shots, but I don't take pictures as often as used to, it takes Effort now so I'd rather give the photo justice and post them in a high enough resolution.

KAAMULAN 2007 (Bendum way) - in a snob explanation, I call this Kaamulan, the real one. I heard the "Isn't Kaamulan in March?" question a few times before I left Manila for the event last Dec.16. And I answered - "Yes, the commercialized, all about dances, trade fair, booths, sale, rodeo,etc Kaamulan happens in March. But a real kaamulan - in Bendum, with the Pulangiyen tribe, is happening in December. Following harvest season where families, relatives from neighboring mountains, sister tribes can actually come together in one place to celebrate bountiful blessings, recall the past, dance and be merry, do thanksgiving rituals, commune and talk about present realities/problems that the tribe is facing, discuss possible courses of action of the tribe and the whole community,  and pray for a better year ahead - thus the Binukid term AMUL-AMUL, which means Coming Together."  Ang taray ng sagot!Snob na snob(manang-mana sa ______, fill in the blanks) pagbigyan niyo na lang ako. And my own answer is Sooo Wishful thinking but again, pagbigyan niyo na lang ako.hehehe

The part I want to share about the Kaamulan is the fact that compared to last year, when the Sun was so up and it was so hot in the area, it was a rainy Kaamulan this year. So imagine our Tranportation HORROR the whole week as we had so many visitors for this year's festivity. We had the Board of Trustees coming up for the meeting,Karen-Thai visitors (part of an IP group in Thailand), DepEd visitors, Mindanao Tri-Partite Youth Council Visitors (headed by the former principal of our school), and staff of our mother NGO from ESSC. For those who don't know, to get to Bendum by Public Transportation includes a Mini-Bus Ride (2hours) on dirt road and about 40minute habal-habal (extended motorcycle) ride (up the mountain). Luckily after many years (definitely not during my JVP year in 2001), our 4wheel drive Kia Van can actually get up the area but not after crossing a river. But since it was raining, the river was always to high and had strong current too be passable.

Transpo Horrors include -
1) The board members being stuck on the other side of the river asking me and Pedro to go down via habal from Bendum to meet with them and actually start the board meeting under a tree near a piggery because they didn't want to waste time. After an hour, had to find a tractor and to pull vehicle to get across the river. (almost had to pay the tractor driver a Date -my gosh! a Date!?!? for the thing, good thing, they agreed to 100pesos instead).

2)The  Karen Tribe forced to walk about 1hour  from the nearest baranggay before they were picked up by habal-habal to finally arrive in Bendum at around 7PM. Yes! They were walking in the dark.But a couple of them had flash lights naman. hehehe. Still, it was generally dark, trust me!

3) DepEd members (some Principals of other schools)and other visitors forced to take habal-habal at night. And some motorcycles didn't even have lights and they were going up the mountain, with a passenger carrying 2 laptops and an LCD projector!

4) All remaining Staff and guests were forced to again take the habal-habal down on the last day to get to vehicle. One motorcycle got a flat tire, another lost its breaks causing 2 staff to fall down/off (not so sure what happened). No major injuries, Thank God!

Gusey (former ESSC staff) was 1 of the boys who fell from the Motorcycle

(photo taken using SonyE W710i)

One of my 2 favorite events during the Kaamulan was the HULAS night - informal passing/teaching of traditional songs and dances.



ROADTRIP 2007 (Cdo-Davao) - Finally happened after 3 tries! Buti na lang CDO na assigned si Kuya Marlon and Davao is really his hometown, we got a free ride home. Yippee!

It was a great JVP batch trip with Mark, En and Nikki. I've been traveling Cdo-Bkdn-Dvo for about 6 years now and I can't count the times I've passed through the towns but I've never really had the chance to actually go down and enjoy the sites. Bukidnon is most definitely a paradise! I've always been proud to be a Mindanawon but the trip made me appreciate the richness of my region even more. Salamat sa SHELL! At salamat "mayaman" na si Kuya Marlon, pwedeng pwede na siya mag-Ninong sa mga babies anytime. hehehe

We stopped a lot that it took us about 8 and a half hours to get to DvO from CdO. But it sure was fun. From the quick stop in Jollibee Mby to meet a scholar from Miarayon, Bukidnon; late lunch at 130 in Roadhouse Cafe in Valencia; Pictorials in Quezona and Instant Coffee somewhere in Buda.



It was great road trip..na sana maulit muli. Pabalik naman kaya? hmmmm
Pictures of events to follow..soon, i hope.