Pantukan

I was invited to a day trip from another NGO (SILDAP) to Pantukan in Compostela Valley (about 3 hrs north of Davao). Actually I thought I was visiting a village affected by mining but instead I landed up visiting an indigenous community doing mining. These indigenous people in the area are called Mansaka and as I noticed most of the community members go to church and mix their traditional customs with christian ones. The Mansaka houses are scattered over several hills and most of the man are working down at the river site and extract "maragaha" (black sand with gold crystalls) from the river mud. 

Upstream a big company started a large scale project already 20 years ago and the small scale miners downstream are suffering from the polluted river, so in a way they are also affected by other mining projects. 

A Mansaka woman showed us how to extract the actual gold from the maragaha. The magic tool is mercury, it will be added to the maragaha on the round plate and the gold can be carefully washed out. But it is very laborious work because you need a lot of mud to gain some maragaha and than you need lots of maragaha to extract a gram of gold. Because the river doesn't always offer enough gold for survival the people also do farming.

It was quite a trip, 

coming from Davao I took a bus for 2 hours, a motorcycle ride for another hour and another 30 minutes "habal-habal" (a ride with a (often transformed) motorcycle on a very stony road, usually to place which can't be reached otherwise). Indeed, the road had many slopes and was in an incredibly bad condition. I always wonder how the drivers can manage to get along with no accidents. 

The landscape in this region is awesome but all the hiking (uphill and downhill) plus the many rides are very exhausting. However, it was worthwhile! 

Goodbye Rojenn!

After 4 months waiting my Cousin Rojenn finally got a working place in Dubai! As an architect  he can earn there about 6 times more than in the Philippines. And luckily he got a job in the same company his girlfriend is already working now. But he won't be alone anyway, most of his former class mates are already there. Moreover about 20 percent of the population in Dubai are Filipino oversea workers.. I wish you and Kaye good times there!

Field trip to Bukidnon

Bukidnon is a province in the heart of Mindanao. I went to a Talaandig community, one of the Indigenous Peoples here in Mindanao - also called Lumad. From Davao City I travelled around 6 hours to their place. Datu Victorino Saway (the term Datu refers to a community leader) and his wife Bai Liza were hosting me, I could stay at their school for livelihood and tradition. I actually enjoy being close to nature but that place was really really cold! I slept with 4 shirts, 2 blankets and a sleeping bag, not to mention the cold shower in the morning - like needles on your skin. 

Luckily it was sunny these days and my first day started with a welcoming ritual which

 was thought to get a permission from their spirits for my stay. Some women and children dressed in their traditional costume gathered around a white cloth with a plate of betelnuts and 8 Peso coins (standing for the Datu's in that region). I was sitting infront of Bai Liza and the elderly women started praying to the spirits in their own language "Binukid".

 After the prayers the children (Kindergarten age) started singing songs and practicing traditional dances. Maybe after more than an hour the ritual went on: a chicken I brought was killed and sacrificed to the gods.

 I enjoyed playing with the kids and watched how they learn the customs of their culture by playing and participating. I just stayed for 4 days in all, I went to their fields, visited some houses and met several community members. One morning I woke up early to watch the sunrise from a bamboo house. Waway, who just finished building it, acompanied me, we chatted and drank native coffee and than he played some music on his self made instruments..

Most of the "batan-on" (youth) are artists and musicians. That is also a main source of income for them by selling paintings, hand made instruments and necklesses. Because their place is really a rural and forest area plus they are

 practicing a very different culture you could think modern technology doesn't fit there. But in fact, I wasn't surprised to find laptops, digital cameras, big music boxes and a stereo - of course cell phones (you can even find internet connection there), but no TVs. Actually, not only Datu Vic and his wife Liza already visited many places outside of the Philippines, also the batan-on are traveling all around the world. Most of the kids can study in nearby cities like Cagayan de Oro or even in Manila. 

Unfortunately this certain community doesn't represent the live of other Lumads. The place of the Talaandig is luckily inside a national park which makes it a preserved area and their land is somehow secured. But in fact many other Lumad communities have really to struggle for their land and life. 

At the end, these trip seemed to me like a very relaxing vacation with some cultural insights.