In 2004 I joined a group of medical students who immersed in Mankayan, Ilocos Sur, a town in the Cordilleras. The travel time from Baguio was almost 5 hours on rough road. Together with a fellow student and an American doctor we were fostered by a farming family. Our home was typically a barong-barong made of roofing materials and bamboo slats. There was no electricity and bedtime was as early as 7pm.
In the community, everything was laidback. I was forced to learn Ilocano because the only one who spoke Tagalog was our 7 year old foster kid. Coffee in the community was bottomless. Rice or Bagas was not a problem and always served on the dining table. Our bathing place was a 15 minute hike from the hill top residence and as soon you were finished and refreshed, you would be going back to home drenched in sun sweat. Fish was a luxury and pork was extraterrestial. My past time was to write and sketch at the improvised veranda at the cliffside overlooking the cool valley.
Part of our immersion with CHESTCORE was to serve as medics for the Cordillera day which was held at Mt Province. We stayed there for 2 nights and encountered different NGOs. That day marked the celebration of the death anniversary of Macliing Dulag, a tribe leader in Kalinga who opposed the upbuilding of Chico Dam. He was shot dead by soldiers of the Marcos regime. Ama Dulag is considered a martyr of the Igorots.
(Photos taken using Kodak 100 max B&W film)
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| Young farmers |
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| Waiting |
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| The Ilocano family |
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| Valley overview |
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| At the improvised veranda, cliffside |
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| with Cordillera day delagates |
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| Trying the Pagpagan (way of separating the palay from the stalk) |
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| Hanging bridge in Mt Province |
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| Gapas |
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| Ifugao Lola |
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