random trivia…

February 28, 2007

that's not very interesting unless you're a geek like me…

Since acquiring passable spoken skills in Binukid during the year that I worked in Bendum, I've been wanting to learn more about its origins as a language. Just because. And today, while surfing the web/searching for some ferry rates, I stumbled on this blog entry about the Proto-Manobo language family.

How cool. I can speak a language that's related to more than a dozen other languages used all over Mindanao.

checking papers is not happy

February 27, 2007

Uppers:

1. cafe au lait (even if it's made from powdered milk and diluted brewed coffee)

2. the funny little heart icons on gmail chat 

Downers:

1. an essay that begins with "Isn't hard…"

2. checking papers 

adventure, part 1

February 22, 2007

As promised, I've uploaded more pictures from the Cagayan Valley/Kalinga Trip. Yay.

These are from the first day of the trip. We arrived at Tuguegarao City at past 6 in the morning. After settling down, eating a good brekkie (with really delicious tsokolate) and changing into tougher clothes, we headed off to Peñablanca, the next town from Tuguegarao. Apparently, Cagayan Valley is the province with the most number of caves in the whole of the Philippines. There are over 300 caves there, less than half of which are explored. With such an abundance of caves, it made perfect sense that our first activity would be spelunking in Peñablanca.

We went to two caves: Callao Cave and Sierra Cave. As our guide Argel pointed out, there's a big difference between the two–the former is a dead cave, while the latter is still alive. "Dead" means that stalactite, stalagmite, and other mineral formations no longer occur in the cave. I guess Callao Cave died pretty much because it was over-visited To prevent that from happening to Sierra Cave, the local government put a gate and a lock at the cave mouth (which is pretty small and hidden on the side of a mountain) and they only allow groups accompanied by registered and trained guides to enter. It's really easy to kill a cave, they say. Because stalactites grow a measly 1cm every 15 years, just one careless touch from a tourist can set back and damage the cave's development. Anyway, enough of the blabbing; here are some of the photos:

  

Callao Cave, with Resa, Anj, and Joe

  

Heading into the bowels of Sierra Cave. It was the first time I'd ever experienced real pitch darkness.

Crawling out of Celica's Passage, a tiny tunnel within Sierra Cave formed by water. I felt like a mole (the animal, not the skin pigmentation).

The state of our feet after Sierra Cave. The mud extended all the way up to our chests.

 

After a really delicious lunch of inihaw, pakbet, and mangoes and bananas, we started learning how to paddle, get on, fall out of, and get back on to a kayak. 

  

I was doing okay learning to paddle. After that part, we proceeded to learn how to properly fall out of a kayak, and get back onto it. We went into the water one-by-one and got into the kayak. Once in the kayak, Argel would tip us unceremoniously into the water. The proper way to fall out–with your arms stretched out to the direction of your fall. 

While in the water, you have to maneuver yourself to your capsized kayak and use your body weight to flip it back over again. Once it's right side up, you're supposed to push yourself back onto it. It seemed easy when the boys did it. Even Angela and Resa got through it fine.

When it was my turn, it was a different story. The look in my eyes in the next picture says it all. The current kept taking me towards the banca that you see in the background, away from the kayak. Yarghh. (And the water in the river was so darn cold, my legs started cramping up!) 

 

I never realized how small I actually am until that day. Claire and I were the two smallest in the group, and we kept being pulled around by the darn current.  Seeing how lampa I was and how tiny Claire was (she's 4'1"), Argel decided that Claire and I should go with him the the inflatable canoe:

There should be a label under my face in this picture that says "resentment." Whehehe. The resentment didn't last too long, though. Adrenaline always wins over it.

See, here I'm already smiling.

Click here for more pictures! 

adventure, part 2

February 21, 2007

Here are some pictures of the rafting trip with Angela and her family (and friends) last January. Looking at the pictures really can't convey the amazing rush to the brain that you get after getting through a whirlpool, where all you can make out is the froth churned by the power of the current against the rocks. It also can't convey how damn tired and hungry you get afterwards. Hehe. 

This was actually from the second part of the trip. First part of the trip (kayaking/canoeing, and spelunking) coming soon.

(Thanks to Angela for the pictures. Let's have lunch again soon, ne?) 

See that nervous grin? You'd be nervous, too, if you saw the size of the Chico River. (At some parts, it seemed almost 400 feet across. The entire rafting run was 18 Km downriver.)

 

 

 

 

 

This was a pretty tame rapid, compared to some others we went through. Apparently, they name rapids after the people who fall into them. Good thing they aren't naming any rapids after me.

 

Bracing for the big one. What you don't see in this picture is the 3-foot drop we had to go through. Although, if you look at the picture closely, you can tell that the water is going down an incline…

 

The entire group, after the run. We were there with a group of cousins and their uncle. One thing was going on in our heads: "Can we do it again?" 

See the rest of the album here. 

news that should be read

February 13, 2007

With all the election-related drama, this bit of news published on the front page of the Inquirer yesterday passed under the radar for most of the evening newscasts that I caught on TV last night. Which is a crying shame because this bit of news has a far larger impact on the everyday lives of ordinary people in Mindanao than any of the realpolitik (or should we say surrealpolitik) that our media insists on covering.

The decision of the Islamic jurists to address the very real issue of terrorism this coming year in their various sermons is what so many people in the Philippines have been waiting for–the first real foray into the articulation of Islam's key principles not only for Muslims but for non-Muslims as well. The possibility of real engagement and real dialogue is dependent on the willingness of all parties to clearly articulate their positions. And these muftis have done just that–addressed their opinions and understanding of the Koran to the rest of the Islamic community and to the rest of the Philippines.

Fr. Rene Oliveros, SJ, one of the few true Islamic scholars in the country (he himself is half-Tausug) once gave a talk to the JVP Manila local community about the possible points were dialogue between Catholics and Muslims; the title of his talk was kairos. Kairos is the Greek word for "opportunity." The issuing of this sermon is itself a point of kairos, and I hope we don't waste it.

I wish we'd give them the opportunity to be heard above the cacophony of miting de avances and campaign jingles.

The full article is after the jump. 

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