Mainit, Bontoc

Too bad the rainy season started early this year. But for those of you who still want to have a late summer adventure, try visiting Mainit, a small village in Bontoc. My advice: you have to stay overnight so you could visit the public dipping pools at dusk and listen to the women (and men) share their stories.

Here are some photos taken by a friend's mobile phone camera.



A close-up shot of the "luwag" or hotspring



Kids at play on a lazy, Sunday morning

Remembering Yogyakarta

One year and three days ago today, I almost died in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. That’s me being dramatic about my experience:-) But honestly, I’ve never been so frightened in my whole life.

I was alone in my hotel room that Saturday, May 27, when a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Central Java at 5:53 in the morning. The tremor was so strong I felt like I was inside a small boat caught in storm. The coffee table near my bed toppled and with it, the three mugs my Indonesian friends Trina, Asi and I used the previous evening.

Sitting outside Hotel Saphir where I stayed, I saw an endless stream of pick-ups, trucks and ambulances carrying dead or injured people. At nine in the morning, people started running towards the north. A woman was screaming and crying so I asked the male hotel staff what the woman was saying. Looking frightened himself, he said that according to the woman, a tsunami is coming. My heart skipped a beat and my mind went blank. With the airport and train station closed, I felt trapped in a chaotic situation. Is this really happening, I asked myself.






I took this photo of the fifth floor of Hotel Saphir on my way down to the lobby.

Here’s a rundown of the earthquake’s devastating effect:
- At least 5,749 people were killed
- 38,568 were injured
- as many as 600,000 people were displaced in the Bantul-Yogyakarta area
- more than 127,000 houses were destroyed
- an additional 451,000 were damaged in the area

The total loss was estimated at approximately 3.1 billion US dollars.



Saphir Square, a newly-built mall beside Hotel Saphir, suffered heavy damage.

Although the experience was traumatic (I have become extra sensitive for the slightest shake or vibration wherever I am), I would always remember the Yogya earthquake, and my Indonesia adventure in general, for the beautiful lessons it taught me:

1. Good people are everywhere. And they come when you need them most.

After I went to the airport only to find out that it was damaged and closed for flights, I went back to my hotel to ask directions how I could leave Yogya. I had to catch an early flight to Singapore the next day and be in Manila by Monday for an interview. As I was asking directions, a bespectacled male asked me “Miss, Pilipino ka ba?” I swear that I almost cried out of joy when I heard him speak Tagalog at that moment. He wasn’t only a Pinoy, he was from Baguio, too! Prof. Bobby Arguelles of SLU and his two male Indonesian friends helped me find a taxi so I could go to Solo, some 45 minutes away, where the flights had been transferred. Thanks to Bobby, Andrei and Bhayu, I was on my way to Solo – and to safety – at around 12 noon.

2. Religion does not define people.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, with 85 percent of its 220 million people adhering to Islam. While I had my own biases against Muslims in general based on what I read and my limited interaction with Pinoy Muslims in tiangges, I learned that ultimately, it is people who define the quality of the religions they choose to practice.

I became friends with Purwani Prabandari (or Dari), a woman Muslim editor of Koran Tempo in Jakarta, and we realized that despite our different faiths, we have so much in common in terms of how we view the world. She and many other Muslims I have met shattered my limited concept of Islam as a religion. They have shown me only kindness and respect. I guess we have to go beyond religion to be truly spiritual.

It was this Muslim woman who first texted me that morning of May 27, asking how I was. She kept me updated through text on what was happening around Yogya. A native of Solo, she was the one who instructed me to go to her town when she found out that the airport in Yogya was damaged. I couldn’t have remained in one piece without her texts to reassure me I would be safe.




3. Be careful for what you pray for.

Mount Merapi was already erupting when I decided to go to Indonesia for my short-tem journalism fellowship. My family kept asking me why I chose Indonesia when there are other safer and more progressive places to go to. Well, I just want to know more about Islam, I told them. Silently, I was telling myself that I’m going for an adventure of a lifetime. My 21 days’ stay in Jakarta and 4 days in Yogyakarta had just been that – one memorable adventure of a lifetime, one experience I would always be thankful for.



A photo of Mount Merapi taken by Dari.

4. New places give us the gift of ourselves.

Before I went to Indonesia, I considered myself disorganized, often misplacing my pen, earrings, anything. But alone in a strange land, I was forced to keep my things in order and to remember where I placed them. Although I have always thought of myself as independent and strong, I didn’t know how independent and strong I was until I was on my own in a foreign land. Unable to speak and understand Bahasa Indonesia, I found myself oftentimes alone taking trains, taxis and buses to unknown places, holding on to my small notebook for the helpful directions Dari gave me. Sometimes I would get lost but more often than not, I would reach my destination without a hitch as I pretended to be Indonesian and mimicked their accent whenever I spoke to drivers. Alone in my room at night, I would smile as I recalled small mishaps I encountered during the day.

For my Indonesian adventure, the best lesson I learned is that sometimes we have to leave in order to find our way home:-)

Terimah kasih, Indonesia!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and to all women who have the heart of a mother!

I greatly admire my own mother for striving hard to obtain a good education despite her family’s poverty. At 71, she remains hardworking, looking after us with love and devotion. Thank you, Mama, for all your love:-)



By the way, the history of Mother’s Day is very interesting. Did you know that the observance of Mother’s Day was started by Anna Jarvis, an American who never had children of her own? Read more about it here.

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." -- Tenneva Jordan

For more quotes on mothers and motherhood, click here.

From Sabangan to Texas

Here's the story of one of our kailians, Marlene Paredes from Sabangan, Mountain Province. She's currently the only Filipino who's working as a marketing strategist at Texas Instruments (TI)in Dallas, Texas. The article originally appeared in Cordillera Today's May 6 issue. Happy reading!:-)

Picking Up Stones, Gaining the World

Fifty centavos. This was her first salary as a six-year-old girl who had to carry stones from Sabangan River to a house being constructed near their house. In her village, almost all the children earned money this way. They would jump at the opportunity to get paid for an easy job because they do harder work at home for free. After she got her pay, she hopped to the store and bought a soy sauce for their use at home. “I don’t remember buying myself a candy because I was just so excited to buy something for my family,” she recalls.

Today, she travels frequently from the US to Europe as a marketing strategist for one of the world’s leading semiconductor firms. Only 39, Marlene Paredes is currently the only Filipino working in strategic marketing for Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, Texas.



Often the smallest and only female in their team, Marlene (extreme left) poses with her colleagues during a business trip to Salzburg, Austria.

Barely 5’1, bereft of jewelry and without any trace of make-up, Marlene looks fresh out of college in a pair of gray denims and long-sleeved white shirt. She presents herself the way she’d like to be known: a simple woman who’s grateful for every blessing that has come her way. Indeed, there are few Filipinos, Igorots for that matter, who have reached what she has achieved.

“As a marketing strategist, my work involves defining and executing marketing and business strategy for the European and Korean automotive markets. I travel a lot to Europe and sometimes to Korea to visit customers and also our sales groups for these regions,” she says.

Marlene’s excellent work served as her passport to her present job. She was then working as an engineer at Team Pacific in Taguig when she learned of an opening at TI’s Mexico City factory. Without any connections and just her resume to back her up, she was immediately hired as a process engineer. In 1994, she left the Philippines for Mexico City, where her career would bloom.

“It was my first time to work in a foreign country and I was still very new in the corporate world. And I also couldn’t speak Spanish! I felt homesick during my first few weeks,” she shares.

Thus, she poured all her energy at work while learning how to speak and write in Spanish. Just after six months from being hired, she was promoted engineering manager for assembly and in less than one year, as operations manager. Not even in her 30s, female, and a newcomer, Marlene was tasked to manage about 80 percent of the semiconductor operations at TI-Mexico.

Right after her promotion, TI Mexico’s top management gave her the authority to redesign the whole factory. Despite her broken Spanish, she successfully led and executed the project, putting TI Mexico in the radar screen of the executive management. “Our factory’s output increased by over 1000 percent after we were done with it,” Marlene recalls, smiling.

There was no stopping her after that. Marlene then co-wrote a paper on factory re-engineering which was chosen as one of the 12 papers to be presented in an international conference of semiconductor engineers in Mesa, Arizona.

She was the only woman and the only Filipina presenter in that event attended by semiconductor manufacturing engineers all over the world. “As I stood to present, I was literally shaking but after about five minutes, I got my full bearing and presented like a real pro,” she shares.

When she left Mexico City , Marlene received about 10 despedidas, many from people who, at the start of her work, asked “why someone with a red badge (at TI, this indicates the employee has less than 5 years’ experience) can lead someone with a gold badge (over 20 years’ experience).”



Marlene visits the Eiffel Tower in Paris during one of her business
trips to Europe.

Achieving success at an early age meant Marlene had to postpone her personal life as she focused on her work. After almost five years in Mexico, she decided to shift career from the technical side to the marketing side of the business. “I told myself, ‘Now that I have proven that I can be who I want to be, it’s time to focus on myself.’”

Moving to Dallas, she started doing apprentice work for marketing before getting into her current position. She was able to learn the business side of TI while having time for herself and her family. “I was able to spend more time with my family traveling to Hongkong , Singapore , Thailand and Cebu. My priorities now have shifted from career to my personal life,” she adds.

Being a manager is actually no big deal for Marlene. “The business environment these days is very, very dynamic. Within the past few years, we have seen lay-offs in our company and around us. If you can’t add value to the organization, you are gone,” she explains.

Is it difficult working in a predominantly male environment? “Most of the men I work with respect and acknowledge me as a woman so I disregard those that don’t. Regardless if you are a woman or not, how you carry yourself has a huge bearing on how people treat and respect you.” She enjoys her current job because it allows her to get an insight of how cars would look like in the future. The best part of all is that it enables her to work with talented people from all over the world.

Born and raised in Sabangan, Mountain Province, Marlene was valedictorian from elementary until high school. She finished electronics and communications engineering from Saint Louis University in 1988 and obtained her license in the same year.

It’s ironic that this talented woman never dreamed of becoming an engineer. “I wanted to be in business. I was supposed to take up commerce but when my sister decided to enroll in the same course, I chose engineering instead so there would be no sibling rivalry.”

She chose to major in ECE later because it was new at that time and there was a big demand for communications engineers. “I have no regrets now of my choice. I think someone up there was guiding me throughout.” But Marlene still hopes that one day, she would be able to fulfill her dream of running her own business.

Her constant hunger for learning and boundless love for her family push Marlene to give her best in everything she does. “Losing my dad and almost losing my sister at a very young age matured me early. I have always wanted to give my mother and my family the best that I can.”

For all that she has achieved, Marlene believes that success is not measured in terms of money and power. “Inner peace, love, faith and contentment are harder to find and can never be bought.”

Believe in yourself and work hard to get to your dream, Marlene advises. “Start by being proud to be an Igorot and to be from the mountains of Cordillera. Every time I tell people I am an Igorota, I get a strange look and they say ‘You don’t look like one.’ I ask them, ‘How does an Igorota supposed to look like?’ I should know better because I am one,” she shares with a laugh.

“I thank God first of all and my family for keeping my feet on the ground. Today, I can say that I am truly content with my life and that I have remained the same person as I was, the same little simple girl who bought soy sauce with her 50-centavo pay,” she ends, beaming.

A Kailian Writes from Boston

I'm happy to share with you an article written by a dear friend, Rosella Bahni from Benguet. She's pursuing her MA in Cultural Production at Brandeis University in Boston.

Her class in Museums and Public Memory successfully put up an exhibit of Sudanese paintings entitled "Leave the Bones and Catch the Land." Read more about it here . The Boston Globe also wrote about this pioneering class project.

Here it goes.

Introduction
What started as a class project turned out to be more than just participating in the exhibition of the south Sudanese paintings. I found myself taking the journey with them from their homes, through the deserts to Ethiopia and Sudan, and their desire for education while in the United States. I had the privilege of this vicarious experience in my encounters with them. Reading "The Lost Boys" was my first encounter with the civil war in Sudan told from the vivid accounts of three boys who endured and survived the hardships of losing their parents and communities at a very young age.

Personally encountering the south Sudanese themselves were deepening moments for me. When I interviewed Panther Alier, I met for the first time a south Sudanese. His narratives corroborated the experiences of the Lost Boys and he gave a face to them. I also interviewed Yar Alieu who stressed the importance of retaining their cultural values that make them a community. I was particularly honored to be told about her mother whose voice Yar still vividly remembers and treasures for the sake of her child. Yar’s sharing provided the balance of gender perspective in looking at the exhibit. Another encounter I had with the south Sudanese was during the fund raising activity held on October 14. I saw part of their rich cultural tradition while they sang and danced. I was happy to become part of their effort to gain support for their education. I likewise prepared a paper for the development of a south Sudanese museum. All these contributed to enrich and guide my involvement that culminated in my participation with the exhibition of the south Sudanese paintings.

From the beginning: October 9 first day in the gallery
I was present on October 9 on the first day that the paintings were brought in the gallery. I was witness to and became involved in the dynamics of starting an art exhibition such as the following:a. Assessing the exhibition space - before all the paintings were classified, those present looked at the over-all design of the gallery to consider how to maximize the available space, the vantage view of the windows, and the two doors. These were analyzed vis-à-vis the story line of the paintings and perceived movement of viewers to attain better understanding of the exhibit.b. Assessing the paintings: their meanings and messages - the available paintings were studied as to the initial meanings and messages these convey and the group present proposed several categories to classify these. Additional categories were later added by the class.c. Creating the story line or format for locating the paintings - From the categories identified, the story line was developed starting from remembering homes to hopeful paintings. This was later developed by the class to end with ‘prophetic visions.’

The Technology of Setting-up an Exhibit
In the succeeding days, I witnessed the class in the refinement of the story line and the proper classification of the paintings according to categories. I also became part of the design team that gave more extra hours to look at the entire exhibit. In the process, I was involved and enriched by the other’s input as well.

a. The Element of Wonder: Placement of Paintings - the design team tried to address aesthetic concerns on the placement of the paintings. Once the story line was established and the largest painting was located, the design team arranged the paintings according to these bases: colors should not contrast but blend; images should not jar from the paintings beside it; there should be smooth transition between categories; certain paintings have more impact than others and placed above the rest (I am happy to suggest that the painting "Still Coming" should be placed above the maps.); and balance should be observed but to allow for certain imbalances that are nevertheless attractive. Other paintings were reviewed as to relevance and placement in the story line. Non-relevance meant non-inclusion of the paintings.

b. The Element of Resonance: Understanding the Context - I strongly felt that the exhibit is not only to meet aesthetic purposes but also aims to raise awareness so that more sectors will be involved in addressing the concerns of south Sudanese. I was happy that background information was given regarding Sudan and its conflicts and the student statement carried a paragraph advocating for action.c. Captions Preparations - every member of the class was involved in preparing the captions. I learned the importance of listening to the voice of the artist and the people represented in preparing captions. These were my contributions in this part of the exhibition preparation: interviewing and uploading the results of the interview with Panther and Yar; formulating captions in partnership with other students; helping a bit in editing the captions; mounting the captions on foam paper; and pasting the captions on the wall.

Conclusion: The Opening Night
I participated, albeit very minimally, with the opening committee in conceptualizing the Opening Ritual. I liked the idea of a south Sudanese to have a major part in the ceremony because the exhibit is actually their own. I met Yar and Panther again. I am happy to share in their moment of ownership by singing their song. On this opening night, I received a gift of t-shirt from Susan Winship in gratitude for the volunteer work I did during their fund raising activity. Actually, I should be the one to express my gratitude to Susan for her work enabled me to meet the south Sudanese. By "journeying" with them, I became aware of my responsibility as a member of the community of humanity. And through my participation in the exhibit, I hope to have contributed in their quests for peace and justice.

Small-Scale Mining in Itogon

I've always thought that gold comes in the form of small stones hidden inside tunnels. As in, you'll find them shining once inside a mine. Little did I know that it's made of soft particles imbedded in rocks.

I had a rare privilege of seeing the different aspects of small-scale mining in Itogon, an area rich in gold deposits. It used to host two big mining corporations: Benguet Mining Corporation in Antamok and Virac and Itogon-Suyoc Mines in Sangilo.

Before these big corporations came, the people of Itogon were already into small-scale mining, a traditional occupation deeply woven into the fabric of their lives. Thus, they observe many age-old rules when going inside tunnels, while processing the ore, up to the time the gold is finally purified and melted. “We believe that gold has a spirit. Gold will always be there if we respect it and share it with others,” reveals Manang Leticia from Itogon.

One important lesson I learned: small-scale miners put their life at risk every time they go inside the usok (tunnel). Whatever they earn for their gold is nothing compared to the dangers they face whenever they go deep into the tunnel.

The mountains of Itogon, Benguet at dusk.

Cooking coffee at the lagangan.

A woman separates (dayas) visible gold particles from soil using a metal pan and a pool of water.

Melting gold using a blower, charcoal, borax and gangi (a bowl made of clay).