A Taste of Sagada right here in Chicago – Part II

Continued from A Taste of Sagada right here in Chicago – Part I.

Cultural Night – the TOMA Song

The cultural night also featured a well thought of fashion show that displayed the evolution of Igorot tapestry which was very well received by the American audience. A re-enactment on how the Igorots first met with American missionaries was done through pantomime, and then came one of the more emotional moments I’ve experienced in the reunion – the singing of the AY TET-EWA AY TOMA SA? (Is that really a bedbug?).

I believe I’ve sung this song once or twice a year during my elementary years. It’s a marvelously funny song about the bedbug (toma), and it entails having a leader sing a question, and the audience sing back a response. The first 2 lines goes like this:

Leader: Ay tet-ewa’y toma na? (Is this really a bedbug?)
Audience: Tetewa ay toma sa. Dake-dake’y toma sa ya kadak-kelan ay toma. (Yes, that’s really a bedbug. That’s a huge bedbug and it’s the biggest bedbug ever.)

And it goes on with a series of about a dozen or so questions, and the answers sung to each question is attached to the answer of the earlier questions and so every answer sung by the audience will end with the declaration that yes, that’s really a huge bedbug and it’s the biggest one. EVER! It’s similar to the “12 days of Christmas” and that other English song that goes “There was a tree, the finest tree that you ever did see…”. To me, the TOMA song is way more special.

To someone like me who is used to singing the song almost every year while growing up, it brought back warm feelings of early years in Sagada. I remember a particular December evening in the 1980s – most likely during the lantern parade, that a young guy and gal – in their first year in high school, dressed up in traditional Igorot attire, standing before the Sagada community gathered around the town’s basketball court, and leading the TOMA song with such fervor that I remember it so well after 20+ years.

I learned during the conference that the song was written by Dr. Henry Scott, a teaching missionary himself, in the 1950s, and that it was meant to be a humorous adaptation of one of the more hated animals in nature. I’m thinking how it is a reflection of Sagada humor – blunt, frank, and embarrassingly funny sometimes. Somehow, I tried to have my sons enjoy the singing as much as I did to no avail. I guess it’s again a reminder that my Sagada upbringing is several planets apart from their Manila / Chicago-suburb experience. (Even my wife who grew up in neighboring Tadian doesn’t care that much about the TOMA song.)

Igorot gong-playing and dancing followed after the TOMA song. Members of BIBBAK – Illinois, who performed at a Baguio high school reunion earlier in the evening, also performed a Benguet dance. Towards the end, the tables and chairs were pushed to the side, and the audience was invited to community dancing. Plenty of them obliged. The evening ended after the dancing, with farewells being exchanged since some of the attendees were catching flights or driving home early that Sunday morning. For me, the reunion would officially end the next Monday morning when I brought an aunt who was catching a red-eye flight back home to Denver at the Chicago O’hare airport.

A note on the missionaries – Manang Marie, who I briefly chatted with after the cultural night shared her thoughts about honoring the missionaries through the preservation of the Igorot culture. She’s right. In a way, it took a group of outsiders to help the Sagada Igorot folks appreciate, understand, and take efforts to preserve their Igorot culture. These SMSSAFF reunions is not just about your typical high school gathering – in a highly inter-connected world where local traditions are slowly replaced by global trends, there is great value in being reminded that God has allowed us to be born in the place and culture we were in. We all have a past and a background and knowing such certainly keeps us from getting lost.

I started this reflection with a reference to memories of food from childhood years. The whole reunion experience for me was a different kind of food – a somewhat spiritual nourishment type that kept me grounded to my roots, and was a refreshing reminder of where I came from. I don’t know if I would be able to attend the next SMSSAFF reunion that is being planned in Toronto on the summer of 2013. Attending or not, I’m still glad I got to have a taste of my old hometown of Sagada right here in metro-Chicago, the city I now call home.

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A Taste of Sagada right here in Chicago – Part I

In Disney’s RATATOUILLE movie, the unsmiling and dour-faced food critic named ANTON EGO, tasted a dish that suddenly transported him back to his childhood days. His countenance changed as he gamely savored the dish he was giving a critique on, and the warm childhood memories that accompanied the dish showed dramatically in his facial expression. He actually smiled, and proceeded to devour the rest of the dish with childish joy. In our family, we call such an experience a “ratatouille moment”. It is that warm, wonderful, indescribable feeling you’d get when you bite into food that reminds you of a great dishes from the past.

Welcoming Alumni, Family, and Friends

On a different scale, being part of the 5th St. Mary’s School Sagada Alumni Family and Friends (SMSSAFF) Conference that was held in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge was a drawn out 3-day “ratatouille moment”. My wife and I joined the host committee on Thursday, August 4, as alumni, family and friends started arriving to register for the event. We met relatives and friends from Michigan, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and Illinois – there could be more states represented, and I believe there were those from Canada, but those states mentioned were what I remembered.

My wife and I didn’t graduate from St. Mary’s School (SMS) in Sagada – but my mother-in-law did. So did my dad (batch ’56), my mom (batch ’65), and my 3 older sisters who belonged to batch ’87, ’88, and ’90. Two of my brother-in-laws were also graduates of SMS. I was supposed to be a member of batch ’92 – but I was shipped to Manila for high school and missed all the fun. Still, I didn’t feel left out. The St. Mary’s tradition runs strong in my family and during the reunion, I somehow felt like I was representing my parents and sisters as they were not able to attend.

Anglican Mass and SMS Missionaries

The reunion / conference was held in an episcopal church also known as St. Mary’s. The Anglican church service on Saturday morning was the first time I’ve attended in years. (My family now have affiliated ourselves to evangelical, non-denominational churches in more recent years.) It was the same traditional hymn mass I remember from my Sagada childhood with great fondness. Members of the alumni served during the service, and the hymns were also handpicked by them. At the end of the service, when the attendees started singing the SMS hymn to the tune of O Danny Boy, I felt a tinge of regret that my family members (my mom especially) who were supposed to be there were absent.

Saturday evening was cultural night. The theme for the conference was about honoring Sagada’s teaching missionaries who were from various Anglican dioceses across the United States. These missionaries served in Sagada’s St. Mary’s school in the early 1900s and stayed in Sagada until the 1960s. In the photo slideshow which started the evening, there were images of SMS alumni who eventually settled in the US, visiting these same missionaries during their later years right here in their home country. I can only imagine what those missionaries may have felt like.

Having stayed here in the US since 2006, I cannot imagine sacrificing comfortable living here and going to a strange mountainous land in the Far East to spend time with a group of people and culture that is too foreign from the one you’re used to. And after all the hard work and time spent, you actually get to see the fruit of your labor by having some of your students get to visit you back in your home country. Indeed, a theme that I’ve heard from the older alumni during the conference was of thanksgiving – the alumni are thankful to those brave teaching missionaries for the opportunities that it has provided the students and their families not just in their lifetime, but also for the next generations to come.

CONTINUED here... A Taste of Sagada right here in Chicago – Part II

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As Dangerous as Halsema

I lost count how many times I've traveled the Halsema highway that links Baguio City to Sagada. I do remember that I first started traveling this route in Grade 3, way back in 1984 when our whole family first spent our first Christmas and New Year in Baguio City with relatives in Loakan. During my high school and college days, I would travel through this highway at least 5 times a year when I would go home during the summer, semestral break and for the holidays.

The HALSEMA highway is a dangerous one - and on several occassions, it has been fatal to some travelers. I've lost an uncle - my mother's brother in an accident in the Halsema and some relatives as well. It is a route that features daunting curves. For several stretches, one side of the highway would be against a mountain side and for the other side, it would be a drop of several hundred feet. Still, I believe that the relatively few accidents in Halsema is a testament to the skill of Cordillera drivers.

It is fascinating watching the bus drivers navigate through the dangers during a trip. Now that I'm driving, I fully appreciate how they could guide the buses safely to their destinations - day in and day out. I remember how they seemingly handle the steering wheel with ease. These are big wheels - mind you, probably twice or more the circumference of your normal sedan steering wheel. And, unless they've upgraded, the buses do not use power steering.

I am reminded of the Halsema due to a recent a road trip. After midnight on January 2 this year, my family drove the 720+ miles from Maryland to our place in Illinois. We were supposed to leave January 2 evening, but due to the bad weather forecast for the weekend, I decided to pack-up and leave immediately. I was mostly concerned about ice on the highway in Pennsylvania and the lake effect snow in Indiana. As my wife did the packing and had no sleep, I was tasked to drive the first seven hours of the journey covering Maryland, Pennsylvania and into Ohio.

In Pennsylvania, the snow showers started for dozens of miles at a time. I was fine with it because the roads weren't slippery. I took extra caution though not driving the maximum speed, and always making sure that the vehicles ahead of me were traveling at normal speeds. I was on the lookout for vehicles that were slowing down as that would indicate trouble. We left Pennsylvania with no trouble except for the occasions when the snow was falling down hard.

As I drove into Ohio, the problems began. Snow was falling down hard and the highways were covered in an inch or so of snow. I couldn't see the yellow lines anymore and my only guide were the tire tracks ahead of me. It was around 5am so it was still very, very dark. I tried to use the fog lights of the minivan but it actually didn't help. It was actually worse since the lights were reflecting off the falling snow. I couldn't see any vehicles ahead, so I reduced my speed and I went slowly at 30-40mph. I was soon able to catch up with a group of vehicles that were traveling in a single file after around 30 minutes of driving on my own. Then and only then that I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. My wife who was awake enough to see the situation has been praying very hard.

Morning came and the rest of our travel in Ohio was great. Snow was present but the roads were being treated and the sunshine was a welcome sight. My wife took over the driving and after a brunch stop, I was able to sleep for an hour or so. I dreaded passing by Indiana, but I knew the situation was better because it was daytime.

My wife drove into Indiana before we switched. Visibility wasn't so good, and lake effect snow was falling down hard and made everything look gloomy. The snow scenes in this post were taken from Indiana. From the road, the scenes nearby looked very pretty - everything was covered in snow. My wife and I marveled at the irony... amidst all this beauty is the cold reality of danger. Indiana has the highest maximum speed at 70mph along our route and despite the very poor visibility, vehicles were wheezing by at such fast speeds. An accident at these speeds and with the traffic was bound to hurt a lot of people, and would most likely cause deaths as well. We drove for at least an hour in this condition.

For every dark stage in a journey, there is always the bright side. As we were nearing Chicago, the skies suddenly brightened. It was as if the lake effect snow was constrained to only a particular part of Indiana. One could actually pinpoint a border where it was snowing and a few meters ahead, the snow stopped and the sun was shining brightly. Ah, thank GOD for a safe journey. We're now in Chicago. The sight of the Chicago Skyline and the Sears towers are always a welcome for us after a long drive from Maryland.

We completed our trip all breaks included in 13 hours. Compare that to our record of 10 hours and 45 minutes during our recent Thanksgiving trip. The extra hours were mostly due to the meal break we had and the weather. But we got home safe and sound.

HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR to all this blog's visitors. May it be a year of good health and joyful memories with your loved ones. And yes, stay safe during your trips.

Photo at the top and below: Road scenes from Indiana. Taken during morning hours, the sun wasn't shining and snow covered the trees and surroundings.


Photo below: The Sears Tower is always a welcome sight after a long journey.


Photo below: My boys pose by our very dirty and grime/snow/salt covered faithful minivan. I had to wait later in the week for another winter storm before giving it a good exterior car wash.

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Sagada Christmas Memories

Before I got married, I spent all my Christmases either in Sagada or in a remote barangay of Tabuk, the the capital of what was then known as Kalinga-Apayao. But, I can only remember one Christmas spent in Tabuk, whereas almost 99% of my Christmas memories have Sagada as its setting. Knowingly or unknowingly, our folks have raised us to treasure Christmas and have a sense of tradition around it. Because of this, I am now trying to do the same with my children as well. I’m listing my fondest Christmas memories in Sagada as they appear on my mind:

- Decorating a tree. It was a real pine tree that we chose for the house and we would make it stand in a can filled with stones, not an easy task.

- Decorating our rooms at school. During the later years in elementary school, a group of students would be assigned a corner of the room to decorate. The class would have a maguey tree for its Christmas tree and we’d decorate it with classroom-made decors.

- Attending the community program at the basketball court on Christmas Eve.

- Singing with the choir at the church. I attended Christmas morning service before high school but I was allowed to attend the Christmas Eve service around high school. When the collegians come home for the holidays, the singing goes to a new level. “Glo-ooooo-ooooo-ooooo-ria, in excelsis dey-ey-oooo!” is sang in four very distinct voices by the whole congregation.

- Going home after the midnight mass and eating a slice of lemon pie / chocolate cake.

- The very, very cold Sagada weather especially when going home after midnight mass. During my teen years, it wouldn’t be that cold especially when I was tipsy from an earlier drinking session.

- Opening our presents on Christmas morn. Unlike my children and most other children here in the US, we were very happy with just one gift. We’d be ecstatic with two.

- My grandfather’s grapefruit breakfast. Choosing the juiciest grapefruit is part of the fun. Not sure how many other families can relate to that.
- The cakes and pies my aunt, my cousins, and my sisters bake. The Sagada fruit salad is found nowhere else.

- Preparing for the Christmas Eve and Christmas lunch meals. The kitchen was always busy.

- Inviting friends and relatives over for Christmas lunch. I wasn’t really that fond for the dish washing that would be assigned to me after the meal.

This blog wishes you and your family a Merry, Merry Christmas.

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Sagada Easter

I last spent Easter Sunday in Sagada more than a decade ago. My sister and I woke up really early to attend the Easter Sunrise service. It was held at the Calvary, on top of a mountain bounding the Echo Valley. I will never forget the memory of singing Easter hymns while the sun rose. It was everything that Easter promised - a new hope, a new day. (Photo Credit: moongirl's blog)

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My Sagada Graduation

(Blogger's Note: This is the second of a 2-post series celebrating the end of classes in Sagada. The school year ends before the Holy Week. The first post is titled Sagada Elementary Closing Exercises)


Grade 6 was an exciting grade level for me. There were a lot of firsts – my first time to win a student election, first time to be part of the school’s newsletter, first time to join a debate, first time to write a love letter and actually give it to someone (ehem!), and of course, first time to graduate.

For the first time too, I was finishing the grade not as the #2 student. I’ve changed and was graduating as #3 in the class. (Hehehe) In earlier grade levels, there were 2 classes per grade, and each class had different sets of honor students. For the sixth grade, there were still 2 classes but the rankings were merged to determine who finished in the Top 10 of the graduating class, and who finished as #1, #2, #3, #10, etc… I clearly recall that the competition between us top three were very close, and only 0.5 separated #1 and #3. As a very competitive person, #3 is not good enough, and that’s how I felt back then. Still, I have to give it to the 2 other students ahead of me – they are friends, and I got easily along with them. I even followed our valedictorian all the way to high school in Manila, and to the same university, and try as I might academically, I just couldn’t match up with him. So since I couldn’t beat him in school, I eventually gave up and befriended him instead. He turned out to be the best man in my wedding. Moral of the Story: if you can’t beat them, make them your best man.

Going back to my elementary graduation - only the top 2 students gave speeches. As #3, I was tasked to do the invocation before the graduation program. Before anything started though, the graduation procession started with the graduates lining up in Bomabanga’s multi-purpose playground. Each student was accompanied by his parents / guardians during the march. I was accompanied by my paternal grandfather, a very respected man in Sagada. I was named after him too. I was marching behind #1 who was accompanied by his maternal grandmother. (In high school, we soon learned that #1’s maternal grandmother was my maternal grandfather’s 3rd cousin. That explains it – genius runs in our family! Haha.) At the procession, the boys were lined up in alphabetical order, and the girls followed, also in alphabetical order. We looked fresh for our graduation but we had on simple attire. Blue jeans and white shirts were the only uniformity for the boys. Some wear shoes, some wear slippers. The girls were more uniform though – they wore the traditional skirt and belt (tapis and gateng), and a white blouse/shirt. And all of them were required to be barefoot. This is fine if the weather is sunny as it is on most graduation days, but it would be a problem if the ground is too warm or muddy.

I didn’t notice it back then, but I later reflected that majority of the students marched with their surviving grandparents. We had some students from Kalinga in our graduating class, and their elders came to visit them. It is perhaps the only time their elders would visit the school. We may have taken our graduation for granted, but if you reflect on it, a lot of those accompanying the graduating students have not even attended school. I’m sure it was a great sense of pride that their grandchildren are completing their elementary education.

For the graduating class’ presentations, we did a couple of choir songs. We also presented our entries for the regional speech choir competition. We represented Mountain Province in this contest, having beat other Sagada schools, and the top Bontoc school during the division competition. We did English and Filipino pieces titled “The Six Blind Man of Industan”, “At the Seashore”, “Ang Mangga at ang Bakawan”, and “Kabataan, Ang Pag-asa ng Bayan”.

During the recognition part, medals and ribbons were given to the top 3 students, the top 10 students, special awards, and competition awards. Every graduating class member was accompanied at the stage by his/her elder, and each of us was given a diploma and a ribbon. We had a special award during our graduation – for the first time ever, a contestant from our small school won the national Shell art contest besting thousands of contestants from all over the Philippines. I still remember vividly what his painting was. It was a satellite-like machine floating amidst a backdrop of rice terraces and other Igorot sights.

Our guest speaker that day, if I remember right, eventually became a 2-term Sagada town mayor. He helped distribute the ribbons and diplomas to the graduating students. As the ceremony ended, the graduating class sang “Bomabanga’y Kagawisan” – Bomabanga the best. It was a song paying tribute to the school, and it has a line containing a promise that we, graduating students, would look over it. Now that I write this post, somehow, I feel that promise have not been met. Or wasn’t it? It’s a good thought to revisit.

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Sagada Elementary Closing Exercises

(Blogger's Note: This is the first of a 2-post series celebrating the end of classes in Sagada. The school year ends before the Holy Week.)

As a child, I have eagerly awaited the yearly closing exercises that marked the last day of school for the school year. For a sixth grader, it is the first major educational milestone – the elementary graduation. It is a practice common to Philippine schools, although not in US schools. For the first to fifth graders, the closing exercises signal an end for a particular grade level. The next time they’d go to school, they’d be in a different grade, possibly with different classmates, and with different teachers.

The first Bomabanga closing exercises I attended was for my eldest sister’s graduation. In that same year, my 2nd eldest sister finished grade 5, while my 3rd sister, the sibling I was next to, wrapped up her third grade. During this year, I still lived with my father and mother and younger siblings in Gobgob, Tabuk in what was then the province of Kalinga-Apayao. It was the first graduation amongst our siblings, so we made the 12-hour plus trip from Gobgob to Sagada. I don’t remember much of that graduation; most of the images in my mind are what I saw in photographs at that time. (For my family, we buy film for our camera on special occasions only – closing exercises was one of them.) I do remember an overnight stay with the Gayagay family in my grandfather’s Atowanan farm.

The next June, I transferred to Bomabanga, officially known as Sagada Central School, for my second grade. I was coming from Gobgob Elementary School where I spent my first 3 years of elementary education – 2 years in Grade 1, and a year in Grade 2. By right, I should have been a 3rd grader in Bomabanga – the thing is, they didn’t accept a 7-year old in grade 3. That’s the reason I remember, though now that I think about it, I believe my folks didn’t think I was mature enough to be in a class of 9-year olds. (Darn.) If you’re doing the math, you’d probably figured out that I started first grade as a 4 year old. Not that I was a genius – it’s just that my mom was a school teacher and the 1st grade teacher is her friend, and I was allowed to sit-in whenever I wanted to. Our house in Gobgob was adjacent to the school, so my family walked to school. We also walked back home and vice versa for lunch.

I have some vivid memories of the first closing exercises I participated in Bomabanga. I didn’t attend the last days of regular class because I was sick. My parents and my younger siblings came from Gobgob, since this was also my 2nd sister’s elementary graduation.

The format for the closing exercises is generally the same as that in the coming years I would attend. There is the lower class presentation. There were 10 classes from Grade 1 to Grade 5; 2 classes per grade level. Each class would present a short skit, a song, a dance number, or some oral presentation. The graduating class would also do 2 or 3 numbers. There is the award recognition for top students in the lower and graduating classes. For the lower grade levels, awards were given in the form of ribbons. These ribbons were pinned on the shirts of the student by a parent / elderly relative.

All graduating students would also be called on stage to accept a piece of white paper that represents their diplomas. They’d be accompanied on-stage by their parents or guardians. Then, there’s the speech by the guest of speaker as an encouragement / challenge to the graduating class. The top 2 students of the graduating class, the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, would also give their speeches. The closing exercises would end around noon, with parents and teachers doing photo-ops with the graduating class.

Sharing a summary of the closing exercises I attended before I graduated:

2nd Grade – Our class did an oral presentation. We spelled the word G-R-A-D-U-A-T-I-O-N with each letter standing for something. Two or three students would recite a couple of sentence for each letter. Example: “R is for REWARDS. Rewards are ….. ” I was #2 in my class and my dad pinned my honors ribbon for me. My teacher was Mrs. Mary Dao-as, and our class was known as Grade 2 – Red.

3rd Grade – Our class recited a poem, “Ako ay Pilipino”. I was #2 again in my class. A month earlier, my dad died due to a cardiac arrest. His dad, my paternal grandfather, pinned my honors ribbon. I was in the Grade 3 – Pink class under Mrs. Imelda Zabala.

4th Grade – Our class did a skit that ended in an Igorot dance. We didn’t do the dance with real gongs; instead, we played with sticks and cans. It was my 1st time to do that, and I was very uncomfortable. I had trouble coordinating my feet, hahaha. I was #2 in my class again – start seeing a pattern here? I was in the Grade 4 – Red class under Mrs. Muriel Omaweng who also happened to be our neighbor in Nangonogan.

5th Grade – Somehow, I’m drawing a blank on what our class did during this grade. I do know I finished #2 in my class. How about that for consistency? We were called Grade 5 – Red and my teacher was the late Mrs. Magdalena Pooten. She also happened to be my paternal grandmother’s first cousin. I was hoping that since she was my great-aunt, she’d make me first in her class. Obviously, she had something else in mind, hahaha.

There’s a lot to tell on my graduation class that I’m reserving it for another post. I did want to note that during closing exercises, I fondly recall Mrs. Bosaing’s accordion playing. She’d play the accordion as one class exited a stage, and another class entered the stage for their turn to present. She’d play the accordion standing up, with a leg propped up against a stool, and a hand resting on the elevated knee. I know that Mrs. Bosaing got promoted to work in the division office after I graduated. It would be interesting to know who replaced her as the accordion lady after she left.

To Be Continued...

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Sagada and Baseball

It's spring time which only means one thing - baseball season is about to start! America's favorite sport may not be as big in the Philippines as basketball but in Sagada, baseball is a favorite past-time too - at least for children in elementary and high school.

While neighborhoods around the US organize baseball leagues for children, and children compete in well trimmed fields, use new equipment, and play in their snappy uniforms, children in Sagada play with equal passion though with definitely less resources. There are only a few baseball bats and actual baseballs, but that doesn't stop the regular Sagada kid from being resourceful. Bats can be any tree branch that can be swung comfortably and as for balls, we've used anything from tennis balls, to old socks compacted as hard as possible. We didn't need any well-trimmed field back then. We could play in any field as long as it allowed us to bat and run. We used markers to determine where the bases are; and it doesn't have to be 4 bases and 9 players per team. Such pure love for the game has paid results for Sagada teams outside of the town. Sagada little league teams have competed and done well in regional and national competitions.

Last summer, I asked my eldest to write about our visit to the US Cellular Field (see photo above) - the stadium of the Chicago White Sox baseball team. We were there as part of our company's summer outing. Our tickets allowed us to move between the different levels of the stadium. Here's what my then 9-year old wrote for a family journal:

It was September 28th and my dad and I were going to the Sox Game. This was the first baseball game my dad and I watched together. First, we went to my dad’s friend’s house as they were going to the game with us. We then drove to the train station since we were going to ride a train to the US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. Inside the train, my dad and his friends took pictures of us. I also got to take pictures. It took us a while to get to the stadium.

When we were there, the stadium looked huge. Then we went inside. We went to the lowest part of the stadium. We went there because my dad’s company paid for the tickets. The place we went wasn’t boring since there was a buffet and we were close to the players.

When the game began there were fireworks. Wow! Fireworks on the middle of the day? I thought that was cool! I was cheering my lungs out. Then I got bit bored so my dad and I went to the upper level. We also heard that there was something for kids at that place. When we got up it almost looked like a mall. Then while we were walking we saw some games for kids. The first game that I tried was that I have to race this cardboard that has a picture of a baseball player in it and moves. I ran faster than the baseball player. I also got to hit a ball, catch one, and pitch one.

When the 9th inning started my dad and I went back down. Soon we were cheering for the Sox team again. People were shouting like crazy. Finally, as the 9th inning ended the Chicago White Sox won. Their score was 5 to 1. They won against the Cleveland Indians, the team they played against. It was a great game since the team we were cheering for won.

We left after the game. When we went outside, one of my dad’s officemates was giving bags of candy to the people who works in his office. I was glad they gave candy since I am going to share some to my brothers. We went back to the train station as we were going home. It was kind of crowded at first, but people were starting to get off. It was a great experience for my dad and I to go to a baseball game.

Photos Below: Left - My son at a batting cage; Right - Enjoying the baseball atmosphere

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Sagada Fiesta - Sports, Cheering, and School Rivalries

(Above photo is a collage of icons from the Paul Villegas' Sagada Fiesta Galleries.)

During my elementary years (and that was in the mid to late 80s) and I believe until now, Sagada fiestas were filled up with sport competitions. The fiesta program shows the schedule of volleyball, baseball, softball, and basketball games and watching or participating in these can be enough to fill up a day. There were also the sprinting races generally held at the last day of the fiesta. I only knew of 100-meter dash at the baseball ground; Sagada doesn't have a track for the longer events. If one is near the town center, the PA system is heard broadcasting matches that will soon be starting or about to start. The calls would go like this - "First call for boys baseball. Sagada Central School vs Antadao Elementary School." or this - "Last call for women's volleyball. Sagada ECW vs Besao ECW". I don't recall if they ever broadcast the results over the PA system.

I probably am included in the less than 1% of Philippine males that do not play basketball. (This is a noteworthy blog post in the future if someone is interested.) But I was fast enough to finish fourth in the 100m dash against taller opponents. I probably would have won had I not started school 2 years earlier and had to compete with boys a year or two older than me. (Now that's a good excuse, hehe.) I also had good hand-eye coordination enough to make the volleyball team as a regular player when I was in 5th grade. That means I beat out some 6th graders for the team. That would have been enough to make me proud if I didn't have a teammate who was in the 3rd grade. This boy, who goes by the initials FK, is probably the youngest ever volleyball player from our school. He was short for the team but had very good anticipation and placed the ball well. His mother was the high school principal and I saw him practicing with high school students before he even entered elementary school. Not fair.

CHEERING. Sagada didn't have the drum-beating-boosters-and-pompom-type-squads that constituted the cheering I learned as a student in Manila. What was there were normally a group of mostly women and girls, normally led by a teacher or so, and they would sit outside the playing area and sing some jingles. The opposing team, if they're fortunate to have a cheering group too, would sit in the opposite side. So if you're watching a softball game, you'd hear the following being sung while a player would walk up to bat:

"Bat that ball, bat that ball,
Name of School would bat that ball,
Name of School would bat that ball,
And we will win, the game today."

Gee, that sounded lame having to hum it while writing it down, hahaha. Still, I remember it sounding just right at that time. It probably is not that bad if delivered as a chant, as opposed to a jingle, and accompanied by drums. Anyway, that particular cheer would be cut off had the player actually hit the ball and was running towards the 1st base. Or, the 3rd line would just be muted had the player struck out. That cheer applied also to volleyball to basketball. Just change the lines to "Serve that ball" or "Shoot that ball" as needed.

One of the funnier cheers though, especially if a player hit a clean ball and the opposing team is scrambling to get that ball is this:

"The ball went over the mountain, the ball went over the mountain,
The ball went over the mountain, (high note being held here...)
To see the carabao. To see the carabao, to see the carabao.
The ball went over the mountain, the ball went over the mountain,
The ball went over the mountain, To see the carabao."

Ah! That was fun. I've also actually heard it sang as a taunt when a volleyball player overhit a serve or a return and it went way beyond wide.As a student of Sagada Central School, a.k.a. Bomabanga, and since we lived in the central barangays of Sagada, it was natural for me to cheer for my sisters' teams from St. Mary's School. With the creation of the Sagada National High School, there are now 2 high schools in the central barangays. It would be interesting to know which high school someone from Bomabanga would cheer on.Of my 3 sisters, only one was a varsity in high school. St. Mary's had dominating teams while I was growing up, but there were years where I'd wish we lived somewhere else. The softball team of our oldest sister during their senior high school year was really terrible. They'd lose by more than 10 runs to teams that they used to dominate in previous years.

School Rivalries. I remember a couple of interesting rivalries. In volleyball - it was Tetep-an versus the central schools, for both boys and girls volleyball in elementary and high school. St. Mary's High was virtually untouchable in high school male volleyball thanks largely to the Balanon-trained Guinaang imports. Female volleybelles from St. Mary's, also trained by the same coach, also won 99.99% of the time, but Tetep-an always gave a worthy challenge. In provincial meets, Sagada would most of the time be represented by St. Mary's teams, with one or two players from Tetep-an.

The girls from Bomabanga were also as formidable as their high school counterparts, but the talent was somehow missing for the team during my 6th grade. I will not identify the team. That year, the Tetep-an girls team was vastly superior in all aspects that it was an achievement for Bomabanga to get a third of their total points. As for the boys team, our Bomabanga team beat everyone, including Tetep-an, handily. Eherm!

Another interesting rivalry was between the All Saints Mission school, Bontoc's Anglican elementary school, and Bomabanga. These schools are rivals in Mountain Province in a lot of competitions, both sports and academic. The All Saints team were very strong in softball girls. They've beaten the Bomabanga team several years in a row. On my first Sagada fiesta when I was in 2nd grade, they visited Sagada to play against the Bomabanga team that included my second eldest sister. Somehow that year, the Bomabanga team beat them. If I remember right, it was an ill-tempered game where the losers failed to acknowledge the winning team and just left for Bontoc.

Girls volleyball was also hotly contested between the two teams. I believe that the most talented volleyball's team that Bomabanga has produced was the 1986 team. My sister belonged to that team and in high school, they represented the Cordillera Region in the Palarong Pambansa. However, during the division competition earlier that schoolyear, the All Saints team initially lost to a Sagada team missing their tallest player because apparently, she was deemed overheight. (Yes, there was such a thing!) The match was held in Bontoc, and the losing team complained to their supervisors and wanted a rematch. Somehow, the Sagada coach agreed to a rematch late in the afternoon, and the visiting and fatigued Sagada team lost in 3 tight sets. (Ok, I wasn't there but I knew the players involved.) The second result stood so the All Saints team became the division champions. When they visited Sagada for the fiesta, the Sagada team beat them easily in two straight sets. The whole affair was so bizarre I remember all the details after 20+ years!

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Sagada Fiesta - Batanguenos, Pabunot and Parade

(Sagada street dancing during the 2008 Fiesta. Above photo is a screenshot from one of Paul Villegas' Sagada Fiesta galleries.)

The Sagada Fiesta, an annual celebration held every last week of January / first week of February is an event I always looked forward to as a child. I can't confirm it but I'm guessing that the fiesta is actually an Anglican celebration falling either on February 2, or on the Sunday between January 28 and February 3. This religious celebration is marked as the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or more traditionally, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. After all, Sagada's patron saint is Saint Mary the Virgin. (Just a disclaimer - I've learned about these occassions from research as an adult, I never knew about this as a child.) February 2 is a special date in our family. It is the birthday of my Grandma Andrea, my paternal grandmother. It also is the birthday of my oldest son.

On the days before the fiesta, the sidewalk from the townhall to the hospital would be marked with red paint spaced a few meters apart. These spaces would be rented by Batanguenos, a misnomer for merchants from the lowlands who are in town to showcase their wares for the Sagada folk to buy. (Nope, not all of them come from the province of Batangas - that's just how we, i-Sagada call them.) Anticipation would be building high the afternoon before the first day of the fiesta. Majority of these Batanguenos would have set-up their booths, and people would already be looking for good bargains.

The first fiesta I remembered was during my second grade. The first day of the fiesta was a parade from Dao-angan to the church. I marched with my classmates proudly to town. After the church service, I was given my very first allowance by my grandparents. My allowance that day didn't amount to P1. And, I wasn't even allowed to hold it. My older sister, then a 4th grader handled it for me. We were told to keep out from children who would snatch whatever we bought. I remember getting my first taste of cotton candy from that allowance.

My entrepeneuring sister used her allowance and I believe some of mine too, to buy a pabunot. Imagine a calendar sized paper that had around 100 tiny squares - each of these squares were covered. The idea is to let other children pay a small amount like 5 centavos or so, to get the chance to uncover a square, and see if that square has a prize attached to it. The prizes are also small amounts of money, like 25 centavos, or 50 centavos - some pabunot also had squares amounting to a peso or even 2 pesos. To us children, if you spend 5 centavos and get lucky enough to win 50 centavos, that would be like winning the jackpot. (Somehow, those were my naive days.)

I vividly remember that when my sister bought this pabunot, and after she was paid a few centavos to open just a few squares, a boy also with a pabunot approached her. He paid to open one square. I saw him count rows and columns before picking a particular square. The prize attached to that square was the whole pabunot itself. Waaah! There we were, our allowance was gone, and the boy left us and went about peddling his pabunot and ours too.

Not all my fiesta experiences were as bad as that one though. I remember cheering for Sagada Central School (or Bomabanga) and St. Mary's School teams and seeing them win. Years later, I would be tasked to lead the drum and bugle corp from our school when I was in 5th and 6th grade. My cousin has hinted to me that I should be the band leader since a lot of band leaders came from our neighborhood. Imagine that pressure on my young shoulders - what if I wasn't picked to lead the band? During a fifth grade drum practice, I think our teacher saw how clumsy I was at the drums and made a very smart move. He gave me the baton and whistle and told me to lead the band. I don't believe I deserved that one but heck, who was I to argue? I took to the baton and the whistle as if they were the brothers I never had. That made me really proud.

The parade normally kicked off the fiesta. My sisters and I would put on our freshly ironed school uniforms and make the 15minute hike to where the parade would start. During our time, the parade started from Dao-angan, went up to the municipal hall, followed the road to the main gate near the hospital, and ended at church. Compared to the bigger parades I've witnessed as an older person, the ones we had were simpler. But that didn't mean it was less fun. There were normally 2 marching bands. (1 from the our school, and the other from Saint Mary's School.) Majority of elementary and high school students from the different barangays would be present in the parade. Teachers and government officials would join as well.

The parade has evolved through the years. I left Sagada to attend high school in Manila. Pictures of the parade where my younger sisters participated in are very different from the parades during my time. My younger sisters were actually band majorettes, something not present when I was part of the parade. Nowadays, they're trying to spice up the Sagada Fiesta parade by showcasing the culture of the Igorots. Streetdancing and gong-playing as shown in the above photograph looks to be a common feature. And that's a good thing. The only bad thing about it is - I haven't attended a Sagada Fiesta in almost 20-gasp-years!

Next Post: Sagada Fiesta - Sports, Cheering and School Rivalries

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Happy New Year

In Sagada, our New Year celebration starts with a busy kitchen in the morning. The girls in our family have a reputation for their great kitchen skills - their products are the envy of many families. There's the family recipe for banana cake and lemon pie from lemons fresh my grandfather's orchard. A cousin is known for her chocolate cake - I particularly liked the colorful candy bits topped on the chocolate frosting. Our cousins from Loakan, Baguio City on the other hand are also known for their Ilocano cooking. I remember a New Year's dinner when each cousin prepared his/her own masterpiece. Boy, that was a feast to remember.

There had been bloopers as well - on one dinner, all the meals have been prepared and the guests are ready to be served when there was a sudden rush in the kitchen as we realized that rice hasn't been cooked yet. That made my grandfather shook his head. As a non-cook, I'm always constrained to the dishes afterward. I don't really mind it one bit as I would normally be very full and satisfied after our heavy New Year's Eve meals.

After the New Year dinner, my family would prepare to watch the community shows at the basketball court. In our elementary days, we would always troop to the shows together - but as we grew up and had our own friends, we would attend the community affairs in our respective groups.

The last hour of the year would be spent at the church for the New Year midnight mass. Since it is still the Christmas season, the hymns would normally be a replica of the songs sang during Christmas Eve. I remembered the church to be always full on these occasions. The Holy Communion line is also a time to see the faces of those who were present to celebrate New Year in Sagada. The last song of the midnight mass would normally be a high energy hymn - I will never forget the sound of "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" sang in 4 voices by the whole congregation. It is very heart warming.

After the last hymn, church goers would greet each other and sing Robert Burn's "Auld Lang Syne". Very western? Definitely, but always with a Sagada twist. The bells of St. Mary's Church would usher in the New Year. Firecrackers could be heard and seen from the church entrance. At this point, I would make sure to give each and every family member a hug, a buzz, and a Happy New Year greeting. We'd then make the slow walk home to a snack of a piece of cake or pie. Or some Sagada macaroni fruit salad.

While I always preferred going straight home after the midnight mass, I know that Sagada is very much awake until the wee hours of the morning. There are bonfires and gong playing. It would not be a New Year without alcohol and firecrackers. I suppose these two are a dangerous combination but unlike the cities where there are a lot of New Year injuries, I don't recall any New Year injuries occurring to any town mate while growing up. I remember a time during my teenage years when I fired my first gun. A cousin let my sisters and I use his pistol to file some rounds. I am a non-violent person so I didn't quite see anything exciting with the experience. I have something to tell my children though.

As I write this post, its 10pm of Dec 31 in Sagada - two more hours left in 2008. I am with my family half an earth away in the United States, it is early morning here. Our children will be meeting with their cousins later in the day to play and enjoy some meals together. It's not exactly as sentimental as the Sagada New Year celebrations I know, but for the children, it is something to look forward to.

Have a safe and joyous NEW YEAR to you and your families. Easy on the booze, and watch that firecracker.

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Sagada Torch Parade

Around this time of the year, and if I'm not mistaken, on the 8th of December, Sagada's St. Mary's School hold their annual torch parade. My 3 older sisters have been students of Santa Mal-ya (the Sagada way of pronouncing Saint Mary) and as a child, I always look forward to this time of the year.

We would have our dinner early, and make the 10-15 minute walk from Nangonogan to the municipal basketball court to watch the event. We would be fully dressed up, jackets and all to counter the chilly December evenings. We would wait with a sizeable crowd at the basketball court and while waiting, it is normal for the townfolks to sing a song or two.

I have very vivid memories of the torch parades I've watched as a child. From a distance, we would see a long line of torches seemingly floating in the wind. It could be pretty hypnotizing seeing the torches snake their way from Tangeb, down to Dao-angan, and up to the town center. By then, silhouettes of students carrying the torches would be discernible. As the torch parade comes closer and closer to the basketball court, the gong playing accompanying the parade becomes louder and louder. Pretty soon, the students in the parade would go down to the basketball court where a program would start with cultural presentations and singing. Despite the very chilly night, the students in the parade would be fully dressed in Igorot costumes. The boys wearing only the wanes (g-string) and the girls wearing the traditional skirt and belt with white blouses. I believe there were also competition between the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors of the school on who had the most creative torches and the best presentations.

One particular year I remember was when all my sisters were enrolled in St. Mary's. Our eldest was a senior, our 2nd was a junior, and our 3rd sister was a freshman. I fully remember the freshman class enthusiastically singing "KALAPATI, MISDA'Y KALAPATI" while the group joined them in the chorus. The seniors, who eventually won the presentation competition did the Balangbang, forming the letters of MERRY CHRISTMAS to the delight of a small but boisterous crowd from Manila. Somehow, the presentation of the juniors escape is not as clear for me, but I think they had some wonderful dancing from the Guina-ang students.

The last time I watched a torch parade was decades ago and I don't know if the Sagada Torch Parade is still being held in St. Mary's. I never participated in one because I spent my high school years in Manila. It would be a big loss if this practice stopped.These traditional events help link one's memories to their hometown, and for me, these are really fond memories to look back to and to share with my children.

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Bullying: An Issue in Sagada and Elsewhere

Lori Drew, a 49-year old Missouri mother was accused of cyberbullying a 13-year old neighbor that apparently led to the teenager's suicide. Drew reportedly targeted the teen after the girl had a falling out with Drew's daughter, and she set out to "embarrass her, to humiliate her, to make fun of her and to hurt her". She created a dummy MySpace account for a teenage boy and pretended to befriend the teenage girl and eventually broke up with her through an email. The teen was so distraught by what happened that she eventually hanged herself. See the full story on 'Cyber Bully' Mom Cleared Of Felony In MySpace Suicide Case.

This is such a sad case for both parties. You now have a dead teenager, and a mother who is going to jail for her actions. Two families are severely impacted by this bullying incident. What I cannot imagine is the hatred that existed in Lori Drew's mind. How can a mother do such a thing to another's child?

In the broader context, bullying - whether virtual or physical is a challenge for the children being bullied. As a student attending Bomabanga (Sagada Central School), I was also bullied by at least 3 boys who were much older and bigger than me. I was terrified meeting them on the school grounds, and as an adult, I can even remember the hurting taunts they'd tell when they see me. I was blessed to have had a loving family who raised me in an environment where my self-worth was not determined by what bullies thought. And later on, I learned to forgive these bullies. I was wise enough to acknowledge that I cannot control what others think, but I can control how I react to circumstances. Eventually, I would meet these bullies in the streets of Sagada when I was older. I'd greet them and smile at them as if nothing ever happened.

But that's me, and I'm blessed. There are other bullied children out there like the teen who created suicide and who may have allowed bullies to determine their self-worth. It is a common issue in schools and something that should be addressed by those in authority - whether this be in Sagada or in Missouri.

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All Saint's Day in Sagada

(Photo courtesy of Ironwulf.net)

Sagada has a very unique way of celebrating All Saints Day and this is due to the atypical location of its cemetery. Sagada’s central cemetery is part of the Anglican Mission Compound, and located above the St. Mary’s School, St. Mary the Virgin Church and the rectory. The cemetery is not in a flattened area. In fact, the tombs are scattered along the slope of a hill going up to the selected site for Calvary . One takes a winding upward path from the church to reach the place. (It is also the place where I’ve seen my first and only ghost but that is a different blog post altogether.)

While most Filipinos bring candles to light at the tombs of their loved ones on All Saint’s Day, Sagada locals would prepare bundles of wood and “saeng“. (I can’t translate this right now but suffice to say that it is a type of pine wood that combusts easily). Candles are of little use against the wind in the Sagada cemetery, so the people build bonfires instead.

A vivid childhood memory I have is the sight of dozens of bonfires lighting up the slope of the mountain where the cemetery is. Add to this the thick columns of smoke going up from the fires and the arrival of dusk, and it probably would look like a scene from a horror movie. The environment however, is far from gloomy. Children roam around happily, and parents watch that they don’t cause any damage. Relatives of those buried in tombs with limestone epitaphs advise those building bonfires to make these at safe distances to avoid damaging the stones. A drunken man may be seen visiting the resting places of his buddies, pouring a bit of San Miguel over the bonfires and thus allowing the alcohol to further strengthen the flames. There’s the occasional shout or two that can either be a warm greeting or a warning of some kind. Fire, after all, is something that can easily spread if not watched closely.

I do use candles on these occasions and as I’ve seen my mom do, I visit the tombs of relatives and friends and light a candle or add a piece of wood if there’s a fire that’s already burning. Lighting a candle is a challenge in the windy conditions – it is normal to put the candle inside a bottle or hide it against a wall so the wind cannot get to it. My dad’s tomb is at the upper part of the cemetery, and is separated from where my paternal grandparents were buried. It is however, adjacent to where my maternal grandparents have been laid.

I normally visit the tomb of a cousin who died as a teenager before I was born– his family resides in Tabuk, Kalinga and there is no one to visit his resting place during this time of the year. I rarely find it unlighted though, there’s most likely a candle that’s already there, or a small bonfire that’s burning. This would have been an act of kindness by a town-mate who probably was passing by and seeing the tomb un-attended, cared enough to light a fire.

It’s been a long time since I spent All Saints Day in Sagada. The bonfires I’ve seen in past years however still burn brightly in my mind.

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Finding a Sagada Friend through Facebook

RC was the first Caucasian I befriended. This was during my 6th grade, way back in 1987-88. She is Australian. Her family rented a place in Nangonogan, Sagada - where I spent my early childhood years. I don't remember what her family's business in Sagada was. I know they moved from one rural place to another. Prior to Sagada, they stayed in Somalia. This means that her folks may have worked for a non-government organization, but at that time, it didn't occur to me to even ask. Her family were the first Buddhists I ever met.

I was a regular at their house; she and her brother had a good collection of Asterix and Tintin comic books. I remember playing darts with them both. And, when it was school election time, she run under my party as the Public Relations Officer (PRO). After a campaign speech in front of the whole school, she sang "Waltzing Matilda". I remember that I won in the position I aspired for; she narrowly lost to a 5th grader. (On a side note - when I worked in Paris, a French colleague was surprised that I read Asterix and Tintin as a child. He pronounced Tintin as "tan-tan".)

We had a class debate during that year - it was on the effect of tourism in Sagada. I was in the group who favored tourism, to my great surprise, she was in the opposing group. To me, she was a tourist in Sagada. Perhaps she didn't see herself as I did. She was one of five or six from that group who stood up and gave a speech why tourism is bad for Sagada.

After 6th grade, I moved to Manila to continue my high school studies. I believe RC and her family stayed in Sagada for a year or two more. After that, we lost contact with each other. Just last year, I opened a Facebook account. I searched for RCs name and I saw a profile from Australia. I sent her a message asking if she was the same RC who was in Sagada. She replied back:

"Yes!! I am RC who went to sagada elementary school, and I am delighted and suprised that anyone has found me! I would never have thought that anyone would find me from Sagada. I am SO PLEASEd you did. ...

The only thing is I have a vague memory I definately rememeber your name, and now your face has changed. I have photos of that time and I will look at them. Are you still in Sagada?"

Sometimes, the child in me wish that he is still in Sagada - a 6th grader, no cares in the world except for reading Asterix and Tintin comics, and learning "Waltzing Matilda" from an Australian friend.

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