Man on a Mission: Gawis ay Mountain Province! (Days Gone By Part III)

Most people would make something like this a trilogy.

I am not most people.

Actually, I just don't want to cram everything since coming back to The Philippines into one post.

Trust me. It's better this way.

So, without further ado:

LET'S GO!

Blonde Jesus on a Jeepney.

Yep.

I'm back in Manila...

Guess who's back...back again? We arrived back into the Philippines October 5th - this time, to stay.

Onward to Mountain Province! Onward to my year! Onward! to Bontoc!!!

Oh. Wait...

The definition of a good time.

Thanks to silly things like "laws" and "immigration" and "needing to be in the country legally", it looks like we have some time to kill...

So, what to do with our extra days in Manila? Well, for starters, we got a personalized tour from Uncle Frey (sorry if I spelled that incorrectly, I've only ever heard it!) around Fort Santiago - where the Japanese kept US and Filipino prisoners of war during WWII and the "home" (read: prison) of Philippine national hero and all-around baller, Dr. José Rizal. Rizal was confined to the Fort after the Spanish got a hold of him on charges of insurrection at the tail-end of their 300+ year colonization of the Philippines.

'Sup

When Dr. Rizal wasn't (allegedly) inspiring Filipinos to rise up against the Spaniards via his major works Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, he was spending his time doing way more than anyone you know and doing it well - for instance: he was a medical doctor, author, agriculturist, fencer, inventor, poet, businessman, painter, land surveyor, pistol fighter (what?!), sculptor, cartographer....seriously, the list goes on. Oh, and that whole social organizer thing.

By the way, he did all of that before being executed at age 35.

Oh, you're just a doctor? That's cool, I guess...

Shutter down: Unfortunately they wouldn't let us take photos of any of his works or the things they had collected for the museum, but I did get some photos of the fort itself and the surrounding area.

In case this looks bad as just a regular jail cell, imagine it completely packed with people.

Yeah. Doesn't sound fun to me either.

At least the Fort grounds are pretty?

"Wait, you're voluntarily going in there?"

-The hundreds of people who involuntarily went in there

This side note brought to you by A.D.D.:

It's always ~~Sunny~~ Christmas in ~~Philadelphia~~ The Philippines: I forgot to mention in my last blog, but I would be remiss not to share it: Christmas here begins waaaay earlier than it does in the States. Personally, back home I typically refuse to listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. By contrast, we landed in Manila on September 26th and there was already Christmas music playing. "Oh that we should always see such spirit through the year" indeed.

Anyway.

After we left the Fort, we went across the way to San Agustin Church (and monastery) in Intramuros. It was huge and beautiful and contained all sorts of artifacts, wonderful art and old books (much of which I either couldn't get a good picture of or they wouldn't allow pictures of at all. Again with that rule. Come on!)

None of my pictures do the inside of this place justice, so here's one off of the web

Back to mine, with the other YASC'ers for scale

One of the many passageways

From there we went to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial - a resting place for the soldiers who fought and died in The Battle of The Philippines and in the recapture of the islands from the Japanese among other WWII battles. Not much to say other than that it was a peaceful place and a fitting tribute to those who died or went missing in action.

The Memorial grounds

These maps were great for any military history buff

Well, fancy seeing you here

The time has come: After a (surprisingly short) wait for immigration to do their thing, we left, visas in hand to prepare for our next-day travel to our placements. So in the morning we grabbed our bags and dodged Manila traffic in the only way you can dodge Manila traffic.

Along the way, I was marveling at the beauty of the surrounding country. Carlin told me I shouldn't bother taking pictures since where I was going would blow those views away.

"Ho-hum" -Carlin, probably

After an obligatory stop for coffee (this, along with rice at every meal, is probably not codified into Philippine law, but I'm not 100% sure...) we carried on, eventually stopping to eat lunch and part ways.

Thankfully not at this place

Mountain Time: At lunch I met Benzent and Erwin, who now are good friends to me, but at the time were brand-new strangers who would take me the rest of the way into Bontoc while Carlin and Tristan carried on to Tabuk. So off we went into Ifugao Province and straightaway into Mountain Province - my new home!

Turns out Carlin was right

Ugh. Let's just consider this the "before" picture for this year.

Alternative caption: Something giant and green. Also, the Banaue Rice Terraces

The long and winding road: After a few hours and winding mountain roads (of varying rockiness,) we finally arrived!

This! Is! Bontoc!

This! Is!...also Bontoc

This! y'know what, I think you get it...

(Actually this is the church compound. More on that later...)

"So I'm here. Now what?"

Good question, Me! Good thing I already know the answer.

But to find out for yourself, come back next time when I'll be visiting my first communities, delving into E-CARE and the ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development) process, attending the installation of a brand-new Bishop, and becoming an honorary member of a native tribe!

As a parting gift, here's some more pictures!