The spirits move among us

I have always known this, and I try to remember this. Sometimes I forget. But on that day when I covered the Buhay Babaylan event in UP Diliman, it was my very own central theme. Baylan Undin reminded me of what I know. An old friend I saw and talked to during the event also spoke about it. They are with us, moving alongside, maybe even through, us. They are in our homes, in our rooms. They watch us, listen in, try to touch us. Sometimes they get angry, and then we need to ask for forgiveness. I know there are many who don't believe this, but it doesn't matter. Those who do should be more careful, because we share this world with those who are unseen.

Here are photos from the event.


Baylan Undin, a Manobo babaylan from Agusan, with her niece Robilyn (left) and Grace Nono (right)


Robilyn is a Manobo youth leader and a master of traditional embroidery and beadwork. She has led her people through arts and crafts revitalization projects.


Baylan Undin with her niece and interpreter Robilyn.


Offering sacrifices for the spirits: betel nut, eggs, tuba

Here is the full story on GMA News Online:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/291441/lifestyle/people/brief-encounter-with-a-manobo-babaylan

An email that made me remember these poems

Today I received an email from a certain Mikaela. Here is an excerpt:

Good day to you Ms. Imelda!

Before I start, I must say although there are only a few of your works I could find at the moment, I am already a fan and looking forward to more of your poetry :)

I am currently a student in a university. I have a paper to write on three poems from third-world/Asian poets and originally submitted a proposal with a different set, but when I read your poems "Old House", "Photograph: Father and Kids at Home", "I sing", "Morning Shadows" and "A Little Before Dying" I immediately thought of changing the poems I have to use because they were so close to the heart. I really went through the first five pages of google to search for your works and those were the ones I found.

Now that I've read them over and over again (because understanding poetry takes an immeasurable amount of time for others like me), I still need more information so I could add input to my paper. I know that I'm supposed to be doing this on my own but I'm the kind of reader who gets overly-attached to what she's reading and I really want to know the history behind what I'm reading.

I just had to ask you a few questions because it is intriguing and I'd like to further understand the poetry based from you; if you would do me the honor of answering them.

These are my answers to her questions:

1. Some of your poems are focused primarily on family and within the grounds of their homes; why is that?
In my life, the most meaningful changes and actions happen in the home, with people closest to my heart. My poetry seeks to freeze these moments through words to help me remember, not only the images but more importantly, the feeling. Poetry does a good job of doing this.

2. What is the significance of the number 17 from "Photograph: Father and Kids at Home"? I can't quite put my finger on its juxtaposition to the water meter, and mailbox.
It is the number of the house from my childhood. The same house I grew up in and the place where all of the early milestones in my life happened. This particular poem was written about the photograph.

3. Is the person speaking in first person point of view from "Photograph: Father and Kids at Home" the Father in the title? Is he also the father of his own nephew? Because that's how I understand it especially when you mentioned "naughty grin".
No, the speaker in the poem is the one looking at the photograph, apparently the father's daughter, who is not in the picture. The title is the caption of the photo. The nephew is the observer's nephew.

4. In "A Little Before Dying" was the woman in the poem dying of cancer? She had a slow death, but does the woman have a family? What can you say about its setting?
It was not said what afflicted the woman, it could just be that her loneliness was slowly killing her. It was also not said if she had family, but that she was waiting for "things that will never arrive." And this could be people, or thoughts, or feelings. The setting is obviously the woman's sad and small home, filled with furniture that have sharp corners.

5. "I sing" obviously is about a mother-child relationship; Was the point-of-view based from your own experiences as a mother?
Yes.

6. Where did you find inspiration for writing "Old House"? I'm referring to the dramatic situation and the figures of speech po (I really loved the line "It has memories of lives other than ours"!!!)
After I left my childhood home in "Photograph: Father and Kids at Home" I, together with my ex-husband, lived in a series of rented houses. I could never forget the image of me trying to wipe off the writings on a cabinet door in an old house we rented in Los Banos, Laguna. I wondered then how many lives were lived in that house, how many people it had known, how much sorrow (or joy) it carried, and so on.

7. I have only to choose three, which would you suggest I pick? I love all of them but which are the ones you love most?
Definitely these three: "Old House," "Photograph: Father and Kids at Home," and "A Little Before Dying".

###

In the chaos and fullness of my days in the past months (years?), I have forgotten all about poetry. I'd pick up a poetry book, or read an essay, write a few lines now and then. Sometimes I needed to be prompted by patient friends and FB friends (like Angelo Ancheta!) to write a few poetic lines. Daily. Something that I should be doing, but not. Oh, shame on me!

Happy New Year to the one or two readers of this blog.

A Visit to the Good Ol' Library

One day he asked me this unexpected question: Mama, what's a library? (As a Waldorf student, Bowi hasn't been exposed to big libraries yet.)

When I was younger, during the pre-Internet era, libraries were a part of my life in a maaaaajor way. I used to go to the British Council, the National Library, Thomas Jefferson on Buendia, and Goethe Institut. These kids are missing a lot, I think. The romance of it all: going through the card catalog, holding the book in your hand, borrowing it from the librarian, returning it late, paying the fee, writing down your notes. It's all part of how I came to love books.

You don't get that by paying Google a visit.

And so I resolved to bring him to a real library. The closest one is the Quezon City Public Library. And guess what? He loved it! He was the only little person there. One of the librarians came up to us to ask what we're looking for.

Oh we're just looking around, I tell him. For his assignment? he asked. No, I said, he just wants to read.



The little guy was literally running around flitting from shelf to shelf like a butterfly darting from one flower to the next.

It was interesting, the crowd that afternoon. There were students, of course, but mostly the library users that day were senior citizens, mostly male. Reading newspapers, listening to audio books (I suppose they're audio books), writing down notes, reading through thick volumes, talking, using their phones. I suppose they were some of those who haven't really transitioned to doing research online.

It was refreshing to see them here. Bowi and all these lolos. Inside this old, not-so-quiet library.



He kept on looking for books on recycling.



I found a book to read, too! :)

Care ko?!

Sadly, many writers think that writing is a solitary activity.

We have been told this lie over and over. I believe that writing does not only involve the act of writing. In fact, that is just a small part of this great work that we do.

Writing includes the thinking process, the staring-into-space moments, interaction with people who will somehow find their way into the piece you are working on, the search for a publisher, market research, raising money for the writing project, and so on and so forth.

Every writer, therefore, must go out there and involve herself in the different activities and events that shape the landscape of this industry. Her voice must be heard and she must take part in change creation. She needs to be aware of relevant developments in her world so her writing can continue to be powerful.

I, and at least one other writer friend, therefore wonder why majority of local writers are usually disinterested about actually working to protect their various rights, in questioning biased laws, in participating in forums that tackle their welfare and other issues that affect them directly.

* * *

Here is an article that came out on Rappler recently. This event, among many others, should have attracted more writers. Unfortunately, they had better things to do. So there.

Do Pinoys wear the old coat and buy the new book?

I am a slow reader. I savor the words, let phrases linger longer in the mouth. But I read several books at a time. Sometimes, five or six. Sometimes, more. I cannot read before going to bed because it makes me sleepy, even if the book’s a thriller. The best reading time for me would be in the early morning, during waiting time, or while on travel.

These are some of my reading habits and behavior. And if you’re a smart book writer or publisher, you will find a way to get your hands on facts that pertain to your market’s reading attitudes and practices. If publishers and writers knew, for instance, that there is more demand for books written in local dialects, then they can (and they should) produce more books that will cater to this need.

Read the entire story here: http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/15176-do-pinoys-wear-the-old-coat-and-buy-the-new-book

Noah’s Ark in the Age of Reality TV

If something similar to the great 2011 Tohoku earthquake happens in the Philippines, which is not an impossibility, the entire country will be paralyzed for 10 to 15 years. This is the dire prediction of Ed Guevara, a Swiss-Filipino farmer, eco-village advocate, and visionary. “It will take that long, IF we recover at all,” he emphasizes, “but with a government like this, where will you go?”




A dream in his heart

Guevara was born to a poor family that could not afford to send him to college. But he wanted so badly to become an oceanographer and explore the vast seas that he took on a janitorial job just to pay for a scuba diving course. Eventually, he married a Swiss national and they built a family in Geneva. Guevara studied and worked as a banker abroad and lived the good life with his wife and two children. But a thought kept nagging at him: “How could I feel comfortable when I knew that my relatives, like other families in the Philippines, were struggling to survive?”

The birth of GEO Farm and the Eco-village

While in Switzerland, Guevara visited the Health and Nutrition Solvita Exhibit where he discovered the Blue-Green Algae, the Spirulina Platensis. After studying the history and the nutritional effects of Spirulina, an idea was hatched in Guevara’s mind to use this specific type of algae to fight malnutrition in his home country. In 1992, Guevara established GEO Farm in Pangasinan and set up a small-scale Spirulina production facility within a self-sufficient farm. He was convinced that a family-based integrated farm can help countless people escape the eternal cycle of poverty and food shortage.




Tour de force

After helping families and communities by way of conducting training programs on survival, emergency and disaster response, and sustainable communities—on top of his work with the Spirulina farms—Guevara has, after two decades, come to develop his master work: The Rescue Village.

“I’m an emergency guy,” Guevara says, “When I see people doing it wrong, I am so disturbed because I know there is a way to do it better.” He hopes that people would stop depending on the government and start doing what they can on their own. This is the driving force behind his Rescue Village idea, Guevara’s personal contribution to the emergency response efforts in the Philippines.

Disaster response, Philippine style

Guevara laments the fact that in the Philippines, the safety and comfort of people during tragedies are not given enough importance. “Shelters are temporary, and usually these are set up in basketball courts, gymnasiums, or schools,” he explains. “It’s always a stop gap solution.” Classes get disrupted, there are no clean comfort rooms and clean water, and people stay in hot, cramped spaces, making them susceptible to diseases.

The rubber boats that are commonly used by our rescue forces are too expensive, aside from being too bulky for narrow streets. They are also not very sturdy as they could burst and sink easily. “Disaster response training courses don’t empower the people,” Guevara says, “They leave you with a piece of paper and some first aid techniques that are useless when you don’t even have a boat or a life vest.”





The power of media

Media becomes a very powerful tool not only during emergency situations, but also before and after disaster happens. But in the Philippines, unfortunately, mass media do not serve the interests of the masses. According to Guevara, media should know what to do during disasters, and media men should not simply go out and look for sob stories, film people in distress, highlight their tears and suffering. “They should guide the people, tell them what to do,” he says. “Instead of entertaining us, media should educate us.”

Guevara believes that this emotional devastation, which we are so used to, “is a disaster in itself, thank you to all these drama shows”. Instead of empowering people to overcome their problem, they are taught to wallow in their emotions, dragging the entire nation down with them towards helplessness and misery.

Before disaster strikes

Having observed how things are done in Switzerland, where they have supposedly prepared well-equipped relocation areas within their mountains to accommodate 48 million people, Guevara suggests the creation of a rescue village in every community. “And since we know that a typhoon will hit a few days before it actually does, we need to relocate the elderly, the children, the sick, and the pregnant women to safe places—either relatives’ homes or relocation sites—so when disaster hits, we have decreased in half the number of people needing rescue,” says Guevara.

The able-bodied men may be left behind to guard the homes and look after the family’s belongings. These people would most likely be capable of rescuing themselves in case of emergencies.

Improvised drum boat and life vest

Using plastic water drums and PVC pipes, Guevara is able to fabricate low-cost, easy-to-build drum boats that can be used for emergencies. “Ideally, every family must have one boat, since a boat can accommodate six people,” he explains. The boats are easy to maneuver using plastic oars made from the same boat material. They are also stable and durable, with each unit having gone through a wobble test for safety and stability, an overload test, and recovery/flip over test.

Guevara sells his boats for a very low price. He also conducts training sessions on how to build these boats and how to use them properly. “I will not sell a boat without teaching the buyer how to use it, and how to make more boats like it,” he confirms. This is Guevara’s way of empowering communities to rescue their own during emergencies.





Aside from teaching people how to build drum boats, Guevara also shows them how they can make life vests out of cheese cloth and empty water bottles. “With the life vest, non-swimmers could learn to swim in a matter of minutes,” Guevara claims. It is unacceptable to him that over 90% of Filipinos can’t swim, considering that the country is surrounded by bodies of water and many areas are prone to flooding. “If you don’t know how to swim, you’ll simply watch your loved ones drown before your eyes when disasters happen,” Guevara says, “So learn to swim, it will only take a day.”

Ed Guevara believes that once you leave a community with the knowledge to make their own drum boats and life vests, you are leaving them with the necessary skills for survival during deadly floods.

The Rescue Village

The most important part of his recent work in the field of disaster response is the Rescue Village. This is a temporary camp to be established in calamity zones to help in the rescue and rehabilitation of the place and its people. The heart of the village is made of 12 stations (built using 12 40-foot container vans) with each station performing specific functions. For example, one station will carry all the seeds and fertilizer needed to start a garden from scratch. This will provide nutritious food for the Rescue Village staff and the survivors in the event of destruction of all crops and the inability of food suppliers to reach the area.





“I could build a rescue village in just three months,” Guevara declares. The idea is to settle into a calamity zone, help the community on its feet by integrating them into the Rescue Village, and then build a permanent and self-sufficient Eco-village in the area before transferring the mobile Rescue Village to another disaster location. Guevara has created a complete and detailed plan of his Rescue Village project from start to finish.

Inside the rescue village, 20 volunteer experts will be working in different fields of specialization: food production, frozen food maintenance, kitchen work, housekeeping, administration, medical service, powerhouse and water system maintenance, tools safekeeping, etc. A village can accommodate 700 families and 200 staff members. Earth bag homes will be built for each family.

The Rescue Village supplies will be enough for the 700 families for a period of three months. After which, it is assumed that the villagers have been empowered enough to continue on their own. Guevara notes, “We will produce 700 rescuers and 700 rescue boats for each month that the village is in a certain location.” Those rescuers will be coming from the community itself, so when the mobile village leaves the area, the residents would have the necessary survival skills.

In just three months, the village would have rehabilitated 700 families, or 1400 families in six months, and so on. Guevara says, “No engineer is capable of building this in three months—this is nanotechnology—the beds are collapsible, designs are modular.” Guevara will be working with engineers to perfect his designs.

“Let us say a community suffers devastating floods and there are thousands of dead people, the Rescue Village comes in—preceded by bulldozers and other heavy machinery to clear a path and camp—and sets up in the cleared area,” Guevara explains. There will be a holding area where staff members will receive the first 700 families needing rescue. They will be given a warm shower, a clean change of clothes, and assigned to their quarters. “The village cannot accept more than 700 families, otherwise the quality of service will suffer and supplies will run out,” he says, “So the area will be heavily secured and guarded to protect the people inside; everyone will be taught how to defend themselves.”




Survivors and Reality TV

Media could play a great role in Ed Guevara’s Rescue Village Project as it can broadcast, reality TV style, the construction of the first ever Rescue Village. “People will be learning as they are entertained,” Guevara reasons. This, according to him, is the crucial part in the anatomy of a disaster.

“A disaster has three parts: Before, During, and After,” says Guevara. “During” lasts a few seconds or a few hours, “After” and “During” will both depend on the “Before”, or how you prepare for it. “After”, or the effects of disaster, could last for years. It could elicit unbelievable sorrow if inadequate preparation was done, he says. “If you know what you are going to do, if you have prepared for it, you will not panic,” Guevara declares.

The reality TV setup is part of “Before” or the preparation for disaster. Families nationwide will be given information on how they could save themselves and their loved ones in case of disasters. This is the important role of media.

Human dignity

Ed Guevara wishes that people will listen this time and adopt his Rescue Village idea. “Calamities will happen; it is just a matter of time,” he cautions. The system has to be in place when it is needed, and this system has to assure the survival of a good number of people.

“There is no such thing as single survival—I wouldn’t want to live if my family and friends will all perish, or if I’d live for a few days and then die because there is no food,” he shares. The rescue and rehabilitation program, therefore, has to provide survivors with decent living conditions and keep their dignity intact while providing their basic needs.

As far as Ed Guevara is concerned, survival should be complete or there should not be any effort at all. “If there is enough food, decent shelter, safe community, then I will fight to live. After all, this is what survival should be about.”

It was belly, belly good!

Going to the AFP Theater in a cab is not a good idea. Especially at night. You need to walk to EDSA or Boni before you can get a ride going home. And you run the risk of getting a scolding from the military guys up there if you accidentally use the wrong gate or cross the street where you should not. I hate places like that. I guess too much order is not for me.

Anyway. I was there for the BellyFest because I covered the event for GMA News Online. Story is here: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/278204/lifestyle/culture/bellyfest-2012-celebrating-the-ancient-art-of-the-belly-dance

I also went because my friend Jofti was a recitalist. And because Irene used to do some belly dancing and we thought it would be nice to watch a live belly dancing show. And because I was looking forward to the food, which was a disappointment since they only had apple fries (is that even Middle Eastern?) and nachos. But the show was good naman, although the receptionists had no PR skills whatsoever: no press kit, etc.

Here's a recap of that night, in pictures.



BellyFest organizer, Jill Ngo Crisologo, seen here with Korean belly dancer Jinhee Kim.



In one of the afternoon workshops. The audience and recitalists joined the pocket classes.



Jinhee Kim teaching the audience some tricks.



There was a mini bazaar.



Impromptu performance



Jill's Goddesses of Bellydance



Bismark Naling's Hip-hop group



Jinhee during the evening show.



More of Jinhee in action



I liked this performance



The Goddesses during the evening show.



Jofti!



Even the kids were amazing.



This is one of my favorite numbers: Jill belly dancing to live drumming by Frances Escape



Finally, four pictures of the stripteasers

Bowi's Little Project

About two months ago, I posted an album on my Facebook account with this introduction:

"Bowi wants to do his bit by selling some of his newest artworks. Proceeds will be donated entirely to the victims of the flood. All artworks at P200. Please PM me the titles of the artworks you wish to buy."

Days passed and life happened (i.e., work and ailments) so I was not able to follow up collection and deliveries with his buyers immediately. I finally received most of the payments, added a bit of my own money to come up with the round figure of P1,500.

But since all of the Habagat relief campaigns have ended at this time, I decided to donate the proceeds to Tzu Chi Foundation, which does the same work anyway as a "Buddhist compassion relief foundation". We (Bowi, his buyers, and I as project head) are all assured that the money will go to those who need it. It is an established, well-known, and respected institution. My brother, Charlie, has been with Tzu Chi as a regular employee for quite a bit.

We were invited to become a part of the monthly program for their young scholars. Tzu Chi wanted to tell the children about Bowi's little project to, hopefully, inspire them also to help in their little ways. I am usually not for broadcasting acts of compassion (of course, since it defeats the purpose!) but if it would somehow help other children think that they can do something, even if they are poor and even if it's a small thing, then I'm all for it.



Bowi prepared a "speech" the night before. But he didn't use it anyway.



Bowi arrives in Tzu Chi Foundation, Quezon City. It was a hot day.



Bowi with (from left) cousin Cara, my sister Elmo, cousin Daniel, and my brother Charlie (Tzu Chi employee). Daniel and Cara were there as scholar volunteers, too.



With me (and my new bag)



Bowi's audience



It was a long wait to get to Bowi's segment.



Patiently waiting for his turn.



Bowi: This is for your Eye Center.



Counting the money with Tzu Chi Foundation's CEO Alfredo Li.



Photo op with Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers.



After the program, he was interviewed for a story that will appear in the Tzu Chi Magazine. (Or newsletter? Or website? I totally forgot.)



This little guy didn't need coaching. In all my years conducting interviews, I have never seen a session as refreshing and fun and original as what transpired that day.



See that big smile? He is very happy to help. I only hope you grow up to be a compassionate and loving person, my dear son. I am very, very, very proud of you.