The Mamanwa

In line with Davao's Kadayawan Festival celebration, I wish to share this short details about the lives of our indigenous brothers and sisters or the Lumads in one area in Mindanao.

The Mamanwa is a Negrito tribe often grouped together with the Lumad. They believe in a collection of spirits, which are governed by the supreme deity Magbabaya. The tribe produce excellent winnowing baskets, rattan hammocks, and other household containers. If the Manobos are considered as the first Cantilan gnons, the Mamanwas could also lay claim to the same title. The big difference, however, between the two cultural minorities is that the Mamanwas are lesser in number and more scattered and nomadic than the Manobos. The Mamanwas are a different breed of people in their looks and physical features compared to the lowlanders and the upland living Manobos. Presently, there are still few Mamanwas who, on fiesta days, roam Cantilan streets and its barangays. In modern Cantilan, they are a vanishing tribe who could be traced only in the deep and distant mountains like the Mandajas who inter-marry with the Manobos.

Unlike the Manobos, the Mamanwas did not adopt the lowlanders’ way of living even if they were already Christianized. They had been rooted for centuries in the indigenous culture which is very difficult to understand. The speak their own dialect which noticeably has some phonetic similarities with that of Cantilan’s lowlanders. Unlike the Manobos and Mandayas, they do not go to schools to learn either Pilipino or English. Some old Mamanwas of today tell of their ancestors’ early habitats along river mouths, seashores, islets and islands. They cannot, however, pinpoint particular areas as their permanent settlements for they did not have any. They transfer from place to place and travel as far as their minds could imagine and their feet could carry them. The transfers usually happen in case of deaths for it was the old customs to pack up and leave the place when death occurs even if their plants are ready for harvest. (from wikipedia.com)

*** I wish we could do more to help the indigenous people in our community even in our own little ways.

Malipayong Kadayawan Festival sa Dabaw!:)

Lovers in the Island..

"Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two." (from the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin)

"Love is the beauty of the soul." --St. Augustine

***Our adventure here led me back to photography again and here's another try...hope my subjects here like these shots. :-)

On knowing..

Ten years had passed when I first heard a good friend affirming on the old cliche about "teaching as the noblest of all professions". I honestly did not grasp the thought that goes with it at that time. I have always believed that no profession is far greater than the other. All works require the hearts of us all. All being noble. As I hold true to what I believe, I thought I have fully understood what it means to be giving your heart in what you do. As I venture now into this new discovery about teaching as a profession, I then slowly realize that what my friend said ten years ago may have been explaining it all at present. It took me years to realize that there is more to being in the teaching career. IN teaching, one does not deal with paper works or gadgets...one deals with humans. All come from different cultures, values and attitudes. And this is happening everyday as part of a teacher's lifestyle. The greatest challenge lies on the truth that a teacher does not only hone the minds of these individuals. Teachers don't simply teach and facilitate learning--- they affect lives.

BUT the big question here, is that "how far can a teacher go?" Not all in the profession are actually happy with what they do. Some stay in the teaching career because they're already there and they're simply afraid to lose their job or income. This truth however, does not happen only to those in the teaching profession but even to all forms of professions. Sometimes, when things don't seem to fall in places at the height of our responsibility as a worker, a daughter or a son, a brother or a sister, a wife or a husband, a mother or a father and even as a friend or companion, we also come to ask ourselves "how far can I still go?".

It's been years already, since I last read Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life. Last night, as I scanned pages of it, I am once again reminded the essentials of things---and that all being performed for God through others and not for self-satisfaction.

Have a happy weekend everyone!Thanks for reading my thoughts. :)

the son perceives

"One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from the trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?" "It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yes," said the son. "So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered, "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

"Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants to serve us, but they serve others.

"We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

daan lang..

just
dropping
by
this
empty
page.
(hehe!)

..will get back sometime soon.


take care everyone!:-)

Old photographs..

i only have the weekend to savor the day where things seemed to be on a rush each day lately. now i only have this moment to just sit down without thinking much of the time that passes by. and so as i was rummaging old files and listened to this music, i felt like missing the things, the people and the moments i used to be with.

allow me to share one..

http://www.imeem.com/simphatiko/music/-NSoygsv/jim-capaldi-old-photographs/

Yesterday I felt the wind blowing 'round my shoulder
Feel like I'm getting older
Still I can't forget your face

Separated by a million miles of ocean
My heart still feels emotion
Even in this lonely place

Old photographs and places I remember
Just like a dying ember
That's burned into my soul

Even though we walk the diamond-studded highways
It's the country lanes and byways
That makes us long for home

Lately I just find my mind has turned to dreamin'
Making plans and scheming
How I'm gonna get back home

But deep down inside
I know its really hopeless
This road I'm on is endless
We climb our mountains all alone


REFRAIN
That makes us long
For home

happy weekend everyone..miss you all!

The Man with a Hoe

As we join hands to celebrate "Father's day" with all the dads in the world, I would like to share this poem as there is something about it that really inspires...

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back, the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?
Down all the caverns of Hell to their last gulf
There is no shape more terrible than this--
More tongued with cries against the world's blind greed--
More filled with signs and portents for the soul--
More packed with danger to the universe.

What gulfs between him and the seraphim!
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of the Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world,
A protest that is also prophecy.

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream;
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs,Immedicable woes?

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
How will the future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings--
With those who shaped him to the thing he is--
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world,
After the silence of the centuries?


by Edwin Markham

"happy father's day to all dads!"

this little daisy

As soon as summer started, I just tried to plant one tiny stem of daisy in a pot. One month after, here it is!
I am not good in planting and so seeing this little daisy blossoming just made me smile. I haven't done this for the longest time. :-)

I guess it's like recapitulating childhood days. When there were more moments of capturing the little details of life and appreciating what's ordinary in our naked eyes.