THE MOUNTAINEER

Sentimental walk
EDISON L. BADDAL

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- One cold, foggy morning with the biting cold nipping the nose, I decided to take a traipse to the compounds of St. Mary’s High School and the St. Mary, the Virgin Church at downtown Sagada. I took this chance while my room mates were still tucked up in their beds in deep slumber after a heavy drink and mad, heady discussions the night before. This was the eve of the last day of a three-day seminar at the St. Joseph function hall in the second week of February.

Recalling the various times that I treaded the grounds of these venerable landmarks of Sagada, my mind drifted back to the early ‘70s as a gangling, pre-teen lad joining the throng of fiesta revelers and the late ‘70s as a highschooler hereabouts.The air of the place became suddenly familiar. Hence, with the familiarity, it did not take long for me to be acclimated to the milieu even as I have just started accommodating myself thereto for a few seconds. At any rate, my reminiscences were centered most on that “encapsulized” period - that impressionable transition stage when one is just being introduced to the intricacies of human existence.

Nothing much has changed since then as far as the church and school compounds are concerned except for a senior citizens’ building built betwixt the volleyball court and the aged, imposing dormitory house. The latter structure was then temporarily used as a school building in the late ‘70s as the original building that got burned was being reconstructed. Among others, a tennis court, constructed beside the stairs that linked the church and the dormitory building, added a new dimension to the infrastructure make-up of the area.

The church remained the same low, stonewalled building – a concrete testament to the zeal of western missionaries that introduced the Anglican faith to the Sagadan folks more than a century hence. I recalled that on several occasions, the inside of the church was used for showing culturally enriching presentations by students from the International school in Manila and those from an Episcopalian school in Japan with which the SMHS is tied with academically. It was also used for showcasing dramas under the tutelage of a Spanish music professor starred in by locals.

I sassily ventured into the interior of the church as part of the nostalgia trip. There was no service then and the unlighted, cavernous nave was engulfed in strange silence though it was by no means macabre. The altar was rendered outdoorsy with amorphous, crystalline cave rocks lined up on the edges of its north end near the center while bigger ones were buttressed right behind the crucifix. I don’t recall having seen this arrangement before but it nonetheless added rustic charm to the church interior.

The rocks are certainly composed of calcium bicarbonate having been steeped from the continued dripping of water from apertures of cave walls. The large,wooden crucifix at the center of the altar was oddly covered with a tarpaulin to hide the inanimate, carved image of the crucified Jesus. Intriguingly, the cave rocks gave a pervasive feeling that one seem to be inside Sumaging cave, the limestone cave in the town which is being frequented by tourists and spelunkers.

The quaint mien of the church building was accented by wrought iron fences on its exterior sides with exotic flowers grown and nurtured on plotted soil in it. Within the immediate church environs, a commemorative marker was erected for a huge iron bell with the year 1921 AD inscribed on the external brim of its mouth. Near the church entrance markers were erected for two wheels of a decrepit, rickety vehicle which was used for an old saw mill.

The marker inscription states that the vehicle was brought from the United States during the early proselytisation efforts of the western missionaries in Sagada. This was part of the various projects initiated by the latter to alter the socio-economic life of the Sagada folks juxtaposed with their spiritual transformation.

Meanwhile, a stonehouse located below the church and accessed by a dilapidated stone pathway, is still existing and rented by migrant employees in the municipality. This used to be occupied by Rev. John Staunton, leader of the first bunch of missionaries to Sagada, when he rusticated to
Sagada from the USA.

When I advanced later to the direction of the new high school building from an unpaved portion of the concrete walkway by the church, I was more curious to visit the one-storey building situated below the pine-shrouded public cemetery. As it was located on higher ground from the main school building, a small road branches upward onto it from the road that leads to the main campus. The building was the science building then.

All science high school subjects were taught there while the rest were taught at the dormitory building. Back then, students walk to the science building after finishing their non-science subjects at the dormitory building. As I mounted up the acclivity to the former science building, recollection of students gaily accosting each other on the beaten path could not help but evoke fond memories of the pulchritude of young, pubescent girls.I was informed by the current caretaker that it is now being used as a temporary dormitory for students from distant barangays while the old dormitory building is being renovated.

One room on the western wing of the low structure used to be our biology room. The back of the building abuts a precipice which is one side of the deep canyon that also abuts the public cemetery on the one side. This is a colossal mystery wrought by nature in the environs of the area. The narrow bottom could not be seen from the back of the building as the steep sides are covered with foliage.

The invisible bottom is presumed to be an abyss.I recalled that during breaks in classes then, the favorite pastime of my male classmates was throwing stones down the abyss. We found relief in throwing pebbles on the abyss as it does not fail to create a series of striking sounds on its downward flight. The grating, shrill sound could be heard clearly from the top. The strident sounds created by the stone as it brushed against another stone indicated a consecutive layer of overlapping shelves of rocks being hit by the thrown stone.

This weird phenomenon is an unfathomable puzzle then (and even up to now) and even our keen teachers were at a loss for a hunky-dory explanation. Its perceptive of the management to have erected a wire fence at the edge of the precipice to at least preclude a warm body from hurtling down just in case of a slip or at worst, a suicidal attempt.

The new high school building, I was told, is now peopled with more or less 200 students which in my calculation is almost equal to our population before. Consequently, the rough, gravelly road that stretched from the end of the paved walkway beside the church up to the school gate was the same as before. It surely enhanced the charm and bucolic air of the locale.

The flat, baseball diamond below the rough stretch, where batted baseballs took erratic flights in every baseball tourney looked smaller than it had been due to current age and heft. The shrill giggles, loud laughter and snickers of rowdy high school kids trudging to school literally broke my reverie of those bygone days. It tossed me back to consideration of the esoteric polygons and polylines of a computerized base map of CBMS-covered Barangays that formed the nucleus of our three-day seminar.

In my 20-minute gadding,I contemplated strongly on the thousands of students whose sturdy feet once walked the environs of the church and school. These two structures, aside from the municipal hall, are where Sagadan life invariably revolves and gravitates. Many of the alumni who marched out of the school’s portal after completing secondary education went on to carve greatness for themselves in their chosen fields of endeavour.

Some even managed to achieve global renown due to outstanding feats either in or outside of the country. While the school polished and sharpened the minds of these exemplary alumni, the church nurtured their hearts and inspired their spirits with the Christian values which virtually underpinned their accomplishments.

Inspirational alumni like Bacdayan (a revered researcher on Sagadan Igorot lifeways), John Dao-as, Bartolome Dao-as, Thomas Killip, Thomas Bayogan, Edwardo Latawan, Ellen Donato and countless others who made a name for themselves immediately came to mind. Nonetheless, the natural link between the church and school in their ascent to greatness can not be overemphasized even as it is invariably linked with the fate of anyone else either SMHS alumni or not.

Finally, as it was still a few minutes before 7 a.m. when I started my walk down memory lane, no life was virtually astir at the town center. Standing akimbo on the walkway above the basketball court, I was ushered to an awe-inspiring view of the town center in a quiet morning. The town itself seemed to nestle under a wide woody hill whose crest was enveloped by a fluffy, wavy fog.

The majestic serenity, titillating charm and abysmal mystique of the view cannot fail to entrance anyone, especially tourists. The morning calmness accentuated the laidback atmosphere of the town even as it inexorably salves the soul and relieves anxiety. It is thus that tourists found this town idyllic because of breathtaking scenes such as this. Scenes like this never fail to elicit divine communion with nature so it is no wonder why this town is a tourist haven as well as an invigorating honeymooners’ paradise.

Talking turkey, it is just now that I discovered the ravishing allure and charm of Sagada town center in a quiet morning like this. Though I spent two year of high school here, I have never been exposed to this majestic view during that time. Back then, it is usually late in the morning when we reach the town center after walking the 8 km from Barangay Antadao.

Reaching the town between 7:30 to 8 a.m. the town was already bustling with activities with people hustling to and fro. Usually, we trek back to Antadao in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the town center now boasts and flaunts large, tourist-oriented structures. A clear proof of a tourist town scrambling progressively.

The imposing buildings that dot the town center is a big leap of change that the town has undergone for the past decades. Some of the buildings even exhibit state-of-the-art architecture. There is a gospel truth to the adage that there is no place like home much more if it’s like Sagada.