Passing on kindness

TRAILS UP NORTH
Gloria A. Tuazon

TINGLAYAN, Kalinga -- I think now as I generalize that the most cheerful people I have ever encountered were those that have the least in life and those that have seen the worst of everything. The most grateful people too were the ones who have experienced the littlest and were confined to the bounties of limited blessings.

This is so true in Tinglayan. The place is arid, the different tribes in the different barangays are kept much to themselves by years of tribal wars, now being healed and held by "bochongs" or "pechens" (peace pacts). Most of the barangays have still to see concrete and paved roads. And agriculture is still the way to live. Hard life indeed.
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It was two years now that Mayor Johnny Maymaya first created an activity that would gather the people of Tinglayan, hoping first to unite the once warring tribes of the municipality and let them feel the great taste of freedom and oneness – to feast, drink, play and be merry with abandon.

Two years in a row now. Successful, the event was conceptualized with the hope of luring other people from different places to visit the area and bring in the much needed exposure and income to this once shunned land of warriors. Much to everybody’s surprise, the once elusive Barangay Basao also joined the pack.
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Laglagsak ya ab-afak? Translated in English it means "entertainment and competition." Like most festivals the core of the event was the fun and enjoyment of the people attending and participating in it. In this particular Unoy Festival, cultural shows were organized to depict dances, chants and songs, accessories and wardrobes of the Kalinga people.

In the ab-afak category or the games, they improvised what used to be plain work as fun games. There was the "manchi-ot" which was a race to break a log by hacking it into eight pieces and tie it with a vine with a slice of a bolo. Then came the "sang-sangkur" or the arm wrestling.

Competitors from the barangays were chosen. The women showed what hard work was when they (some bare chested at that like it used to be during the earlier days in Kalinga) competed to see who could turn the palay grains into edible rice by means of pounding it with pestles in a mortar and separating the chaffs and cleaning it in a winnowing tray.

This particular game was fun and they called it "manfayu". The fun run was the greatest competitive event of the festival. Men carried logs and the women carried baskets of palay bundles and ran the stretch of road from the police outpost to the Tribal Peace Hall. Now tell me who could beat that?
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She was so tiny, a little bundle of joy when she was born one March day in 2006 of humble, simple parents living one day at a time, in a house where the basics are luxuries but laughter is abundant and dreams are free.

Parents Gary and Ellaine Garcia named her Genova Irish, a pretty name for that little pretty face poking out of the blankets. But fate was testy. In June last year, Genova was diagnosed to have a congenital heart disease and pulmonary dysfunctional artery. It devastated the family.

The little girl was very sick that she was recommended to undergo operation at the Philippine Heart Center in Manila. The operation, they were told would cost them about P180,000. An amount they do not have and is driving them into desperation. The race is on to save their daughter.

Gary Garcia is a farmer, working some land in Alfonso Lista, Ifugao and Ellaine is a job order employee at the Ifugao Provincial Office. Gary has to leave the farm to stay home and care for the sick child while Ellaine goes to work to sustain them all including Genova's check ups and medications. Ellaine's mother does what she can also and helps out whenever she has a little to spare from doing odd jobs.

At two years old, Genova is still too young to realize what she and her family are going through, only that she is suffering from her constant pains. Her family suffers with her, unable to do much for their daughter at this time.

We are all part of the circle of life, what goes around, comes around. Gary and Ellaine wish to call out to the community, to everybody with good hearts who can help them shoulder the needed amount for their daughter's operation. For more details, please check out Genova’s medical abstract at twilightglo.multiply.com on the blog section. -- email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com