Sinoron

The last three days I've been visiting Sinoron, an upland barangay in Santa Cruz. The people from Sinoron have started to construct a water system, and I was curious to see the source they are going to use. Little did I know that there had been an encounter between NPA rebels and the army last month. So before I knew it, 6 soldiers decided to escort me to the source to make sure I would be safe. To tell you the truth, six heavily armed soldiers on your tail does not really make one feel much safer... I was a bit embarrassed too, of course, that my visit created such a fuss. On the other hand, it's a cool experience as well.

The army did not go all the way up to the source. It's a pretty steep climb. The last few kilometres I was guided by an old man who effortlessly jumped from rock to rock on his bare feet towards the spring.


A nice thing about hiking up the mountain is that you get to see the daily life of the people. It makes you realize what enormous distances these people travel on foot just to get to their farm. Because the area has been occupied by rebels for some 20 years now, most people live downhill and travel back and forth between their farms and their houses.


On friday, the Bagobo-Tagabawa tribe is going to have a ritual at the spring to ask for the blessing of the gods for their water system. Today I witnessed the tribal council where the tribal chieftains discussed the planning for the ritual. I'm curious to see it... The picture below shows tribal cieftains Benjamin Banglos and Danilo Udal discussing the meaning of the ritual. I'll tell you more about it when I get back.