Return to Ifugao

The air-conditioning was already blowing cold air while the bus passengers were stowing their belongings in the overhead racks. After the humid heat still lingering at 10 pm in downtown Manila, I realised that I would need to put on some warm clothes for the overnight trip to Lagawe. My reserved seat was occupied, but to my surprise it turned out to be Lucia. A neighbour in Burnay Valley and wife of the maintenance man at the guesthouse, she was welcome company for the 8 hour journey into the mountains, so I slipped into the aisle seat next to her without protest. I was expected and Robert had a number of issues waiting for me to be sorted out, I was told immediately.

End of the road at Bunog

I was last in Ifugao Province over Christmas. The guesthouse my father had built from local timbers on the slopes overlooking Burnay Valley was one of the largest houses in the area. The 7 bed-room residence was located at the far end of Bunug village, a small settlement of perhaps 10 houses and itself at the end of a small one lane road. Robert was employed for 10 or more hours a week to look after the property, together with Rodelyn who was the resident housekeeper.

While the house has 4WD access, many if not most homes in the valley can only be reached on foot, 5 to 30 minutes along rice paddies or forest tracks from the nearest roadhead. In fact, there are only 3 cars in the district of perhaps a thousand inhabitants, and our trust owns one of them.

To hear news from the trust, my first stop after the bus arrived in the town centre of Lagawe was the home of Connie and Mel. It was still early, not even 6 AM yet, and after saying goodbye to Lucia, I walked through the market street were shops were just beginning to open. When I arrived, coffee was percolating and breakfast was soon on the table, with rice and fried foods being the standard Filipino morning fare.

Connie is the Trust Treasurer and we quickly caught up on news from the guesthouse, and then exchanged family news. I had just missed my brother Tim by a day when I visited his family at home in Singapore during the 12 hour stopover, but they were happy to look at some photos from his visit to Great Barrier Island with his two young daughters the week before.

With Tim and the trustees my father had brought together, we had decided to keep the project alive after my father’s unexpected death last year. Kayes had first come here a decade earlier to visit a child he had been sponsoring, decided to stay and then had always sought other ways to be a helpful community member.

During my last visit in December, we had agreed to model the future work of this trust on that of the Aotea Family Support Group Trust whom I worked with in New Zealand. The charity would also be a trustee and volunteer led organisation helping communities in Ifugao Province to develop strengths and support vulnerable people. To make that possible, we wanted to find local and foreign supporters that wanted to become part of the ‘Ifugao Support Group’, using the guesthouse as our local base.

After breakfast I started up our car and drove it into the hills above the township to Bunug village. From there it was a quick walk across rice fields to get to the guesthouse and I was pleased to finally arrive, after travelling for five days since setting out from Great Barrier Island.