A third-class road is a very narrow road (fits one vehicle but you can squeeze in another tricycle -- or sometimes another small vehicle, as long as both vehicles are overstepping the boundaries of the road, rolling onto the grassy sides) that is crunchy-sounding beneath your tires, long ago sparsely laden with gravel, now full of pot holes -- and after a bout of rainfall, will take you on a head-bumping and rolling ride IF it doesn't get your wheels sinking in mud.
It was a short ride to Vinzons from Daet, Camarines Norte -- but a bumpy ride just the same to get to the town. But, surprisingly, there was a different atmosphere to this town. It felt more pleasant and quaint. :) There were quite a number of newly built homes supposedly for vacationing families that have already migrated outside of the Philippines. It makes you think it's a good place to relocate -- if it wasn't so far away...
We passed by the munisipyo to pick-up the Project Director of the GK site in Brgy. Calangkawan. Tito Francis Obusan is an elderly man in his late fifties probably, very stately in bearing. He could pass of as a small-time lawyer or a respected CPA of the town. I believe he works in the municipal hall. Another man, Tito Domeng, waved to us from a distance, motioning that he would be riding his motorbike to the site. Tito Francis squeezes into the back of our 3-door Pajero (last space filled-up) and just a few more minutes... a shorter bumpy ride and finally crossing through what seemed like a swampy area (apparently receding flooded area) the road leads up to a clearing with fields beyond that end in hills in the distance.
The place is very promising even if there are no houses up yet.
It is late afternoon and a steady breeze passes through. Months
ago, when word came around that ANCOP Canada would build a village here, Tito Francis' team along with the LGU and the Kapitbahayan worked to clear out the piece of land, uprooting coconut trees and leveling the ground. Its been quite some time ago and there has been healthy re-growth of grass and a portion
has become a singkamas plot.
Tiny bulbs of the white fruit were peeping out of the ground. Tito Domeng warned us not to pick out the fruit exposed to the sun -- it would give us a stomach ache. A petite young woman had come out of a nearby hut and assured us that there were still fruit left safe for us to eat. With a small bolo in hand she started to prod out and pull handfuls of singkamas out of the ground. She offered us a clump. The other titos taught us how to skin the singkamas with our bare fingers -- fresh soil still clinging to its roots. Careful not to slurp in bits of soil...
we take small bites into the juicy fruit.
Weenay has lived in this place ever since she was a kid. She raises the clump of singkamas in hand saying,
This put me through school.
The last harvest, she said, gave her mother seven thousand pesos. (I couldn't believe so much money could come from such a simple-looking fruit).
She rattles on about other vegetables that could be planted in this plot of land and how much investment each needed (planting ampalaya would cost fifteen thousand pesos!). We had an
agricultural expert right before our eyes. She smiled shyly at us.
I enter her little kubo to find that she has a son who was quiet and shy himself. Not much people come here so Jonel is not used to strangers. Weena is only 23. Her husband works in town --
Sa waterworks sya. Sya nga ang gumawa ng poso dyan.
The poso outside is quite an impressive piece of work. Not the usual poso negro I am used to seeing in these places with just the pumping mechanism and the spout. Weena's husband built an extension cement storage to keep the water in small batches before releasing with a separate faucet. It looks neater and must dispense water with less wastage.
Their little nipa is probably less than 20 sqm, they have a receiving area (where I am seated) with a small papag (for them to relax on during the day), then it turns at a right angle towards their dining area. At another right angle, a door opens to their bedroom (not within view). I ask for the CR and she says they do not have one. They go across the field to her mother's house to use the toilets. They don't have a toilet of their own.
Dahil sa mga ahas. (Nye! May ahas dito??!)
Lalo na nung walang tigil ang ulan. Nababasa kasi ang mga butas nila so lumalabas sila... Dyan sila sa taas (she points to the nipa ceiling, between the wooden partitions -- inside the house!).
Apparently, they slither quietly inside without anyone noticing and just lodge themselves in the ceiling.
Mga cobra pa naman yan. (I think she is just scaring me...)
Once, she said, she was surprised to hear heavy snoring coming from outside their house. It was a big snake outside. But they never caught it.
So it's still there somewhere...
Her husband had tried to build them a toilet once. He dug a hole deep in the ground and just lodged nipa walls around it. But they got scared when they realized that there was a snake that made its nest in it -- again, after a time of heavy rain. They immediately covered it up. She didn't want her butt getting bitten by a snake while trying to take a dump. But, once we build them the GK houses with the toilets inside -- snakes won't have to threaten their toilet rituals ever again.
I hope to come back here again -- probably after I give birth. They said the Canada funds are coming. The GK village WILL BE BUILT! :)
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