Brief report on the exposure to Aeta community, April 29 – 30, 2007: 

1.	April 29, 2007 (Sunday): 

We left Balay Kalinaw around 7:30AM. The group was composed of the following: Indian guests – Sudha and John (from the Charter India team), Sultan and Deepa (from the Activity Center), Sudhir, Anupama and Deepika (children who won in the competition), Cowa, Joan and myself (Phil. Charter team). We just rode on one van going to Botolan, Zambales. 

At one Shell gas station along the North Expressway, we stopped for breakfast and bought groceries (bread, muffins, snacks, water). We left around 9:30am for the next 3.5 hour trip to Loob Bunga Resettlement Area, Botolan, Zambales. 

We arrived at the community around 1:30PM. We got lost for a while when we missed one right turn, but fortunately the village chief Kapitan Willy Bulanhigan came to meet us to lead us to the correct road. 

Our lunch of fried tilapia and pinakbet without any meat was waiting for us. They also served sliced Indian mango on the side and ripe mangoes for dessert. Anupama and Deepika, both vegetarians, ate the vegetables and fruits. The rest did not have any problems with the food. 

After lunch, we requested Kap. Willy to provide us with an orientation about the situation in their village. We were joined by the four young Aeta, namely Albert, Carlito, Rona and Ronalyn, who were participants to the Youth Festival last December in Antipolo. Kap. Willy talked about their situation before Mt. Pinatubo eruption and now that they are in the resettlement area. The guests also posed some questions to him about their religion, their traditions, educational situation. 

We were not the only guests of the community by this time. The graduate class of Prof. Abuso, my adviser at the College of Education, came to Loob Bunga April 28 for their exposure. Their schedule for this Sunday afternoon was a trip to one of the beaches in Iba, Zambales. When we arrived they had just finished lunch and were relaxing by singing along with the videoke machine. Kap. Willy was also joining them to the beach, and he also invited us to join them to which the Indian guests responded with glee and were really all excited to visit the beach as well. 

So by 4pm, we were on our way to Iba beach. The four Aeta youth joined us on the van. In no time, the three men (John, Sultan, Sudhir) were already swimming, while the girls were just wading, since none of them had any swimming attire. They also walked and run along the shore. 
I saw that there were banana boats and banca for rent. I asked for the rate, and it looked like the banca rental rate was affordable (P500 for 1 hour, can accommodate all of us, and can bring us to the coral area).  And when I asked them if they were interested, everyone said they would love to do it. 
Just before sunset, we were all aboard and were on our way to see the corals. Among the seven of them, only Anupama and Deepika live in cities where the beach is accessible. For those who live in Bangalore, which is land-locked, the nearest beach is around 400kms on both the east and west directions, so this was an experience they did not want to miss. 
Fortunately, the banca driver had two masks that we could use to see the corals. The three men jumped into the waters, with their lifevests. And even if I did not change my clothes, I could not resist the lure of the cool clear waters of Iba. Of course I invited the Indian women to join me, who were all hesitant at first. But Sudha then joined, then Anupama, Deepika and finally Deepa. All of us, except for Cowa and Joan, enjoyed viewing the corals and fishes, which again for many of them were experiencing this for the first time. They said they only saw corals on TV. We waited till the sun set and it was soon dark when we went back and reached shore. 
There was one establishment along the beach which was selling some cool drinks, had a videoke machine, mostly male customers drinking beer and singing along with the videoke. The owner of the establishment is the contact of Kap. Willy in this area. The owner invited us to stay a little bit more, but we said we had to return to the village in time for dinner. We gave him a little token before leaving.
Before returning to Loob Bunga, I talked to Roy, the driver of the other van who went to fetch the two other guests namely Nakul and Kislay who only arrived this afternoon. They were just having dinner at Olongapo. I then gave him the directions on how to proceed to Loob Bunga. 
When we reached Loob Bunga, all of us five girls (Sudha, Deepa, Anupama, Deepika and myself) took our bath at an open space where the waterhose was located. They were shy at first since they said that this is the first time that they will take bath like this. While the men took their baths in a bathroom near the Kapitan’s house. 
Refreshed and all clean, we then had dinner of fried bangus and all-vegetable chopsuey. After dinner, our driver and Kapitan went to meet the other van and soon we were all happy to meet Kislay and Nakul who seemed very tired after their long journey.
While waiting for the solidarity night to start, the Indians mingled with the graduate students from UP and with the Aetas. Young boys wanted to meet Deepika, shook hands with her and had their pictures taken with her. They even requested that they also get copies of the pictures. Some of them also sang along with the videoke. 
By 9:30pm, the solidarity program started. Kapitan set up one bulb on the roadside, some of us sat on monobloc chairs forming a circle while others squatted. One after another, Kapitan explained each of the dances performed by the old and young Aetas, some of whom wore G-strings – courtship dance, fish dance, monkey dance, bird dance. After which the young Indians also rendered some traditional songs. Deepika was prepared to dance but did not proceed with it since we were having the program on an unpaved road. It would be difficult for her to make the dance steps with the small rocks and pebbles on the road. The UP students also sang a few Tagalog songs. With one Ilocano folksong, Prof. Abuso started dancing the waltz with one UP student and later with Sudha. The crowd then followed dancing with them. The Aetas also started a traditional dance which ended with community dancing.  
To end the program, Kapitan Willy expressed his thanks to everyone. Prof. Abuso also added that after more than ten years of bringing students to this area, this is the first time that the community experienced having a group of foreigners visiting them. Sudha spoke in behalf of the group and expressed thanks for the warm welcome shown to us. She also shared about the situation of the tribal peoples of India and how they are experiencing displacement from their traditional homes as well. 
The UP students still had a few games for the children to which the Indian guests also gamely joined, such as the ‘Funny Bone’ and ‘Statue Dance’. 
The fun ended almost close to midnight. All 12 of us stayed in 3 different homes. Albert hosted John, Sudhir, Kislay and Cowa in their home, Rona had Deepa, Anupama, Deepika and Joan with her, while Sudha, Sultan, Nakul and myself stayed in a vacant house of Kapitan’s daughter. I told Cowa and Joan that may return back to Kapitan’s place by 8am. The drivers went out and stayed at a hotel in Iba for the night.    

2.	April 30, 2007 (Monday): 

By 8:30am, we were all back at Kapitan’s place to have breakfast which consisted of coffee, pancake, mangoes, boiled bananas, adobong sitaw. The four young Aetas still joined us for breakfast. And since this was Cowa’s birthday, we surprised her by singing “Happy Birthday”. 

From 9 – 10:15am, we had a reflection session where we shared what we felt about our stay at the village. Everyone was happy with the new experiences and the learnings they got about the situation in the village. There were many firsts for them in this trip – such as visiting a rural village, taking bath under the moonlight, snorkeling and seeing corals. We also talked about the quite modern life that the Aetas are experiencing with their stay here in the resettlement area where they have electricity, some basic appliances and concrete homes. The young Aetas said that even if they have these amenities, they still want to learn about their traditional culture and show it to other people. The Aetas said that the Indian guests are welcome to return once more to Loob Bunga and were also happy with this experience of meeting Indians for the first time. 

Before leaving Loob Bunga, there was time to buy some of the bamboo crafts produced by the Aetas such as the rainmaker, blowgun, and whistling toy. After giving thanks to everyone we were now on our way to Subic.

We reached Subic almost 12:30pm, had some cold drinks and lunch, while Cowa arranged for our tour around SBMA. We stayed quite a while having lunch in a restaurant just near the beach, some of them bought some souvenirs from vendors selling jewelry and other items. We only started the tour around 3:30pm where our guide brought us to JEST camp which housed Spider World and Subic Aviary. An Aeta also demonstrated to us simple jungle survival techniques using bamboo – making bamboo cup and spoon/fork, cooking rice in bamboo, making fire, and using gugo bark for shampoo and soap. They wanted to visit the mangrove but our guide said that the place closes at 5pm. Instead she brought us to the camouflage bunker which used to be the hiding place of armaments when the Americans were still using Subic as a naval base, and to the fish sanctuary and Canaway beach. Again, all of the Indian guests went to the beach and soon the four men (Sultan, John, Nakul, Sudhir) were on a beach volleyball match with four Pinoys. While the others waded and run along the beach. 

It was nearing 6pm already but still we could not stop them from playing their beach volleyball game. The game ended by 6:30pm, they were all happy with this chance to play and enjoy the white sand beach even for a few minutes. We stopped for gas in one of the gas stations in Subic and filled up both vans. We brought the guide back to her office, and by 7pm, we again started our way back to Manila.

By 9:30pm, we reached Balay Kalinaw and Pinky was there waiting for us with pizza, soft drinks and ice cream. It seemed everyone was happy with pizza and ice cream for dinner, specially the children.     

It has been a long and tiring two days, but full of lessons and memories for everyone. No one complained of any sickness. Parents of Deepika, Anupama, and Kislay called while we were traveling. Only casualty – one pair of short pants of Sultan were left on the clothesline. 

Prepared by Aleli B. Bawagan, May 1, 2007.