Last weekend: on a barangay way up the mountains

In the midst of all my academic responsibilities this past weeks, I found myself along with nine others stranded on a mountain barangay in Miagao one rainy Saturday evening. 

If you are familiar of the municipality of Miagao you probably are aware that it’s composed of 119 barangays. These communities are too many you must be very adventurous to be able to reach every single one of them. Some of these barangays are easily accessible as they are located near the national highway while some are situated in much more far-flung areas high up in the mountain. Like Barangay Ongyod for example.

Ongyod is a mountain barangay with a population of about 200 plus residents. To get there, one must hike for atleast 2 hours from Barangay San Jose or take another shorter route where a jeepney could actually penetrate a particular area before you start hiking your way up the mountain. 

Last Saturday, I went with 9 people to visit the place and conduct a leadership training workshop with the youth in the area. We road a jeepney to San Jose where we got down and started hiking. The way up wasn't that easy. For the record, it took us three hours. 

KAPOY AH. Someone might have eth was interestingly etched on a rock

We arrived at Ongyod and started the workshop. We listened to young people who shared their experiences and were dumbfounded by how they had to wake up at 4:00am to travel on foot to San Jose where they go to school. On rainy days they'd be absent in class fearing they might meet an accident due to the slippery trail they had to walk on. We also found out that their barangay is soon to relocate to a safer area. 

my two groupmates on the right and the four inspiring kids we spoke with on the left. 

It was a fine and memorable Saturday until it rained pretty hard. We finished the workshop by 3:30pm and were preparing to leave when Brgy.Captain Jama told us it would be unsafe to hike down the mountains at that time considering the evidently bad weather and with no place to take shelter in in case it rained along the way. We were alarmed as we weren't prepared to stay the night and our parents would likely 'release the Kraken' if they find out we got stranded. 

Bless the earth because phone signals were available and we were able to contact our parents. True enough, my mother 'released the kraken' but she said she'd rather I stay and leave the next day. 

We were warmly accomodated by the barangay. They served us dinner and lent us a kubo where we all huddled to sleep during the night. In the morning we were served locally grown and brewed coffee before we went on our way. 

Behind is the humble kubo where we stayed the night

Our team with Brgy. Captain Jama

Brgy. Ongyod produces local coffee from its 4 grown coffee bean varieties

We bid Kap Jama goodbye and thanked him for all his assistance. We set out at about 6:00am and hiked down via the Tigmalapad route.

We stopped a few times to marvel at the beautiful sceneries. 

We went back to town on top of a jeepney!

I have several thoughts about last weekend's experience. For one, I realized there is still so much of Miagao that I havent seen despite my four years of living here. Second,  it's hard to climb a mountain especially when you dont know which way you're supposed to go.Third, preparation is key. Fourth, we are in need of more better roads for (1) for farmers to easily transport their local produce to the market (2) for children to travel to school safely (3) For people to find it easy to go to areas such as Ongyod as they are worth visiting. Fifth, experiences such as this are worth investing on.  Sixth, if you dont get out of your way to reach communities as far as this, you'll never know their story, you'll never know they exist. 7th, Their stories up there are worth telling. 

Last weekend could have been a weekend like any other where I'd gladly roll over in bed and wake up at noontime. I ended up rolling in dirt up in the mountains of Miagao with nine wander-lusting individuals. Fun. Beautiful. Worth remembering. 

PHOTOS CREDITED TO ADRIENNE VILLARUEL AND ANJEL ESTRELLA