Happy 75th Anniversary Nueva Valencia! Part I

Just when it seemed like the festivals and celebrations of the Ber months had finally come to end, the week-long Foundation Day and Sadsaran Festival takes Nueva Valencia by storm. The plaza was bustling with activities in the first week of January. Doing work was forbidden. Leaving in the middle of the day for power naps was not.

I arrived back to Guimaras from my New Years trip to Cebu on Sunday afternoon and missed the morning mass that was required for all LGU employees. There’s no such thing as separation of church and state in this country! For my office, Tuesday was our time to shine. A brain-child of Sir Obing, Tuesday was “Farmers and Fisherfolk Celebration,” a day for the farmers and fisherfolk of Nueva Valencia, in the words of Sir Obing, “to unwind from being a farmer or fishermen, forget you’re a farmer or fishermen, and have fun.” He made sure to remind the crowd that several times. In fact, forced fun seemed to be one of the many themes of this week. My supervisor Sir Obing, who is the municipal agricultural officer, also became in charge of the tourism office, when the active tourism officer left for California, where he daughter is a nurse. This whole week was orchestrated mainly by Sir Obing and his small team in the tourism office, so to say he was overwhelmed and all over the place would be an understatement.

Farmers and Fisherfolk Day was a hot one, making snack distribution (my only role for the day) a challenging task. I tried to stay out planning for the event, thinking my attention in the weeks leading up to the event was better focused elsewhere. It was a nice day, and the attendees, who can often be very shy and tough to get involved in activities, had a nice day.

Farmer and Fisherfolk Celebration Day

Filipino 6-legged rice sack race.

An event in the Philippines wouldn't be complete without an intermission number.

Mayhem at lunch time. Lining up isn't very popular in this country.

My favorite event of the day. It took the contestants about 20 minutes to find someone who could get to the top of this slick, 30 food bamboo pole. My coworkers dug it into the ground in the morning. Other people had to hold it in the ground to keep it from falling over.

Knowing that work would be impossible on Monday or Tuesday, I thought Wednesday would be my chance to sit down for just an hour or so and print out the letters that I wanted to distribute Thursday morning in the coastal barangays. The only event for the festival that day was the Mass Wedding, which I didn’t plan on attending, so the day seemed free. That changed the day seemed free. In the morning, Riro informed me that Tito Ruben (a fishpond operator who’s a friend of Riro’s and whose house we’ve hung out at before) and the sister of Mario were getting married at the mass wedding, which is a great opportunity to get people out to the LGU, get their marriage licenses signed, and save some of the costs of a wedding. Some couples were dressed up in wedding attire. Others were not. Nonetheless, the event was really nice. The couples were able to walk down the aisle together. The mayor officiated and took pictures with the couples. And lots of people were in attendance watching. Also, there were fireworks, complements of the OMAS staff.

Just when I got back to the office from my fireworks and picture-taking duties, Riro came up to me again and said, “Let’s go!” To where, I wondered. Tito Ruben invited us over to his house for lunch, so with a few of my coworkers, we went to his hut in Puyo, a sitio in Barangay Poblacion (where the office is located). We had a nice time and Tito Ruben’s new wife made me promise to come back later. Although I could have used the time to rest and get that work done, my attempt at making an excuse in Illongo was fruitless.

On the way back to the office, Riro asked me, “You’re coming this afternoon, right?” To where, I wondered. This time my entire office went out all the way to Barangay Igdarapdap on the southern coast of Guimaras for the wake of our coworker Tita Vilma’s father (with a 30-minute pit stop when our ride, the municipal ambulance, had some technical difficulties).

Wakes in the Philippines do not tend to be somber events. Instead, people just gather together, hang out, drink, and gamble. Gambling is the key. The most popular games of wakes are Mahjong, a Chinese game with tiles and Tong-Its, a rummy-like card game. But at Tita Vilma’s a new game was proposed: dreidel! My friend brought one of the dreidels that I had given out on Christmas, and so 5 of my coworkers and I sat at a table playing dreidel for an hour or so. Now that’s sharing of cultures. We also got in a couple rounds of Tong-Its. With a little beginner’s luck, I managed to come out on top. I can’t same the same for dreidel.

After the wake, I dropped off my backpack at my house, acknowledging that no work would be done that day, and went straight to Puyo. Mario’s sister was really happy that I had come back, and as soon as I arrived, she had me sit down and made a plate of food for me. Most people were sitting out and drinking outside. After dinner and some Emperador Light, Mario, Riro and I returned to the plaza for the finals of Talentado Ka! This America’s Got Talent-inspired talent show has been going on since last June, so it was nice to see “Season 1” reach its grand finale. I had never seen so many people gathered at the plaza in all my time at site. We watched the finalist performances, mostly either hip-hop group dances or a little kid singing a Tagolog Love Ballad, and the winners were announced. There were winners for each category: elementary school, high school, and other, including adults and OSY (out-of-school youth). At the end of the competition, the mayor announced that “Season 2” would add a fourth category: senior citizen. Should be even better than the last!

Lining up in front of my office for the mass wedding

Tito Ruben and Mary Ann walking down the aisle

OMAS was in charge of the fireworks. Here Mario and Boss are trying to stop Bayoto mid-light (with a cigarette).

Another great idea

Back at Tito Ruben and Mary Ann's

Pamela, Ritchel and Bayoto

Tito Ruben's place. Where he stays when managing the fish pond

Nice view from Puyo Wharf

And of course, fireworks

And the duck!

Riding in the municipal ambulance. There were 12 passengers piled in

Watching the finals of Talentado Ka!

Denise's mom was visiting for the fiesta. She really got to see it all

On Thursday, the office was getting quiet and sluggish. I finally had the chance to sit down and write those letters, including a request for the municipal vehicle to take me and Riro to some of the coastal barangays to get our work done. When I found Boss to sign the letters, he was appalled. This all has to wait, he declared, because people are thinking about the festival and about having fun. They cannot think of these other matters. He also mentioned that there is no way any of the municipal vehicles were available and that this would all have to wait. Thankfully I hadn’t yet shown him the vehicle request to sign. Finally I relented and decided that this week I’d spend my days napping and catching up on emails, since anything more than that would be a pointless. 

Thursday night was the search for Ms. Hara, the muse of Nueva Valencia. Another beauty contest. I spent most of the time at the food court area hanging out with a friend from the BFAR regional office in Iloilo City who was there to enjoy the fiesta. I’ve been trying to contact him for weeks and was going to hunt him down in Iloilo next week, so it ended up being extremely fortuitous for me. We had a very productive conversation and managed to schedule both the coastal law enforcement training as well as the SCUBA assessments of the artificial reefs in the proposed marine protected area. So much for not getting anything done!

Friday I arrived on-time to the office to watch the CBRT (community-based rural tourism) performances. The office was completely empty. People slowly trickled in, and the dance started 2 hours late (as was the norm for the week). I was particularly excited for this event because my host brother Justene was dancing in the Oracon group. This was his first time participating in a dance. He was really excited and had been getting home way after dark for weeks, always practicing at the school. 

Justene was a champ, and all the dances were very impressive. Each group took some aspect of their barangay and turned it into an elaborate dancing. Justene and the Oracon group did a dance about harvesting coconuts, and were decked out in coconut-leaf attire. The winning group celebrated fishing, and others included rice farming, chicken raising, and a homecoming celebration. The dances were long (almost 10 minutes each) and extremely well choreographed. I could see why they took so long to get right.

Justene, fourth from the back for the coconut growers dance.

Interesting costumes

The fishing dance

The rice farming dance

The chicken-raising dance from my barangay, Concordia

The indigenous people, who live on Guimaras as well, joined the CBRT dance this year. The crowd loved it

The fiesta did not stop here. Not even close. But I think this is enough for now. I'll write about the weekend of the fiesta in my next post. For now, halong!