Bia-o

The next destination was the Barangay Bia-o in the city of Santiago. This is where we got our first taste of living with the team in a far less fancy barangay hall. We stayed in a daycare center: one large room with a bathroom. We slept on the floor in our sleeping bags laid upon mats to separate us from the bare ground. On top of that, the one challenge we quickly learned to get used to was the lack of showers. Bucket showers became the norm in many of the barangay halls. Honestly, it was a blast. The only tough part, which seems to be a recurring theme, is the heat. Particularly, the heat when you are staying in a building with no aircon.

Mom C, our chaperone/supervisor went home to Manila for a couple of days for her daughter’s graduation, and we were left with the team leader of subteam 8, Sir Will. We were able to have a fun day with them, first visiting Pinsal falls, a colossal waterfall in the middle of the mountain forests. It was quite a hike to reach the top, and it was like nothing I’d seen before. the clay and rock formations were exquisite, and the large stone face surrounding the water was magnificent. It was a pleasant surprise, as the pictures we saw for some reason gave us the impression that it would be a lot smaller, similar to what we would see at Starved Rock in Illinois. Boy was we wrong, and glad to be so.

The next activity of the day was visiting Susu Beach, which we had not planned for and therefore did not have bathing suits to swim in. Nonetheless, we swam still in the beautiful, clear blue water. The beaches here are especially unique in the fact that you are surrounded by mountain ranges, making the scenery even more breathtaking.

This team quickly developed a special place in our hearts. All lovely people with great personalities. Each subteam is made up of a certain number of individuals. First is the team leader, the head person in charge. Then there are 3 local researchers, who are mostly responsible for the surveying, anthropometric measurements, and 24-hour food recalls. Then there is a medical technician, whose primary responsibility is acquiring blood samples for the biochemical analysis component of the survey. Lastly, each team has a guy they refer to as simply “the Kuya”. Kuya is really a word for older brother, used as a way to address an older male who is not yet an age to be an uncle or Tito. However, in this case, the researchers use this word almost as a title. They do have another official title that I can’t remember, but they are mostly just the muscle of the group, carrying boxes and oftentimes cooking the food. Their primary goal is to help the team with physical tasks. Each person in these groups did their job very well and was unwaveringly accommodating to us.

I learned quickly on this trip that if you are a vegetarian, food options are going to be very limited here in the Philippines. However, each team was able to make sure I had something to eat at nearly every meal. Kuya Ivan and Sir Will took me one of the nights to be with them while they cooked to make sure I was able to eat all the ingredients used. In the process, we had a super fun time chatting and hanging out at one of the barangay official’s homes who lent their kitchen to the team to use during their stay. It was a common theme that the barangay captains and officials were always very helpful and accommodating to the ENNS workers, and tried to make their stay, along with the data collection process go as smoothly as possible. I kept getting the feeling that perhaps this behavior would be pretty different in the US.

I think it is important to mention that Bia-o is a beach town. Thus, a large portion of its residents is fishermen by profession. It came up in many interviews that during a 2-month typhoon last year, many people did not have food to eat due to financial hardship or simply because of the lack of fish for the people to eat. It was said that people were able to go to their barangay captain for assistance during this time and get food when needed. This community mentality, specifically when facing such immense hardship, depicts the compassion and resiliency of the Filipino people.

On the last night in Bia-o, the team organized a bonfire on the beach with us where we swam in the sea, roasted marshmallows, and danced and sang songs together. It was a night I won’t soon forget.

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