Alex and Me

(Blogger's note: Made a mistake with age gap. Alex is 16 years younger than I am instead of 13 years. So I will revise the sentences containing the age discrepancy.)




Alex is my youngest brother and I am the oldest. Between us our age gap is 16 years. He was born in 1954. He was a toddler (3 months old) when I left the house in 1957 at 16 years of age to study in U.P. Los Banos. I saw him from time to time when I was studying and working in a multinational company only during vacations. It was only in 1967 when I resigned from the company and returned to Davao to worked on my father's projects.

The age gap between us was telling so there was not much of a camaraderie. He was only studying in elementary then just not yet old enough to go on adventure. For a time being he did not went with us older boys to go the ranch in the mountains.

In that time, your lolo had a ranch-lease elsewhere in Mapula. It straddled between Kabanlasan creek and Mansuhi river. The only time we can go there as brothers was during school vacation or Christmas vacation. With the money I save from work and Papa's, we bought cattle from Maramag, Bukidnon to stock the ranch. Your Lolo let me go it alone buying some heads of cattle for the experience. I don't remember if your Tio Bobot was with me then. He was studying in Los Banos too, majoring in animal husbandry.

We contracted a 3/4 truck. Loaded the cattle. It was not easy then to travel. The road was rough, prone to landslides, potholes, deep ruts, and when it rains the road was slippery. The trip was so long for we have to pass by Carmen, Cotabato. The only cemented road was in Davao City. Today when you go to Maramag from Davao City, one has to take the Buda road, the one that goes to Cagayan de Oro.

I don't how long was the trip, for sure 12 hours was not enough for we have to go to Mapula, the outermost barrio. The estimated distance was more or less 200 km. We have to consider that we have to travel slow so as not to injure the animals. And then we have to drive the cows to the ranch over a foot trail.

We rested the cattle in Mapula for the night. The following morning Bobot, me, and Nato together with Beryo, the ranch hand, drove the cattle. I don't know if Cesar was with us (studying engineering at Mapua then) Sometimes Beryo would have to cut the thick undergrowth to let the cows pass the trail. Being young men then, strong and healthy, it was not a problem to work from sunrise to sunset. It took us one day to reach the ranch. Now we considered Alex too young for this endeavour, so he was left out in the city.

When he was older, he came with us for the first time to the ranch. Everybody must bring provisions for a week stay in the least in their backpacks. Naturally Beryo carried the heavier loads.

For provisions sometimes we have to buy them in the city, Vergara foods, for tres-B (the name of a chewing tobacco) udong ( a kind of noodle), betsin (monosodium glutamate), ligo sardines, bulad (dried fish) in small cans. From Bangkerohan market, your lola (grandmother) would usually buy a kilo or two of fried pork fat scraps, a high energy food considering it is mostly fat. For back-issues newspaper to be used as cigarette paper, we had no problem. We had ample supply for your lolo subscribed daily paper. Rice also brought along. Sometime Beryo would carry a can of 19.5 liter kerosene.

We usually take a jeep going to Panabo. From there, we make our last-minute buy before taking a full-loaded up-to-the-bream 3/4 truck going to Paradise. Crossing Lasang river once till the 3/4 stops at a creek. It can't go further for the logging road is already impassable. Landlides, deep ruts, and other obstacles come along the way. So we trekked further by foot to Mapula to rest for the night. The hike can take 5 to 6 hours.

The following day we moved again early in the morning. The trek runs along a creek, a side-cut trail along a ridge and finally a climb over the hill and dowm towards Kabanlasan creek. For us city-dwellers, it would take us 6-8 hours. The foot trail was not frequented by people so there was always undergrowth trying to smother the trails. We suffered cuts from almost razor-sharp leaves of the bugang, pricks from sampinit, a plant with many thorns and blood-sucking leeches.

Needless to say the life in the ranch was in survival mode. We ate pako, squash and its leaves, casili (fresh water eel caught by Nato), corn cobs, wild mushrooms, wild pigs even monkeys and of course native chicken, cassava and camote.

We slept in a small hut. Big cockroaches abound but no mosquitos. Good enough we did not suffer bites from them. No electricity, only kerosene lamps to light us for an hour or two in the night before we go to sleep. We woke up early in the morning. We cooked and work whatever is to be done in the place.

After spending sometime in the ranch, it was time to go home. Several hours on the way we were caught up by a heavy rainfall. Luckily we were out of the trail and on the logging road. One last obstacle we have to ford was a creek that in times of no rain was only at most below the knee. It was 10 meters across. But the creek was now swollen and flooding. The water was waist-deep and the current was fast. Forest debris was also being carried away. We struggled against the current. Alex was being carried away. (He was not yet a teener then). I was able to hold his hand. With utmost exertion we manage to reach the other side, to safety. Whew.

I don't remember the name of the place. I wish Alex could remember it. Maybe twenty meters from where we crossed was Lasang river. It was swollen and brown and meters deep. One cannot see the big boulders anymore. The current was exceptionally fast. So dangerous. The forest debris of uprooted small trees, dead branches floated and were carried fast by the current. That was a close call.

When martial law was declared, I left home on 23 Sept 1972. Since then there was practically no contact with Alex. When Bobot died in 2007, we did saw each other again. But time was not enough for both of us to know each other.

He worked in Saipan for 7 years and then in Fiji for 3 years.

Finally he came home. On 12 October we saw each other again. This time we had time together after 36 years. When he had his medical and dental checkup, I was with him. We visited the houses. We talked to the carpenter regarding renovation. We preliminary things with Betty regarding repairs and work procedure.

Then we made plans to go to Todaya Falls the weekend of 17 October, Saturday with his kids.