The wind was blowing in my face as I sat on top of the bus traveling toward the mountains. Moving gives me a sense of freedom. I am not really sure what it is about being on the move, but I love it. I feel close to God and at peace with the world. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you can't worry or do much with the wind blowing in your face, the bus inches from the side of a cliff and a curve up ahead on a single lane road that may have a vehicle driving as fast as you are coming around that same curve. I don't need to know for sure why I love it, I just know that I do.
Bugnay is a small village about a 4hr drive from Tabuk and home to some of the Butbut tribe. The director of the maternity clinic where I live, Georgia, married a man from Bugnay and has a love for the village and a heart to share this special place with others. I have been told that the Butbut people were head hunters, until a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) Filipino missionary (I think from Manila) risk his life to tell them the Good News. The Butbut leaders agreed to meet the missionary, believed his message and since then the tribe has given up their head hunting.
As I traveled with my 3 companions, we traversed winding roads, along side sheer drop offs, and we ducked under power lines and branches. We traveled through small villages were people would wave and stare at the crazy white people riding "top load". The bus would slow and honk at lazy dogs laying in the road and the occasional pig or chicken meandering across. My mind was sharp and eyes searching the landscape despite the two hours I was awake the night before assisting the birth of a beautiful baby girl.
After stoping for a quick lunch of boiled pork and rice, we traveled the last hour through the "scariest" part of the narrow road and across places where the road had been recently cleared of landslides, around some curves and there on the other side of the river was the tin roofs of Bugnay. Beautiful.
We throw our backpacks down to the bus attendant and climbed down. The air was hot and sticky with a fresh country smell. I looked over the edge at the suspension bridge below and a steep flight of stairs on both sides, whew, this butt sitting midwifery student was tried already! Going down didn't seem that bad until I hit a slightly slippery spot and had to let go of the bag of salt that was on my head to keep from busting my bum on the rock step or slamming the chicken that I was carrying in my left hand down. Yep, my legs were defiantly shaking! That suspension bridge shook as I walked across it and I tried not to look through the wire at the wide river below. Beautiful, fun, but scary too. There were steep steps to greet me on the other side. Lets just say by the time I made it to the village I had resolved that I needed to make time in my daily routine to exercise!
Winding through closely built houses and over little fences made to keep pigs in or out we arrived at Georgia's in-laws home. We were greeted by smiling faces and were soon settled into the square house on stilts taking a nap. I awoke a few hours later to young peering eyes and a cool cup off Kalinga coffee - before coming to the Philippines I had NEVER drank a cup of coffee and now I am acquiring the taste for it :)
Bugnay village over looks the river gouge and is surrounded by rice terraces. It is beautiful to put it mildly. The people who live there are kind and caring, the children are sweet and everyone is shy. I mostly sat that first night observing and listening. It was hard not to compare it with my time in Africa. There is much the same with village life no matter where you are. I was in awe of the running water and the electricity, even WAY out in the mountains! I find that every culture shows a part of God that I had yet to see before visiting it.
The next day we back tracked down the stairs across the bridge, up the stairs and up, up the winding road to the mountain on the other side to have a picnic. Some of the young people from the village joined us and we had a yummy meal of chicken and rice. It was followed by "dance" musical chairs... I was skeptical of playing and to my horror ended up the only one left with a young man! They proceed to tell me that I had to dance with him in front of the chair and then run to it when the music stopped. I think I blushed the whole time and ended up finding myself in his lap when I tried to sit in the chair. While I did not mean to sit in his lap, I couldn't just not try and let him win now could I?
That night I was disturbed with a burning throat, in the morning my nose started to run and I ended up napping until noon. Then I was encouraged to the take a hike down to the river to go for a swim, I was assured it would make me feel better. I had been dying to swim in the river, so I took some cold medicine that I had thankfully packed, put on my bathing suit and headed down, down to the Chico river. The water was cold and rushing briskly down stream. The children dove in and I stuck my toe in and proceeded to take at least a half hour to get in. It was cold, but refreshing and fun! Afterwards we climbed back up to the village and I sat and watched, Sara, play frisbee with the children, but I didn't have the energy to join in on the fun. That evening I sat with the children for a while until my runny nose sent me off to bed.
The next morning all too soon we made the hike back to the road and climbed back on top of the bus to take us back to reality. Despite my runny nose and stuffy head, I enjoyed the wind in my face and the beauty that passed by as we traveled back to Tabuk. It was a lovely break and a lovely time.
