I
AM STILL NURSING a fever borne out of a motorcycle accident that I
got into on the night of July 29, 2014. My left chest is in pain,
probably a slipped cartilage, and breathing is quite stiff. I also
have a pulsating headache, a runny nose and an itchy throat. Yet,
despite those, I am game enough to lend my presence, my time and my
knowledge before outdoors enthusiasts today, August 2, 2014, at the
Green Habitat Resort in the hills of Sibonga, Cebu.
When
I gave my commitment to Barry Paracuelles a week ago, I will pursue
it, no matter what. Like today. I was even getting too restless to
look forward to this day that I am deprived of a good sleep the night
before. I am excited to work with my local peers of the Mountain
Climbers Alliance of the Philippines Inc. (MCAP), who included me as
resource person for a Basic Mountaineering Course. Barry had
designed the program of this BMC and this is, I think, a different
kind of BMC.
I
woke up at 04:15 and out of my home after a cold shower. The
participants will converge at the 7Eleven across the Cebu South Bus
Terminal while Barry had designated the office of Primary Structures
Corp. in V. Rama Avenue as the meeting place for the organizers. By
05:00, I am already at the place. Since Barry had not arrived yet, I
decide to enjoy coffee and bread at Pan de Manila at the nearby M.
Velez Street and buy ingredients for my meal at the Guadalupe Public
Market.
We
leave at 07:00 for Sibonga. Primary Structures, where Barry worked,
provided us free transportation. Some of those that will take the
BMC are employees of Primary Structures. Got to hand it to Barry for
organizing this event more than what I had expected it to be even to
the extent of involving the company where he is working along with
his co-workers. I believe that the main body of participants had left
the assembly area as well in a bus.
When
we arrive at the Green Habitat Resort, some of the participants were
already there. I examined the place and it is a resort alright with
five pools, a camping ground, a stage, several cottages while a creek
runs beside it. The ground had been leveled off including the part
where it once was a slope. I take a seat at the farthest kiosk where
I am joined by Neil Mabini, Chad Bacolod and Xerxes Alcordo.
Barry
immediately led the setting up of the sound system and the projector
on the stage. I offered my Apexus tarpaulin sheet as an improvised
projector screen. As everyone settled in among the PVC chairs, Barry
started the BMC. The projector throw images from the laptop to the
tarp sheet but daylight defeated the purpose. Nevertheless, Barry
explained every detail of each chapter until such time when lunch
break came.
After
the meal, the lecture transferred to one of the cottages and the
discussion of the BMC by Barry continues. By 15:00, my turn came.
My topics are The Survival Kit, Water and Cold-Weather Survival.
Some of the participants are a bit bored and sleepy so I decide to
let them stand up and asked them to give 15 seconds of silence to the
memory of Aldrin Cerba, who died during a canyoning accident at
Canlaob Canyon in Alegria.
The
first topic, The Survival Kit, cannot be discussed without a real
survival kit. Of course. It is a very complex subject that would
involve the exhibition of all the items found in a survival kit plus
the WHYS and the HOWS of why it is part of the kit. The delivery of
the lecture fluctuate between the hilarious, the serious, the
scientific and the interesting. At least, I get the attention of the
participants, most of whom are still new to the outdoors.
The
survival kit, I explained to all, also consists of the different
sub-kits like the first aid kit, the repair kit and the replenishment
pouch plus a good knife. The knife could either be a fixed blade but
very light like the Mora or the different versions of the Swiss Army
Knife, especially with one that has a folding saw. One of the very
important components of your survival kit is the thermal blanket,
which you should have since you tend to visit higher altitudes, and
fire tools, the redundancy of which ensures your overall security.
My
next subject matter is Water. Water, I inform to all, are very
abundant here in the tropics but is a commodity that had caused
conflict in other places. Outdoor activities like those done in
mountains demand water so much because dehydration is a natural
process of the human body. You cannot remedy loss of body moisture
except rehydrating several times as you can and filling up bottles
whenever you can. Taught them of the places where to source water
and what methods of treating water before drinking.
Last
is Cold-Weather Survival. Since mountaineering is a high-altitude
activity where exposure to cold is high, the best way to prevent
hypothermia is to know the five mechanisms that steal heat away from
your body: Respiration, Conduction, Convection, Evaporation and
Radiation. For every natural heat-loss process, there are remedies
for that which I clearly explained. When I thought I have reached
the end of my lecture, I let them examine all the items of my
survival kit.
Neil
came in next with Technical Climbing. He discussed about the
different ropes, its usage, care and storage. Apart from that, he
showed and discussed the safety gears that are used with the rope
during technical climbing like the harness, carabiners, descenders,
flat webbing and cords, mechanical ascenders, chocks, etc. Other
accessories like the safety helmet, rock shoes and chalk bag are
properly explained according to its purpose.
When
ropes and cords are involved, surely there would always be knots.
Lots and lots of tying around. Ropesmanship is another topic that
Neil is discussing to all participants for the rest of the afternoon.
He taught the basics of knot-tying and the most common knots used
in mountaineering like the square knot, the bowline, the
figure-of-eight, the double bowline, the double figure 8, the Prussik
knot, the munter hitch, the Kleimheist, etc.
The
knots and all the equipment are then used for the Single-Rope
Technique, a method of traversing up and down vertical places using
the rope instead of a ladder. Neil showed everyone how to use the
ascender and how to devise the cord to work with the ascender and
your harness to gain altitude. He shows the technique in how to
uncouple the ascender and transfer to a descender when he needs to go
down. A belay is used to increase safety for the first timers.
When
dusk came, everyone settled to their respective groups. There are
several informal outdoor groups which carry funny names like Tribu
Batig Nawong (literally, ugly faces), Yabag (unmelodious voice) and
Orcs (they are not from the Lords of the Ring); and the serious ones
like the Enthusiasts of Cebu Outdoors, Visayan Trekkers Forum and
RECON MACE 7.
When
I had ended my lectures, I set up my Silangan “stealth hammock”
between two midget coconut palms. Overhead cover is my Apexus sheet
which is anchored at its edges by sharpened wooden stakes. That
would be my resting place for the night which, I believed, would be
long. When fixing my shelter was finished, I start preparing my
dinner. For this occasion, I brought my almost-forgotten butane
stove.
After
the SRT session, everybody gets busy preparing their own food. Each
group has its own concoction and I thought I saw a bottle of hard
spirits but I declined an offer of a drink. I believe the gut needs
a filling first and it is still too early. A spoon rapped on a pot
lid signaled the start of dinner. In a flurry of refills after
refills, the food gets decimated and everyone are too bloated to make
crazy somersaults on the swimming pools.
The
groups are to each his own now and I carefully evaded the attention
of the ones holding the bottles until I get to enter an open cottage
and I got trapped with a group who knows my son very well as they are
working in the same company. They are with a little-known business
process outsourcing company located at the Cebu IT Park called
Microsourcing.
They
are now serious outdoorsmen and they asked me everything about
“Mag-ne” and why I hid my face with different books on my
Facebook profiles? I give them funny answers that tickled them to
the bones especially now that the spirits in the glass begins to work
on all of us. The rounds of the glass becomes tighter and faster and
the laughter begins to get boisterous. Outside is pandemonium as
some of the participants begins to make the pools work for their
enjoyment.
When
I thought I have enough, I work my way into my sleeping quarter.
Fortunately, it is empty of stragglers. This would be my first night
on my Silangan hammock and I am trying this for the very first time
as a half-conscious occupant of a few hours. A built-in mosquito net
protects me from those noisy insects and that gives me an assurance
of a good night’s sleep, a peace of mind. The hammock is quite
spacious which I had not experienced with old hammocks that I used
before.
Indeed,
the hammock worked wonders as I see daylight of the next day, August
3. Coffee are available everywhere but I kept to myself with my own
supply which I get to share when someone overshoots his orbit. The
rappel session starts early under the direction of Neil while I
assist him with the belays. When it was over, the whole BMC class
with their certificates takes a pose for the cameras. After that,
everyone gets to relax and takes another dip in the pool as the bags
are packed ready for departure.
BMC
classes are now very common that it is now given free. This BMC, to
keep abreast of the times, is given en gratis and would be a
first in the annals of MCAP to be held outside of Luzon. However,
Barry choose to involve topics which had not been discussed before in
any level of any BMC to equip better the participants by its
practical applications in the enjoyment of their interests among our
mountains.
Because
of that, I was moved, at the instance of Barry, to make better
mountaineers and better individuals of the participants. I could not
have been more happy than to become a catalyst of increasing their
safety in the outdoors and of their survivability as well.
Document
done in LibreOffice 3.3 Writer
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