SURVIVAL, TO A CHILD’S EYE, IS A
WORLD that is associated with home entertainment. This genre is the most
popular staple in reality TV shows. It is remote and the audience does not
really experience the austere conditions and hardships that the show would like
to impart, never mind that it is scripted and in a controlled environment,
complete with support crews, like a medical team and a safety staff.
But the real world of survival is
not even that close as those shown on TV. There are no drama. No dialogues.
There is only torment. Anger. Uncertainty. Silence amid the turmoil of the
world and the inner you. Perhaps, tinkering with an acceptance of an
unacceptable fate. Survivors go past those stage and they live. Some live but
their souls got lost along the way.
On a lesser note, BUSHCRAFT, an
old-world way of adapting into the wilderness to carve out a livelihood or a
calling, is fast becoming a recreational outdoors activity. Although a close
cousin to survival, the term is still alien to the majority of the population
in the Philippines, much more so with the young generation. It uses more brains
than brawn, and a tool which, in this case, is the knife.
Bushcraft and Survival are my
expertise and I am usually called on to teach these things to individuals or by
organizations. It is not unusual for me to find minors in my trainings. In
fact, I encourage parents to expose their children to be out of doors all the
time and make themselves more useful and productive, instead of being wired to
electronic gadgets and the power cable. Would handling a knife be a part of
that? A parent may ask.
You know, it would be absurd to
expose a child near a knife, much more so encourage them to touch it. You are
right. No sane and responsible parent would allow their son or daughter tinker
with any sharp-edged instrument and, in most homes, it is tucked away from
their reach. But I have seen sheltered kids feeling lost or scared or outright
careless when they happen to come into possession of a knife. It is scary
indeed if they hurt themselves or their playmates.
Could we do something about that
knife thing? No. I cannot teach bushcraft with plastic knives and a
make-believe world. I love to train them the real thing. Develop their
confidence and make them responsible adults someday; expose them to the joys of
the real outdoors; stimulate their senses; and work their creativity juices to
a high gear. They do not stare at a knife. They use it with their hands with
adult supervision, of course.
There was a time when a knife was
given as a gift. It was the happiest moment in a boy’s life, for, in his eyes,
he is accepted as an adult. It happened because the giver knows the recipient
is ripe enough how to use, keep and care of the knife. It is a rite of passage.
It is not anymore. We live in a different world with changing values. The old
ways are discarded for something politically correct, metrosexual and
superficial
You simply cannot earn your first
knife if your hands are soft and lazy. A child must be taught how to use the
knife as a tool and he practices it on his spare time until such time his
confidence would increase his level of skill. In much the same way, a child
skilled in making a fire prepares himself or herself to the business of simple
life skills of cooking and eating. The child becomes self-reliant and how
self-reliance is now a rare commodity, is it not?
In the backcountry, kids use bigger
blades as if these were light and small and carve things from nature. They have
developed great dexterity through constant use and they have formed their own
values with these tools. I had been exposed myself to working with bigger
blades when I was young because there is work to be done and, ironically, I
grew up in a big city. Adults would guide me and encourage me as painful
blisters marked my palms.
You might wonder why I and those
mountain kids still have complete digits after using much more formidable
blades, almost all of the time unsupervised by adults? The secret to that is
education. I would not allow a minor, not even an adult, to touch a knife
without being educated in knife safety. They cannot proceed on the next
instructions without that. For this particular education, I have raised it into
an art, as a necessity, to remove accidents.
One day I was called by the staff
of Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort, located in Lapulapu City, Cebu, to
introduce kids to a day of bushcraft and survival. These kids belonged to the
Dolpo Kids Club and their age range are from 7 to 14. Fourteen girls and boys
showed up on March 25, 2017, and all were accompanied by either parents or
minders. I have worked before with kids in a corporate setting like the City
Sports Club Cebu last November 2016 and I know how to proceed with my program.
Since I would be working with kids,
I brought my protegees, the couple Mark and Mirasol Lepon of the Camp Red
Bushcraft and Survival Guild. Both had taken the Philippine Independence
Bushcraft Camp in 2015 that I organize annually and are active bushcraft
practitioners. Both are working full time in health lifestyle counselling under
Herbalife. They are some of my best people and I am confident they could
fulfill their tasks easily.
I brought only a cache of small
knives, purposely unsharpened, as a safety measure. They are a William Rodgers,
a Fame Kitchener, a Condor Bushlore, a Mora Companion, a Knifemaker Camper, two
Seseblade Sinalung, a Seseblade Matavia, a Victorinox SAK Ranger, a Victorinox
SAK Trailmaster and a Browning linerlock. Since this is not an all-knife show,
I pitched in my Fire Kit and my spools of cords for the different aspects of a
bushcraft activity.
It was my first time to visit
Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort and I was impressed by the staff, the service,
the food and the neat paths to the beachfront. It is in a hidden cove among
many resorts that line the Hilutungan Channel. What caught my attention is a
huge strangling fig that seem to be the center that held together all what is
aesthetic of this prestigious resort. I was amazed that it was preserved by
management inspite that it is on prime space good for more expansion.
Kids, when they get bored, do not
have a flexible attention span. You have to engage them where they are most
interested. Making fire would be a good start. These kids do not have the
opportunity to experience making a fire. They have adults to do that for them.
It is much safe for a home that kids are kept away from safety matches, butane
lighters, electric and LPG stoves. However, curiosity would kill the cat.
Kids, being kids, are bound to be
tempted to touch these things that are off limits for them and that is when
things go wrong. Teach them why is that and expose them how to make one. With a
ferrocerium rod. They see these things on TV and probably got amazed why a mere
spark from those produce fires? After a short but practical lecture on fire
safety, the kids got their wish producing tiny meteor showers on soft downy
material and small wood shavings.
After an hour of smoke and heat and
slaked wonder, we observed an hour of noonbreak but, once it was over, the fire
sessions continue on their own instance. I would rather have the course of
their learning dictated by their own unhindered progress. When they reached a
point that they have had enough, I turned their attention to MarK and Mirasol.
Right then and there, they witnessed how a fire is made by rubbing two pieces
of bamboo. It raised their astonishment a higher notch.
From there, I produced a short
piece of bamboo pole, opened it with a knife and place it above the fire made
by friction method. I poured water into the hole and then rice. They were
amazed to see these novel sights. How in the world could people cook rice in
bamboos? They know only that metal pots and earthenware do that function. I
assured them that it is for real but we all would have to wait for the result.
While the waiting would have a big
effect on their attention span, I showed them three bamboo poles, bound a cord
on one end and spread the poles on the sandy ground. I placed a cheap laminated
nylon sheet over it and it becomes an instant shelter. Their satisfaction rose
higher now and I directed them to a row of hedge where Mark have set up a
couple of different snares.
To entertain them, I imitated a
monkey and a hen, activating the two crude machines as my hand got caught on
each of the looped cords, eliciting laughter. Catching better their attention
now, I proceed to the serious business of survival tool making. There are no
short cuts to there as a knife would have to be used. That is where my knife
safety session is introduced. Repeating where it is most crucial and visually
showing how a knife should be held and the proper execution of knife functions.
Safety first.
Grouping them according to age,
they formed a circle sitting on the ground, hand them the materials and a knife
each. They baton, chop, shave and whittle bamboos to their desired shapes. Mark
and Mirasol helped me supervise their progress. The kids were having fun and
their parents joined and helped their kids. They saw their kids developed
confidence with handling and working with a knife as minutes wore on.
You do not learn these things
inside a classroom nor appreciate it much from watching online videos and
survival TV. The real stuff is better, right where the action is. It was a
beautiful scene, child and parent working to produce their best hand-made
spoons. The kids showed off their creations proudly and nobody got nicked by a
knife. Education is the key. The day’s session ended after that and they get to
taste the rice perfectly cooked in bamboo.
My appearance to teach Introduction
to Bushcraft and Survival to the Dolpo Kids Club in Bluewater Maribago Beach
Resort would not have been possible without the participation and cooperation
of Bluewater Resorts, thru Mr. Erik Monsanto and his assistant, Ms. Fresha
Endico; the recommendation of Mr. Gian Carlo of Adrenaline Romance; and the
support of Mark and Mirasol Lepon of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild.
Likewise, to my sponsors who
provided me the wares to share my skills and knowledge and in my adventures like AJF Knives of Liloan,
Seseblades of Pangasinan, the Knifemaker of Mandaue City, Pacing’s House of
Barbecue of Navotas City, Alan Poole of the United Kingdom, Markus Immer of
Switzerland, Derek’s Classic Blade Exchange of Iloilo City, and Jerome Tibon of
Lapulapu City. Thank you all.
The significance of the ancient
strangling fig only tells me that Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort is a green
resort. They saw the connection between the environment and their business
better than the rest crowding every inch of coastal beaches in Lapulapu City.
They do not have to modify the skyline and the land features and create a
make-believe environment. They work around it and blend with the surroundings.
They have my greatest respect and I
highly recommend Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort or any of their facilities to
friends and strangers. It is good to know that we have a green resort in Mactan
Island.
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