VOICE OF PUNCTUALITY

I HAVE COME TO NOTICE that activities organized informally by any outdoor group tend to start or proceed to their destinations late. Lucky are a few who may start 30 minutes later or less but starting late an hour or more are becoming so common that it had become an annoying fad. It destroys a well-prepared itinerary. Why is that?

Miscommunication? No way. You have the mobile phones and those touted smart phones. Communicating with each other have never been so easier, so convenient and so fast now compared to more than twenty years ago where the only way to communicate fast was by the analog telephone and by word of mouth, provided you are neighbors or workmates or classmates or lovers or whatever.

How about attitude? Yes, that is always the main problem. There are just some people who take for granted the value of word of honor and of punctuality. These people holds hostage the activities they are intending to join by coming in late all the time. Then the band starts playing and off they go very late.

What causes this?

Number 1. These people work at night. A lot of people who joined outdoor activities work in business process outsourcing companies and their working hours are tailored-fit to the different time zones that people in the United States do business – which is day time.

Number 2. These people sleep late. Some parties and get-together with families and friends demand that you stay late. These are just on a few occasions but some kept it regular and still insists to be part of a day activity.

Number 3. These people got stuck in traffic. Rain causes traffic jams because the streets would be flooded. Following a religious procession, a hearse for the dead, a street parade or a road race causes you so much anxiety about your schedule but, most often, routes for public transports are re-routed by authorities.

Number 4. These people lived far away. Distance eats time and I know of people who take three to four rides to the assembly areas either beating the clock or going beyond the time.

Number 5. These people live in a house with many people and one bathroom. This is a very unique situation but very common in cheap lodging houses. You cannot start your day until you get your turn.

Number 6. These people suffered minor memory lapses. Normally this was applicable only to the senior citizens among us but younger people now experienced this because of the advent of multi-taskings, as some things get buried under layers of doing other new things all at the same time.

Number 7. These people are habitual latecomers. We cannot do about this except hope that they do not join or they get tired of people evading them.

During our formative years, we were taught to attend flag raising ceremonies on time everyday of every school year from elementary (no, make that kindergarten) to the end of high school. Although this is purely a patriotic affair to affirm our being citizens of and members of a republic, in this case, the Philippines, but, unknown to you, it is an exercise that emphasizes the value of punctuality and honoring appointments.

In the old days when there were no cellular phones and the Internet, people were very prompt and honored their commitments. Two or more minds would agree to a place, date and time in one setting or in a simple system of message delivery and all appear in clock-work precision. Those that would be late or cannot come made it sure that everybody knows. It was such an amazing development if you compare it with our present age, where advanced technology is supposed to ensure the speedy delivery of messages.

Because of our habitual tendency to start late, the word “Filipino Time” was coined. It does not speak well of us as a people. We might have been influenced by our former colonizer who had overstayed here for 333 years along with their infatuation to eat their lunch in late afternoons and using the word mañana when they do not feel like doing things immediately although another colonizer taught us to be on time all the time.

All things considered, private businesses demand their employees to be always on time to increase production. Management takes note of tardiness and these does not augur well for those whose salaries had become smaller than usual due to frequent deductions stemming from arriving late or by administrative sanctions like fines or suspensions as a result of being an unrepentant recidivist.

A good work ethic is being on time (or early) at your work. When you are late you suffer for that. That is the bottom line in private establishments and in some government offices. When you are late for a job interview, you suffer for that. That is the norm of human resource managers. Because being an unpunctual person is never accepted anywhere for they lack the tools to function as a respectful citizen.

While you are punctual in your classes, in your work, in your job interviews, in your dinner dates, in your reply of your messages, in your visit to the wash rooms and in your thousand other necessities in Facebook, why cannot you be punctual in an informal outdoor activity? What is the difference?

Have you considered the special preparation by the organizer to relinquish their valued family time so the likes of you could be accommodated in an activity where they do not stand to gain an income and you come late for more than an hour? Is it not unfair for the organizer and the other participants who came early? Who would they blame? YOU.

Conversely, would you be so happy to be left out after you already have paid a registration fee in a commercialized outdoor activity where the organizers and participants are nowhere in the place where they were supposed to be because you were late at the appointed time? Is it not unfair to you? Who would you blame? YOU.

How do you lessen this tardiness? I am no expert and I am sure that there are a lot of articles written by experts in human behaviour tackling this problem in the Internet and I do not know if you had read about it. Neither do I. Where would we start then?

TIME MANAGEMENT. If you live far then you wake up very early. If you expect traffic then you start early. Give a big time allowance, por Dios mio! If there is only one bathroom for twenty people or more where you live then you rise at a time where nobody is expected to use it and go back to bed after that. Use the alarm feature of your mobile phones to see to it that you would awaken at the pre-arranged time.

BE PREPARED. Know the assembly area and the quickest way to get there. You have all the tools you need. Call a peer. Message them in their emails or in their Facebook accounts. Use Google Map. If you work at night or stay late, make sure that you have already packed the things you need and snatch it quick when it is time to go.

GIVE FEEDBACK. If you would be late, do not leave people in the dark. Much more so when you cannot make it. Use your mobile phones and let them know. If you received a message or somebody calls you by cellphone, please acknowledge and answer. Ignoring same would upset the organizer and some participants.

BE RESPONSIBLE. The activity would push on regardless if you arrive or not. The only thing why the activity did not start as was scheduled is because they considered your presence as important. They value your participation and would sacrifice departure time for that but do not get this into your head. Do not act like a prima donna.

SELF-DISCIPLINE. If you work at night or stay late, you should know you would be surrendering your rest time. If you think it is not feasible to go, do not pursue it but you have to inform the organizer by all means. If you would be late, you are obliged to inform same. People would understand that except when you are late all the time and causes activities to be delayed all the time.

For those who do not know me fully well, I am no Superman nor saint. I also got late many times in the past and I learned some painful lessons. This was aggravated by the appearance of cellphones. Because of cellphones, you could concoct excuses and the other end would be obliged to wait. I still come late now, but these are very very few and far between and excuses are for real.

As an organizer, I would like to be first at the assembly area no matter if I work or stay up late, or I am harangued by rain, or even if there is an unexpected traffic jam. I would lead people by example by going early because that is the only proper way.

What people do not like is when you are already VERY LATE and the rest are waiting for your arrival and then, all of a sudden, someone received a message that you cannot make it. You backed out at the LAST MINUTE in an already borrowed time. That is a cardinal sin and you deserve LONELINESS. A possibility where people would leave you out in the dark all the time until the end of time.

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COMPLEAT BUSHCRAFT XIV: Men at Work

THE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE Bushcraft Camp is fast approaching.  Nine days to be exact.  Today, June 1, 2014, I decide to visit the campsite at Lower Sayao, Sibonga, Cebu to secure the firewood that I had prepared the last time I came here.  I also aim to work on the latrines for both genders, see the condition of the water source and to elicit updates from the property owner.

The good thing is that I am not alone unlike last year in Camp Damazo.  This time the alumni of PIBC 2011, 2012 and 2013, like Glenn Pestaño, Jhurds Neo, Mayo Leo Carillo, Aljew Frasco and Christopher Maru are coming with me.  All are main bulwarks of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild.  Also coming to help are the rough cuts – Justin Ianne Abella, Faith Gomez and Nelson Orozco.

We all meet first (except for Jhurds and Glenn) at the Cebu South Bus Terminal in Cebu City before proceeding to the south by 07:00 on board Aljew’s red Toyota pick-up.  We pass by Talisay City to pick up Jhurds so he would know his tasks during the PIBC since he is the camp ramrod.  In layman’s term, that is “camp administrator” for you.

We stop first at Ocaña, Carcar to buy rice, coffee and spices.  We did not buy meat or vegetables since Glenn had promised to provide pork to grill there for a very belated birthday celebration.  We continue on and take a right turn at Candaguit, Sibonga.  The road is good until it gets past Mangyan.  This road is also under our scrutiny as the PIBC participants and staff will be ferried by a small bus during the first and last day.

The pickup did not stop at the usual place where the road is still considered gentle.  There is a very rough road that had been recently worked on and flattened but it is so steep and the lime soil on top is soft.  The rear wheels dig for a hold and we have to go down and push the pickup so it could move forward.  After a very hard effort, it go past the soft stretches and into the campsite itself.  The pickup looked out of place.

We visit Rufino Ramos and his family and give his kids sets of school supplies which we had kept for them.  Aside that, Jhurds also give food from last night’s fiesta held at his wife’s place.  Rufino owns the property where the PIBC would be held.  The campsite grounds are broken up by a plow and is now ready for planting of corn but Rufino decide to postpone it after the PIBC instead.  A copse of mangoes provide shade and branches to hold hammocks and tarp sheets.

I leave the rest so I could fetch water.  Coming along are Nelson and Jhurds.  Water is very vital in any undertaking, especially for an outdoor activity.  I check on the flow of the natural spring and it had not been affected by this extremely warm summer.  The small rice paddies are dry yet the small stream is flowing.  This stream would be the site of the nocturnal hunting on the second night of the PIBC.  We go back when we had our water.

While everyone are foraging firewood, I go down the hill and looked for the trunks I cut last March 30.  The trunks I chose then were the introduced species like mahogany, white leadtree (Local name: ipil-ipil) and Indian mulberry (bangkoro) and all are now very dry since I kept all these above the ground.  I cut the branches from the trunks so I could stow these and keep it from rain. 

As I am doing all these, I search for a good place to set up the latrines.  I see some young trees that had been felled down recently by firewood gatherers and I look for some straight poles that I could use as digging sticks.  I found two lying on the ground and I immediately sharpen their ends.  I go back and bring three branches that I also picked up off the ground for our cooking tripod.

Mayo had already set up his “old-world” hammock and his old tarp sheet while Jhurds lashed his taffeta sheet to the mango tree.  I also brought my newly-acquired Silangan “stealth” hammock so I could test its flexibility of use.  When the tripod is set, a black pot containing water is hanged over a roaring fire that Aljew gave life to.  Soon we will have coffee and what a good day to have one! 

The tripod are lashed with dried fiber from banana trunks.  This same fiber is used to hang the pot filled with water (and later with rice) above a fire.  While waiting for coffee, Nelson and Christopher refresh their knowledge about making palm balls where rice is kept and cooked (pusò).  When they had remembered, they share this knowledge to the rest.

I test making fire out of a hand drill.  Spindle is a dry driftwood, thick and not straight, while the fireboard is gmelina.  Punks – fine sawdust – begins to appear; signs of smoke suspect; the tip of the spindle is hot, but no fire.  Only sweat on my brows.  Glenn, meanwhile, is busy with his Benjamin CO2 rifle, plinking a target at forty meters.  Justine and Faith fire rounds too from the same rifle.

Aljew try another hand drill made of China berry (Local: bagalnga) wood.  Spindle is long and slender and straight; turning it back and forth is intense until one palm popped.  Aljew gave up.  Tried again with the China berry pair.  Smoke appeared but the intensity is lessening.  I lose the battle.  It was a good try and both me and Aljew gain more wisdom on how it would be done next time.

When we had coffee, we all go down the hill to work on the latrines.  We work first for the males.  Ninety percent of the campers would be male and we dig a hole four feet long, six inches wide and eight inches deep.  That should be enough, for now.  We may make another on the event itself should we find it inadequate.

Now, we transfer to another location and dig a hole for the ladies.  It is a smaller hole but we may have to secure it with a laminated nylon sheet to preserve their (and the men’s too) privacy.  We may attach the sheets later during the PIBC.  All the guys take turns in digging the two holes with the digging sticks; clearing the dirt with coconut shells and trowels made from bamboos.  Hand gloves were provided to protect the hands from injury.

It is almost 12:00 when we return to the main camp and we begin to rekindle the flame, cook the rice and drink more coffee.  When the flames turned to embers, the pork is placed above an iron grill, the hunger in us begins to manifest as the smoke wafted thru the air.  Sticky fingers break off some small portions of the cooked ones to nibble and stave off the urge.

When the meal gets served on banana leaves, all get serious.  The knees do not mind kissing dirt as the hands grab fistfuls of rice and pieces of grilled pork and transfer it into impromptu plates like pot covers and empty Tupperware.  It is a well-deserved lunch for a bunch of guys who loved to stay close to the earth.  It was  a very satisfying meal.

Rufino arrive with two gallons of coconut wine (tuba).  Fine timing!  We slowly drink the native concoction, using it to spice up our conversations.  As always, the blades are the main topic.  Camp Red activities encourage you to carry and use your knife whenever and wherever it is needed.  More outdoor clubs, especially in Luzon, begins to see the importance of real knives in their activities.

It was not like that until I taught people how and why in subsequent PIBCs and they begin to see the light.  Now, Camp Red is composed of the best knife connoisseurs in Cebu, perhaps in the Philippines, which is unprecedented, because they do not keep these inside boxes like old collectors do, but they use it like any ordinary tool.  Their prized knives are exposed to all the wear and tear associated with the demands of the outdoors.

As the afternoon wears on, we begin to pack our things and get ready with the business of going home.  The red pick-up is filled full of people and, one by one, we set off on home territory.  

    

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