GREETINGS FROM MINDANAO
 

Hey guys!
I'm in Davao right now getting ready to go to the market to look for native cloths and textiles...and of course, EDGED WEAPONS :D !! Lucky for me my aunt I'm staying with has both a Mandaya and a Bagobo househelper that will both accompany me to the market to look for blades :D ...SCORE!!!

This is the first time in almost 2 weeks I've had internet access so I have alot of catching up to do. LabanTayo should be back home soon, but I have another week in the Philippines and I still haven't made it to Panay yet! So far we've learned quite a few things about weapons here, but at the same time we've been really confused as hell since we've had to deal with different dialects (Aklanon, Ilongo, Tagalog, Cebuano, Waray, etc.) and even within the same dialects, a bolo from one town could be called something else in the next town. Hopefully, things will clear up more when I get to Aklan,Panay. But even last night my Aklanon Aunt (the professor here in Davao) refered to one of my tenegre photos as a sanduko and talibong :confused: ...ugh!!! At least she recognized the binangon...but also said it was made for war and it has another more proper name which she can't recall. Some of the answer I'll be looking for I'll supposedly find in Aklan.

I'll post back later.

Zel

nice to hear from you, bro... check out aldivenco. incidentally, that's where you can get some of the best dollar/peso rate.

hehe. brought some pictures, too when i was there. our farmhand in ajuy, iloilo, said the same thing. i think the best ones to approach are the real old timers in the farms/provinces...

good luck!

Have a great time, be careful and bring back extras! :)

Steve

I AM SURE YOU ARE HAVING A GREAT TIME, ENJOY THE FOOD, COUNTRY AND PEOPLE, WISH I WAS THERE ALSO. STAY SAFE AND GOOD HUNTING AND BRING BACK LOTS OF GOODIES TO SHOW US :D

Good to hear that you are doing well Zel. Catch anyone who has been oh I have no idea what these are, and then after a few minutes are like oh no this is 100% this, and then after a few more minutes are back to the whole I have no idea. That has always been frustrating to me when trying to talk to people about weapons. Then Ive gotten a few, oh youre not really Filipino because you were born in the States, you wont understand, so I wont explain. Then after a while the explanation comes, and it makes you wonder why they didnt explain in the first place. Then there is the whole oh we are all Filipino, you should already know. I remember talking about this phenomena with an author, and he was like he could never be certain who was telling the truth, who was making up stuff that they thought he wanted to hear, and who just really didnt know. I know in Universities, that is why they want multiple informants, for verification purposes (I got in trouble in one project for only using 12 informants), but what can you do when you can only find people here and there who are even willing to talk about the subject. Oh well, safe trip hope you are taking lots of pictures.