KOILAWAN: A MEMOIR OF A JUNGLE DAD-MOM

PREFACE

Life is a poem. It could be short or long. It has rhythm and meter, confine or adventurous, full of symbols and meanings. It may be sweetly sounding and highly satisfying to the one who owns it, but may be considered under par otherwise. Even though it may be considered simple to interpret, others may find it close, purely representing the top surface, henceforth, difficult to decipher.

Truly, understanding a life other than our own is very subjective, just as one provides a voice to interpret a poem. We perceive someone else's life based on how we live our lives. We forget to consider that others may be doing or expressing things culturally and that culture may differ from ours. Moreover, we forget to subject our interpretation of somebody's action on his psychological health and processes. We just wanted others to live just like how we wanted them to live. This is how I first see my life in the jungle.

Initially, i thought that my well-educated life was far superior than those who were less exposed to modern science and technology, just to find out later that, without the help of those living in the jungle, my education was not enough to survive in a difficult situation. It may be true that I know more on how to survive in the modern world, but they know how to deal with an environment considered primitive or less-developed.

The aim of this book, therefore, is to show life in poetry and prose. Believing tha some consider poetry not as a sweet music to the ear, because they may find it difficult to understand, the prose may, hopefully, provide the avenue for them to appreciate it when they read the poem again.

Content of the book is based on my real life experience among the Ata Manobo of southern Philippines. They are descriptive of the culture of the Ata Manobo, how I see myself as a language and culture learner, and how I spent my time introducing socio-cultural change to the tribe, when I was still a jungle dad-mom or Mr. Mom, for short.

It is my hope and prayer that readers could glean some grains of thought on how to interpret and understand the lives of other people, and how to enjoy life as they visit and live among people whose culture is different from theirs.

Ed Industan