Barangay Taptap

Another trip outside Cebu-city (well at least the center), but this time together with CPaG (NGO where I’m doing the internship).

As I already mentioned before CPaG helps Barangays with making a Barangay Development Plan and this through participatory resource appraisal. So they want to set up the development plan of the Barangay with the help of the citizens. In this way the plan should represent more the needs of the citizens and not only the needs of the officials.

Anyways normally CPaG works as follows:
At first they visit a Barangay who’s interested in their work and they present themselves. Normally during a second visit a 3-day training is given to some people of the Barangay. That way they can function as facilitators. The CPaG staff teaches these facilitators about the different methods in gathering and presenting data, teaches them how to use the problem tree and other similar stuff. In a third phase, these facilitators will make a development plan together with other citizens, using the different methods they were taught. However this plan (off course) still needs to be approved by the Barangay Captain, the assembly and Barangay council. This way CPaG wants to give the needed skills to the local people. This is positive in two ways: on the one hand the people or less dependent on CPaG and this training way is more durable, on the other hand CPaG has more time left to concentrate on other Barangays.

However for Barangay Taptap the procedure was a bit different. Barangay Taptap is a mountain Barangay, a 45 min drive or so from Cebu-city center. In mountain Barangays CPaG usually work differently. As there are not enough people who can function as a facilitator, CPaG staff are the facilitators. So step two isn’t applicable for these Barangays.

So last Thursday CPaG started their three day program of community planning in Taptap and I joined them to “observe”. Also Sarah and her organization “share a child” joined us. Taptap is a wonderful Barangay in the mountains…beautiful views, fresh air, cleaner and a lot cooler than the center of Cebu city.

All the participants (mainly women…man aren’t that interested in these planning days…however…most elected officials are still men) were divided into 4 groups. There are 4 sectors on which they will be working the next days: development administration, infrastructure and environment, economic and human development. So on the first day the main focus was on gathering data. As Sarah and I couldn’t do that much…we started to entertain a bit the children. Sarah brought some crayons and we started drawing. At first the children were quite shy…they didn’t really dare to join us…but after a while they did. Very nice to see how they were enjoying themselves…drawing all kind of things. That way the children were busy and the parents were able to focus on their work.



In the afternoon I wandered around the Barangay and talked to some people…well talking…the drunk old man was hard to understand and the children didn’t say much more then “mem, mem, where are you going? Where are you from? What’s your name?” and some other things in Cebuano. Lovely! :) The day passed by quickly, but the evening was still young. The other CPaG members left me behind…but no worry the people of Taptap are so friendly and hospitable. It felt so nice! The secretary of the Barangay, Joyce, invited me to stay in her house, but in the end I stayed in the most fancy house of the Barangay, the house of her brother in law, Bong. His wife is an Oversea Filipino Worker (in New Zeeland), so that explains a lot…He was living together with his daughter and a maid. They had a huge karaoke installation…and off course…no escaping…! All night long…all night…all night long…all night…we sang and danced!



The next day: more data gathering and making a problem tree and presenting this to the others. However a sudden downfall made an end to the presentation (het gehele gebeuren is letterlijk in het water gevallen : ) ). They tried to keep on presenting, but everybody was so cold, the place where we were sitting became flooded and the children started yelling more and more (well maybe that was because I was taking pictures of them! :) )! So we all went to shelter in the Barangay Hall…Great! So much rain.. everybody in the end happy because this is so good for the farmers and off course most of the families in this Barangay live from farming. So the second day ended early…the moment it stopped raining for we went to the house, also another member of CPaG (Mikay) stayed in Taptap. This night no Karaoke…but playing cards! Aaaah I loved it! Learned a new game here…normally they play it with money. Gambling is a big problem here…and this game is one way to earn or lose a lot of money…However this time we played it just for fun (otherwise I would have lost way too much money :) ).



…Saturday…last day…sadlyThe planning almost at his end. Still putting together a vision and mission for the Barangay and then making a 3year development plan (by sector). Suddenly the other CPaG members and the members of share a child ran outside and came back with lots of vegetables…yes it’s a lot cheaper to buy them here! Anyways the car filled with vegetables, we returned back to Cebu-city center…back to the urban area…



It were three very good days. Nice to be in a mountain Barangay for some days. Getting to know some people…being closer to the people…oh enjoyed it very much and hope to go back soon…