Philippines Tour 2024 -Bokaw Newsletter

Performers Without Borders Philippines Tour 2024

Bokaw!

The Team

Gina (Bazzinga), Jamie (Mr Sunshine), Meg (Nutmeg), Ryn (Ryn Hooligan), Szymon (Sai), and JMS (The Goon)

Welcome reader, our team continues onwards, this time deep into to the rural countryside of Bayawan province: Bokaw.

Our Wildest Adventure Awaits!

The village of Bokaw is set into the very rural countryside, high in the mountains and far away from any public transport link. It was rare for even the locals in Bayawan to make the journey, as there are no proper roads leading there; the residents are absolutely not used to having visitors at all. The team was to embark on a four-hour journey, a drive further up the mountains than we had been before to the Mandu-ao Barangay, then switching to a mountain rescue vehicle to complete the rest of the leg.

The roads from Mandu-ao were more like hiking trails, vertical climbs with many rocks and trenches to them. The vehicle that would carry us there was aptly named “Cobra,” which suited the wild nature of the jungle adventure ahead. The Cobra would take us as far as it could manage, and we were warned by our partner organisation (PO) of the hardship of this journey: that we must expect to be bumped around aggressively by this vehicle, that motion sickness tablets were a good idea, and that we should prepare to hold on tight. To our disbelief (and delight), we were also promised that part of the journey would have to be by water buffalo, who would carry some of the kit while we hiked the last hour, when the road became less and less existent… The team exchanged wide-eyed glances and raised eyebrows at some of this news but accepted the challenges of the journey graciously.

Circus in Hard-to-reach places

We understood the village itself would have more basic living standards than we were used to; we were advised to bring our own drinking water and pre-warned that we would be sleeping on mats on the floor of a classroom. We made mental notes to bring canned food, baby wipes, and plenty of mosquito repellent. The team was also informed that we would be travelling with military escorts for the duration of our journey, due to the risk and rumours of highwaymen and kidnapping and the general uncertainties around having foreigners visit Bokaw for the first time in living memory!. The many risks that were presented were noted, but we understood what an incredibly unique opportunity this would be, that the children of Bokaw Elementary School were going to be witnessing a circus show for the first time ever.

Bringing the circus to hard-to-reach places is the goal, and with the school cancellations we faced in Bayawan, we felt the impact of our delivery would be all the more important in Bokaw. So with enthusiasm, we all keenly accepted the risks involved and prepared ourselves for a wild journey and a night in the mountains.

One Clown Down

Unfortunately, we were one team member down for this adventure as Gina Bazzinga, our most beloved clown and fearless fire colleague, was unwell. We were proud of her for honouring her body when she is so used to prioritising others. Obviously an adventure of this magnitude didn’t feel right without her, and her absence was noticeable as we began our ascent up the mountain, making last-minute amendments to our shows and workshop structures. However, our team was deliberately a group of 6 people to account for these eventualities, and so, despite missing her contagious hunger for dangerous activities, our attitude towards the project remained focused.

Hit The Road

The journey itself was absolutely wild. As we waved goodbye to our driver in Mandu-ao, we piled more than a dozen large bags into the back of the Cobra, laughing in amazement at the sheer amount of luggage we had between 5 people for just one night. After a quick stop at the local store to buy the essentials—ice cream, cold drinks, and weirdly, a bag of dried fish (eyes and all)—we were greeted by a team of 7 armed soldiers, clad in camouflage and carrying enormous guns. We set off, grinning in astonishment at our latest ride to work.

Impossible Journey

The roads disappeared beneath our tires, we ascended the mountains, and the vegetation grew thicker around us; rice paddies turned to sugar cane fields, the branches of which came bending into the truck and stroking us as we passed. The hedges closed in on us, and after a while we had to push back heavy branches to shield ourselves from their blows, grateful for our sunglasses and checking to see if any spiders had made their entrance. Every clearing presented a stunning landscape: palm trees, sublime skylines, the occasional tiny farmhouse surrounded by herons and beautiful long-eared cows.

We held on for dear life. Our PO’s warnings were entirely accurate, the trails were filled with enormous rocks and roots, and the soldiers stood at the back holding onto the roof, remaining casual despite the intensity of the bumps and shakes from the Cobra. We drove through water, up vertical walls, the entire vehicle screeching and occasionally the wheels revving endlessly. Some of the journey seemed impossible, we kept waiting for the moment where we would have to get out and hike, but our driver seemed able to manoeuvre the Cobra out of any awkward spot.

First Contact

About three hours later we were nearing the village, and our insanely skilled driver was leaving the truck to check the road more frequently. During one stop, we spotted a group of children running down the hill to meet us. A group of about 10 boys  (probably between 6 and 12 years old) nervously appeared, hiding behind each other and staring us up and down. We smiled, waved and made silly faces, watching their nerves ease towards us. Jamie’s drone flying behind us had sparked their curiosity. At this point, the driver declared we had simply too much luggage for the water buffalo, and made the special exception to take us all the way in the Cobra. The young boys in the village followed the entire way, nearly an hour’s hike, and even fetching rocks to build the road in front of us when the tires of our vehicle struggled to make contact with the insane terrain below us.

We Made It

Bokaw had a magical energy to it that is difficult to aptly describe in words. There was a sensation of electricity as we arrived; the excitement of the children could be felt physically, and the buzz in the air harmonised with the grasshoppers in the crop fields that surrounded the village. The spectrum of greens, backdropped against a marmalade sky, faded to black as the sun set. The Cobra rattled and creaked its final few meters, and in the darkness we could make out the nervous smiles of dozens of children from the village as they gathered around the basketball courts to greet us.

The head teacher and our guide marvelled at our energy and beaming smiles after such a journey, but we felt the adrenaline of this adventure right through to our souls, and we were blown away by the reception that greeted us.

Immediately we were surrounded by children; giggling and linking our arms, a charismatic 13-year-old called Jasmine introduced herself with confidence and led us through the school gates. Under a gazebo was a long table laden with food on platters and bamboo leaves; fairy lights were strung up, and a poster reading “Welcome Visitors” proudly hung on the wall of canvas behind the table. Funky beats of playful, happy music came from a karaoke speaker nearby, and we couldn’t help but dance and wiggle to this music, enjoying its addictive progressive rhythm and feel-good energy (after a cheeky reconnaissance to the phone plugged in later, we discovered the link to a 2024 party playlist and made a screenshot of it so that we would never lose this contagious soundtrack!).

There Was No Need to Pack Food

We sat down to a feast of boiled cassava, cassava wrapped in bamboo, rice, bananas, melon (need to check what this melon was called!), peanuts, chicken rice noodles, chicken hotpot, and rice pudding. Everything was delicious; we commented on how amazing it was to be eating organic food that is so far removed from any sort of pollution and were extremely grateful to our hosts for providing such a banquet. The children in the village usually go to sleep very early due to a shortage of electricity, but it was clear our arrival was being treated as a special occasion for which they were allowed to stay up, and it felt both amazing and bizarre that more and more of them appeared to sit in the darkness to stare at us and watch us eat.

Fuelled by the contagious energy that the children’s excitement was providing and by the beautiful food, we were eager to get started with our fire show. We were shown to the kindergarten classroom to get ready, which would be our sleeping quarters for the night. We looked around at a humble and colourful classroom: a chalkboard and tiny chairs with desks attached to the arms, colourful posters of birds, bees, and flowers presenting numbers and letters of the alphabet and lessons in English. In one corner, a small “comfort room” homing the world’s tiniest toilet, some bars of soap, a bucket of water from the well and a child-friendly reminder written on the wall of toilet etiquette. It was a very idyllic learning space that reminded us of scenes in children’s books more than our own schools.

Time For The Fire Show

30 minutes later we were ready for our fire show, receiving excited glances at our black and gold costumes. A couple dozen children gathered on top of the roof of the Cobra to watch us set up for the fire show.

The basketball court was lined with curious villagers: it seemed the entirety of Bokaw had come out to watch our performance. The team understood the rarity it is for them to receive visitors… let alone foreign visitors… let alone performers! So we felt truly honoured by the audience that assembled around us. The national anthem was sung in earnest, with hands on hearts, followed by a hymn, and we felt deeply welcomed and inspired to give this performance all of the energy we had and honour this incredibly special opportunity.

After running around the basketball court igniting everything from wands to umbrellas, dancing together, and inspiring awe-filled noises from the audience, we shook a final blast of lycopodium powder from our torches and stood to take our bow. The entire village broke into a thank-you song in unison.

Hospitality Like Never Before

High fives and selfies commenced, and while we were packing away, we were informed that dinner was ready. Confused, we reminded them we’d already eaten. “That was just some snacks for you, the locals have prepared a proper meal,” came the reply. We were led back to the banquet table where pork adobo, native chicken, and more sweet rice and cassava treats were waiting; completely overwhelmed with their generosity, we feasted again until our bellies were too full to move.

The entire village pitched in to find us mats and bedding that night, and we camped out on the floor of the classroom. We lit our mosquito incense sticks and (giggling like girls on a scouting adventure) settled down to sleep. Our armed military escorts guarded the classroom outside, and to the noise of soldiers playing cards, cockerels, dogs, and crickets, we eventually fell asleep.

Good Morning

When we opened the door in the morning, we were greeted with an idyllic scene of children playing, locals coming to use the well, butterflies, and chickens flapping free range around the garden beds. We reset the classroom by 7:30 am and sat down to the happy, funky music at banquet table number three for breakfast! Rice pudding, fruits, cassava hardened into a large sweet crisp, sausages, and coffee. The kids were lining up for registration, and we were buzzing to get started.

Workshop Time

Our workshops were fuelled with a special energy in Bokaw. It was clear that the kids were very used to school structure, and they politely filed onto the basketball court in neat formations aided by their teachers. We taught the younger kids first, and after a little singing together in a circle, we split into three groups to teach spinning plates, hoops, and staff. They were a very sweet group, extremely responsive to call and response, eager to learn, and very imaginative. It felt that some of the concepts of play felt very new to them, for example, spreading out and finding their own space, and almost as though they were awaiting permission to play. Our team was skilled at encouraging individuality and creativity and drawing out the silliness, so we encouraged them to imagine that hoops were steering wheels, and staffs were dance partners, and spinning plates were hats, and before long their confidence was visibly growing and punctuated with moments of success picking up new tricks together.

Our workshops often embrace the unknown, and sometimes that can be chaotic, but in Bokaw we had a very structured turnaround, 15 minutes with each group delivering consistent content. We were pleased to even welcome some of the parents to join the workshops!

After YET ANOTHER FEAST and some coffee at the banquet table, we met under the shade of a tree in the schoolyard to greet our older students for their workshops. Clearly aware now of what to expect, they were super relaxed from the start and enthusiastically engaged with some call-and-response clowning. We led them on imaginary trains to different shaded areas around the schools to continue learning in what was now the hottest part of the day. The team delivered high-energy workshops that were nearly entirely nonverbal, relying on silly noises and visual cues to demonstrate the tricks. Play transcends all the limitations of language barriers. Moving through a choreography of trick combos together, we added extra challenges and harder variations because the majority of kids were so fast and adept at picking up the tricks. We noticed the competencies in their physical literacy in comparison to the children we usually engage with.

Time For The Kids Show (non-fire)

The team was hyper aware of the limited time that we had in this special village, and so the kids show was going to be the last offering before our departure and a final celebration of all the circus fun that we had shared. On a tiny egg-shell blue stage on the top of the hill, we performed our 25-minute basketball show to a crowd of giggling children sitting underneath a gazebo, though they were so excited that they often left their seats to crowd as close to the stage as possible. The children enjoyed seeing some of the tricks they had been learning that day showcased onstage, pointing in recognition at us balancing and juggling. It was very easy to find willing volunteers to participate in this show; everyone was very engaged!

The highlight of the show, as always, was the appearance of the two inflatable dinosaurs that were received with screams of excitement, a moment in which an audience participant managed to hold 4 spinning plates at once, and the final dance where everyone (including some of the teachers) came moshing onto the stage buzzing with excitement.

Paalam (Goodbye)

As we packed the Cobra and waved goodbye, the headteacher was offering us more food, which we couldn’t believe! We washed in buckets in the comfort rooms and managed to make room in our stomachs for a final bite to eat; it was hard to say refuse because of the efforts everyone had gone to and the rarity of some of the foods we were able to try, including pink melon with sea salt. We took photos with dozens of children, the teachers, parents, villagers, and partner organisers. Until the last moment, we waved cheerfully and signed hearts with two hands cupped in front of us.

Our journey home was just as wild and awe inspiring, and we absorbed nature and played music joyfully, still riding off of the high that the entire experience had given us. We couldn’t get over the fact that for the teachers, this was their commute by foot every Monday and Friday! It was only when we reached Mandu-ao again that the fatigue of our bodies began to set in, and we began to process just how much we had experienced in 24 hours. We understood the impact we had made on the kids there and were super impressed by the rapidity of their learning abilities, all of us agreeing that if we were to leave them with equipment, we would return to their undoubted progress.

The magic of Bokaw was one of the highlights of the entire tour, and PWB eagerly looks forward to next year to return and continue feeding their knowledge.

Thank you for reading… See you next time for our last location this year, Apo Island!