MALUNGON, Sarangani -- In a village some five kilometers from the highway, the road to Lamlifew wants wear. Yet somehow, the Lamlifew Elementary School had shown what it takes to win education and break the bondage of poverty. Patience bore the village 14 professionals which numbers most of the young professionals in the whole of Barangay Datal Tampal.

Celebrating for the first time the school's foundation anniversary on July 1, now on its 13th as an elementary school (but 27th, to include its first 14 years as a primary school), teachers and the community reminisced their forbearing past with joy.

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By lunch, they, together with the pupils, had a buffet of two lechon baboy (roasted pig), chicken dishes, and other native delicacies.

The day before that, community volunteers fixed the road to the school including putting planks against river Bluan for familiar guests like us.

For the first time, the village had a float parade and 13 beautiful lasses competed for Little Miss Lamlifew in the afternoon.

The floats were ornamented with wild, familiar flowers that grew by the riverbanks and the school grounds, with three most handsome carabaos because they, too, were ornamented.

The floats were actually the karo (carts) used by the villagers for many purposes. That day, they crossed the river to finish the parade and reach the school.

The school program included telling the school's history. Evelyn Caya, recalling how the school started, said it's the villagers' search for freedom from want and thirst for education that made the school exists.

For one, the native-grown Florencia Bago, now teaching Grades V and VI as combined classes (because of lack of teachers) was once a school volunteer teacher. From 1987-1989, Ma'am Flor received P10 from each parent. That made up her salary for the whole school year.

Flor tells dreams of her late father made her come back to the village and help the community by teaching at the school again.

In 2007, school head Marilyn Falsario led parents and pupils to a food-for-school program by raising poultry and backyard vegetables. Parents cook for the children's lunch while the provincial government afforded them rice.

I believe, scores of these teachers were then "called" to give the community what they need. Evelyn Caya herself, now a dentist, grew here, finished her elementary at the school like her husband, Ireneo, who is now a school cluster head.

Sarangani last year launched the Quality Education for Sarangani Today (Quest) project, a brainchild of Synergeia Foundation.

Lamlifew Elementary School is a recipient of its free-workbook distribution for primary pupils all over the province.

"When I was a child like you, I used to gather kangkong leaves from the ponds and sell them from house to house for my baon, just to get back home with the same number of bunches because it would always rain," Analie Edday, with teary eyes, recounted in front of children and parents.

"That day, I made a promise to myself: I shall never be a vegetable seller all my life!"

Edday, a pure-blooded B'laan, is now Quest's program manager.
There must be more to the need for education among the villagers of Lamlifew, having seen the place myself.

Obviously, it's one reason why new school head Romeo Bogador doubted the school's child-friendly slogan after having realized the danger among kids crossing the river just a few steps away from the classrooms especially during heavy rains.

Bogador humbly asked local officials for the construction of a footbridge to put away their fear.

The school event also launched a beads making class.
Beads making is one of Blaan's traditional practices. They use them as body ornaments.

Manager Beth Farnazo of the province's indigenous people development program initiated the integration of the school of living tradition to the school’s Makabayan regular curriculum. The program includes honorarium for the cultural masters in beads making.

Truth is many of them are masters of their own old craft. Herminia Lacna, a B'laan grand, has preserved the folktales of her tribe by word of mouth.

For the elderly woman, as the tribe learns, the river speaks in Lamlifew:

"Long time ago," Herminia narrated, "there was no river here. But a dog named Kay-kay got thirsty and tried to dig a water spring at the place called Datal Barak where a mysterious jackfruit seed grew and has died. Kay-kay drank from the spring and as the dog dug deeper, more water flowed from the spring that keeps the river running until now." (Sarangani Information Office)