Climbing & Clothes

The acacia tree, according to my Dad, is a very important part of life & the economy here in Ifugao. It’s a large relatively soft wood tree that is used in all of the wood carvings that this region is known for. The roots are even used & turned into tables, benches and chairs. Just don’t try and climb one of them…

I’m feeling a bit of rock climbing withdrawal & combined that with a natural desire to go up, and find the highest place around – I like to climb trees. That and I had a lot on my mind and up tends to be the most solitary place around too. Its hard to be bothered when nobody can actually get to you, if they even see you in the first place. People don’t tend to look up. But I guess the acacia tree is a poor choice. It may be big but my Dad says the branches are fairly brittle and so once I managed to get up the first bit and actually into the tree it seemed the whole family turned out to shoe me down! Instead of climbing my Dad decided it was a good time to show me how to do my laundry. :op Anything, I guess, to keep the crazy American out of the trees…

(and now all the small, new, lower branches that I had used to climb up are gone. Guess nobody wanted my cousins to try and follow suit. Gotta remember that whole role model gig.)