This morning, I took kids to Philippine Military Academy in Fort Del Pilar outside Baguio City.  Two weeks ago I’d read that most Saturdays the P.M.A. cadets parade for review after their barracks and personal inspections.  Sometimes they do silent drills with weapons afterward.

I had asked Nick, who’s thought of becoming a soldier, if he’d like to visit P.M.A. one Saturday to see cadets drill and parade.  Of course he was willing.  These kids don’t say no to any opportunity to get out of Baguio Gold.

I had tried to learn when the cadets parade on Saturdays.  I asked around, and I looked at about a dozen websites.  I guess that it’s a secret.  By digging, I read that when dignitaries visit the Academy, the cadets pass in review at 10:30.  I also heard, “after 10:00″ and “about 11:00.”  Some one told me that I should be through the gate by 9:00 to avoid crowds.

So I had thought that whoever wants to go with me can meet me here in my flat after Saturday morning Mass to depart.   I tried to find how to go to Fort Del Pilar, aside from hiring a taxi in front of Monterrazas Village.  The best answer I got was to go to “The Plaza,” downtown, where jeepneys for many destinations congregate to load passengers.

Andy is still visiting relatives in Aurora Hill Barangay.  His brother Patrick is probably still working.  Mack wanted to spend the day with his girlfriend.  So only Nick, age 11, and his sister Rose, age 6, showed up for an expedition this morning.

Shortly after we arrived, I asked Nick to ask a gate guard in a jungle camo uniform (from the Navy) when the cadets may parade.  The guard said that the cadets were all off-post in a field training exercise.  Oh, well. I thought that we’d just look around ( as permitted) at tanks, howitzers, the museum, a helicopter, sports courts and fields, etcetera.

We saw the a cadets’ chapel, a meditation/prayer room, the Headquarters, barracks, officers’ quarters, the museum, classroom buildings, the armory…

 

Nick had seen the old Huey helicopter pictured on a website yesterday and was curious to see a real helo on the ground for the first time.  He asked questions about it and the airplanes.

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Filipinos seem fond of making fake pine trees and logs with steel-reinforced cement.  See Burnham Park’s fake trees and street sign posts in Baguio City.

We went up the small steps (4″-5″ depth) to see the view from this watch tower.  It was something to do, you know.  I don’t know whether this was built for cadets or tourists.

Children sauntering down Quezon Avenue in white Taekwondo outfits piqued our curiosity.  We saw individual kids, pairs, and individuals trailed by their families … I thought that they may be headed to a tournament on post.  Nick has been interested in learning Taekwondo, so he wanted to see where the kids were headed.  A PMA guard told us that the students were headed to the gym.

Rose crosses a fake pine (cement) footbridge

I assumed that the kids were headed to a tournament in the gym. Of course Nick was keen to see kids thrashing each other in a tournament, so I hoisted Rose upon my shoulders then we trudged down the sidewalk toward the gymnasium.

General Borromeo bust ‘overlooks’ parade field

In the gym, I asked a gaggle of parents on risers, “When does this begin?”  One answered 9:30.  I looked at my wristwatch reading 9:30 then heard her add, “Filipino time.”  Okay, so a while yet before the start of this thing … I asked Nick and Rose if they wanted to exit to go look around for a short while.

 

They were game, so we left to go see the swimming pool, basketball and tennis courts, dormitory and amphitheater.  Nick asked where the Sepak Takraw courts may be.  We sure didn’t see any.

No, I did not condone climbing upon a bas-relief wall

We crossed the parade field to return to the gymnasium/auditorium for the meet.  It still hadn’t begun, so Nick, Rose and I walked into the adjoining field house, The Rampart, where the kids swung on thick ropes while I climbed a rope to the rafters then ‘hit the bars’ – the horizontal ladder, monkey bars or whatever you call them.

After a while of swinging like monkeys while a few PMA employees played half-court basketball nearby, the kids and I returned to the field house at 10:00, found seats and waited.  About 10:10, the six dozen students who’d amassed on the blue mats were directed by a man at a microphone stand to give very short demos of Taekwondo moves.  Nick and I were waiting to see some take-downs, some one-on-one action, not choreographed 20-second routines.

I couldn’t understand the Tagalog being spoken.  But when the kids had finished ‘dancing’ and we hoped for them to pair-up and start sparring, I saw on the stage, where PMA cadets’ 100th Night performances are given, a man moving a table and another moving a stereo.  I wondered why.  Then I saw women laying-out colored cloth belts onto the table.  The man at the microphone talked to the kids and gestured to the steps beside the stage.

During the invocation a woman speaking English told the Lord that the students of the 2008 Taekwondo summer camp would get their belts shortly.  So then I understood that this was only a graduation exercise.  I was wrong in assuming that a tournament would be there.  And I had not asked anyone if the kids would be sparring!  So Nick, Rose and I left after the prayer.  We went to have a snack, the kids climbed on howitzers and armored vehicles, then we tried to hail a jeepney to ride back to Baguio City.

Six jeepney drivers did not want to stop for us.  We waited a quarter-hour to hail a sympathetic driver on Loakan Road.  Eventually we returned to Harrison Road, disembarked, then walked to Burnham Park’s bicycle- and tricycle renters so the kids could cycle for an hour in the beautiful weather.

Nick’s new bike back home has a flat tire, and Rose has no bike or trike to ride.  So the kids pedaled like mad for an hour, then I carried Rose on my shoulders again as we walked to a Session Road restaurant for lunch.

I hate to tell you the name of the restaurant.  The name begins with the first two letters of my surname.  I had intended to stay away from these goofy restaurants forever, in favor of local cuisine and finer dining and home cooking.  But sometimes we bend for the kids.  So there I was in hamburger land.  Nick loves french fries.

After lunch I carried Rose on my back to Mabini Street where we were fortunate to board a jeepney aimed for Tuding which was not overcrowded.  That was a welcome change after being squished in three jeepneys previously today.  We’d been squashed in one from Tuding to the loading zone adjacent to Bayanihan Park for 27 pesos, as many people want to go from the rural barangays to the big city on Saturday mornings.

Then we’d boarded a jeepney labeled “Plaza-PMA” and paid 45 pesos. To return from PMA we climbed into a jeepney which we had hip and shoulder room initially but later felt ‘crammed in a can’ after more passengers boarded along the route. As I said, people in the country want to venture into Baguio City on Saturdays.

Back in Tuding, after we’d stepped off the jeepney, I asked the proprietor of one of our little country stores where I might obtain a blue 55-gallon drum like the rain barrel standing beside her store. She didn’t know.

So Nick walked alongside me as I carried Rose on my back to the flat. The kids wanted to visit for a while before strolling downhill to their home. Today we didn’t see cadets parading nor drilling with rifles, as we’d expected, and we didn’t see Taekwondo matches, but we had a good time. †