It was eight in the morning of February 2002 when we are at Pambujan Bridge, Northern Samar. While we already occupy our seats in a “pamboat” or motorize craft and waiting for other passengers going to Silvino Lubos, I noticed people in other motorize craft was so busy preparing their cargos while others cooked their food. It was nine when I hear the boat roar its engine, I was sitting hindmost next to the operator of the boat, while my companion sit in front of me, next to it are two old men, an old lady and a lady college teen sitting in front while the boy stands in the bow. The noise of the engine prevents to chat, my companion read newsprint, and the two old men are starting to make their nap, while the rest were watching on both banks. The Pambujan River is getting narrower and the boat decelerates, there, I observed that we were traveling upstream. There were barrios that we made stops to unload cargos, but most of the time the boat stops because the rivers getting shallow, the operator and its assistant pull a bamboo and push the boat. I was enjoying watching the thick forests but when the stops and the roar of the engine were often I made a nap. I was awaken by my companion and offered me a lunch, that’s when I figured out that the people I’ve seen cooked their food early. It was a long trip, past three in the afternoon when we arrived at Silvino Lubos.
The town was located in the highland, in thickly vegetated forests, though, the summer is approaching, going up to the town I feel the smog as I climb the concrete stairs and run for my breathe. As I walk, I pass the two story municipal hall and few meters away I look right down and see their auditorium, and I look up on my left I saw their chapel and a few distant away is where we going to stay. Our job is to complete the construction of two box culverts for their farm to market roads. After a month, the trips of the boats is every so often because of minimal precipitation. The people in town relies their means of transportation through the Pambujan River. The Silvino Lubos-Cagpanit-an Road was not yet passable for vehicles people will walk eight hours before they could reach a barangay in the town of Mondragon where they could avail a “habal-habal” or what we call a motorbike. The fare was high because of the tough unpaved road each cargo will have a corresponding fare amount. The main crops of the town are “copra” or coconut and abaca. Local farmers could not transport most of their crops during summer; they suffer so much aside from carrying their crops they profit less. After trading their crops, they sacrifice again for the goods they bought and transport back again to their town. This is the reason that they prefer to transport their crops through the Pambujan River after the rain. Most of the people plant root crops for their consumption while the municipal government introduced to plant vegetables. Some people suffer from thyroid goiter due to diet deficient in iodine, food rich in iodine barely hard to reach the town.
We leave the town when our projects were completed on April of 2002. We traverse the Silvino Lubos-Cagpanit-an Road to Barangay Nenita, Mondragon there I saw how difficult the road it is and the prolonged completion to become passable. I realized the important of the road were the development begins and comes to mind when will be the people of Silvino Lubos lessen their sufferings.
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