A Wellington friend is moving house and was worried that she would be without a fridge/freezer in her new home for a few days. I assured her that I'd travelled the world with a backpack, a packet of corn flakes, milk powder and a wooden bowl given to me by a friend from the Philippino headhunter tribe near Sagada. International breakfast!
My Philippina friend, Norma lives in a small shack perched on a hillside surrounded by incredible rice paddy terraces ringed around high steep hills. Like footsteps for giants. We trooped up and down these terraces daily to vist family members in other villages. This was the 1980s and her grandfather still wore traditional garb - a loin cloth and feather headdress. They no longer headhunted I was told but the social structures remained. If someone was wronged they expected a favour (not a head).
I miss Norma.
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