Jeff Man

I usually get messages from strangers asking for help translating phrases to Manobo Dialect and every time I got one I always am willing to help them, and if I can't recall a particular term, I'd usually call my cousin who's more fluent and knowledgeable than me to help in the translation. 5-year old Ashley Cass on her Manobo Costume. (Eventually bagging the Best in Costume Award) Recently, I got a message from Ms. Grazel Mari Niego Rendon from Iloilo City also asking for help to translate an introduction phrase to Manobo. It turns out to be it's for a school event which not only requires a translation of an introduction of a candidate but they also need help on others things to best represent the Tribe such as the costumes and the styles in displaying and serving foods on the table. It got me excited because they are going to represent the Tribe on a school competition not just the Mr and Miss candidates but also the display of the tribe's cultu...

Photo by Bukidnon Travels* I got a dose of nostalgia recently that I felt so homesick with the breeze and smell of Bukidnon I call home. Then the meaningful lyrics of my province's hymn crossed my mind and  posted a clip of it, which reads: "Wherever I may roam, the distant land to see. I long to go back soon, to sweet Bukidnon Home" It was just the beginning of this nostalgia-triggering hymn that Bukidnon-native would surely love to hear and sing, not just because we love to but also because of its meaning and the feeling of belongingness to the province we call home. About 12 hours later after posting that lines, I thought of posting a continuation, but wasn't very sure of the lyrics on what exactly is the word. The continuation reads like this: "I long to go back soon--to see Bukidnon Home. Where lovely mountains high, with forest tall and grand--bring memories to me, the home I long to see" I wasn't very sure about the ...

Someone posted on The Manobo Facebook Group asking for help to translate her oral piece for school and it got me excited because I have not done any translations yet especially tomy native Dialect, Manobo. Although I am not very fluent in speaking my native tongue, I can still recite and understand most of the words, but I can't guarantee a hundred percent exact terms especially that the dialect I grew up is already mixed with some Visayan terms, and also with the fact that we don't have English equivalent for medical terms and because we just don't use such words.

The wooden kalasag rests in peace in a small nipa hut called Lawig. His time has ended long ago, but the oppression of IPs continued, and the Tribe has endured it for decades, just don't let the spear and bolo work. It's bloody for sure. The government who is supposed to protect the oppressed and the poor has refused to extend their arms. Everyone is turning blind and deaf with the exploitation of the rights of the people we called "Lumads" and "Indigents" Yes! I myself is one of the people you call Lumad, and everytime I see my fellow Manobos in Bukidnon nod to everything what the government says, it breaks my heart especially if I know they are being used and deceived. We are easy to deceive as what they say. Yes, it's true, and you can barter a stick of tobacco for a piece of land if you wish, or one Carabao for an hectare of land, but that was long ago, at least we can breath deeply now as I say that. Oh sorry, not really, because unt...