Stories from Kalinga: Memoir of a Village Girl

by Joan Saga-oc, Mark Stevenson (foreword)

A journey from overcoming deprivation and adversity to making a difference in the community and nation. “Stories from Kalinga – Memoir of a Village Girl” is a set of twenty stories covering the life of a girl growing up in a hamlet in 1990s Kalinga, northern Philippines, in poverty and subject to seasonal food supply, interruptions by typhoons, and travel on foot for all needs. They had no electricity, no schools, no clinics, and no roads. Topics include the appearance of an unknown relative, victims of botched circumcision, child labour, corporal punishment, childhood fights, suitors, communal self-help and hospitality, the lives of and with their animals, ingenious efforts at making money, and coffee/hospitality culture, concluding with the unbearably difficult early life of the narrator’s father. The stories tell of a vanishing past, journeys into modernity, struggles to survive, and ways that communally shared values and culture forge character and identity.

Genres: Memoir

147 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Pia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Life was so hard back then, but it was also really beautiful. Difficult but beautiful.”
— pg 108

Stories from Kalinga: Memoir of a Village Girl has moments that are difficult to sit with. Take for example, the matter-of-fact way physical punishment is discussed. In many instances throughout the pagecount, the author, Joan Saga-oc, and her siblings are mentioned receiving ‘beatings’ (the book’s word) from their parents when they disobey or fail to do something correctly.

Perhaps the other most challenging essay for me is Pigs in Village Life. It talks about the unique relationship the village has with their black pigs, describing them rather affectionately for their intelligence, appearance and habits. While a lot of it was very cute, I found the portion about the, shall we say…waste management, challenging.

“Pigs were very useful as our toilet. They always cleaned up our excrement right away, no traces or smells. Back then when there were no real toilets in the village, a plantation of coffee owned by a neighbor some meters away from the houses was our toilet, our hectares-wide, open-air toilet.”
—pg 119, Pigs in Village Life

It's important to say, however, that these potentially objectionable tidbits are minor to the overall narrative.

Saga-oc’s writing about their way of life creates so much more. Each essay takes on a specific facet of village life—coffee, blacksmithing, circumcision, may beetles, uma—and fills it to the brim with anecdotes, in its many shades of life. The vignettes coming together like separate brushstrokes form a serene portrait of the village in Kalinga, conjured both by their remote location in the heart of a mountain, and by the relationships of the people. In this panorama of a nostalgic past, lights and shadows are embraced in its entirety.

An interesting thing about Stories from Kalinga is how it can feel familiar in one moment and completely new in the next. The book captivates with the many information about Kalingan village life it shares. Some of it is informative by design, like ‘Blacksmithing in the Village’ and ‘Village Food Culture’, and I also appreciated the throughline of the uma and farming woven across many essays. Some of the learning was more indirect—such as how people of various genders and sexual orientations appear throughout, shaping the world in the storylines and anecdotes.

The book is interesting too in how much we have in common. Playing in an elementary classroom in Bicol wasn't so different from playing in one hundreds of kilometers away in Kalinga. Radiodramas could captivate farmers planting rice in the mud just as easily as a girl pushing ukay-ukay in dusty Anonas. Kamote, it turns out, is universally loved.

Perhaps because in some way, we all come from the probinsya life. Who hasn’t heard their grandfather or elder say a cliche about appreciating school because ‘back then, we had to walk [insert impossible terrain here] to school everyday’. Saga-oc describes their school life that’s like one of those well-worn expressions too.

“If our elementary school was far, our high school was even farther away. The nearest secondary school was in town, and we needed to traverse one mountain, up and down, to reach it.”
—pg 63, High School Days

This is the first time I’ve encountered this idea in a way that feels weighty. Saga-oc places the overused phrase inside an autobiographical whole that lets you explore more of the everyday sides of a life that requires that daily sacrifice, making the immediacy of the mountain become a visual representation of a well-worn path rather than a competition of difficulty.

Saga-oc tells her story in a way that centers her village proudly throughout the memoir. While there are entire threads that discuss the village in relation to the nearest town, and to their provincial capital Tabuk, Stories from Kalinga imagines a world that revolves around the land, the people and their way of life. Its wonderful to me that this book exists because the most available of our literature centers Manila, inadvertently reinforcing a model of understanding the Filipino self that shoves most kinds of lives in the periphery.

Going back to the essays, one of the village values Saga-oc writes about is hospitality. And that’s the principle I felt as I turned the pages of her life story, a book that is honest, generous, full of detail, feeling like a warm invitation to step into a home. To me, it felt right to receive it accordingly—with curiosity and, more importantly, appreciation.

Doing that allows a reader to take in what it's like to hear a story about being Filipino that centers themselves. Joan Saga-oc sincerely shows us that this life is beautiful too. And I agree wholeheartedly.

Final Thoughts
Stories from Kalinga: Memoir of a Village Girl wistfully looks back on a life growing up in a farming family, and I enjoyed seeing how labor, tradition and happiness are experienced in a way of life shaped by being nestled in the terrace of the mountains. As she collects anecdotes that oscillate between quaint and tense from scarcity, Joan Saga-oc’s plainspoken voice reflects her affection for the simplicity of their life. I really appreciated this book as an experience of feeling someone’s love for where they came from.

[Dycee · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gentle and captivating read this has been for me, transporting me to the heart of authentic provincial life. From the very first page, I was utterly charmed by the book's easygoing flow, which effortlessly pulled me into the rhythms of village living.

Vivid depictions of a life lived before the overwhelming presence of internet and culture shift were very interesting. The author beautifully captures the essence of a time when community, nature, and simple traditions held center stage. As someone who experienced a sliver of that pre-digital era, I found myself flooded with nostalgia, recognizing the familiar warmth and genuine connections that the book so lovingly portrays.

The book is a treasure trove of timeless tales, subtly reminding us of the importance of resilience, community, and a deep respect for our heritage. I’m so happy for this laid-back, heartwarming read that has beautifully whisked me away to a simpler time. I am so glad that this book was written, and that I was able to read it.

[Scribbles and Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this book. It is charming, raw, genuine, and is a celebration of the richness of the Kalinga culture in the Philippines. From the perspective of a young girl in Kalinga, we are toured around the beautiful sceneries and introduced to the meaningful traditions and belief of the village such as "pangu", a communal system of sharing the load to make a burden lighter. So much of this book gives me the vibes of My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki. That gentle, nostalgic feeling of being surrounded by nature, of being their for your neighbors, playing outside, and respecting other creatures and spirits.

[Carlashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of very rich childhood memories of life living in one of the northern of provinces of the Philippines. So rich, I am soo envious that I want to experience such rural lifestyle! Except for the pig and poop part lol