Connecting with the Area

by: Ma. Monique Theresita Soliven

In a geographical sense, it is not enough to describe a place as just a specific point or area with definite boundaries. To some, it is a characteristic that one place may have and some may not. Others charge it to a feeling, a perception or an experience that may make the place unique or special. A place, unlike time, is something you can go back to, either to preserve a memory or to make new ones. Such human connection is important for a place to become significant.

Our daily view. 

Like meeting a person for the first time, you can’t help but feel guarded after taking the first glimpse of a place you have never been to. The first thing you notice are the physical aspects: the predominant green and brown landscapes, the nipa houses, the farm animals, the modes of transportation and the residents. It was a refreshing change from all the gray concrete and smoke that I had grown accustomed to. Feeling the perfect combination of the cool breeze and the warm sunlight while on our way to our rented house eased my apprehensions, just like when the person you just met gave you a warm and sincere smile.

A place, like a person, can be loaded with complexities. In every aspect, there is a story to be told. It may have changed over the years or have retained its original plot. During the subsequent days, we were determined to get to know the story of Mirangan. Admittedly, it took us a few days to get settled and to adapt to the unfamiliar environment. Building a good relationship with the residents there were our first step to get to know the community. We wanted to know their culture and traditions, and most especially their goals and ideals. Of course, words alone wouldn’t suffice. You must walk the talk.

As doctors, we must walk the talk. 

And walk we did. Every step we took as we go from one purok to another is a symbol of our goal to become intimate with the community. Barry Lopez once said: “If you're intimate with a place, a place with whose history you're familiar, and you establish an ethical conversation with it, the implication that follows is this: the place knows you're there. It feels you. You will not be forgotten, cut off, abandoned. How can a person obtain this? How can you occupy a place and also have it occupy you? How can you find such a reciprocity? The key, I think, is to become vulnerable to a place. If you open yourself up, you can build intimacy. Out of such intimacy may come a sense of belonging, a sense of not being isolated in the universe.”


This openness and vulnerability exhibited by both Mirangan and ourselves, account for the harmonious relationship that we have established thus far. Opening ourselves to the simplicity and beauty of our community is well reciprocated as they too, opened themselves to us in a way families do. We became part of the place’s history, and they, in turn, have changed ours.

Interacting with the mothers of Mirangan.