Unfinished Businesses in the Visayas

The charming Rizal Boulevard of Dumaguete, where I stayed for seven months

Before coming back here in Sultan Kudarat Province, I spent 14 straight months in the Visayas, about half of which was in the big bustling city of Cebu and the other half in the charming little city of Dumaguete. With such a length of time in those places, you’d think I was able to do there everything that I wanted to that was related to the Kulaman burial jars. No, I wasn’t able to. Though I had gathered plenty of materials for this blog, I failed to accomplish a few very important personal missions.

First on the list is conducting research at the Silliman University Library. The library surely has copies of the Silliman Journal, in which Edward B. Kurjack and Craig T. Sheldon published papers on their excavation of limestone burial jars in the village of Salangsang, Lebak town. The excavation took place in 1967 and 1968, and the papers were published in the journal in 1970 and 1971. Here are the complete publication details:

“The archaeology of Seminoho Cave in Lebak, Cotabato.” E. Kurjack, C. Sheldon. Silliman Journal. Volume 17, Issue No. 17. 1970

“The urn burial caves of Southern Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines.” E. Kurjack, C. Sheldon, M. Keller. Silliman Journal. Volume 18, Issue No. 18. 1971

I had access to Silliman’s library, of course. I drifted to Dumaguete primarily to be a graduate teaching fellow at the university. I was a full-time graduate student and a part-time lecturer, in a manner of speaking. I did not, however, go to the library to research for the classes I was attending or teaching. I relied mostly on online resources, courtesy of the Wi-Fi of the place I was staying in. Plus I had no time to while away the hours inside the library. I was also working as a home-based technical editor for a company in Cebu, and drinking almost every week with my newfound friends, mostly young aspiring poets and fictionists.

In Cebu, I failed to visit the Southwestern University Museum, which also has limestone burial jars in its collection. Though the official website of the school does not contain a page about the museum, a Cebu travel site comprehensively features it, and it is indicated there that the “limestone jar[s]” are from “Sultan Kudarat.”

For three weeks last May, when the regular semester was over, I went back to Cebu form Dumaguete to work full-time again. I’d been making plans to visit Southwestern University—the trip by taxi and the museum tour would not take more than two hours of my time—but the plan was never pushed through. I often felt stressed, and whatever time I didn’t spend working I had to spend sleeping (and Facebooking, I admit).

Again, though, I was able to do a lot, both for this blog and other matters, so I won’t spoil the whole experience by griping about the few kinks. Besides, I believe I will be able to accomplish those self-imposed missions in the future. Cebu and Dumaguete are places I can never say goodbye to with finality. I will go there again and learn more about the Kulaman burial jars.