Alasdair Chi by Alasdair Chi
It is with mixed feelings that I write this blog post, the last of my limited participation in this field school. By this time tomorrow I will have reunited with my parents and will soon be starting on my holiday in Negros Oriental, where I will reconnect with long-lost acquaintances. This reunion, however, brings with it my farewell to the Ifugao Archaeological Project, and I am certain my reminisces will begin even with my arduous overnight journey to Manila, which I understand is now enduring a flood.
In my time here, I have learnt that, although I have been on field schools before, there are always new techniques and new perspectives to learn. My previous field schools have generally been conducted under the direction of British or Australian project directors, and as a result are laid out along paradigms developed there. The American anthropological and level-based focus are thus new understandings to me. With every new project, I have been exposed to new conditions, and walking along the perilous terrace walls and crossing the river to site is a renewed experience every time.
The conditions out in the field have been variable, but the adaptability and resilience of my teammates never ceases to impress me, as we shed our shoes to step and plod in flooded rice fields to get into our (frequently also flooded) trenches, or try in vain to (literally) keep our shade on its last legs. Each day brings a new surprise, and being rained on today - just as I was planning to pack - was an unwelcome one, but nonetheless, it is simply yet another change to which I will have to apply the same versatility which my fellow undergraduates have applied to the living and digging conditions.
Before we head out to the field and after we return, there is still work to do, in the form of accessioning, pot-washing, cleaning and dish-washing. Each of these brings with it its own challenges and difficulties (especially tedium), but we aim to work together and groups help each other out to clear our work and get the house in order before we leave the house and before the end of the day. Equipment tends to be in a super-state of existence and non-existence until we attempt to observe it, which usually results in the latter outcome. Nevertheless, to those with whom I have worked in the trenches and in the house, thank you for all your help and especially your patience.
We have been able to pepper our work with leisure and recreation, and heading to the pool, the Video-Ke, the town of Kiangan and the city of Lagawe brings with it new experiences and new entertainment every time, as well as discovering our team-mate's (varying) singing talents and new culinary delights such as barbecued meat on a stick late at night after revelry at the Video-Ke or Wazzap Pizza (and usually overindulging in these.)
My only regret (or at least one of a few) is that I am unable to see this season through to the finish; I have no research design with which to apply the data we collect and I will not be presenting these findings, unlike the rest of my team-mates. Even as of today, three new features are now emerging from my former trench, and I won't truly know what they are (or are theorised to be) unless I read the report in the future or catch up with the friends I have made here.
Had I more time I surely would have stayed on to gain closure on this field school; nonetheless, inasmuch as this is a day of endings, it is also one of beginnings. To quote Ian Fleming quoting Jack London in You Only Live Twice (vaguely apropos given my British background in this American field school), "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." This time will shortly be spent in new projects elsewhere, in Europe, but even as I make new acquaintances and absorb new experiences from them, I will be bringing my memories and my lessons learned from Ifugao, the IAP and all its participants to each of them.
It is with mixed feelings that I write this blog post, the last of my limited participation in this field school. By this time tomorrow I will have reunited with my parents and will soon be starting on my holiday in Negros Oriental, where I will reconnect with long-lost acquaintances. This reunion, however, brings with it my farewell to the Ifugao Archaeological Project, and I am certain my reminisces will begin even with my arduous overnight journey to Manila, which I understand is now enduring a flood.
In my time here, I have learnt that, although I have been on field schools before, there are always new techniques and new perspectives to learn. My previous field schools have generally been conducted under the direction of British or Australian project directors, and as a result are laid out along paradigms developed there. The American anthropological and level-based focus are thus new understandings to me. With every new project, I have been exposed to new conditions, and walking along the perilous terrace walls and crossing the river to site is a renewed experience every time.
The conditions out in the field have been variable, but the adaptability and resilience of my teammates never ceases to impress me, as we shed our shoes to step and plod in flooded rice fields to get into our (frequently also flooded) trenches, or try in vain to (literally) keep our shade on its last legs. Each day brings a new surprise, and being rained on today - just as I was planning to pack - was an unwelcome one, but nonetheless, it is simply yet another change to which I will have to apply the same versatility which my fellow undergraduates have applied to the living and digging conditions.
Before we head out to the field and after we return, there is still work to do, in the form of accessioning, pot-washing, cleaning and dish-washing. Each of these brings with it its own challenges and difficulties (especially tedium), but we aim to work together and groups help each other out to clear our work and get the house in order before we leave the house and before the end of the day. Equipment tends to be in a super-state of existence and non-existence until we attempt to observe it, which usually results in the latter outcome. Nevertheless, to those with whom I have worked in the trenches and in the house, thank you for all your help and especially your patience.
We have been able to pepper our work with leisure and recreation, and heading to the pool, the Video-Ke, the town of Kiangan and the city of Lagawe brings with it new experiences and new entertainment every time, as well as discovering our team-mate's (varying) singing talents and new culinary delights such as barbecued meat on a stick late at night after revelry at the Video-Ke or Wazzap Pizza (and usually overindulging in these.)
My only regret (or at least one of a few) is that I am unable to see this season through to the finish; I have no research design with which to apply the data we collect and I will not be presenting these findings, unlike the rest of my team-mates. Even as of today, three new features are now emerging from my former trench, and I won't truly know what they are (or are theorised to be) unless I read the report in the future or catch up with the friends I have made here.
Had I more time I surely would have stayed on to gain closure on this field school; nonetheless, inasmuch as this is a day of endings, it is also one of beginnings. To quote Ian Fleming quoting Jack London in You Only Live Twice (vaguely apropos given my British background in this American field school), "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." This time will shortly be spent in new projects elsewhere, in Europe, but even as I make new acquaintances and absorb new experiences from them, I will be bringing my memories and my lessons learned from Ifugao, the IAP and all its participants to each of them.
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