by Sylvia Caslangen Cadalig
The rural villages, Barangay Patiacan and Barangay Lamag, both located in the municipality of Quirino, Ilocos Sur, had no secondary school until now. So elementary graduates who wanted to go to high school would chose between the three nearest high schools– in Dilong, Tubo, Abra, or in Tambuan, Besao, Mtn. Province or in Laylaya, Besao, Mtn. Province. Only a few chose Immaculate Conception High School (ICHS) of Poblacion, Quirino, Ilocos Sur or at Tirad View Academy (TVA) of Tumbaga, Quirino, Ilocos Sur because they are both private schools, therefore expensive. Besides, parents were afraid of the dangers of crossing the roaring, mighty Abra river. There was no bridge or spillway in those times so crossing the river was at your own risk.
I am from Patiacan and I went to St. Alfred’s High School (SAHS), Tambuan, Besao, Mtn. Province which is farther than the schools in Quirino but much safer because there were no rivers to cross, only high mountains to climb and narrow trails to traverse.
For security, I and my classmates always walked in groups starting from Patiacan at 1:00 p.m. every Sunday and would reach Tambuan about five hours later. We usually met the i-Lamag students down at the Balas-iyan or Tagungtungaw rivers, found at the foot of our mountain villages. From there we would walk together as a bigger group. Many times, we were mistaken as evacuees because we had lots of load, tampongs in our forehead and “sangi” on our backs (bamboo woven backpacks) loaded with food supplies for a week. Some even joked that we were Amazonas, only without the deadly metals on our shoulders.
While walking, we looked for wild edible plants to augment our “baon” like pikaw, pako, kamaa (edible ferns). One rainy Sunday afternoon in July, we passed by some high school boys from another school who invited us to join them gather some unknown mushrooms but which looked like “uong pagay” (wild edible mushroom) but smaller and yellower. They had no rings on their stems. It is common knowledge in our indigenous communities that if the mushroom has no ring, then it is edible. There was plenty so we gathered a lot– more than the boys.
Reaching Tambuan at dusk, we washed and cooked the mushrooms. We felt happy because we saved our baon for that night. We ate dinner with some of the dormitorians including our matron. After eating, we washed the dishes and had good chat in the study room before going to bed. After a while, a friend was giggling saying that there were stars on the wall, on the table and on the floor and she went catching them.
At first, we laughed at her as she looked like she was just acting crazy. Then our matron complained of dizziness and hot flashes. As we were helping her, another friend felt like going to the toilet and asked us to accompany her because the toilet was outside 150 meters away. While going down the stairs, another friend vomited while others complained of dizziness, sweating and feeling sick. Almost all of us suffered from stomach ache so we all went out to go to the toilet. While we were walking, we saw dancing glimmering stars on the ground- so shiny and bright. We started chasing them like butterflies but never catching one.
That night we all got sick except for the matron who just felt dizzy, as she only ate a little mushroom. We became dehydrated and very weak because of diarrhea and vomiting. We realized that those mushrooms we ate were “am-ampakaw” (a general term used locally for poisonous mushrooms). We just drank warm water and prayed. Thank God we felt better the next day. When we went home that Friday, the boys were waiting for us, curious to know what happened. They also experienced what we experienced. We concluded that we should not eat mushrooms that we haven’t tried before or we are not sure of, even if these don’t have rings on their stems.**
