Vigan city fiesta

Weekender

By STEVEN WINDUO
IF you cannot travel elsewhere you can just create the world you imagine it to be. Writers often say: I can create my own world through fiction. I can escape into my own world where the people I care about live in.
The flight of fancy and imagination has values that writers have long sought in their contemplative moments. The truth is that the escape from the dreary and unforgiveable world occupies a central space in the mind of the writer.
Then the other part of this equation is that a writer can become burrowed into the earth, into this deep hole with no escape, until someone helps with a rope to pull them out of the abyss.
The life of a writer in Papua New Guinea is one that hinges the door and house; it ensures the opening of the door to the house or shuts out the world from those in the house. The hinge ensures that the door does what it is supposed to do. In this metaphor, there is this sense that as a writer I need to remain functional, useful, and relevant to the society.
I accepted the opportunity to participate in the Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange Program (WrICE) fellowship program in Vigan and Manila, both in Philippines. Vigan is the capital of Ilocos Sur province.
I needed to develop my own skills as a writer by sharing my own work and also learning from other international writers about how to write that winning work. It is critical to be part of a fellowship of writers because it helps a lot in developing a writer’s work.
Throughout the week in Vigan our program involved continuous writing every day. The daily program worked as a punctuation between writing, exploring the sights and sounds of Vigan city, and presentation of writers work. The very creative and simple structure of the residency helped us to do more writing.
I worked on the novel manuscript I had started some 10 or more years ago. Having the space, time, and fellowship of writers to work proved indispensible to me. I found new inspirations to work on my third novel, which I hope I can complete in the middle of this year.
I was given a room with an awesome view. The window of my hotel room opened onto this view that was almost identical to my study room at home in Port Moresby. Every day as I worked in my hotel room I felt as if I had never left my house on 8th Street, UPNG Staff Estate. Such an incredible likeness that brought calmness and ease; perfect ingredients for creative writing.
Hotel Salcedo de Vigan was the best place to stay. So far the week in Vigan held for me a special time as I began to recognize deep sources of inspiration in history and of where I am in the world.
Spending a week in the Philippines opened my eyes to the reality that Filipinos have been part of my life for as long as I remember. Filipinos have been in Papua New Guinea for a very long time.
If I remember correctly, at the time of Independence, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, signed a diplomatic deal with the Philippines government to assist the new nation of PNG to develop in areas of teaching, technical and vocational education, and in agriculture. It was one of the most defining agreements that has produced incredible results in the development of the nation. The unsaid narrative is that as a result of that agreement an incredible relationship of mutual respect and acceptance exist between Papua New Guineans and Filipinos.
I was unperturbed by the strangeness of Vigan with its Spanish-influenced past, the Catholicism of its people, and the clutter and cobblestone pavements, and signature tricycles on the streets.
Vigan is one of the UNESCO listed historical cities of the world. Wikipedia explains that Vigan was a coastal trading post long before the Spaniards arrived; Chinese traders sailing from the South China Sea came to Isla de Vigan (Island of Vigan) via the Mestizo River that surrounded it. On board their ships were seafaring merchants who came to trade goods from other Asian kingdoms in exchange for gold, beeswax, and other mountain products brought by the indigenous peoples from the Cordillera region.
“Vigan is one of the New 7 Wonders of UNESCO World Heritage site because it is one of the few Hispanic towns left in the Philippines whose structure has remained intact, and it is well known for its cobblestone streets and a unique architecture that fuses Philippine and Oriental building designs and construction, with colonial European architecture. Former Philippine president Elpidio Quirino, the sixth President of the Philippines, was born in Vigan, at the former location of the Provincial Jail (his father was a warden); he resided in the Syquia Mansion.”
“In May 2015, Vigan City was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Beirut, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur and La Paz.[4] New7Wonders Foundation president and founding member Bernard Weber led a ceremony held at St. Paul Cathedral where he handed a bronze plaque to Vigan Mayor Eva Grace Singson-Medina, signifying the heritage city’s election as one of the world’s wonder cities.”
The WrICE residency coincided with the Vigan City Fiesta held every January 25 to celebrate the feast day of the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. St. Paul is Vigan City’s patron saint. Vigan’s main church, the Metropolitan Cathedral is dedicated to St. Paul and it stands at the core of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. The major Catholic educational institution in Vigan that stands beside the church is also dedicated to the patron, the St. Paul College of Ilocos Sur.
The Vigan City Fiesta usually lasts for several days. It includes within the period the celebration of the anniversary of the cityhood of Vigan, which is commemorated every January 27.
The week in Vigan has given me the inspiration I needed to complete my third novel.