THE WARRIOR VS. THE EXPLORER: Part I

I’m on the left. On the right? That’s Lapu-lapu, a 16th century chieftain who is  credited with leading a battle that killed Ferdinand Magellan and the majority of his men. Magellan was the Spaniard that some say first circumnavigated the Earth. The famous battle of Mactan, as it is now referenced, occurred on April 27, 1521 when Lapu-lapu led the first resistance against Spanish colonization. Various sources say that within 40 years of the battle, “Las Islas de Filipinas” were established in honor of King Phillip, the Spanish Monarch of the time.

I’m gonna tell you now that I knew none of this when i stood next to the statue and asked a stranger to take my picture. This was my first trip away from American soil, 7-8,000 miles away and 13 hours time difference. I wasn’t supposed to even be on the island of Cebu. My flight had to land there because the airport in Manila had a problem on the runway that caused us to land elsewhere. So enter the scenario in the summer of 1999.

I have arrived to “Las Islas Filipinas” to tryout for Pop-Cola, a professional basketball team affiliated with the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). If it works out, I stay and play. If it doesn’t, I go home. It’s that simple. The other reason I’m in the South Pacific is to work with a Missionary organization to do God-Knows-What. I was 22 years old man and I didn’t care about the Missionary part as much as I did the other.

I had sent video ahead to an agent and planned to make contact upon arrival. But now I’m on an island miles from my target with no clue as to how to place a call on public payphones. This is pre-cell phone if you can believe that was only 10 years ago. I’m stuck on Cebu in an airport for about four hours before it is determined that we won’t be able to fly out until morning. Okay, so now I’m ready to take on a new identity, get a job in the Philippines and start all over as a black man in Southeast Asia. I’ll need to learn to speak Tagolog and other dialects. No, that’s my imagination running away with me. I boarded a plane the next day for Manila  but not before taking the picture and when I rediscovered it in a shoe box recently it made me curious about the statue.

The story is like Leonitas’ band of 300 outnumbered, outarmored and sentenced to death. Lapu-lapu and his men fought bravely against the invaders from Spain but the islands eventually fell as did Leonitas’ valiant brotherhood of warriors. In school we learn about IMPERIALISM and how countries staked their claim in other regions of the world by force. They planted their flags and often resistance by natives was the result. Blood was shed…lots of it but consider the motivation. Lapu-lapu, Leonitas, Luke Skywalker, Gideon, David (of David and Goliath), Martin Luther, William Wallace and the like defended the very core of who they were in the face of opposition. The explorer, I’m sorry to say, is driven by something else…maybe greed, maybe nationalistic pride that is overblown. Live or die, however, the underdog warriors fight.

That’s all I’m impressed with I suppose. The underdogs fight and without knowing it, I was about to do just that. Professional pursuits of basketball ended for me in Asia and didn’t resume again for about 7 more years. The trip didn’t go as planned but it went as planned if you know what I mean. The Missionary stuff I didn’t care about changed my life as I spent afternoons with kid in the “Squats” (shanty towns where people lived in barely inhabitable conditions and ate rotten meat). Poverty and pollution abounded but happiness was not in shortage. Some of the nicest and most generous people I ever met live in the Philippines. The explorer in me traveled away from home to find a form of riches. I left dejected in one sense (Explorer) and transformed in another (Warrior). The warrior in me was awakened to compete for my soul and the real purpose I was put on the planet. Yeah, it was a trip. More to come on this subject…