The sun had been baking my skin for hours and burning my head for miles. I looked at the group of exhausted hikers behind me, our group had broken into a “slow” group and a “fast” group a couple miles back. I looked to the guide in front of me and studied his pace, his complexion. He was wearing tsinelas, the cultural Filipino flip-flops so I could easily see his callused, cracked feet. His soles looked like coral, as if they were one big callus caked with dirt. He must have hiked this trail or trails like it every day from how worn out they were.

Growing up in the Philippines and hiking all over the mountains, I got to see incredible views all the time. But I always stand astounded when I’m standing thousands of feet closer to the top of the world looking over vast rice patties and jungles teeming with life. The scene from a tall mountain in the Philippines is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life. I can still remember the clear sky and the bright, green world caught in my gaze. My attention was brought back to our journey which had a long way to go still.

The road in front of us was daunting but I knew we couldn’t stop until we reached our destination, a small, secluded village at the top of the mountain. The Aeta people needed help building a fence around a church which had been planted there years back. So a group of people from my school were asked to hike to the top of a mountain, spend the night in a remote village, and build a fence. The hot dusty road went on for another few miles until we walked through a mountaintop jungle path which then led out to a tiny, dirty, and absolutely wonderful Aeta village.

Kids ran out of all the houses to greet us. They crowded around us, waved in our faces, yelled hello, it was great! First we pitched our tents, and then we just went and hung out with the villagers. They showed us where to get water, and how to shoot their handmade bow and arrows. One guy even made a bow right in front of us and it took ten minutes! He showed us the different arrows they used, like the ones made for monitor lizards and the ones for birds. Then a few of the hikers and I had a little archery competition with the villagers, and of course they won. One of the translators with us had a few of the women speak with us and we asked questions about the village and what they did. We found out that all the men in the village that could would hike to the nearest town every single day! Basically, they walked almost as much as we had just finished hiking twice a day, it was incredible! These people were too cool.

After all the fun and games were over, we got down to work. The people had these awesome miniature shovel things which they had made by hand that were perfect for digging holes for the fence posts. After the fence posts were placed, we put on the actual fence part. Kids were watching us the whole time with curiosity and excitement and within a few hours the fence was up around the church.

That night we sat around a fire admiring these awesome people that we had gotten to know. It was cool to see how creative they were and how they could have fun with anything they had. It was great to meet the people of this tribe and understand their culture which I had never heard of before. I learned from the Aeta people that you can have fun with anything. They had so little, but had so much joy. Now, before I complain about not having what I want, I just think about these people. They live with the bare necessities of life and work hard every day, yet they live with happiness.