Lessons from a Dream Weaver

On my trip to Lake Sebu, South Cotabato last August, I had the privilege of meeting our 92-year-old National Living Treasure, “Lang Dulai”. Lang Dulai is a T’boli woman who weaves beautiful T’boli cloth through the traditional T’nalak weaving.

From the main street of Lake Sebu, we traveled 3-5 kilometers along narrow dirt road to reach Sitio Tukolefa, Barangay (village) Lamdalag, a community with no electricity. We arrived at around 5pm and it was almost dark, and we found Lang Dulai (who wasn’t expecting us) weaving. She only speaks her native dialect so our guide, Gaya, had to interpret for us.

Lang Dulai’s starts and ends her day weaving. She lives in the Manlilikha Bayan Center in Sitio Tukolefa – a place built for the preservation and flourishing of the ancient art of T’nalak weaving.

The workplace is a typical T’boli house with steep stairs that has no handrails.  Fresh air breezes through the huge windows of the kawayan (bamboo)-built house making the room cool.

Upon entering, we found 3 weavers at the side of the room and in the middle sat our national pride, Lang Dulai.

Speaking with her was such a great learning experience. In spite of my short visit, I was able to learn so many things from a national living treasure, such as:

• Simple living – Lang Dulai works and lives in a simple village with minimal things yet she is surrounded by something valuable – her family and friends in the community.
   
• Love for work - As long as you love what you do, age will not hinder you from working, and retirement will be the last thing on your mind. Now in her old age, she has all the reason to retire and relax. But because of her passion to enrich and preserve the tradition of T’nalak weaving, Lang Dulai opted to continue working and teaching.
   
• Excellence – the clothes she weaves are exquisite and beautiful. They may look alike but no two t’boli cloths have the same design. Her works and designs are expensive, with her signature weaved at the end of each cloth she designs. It is the excellence in her work that gives high value in her products.
   
• Mentorship – she believes in her craft and in the tradition she is consciously preserving so she passes it down to the next generation through mentorship and practice. I asked her to whom she has passed down her expertise and she replied that she has taught it practically to all the women in the village.
   
• Vision – I asked her where she gets her design ideas and she told me that she dreams about it. She shares this dream to her students and together, they weave it. A vision shared will last even beyond the lifetime of the person who initially had it.

That short visit was worth all the hours of travel. Lang Dulai’s  dedication to her craft earned her the recognition of being a National Living Treasure. On the other hand, it also made me realize that like her, we are all living treasures—living treasures of God.

I learned to love my work, live a simple life, and work in excellence. And I want this character and attitude to continue and be passed on to others, especially to the next generation of believers. We aim to be excellent, and that’s what we do in OB. We mentor people we serve and people we serve with us, and we share to them the vision God has placed in our hearts. And we weave these dreams… together.