Igorot Foot Spa

I happen to attend the Launch of the First National Weaving Congress in Mt. Data Hotel, Bauko, Mountain Province, where I act as one of the consultants for the case studies. One of the treats of the conference was a cultural presentation which showed the different dances of Mountain Province, including the indigenous footspa. After their performance, the dancers treated some participants to a footspa.

The indigenous footspa, according to Manong who gave me one after the conference, is a pasttime of elderly men. After a hard day's work, their sons give them the footspa in their "dap-ay" (huts). The "technology" uses coconut oil and two sticks of bamboo which are rubbed alternately on their soles, until they doze off.

When I had mine in my room, it gave me that tingling feeling, which really sooths you with the "kiliti" , until your soles become more used to the rubbing of sticks. I think the secret there is the "kiliti" factor which runs up to your spine and head until you get goose bumps (got the idea?). It is synonymous to laughing, which makes you secrete some hormones that will calm you down after.

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