Two Anniversaries

(Writing begun on Nov. 7, 2014, and continuing until publication date)

A year ago today, I waited with moderate concern for the arrival of the super-typhoon "Yolanda."  Perhaps if I could have foreseen all of the effects on our life here, in the aftermath of this enormous storm, my concern would have been greater.

I should mention that typhoon "Yolanda" is everywhere else called Haiyan.  It seems that the Philippine Government considers it necessary to call every weather event by a different name than the rest of the world.  This has the benefit of providing employment for whoever has the responsibility of selecting the extra set of names.

Two years ago today, we were one week short of arriving in the Philippines to begin our retirement adventure.  Our arrival date, November 15, 2012, meant that we were just approaching our one-year "retrospective" (2013) when a fair amount of our little "world" was blown away by the typhoon.  

This is the first house which we had built here in about 2007,

five years before we were able to move here.  It looked just

about like this until a month ago, when we were able to do

some painting and dressing-it-up.  In our immediate  little

street area, about half the houses were similar a year ago, 

and half were more substantial.

 But within 100 yards of us, on the "beach" side of the National

Highway, the type of housing shifts from modest concrete- to

quite a few "native" houses constructed of bamboo and local

lumber.  This particular house always impressed me because

it was carefully maintained and very neat - - the "cottage with a

little picket fence" effect.  The always- warm temperatures here

mean that this type of home is adequate most of the time; a

little like the cabins in a state  or national park in the USA. 

The vast difference between the ooh- soo- neat little cottage

and our place shows on the morning after the typhoon.  Our

place would still look almost exactly the same as "photo number

one," but the huge  power of  185 mile-per-hour winds had pretty

much flattened anything which wasn't reinforced concrete.

My intention for this posting is not to present lots of "before and after" coverage of the typhoon, however.  It seems to me that it might be interesting to reflect a little about how quickly things can change at times - in a few hours, in the case of the typhoon's impact - and how slowly things seem to happen at other times, as in our personal adaptation to living here in the Philippines.  There has been a lot to learn;  mostly in the "affective" areas for me - in adjusting my attitude away from a sense of urgency about completing hoped-for projects, and in learning to appreciate each blessing and  convenience which comes into our lives.

It is the coincidence of the two events being almost exactly a year apart which seems to "overlay" them in my mind.

Most structures in our area are now replaced or repaired.  In the eastern part of our island (named "Panay") the damage was much more severe to concrete - and all other - structures as Haiyan made its first landfall from that direction and passed 100 miles overland and through mountains before we received our visit.  In that area, there are large sections of concrete-block walls still missing from buildings - but people have reinforced and re-roofed, and are mostly living "as usual."   We personally were blessed to have only minor damages to our metal roofing, easily repaired.

The Philippines in general is in a good period economically; I saw on a chart recently that the economic growth rate here is at 7.2% - only one or two other Asian countries which were listed have better economies.  For non-economists, I mention that I seem to remember that 4% growth is considered pretty healthy.  There is a building boom happening here which exceeds mere replacement of damaged infrastructure.  In the last year, for example, the number of gasoline stations in the 120-mile area we frequent appears to have nearly doubled; and I don't think there was any shortage of stations before.  (And in the last few months, the fuel prices have gone down something-like 60- cents per gallon). (Gasoline here is about $4.65 per gallon) (We're selective about when and where we drive)

There are lots of topics I could type to you - and I'm tempted to try to explain things with words, here!  But I am already pretty far beyond my usual "text - to - photo" ratio I think, so I'll begin putting up some photos and will try to organize them around subject-matter.

First, I haven't systematically put up photos of our place here in Malabor (neighborhood's name) Tibiao (municipality), on this Blog.  I have sent a few in e-mails to some of my readers, though.  In-town lots here are usually small; we have a "main" lot which is 40 x 80 feet, and a separated lot 40 x 60 which we use for a poultry yard.

 Standing near the middle of our 80- foot street frontage, the

older house shown also in "photo number one" above now

has its paint. job in place.  This house has our kitchen and

living rooms, plus 2 bedrooms and a bath.  

 The middle of the lot has a patio-like kitchen behind the

vehicle, and a water-storage tower and small bamboo

building just to the left.

Shifting view to the farthest left, the west end of our lot has

the hewer house, completed in July 2013; this has a workshop, 

a master bedroom- with- bath, and some storage space.  Getting

street-view photos is a little challenge, as the street is narrow,

perhaps 12- or 14- feet wide, paved with concrete 8- feet wide.

My purpose in showing the above is to try to give you a little sense of what it is like to live in a small neighborhood here.  We are well blessed to be pretty comfortable and secure here;  but as mentioned above, I have learned to appreciate things I wouldn't look twice at in the USA, a few of which I'll show.

 Chain-link fencing wire is widely available here;

galvanized pipe for posts is not hard to get.  For

any OTHER fencing material, such as brackets and

adapters you'd get from a hardware store in the US,

you're pretty much on your own.  Make them from-

scratch.  We needed a rolling gate-panel in front of

the vehicle, and this shows the fabrication of the

nose-wheel of the gate.  I show these 2 or 3 photos

before-paint so details are easier to see. 

Similarly, tail-wheels, angle-iron tracks, and flat-

metal "u"-clamps were all formed by hand and welded

as necessary.  This fence is painted and complete

 in the farther-above photos. (Looks better!)

You're on your own if you need a swing-gate latch,

too.  We just used the chain- around- the- post for

a long time.  Then one day I noticed a broken pop-

rivet tool lying around, and "presto," its handle

 became a nice spring-loaded latch bar.

My intent is to illustrate some "little stuff" you just would hardly think about in the USA.  In the case of the fence, with "bought ready-made" components it might have gone up in a day or

two.  "Inventing" and fabricating the items brought the project to about 10 days.  Kind of a pain in the neck at times, but - hey! - I'm retired, my time is my own, and I mostly like  tinker-ing around with things.

Items like doors and other fittings for a house are all made-to-

order by local tradespeople.  I have seen no "off the shelf" screen

doors, for example.  Years ago I saw a door with false-Victorian

looking corner blocks - made with simple hole-saw and drill-bit

work.  My door ended up a little "busier" looking than I had

thought, but still acceptable.  (One description offered was

"cheesy." My response was neutral.)  (Will anyone pick up

that "double- quip?"  I wonder - - -)

This Suzuki "double-cab" truck has been with us for about 2

months.  Many of these come into the Philippines as "Japan

 surplus" in very good condition; the double-cabs like this one

arrive as mini-vans and are converted here by having the

back section "chopped" into a pickup- bed.  It has proven

to be a real handy and practical little vehicle.   It checked out

at about 33 miles-per-gallon one time, and I'm told that at

least in theory it could get around 40 m.p.g.  And it's peppy

and fun to drive. 

"Technical" notes;  it has a 3- cyl. 660 cc. engine, water cooled, "pancake mounted" above the rear axle.  The radiator is at the front - meaning very long hoses/ pipes. There is a standard-looking transaxle, a manual 5- speed.  The engine-weight over the back axle is roughly equal to the 2 passengers weight over the front axle, so it has a nicely balanced "feel" when driving.  Comparison:  My Honda motorcycle was a 750 cc.  Most sub-compact U.S. cars have engines about 1,500 cc. and larger.  Our Buicks  were 3,800 cc.  That is why the gutsy performance of this tiny engine surprises me.

Side-note about license plates:  here, the "tags" are not made until  a vehicle is registered and assigned its number; then, they are made- to- order and may take a few months to

arrive.  Many vehicles drive around with handmade temporary tags.

NOTE: I nearly always convert measures to U.S.A. standards, for the sake of my readers. But here in the Philippines, all measurements are metric.  The car's actual fuel usage was 13.8 km per liter, for example.   The money is pesos, and I usually convert that to dollars so

Americans can get a sense of what things cost here.  It happens by coincidence that just for now the peso- per- dollar rate makes prices of pesos- per- kilogram almost exactly equal the price in pennies- per- pound - - - 100 pesos- per- kilo is almost exactly one dollar per pound.

And, OUR beef is costing about 220.  (but 220 pesos is a day's pay, maybe more, for 2.2 pounds of meat)

My mention of the money, above, reminded me that I have

not explained about Philippine money in this blog.  Here is

what the coins look like.  The lower-left is a Peso coin, the

basic "unit" here.  We use 40-per-dollar as a general estimate

of peso-value, making it roughly 2.5 cents USA.  Right now

the rate is actually between 44 and 45, which is a fairly large

difference, 10- percent.  The other 2 coins in the lower

row are 5-peso and 10-peso.  The upper row are 5-, 10-, 

and 25- "sentima" (means cent) coins.  For all practical

purposes they are nearly worthless, and many businesses

round-off their prices to even pesos - remember, two pesos

is less than 5-cents USA, at this moment.  The red object is

a coke-bottle cap used for size-comparison.  The peso-coin

is slightly larger than an American nickel.  I had thought

that the pesos were probably stainless steel, but one day I

found a couple of them stuck to a magnet.

Philippine paper money (no photo, sorry!) is normal-looking notes in pastel colors which range from light-orange through pink, yellow, and tan, to light violet.  They are all about the same size as USA paper currency. They DO have various holographic and other technology to discourage counterfeiting. The denominations are 20-, 50-, 100-, 200-, 500-, and 1,000- pesos.  1,000 pesos is about $22.50 right now, so 4,000 pesos make $90.  At 40- per- dollar it would be $100 per 4000 -- an easier number to "convert" - - but the cheaper peso rate for right now is helping out our purchasing power.

"Tired tires?"  One characteristic of the people in this area is

their ability to creatively take "nothing" and make it into

"something."  Here is an example of what worn-out motorcycle

tires can become.

Something as basic as a bamboo window lattice is given

a little "pizzazz" by adding some scrap pieces creatively

mitre-cut at each cross joint.

Another "creative lattice" example.

We have recently been watching the construction of a huge

bamboo structure about 6 miles (10 km. - ha!) up the road

from our place.The person standing in front gives an idea  

of its size.  The rumor is that it will be a guest house. Local

folks can't quite understand it - bamboo on this scale is

expensive to do, and because of termites and rot it will

not last for very long.

Well, it has taken me about a week to put this together so far.  I think it's about time to go ahead and publish it.  One technical difficulty I'm facing right now is the lack of a camera.  My pocket Sanyo finally wore out after more than 4 years of hard use, and the Samsung mini- video camera which Bernadette let me borrow for a while blew its non-replaceable battery.  I have "made do" a little bit with the cel phone but I'm looking forward to the arrival of a replacement Sanyo in a few weeks.  There are no major vendors like Wal

Mart and Target in our area;  and 45 miles away at San Jose, the most-likely camera store had nothing in stock with the features of the Sanyo, although they DID have a fair selection of OTHER name-brand electronic pocket cameras.  (DO NOT take for granted the widespread availability of goods whenever you want or need them!!!)

I'll close with a word about Thanksgiving.  It's hard for Americans to understand how blessed  we have been to grow up in a prosperous, generous, honest country such as the United States was.  I'm glad that some of our forbears saw fit to establish such a day as Thanksgiving Day in simple gratitude for the "good and perfect gifts, which come from above."  And yes, we will celebrate Thanksgiving Day here with some traditional American cookery, and reflect on the bounties and blessings we have experienced in these past two years.

Wishing you each and all a blessed day!

Tim and Bernadette Larson, Philippines

Celebrations and Events

I have collected photos of quite a few special events since arriving in the Philippines nearly 2 years ago.  So far I have not had much occasion to post these, as I've been kept busy posting a combination of my own projects and some of the ways of doing things which look "different" to those of you who are used to how things happen in the USA.  This seems like a good opportunity to post at least a few of the back-log of "Celebrations and Events" photos.

Recently there was a flurry of activity for several days, in

preparation for what I gather is the equivalent of accreditation

of the nearby elementary  school.  The second line of the

banner seems to translate, "School Brigade."  Many nationally-

known figures in business and government have passed

through this little school, so there was quite a lot of

attention given to the (to me) routine-seeming event.

Every house on the street was neatened and decorative

plants in white pots were set out alongside the spotless

pavement, in honor of the visiting dignitaries.

The school's sign, located at the street- entrance on the

National highway, got a fresh coat of paint.  And, yes,

the school passed its inspection.

Several times a year there are festivals in "Tibiao Proper"

or in our barangay (neighborhood), Malabor.  I don't always

quite know what the occasion is.  I have noticed that marching

bands here are primarily accompanied by drums and "lyres"

(what they call the xylophone-type instrument); sometimes

with flutes.  I suspect that this is because other instruments

are expensive; I see very few brass instruments here.

Well-loaded "tricycle" motor-taxis are kept busy shuttling

band members up and down the route as they are staged

in order for the parade.

I couldn't resist snapping a photo of this passing service-

van which has a familiar name on the front.

Various reinforcements appear at large-scale events, to help

local officials with traffic direction.  This officer was helping

to work the National Highway section which was reduced to

one lane because of the parade and festivities.

A different parade is lining up, at the Malabor Barangay

festival of last year.  Quite a few events featured the every-

day boats used by local fishermen.

After what seemed much confusion, the boats made about

a one-kilometer passage along the shoreline, then returned.

This 24- inch sea turtle had apparently been an accidental

catch in a fishing net.  I'm told it was released later in the day.

One particularly difficult racing event was a relay in which

participants hand-paddled their boats about 200 m. out

and around a buoy-marker, then returned; each boat 

being relayed by a series of four team-mates.  These

boats are paddled with wooden carved paddles, in their

usual daily use.  It is not only difficult to paddle with bare

hands, but also to balance and distribute weight - - -

- - so that as each boat came in for its next relay- segment,

it would often have to be turned and emptied of water from

"swamping" caused by the paddler being too far astern;

then the next team-mate could take his part in the relay.

This is the beginning of the 4-man paddle race; the boats

used the same course as the bare-hands race.

The team in the winning boat split a cash-prize which was

about a day's pay for each of them.

Many times, my interest in an event is centered around the "production" details.  I seem to have a life-long fascination with what it takes to make "IT" happen.  While I enjoy seeing an event unfold, I like it much better when I can see "behind the scenes"  preparation and execution.

Our daughter Thea's wedding reception took place in our yard.

The backdrop is the wall of the house, with fabric "hot-glued"

to provide a plain surface.  To the left, we put up a screen of

bamboo posts and thin plywood, also fabric covered, which

hid the "catering area" from view.  Other posts supported

a framework of poles and slats to support the canopy. Out

in front, all was calm-looking.

Just to the left of the previous photo there was a flurry of

food preparation happening.  I've attended quite a few large

scale food events here, and NOBODY has permanent stoves

or other facilities - our methods are the "norm" here.

Rice-flour cupcakes have been an item at every event I've

been to,  "Rounds" are cut out of banana leaves - - -

and used to line cupcake-sized mini-baskets, which contain

the batter so that it can be put into a steamer.

Several layers of steamer are assembled over a cooking fire, and

in a while we have steamed cupcakes for the esteemed guests.

Here, the "food processor" is used to crush a large supply

of garlic.  Meantime many other hands are busy cutting

vegetables and meat - chicken, pork, beef, and goat went

into the various "specialties" served to wedding guests.

Most wedding customs which are followed in the US are

also familiar here.  What I marvel at, having  observed several

large-scale occasions here, is the ability of people here to

create a sophisticated event seemingly out of "nothing."

The "magical" quality of the event becomes more apparent,

seeing this photo of the same location 2 days afterwards.

See the first photo in this section for comparison.

Now many months later, we have done upgrades and paint-

work on the house, which will likely appear in later postings.

We are reserved about publishing personal photos on electronic media such as this blog, and for this reason I don't  publish the standard set of "posed" wedding photos.  The view-point of this article is the "background" preparations for events here; looking as-usual for various ways in which things happen differently here than they do in the USA.

"Behind the scenes" in a different venue - here is the kitchen

area about one year ago at the conference center where

our church worships on Sundays.  This particular occasion,

the attendance was about 40 people, and this is lunch-

in- progress.  Other dishes were brought in by members.

 A few months later this large kitchen was completed. The

fire-area will hold several large utensils, the "hood" draws

smoke out nicely, and there are nice large areas for layout

and food-preparation.  A large, covered "patio" dining-space
is behind me as I take this photo.  Summer-camps with

attendance of around 100 have passed through the center

since then.  I have waited for months to share these 2

photos with my friends in KY who are building an education/

fellowship center which will house their new church kitchen!

"Shoe census" is one indicator of a well-attended party at

our house.  I still haven't figured out how everybody seems

to leave with the right pair of flip-flops - - -

The above photos are only a small sample of events I have been to since arriving in the Philippines, but they are enough to fill up the page for this posting.  Meanwhile all sorts of daily happenings are so far unreported here, as we have moved from project to project and gradually gotten closer to our goals of settling in and becoming as self-sufficient as we can.  I imagine that the next posting will contain some of these.

Wishing all of you a joyful spirit and just the right measure of success in your challenges!

Tim and Bernadette Larson,   Philippines

This and That

I've had a hard time deciding on a topic for this issue.  It seems that  there are quite a few photos in my files which would make 3- or 4- picture topics, so perhaps I'll just start setting some scenes in place and see what happens.

We never know what we might see, when we take a road-trip

here.   One afternoon we were about 7 km from home, returning

from a day of errands in San Jose - and when our van came around

a curve, the driver abruptly braked to a stop!  I don't know why

ducks and geese would be taking a hike, but they do it in a

pretty orderly manner, it seems.  As I took this photo through the

van's applique-tinted windshield, it is just a little blurred.

This bridge replacement project required several months to

complete.We traveled back and forth enough that I was able

to accumulate a fair record of how the project progressed.

  The temporary bridge which was put in place required three

sets of trusses on each side; even so it was rated 15 tons

instead of the 20 tons of the original bridge.

Coconut palm tree trunks are the most common material used

here for heavy construction bracing.  These are part of the forms

for the retaining wall which will hold back the buildup of rocks and

earth which will become the approach an one end of the bridge.

As each support-wall was completed, it was braced with tree-

trunks, and reinforcing steel plus forms were constructed  to

pour the bridge's girders in-place.  Most bridge construction

in the USA now uses pre-cast  concrete girders which are

brought on trucks and set into place with a large crane.  Here,

nearly everything is made at the site, mostly by hand.  A

large track-hoe usually handles the heaviest part of the work.

After the support walls have been connected by the cement

girders, heavy planks are placed to serve as forms for the

concrete road decking.  Here, the bridge is nearly complete,

but the bypass bridge will remain in use until the guard rails

and other details are completed.

This is NOT the same bridge as above; but the end of every

bridge on the main highway is similarly marked, with the exact

distance in kilometers and meters from the "Zero-Kilometer"

which is at the old Provincial Capitol building at Iloilo. 

Additionally, the highway itself has a post at every km., giving

distance from Iloilo;  it took me a year  to figure out the lower

marking - "B-10," here.  No, it's not road-BINGO.  Turns out

to be the distance to the next municipality - "Barbaza," on this

post, 10 km. away.  The opposite side of this same post is

marked "T-2," as Tibiao is 2 km. in the opposite direction. Each

post is similarly marked along the entire length  of the highway.

I have found some disagreements between the highway posts

and the bridge-distances, however; I suspect that would be the

"human factor" creeping in. Perhaps different departments 

determine how the distances are measured and marked.

I found a few photos of local fruit in my files, so I'll give you a look at them.

Someone brought us this cluster of "dwarf coconuts" from a

nearby tree.  The "nuts" are about same-size as regular coconuts,

but the tree only gets 10 or 12 feet tall - which really beats having

to climb 40- or- more feet for regular coconuts!  Inside, they are

pretty much the same as other coconuts, but outside they are

smooth-green-skinned, instead of having a rough thick fibrous pod.

  The golf-ball sized rambutan resemble miniature sea-urchins.

The inside is a tough-jellybean texture, which tastes slightly

tarter than a green seedless grape.

The coffee cup gives size-reference to this papaya.  Some 

papaya are twice this size - I've seen one crash to the road,

falling off a tree just in front of our bus.  A nearly 20-pound

fruit would make quite a "wham!"  if it actually hit a vehicle.

The inside orange flesh tastes somewhere between peach

and cantaloupe.  I laughingly call papaya "the sailor fruit."

(Repeat the underlined words and see if you "get it.")

Bamboo shoots (but its aim is poor?).  We're used to getting

these in about a 6-ounce tin can, in the USA.  This is what those

little  pieces come from - - I had no idea the shoots were so

large.  Here, they will slice and cook up a large pot-full, often

with coconut "milk."

Pomelo is about 10-inch citrus 
fruit which has giant- sized seg-ments inside.  The flavor is like a sweet grapefruit, but the ones I've had so far were pretty dry in-side.  I don't know if this is their nature or if it was from poor growing conditions.

Here are a 3-foot squash (similar in flavor to zucchini, but with

larger seeds and more gourd-like hollow inside), "yard-long"

green beans, "acorn" squash, asian eggplant, okra, and white

radishes.

 Mix-with-water "kool-aid" type powdered drinks are very common.

I have seen NO "Eight O'clock" coffee here, only beverage powder.

Nestea markets bottled tea and several flavors of powdered tea.  I

have been in a store unable to find ORANGE Tang - but able to

find Tang flavors of grape, strawberry, watermelon, etc.  The four

brands visible here are most common, but there are others.

There are quite a few differences between Philippine and U.S. foods, even in types which might be expected to be "pretty much the same." In general, Philippine versions of such things as tomato sauces, bread, peanut butter and beverages are noticeably sweeter than the U.S. versions.  Filipinos in general seem to prefer having their foods sweeter.  This may be partly because cane sugar is the norm for sweetening, here - and it is sweeter than any corn-syrup product, and also considerably sweeter than the beet-sugar which is most common in the U.S.  The Coca-Cola and other soft drinks are stronger-flavored and sweeter than the U.S. versions.  Diabetes was rare here 20 years ago, but is becoming common.
     Many U.S. food companies have processing facilities in the Philippines, so familiar brand names are everywhere here.  Hunt's, McCormick, Green Giant and the beverage companies are among these.  Also, many of the U.S. products are sold under different names brands here - "Nova" chips sold here are "Sun" chips in the U.S., and I suspect that Republic Biscuit Company here is related to National Biscuit Co. (Nabisco) U.S.A.  
   Snack foods are packaged in "individual-sizes" only, it seems; this is likely more profitable for the producers, and such items are often re-vended so the smaller sizes are most practical. Unflavored chips (just-plain-salt) are found here rarely - overly-sweet cheese flavorings and barbeque flavorings dominate the chip row.
   I have seen NO roasted-ground coffee in groceries here, though I have heard a couple people mention that it is available.  Restaurants with large-volume such as Jollibee have Bunn-o-matic type brewing, so they manage to obtain ground coffee.  But what I have seen in groceries is all instant coffee, which is also somewhat stronger (if you buy "coffee only" products) than the instant coffee in the U.S. as best I can remember.  But MUCH  of the instant coffee is in coffee-mixes which already have sugar and powdered creamer in various proportions; 3-in-1 and 5-in-one are quite common, though I also don't know what the 4th and 5th ingredients would be.  Individual-cup packets vie with larger packages; we prefer to buy our ingredients separately and proportion them to our tastes.  Nescafe and CoffeeMate have the largest portion of the market around here, it seems.
    There seems to be no dairy industry in the Philippines.  Milk is available in various powdered forms, evaporated or condensed in cans, or vacuum-packed in boxed plastic envelopes, usually 1-liter. (WalMart has these, now.) Thick cream is packaged in the envelope-boxes, but in 1- cup size (about like a lunch juice-box).  "Cheese" is all processed-type sold in little boxes ("Velveeta" type), and "Cheese- Whiz"  types in jars, although some groceries in large cities have "imported" food sections where various natural cheeses are available but expensive.  Yogurt products are difficult to find even in San Jose, population nearly 60,000.  Sour cream is unheard of. The milk products seem mostly to originate in Australia, and the processed fake-cheese is made in the Philippines from imported ingredients.
   I had no plans to comment about Philippine foods in this posting. It just "seemed to flow" once I'd put up the fruit photos. But, food is a subject close to my heart - I might say that it is seldom more than a few inches away!  No photos of the above, because I hadn't expected to need them.  I am also currently "in-between cameras" as my nice little Sanyo finally wore out and so far I haven't found a suitable replacement.

There always seem to be a lot of little projects around here.  At least these provide plenty of variety.

We needed insulators to run some wires around, recently.  It

turned out that using the top parts of some plastic medicine-

bottles (bottoms sawn off) worked fine; when pulled taut, the

wires settle nicely into the "grooves" between the bottle-

shoulder and the cap.

The gardening trowel   which was in use kept bending at its
handle.  I found some sturdy angle-iron and cut it to shape
some trowels - above, #3 and #4 of 4 that I made.  The
handles of these two were "lathe-turned" by chucking a large
screw into the big electric drill, and clamping the drill into a
vise, then putting the wood on the screw so that I could shape
it with wood-rasp and files as it spun.  As my technique im-
proved, the handles got a little more stylish. 

  I waited several months for the guy who was going to do some
fine-paintbrush work for me; I don't have very good skills with
such things as lettering and pin- striping.  I finally decided to
try doing the markings on my water-level gauge with a felt-tip
permanent marker.  This has stayed on pretty well.  The words
being in German (hopefully correct) is a little joke which works
for about 3 different reasons. 

A 16- inch stainless steel bowl makes a fine reflector  for the

yard- light on our new storage shed.  It will never rust, never

need any maintenance, and it was very reasonably priced.

Well, that's sure not everything that I could put into a blog posting.  This time I think I managed to get a lot of variety,  and I hope that at least part of it caught your imagination and interest.  I have quite a large number of photos still on-file which show various aspects of our life here in the Philippines, so it will not be too long a time before I'm looking through them for another posting.

Meantime, wishing you all good health, interesting and challenging things to occupy you, and blessings in all your endeavors.

Tim and Bernadette Larson, Philippines