Greetings to all our family and friends! Merry Christmas, and Happy and Prosperous New Year 2016!!
I was particularly pleased with the camera-results of this late-dusk photo. The scene is on the main Highway, around the corner and about 100 yards from our home. I haven't got all the automatic and default controls sorted out on the "new" camera yet, and it just seems quite a bit more complicated to set up than the previous one I had for 5 years. (The lighted objects on the roof appear to be reindeer, but there is no sleigh - - -)
Most of our news for year 2015 has already been posted here during the year, but I will give a recap of the major events and how we are all doing, followed by a gallery of Christmas photos from nearby, followed by a miscellaneous batch of things I see while I'm searching my photo-files for the photos I've already mentioned! (See upper-right of this page for fairly easy-to-use links "backward in time" to all the earlier postings.)
We have had a good year of accomplishments. The major impact things were the cottage at our farm about a mile from this house which is in town, the arrival of the Yamaha music keyboard from the USA, several trips to the most distant side of Panay Island and to Iloilo, and the gradual "moving along" of projects which we hope will increase our comfort, independence, and general happiness here. Things happen much more slowly here than they do in the USA, mostly, and we are gradually adapting.
Our health is pretty good, though we are challenged at times by the sheer amount of energy it takes to do things. Neither one of us has ever been quite as old as we are now (!), and the climate here also puts some restraints on us; I stay in the shade as much as possible, and usually within range of an electric fan. An example of "typical:" this morning at 6:00 a.m. the temperature was a crisp 78 F. degrees, and I expect it to go to mid- 90s by about noon. As this is pretty much the year-round condition here, our activity level must adjust! I still get in a pretty good day's work a lot of the time - - always grateful that my "work" is now whatever "hobby-project" I happen to be interested in at a given time. Bernadette has been able recently to spend half-days at a time tending to the farm-garden, which is her particular joy. The gardening here is quite different from what is familiar to us from Kentucky, but gradually we hope to have better production and more variety.
Daughter Thea has worked for most of the year at Bacolod City on Negros Island, about 130 miles away. This link should show her location ,and ours. She handles customer service calls for some communications-package USA based companies, and particularly enjoys working her usual customer-base area which is North and South Carolinas. Her husband Joseph and son Timmie alternate staying with us and with Joseph's mom about 7 miles away. Joseph is in the process of taking his "teaching review" which is a cram-course that education majors here take to review everything they ever learned, in preparation for taking the teacher-licensing exam. We expect that he will have his paperwork all finished and be employable as a teacher, within the next few months. At about 19 months old, Timmie gets involved in nearly every little project that goes on around him. He shows signs of being pretty "bright" but so far he isn't speaking very much. When he decides to start talking, we will probably end up wishing he wouldn't, so much - - -
I have the pleasure now of spending a few hours each week - whenever I feel like it - working on music, and have been able to relearn quite a few things I'd nearly forgotten how to play, most recently a handful of Christmas carols which are "buggary" (complicated, at least for me) on the keyboard. Our Filipino friends seem to really enjoy singing English-language songs, and I often hear the kids and youth spontaneously singing/ humming/ whistling the "old familiar" songs. Most of them are pretty fluent with English (though still a little shy of conversation), and they learn "new" music pretty quickly.
And that's about "it." We rock along in our daily lives, pretty comfortable most of the time. For 2016 we hope to finally get a little more results from vegetable gardening (home-made salsa! Pizza! Pickles!), maybe raise a hog or two, or get a couple goats, and continue trying to have more variety and less dependence on the food sources here. I'd like to start learning how to process dairy products, since many products I took for granted and enjoyed all my life are just not readily available. (There simply is NO "culture" of milking, cheese-making, etc., in this area. We own three cows, and I still am not successful in obtaining a couple quarts of milk per day to experiment with! Working on it, though - - -)
We wish each of you, and those dear to you, a measure of contentment and a satisfying sense of useful accomplishment, and a prosperous year 2016.
Christmas in the Philippines
(I just had to see if I could do THAT with the text colors). (NOW I see I "goofed" one of the color changes but I'M NOT going back and changing the whole thing!!)
In our area Christmas stays pretty simple for most people. There just isn't the "optional funding" here, although at this time of the near most people have enough for their basic needs. In the cities and places-more-prosperous, the "western" culture is pretty visible with people rushing around shopping and decorating; in our area a few people put up strings of lights and other decorations, and quite a few gather materials to make "trees." Here's a gallery of trees placed in front of homes nearby:
A pole in the middle and various-sized hoops make a good "foundation" for placing decorations.
Looks like a lot of time and work went into making all the foil-covered decorations here
The camera just could not pick up the prism- rainbow effect of sunlight hitting hundreds of CD-disc decorations, but it is striking and really pretty.
This one gets a "star" in the "creative use of materials" division.
I have spent 30 minutes trying to get the text to go on the right side of the above photo and it refuses to do so. The several ones above did OK. This looks like a commercial "artificial" Christmas tree, with lights for night- time display. This type of tree is available in mall-type stores in cities, but the quality usually isn't good and pricing of the ones we have seen is several times higher than similar ones would be in the USA. "Supply and demand" rule in action.Seems like this is the place to start the "miscellaneous" items. I had a couple more trees but by now you've gotten the general idea. I'm impressed very often with how endlessly creative the people here seem to be.
Added note: I forgot to mention about Christmas caroling, which is almost a "cottage industry" here. Anytime after Dec. 1, small groups of local urchins may appear outside our gate of an evening, usually banging and rattling tin cans, singing seasonal selections and hoping for a few pesos. We have had actual NOTICES brought by several charitable groups, saying that they will pass by to sing and requesting donations for the less fortunate. So each evening, especially this week before Christmas, we have several visits by singers.
I walked out to the rice-field a few days ago. We have a loan "out"
to the owner of the field, which gives us the use of the field and the
first "option to buy" if the field is sold. The road frontage is about
80 feet and I measured seemingly about 400 feet with my 100 foot
long tape measure (I got stuck in mud and had to give up before I
made the full length of the field). This is prime rice-field, producing
3 crops per year; our last several crops have been between 25
and 35 sacks; we end up with about 60% to 65% of the total yield
and the rest goes as "shares" to our field manager and reapers.
It's not a big-time money getter, but it is a useful way to offset
some of our expenses.
This closer photo shows nice heavy-looking seed heads; we
think that our harvest will be in about one week, sometime
between Christmas and New Year.
Nannies and kids are staked out anywhere there is
available forage, including in cities. These were beside
the rice field as I walked; reminding me that in any little
neighborly dispute here, your opponent could literally
"get your goat."
People of all ages are seen everywhere carrying all
sorts of "cargo." These ladies are carrying bundles of
firewood a distance of a mile or more; very little
cooking is done with cooking-gas fires here, as it
is too expensive.
Seems like barely two weeks ago I was accidentally at the
"ground breaking" of this new school classroom unit. Our
cousin who is on the crew told me that this was "day #22"
as I took the photo. That's moving along pretty fast, as
all of the construction methods here are "by hand."
Malabor Elementary School is at the inside "end" of our
street, 50 yards from our gate and 100 yards from the
main highway. (Upper right of this page, see BLOG
postings for January thru June of 2013, for a good
coverage of construction process here.)
I often enjoy finding unintended messages on signs and
labels. These "Happy Less Grease Peanuts" tickled
my humor because I couldn't imagine a USA label
EVER mentioning the word "GREASE." "Less Grease"
seems to be a good recommendation, here.
We've had the Suzuki double-cab for 16 months now and
it has proven to be a good choice for us, giving lots of
versatility in cargo and passenger loading. It has hauled
1800 pounds of sacked rice for short distances, and 1400
pounds of bagged cement for several miles. We haven't
figured out the maximum passenger count yet - they are
too many sizes - but the usual answer seems to be,
"one more!" It's economical and fun to drive; it rides
a little rough, so I take frequent breaks on trips of
more than an hour or so. Suzuki has been making
this basic vehicle for 25 or more years, and as far
as anyone knows there is no owner's manual or
shop service manual available. This particular one
is a "chop job", having been a mini-van for most
of its life before we got it (and we suspect it may
also have originally been right-hand drive).
Well, there's no reason for this posting to be real long. We do hope for all of you that your days will be "merry and bright." Each of you are in our thoughts, more often than you may guess! I occasionally look through my contacts list just for the pleasure of remembering all the little events that made up long-time friendships with many of you.
Have a great rest- of- the- day, whatever time it is for you, and God bless you all!
Tim and Bernadette Larson,
Antique Province, Philippines
