4 Years in the Philippines

We are just passing our fourth year in the Philippines.  In the several weeks since I last wrote, there's been a lot going on.   I'll start by just putting up pictures as I find them in the file, and hope that it sorts itself into topics for you. 

One morning recently, this very nicely shaped yellow rose

near our door caught my eye, as I was headed inside for a

cup of coffee.  It doesn't look out of the ordinary in the photo

above, but appearances can be deceiving at times.

The first photo  is cropped from this one; that rose is an

extreme miniature, as shown by comparing its size with the

bottle cap.  It amazed me that anything that small could

be formed so closely like a regular sized rose.

Seems like the largest "item completed" in the last few

weeks was replacing our geriatric Sanyo refrigerator.  This

sort of purchase calls for a 50- mile road trip to San Jose.

On the return trip I was glad I had built the back "load rack"

of the  mini-truck to be removable, for hauling tall stuff.

 Backing into the lot at home, we had to leave the truck partly

outside the gate until we could gather a few "hands" to help

ease the new Samsung fridge to the ground.  The item

suspended beyond the fridge carton is the car-top piano

carrier, hanging in its storage rack.

 Placed in the kitchen, the 12 cu.ft. Samsung (medium size

 by USA standards) dwarfs the 15 yr. old Sanyo - which is

standing on an 8-inch riser box! The little fridge still runs

quite well, but its interior is the size of two file-cabinet

drawers - not much storage, there.   Using new technology,

we expect the Samsung to keep food much fresher and

to use scarcely any more electricity than the Sanyo.

Other than its small size, the Sanyo's big drawback has been

its inside-the-fridge freezer.  Opening and closing the fridge

allows warm, highly humid air to contact the freezer section,

and this extreme hard-ice buildup was typical of only about a

week.  Our climate here is just WRONG for such a design!

We hope to continue using the small fridge in a situation where

it will seldom be opened, maybe easing the icing problem.

While shopping appliance stores, we noticed this BRAND NEW
Singer treadle machine.  Still everyday-common here.  Maybe
that's one reason this is named "Antique" Province?  (NOT! 
The name of the province "ann-TEE-kay" seems to derive from
native- language words, corrupted to Spanish pronunciation.)

Fixtures on display at Citi Hardware gave me another blast
from the past.  On "Happy Days"  TV program, one of
"The Fonz's" frequent quotes was "SIT ON IT!!"  (I don't
think Fonzie was "toilet-talking," but the meaning was
never clear to me.  Oh, well, the photo was too "good" to
pass up!)  (No luck, looking it up in the "slang" dictionary.) 

On the return trip:  this tall crane is set up where a new
bridge is to replace this one-lane "bottleneck bridge" at
Patnongan.  Not in use when we have passed, but it
looks like it is set up to "pile drive" long concrete posts
directly into the ground.  Posts already in the ground at
the site had markings for 13- to 15- meters.  I'll bet it
shakes the ground for a half-mile, when it is hammering.

 On a longer road-trip to Iloilo (100 + miles), 6 'youths' and one

adult  fit into the cargo space for about 3.5 hours. Inside the

car were 6 people, and 3 adults ended up taking bus-service.

I watch the weight I load pretty closely - this was easily within

the limits of the vehicle but heavy enough for me to keep things

a little slower than usual.  Carrying "small folks" helps!

(With driving conditions here, typical speed is around 40- to

50- mph.  Covering 40 miles in an hour is quite good.  But

the speedo numbers at least LOOK familiar - kilometers, 

so I'm rolling at 70 to 75!!)

The meetings we attended were on Thur., Fri., and Sat., with

2 overnights hosted by members of the church where we met.

About 100 people attended, some from 6 to 8 hours' travel 

distance, which is why the sessions spanned those 3 days.

This type of cement post-and-beam open air structure is very

common here.  Other than some roll-down curtains for rain,

very little is usually needed for "walls."

Iloilo has its share of "sidewalk woes," too. (See San Jose, last

month's posting). Here, the steps to a pedestrian overpass 

nearly vanish behind vendor booths.  Many other places have

various occupations obstructing the walk-ways.  

 A REAL "Woe" for me is the pedestrian over-passes at inter-

sections, with more than 30 steps UP and DOWN.  I can

legitimately cross at street level, as a "Sr. Cit."  But locals

customarily jaywalk, in-between occasional crack-downs

against doing so.

This sign is on the mountainous section of the road between

Hamtic and San Joaquin (map link), where the ground often

slumps out from under the road- bed. The WAY it says what

it says, amuses me of course.  Maybe the Public Works

Department  will eventually provide road- psychologists?

Close to home, an update photo on the Tibiao River bridge

shows it complete, including the approach-embankments

with their retaining walls and road-base filler.  But the

approaches have been awaiting their cement-pavement for

many weeks now.  So this long, expensive bridge mostly 

serves as a solar rice-dryer; here, rice is spread on mats on

the approach embankments, but I frequently see shade-

umbrellas and vehicles of people on the bridge-span, also

drying their rice-crops.

Vehicle dealerships often install visor- film with their company
advertising in the vehicles they sell, as in the vans and
light-trucks I often see from this company.  We played with
"TONKA" toy vehicles a lot when I was a kid,  but they had
no working horns.  Seems like this one must have! 

Updating last issue's chair- project:  I thought it was just
about finished.  But the "sample" chair I featured was just
nailed and glued together.  The final chairs were all "mortise
and tenon" jointed (12 carved tabs, carefully fitted to 12 carved
slots for each chair). Alex's meticulous workmanship on
(eventually) 8 chairs took  nearly another week to complete.
(Alex is Bernadette's younger brother.  We LOVE having
him around here to hire for all sorts of projects.)

 Meantime, a much quicker project was another
mahogany- framed dining table.

We had saved Jackfruit-wood slabs for three years, 
to make this table-top.  Aside from bearing the largest
edible fruit in the world, Jackfruit has very durable
hardwood, often used for tool-making here.  ("Edible" is
a subjective assessment; it is OK as a 'filler" in some
types of stir-fry and stewed-vegetable preparations).
(link: Wiki "Jackfruit" article)

A stylish "coffee table" made from a Gmelina wood slab about
a year ago, finally got sanded and varnished.  "JIM-molina" is
a widely propagated hardwood, which resembles birch or ash
when used for furniture and cabinets. (link to article in Wiki)

I help out with the large projects, and work on a steady
stream of smaller things, too. This scrap of wood is part of
a bracket to secure the tire-change wrench in the car; it
has been a nuisance rattling around loose.  Lately I've
gotten the emergency and load-tiedown items organized.
I'm currently working on quick- hanging cleats and easy-
hookup wiring for the P.A. system at church.

We needed a paint-sprayer for a couple small jobs.  This
assemblage of a pill bottle, a juice-pack straw, a couple
wood scraps, and my compressed air blow-nozzle works
fine!  The air from the nozzle siphons and atomizes paint
out of the bottle.  Idea courtesy several YouTube videos.

The same day we returned with our new refrigerator,  Malabor
Elementary School had a special occasion with parades and
other activities.  These are pretty frequent - this one seemed to 
feature flags and costumes of nearby Asian nations.  The whole
school had assembled for a recognition program (we always 
hear the P.A. system) and then each class paraded.  (LATER:
Bernadette tells me it was United Nations Day.)

"End of the parade" is often the ice cream vendor!  This

company's units are an everyday sight, here. 

The school's location at the end of our street brings foot-traffic

in  waves, beginning at 6:45 a.m. and ending sometime after

5 p.m.  We vend items which are low-input for us from time

to time.  The "hottest-selling" item right now is ice-pops, and

neither we nor the stores in town can keep enough cases to

stay ahead of the demand.  We could probably double our

turnover, if we could just get enough stock not to "sell-out." 

Well, that's not everything that's been happening here for the last few weeks.  And, there's more to come, it seems.  I'll be getting some "take along" food ready for an early Thanksgiving celebration in a few days.  Thanksgiving Day, one of Alex's daughters and 8 or 9 of her work-mates will arrive at Kalibo (about 3 hours' drive? I haven't been there!), and I am to go and pick them up for a few days holiday in this area.  And of course, there is Christmas Season to look forward to, coming on fast!

We're grateful for our blessings!  We chafe sometimes because EVERYTHING doesn't happen as we think it should (still not much success with growing garden crops and raising any livestock other than poultry - i.e. no fresh dairy products and no "favorite" varieties of fruit and veggies).  But we are able to pick and to do mostly as we choose each day, and are reasonably healthy and comfortable.  There are plenty of useful and worthwhile things which we can get involved with. 

We hope that each of you are doing well and enjoying the waning days of 2016. 

TJ and Bernadette Larson

Malabor, Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines