The last two or three postings I always seem to have extra topics and photos which I don't get to put up; I try to keep this to a 5- or 10- minute "read" for my viewers, "mostly photos" being the genre, which puts the general size- limit at about 25 photos. (I sometimes struggle with the formatting on this site, trying to get away from the "all in one column" presentation, to make it more visually appealing if possible.) Maybe this time I'll catch up a little bit, but as usual there have been quite a few "happenings," both anticipated and by surprise.
The mango tree in our poultry yard has been producing copious
quantities (that's a lot) of fruit for quite a few weeks now. A while
back I was offered a thin slice of unripe mango, which turned out
to taste remarkably similar to green "Granny Smith" apple. The
test-result of an "apple pandowdy" cobbler was quite good, and
excess fluid from the preparation made a fine cinnamon/apple
syrup. My surprise: Mangos, especially unripe "green," and in
their skin and "pits," contain urushiol, the same substance as
Poison Ivy and Sumac. This stuff was never much bother
to me in the USA, where I could handle poison ivy OK with
reasonable caution. But here, unsuspecting,I took consider-
able exposure and dealt with some consequences for quite
a few weeks. NOTE: "Mango mouth" and other reactions
are known in the USA, too, especially from eating too much
Mango, especially from scooping too near the skin portion;
occasionally as serious as anaphylactic shock.
The "apple cobbler" was about the last stove-top baking I
did. We had done a lot of looking and comparing, and in
May we bought a stove to replace the 7- year old inefficient
unit we had. It amused me slightly to find a "La Germania"
brand stove, made in Italy, sold in the Philippines; but this
is a quite-prominent brand- name, here.
(I have no idea why the lines got double spaced above.
It doesn't show in the "edit" copy and I can't get rid of it!)
The size and general appearance (small) are not much
different from the old stove, but what a difference in quality!
The salesman was maybe both impressed and a little amused
at our laying stoves on their backs to inspect oven insulation
and heat-reflector construction. Bit I had learned quite a bit
about poor quality from ONE bad experience and I wasn't
"ON" for a repeat. This stove has much hotter, more efficient
burner-flames and the oven is actually a little difficult to keep
DOWN in the 300 F. to 400 F. range. Seems to use a lot less
fuel, too. 15 to 20 minutes to start the pressure cooker from
"cold" before, is now about 5 minutes and we now have to
adjust flame so it won't over-pressure (never a worry, before).
Larger stoves are not common in San Jose appliance stores;
and the "price gap" upwards is quite a jump. This little gem
is doing a nice job for us, and we are well- pleased.
Under the general heading of "counting blessings," I won't again take for granted the ability to bake biscuits (and more advanced projects) in an oven, or to quickly and thoroughly heat a large skillet.
Also not taken- for- granted: flour available in nice easy-to-
use-from heavy paper sacks. USA-type package flour is
at grocery stores in San Jose, but here it is just much easier
to get it as needed; re-vended from commercial packages
into thin plastic-film bags (doubled up), half-kilo or kilo wt.
The flour is fine, but just kind of a mess to get it sifted into
Tupperware (vintage!) and ready for use.
This guy shows up pretty regularly, via motorcycle. He can't
wait for his arms and legs to be able to reach the controls - -
Tibiao Fish Spa shows up any time you open Google Maps
to our area. It is a fairly well-known local business, with one
"branch location" in Iloilo (largest city on our island, pop.
450,000); we occasionally see tourist buses parked in front.
Their poster out in front describes the attraction: tiny fish
nibble the excess callouses and other "dead skin" from
patrons' feet dangling in their pools. Apparently the
sensation is beneficial and pleasurable; I may give it
a try, someday - - -
Families living in cities, who have no land ("squatters") are gradually being humanely moved to areas where they can have a sustainable future. Their vacated "unofficial villages" are often located in city-spaces which need re-development. I don't grasp all the policies and politics behind this, I only present to you a view of what is happening nearby here.
The Dalanas bridge is located about 3 miles from our place
at Malabor. The building project sits on a hill, here seen
from the bridge at a "crow- fly" distance of over a mile.
This photo also happens to capture a sense of the
hugeness of mountains which seem to brood in the
background- this usually eludes my camera.
at Malabor. The building project sits on a hill, here seen
from the bridge at a "crow- fly" distance of over a mile.
This photo also happens to capture a sense of the
hugeness of mountains which seem to brood in the
background- this usually eludes my camera.
The access road begins near the south end of the bridge,
and winds its way for over one mile past rice-fields and
established small neighborhoods.
and winds its way for over one mile past rice-fields and
established small neighborhoods.
I was going to omit the next 3 photos, but reviewing my "stack" I decided they have some visual impact in "establishing the surroundings" of the housing project:
The scale of the landscape and the "smallness" of the new
settlement shows in a view from 300- 400- yards (guess) away.
(See integrate note at end of the section, I just HOPE
that this doesn't end up being merely a "quilt-like patch"
of URBAN, scabbed into a rural setting - -)
(See integrate note at end of the section, I just HOPE
that this doesn't end up being merely a "quilt-like patch"
of URBAN, scabbed into a rural setting - -)
Houses of mixed cement-block and frame-with-plywood are
very common, surrounded by rice- fields.
Quite a few people still keep carabao ("water buffalo") and
use them for plowing and other heavy-draft work. These
several "pastoral scenes" set the contrast for the housing
just beyond them.
No government project is started without much signage;
Other signs were nearby, and all were unusual for here,
being in Tagalog language (I think) instead of English,
which is the usual official government language.
The steeply inclined approach road passed by this parked
cement- batch truck, a sure sign of a major project in this
hand-mixed cement country. Further on we passed the
mixing and loading area.
The hilltop has been heavily re-shaped with large machines,
and the end-wall of the most visible row- unit has this mural;
"Blessing of Change" is a fair translation of the text.
The many rows of housing seem to have about 8 or 10 units each;
There seem to be at least 300 or so housing units on the site- it
could in fact be more, as I didn't think at the time to make a count.
This unit is typical and seems to be either an "efficiency" or
perhaps 2- bedroom space. Not more than about 300 sq. feet.
Some units may be larger but none of them will be elaborate.
Just clean, decent living spaces for people to make a new start.
Large stockpiles of steel truss- frames and metal studs indicate
that this already large project will perhaps double in size at
completion. I notice a great increase in steel-construction in
the time I have been here - the available lumber in this country
is quite limited, and of course metal (if maintained) will last
many times longer.
This large-scale relocation project must by its nature become much more than merely providing housing. There will have to be economic development, vocational training, transportation and local providers for services and goods (stores), schools for the children, and many "connections" created to integrate a large new community into the established surrounding area. It will be interesting to see how all this comes to pass in the next few years. Looks like occupancy of the project may be many months still in the future.
Mitsubishi Fuso is a common commercial truck chassis
here. This one had the cement-drum (photo above a few
spaces) mounted on the back, a short Fuso chassis.
Hauling construction (excavation) explosives might require
a longer Fuso.
We went to ILOILO a couple weeks ago, to pick up some chairs donated to the camp/ conference center/ church and hopefully find a few "errand items" we haven't been able to get in our closer area. ILOILO is the largest city on our island (Panay Island showing "us" and ILOILO), and the approx. 100 miles typically takes 3.5 to 4 hours to drive, going around the lower-left corner of triangular Panay Island. Lots of things catch my interest on such trips.
There are still a handful of these OLD steel-box truss bridges
in use. These have not been built since the 1960s most likely.
Cement- girder bridges last longer and don't need constant
maintenance to prevent rust. THIS BRIDGE will soon be
retired; the abutment/ pier of the near side is visible to the
left, and the far one is also completed, about 120 feet away.
Usual government project sign identifies everything. The
"K0062+468" is the usual location designation used for
bridges on the roadways here, 62 KM + 468 meters from
the "Zero" distance-post at ILOILO provincial capitol.
40 Million Pesos is about $800,000 USD.
Another sign nearby mentions a congressman who must have
"moved" the project through its approval process. (Imagine!
a congressman taking credit - - ) Even non-English words
on signs are often pretty easy to figure out.
"Responsableng Gobyerno" - yeah, not too tough.
Small businesses' signs also cluster close to the bridge and
roadway, and add "color" to the scene.
These concrete "pre-stressed" girders have only fairly recently
been within reach of technology here. It is still pretty remarkable
to see such huge pieces laid out at a somewhat- remote site,
and I sure wish I'd been here for their arrival, and that I could
be there to see the crane-work installing them. Their weight
ranges pretty near a quarter-million pounds each, I think!
Older concrete bridges use girders formed and poured in-
place, which limited the length of each span so that this
bridge would probably need a third "pier" in the middle.
There's still a limit with THESE GIRDERS because of their
size - - hard to imagine how they got them there!
We always "price shop" our fuel. At 37.55 this station was
4 pesos cheaper than ANY competitors, many of whose
prices hovered from 43- to 45- pesos. OUR AREA at
Tibiao was above 50 pesos at this time. The prices,
converted to dollars-per-gallon, are $2.92 here and about
$3.89 per gallon at Tibiao. Nearly $1.00 per gallon makes
quite a difference on a fill-up!
quite a difference on a fill-up!
This Ford "Expedition"-sized vehicle was displayed at a
shopping center. Assembled in the Philippines it is a fully
"loaded" car with every imaginable option.
The BIG difference is revealed on its side-plate; a tiny-little-
engine (by USA standards), about what would go into a
Ford "Fusion" or maybe "Taurus" except that is is diesel
powered. Diesel is in everything here except the very
smallest passenger cars and motorcycles. This super
plush car would have a hard time keeping up with USA
traffic, I think.
(Later, I looked up the Taurus and other current Ford
vehicles on-line, and Taurus generally has 3+ liter gasoline
engines, compared to this 2.2 liter diesel in a much
larger and heavier car.)
plush car would have a hard time keeping up with USA
traffic, I think.
(Later, I looked up the Taurus and other current Ford
vehicles on-line, and Taurus generally has 3+ liter gasoline
engines, compared to this 2.2 liter diesel in a much
larger and heavier car.)
Well I thought this was a wonderful slogan to put on a
motorcycle helmet!
Seems like I may need to bring this posting to an abrupt end. I was working on it Monday and Tuesday of this week, and Wednesday and Thursday kind of got away from me without my making any more progress. Now Friday morning, we have a crazy-quilt of little projects going on with "general maintenance," plus we're expecting overnight guests in a couple days and trying to do advance prep- work for special meals around the 4th of July (everything is "from scratch" here - - so my hoped- for green bean casserole will require making the cream-soup base, and slicing/breading/frying crispy-onions, etc, before I can put it together - -).
A few postings back-in-time from this one, I was trying to show the panoramic ocean-
view from one prominent house 25 or 30 miles south of here. In doing so, I omitted this
particular photo which I like because of its composition/ patterns/ shapes. Showing the
"panorama" worked fine at the time, but now here's this one, for no particular topical
reason, as a "freebie." Hope you like it.
So, hoping that you all have a fine weekend, and a joyous Independence Day celebration.
TJ and Bernadette Larson,
Antique Province, Philippines
