May got here all-of-a-sudden! Towards the end of April, we had TWO three-day trips, which were barely separated by one day at home. By the time things settled down a little, it was today, already. AND, things really aren't settled down all that much - -
May 1 is Labor Day in the Philippines. Typically, government offices and banking companies were closed but pretty much everything else was open. Most of the common-folks didn't seem to notice any particular holiday. I travelled about 2 hours away to Pandan, where I had a first-time music lesson (3+ hours worth) with quite a promising pupil who has already made a lot of progress by self-teaching. He will be coming here about once a week for several weeks, until school-year start interferes. As I got home around 4:30 p.m., that pretty much took care of "May Day" for me!
A little of "last month's stuff:"
#1: ONLY a coincidence, the Dimple Star company whose unit I featured last month is not operating as of about a week ago; its franchise (operating licence) was cancelled by our Philippine president because of poor safety record and lack of maintenance. I have OFTEN experienced "close calls" with Philippine buses on the highway, often because of risky passing. Earlier today I had to brake HARD and swerve halfway off the road, when an approaching bus came around a blind curve head-on , passing another vehicle. #2 I feel a little like a hillbilly, referring to "gittin our fust indoor plumbing" - - But we are relieved that the bathroom renovation is nearly finished, enough to be useful & presentable now. Even the "sink legs project" (see last month) has worked out OK. [Ironic that at the hotel where we stayed a few days ago, THEIR bathroom sink had pulled away from the wall about a 1-inch gap just as I feared this one would do, and amateurish and ugly, unsuccessful repair work had been attempted with adhesive fillers.] We still need to provide a reservoir at the top of the wall outside, before we will have a usable shower; local water pressure will not flow for a shower, so we will store 20 or 30 gallons in a plastic tank and gravity-feed it to the shower head, when needed. (Another "goofy little project.")
0 = 0 = 0
Perhaps the BIGGEST event of the month, for me, was getting "off the island" for the first time since November 2012. I provided a ride for 8 passengers going to a conference at Bacolod City in Negros Occidental Province. We embarked from Dumangas Port for about a 2-hour ferry ride* to Bacolod, on Thursday April 19. (Map is a long "scroll" below)
(*"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip - -")
(*"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip - -")
This is an identical "sister ship" to our vessel - I missed filming
OURS at departure so I got this as we approached the
dock at Bacolod. It is about 120 feet long, with a lower deck
for vehicles and upper (lounge?) for passengers.
The fairly large soft-seat area might hold around 160 passengers;
large-screen TVs at the front incessantly blared Philippine
soap-operas, which could easily explain the number of sleepers.
Lots of passengers preferred the benches on the outer deck-
walkway which surrounded the main "lounge."
The ship was not designed for "drive-thru" as the engine-room occupied the stern- area. All vehicles were backed aboard and driven off front-ward. I elected to leave the Suzuki at Dumangas port, as our venue in Bacolod was easy-access to local transportation there. The vehicle-fare would have been about 15x my walk-on fare, each way. Note in left photo one car has been maneuvered cross-wise in order to make enough space for all. Not shown are 15 or 20 motorcycles also on board.
Much larger ocean-liner like vessels (around 400-ft.?) service
longer-distance inter-island passengers and freight. I think
the distance from Bacolod to Manila might require about 2 days,
as distance from northern Panay (our island) is over 24 hours.
I really enjoyed the two ferry-trips. Here's a shot of the harbor
approach at Bacolod. I kind of hope there's another opportunity
for me to "go somewhere" again soon - - -
approach at Bacolod. I kind of hope there's another opportunity
for me to "go somewhere" again soon - - -
The church building where we met is quite an unusual structure for the Philippines, an octagonal "teepee" with natural light from a light-well cupola which has some sort of blue glazing. The inside is about 120 feet across, 30+ feet high, nicely finished with rock-work walls and floors. This shape seems to help create convection-breeze through the space. I had "seen" the structure on Google-Map satellite and street- views, but those didn't have near the visual impact of the actual site.
4 or 5 outer walls are largely decorative iron-grill with generous overhang-roof.
[Well, THIS photo was supposed to be small, offset to the right under
the light-well photo, with text wrapped around all photos, but 10 minutes of
trying to put it there failed. "Blogspot" site is contrary with formatting,
for me. The "preview" I just viewed is awkward looking.]
o = o = o
I got home late Saturday afternoon April 21, with enough time to putter around a little before supper. The usual activities occupied Sunday, but I got rested up a little before we rolled out again around 7 a.m. on Monday morning April 23. (These trips of about 120 miles require around 4 to 5 hours of quite-intensive driving.)
This trip was to attend our friends' renewal-of-vows "wedding" at Barotac Nuevo.
My photos didn't turn out too well, but here are a few.
Joanna didn't make it through that arch without some helpful adjustment.
(She had kind of a tussle with the bustle.)
No Philippine occasion is complete without "lechon," they always "go the whole hog."
o = o = o
This motorcycle parked outside our hotel has the "look" of
a Harley-Davidson, but it appears to be a factory
production Honda. I may look it up on-line and see
exactly what it is called. I imagine that the 2-cylinder
engine is not Harley-sized, and the bike is shaft driven.
(Brief search suggests is is some model of Honda Shadow)
The next motorcycle to the Honda was a BMW model that
I'm also not familiar with. Guess I'm pretty far behind-
the-times with motorcycles. Most motorcycles here are
Japanese original or other-country-spinoffs, and the engine
sizes usually range from 100cc to about 160cc, TINY
and meaning less than 10hp, even the larger ones.
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("Loose ends" photos from above subjects)
One reason for slow travel progress is that there are many
road- construction areas in progress since it is "dry season."
Traffic must be stopped long enough for the single- lane to
empty, then one direction of travellers is "flagged" through,
then "all stop and clear" again before the other direction.
I snapped this during such a stop, where we had been
delayed about 10 minutes, and still waiting for the end
of the opposite-direction traffic. Sometimes it's longer
- - - occasional shorter zones don't get as backed up.
Regular readers will have seen this area before. Our travel from Tibiao area, upper left,
to Dumangas shown in pink outline was about 120 miles. The water-distance to Bacolod is a little over 20 miles. Our second trip,was to Barotac Nuevo, just north of Dumangas.
We got home around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 25, having hit the road at 6 a.m. in a mostly-successful attempt to avoid construction congestion. We beat nearly all the traffic! However, seems like we were barely in the door when we got a request to look after grandson Timmie until Sunday - - SO we never really got settled, even until now, more than a week later.
He is pretty easy-care for his age, but STILL thrives on attention which means TIME; one of the reasons I never got a start on this blog until Wednesday of this week.
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On the return home I found that the expected cement water-tank
project at our church's conference center/ campground had
moved along from "zero" to the above point between Monday
and Wednesday of our trip.
The 8 x 8 x approx. 4-foot tank will have a cement cover and
hold about 1,800 gallons of water. The funding for beginning
the tank apparently arrived ONE week, and construction began
a few days later. The interior water-seal cement layer was
finished the first work session after this photo, and by now the
outer layer has probably been applied.
Typical for all such projects, the hand-mixed cement is carried
in these buckets, one-at-a-time, from a nearby mixing area
to the construction site.
(More detail of cement construction, this link, "Ready, Mix Cement.")
THIS year there are 5 youth-camps scheduled in a 5-week period. Week 2, the local water
supply had dwindled, as expected for the DRY SEASON. Purified drinking and cooking water can be supplied by 5-gallon jugs from local water vendors, but water for washing & flushing
needs a larger source.
As I write, the hand-pump well has been dry for the first time ever,
for about a week, and I don't know exactly how they're coping
with the situation. The tank may be finished in a few days, but
finding a source for the water - -is apt to be a challenge! We
welcome prayers from those of you who are so- inclined, that
the positive impact of the camp sessions on young lives will not
be impaired by the circumstances.
Well, this seems like a good stopping point. There have been some other things going on, and perhaps I will share elements of them in the next posting. I think that May may be a little calmer than April was, but who can tell?
We hope that your year of 2018 is passing agreeably, and that you have time to appreciate the wonder of the world surrounding you.
Have a great day!
TJ and Bernadette Larson
Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines
