Sometimes I can get "stuff"

(Begun and completed from mid morning to 5:30 p.m. May 27, 2017)
(Wow! I didn't realize until I looked at the "list" on-line after completion - - this is posting #50)

I'm never quite sure when I begin a posting whether I should FIRST  pick up where I left off before, or jump forward to the most recent week or so, or maybe go back and pick up some previous "loose ends."

Seems like I had griped a little bit about how hard it is to get materials here at times, and other complications to progress.  THIS IS USUALLY SO - and there isn't ANY possible way, nor enough space here, to get to all the nitty- gritty details of just how confusing it can be to get anything DONE.  BUT, occasionally I catch a "break" - - -

NOT SHOWN last posting, I had to leave the electric wire for

the washing machine like this for several weeks, as I didn't

have any way to neatly install it on the cement wall surface.

I thought I would eventually have to make cap-molding out of 

wood, or modify plastic water-pipe - neither a satisfactory

solution to getting the wiring job decently finished.   But - -

 on my next trip to San Jose, at the first place I looked, this 

nice factory-made surface-wiring conduit was in- stock and

CHEAP! The "c- shaped" channel on the right is attached to

the wall, the wire is quickly slipped inside it, and the "cap

piece" on the left just snaps into place.  Pretty easy!

 From "before" to "after" might have been about an hour's

job, and in fact it only took about 3 hours, the morning after

I got "the right stuff."

AND sometimes things can be made without too much hassle,

too.  The item on the left is a stirring paddle to be used with

an electric drill for drywall "mud."  I brought it here with quite

a few of my other tools.  We use it for stirring paint in 5 gallon

buckets a LOT. ('way too much paint and re-painting is needed

for this place, I think, but that's yet another story.)  Since we

often must mix our own colors, and we are now using catalyst-

hardener type paints, electric stirring is a BIG help.  But we

needed a "stir" to fit in one-gallon and one- quart cans; so

one fine morning Doc-Doc, who is a "real whiz" with stainless

steel wire (from making fishermen's stuff) simply made us

the pretty little stir on the right.  It sure has been handy!

I kind of think I'd better jump forward to the last week or so of events, then go back and fill in as much as I can of other things which haven't gotten posted the last couple times.

The annual youth-camp for about 15 combined churches was Tuesday thru Friday of this week.  Our church meeting place is a conference center/ campground, so WE are the usual hosts - - as usual, lots of things needed to happen for a few days before the event.

 The original "He" and "She" facilities are only ONE fixture each;

last year we managed to extend slab-floor with two fixtures at

each end of the restroom, but the fixtures had to be quickly

screened with bamboo- and- canvas walls.  In the months 

since last season, concrete- block walls had been mostly

completed, but no doors had been available.  Addition at

the opposite end - to the right - is pretty similar to above.
(Literal  "take" on an old saying, "Built like a brick outhouse.")

 With a few working days before "Opening Day" the rough-

cut frame pieces for the new doors are smoothed and

straightened as needed.

 Each completed door-panel frame is covered with fairly thick-

gauge galvanized metal "skin."  "Petite" would describe
this particular door- width, and each door is uniquely
custom- proportioned.  

The metal is a "real bugger" to work, with only wood blocks

and hammers to bend and crease it around the door frames.

Photographer "lends a hand foot" with about 82 kilos of

weight attached, to help keep everything from sliding around

while the benders are bending.

Eventually each door is covered, with fairly nice "hospital

corner" folds tacked into the metal skin.   In this rather

hostile salt/ humid air + termite- ridden environment, 

such doors may actually last 10 or more years.  We hope!

 Completed door installation.  4 working days produced 4

working doors, plus some refinements in plumbing and

some temporary lighting for night-time.  Cement ROOF,

and wall-finish, may hopefully be done in the next

several months.  "In The Stars, His Handiwork I See,"
is a chorus/ song title which may have been thought of
by night-time facility users this year; they could see 'em
pretty clearly I imagine.

Some plastic tarp panels were used to extend the open-air

meeting hall.  "Creative use" of bench plus ladder was

managed with no harm - - - (!)

High-tech banner printing is readily available here, and the

camp banner shows evidence of a real "graphic artist."

 This sign in the food-service area seemed confusing.  As only

enough tables are available for the "buffet spread" I suppose 

its purpose was to encourage diners to disperse to different
spaces and allow others to pass thru the line.

 The camp kitchen is still about the same, wood-fired cooking 

area center-left, but some lighting was added this year.

 First day, first meeting, the campers were sorted into randomly-

selected teams (a "mixer/ ice-breaker") which then competed in

various ways during the seminars and other camp activities.

A good "plan" for developing cooperation, organization and

other skills "on the fly" for 3 days. 

The registration of about 88 plus staff turned out to be

the "just right" number for the available seating and space;

Tents augmented the dormitories, and they were able

to move under the "meeting hall extension" tarps after

the first day.  They also may have illustrated the "Exodus-

Journey" theme of the week.

It seems like there are a lot of miscellaneous photos on my list.  Here are a few:

Some of the young people here have a high degree of work
ethic and responsibility.  This fella was coming to us from out
in the hills, buying quantities of ice-sacks for his family's
business there.  In a small, "ice"olated community possibly this
was the only source of ice available.  Some circumstance
must have ended the business at least temporarily, as we
haven't seen him for a few weeks.
 

 The diversity of "world goods" is surprising, here:  I would
never have imagined buying Egyptian-made disposable
razors at our local municipal market.  My shaver broke a
while back, and various aspects of THAT story would take
several photo frames to cover.  Another time, maybe.
  

I pretty routinely use the electric drill (held in a vise) + a large

screw, to "lathe turn" wooden knobs and handles.  I have

intentions of building an actual lathe-table for the drill, but

so far I haven't gotten it done.  When a trowel handle broke 

recently, the drill-in-the-vise worked well enough to turn out

a replacement from better quality wood; and as you see,
my technique has improved from 3 or so years ago.

 Mechanic at work.

We see lots of nice sunsets.

For several evenings, the atmosphere created a hazy yellow-

orange glow which seemed to infuse everything around sunset.

This photo, if it shows up OK, attempts to show the mist and

mountains looking south from Malabor beach.

The same "old photograph sepia" light was in this and some
other photos I made of volleyball- in- progress.  Several nets
appeared nearby at about the time of the "national Olympic
games"  which I began mentioning in the last posting.  For
a couple weeks there were quite a lot of "pickup games" 
around here in the late afternoons, sometimes with quite
a few players on each side of the net. This game looks
more like 2-or-3 on each side. 'Fraid this is the closest
I got to the national competition.  I have a few photos of
elaborate banners, flags, and other preparations which
I may try to share later.

Ham is not readily available here (unless you "count" the chopped
spam- like stuff in small tin cans).  But decent- grade pork roast
can be salt-brine soaked for 2 days, then brown-sugar or 
molasses- marinaded, and slow-cooked with some clove and
smoke-flavoring to make a fair substitute.  Slice it  thinner and
you get something like "Canadian bacon."  I use a  zip-lock
bag, with minimum amount of brine and marinades, and
just keep it in the refrigerator until I get ready for each stage
in the process.


This coconut cream pie was just about my last stove-top "Dutch
oven" bake.  First time I had tried to toast raw sweet coconut,
which is quite different from the tougher "mature coconut" sold
in the USA.  The pie has graham cracker crust, as stove-top
cooking could not make a proper flake-crust. 

Wonderful looking shells on display at a friend's house.  These
are the size of an American football.  

These "little kids" with their mama are often out in our street
around sundown.  The concrete blocks behind them hint at their
tiny size - - -

but my "Sasquatch- pod" shows more closely that they are
indeed scarcely a "foot" long (= 30 cm.) 

Well, here is a short story of a "little guy" struggling to make a tough living.

 We saw this modest-size box truck which had run off the road,
one morning when we were en route to San Jose.  No time to
stop right then, but we stopped on our return trip a few hours
later.  The owner- driver told us he had been sleepy at 5 a.m.
when he ended up in the wrong- side ditch.

 No tow- trucks anywhere around here.  Probably no other large
vehicle to help pull him out, either.  They have a lot of hand-work
with jacks and wooden blocking to do, before they might be 
able to hand push or maybe drive him out of there.  One good
thing, he is empty on a "return" trip, less 4 or 5 tons.

Hard to tell what they might have to do to get enough of
a "bridge" under the steering tire to swing it out of that
ditch.  They need to get the right-rear tires in contact
with the ground, too, and maybe then will be able to 
drive out.  THE CARGO?  Ice!  Hauling it about 5 
hours' driving from near San Jose to far-north Kalibo.
(map link).  "Running his tail off" for several weeks.
I can't begin to speculate WHY a city of 80,000 would
import ice 5 long hours from a smaller city, and NOT
from much nearer, larger Roxas City.  Kalibo ice
plant broke down?  Lack of water, or of electricity?
How could some poor guy, with a well-worn small
cargo truck, hope to make a profit like that?  (And,

 how would San Jose ice plant have enough surplus
ice to sell him, beyond the local needs?  And many
other questions.)

Well, it is that time of year again here.  This sign was posted

at the highway- end of our school road a couple weeks ago.

No mail-outs of leaflets, here; THIS is the mass-comm's method.

In a little over a week we will have the scuffing of hundreds

of little feet to punctuate our days, at intervals, from about

6:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.  (We are midway between the National

Highway and the elementary school, which is at a "dead end.")

School year here is generally from June until the following March.

Well I was kind of trying to get all the backlog of photos in here, this time.  But I still have a way to go, so perhaps I will try to get out one "extra posting" a little sooner than usual if things will just settle down here.  I'm pretty sure this one is over 30 pix by now.

We hope you are finding 2017 mostly "to your liking" and enjoying the right balance of accomplishment and leisure!

TJ and Bernadette Larson

Antique Province, Philippines

Unhinged! Plus Random Daily Events

(Begun on Apr. 28, 2017) (Published Monday morning May 1, 2017 GMT+8)

It seems like this has been an unusually busy month.  We have had quite a few "little projects" come up, plus several road-trips.  I made kind of a list of photos by topics - looks like I have enough for more than one usual-length posting.

I didn't exactly "leave things hanging" when I posted the previous

blog.  The gate was installed with hinge-screws driven into wooden

pegs epoxy-glued into the cement post (fairly common method here),

and the pegs deteriorated to the point where the gate was unhinged

(like its owner?), just exactly when there was a lot of other stuff going

on all at once.  We chained it upright- in- place for a few days until I

could get around to doing the repairs. 

The most effective way to fix the gate seemed to be to cut out

"pockets" and epoxy-glue blocks of hardwood into place, to hold

the replacement screws.  In a few years those blocks will also

deteriorate, but they will be pretty easy to chisel out and replace.

Son-in-law Joseph gets credit for a lot of the grunt-work, above.

BUT, "Nothing ever happens easy!"  When the gate was re-

hung, it wouldn't swing fully closed at the latch-post side.

Another day-or-so of tinkering around produced some

wedge- shaped blocks which allow the gate to close with-

out "binding" on the hinges.  Everything will get a nice coat

or two of neutral-colored paint - - soon, we hope!

I get to "just ride along" much more on our recent trips than I did for quite a while after we bought the vehicle.  (It's nice having a "hired in-law" who is a good driver.)  Sometimes I just enjoy trying to record how rapidly the scenery changes:

From wide-open rice fields bordered by palm- trees,

to the slightly- worn fringes of small towns,

 past their bustling Municipal Markets

and onward into carefully-tended residence areas, 

including the occasional mansion with manicured enclave,

and out onto a "long-bridge" crossing with dry-season flood-

plains and inland mountains brooding in the background.

All of the above series of photos were taken in a few-minute span, along with quite a few others that I just don't have space to include.  The Sulu Sea is never further than a few bends in the road, with its "California Pacific Coast Highway #1" vistas.  (You're always welcome to come and see it all for yourself!  We can "put you up" if you can "put up with us.")   (NOT a paid TOURISM advert.)

The last two or three months, I have been managing to make

tortillas much more frequently than before,  perhaps more

"batches" of 6 to 8 tortillas since Thanksgiving than I had

made in the previous 4 years added up.  I'm getting pretty

efficient, and the results are fairly uniform now, with

either corn or flour tortillas.

One technical hurdle is that the little gas-stove doesn't make

a large enough flame to get the 10- inch iron skillet completely

HOT.  I've been learning to get the whole pan as hot as I can, 

and then let one "hotter spot" develop with the flame directly

under it, and rotate the tortilla over that spot until it gets done.

What should take about 45 seconds, takes 3 to 4 minutes.

Multiply that times 6 or 8 pieces, and I get impatient!  A hot,

fast wood- fire in the outdoor kitchen would make easier

cooking for these - but building the fire is kind of a hassle.

The stove's oven has also gotten pretty "weak" the last few

months, and efforts to "clean and adjust everything" have

not caused much improvement.  We're blessed to be able

to plan for a replacement stove, and have been "shopping"

and looking to avoid the design flaws we learned about 

"the hard way" with this one.  Meantime I've gotten some

practical experience cooking casseroles, pies, etc. on

the stove-top, using a cast-iron "Dutch oven."  Featured

here,  my "Mexican Lasagna" which is enchilada

ingredients placed in layers instead of rolled-up.  

I would feel quite safe in "guessing" that over 90%  of all laundry done in the Philippines is done BY HAND.  I am only recently beginning to notice a few washing machines in use around our area.  Bernadette saw no need to have a washing machine for about 4 years after we arrived here, but recently she has relented because of the sheer amount of work that EVERYTHING here requires.  

The amount of laundry hanging here would take more than
one hour to complete by hand, and likely nearer to two
hours with rinsing and wringing.  (My intention of placing some
permanent hanging lines LOWER to reach and better
organized, is not yet realized.) 

This is a typical two-tub washing machine.  Its washing and

spin-dry functions are separate, to make it much less costly

than a combined-function machine.  Nothing is  automated:

turn on the faucet and watch to see how much water goes in.

Set the timer and choose "heavy" or "gentle" action with

separate knobs.  Drain and re-fill if you want to machine-

rinse. (Many people hand-rinse, while saving the soap-

water for other loads of darker or heavier fabric.) Transfer

clothing to the spinner-tub if you want it spun partially-

dry before hanging.  Some machines here have no

spinner- tub; it is always warm enough here for things

to dry without much wringing, if necessary.

Nothing is ever easy or simple.  The new washer needed a separate reservoir- tank in order to be assured of enough clean "mountain run-off"  water when it is to be used.  This required a separate plumbing and pumping system.  We were quite pleased that our recycled "food products" drum turned out to have had vinegar in it previously;  exceptionally clean, no chance of micro-organisms, and much easier to rinse out than, say, cooking oil would be.    The last "small project" needed was a cement "pad" so the washer will stay level in operation.

The water hose needs no

kinks or restrictions, as it is gravity-fed from the storage tank.  After trying out one "false design idea," I made a springy- clamp by cutting a spiral swath from a 3- inch long piece of plastic pipe, which nicely grips the hose

and holds it in an arched position.  It has taken a few weeks of the "problem solving method" to get everything working well, but we are pleased to have it all together now.   

(WARNING, "philosophical ramble" follows.)

I've tried to figure out the reason that I put extra details into telling about projects and events.  I'm mostly trying to convey the interplay of "differentness" and "sameness" that I still feel here, at the 4.5 year mark.  For example, my projects that I did in Kentucky and California would usually hit a certain number of snags; only, here, the snags seem to be so much different from the ones in the USA, seemingly crazy little "lack of this" or "nobody ever heard of that" things that I'd never expect to run into "back home."  It's not really BAD, usually, it's just - - -weird.  Like, who would imagine ever having to "engineer" hooking up a fill- hose on a washing machine? OR, in a settled, municipal area, having to design and build the "reservoir" system to provide wash- water?   OR needing a number of WEEKS to try to find a good-quality cooking stove?  It just STILL feels kind of odd that nearly everything here goes like THAT.   But more-and-more, I'm seeing it all as a challenge, a kind of a GAME of which I'm beginning to learn the strategy.  What's good about it, I guess, is that I naturally fall into the "planner- schemer- engineer- tinkerer" category of person - and all of the little pesky obstacles sure do help to keep my imagination sharp.

The "biggest" event this last few weeks was several days "away" at a church association meeting which had been in planning stages for many months.  With some substantial donations 200+ representatives were able to meet at a large resort for the 4 days before Easter Sunday.  In addition to the usual cooperative "business" of all the churches, there were workshops on a variety of topics useful and interesting (leadership, health and wellness, lifestyle/cultural awareness, and more).  This happened, of course, as the washing machine project was only partially completed (smiley face here) and had to be put "on hold."

 The group I took to the meeting was all teenagers, except for
the pastor and me.  I'd expected to have eleven youngsters 
(that many, I've hauled on other occasions) but ended up 
with "only" nine.  Six other people from our church, plus others
from nearby churches, combined to make a load of 23 in
a 19- passenger "service van" -  a bonanza for the van-owner
as this was a little bit "off season" since the colleges are out.

The imposing and prominent entrance to the resort.   As it 
is closer to our area than Iloilo, our drive- time was nearly
an hour less than what I have become used to.  "Racso"
is the owner's name spelled backwards.
(This link shows the "map" between Culasi, upper left,
and the resort on the south- coast of Panay Island.)

 

 As there is a private zoo (locally famous) on the resort grounds
there were about 20 "animal portrait" panels on the outside
of the wall; foliage and shadow made a little challenge to get
a "good" picture.

The sketch-map shows quite an extensive compound, with
swimming pools, animal enclosures for birds, snakes,
cave-dwellers, aquatics and more.  Guest rooms are mostly
situated in the "main building" around the swimming area.
  The central "driveway" is covered for nearly 50 yards
by a large vine- arbor.  

Only early-morning sunlight could reach the walls of the
registration and conference- center building.  Our comfortable
room was upstairs just to the right of the curved balcony area.

Aviary occupant. 

 Some of the guests achieved success several times in their
"human pyramid" attempts in the swimming pool.

 One highlight of the week was the presentation of a Jewish
Passover Seder meal to the entire group.  The empty chair
is not for Elijah - - I got up to take the photo.  (This is the
Passover Meal that Jesus and his disciples celebrated the
night before His crucifixion.)

On our return trip Saturday, we noted that the Provincial

Boundary sign had added above it a VERY LARGE banner

announcing "Palarong Pambansa 2017" which is essentially

a Philippines National Olympic Games.  Quite a "plum" 

for our "backwater province" to be the selected venue for

something more than 30,000 guests and contestants in

venues scattered for about 80 km. among various

municipalities.   Flags and banners are everywhere! 

We've heard some stories this last week of the strained- infrastructure brought on by the huge influx of people for "the games."  Electricity, water supply, lodging, stocks of normal retail goods, AND transportation in and out of the province have all been stretched thin; As this happened the week- after- Easter, many Filipinos who  traveled out of Antique Province on Easter visits have been unable to return home because all passenger carriers are fully booked; one of Bernadette's cousins is still "stuck" in Manila, and we hear that tickets may not be available until May 5.

I will try to post a few of the venues' preparations and decorations in the next BLOG.  It seems like this one is also a little bit "long" again, as has gotten to be my habit lately.  We avoided the venues while the games were in progress;  I don't enjoy the lengthy traffic-jams and other inconveniences which come with such excursions, and watching a little on TV was enough participation for me!  

(I note on my "scratch list" of topics and photo-numbers, that there are STILL several subjects I haven't found space to include here.  Maybe next time - - )

Meanwhile, we wish "you and yours" all the best as 2017 rolls along. 

Tim and Bernadette Larson
Antique Province, Philippines