Things Just Keep Going Along

It seemed like a humdrum day as we headed towards San Jose recently.  We do "routine errands" there about once a month, and I was feeling a little bored with everything.  Since Joseph was driving that morning, I decided to try to get a few scenic photos as we rode along.

 We are really privileged to live in a pretty area.  It's not

unusual to see trees completely over-arching a peaceful

stretch of the main highway.

 This area reminds me of the rural roads in northern California.

Very LARGE Acacia trees are pretty common.

This tree house sits about 8 feet off the ground, atop an

Acacia trunk which seems 6 feet across at that height.  Likely

the rest of the tree was destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda

in November of 2013.

Frequent vistas of the ocean are restful to the eye.

I enjoy watching the progress of various projects as I travel along the same road every few weeks.  One quite large project for a number of months has been a church building at Laua-an, about 15 miles south of our place at Tibiao.

THIS is the former building, perhaps over 3 years ago.  The

figure of Jesus (?) standing on the world-globe had caught

my eye several times, and apparently the van or bus we were

in (before we had a vehicle here) stopped long enough for me

to get this photo (slightly blurry).  The building was apparently
damaged by the typhoon, and for a while the figure was gone.

6 months ago, the site had been cleared and this huge

steel-framed structure was begun.  Steel is very expensive

here, so it is unusual to see this; even large structures are

usually formed-in-place concrete posts and beams.

Months later, the structure seemed fairly complete with
conventional concrete block work - -

when (it seemed, suddenly) many truckloads of reddish

clay bricks began arriving.  I have seen no other red-brick

building anywhere nearby; the bricks would have to be

imported from somewhere, at great cost.  

The Jesus- figure was placed in a niche near the

top of the front wall.

The nearly completed structure is about 100 feet long and

50 feet tall, completely faced with clay brick.  Even the fence

has giant-sized red brick facing over its concrete blocks.

A few days ago, my niece Angela who teaches on Semirara

Island (100 miles northwest of here) mentioned that the

owner of the large mining corporation there is friends

with the priest of this parish in Laua-an.  The "word" on

Semirara was that he had been sending materials to

construct this church, and she was quite interested to

see the photos. For me, a small mystery solved.  (The

school year is done, here, so Angela is "home" for a while.)

Well, the church- building project was kind of a side track.  But  watching any sort of "process" has always been interesting to me.  This was a notable and very large project for our area.  My "fair guess" is that the building in the USA might exceed $5 Million.

I got to go to Malumpati Resort last Saturday.  It is where a
cold-water spring comes out of the mountain, and it was first
"developed" with a dam built in the 1940s as a Japanese military
officers' R and R location.  The resort is about 35 miles north
of Tibiao, near Pandan.  (Map-link, shows the resort location)

I had visited this place in 2001, when there were only a few
modest buildings and lots of grass lawn, around the dam. Now,
there are many covered tables for rent by the day, and several
large overnight lodging houses on the site.  I'm an occasional
swimmer - just good enough to swim back to the edge after
jumping off the high-dive, which I did a few times that day.

This photo looks from the center of the pedestrian bridge seen

in the first photo; the diving board is at the right side, and the

dam seems about 100 yards away, just where the water

and trees appear to merge in the photo.  At 8:30 a.m., there

weren't many swimmers.  An hour later and throughout

the day, the water was qute full of people.  COLD water

temperature and lots of shade made this a beautiful and

refreshing place to spend a day.

But for me, life here is pretty much about my OWN projects.  We have had the right coincidence of funding and manpower to get some quality-of-life things taken care of in the last month or so.

For 3- 1/2 years the location of THIS bamboo pole had been

a real nuisance to me.  As part of the roof over our "dirty

kitchen" (that is what an outdoor cooking area such as a

patio is called, here) we couldn't move it, until we could

get around to renovating that outdoor kitchen.  So a dozen

or more times per day I was twisting and ducking to avoid

banging into it as I walked around the corner of the house.

Meanwhile the bamboo structure of the outside kitchen was

gradually deteriorating.  It was built for temporary use 8 or 9

years ago. We were just too busy with other projects to do

anything about it until recently.  Despite its rustic appearance,

we have kept it in constant use, as this keeps cooking heat

out of the house and is also more cost efficient.  So  the

replacement "PATIO" must be built while leaving this in use.

This shows the location of the "old kitchen," at the back

corner of the house.  Putting a larger roof over this area

also gave us the opportunity to extend forward along the

entire west wall of the blue house (also providing a car-

port).  For years, we had wanted to screen the afternoon

sun from that cement wall - - finally, our chance!

Details of steel-rebar fabrication, and forming and pouring the

cement posts, are in several older blog-postings.  This photo

shows the location of the new line of posts, about 16- feet from

the house wall, plus the beginnings of the steel roof frame.

 An innovation for us with this project: all-steel roof structure.
Wood is getting scarce and expensive here.  It was even cost-
effective for us to buy a small welding-machine, which has
proven to be a reliable and much more capable unit than
I thought it would be.

ANYONE can buy materials and weld trusses, here.  No
inspections/ regulations.  Here is a detail of one of our made-
on-site trusses, attached to its base with an anchored loop
of heavy re-bar.  Our water-reservoir tower  happened to line
up with the new roof-project, so that we were saved pouring
some posts by tying- into the tower structure.

This shows completion of the front part of the project.  The 

back area of the roof extended above the old "dirty kitchen,"

which was left intact during this phase of construction.

Meanwhile, a last remnant of the "OLD dirty kitchen" is still
in use while the new counter top is poured.

This shows near-completion; a nice 14 x 14 space with a heavy-

quality 2-basin stainless steel sink which Bernadette brought

from Hong Kong years ago.  The inverted wash-basin plus

cement-block weight, at center, likely is "cat-proofing" some

fresh fish which are waiting to be cleaned and prepared.  I

have plans to put an outdoor oven at the left end of the sink

area, as soon as I can.

One recent morning, the "catch of the day" included this

swordfish.  These have nice, juicy white meat.  He was

"right on" 4- feet long.

But he didn't last, long.  I kidded sis- in- law Gina about her

artistic ability after she had "shortened" him.  Seemed to me 

that her "interpretation" of the fish was Picasso-like.  (He

didn't last "short," either.  He was lunch!)

Once I "get rolling" with a blog-posting, it seems like there's always more to add.  I have left out photos of  several things, which perhaps I'll manage to work into the next posting.  

I am learning to adapt to this place - -  but beginning to realize that it will probably NEVER be "I have learned."  Maybe a bit like patience; you never learn it, you are always learning it.

That "little rant," because there are at least 4 or 5 things at this moment which are "stalled" for lack of materials or whatever.  MAYBE I'm learning where the "line" is, between realizing that things often aren't as URGENT as I think they are at first, AND just "folding up" an intended project for lack of enough continuing motivation.   

"One day at a time" seems to be a good answer.  I'm blessed with plenty of time to "call my own" now and I hope that from the perspective of some future point, I will turn out to have made fairly good use of it.

We hope that you are all enjoying the Spring season there.  Take time to "smell the roses!"

Have a great day!

TJ and Bernadette Larson

LATER note:  There always seem to be odd little things that happen in the published posting, and they WILL NOT go away.   Double-spacing of text after the last "church photo," and shifting from black text to blue text- color intermittently seems to about sum up the funny stuff this time.  Guess it doesn't hurt anything.

A Different Kind of Place

The area of the Philippines where we live has many physical and cultural aspects which I still unconsciously expect to be similar to the USA.  So I get surprised pretty regularly with the way that things happen here.  Maybe a short story will help to illustrate how different the lifestyle is, here.

Son-in-law Joseph had graduated from college with Education major, and had spent a number of weeks taking the "teaching review"  which is an everything-you-ever-learned cram-course designed to help each candidate pass the Teaching License Examination. Joseph and six of his buddies needed to go to Iloilo and apply for positions to take the test. Among seven mid-20s college graduates, Joseph was the only one who could drive enough to make the trip, in a mid-size Mitsubishi which one of the families supplied. Joseph's driving experience at that time was making a few 50-mile to-or-from San Jose "driver training" trips with me in the Suzuki, a much smaller vehicle than that Mitsu.  

The situation was a little hard for me to imagine - - in the USA every one of those guys would very likely have been a driver.  (EVERY ONE of them probably has a motorcycle, though).   If I were going to make a guess, 80 to 90% of American adults drive;  HERE, my guess would be less than 10%, and possibly less than 5%.  Driving is just NOT a needed skill, here, for most people.  Unless I have parcels inside, I don't worry at all if I leave the car unlocked with the keys in it, on quick errands in and out of local places.  My key-set has only 2 keys on it here, and it slides so far down in my pants-pocket that it can be a real hassle to get out.

ONLY IN THE LAST YEAR-OR-SO, the Philippines has expanded

its education system to include 12 grades.  Until recently the High

School graduation was after 10th grade.  Students who did not do

well in Grade School would not be provided any schooling after

Grade 6.  I think that the adjustment to a 12-year scheme is so

that the schooling here will be aligned with international standards.

In 2 previous blogs I've shown the progress on the new class

room building at the elementary school.  This is just before

completion.  All the work was "by hand" labor-intensive, and

the building is quite impressive considering the methods.

One thing which IS pretty much the same here is that there

is always a "Government Project" sign on any such con-

struction.  Seems like the cost of the sign might begin to

provide some furnishings, instead - -(!) - - but the visible

reminder of "YOUR taxes benefiting YOUR COMMUNITY"

seems to trump any stingy economizing.

ODD FRUITS division entry;   "star apples" are about tennis-

ball size, and the interior is custard-like texture.  The flavor

IS sort of apple-ish. 

Our pork-chops are nearly always "chopped to order" while

we wait.  Seems like there's no concern about the use

of a tree-trunk segment for a chopping block.

The matches don't "match"  USA matches.

 "Safety matches" here seem to be much safer than the ones

in the USA.  My "ignition success rate" is about ONE out of 

THREE attempts.  Lack of enough striking chemical, or too-

flimsy match-sticks, seem to be the main causes of failure.

During March "Fire Safety Month" the safest thing to do here

would be to give each 3- through- 8-year-old child several

boxes of them to play with.  Frustration at their not working

would keep the kids from ever bothering with them again.

 "Here's lookin' at you" was Humphrey Bogart's usual toast

before drinking, in the movie Casablanca.  In our place,  it's

not too unusual for the FOOD to seem to be looking at you!

 We get quite a variety of eggs from our varied poultry flock.

The white egg in front is about medium-sized hen egg; the

brown eggs are also chickens;  The blue-green eggs are

ducks', and the large white egg in back is goose.  Since

this photo, we are letting the goose keep her eggs in hopes

that she will sit on them and hatch us a new brood.

 

We have several papaya trees, and they often seem to have no

sense of direction.  So, we prop them up as best we can, and

 they seem to do fine.  This one has produced quite a few fruit

despite its precarious-looking slant.

Humidity here causes Onion  and Garlic powders (and similar

other ingredients) to turn into a solid mass fairly quickly.  Onion

powder hardens like cement; Garlic powder is more like extra-

hard bouillon cube.  If I were smarter, sooner, I would transfer

the contents to a more accessible container, instead of waiting

until I have to chip and dig them out with an ice pick.

Happy  Holidays!

It is pretty common here  for the teenagers to take 6 or 8 sardine cans or similar, and tape them together with duct tape, to create a cannon-barrel.  Sometimes bamboo-slat splints are added to reinforce the device.  This one was made right around New Year's Day.

Half a cap- full  of rubbing alcohol or other fuel goes into the 

open front end of the tube, and it is swung and shaken for a minute or two, then a cigarette lighter is flamed into the small hole at the back end of the barrel.  The resulting BANG! sounds pretty similar to a 12-gauge  shotgun.    

One aspect of living in the Philippines is a relative lack of laws and regulations; each person has responsibility for his own choices. 

Familiar looking logos and slogans are everywhere here.  A
lot of the clothing here, other than new-retail clothing, is from

recycled "rag bales" which come here in shipping containers. It isn't much of a surprise to see the "I-heart-NY" shirts around here - - - - -  

But I seem to see "HOLLISTER, CALIFORNIA" shirts all 

over the place here.  It isn't THAT big a place!  Maybe the

source of the recycled clothing is somewhere in the Bay

Area of California?

Other very frequent logos are of tourist destinations and cartoon characters, and common- use popular products from the USA (e.g. Grand Canyon,  Monster Energy, Spider Man).    

Nearly all signage in the Philippines is in English, except for slogans and advertisements.  So, this sign, which appears on the back of every commercial vehicle, has been an exception.   Its intent is pretty obvious: it is a complaint-hotline advisory.

 Just in the last month and ONLY on the very latest-model Ceres Liner Buses,  I've finally been seeing it in English.

On a recent trip to Iloilo, the fuel prices were the lowest I have
ever seen them here, especially for diesel.  Converted to US
measures and currency, this is about $1.79 for diesel, and
$3.01 for mid-grade unleaded 10% alcohol gasoline.  A year
ago the gasoline was above $5.00;  $5.29 is my memory.

Processing food for personal use is a much larger part of 

a usual day here than it is in the USA.  Here, several sacks

of "mung beans" (called "mongo" around here) are sun-

dried on a tarp in the back of the Suzi- pickup truck.

The threshing method is similar to traditional wine-making.

Winnowing with a woven tray-basket is the same method
as is also daily used for each batch of rice which is cooked.
These beans look just about like a split-pea would, if it
wasn't split.  I've been thinking about trying to make some
into a batch of soup.

NEW APPLIANCES may be as simple as a new coconut-
grating stool.  The old one, made from a curved tree branch,
was getting a little wobbly.  A piece of steel re-bar is flattened
on one end, and shaped/ sharpened somewhat like a horse-
man's spur.   This makes an easy way to grate half-
a- coconut in a jiffy.

Enchiladas and other Tex-Mex food require some determination
to prepare, here.  It is necessary to first learn how to convert
common corn into "harina" (hominy) in order to have tortilla-
makings.  I've managed to make several batches of tortillas
lately, and I'm getting fairly good using either corn or wheat flour.

To save a little on cooking gas, I've been experimenting
with cooking an egg or two in a buttered dish at the
same time as I cook oatmeal, by setting a lid over it.
The timing is TRICKY!  I always use Rolled Oats instead
of "instant" or "quick," because of better flavor and
texture.  Here, I have to  pay attention every time  I
look in the grocery store, as the Rolled Oats are more
difficult to find than the other types.

Meanwhile out at our small farm we are just getting started
with actual GROWING - - it's taken a couple years to get things
organized.  This row is some large white lima beans from a
Wal-Mart package.  I wasn't sure they would grow, but had
HOPES (they are really tasty cooked with onion and garlic!).
This photo is about 2 weeks after we planted this "trial batch."

There was an awful lot of fuss, when I was a teenager, about
growing plants with five-fingered leaves.   THIS is cassava,
which is grown here for its nutritious- but- starchy tuber (root).

We are hoping that large quantities of rice hulls (they shuck
 off of the grains)  - visible in the photo - added to the soil
 will improve its heavy/ sticky  quality over a period of time.

Lately it seems to me that a lot of working people here are real young-looking, like kids.   Doctors, cops, teachers, store clerks - - - 

even used-car salesmen!  Maybe I'm just getting OLD - - -

(ADDED NOTE, there is more text between and below the next 2 photos.  In the website version of this posting you must push a "read more" link to see it.  I don't know why.)