Nasidman Island

Last week, April 11 - 13, I made a 3-day trip to the opposite side of Panay Island.  The trip to the Ajuy area is as far-distant as is possible to be from our place at Tibiao.  Our destination, Nasidman Island, is about 2 km. off the coast of Panay, in the Guimaras strait which separates Panay and Negros islands.  The google-map with driving routes/ times below shows our starting and ending points, but the drive times are optimistic, being more like 6½ to 6¾ hours for either route.  I chose the familiar southern route for our trip outbound, and decided to "see something different" via the northern route on our return.

LATER: I placed a Google-map satellite view of Nasidman Island near the bottom of this posting.

 Our start-time of 4:30 a.m. wasn't favorable to photo-taking;

here, we are 3 hours "out" at a fuel stop in Iloilo.

 We arrived at the departure point for Nasidman a little before 11 a.m. The trip was pretty uneventful.  As it was low-tide, the boat had to stay about 150 feet off-shore because of the shallow contour.  We had been prepared in advance for the likelihood of wading to get into the boat - no surprise.  The rock-wall to the right will show in another photo at high- tide, later in this posting.

The bottom of the "strait" is covered with rounded stones

which are various irregular sizes, and rolly/ slippery.  I found
I had to be pretty careful to keep my footing - - with a camera

and cell phone among other items  including my "donkey"
(KJV) that I didn't  want to get wet.

This photo from later shows the sort of cleated "ladder" 

which was provided for boarding - - none too steady as

the boat bobbed up and down with the small waves.

 First mate and second mate provide various helps to the

captain - - notably, helping to push off, as the boat was 

QUITE grounded after the addition of about 15 passengers.

Nasidman is the island to the right, ahead.

 I was sitting towards the stern and couldn't see much of

our approach.

A few hours later, making an extra trip to "mainland," I got these views of what the approach would have been like.

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I never thought to take a picture of the pathways on the island.  They are about 4 to 6 feet wide most places, suitable ONLY for walking.   There are NO VEHICLES on the island, except for a few "BMX bicycles" (mountain bikes) which are allowed to ride in the mountainous areas away from the settlement, PLUS a very few "toddler cars" which seemed to be pedal propelled NOT battery driven (+ mostly pushed by older children).  The walking distance from the boat landing to our farthest point was about 400 yards. 

The occasion for the trip was the semi-annual April meeting of our church "Association,"  which by voluntary participation coordinates activities of the members for projects which are larger- than- local.  The church group at Nasidman Island hosted the meeting as an opportunity to showcase their building, which is nearing completion

This is an amazing, large structure for its area.  Every material

would have to be hand-loaded and unloaded, carried by canoes

over to the island and carried by hand and foot for at least 150

yards up a moderate hill to the site.  This would include the

cement and cement blocks, roof structure, steel re-bar, and

quite likely the sand and gravel - - these materials can't be 
taken from the ocean  because salt content interferes with
cement.  The building appears to be 40- feet wide x 60- 
feet long,  with posts 10- feet and 12- feet tall.  

The roof framing is all factory-made heavily galvanized steel,

and the roof covering is all either epoxy or powder-coat high-tech

material which is much more durable than the more common

but shoddy "galvanized" corrugated  roofing.

Activity in progress gives an idea of the "scale" of the room.

To the left is a restroom and utility building, with a kitchen

area under a roof-extension in between.  Note also a 

10- kilowatt diesel generator set at far left.

There is NO utility- electricity on the island. The municipality has a generator which runs a network of street-lamps along the pathways at night.   These 2 generators are the only ones I HEARD in use although there are probably others. Most of the houses seem to use solar panels with the usual battery-storage and inverter systems to operate lights and appliances.  At the guest house where we stayed, there seemed to be no problem with operating several lights and electric fans all night long.

 30 yards from the front of the building is a community well

which provides clear, good quality water for general usage;

I noted that the cooking/ drinking water came in 5- gallon
jugs from purification companies.

 .  The locals used this area for bathing-while-

clothed, as a needed cool-off from the above 90° F. heat.

Several 4-liter buckets tied to lightweight poly-rope were

 used for drawing water, then dumped into larger buckets

for carrying.  Amazing how fast someone with practice

could get a bucket of water up to the top.

The well seemed to be about 25-feet deep.  On our second day there the usage outpaced its water supply for a few hours, with the typical 1-gallon  "dippers" coming up nearly empty.

A few hours later, the water level was up enough for continuing use.

This sign near the well is similar to others posted along the pathways, reminding residents to keep things clean and tidy and notifying of a 300-peso penalty for NOT.  PAHIBALO is close enough to  the word Prohibited to be a reasonable guess in-context, and the word shampoo appears in the notice.  I wouldn't want shampoo (or any kind of poo)  in my well, either.

Later the first day, I made a return-trip to the Ajuy port. At the boat-landing, I found a boat-crew unloading these filled water-jugs onto the island;  it seems like fresh water is one of their main-stay cargo items.  I had a 10-minute wait until the boat was unloaded and ready to go. 

Leaving the island, the "first-mate's"  job is to pole the boat

into deeper water, and away from other boats also "parked,"

then turn it around so the engine can be used.  

There is no reverse-gear!

I quickly finished my errand at Ajuy, and returned to the

boat landing to find this boatman loading 10 or 12 water

containers (some were like "Culligan" 5-gal round bottles),

easily walking along the rock-wall.  THIS is the wall shown

above, when we were embarking for Nasidman, and the high-

tide is apparently about 5 feet above the low-tide level.
  
To get to the boat, I had to also walk out on that wall - its wet

and irregular surface causing me to be pretty cautious.  As

the boat was rocking in several directions, I found it prudent

to sit down on the end of the wall and try to ease into place

on the boat - - but of course the nearest hand-hold on board

was about arm's length beyond my reach.  Well, I made it OK.

This photo is just after we pushed off; the boatman, working

by himself, is just beginning to turn around so we can motor

on out of there.

Back on Nasidman, 150 feet from the boat-landing is this well- 
appointed house where we spent the 2 nights that we stayed there. 

About 12 of us slept on foam-mats on the covered balcony.

The house faced toward the boat landing area, which had an extensive fish-drying area covering enough space for several houses.  Nasidman Island is a prosperous fishing community, with solid, nice houses and an abundance of fish in the drying-process - - all hand-work but on a large commercial scale.  Likely these are wholesale-sold to dealers for large cities that are within viable transport-distance.

   

I have lived in a hard-scrabble fishing community for 6½ years, and it was an eye-opener for me to see anything better than hand-to-mouth survival come from fishing. 

HERE's the difference in the two situations, as far as I can guess:  Our area, Tibiao, is on the "outside" of the Philippines, facing an international sea, where huge trawlers from everywhere can also fish, and deplete the number of fish by unregulated over-fishing. Nasidman Island is on the internal sea-passage in-between Philippine Islands - - so

no foreign vessels will provide competition. 

 Look at the map which began this posting, for a quick reference. 

This satellite photo of Nasidman Island shows that the main settled area is the north-east edge; the rest is quite steep and rough hillsides.  The remainder of the island not in the photo is slightly larger than what is shown.  1) The boat-landing area is at the top of the photo, with the blue roof of our guest-house clearly visible nearby. 2) Following the pathway south along the east side, there are TWO other paths branching off inland, and the church building is the large red-roof  in between them near the end of the first one. 3) The elementary school occupies the rectangular space in-between these two paths.  The boats visible along the shoreline are all of similar size and construction: double-outrigger canoes, about 25 feet long.

The Island was a pleasant and peaceful place to visit for lack of several things which plague every other place I have been in the Philippines: Vehicles, as mentioned above;  Roosters, apparently NOT raised as sport-fighting cocks on the island, as there is only occasional crowing and not a constant bedlam of idiot-birds screeching out their "trash talk;"  Dogs, apparently only in reasonable numbers and not allowed to bark, whine, and howl 24/ 7;  Hyper-Amplified Sonic Garbage of all sorts, also absent - what I DID hear while walking around sounded like music and was at a very reasonable volume, no danger of cracking my molars.   In short, the Island People are apparently above-average in civility, intelligence, and consideration for others (USA before 1970), and they have a NICE place to live.   

NO sunset photo, this time.  This is a few minutes after 5:00 a.m. on  Saturday morning, looking west over Guimaras Strait towards Calabasa ("pumpkin/ squash") Island as I walked along the main footpath shown in the satellite photo. 

We enter Holy Week - the week we remember Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection - with a certain sense of AWE each year.  There is a mixture of solemnity and joy in this annual memorial, and the events of the "larger world"  somehow seem a little smaller.  (Even though we hear of such things as Notre Dame in Paris burning - incredible!).

Wishing for all of you a congenial continuance of A.D. 2019.

TJ and Bernadette Larson

Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines  

Marching Along

The last few weeks (February, and now  March) have seemed to alternate between hectic and DULL.  But we did a fair amount of travelling in between other things.


You never know what you might see, when travelling:

Travelling near (link) Barotok Nuevo in  Iloilo Province 2 weeks
ago, my "sidekick" suddenly said"SNAKE!"  I said, "Where?"
and reversed a few yards, to get out of the car to look at this
MONSTER.  
For reference,the  large stones are 3- feet  from his head
(which has been crushed).  This makes his total length  
somewhere between 16- and 20- feet (= 4.5 - 6 meters).
His body diameter seems to be about 9- inches = 23 cm,
= about dinner plate size.   He lived in an area of small
family compounds, where there are many small livestock
around, all the time. I tried to research how large a "prey"
such a snake could handle, but found nothing definitive.
I've watched NatGeo videos, and based on them it seems
pretty reasonable to say that chickens and small goats
(+ other KIDS?) would be pretty easy for him to swallow. 
He had "the good life" and grew to be HUGE.

It 's been a while since I put up views of our Malibor neighborhood property.  I was sitting in our roadway, across from the houses one morning and decided to try to make photos.  The street is narrow, less than 16-feet wide, the 8- feet in the middle being paved with cement.  SO, it is difficult to get away far enough for the camera to capture approx. 80- feet of front property line.   The "fish-eye lens" gimmick wasn't any help, either.  So 3 frames is the easiest.

Sitting in a chair facing the property, the "yellow house" to the left is mostly screened by foliage.  This is the west side of the property (I'm facing north- ish)  and this house was completed in 2013, within 8 months of our arrival in the Philippines.  We "moved in"

on July 4th of that year.

Using the mahogany tree and cement sack for reference, directly in front of me is the small building currently under construction with its front windows visible through the foliage.  This will eventually end up being 2-story with an "A- frame" roof and side-dormer windows (dormers maximize ceiling-space).  The downstairs is mostly complete, enough to be functional;  We think it will end up as a "parlor/ work room" with a small bedroom behind.  Completion is not urgent, which is good, as everything happens in slow- motion here.  This building is attached to the water-reservoir tower, and is the "replacement" for our bamboo-hut "parlor and sleeping space" built in Dec of 2012.

This link shows the project beginning last August, and there are several references

in more recent postings.

Panning a little to the right, (carport post for reference) shows the "blue house" which

was built in 2006 - 2007;  this was the only building on the property when we arrived in November 2012.  We have upgraded it, and built everything else, since then.  (Including also a cottage about 2 miles away on our small farm at Alegre, + a storage room and large saw- shed on the detached "chicken yard" 30 feet beyond us at the rear.)  The 16- by 16-foot space behind the car is our "outdoor patio-kitchen"  referred to everywhere in the Philippines as a "dirty kitchen."

To my right about 50 yards is the school entrance gate at the end of the road (see last month's posting) and to the left about the same distance is the intersection with the

National Highway.

  At a seminar- meeting in mid- February, the Suzuki car was parked in the only available shade,  which these several young ladies happened to choose as a break-time venue.  Not posed, they were just  like this when I clicked the shutter.

  

A little while later they were  occupied with washing the lunch

dishes, at the hand-pump just left of the car photo above.

Another attendee was wearing this T-shirt.  I especially

liked the quote on the back.

NOT BAD, for a computer- science major!

The Suzuki gets a "cargo workout" from time to time.

We had a rice harvest  soon after that meeting, and this is 

half the proceeds, 14 sacks weighing a total of around 900

pounds.  I can fairly easily move this amount of load, and 

on this occasion since I would have to make 2 trips anyway

it made sense to divide the weight fairly equally instead of

loading heavier on one trip.  Transporting only about a mile. 

Suzuki has had a series of issues with performance (fuel

mixture) and keeping the brakes in adjustment (aggravation,

not a safety issue, fortunately) plus other minor nagging-

little-items which were never quite "right."  Here, we are

close to finding the "magic solution" with replacement of

the power-brake booster unit, which by leaking under

some conditions (intermittent?) has affected several things

that all seemed unrelated.  It is quite BURIED under the

dash-board, and in fact I never knew it was there.

"Vehicle mechanics" (not motorcycle) are scarce around

our immediate area, and parts are sometimes hard to track

down. In San Jose (45 miles away) or certainly in Iloilo (110

miles away) this lengthy process of fix- then- re-diagnose

would have been much shorter than the many months it

has taken.   We live where we live!

Some signs just "look weird" to me.  "Barber Shop" + a word

that suggests "Italian artist/ gigolo," + "Elephant's Nook."  

THIS sign might have been OK, except that it was immediately

next door to the Barber Shop sign.

Our daughter Thea and husband Joseph are having this house

built 200 yards from where we live, hoping it will be finished in

the next few weeks.  THIS view interested me because there

would typically be THREE roof-trusses.  Lumber is VERY hard

to get here, NOW, given a building boom and the reconstructions

since the typhoon 5 years ago.  THIS innovation should work -

using angled braces to connect ONE truss at the center to the

adjacent rafter-sets to pick up the load;  but I've suggested that

they continue trying to get enough material to complete 3 sets.

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 Giant styrofoam letters were part of the decorations at a 60th birthday party.  The novelty + how they were assembled + wondering HOW MANY HOURS went into the project, all fascinated me. 

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Just passing through Kalibo recently, I saw a bamboo-vendor with 

THESE pieces in bins nearly side-by-side.  Same outside diameter,

 but the stuff on the left is immature and will soon rot out in any

structural use.  The mature pieces on the right are about 5-years

growth (I hear) and will last for about 5 years in a structure.  BUYER

BEWARE when buying the pre-fab gazebos, etc. widely sold here.

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There is considerable Talabahan activity in some places 

that we go, especially around restaurants and market-

places.  I don't suppose it could be considered sharialistic;

Muslims mostly don't eat shell-fish.   

End of jest:  the word

Talibahan means "clam"  in the local language.  I have

sampled steamed clams here, and they are about as I 

remember them from childhood (when we lived 2 years

in a beach area) - taste OK, kind of "mushroom + meat-

like,"  and rubbery-chewy so it's hardy worth the bother.

Here, the price-per-weight is quite high, and the weight

turns out to be 95% shell, but lots of people like them

well enough to pay the premium price, apparently.

The Tibiao municipal festival is officially in the last

weekend of February each year.  Schools and other

groups practice for weeks to participate in parade,

local beauty pageant, and cultural dancing contests -

among other activities.    Streets around the plaza are

blocked with vendor and game booths for 2 to 3 weeks.

 We went there the next-to-last day, just to look around.  

Most of the vendors had "moved on" to the next adjacent

municipality about 15 miles away, whose festival was just

beginning.  Daughter Thea bought a balloon for Timmie

from the first vendor we found - - and later discovered that

he had nearly doubled the price, apparently since she had

been walking with a foreigner (ME!)  I occasionally run into

this phenomenon,  and refer to it as the "'Cano disount."

(Abbreviated americano "'cano" can refer to any foreigner,

more-or-less "European- looking.")

 I really appreciate living in an area where I can get out into
lush, scenic places within a few minutes anytime I want to.
This is the road about 200 yards from our Alegre "farm."
.  
  

We expect to get pretty busy in the next few weeks.  There will be several camp- sessions at Batonan  where we meet on Sundays, so there's some preparation to do for those,  and we also anticipate a trip to Nasidman Island for our semi-annual business meeting.

This road-trip of nearly 200 miles has proven in the past to take nearly 7 hours

of actual rolling-time to accomplish.  There are no east- west roads through

the mountainous interior of Panay Island, so we will go from upper-left Tibiao 

area to Nasidman Island area (flagged) passing around the south through San

Jose and Iloilo City.  My passengers will stay the night before at our house,

as we will need to get away around 3 a.m.

There were no sunsets in my current "batch" of photos, but here is one of my 

favorite "effects" taken perhaps three years ago.

We hope that all of you are having an agreeable 2019, with only enough challenges to make life a little interesting.

TJ and Bernadette Larson

Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines