archive of May, 2008
This morning, I took kids to Philippine Military Academy in Fort Del Pilar outside Baguio City. Two weeks ago I’d read that most Saturdays the P.M.A. cadets parade for review after their barracks and personal inspections. Sometimes they do silent drills with weapons afterward.
This morning I walked beside Magsaysay Avenue, past Baguio City Market, toward Sacred Heart Pharmacy to get vitamins for the family in Baguio Gold. I saw so many hand-scribbled signs reading “buy dollars,” “dollars change here” and the like.
Several merchants in stalls and perched on stools along the sidewalk asked me for dollars, assuming that I’m a vacationer. »→
Mack* met met at home early in the morning so that I would accompany him to the National Statistics Office in Baguio City. I had suggested last week that we go to apply for a birth certificate copy because I would likely not have a copy in my mail box on Wednesday. Mack had Nick* with him, so I asked him if he wanted to go to the city. He said yes, so I picked up my backpack and keys and locked the front door, wondering why Dominic hadn’t come home yet. And away we went.
*names changed
We didn’t have internet access at home for more than two days, so I didn’t post any new entries. I could have written at home then posted in one of Baguio City’s internet cafés, but obviously I didn’t. Or I could have written at home each day then uploaded three posts today. Nope.
I’ve had headaches for days and haven’t felt like writing. JoAnn Porter mailed to us two neat books, yet I haven’t read far in Walking With God, because I haven’t felt good. Each day I miss sleep when noise in this neighborhood wakes me early then I go to the city with Mack for hours. In afternoons I can’t nap due to noise.
We have newly-posted photos in some of the pages listed at right. If you need a password, e-mail me or Dominic. I’ll write more posts tomorrow. Now I just want to hit the hay. †
I wanted to get out of the flat, so I asked the visiting boys and Dominic if they wanted to go hiking or walking in the city or to visit Camp John Hay. The boys were keenly interested in seeing Camp John Hay, a tourist enclave which they hadn’t set foot on before, and Dominic just wanted to go anywhere for lunch. »→
I have a splitting headache. For days I have had sickening headaches that I suspect come after breathing smog and cigarette smoke. I have felt miserable at times for a few days. It’s somewhat like car sickness. Mack said that he felt sick and dizzy yesterday, so we went to a pharmacy for medicine to alleviate nausea and headache and he took aspirin. He has said that he’s adversely affected by breathing vehicle exhaust when he travels into the city by jeepney. »→
Reportedly Pat went to Mangga this morning to consult with his previous teacher or get a document. He was supposed to meet me and his brother Mack here in the flat afterward. We would go to town together to meet requirements for registering Pat as a high school freshman. We waited a long time for him, did not get a phone call nor text from him, so I decided that Mack and I should leave without him to go do errands in the city.
I have felt miserable most of the day since awakening, and I really only want to go to sleep now. I’ll just say that today, like Monday and Wednesday, Mack and I have cris-crossed Baguio City and Tuding via jeepneys and taxis between three schools and a National Statistics Office to try to get documents and pay fees so that next week Mack can register in Baguio City National High School’s main campus rather than return in June to the BCNHS annex campus in North Aurora Hill.
Tomorrow we’ll go out again to try to obtain a birth certificate for him. We’ll also take Pat with us. And one day Dominic and I will have to buy uniforms and student supplies for Pat (freshman). I’m glad that he’s willing to start high school. †
Tuesday morning the boys came to the flat at 7:30, eager for our expedition to Riverview Water Park in Asin. I had looked-into going by bus or renting a van to go to an eastern beach, at San Fernando, San Fabian or Hundred Islands. I was warned of sand fleas in the beaches, jellyfish in polluted water along the coast (South China Sea), and I could not find reliable information about transportation from here to there. So I settled on the idea of going to a water park beside the river in Tuba, near the hot springs resort. »→
You can have everything in life you want,
if you will just help other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar
By the time we left home on Saturday evening we had been rained on for 26 hours. But the rain seemed to be tapering to a stop -it was only a light rain around sunset. So Dominic, Mack and I went into the city to buy groceries and see a movie. Oh, boy – while Dominic shopped for groceries and Mack and I watched a movie, Tropical Storm Halong (Cosme) was bearing down on Luzon. »→
We’ve had rain since 4 p.m. yesterday. Dominic remarked that though the Filipino rainy season was supposedly June through October, it seemed to have begun in May. Indeed throughout last month we had the famed April showers that bring May flowers. »→
This morning Mack and I took Andy back to a pediatrician’s clinic in Patria de Baguio Building off Session Road. We were running late, so I didn’t got to the lock box section of the central post office before we went upstairs. I forgot to go afterward, as I wanted to get the prescribed expectorant from the nearby Mercury Drug store.
Nick, Andy and I checked my post office box downtown (Thanks, JoAnn), then we crossed Session Road to go to lunch. After eating in Greenwich, we trekked along Harrison Road to find a jeepney pointed toward Campo Scioco. We boarded one which left soon thereafter, rode it a few kilometers, then hopped down to walk into Santo Rosario Barangay. »→
Baguio City fuel prices before Tropical Storm Halong / Cosme :
Diesel fuel: $3.936 / gallon
unleaded 93-octane petrol: $4.618 / gallon
unleaded 95-octane petrol: $4.694 / gallon
unleaded 97-octane petrol: $4.77 / gallon
kerosene: $4.276 / gallon »→
Today I, Mack and Rose accompanied their grandmother to a physician’s clinic in the Anita Theresa Building, off Session Road. Afterward we walked to a nearby Mercury Drug store to fill prescriptions. Several “st.josephdrug” and “Mercury Drug” stores, and many physicians’ offices, are in the buildings overlooking Session Road. »→
Today I will accompany Nanay to a physician in downtown Baguio City whom she visited three or four weeks ago. The doc can discuss with Nanay the efficacy of the medicine inhaler that she has been using for a week and a half.
Dominic wants to take the kids shopping for student supplies tomorrow, and Friday I will take Andy to the pediatrician so that she can discern whether his current medicine regimen is helping him. †
This afternoon, Mack, Andy and Nick walked uphill to go with me to Baguio City. I waited at the end of my street, then we walked up to the jeepney stop on Tuding Road. We had wanted to find the family’s previous physician, Dr. Ventura, on Session Road, but we couldn’t find him in the slim Baguio City telephone directory. So we went to a pediatrician in the Patria de Baguio Building, near the cathedral. »→