archive of July, 2008
Nick came to the flat, with his sister Rose in tow, and knocked on the door. I asked why he wasn’t in school, and he replied that his stomach hurt. I asked if he wanted to go to a pharmacy or herbal remedy store or a physician’s office. He wouldn’t express a preference. The quickest and cheapest thing to do is to go to a pharmacy and buy Pepto-Bismol or Maalox or Tums. These can’t be had in grocery stores and convenience stores in the Philippines. »→
Nick came to the apartment yesterday to do homework. As he and Mack have done previously, he asked to go downtown to buy specific educational posters for images and captions to use in his homework. I don’t know why they can’t rely on their textbooks and schools’ library books and municipal library books. I offered the use of my computer, asking, “Can we find that on the internet?” Nick replied, “I don’t know.” Maybe he doesn’t know that almost everything is on the internet (try Wikipedia and GoodSearch). »→
Today Nick came uphill to visit because public schools in Benguet Province (and ten other provinces) aren’t in-session today, following days of deluge. He asked if we could buy student supplies for his classwork and homework and rice for his family. So I took him to downtown Baguio City. We checked my mailbox as we have done innumerable times to look for his birth certificate from National Statistics office. It hasn’t arrived yet, 21 days after requesting it, 20 days after paying for it. »→
Tropical Storm Fung-wong has been sending alot of rain here for days, so I’ve no news to report. I’ve been hunkered-down at home. I watched the Edmonton, Alberta Indycar race on TV. This wouldn’t have been a good day to travel from Baguio City to Sagada by bus as we had thought of doing. »→
Not much to report now. Working on getting electricity to the A-V-C-A family’s home and buying birthday gifts for kids (August 1, 2 and 3). Dominic and I found a modern, 24-lane, 10-pin bowling alley with computerized scoring on the fourth floor of Baguio City’s Center mall, so we bowled 10 frames. »→
When Dominic and I returned from Baguio City, Nick and Rose were waiting in the garden for us. Nick wanted to do research on the internet into nutrition and make a poster for his grade six class. Dominic is using his PC to write articles for his weekly job, so I helped Nick use my Mac and Firefox browser to search for required information. And I got out watercolor pens and paper that I’d bought for such poster projects. »→
Andy didn’t come from Aurora Hill to visit this weekend. But Nick and Mack came uphill from Baguio Gold to go to 4:30 Mass and to get the weekly allowance for jeepney fare, lunches and snacks. Dominic and I took the boys by jeepney to Session Road and we treated them to dinner in Pizza Volante. Dominic and I like pizza. The boys wouldn’t state a preference for Filipino cuisine in Solibao, Sizzling Plate, Andok’s, Jack’s or a turo-turo dive. »→
Unlike last Saturday, Nick came to the apartment before 8:00, and he brought his little sister, Rose. I had advised him yesterday to come any time between 7:30 and 8:00 so that we could depart no later than 8:00. I said that I’d arise at 7:30 and if they were to come early enough they could eat breakfast here — and perhaps look at Saturday morning cartoons while I’d prepare to go. Last night I set my alarm clock for 7:20. Wouldn’t you know it: Nick rapped on my bedroom window at 7:18. »→
Today the kids didn’t have to go to school in Baguio Gold, so Nick and Rose came to visit. They were dressed nicely, so I asked if they’d like to accompany me to Baguio City to check my mail box for their birth certificate copies and have lunch. Of course they were more than willing. »→
Motor Vehicle Code of the Republic of the Philippines »→
Nick came to the apartment to research the nutrition pyramid on the Internet then draw a chart to take to school. He didn’t want to eat anything offered to him, and I learned later that he had a loose tooth. I saw him standing in the bathroom and trying to yank out a ‘baby tooth.’ He succeeded, so I had him rinse his mouth with saline water then Listerine/water solution. † »→
Praise the Lord! The overnight deluge dwindled to a very light, almost invisible shower at midday when we wanted to go to Baguio City for lunch and groceries. That was convenient for us. One could walk without an umbrella.
When I was downtown I held up my umbrella to ward off all the dripping from buildings and trees. The rain began to intensify as I rode a jeepney back to Tuding. Since we returned to the ranch, the heavy, steady rain has resumed as Tropical Storm Kalmaegi/Helen spins along the east coast of Philippines on its march northward toward Cheju-Do, Korea. »→
Today was “a rather blustery day” in the Cordillera woods. In Tuding we had gusting wind and sporadic rain for several hours, then the “rain rain rain came down down down” all night. The apartment has been cool and damp all day. I’ve worn a synthetic fleece pullover that I brought from Florida.
The rainy season is decidedly here now. A cook in Pizza Volante told me yesterday that the rainy season is July through September, not June through October as I’d heard previously.
Today I read, prayed, worked on this website, surfed the Internet, answered e-mail, cooked noodles, drank tea, watched a television show on Nat Geo … I didn’t reach the poor today. But I pray for them. †
Dominic and I took Mack downtown to C.A. Optical shop to exchange his eyeglass lenses. C.A. Optical inexplicably made lenses for farsighted eyes in late May, although Mack is near-sighted. While waiting for the new lenses to be ground, I went to Pizza Volante to drink a Coke Zero and read the courtesy copies of the Sunday newspapers.
I arose at 7:00 to shave then eat breakfast and drink tea while looking at the TV news channels. At 8:05 I gathered my wallet, keys, camera bag, tripod, umbrella, and walked out of the apartment into a light rain. I had expected Nick and a sibling or two and perhaps a friend to come to the flat between 7:45 and 8:00 as agreed for a field trip by jeepney to Philippine Military Academy in Fort Del Pilar. »→
I waited here in the flat for Nick to come uphill from Baguio Gold after school. The intention was to take a jeepney into Baguio City to buy a bicycle tire inner-tube (again)and brake pads and exchange the pedals that I’d bought days ago for ones with thicker studs. These are things that we couldn’t get yesterday after the bicycle shop in Shoppers’ Lane had closed at 6:00.
We had also wanted to get groceries and sundries that we couldn’t get in Baguio City Public Market (fire trap and crime haven). And Mack, who ‘lost’ hundreds of pesos that I gave to him on Sunday to get replacement eyeglass lenses, wanted to meet me after his school session to go with him to an optical shop for new lenses. »→
I’m really dead tired and don’t want to write. But I didn’t write yesterday. Yesterday we had rain for much of the day and night. My whole body ached; all my joints hurt, my sinuses all felt full and I had a piercing headache. By the way, I’ve been waging war against mold here. I’m allergic to mold.
Today I went into the city to pay in a Union Bank branch for birth certificates for Nick and Rose. I bought five kilos of (bulk) chicken feed for egg-layers and a 1 kg bag of fortified supplementary feed. I bought Flintstones chewable vitamins, two books and modeling clay for Rose, markers for Nick, a sheet of sandpaper and another blue plastic drum -for the the family’s drinking, cooking and dish-washing water. Thanks to Joyce and Quin for covering the cost. »→