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.

Back at the ranch, I set down the drum and chicken feed, descended to the flat and retrieved my backpack o’ tools and supplies. I hiked back upstairs, placed the six kilograms of feed in the backpack. Then I carried the barrel downhill to Baguio Gold, to the A/V/C/A home to see about installing it. I didn’t have a tap hole near the bottom, such as we’d cut in the other drum, to lodge my thumb to facilitate carrying it. With my right hand I could easily hold the lip or rim at the drum’s top. But my laft hand couldn’t get a good grip on the bottom of the drum. It didn’t have a recess molded into it for a hand hold.

Oh, well. I only had to carry it about a mile — downhill. But one of my cheap, used backpack’s shoulder strap buckles broke, so it swung to my left side side and unbalanced me, which didn’t help my left arm to hold the barrel. But I kept trucking until the left shoulder strap buckle gave way and the pack fell. I wished that I could take a jeepney down to Baguio Gold.

I tied my shoulder straps together, put on the old pack and resumed the journey. At the shack, Rose met me, I swung her around a few times, then we dribbled and passed the basketball that I’d sent down with Nick yesterday.

Here’s a short video clip featuring Rose: Oops! Exit stage left

Then I set to work cutting a hole in the white twist-cap in the top flap of the first barrel so that a hose could be passed through it ‘permanently’ for filling it with river water when the neighbor permits the hose to be connected to theirs (fed by the river).

Then Nanay returned to the shack, and I asked her about her health. She said that she needs more blood pressure medication, so I asked for her prescription so I could get it filled when I next go into the city. I verified that she got the groceries that I’d sent home last night with Nick, and I gave to Nanay the bottle of Flinstones chewable vitamins.

I drilled and carved a hose in the cap for the green hose, climbed upon the structure to screw-in the white cap then insert the hose, connected the hose to the neighbor’s and the barrel began to refill with spring water. I noted that the chicken coop’s nest rags are covered with feces, the water troughs were empty and the feed cups were empty. So I fed and watered the chickens. I don’t know why 16-year-old Pat can’t tend the chickens in a 24-hour day, as he doesn’t attend a school nor work a job.

About May 5 I bought several varieties of seeds for the family to plant to grow fruits and vegetables. I don’t see a cultivated, bountiful garden. I had bought a Masterlock locking cable for Nick’s bicycle, so that he could secure it to a front porch post or elsewhere, yet for some unclear reason, the bicycle is stowed in the CR (bathroom). The all-metal pedals that I’d sent-down with Mack on Sunday haven’t been installed yet. And I saw that the rear tire is deflated again. Could Nick have told me that yesterday?

I asked him yesterday if he’d received the pedals and installed them, expecting that he’d reply, “Oh, yes! Thank you. I can ride my bike again! Thanks!” But he said that he hadn’t installed the pedals, and when I asked why, he said, “I will tell you later.” I wondered… Hours later, in a quiet moment, I asked Nick again about the pedals, and he would only say, “I will tell you another day.”

Today Nanay told me in broken English that on Thursday or Friday she had washed Mack’s leatherette Converse All-Star-type sneakers that I’d bought in April then placed them on the shack’s roof to air dry. She told me that she forgot about retrieving them later, and I anticipated that she’d say that the shoes had been rain-soaked. But she said that they disappeared because they were left up there all afternoon, evening and night (out-of-sight, out-of-mind). So no one who resides in the shack could notice the black and white sneakers up there, but a thieving neighbor could.

Would Mack tell me this on Saturday or Sunday or Monday? Oh, no. Nanay said that he’s afraid to tell me. Why? Is he culpable? Did he steal the shoes, give them away, sell them, destroy them or abuse them? I have chided him for losing my sunglasses at Riverview water park (while wearing them!), losing a knife that I gave to him, losing 200 pesos of his lunch/jeepney allowance and other things. But if he’s not responsible for his shoes disappearing …

Sunday he showed up here with better-looking all-black leather or leatherette low-top sneakers, and I remarked, “Oh, you got new shoes!” He immediately said that they were old. I looked closer, as they’re all black, then replied that they don’t appear old. So Mack’s comeback was that a cousin had loaned them to him.

He has said more than once that he doesn’t get-along with his cousins, aunt and uncle in Aurora Hill and has no interaction with them, unlike Andy, who’s gone to reside with them. So I wondered if a cousin would send free shoes of his size with Andy on his weekend visit to Baguio Gold. Maybe, since Nanay was paid by Social Security System on July 1, she has purchased these sneakers to replace those that were stolen. I know that Mack likes black clothes and shoes.

Nick, Pedring, Rose and I rode a jeepney into Baguio City so that the boys could get haircuts, I could but blood pressure medicine for Nanay and flip-flops for Pedring and we could dine in Mongolian Grill (again!).