archive of October, 2008
When I began to feel better after a week of sickness, not wanting to read anything and not having my computer intact for reading the internet, I picked up a paperback book that I’d bought months ago: Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. I read it for two nights. It was fantastic. The back cover and inside leaves are loaded with snippets from favorable reviews – glowing praise from many sources. Dominic and I had seen, via DVD, The Great Raid, a movie based on this book and another. »→
Yesterday Mack and I went to a new member briefing at Benguet Electrical Cooperative as a prelude for getting a new BENECO membership and an electrical connection to the shack that his family resides in. Afterward, I had a horrible headache, as if I’d been shot in the head. So we went to a pharmacy, and I bought ibuprofen. One has to take ibuprofen with food or milk, so we took tea and a snack in Vizco’s restaurant beside Session Road. »→
Charlotte and Rose have been ‘sick for days while I was in Sagada. Six-year-old Rose had chicken pox weeks ago, and missed a week of Kindergarten. Then her eight-year old sister contracted chicken pox. I would have thought that it’d run its course and that they’d be well, but Charlotte’s immune system was weakened, I suppose, and she got influenza then passed that to Rose. Both have been miserable, and I haven’t known. »→
I woke to the sounds of dogs wildly barking and was surprised, as usual, that bright sunlight from the eastern sun flooded the hotel room.
Dominic and I ate breakfast on the terrace of Bana’s Café. We walked north back toward Olahbinan, and I detoured to room 7 to retrieve a camera. Then we perused the wares in the Saturday morning outdoor market all along the main street, from Masferré past Saint Theodore Hospital.
Around 9:20 we boarded a jeepney bound for Bontoc, a neighboring city. The ride on the rough, rocky, dusty roads lasted about fifty minutes. Bontoc, capital of Mountain province, was sunny and very warm, as Alwin had told us it was. We found PNB, used its ATM, took a few pictures, visited a pharmacy and a clothing store, found a jeepney on a side street loading passengers for a trip to Sagada, and we climbed aboard. »→
A GL / Lizardo bus departed Baguio City’s Dangwa bus station at 9:29, heading north toward Mountain province, and my vacation destination, sunny Sagada. My buddy Dominic and I arrived in downtown around 3:30, as it’s always a six-hour trip. We’d decided to check into Saint Joseph Inn, owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Luzon, and across the street from the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. »→
I got sunburned last week and this week while walking miles on the streets of Baguio City and La Trinidad with a neighbor, The Jeepney magazine staffers, missionaries from U.S.A. and Pastor Roberto. My neighbor has been helpful in talking with poor people on the sidewalks, overpasses and parks of Baguio City, as he speaks Tagalog and Ilocano, and I don’t. »→
Tropical Storm Higos (“Pablo”) has been marching across the Philippines for two days, and we are getting beaucoup rain in Luzon! Ramadan ended today, so all Republic of the Philippines government employees were excused from work, and classes were suspended in public schools. I’d bet that schools will be ‘closed’ tomorrow due to flooding and risks of mudslides, rockslides and drownings. »→