21. Overloaded Jeepneys and Churches

Hi Everyone,




This is the goat that greets us in the morning right outside our window. One morning, while I ignored her and rolled over, Heide jumped up and took this picture. By the way, the goat is pregnant.






Here's a nice picture of Rap-Rap with the valley behind him.






On a Sunday morning, RJ is definitely interested in the ice cream man, who came around in front of our driveway. Rap-Rap is surprisingly distracted. You can see Heide waiting for the rest of the family so we can go to church at the Cathedral. In the background are Precious and Butch. Butch is walking back to the house to get everyone else.






Just to the left of the little grocery store selling bananas is this open-air pool hall. There are actually a lot of these open-air pool halls in the Philippines. Doesn't look like there's much interest here in joining us for church.






The other day this jeepney caught my eye as it went flying by. I've become fascinated with capturing riders hanging on the back of the jeepneys. This is supposedly ok here in the suburbs, but is illegal in the City Center. The "hangers-on" get off before a policeman catches them.





This morning was a big surprise. I saw several jeepneys with guys hanging on as they whizzed by. This was the most crowded of all. It's hard to tell, but this is actually the same jeepney as the one above. The mud flap says "The Lord is My Shepherd". Those who ride this way will definitely need the Lord as their shepherd.






"The Lord is My Shepherd" jeepney will take you to this Cathedral. This is a photo of the Cathedral at 6 pm on Sunday. The huge crowd is not unusual. They have masses every hour on Sunday and they're given in different languages-- English, Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano. In order to get a seat, you have to enter halfway through one mass and stand by a pew. When the mass ends, you grab a seat vacated by one of the parishioners and prepare yourself for the next mass. There's Butch in the blue t-shirt.





Their religious fervor is reflected in prayers before events like the Arnis Tourament or a seminar that Heide gave at St. Louis University Nursing School. Here you can see it in the names on Jeepneys and Taxis.





Besides this "Gift of God" Jeepney, others are "The Lord is My Guardian" Taxi, "Great is Thy Faithfulness" Taxi, and "Prime Movers" Taxi.





Here in the Philippines, people often get water delivered to their house in tanker trucks. Last night Heide and I were riding home in a taxi and saw a water tanker truck fly by us with the name "Holy Water Delivery". We laughed!





In the secular realm, we have "Pure and Simple" Jeepney, "Home to You" Taxi (I would hope so), "Ever Prudent" Taxi (ensures his trust), "Tattooed" Taxi (What? It's just plain white!), "Snowy" Taxi (Filipinos have no concept of snow except for its color), "Kookoo's Nest" taxi (you wonder about his driving).





This is one of my favorites. If you use he services, you can be sure to get home in "one piece"! Then there's the "33 Aggregates" Taxi, the "Glenn Ford" taxi, the "Lone Ranger" Jeepney, "Tin Tricks" Taxi.





There's even some obscure ones like this "M3L3" Taxi, where both threes are superscripted, and the "XYRYX Czar" Jeepney.






The "Student Drop Out" Taxi! Looks like a warning to stay in school! Saw a guy yesterday with a T-shirt that said "This is not the life I ordered".


Duane and Heide

20. All That Glitters IS Gold-- for Mutya

Heide paints Mutya's nails as she gets ready for her Junior Prom.





Being more of a "tomboy", Mutya is not used to dressing up like this. Marilyn, her mother, made this wonderful gown for her to wear. However, she feels more comfortable practicing for the Arnis tournament that she will participate in two days from now.






As we all wait for a taxi to take us to a hotel in La Trinidad-- a town just to the north.






At the entrance to the hotel, Mutya's girlfriends are shocked at how she looks. This is a side of Mutya that they've never seen before.





Even inside the hotel, Marilyn touches up her dress as Mutya sees her good friend Louie.





Even though Louie looks "stunning" in his formal attire, something is not right. Mutya needs something to "release the pressure".





Mutya discovers that her purse is almost as good as an Arnis stick, as she tries to whack Louie.





Louie blocks the purse, tries to elbow her-- but she, in turn, blocks the elbow. Hey, these are pretty heavy moves they're putting on each other!





She may be overmatched with Louie, but she's happy again.





Two days later, at the tournament, Mutya (in blue) whacks her opponent.





Mutya is declared the winner.






And receives the gold.







Gone are the dainty hands of two days ago.

There are, however, promises into the future. For instance, Louie promised Mutya a strawberry on Monday if she would dance with him at the prom. He still hasn't paid up.

By the way, Filipinos only go to school for ten grades, not twelve. So the kids are only fourteen and fifteen when they have their junior prom.



Duane and Heide.

19. Chicken on a Hot Tin Roof

Hi Everyone,

Heide and I awoke early this morning to go to church at the Carmelite Monastery. Because of the landscape, we can see some houses recessed in the valley and we can see their roofs clearly. On the way to church I was startled by seeing a chicken run across a tin roof. It was a memorable moment which was followed by a turkey gobble. It was probably less memorable for the family living in the house who were awakened by the sound of this chicken running across their roof. It reminds me of the old Groucho Marx line: "I awoke this morning and saw a chicken run across a roof in my pajamas. How that chicken got into my pajamas, I'll never know." Yes, I "paraphrased" it. The question is: "Why did the chicken cross the roof?" If you are going to ponder that, then try the Zen Koan: "What is the sound of one chicken running?" Maybe we can get insight from the Tennessee Williams play: "Chicken on a Hot Tin Roof". Hmmmm ... I guess that's over the top-- even for the chicken.

Yesterday we met the owners of the house that Denzil rents. They live in Hawaii and return to Baguio for a few days every year for a vacation. Personally, I'd rather vacation in Hawaii than here. Nevertheless, their help had prepared their apartment for their stay. Their apartment stays empty the rest of the year. They invited Heide and me in and greeted us warmly. After a few minutes of chit-chat, they got down to brass tacks. They asked us to buy their house for P7,500,000. That about $150,000 in US currency. They wanted our answer before they left the next day. They said if we bought it immediately, we could have all the beautiful furniture. However, if we came down in price, the furniture would be removed from the deal. I looked at the little angel figures in the beautiful glass case and asked them if they would remove one angel every time I came down a peso? They laughed. I tried to direct the conversation to other things, but it always came back to "the deal". I was led to believe that Filipinos liked to "beat around the bush" and not deal with things directly, but not in this case. Anyone out there have P7,500,000 in their pockets they'd like to get rid of. We would love to purchase this lovely all-concrete building in Baguio. There are really four apartments in this building so you do get rental income. I'd like to see what it's like here during typhoon season.

Yesterday we met Butch's guru-- a shy man who is half Filipino and half Chinese. Butch is a fourth-dan black-belt in Arnis-- the Filipino form of martial arts. This got his rank through competition. He no longer competes locally, but goes to Manila to compete internationally. Butch is very proud of the fact that his guru has chosen him to give private teaching to. His guru has said he will come to our house and give Butch a lesson. I hope to record it. Butch would love to come to the US and teach Arnis. Any ideas how he could do it?

We found a way to wash up in warm water. Actually, it was Heide's idea. We take a small plastic pail full of water and microwave it. It makes a world of difference. The water that comes out of the tap is freezing cold here. Soon as we overcome one hurdle, we reach another. The water pump broke yesterday. No more flowing water until the pump gets fixed.






Whenever we go anywhere, it's usually via taxi or jeepney to the City Center. In the City Center, if we don't go to one of the universities, we usually go to the SM Shopping Mall. Here's a photo of it. It's huge-- about six levels with balconies.

The shopping center is important to us because it's the only place where we can use our credit cards. Every other place will only accept pesos. Food at the market is much cheaper, but we have to pay in cash.





Inside SM there are both escalators and an elevator to get people between floors. The elevator is one of the glass ones that makes you feel like you're flying up and down the inner side of the building. Here's a cute kid waiting to get into the elevator. He's wearing a complete Kobe Bryant's Lakers outfit (number 8)-- except for the shoes, which have Mickey Mouse images on them. This is usually the kind of kid that stares at me.





Heading to the grocery store within the shopping mall, I spotted this kid wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jacket-- not a great picture, but I felt nostalgic for my birthplace. Notice the magazine rack on the right. All the magazines are wrapped in clear plastic. No browsing.




I took these five photos when we first arrived in Baguio, when Virginia was with us. Virginia could only stay the first three weeks of our two month stay. Here's Virginia clowning around in the SM grocery store.





Virginia got a kick out of the assortment of french fries on sale.




Fries, fries and more fries! In buying things, not only do you have to convert from pesos to dollars (about 47 pesos per dollar), but also from kilograms to pounds. That's all too much for my head.






Here's Virginia with Pringles Potato Chips. Their dairy section is interesting. The milk is not refrigerated. It's sold in air-tight boxes that have to be refrigerated after opening.





Ah! Something native to the Philippines: Coconut Jam.





Here's a recent photo I took of the girl stocking the shelves from above. I should have waited till the security guard had passed. After I took this photo, he informed me that I was not allowed to take photos in the SM grocery store. These security guards are all over the place in the mall. They even search you on your way into the mall-- with separate lines for women and men.





Here's a shot I took outside of the SM grocery store. (I should have asked the guard if this was ok.) I like to take shots of white men whenever I see them. Since Filipinos stare at me, I stare at other foreigners. This is really a study in blue and yellow. The white guy dressed for the occasion.

In shopping in the mall, the sales clerks always address us as "Sir" and "Ma'm". I've gotten used to being called that in the Philippines. The checkout attendants are very helpful. If you have a lot of groceries, they will box them for you. If your groceries are too much to carry, they will cart them for you and push the cart out the exit for you. There is a long line of people with carts going out of SM to the curb, where a stream of taxis arrive. The taxis take us from SM to our door for about 76 pesos (around $1.60). The ride home is about 5 kilometers of twisting roads.





Here's some outdoor tables of a coffee shop on the exterior ground floor of the mall. Yes, they have Starbucks, but this is another one. Here's Heide and Butch with Butch's guru with the long beard and the UC Berkeley t-shirt. Butch's guru is half Filipino and half Chinese. Butch's guru expands Butch's knowledge beyond Arnis into energy forms of martial arts like Tai Chi.

Notice the black man in the background. We rarely see black people in the Philippines.





The conversation becomes more insightful. It appears to even draw the attention of the black man at the other table. Nah, he's probably talking with the girl.





Two men competing at the Arnis tournament. They wear protective head covering and the sticks are padded. Nevertheless, they get bruised badly when whacked. They also wear crotch protectors. I saw a guy put his crotch protector on wrong. Maybe he was just nervous about his upcoming match. In each match the referee keeps them honest. He also penalizes them severely for stalling. They have to keep whacking each other. Each match is divided into three rounds, which last two minutes each. I saw one match where the two guys refused to hit each other. Each guy would motion "Come on! Come on!", but neither of them ever went. It was a low-scoring match with large penalties. Three penalties and you lose the round. However, I couldn't figure out who won or who lost since they both got penalized the same each time. One guy may have accidently hit the other guy and he was declared the winner. Saw one match where a really tall guy had a cool strategy. He would reach in with his long arms and whack his opponent's foot. He scored big this way and won the match. Five whacks on the foot and you win the round.

By the way, not only do we see Starbucks, KFC and McDonalds in Baguio, but we also see Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts and Shakey's Pizza. In fact, I saw some of the contestants at the Arnis Tournament eating Dunkin Donuts and Shakey's Pizza.



Duane and Heide.

18. Visiting with Cloistered Nuns

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday we went to the University of Baguio in City Center to watch an Arnis Tournament. Arnis is a unique Filipino form of Martial Arts. I was the only white guy there. While we sat in the bleachers, little boys and girls came over and stared at me. During a break, I had to walk along the bleachers towards the exit and a little boy touched me on my bald head. Looking back at him, he pretended that the didn't do it. The twelve-hour event was long, so we went to the SM shopping center to get something to eat. While waiting for a seat in the restaurant, another waiting customer stared our way. At first I thought she was looking at me, then I noticed that she was staring at Heide. Heide is often mistaken for Japanese. It was nice not to be the only one stared at.

Some of you have asked "why is everything concrete". The Philippines has an abundance of natural resources so it's probably easier here in Baguio to make things out of concrete than other materials like asphalt or wood. Evidently only the government can purchase asphalt. Private individuals have to buy concrete. Also, the buildings and roads have to be able to withstand mudslides, earthquakes and typhoons. We are here during the dry season, so we rarely even experience rain. The reinforced concrete houses are usually built on solid stone. This is the best information I can get from just asking around.

One nice thing-- there is cleanliness in food preparation here in the Philippines. Bombi was dismayed by the unsanitary conditions involved in preparing food in mainland China. He welcomed coming back home where he felt safe in eating the food.

I was reminded that "Buko juice" is the juice of young coconuts. We only get older coconuts in the states. The mangoes here are delicious and the bananas are unbelievable. I never liked bananas at home. They are so bland. Here I look forward to eating them here.




Investigating the neighborhood, Heide found a group of cloistered Carmelite Sisters who had this Monastery called "Carmel of the Most Holy Trinity". They have daily Catholic Masses at 6:30 AM every morning and 7:30 AM on Sundays.





Here is an interior view of the Church. There are two altars. The one we see here is the one the priest uses for daily mass. It is not facing towards us, but is facing towards the sisters, who are behind the metal grate. For the mass, they open a little door so the priest can give them communion. Otherwise, they lock themselves behind the metal grate. Sometimes Heide and I are asked to give readings. Then we use the lectern by the near microphone. Only a few people join the nuns for daily mass, so we're speaking directly to the sisters.




The entire Parreño family joins us for the Sunday Mass, which is fully packed. After the mass, the priest poses with us for some picture taking. Left to right we have Bombi (visiting from China), Precious, Sweet, Lovely, Rap-Rap (in front), Smile, Father Vincent, Mutya, Bong Bong, Marilyn, Butch (in back), Heide, RJ (in front), Duane and Bren. Missing is Denzil, who is taking the photo.




Here we are waiting to visit with the sisters after mass. From left to right: Mutya and Bombi (in back), then Precious, Bren and Sweet. We are standing in a narrow corridor with barred windows on both sides. To the right we see outside, and to the left we see bars that separate us from the sisters.





When the sisters are ready for us, we enter another room to the left and see the sisters behind bars. The sisters pull back the curtains so we can visit with each other. Here we see RJ looking in. On a previous occasion, Heide and I visited with them. Heide talked with them about health issues and I gave them a computer StrokeDance presentation. Being isolated from the outside world, they had never heard of George Lucas or "Star Wars". Nevertheless, they do use the internet and enjoyed my StrokeDance presentation.





The sisters are shrinking in number, are aging and are lacking new recruits. Nevertheless, they seem really happy and enjoy each others company as well as our visit with them.





Even though the sisters are behind bars, notice that the lock is on the inside. They are not locked in; they lock the world out.





One of the sisters is allowed to come out and greet people. Here the sister says "goodbye" to us.





After our session with the sisters, Rap-Rap saunters up the hill with Heide and others following.


Duane and Heide.

17. Around the Neighborhood

Hi Everyone,



Here's Lovely's children-- Rap-Rap and RJ-- sitting outside Denzil's house. Denzil's family occupies the left side both upper and lower. The upper right side is stunningly furnished and is reserved for the owners. Since they live in Hawaii and only use this for a summer home, they rarely are here. The three people on the right occupy the lower right part of the building. The dog we see on the left is Melko, one of Denzil's dogs. He's chained up to his shed on the left, but keeps breaking the chain. I had to think about how the rainbow light that envelopes Melko got into the picture. The picture really was very light because fog had settled in the scene. I had to bring the contrast up and the brightness down. I think the rainbow appeared from the mist in the fog. Heide says "It looks like the "mist in Avalon' (from King Arthur)".





Heide enjoys playing with Melko. He doesn't like me much. Notice the light socket on his neck. This is Denzil's temporary solution to keep Melko from breaking loose and running away. Sometimes Melko climbs the hill and gets the remainder of his chain tangled in the weeds. The weeds hold him until we can climb the hill to get him.




A couple of doors down-- in front of the jeep parked sideways-- is a guy burning a chicken with a propane torch. I don't know if he's just trying to singe the feathers off the chicken or trying to cook it.





You can always find jeeps, jeepneys and taxis on the side of the road being worked on. This turkey, who wanders freely in the neighborhood, contemplates this guy trying to fix his jeep. Can't get much advice from this turkey.




Our turkey also wanders around the street and steals food from the caged chickens.





I love this photo of a boy peering out from this unfinished house. Metal rods protrude everywhere from this concrete structure. The occupants treat the unfinished upper part like a patio and hang clothes there.





This is a set of condominiums in a gated complex. Although foreigners aren't allowed to own property in the Philippines, they are allowed to purchase condos. All these houses are identical and people are currently living in the finished units. There is a guard at the gate to monitor who enters and leaves this compound. Here we see concrete houses being given a wood finish.





Heide loves to smell flowers. Unfortunately, we've been told that these flowers are smoked by some people. It's supposedly more potent than marijuana. However, Heide says "You don't get high by just smelling."




These are some schoolgirls we encountered on our walk up the hill. I love seeing these uniformed school children walking home from school. It looks like it belongs to another era.


Duane and Heide.