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.