22. Bombi's Photo Shoot

Hi Everyone,

I'm sitting home on pins and needles since Heide just called me from SM Shopping Mall to tell me that the ATM machine just ate our bank debit card. Heide, Denzil and Marilyn are now trying to get Metro Bank to open the machine so we can get our card back. So, instead of tearing my hair out (what little there is left), I thought I would just compose this blog entry.






Coming home from church this morning, not only was there one taxi blocking our driveway, but there were two. They were using our driveway to repaint their taxis. Here's one of the drivers removing the name from his taxi. The only conclusion I can draw is that my blog has more far-reaching exposure than I even imagined. They obviously read yesterday's blog and thought of a cooler name for their taxis in hopes that I would photo them and put them into a future blog entry.



By the way, yesterday I learned two new things. (1) concrete houses are better here than wood houses because termites eat the wood houses. That probably applies to utility poles as well. (Gee, in the Philippines, I thought the termites would have advanced on to concrete by now.) And (2) if a motor vehicle approaches a crowded crosswalk, the driver doesn't just wait for everyone to go through before entering it. After all, there are no traffic signals to tell the pedestrians when to walk and when not to walk. Instead he slowly but gently pushes into the crowd and they slowly but gently move out of the way till he gets through. It's a give-and-take situation. He takes and they give. After all, who wants on their tombstone "Run Over By A Jeepney Named 'The Terminator'".




Here are Denzil's four sons in increasing order of age: Bren, Bong Bong, Butch and Bombi. We're here at our favorite eatery at the SM Shopping Mall: Gerrie's Something or Other. We eat here for a couple of reasons: (1) the food's pretty good, (2) they take our credit cards and (3) Precious' boyfriend is a son of the owner. Why do these boys all go by their nicknames? (1) Nicknames are commonly used in the Philippines and (2) Their real names are all "Denzil". By the way, Butch rarely smiles in photos but does so a lot in real life.

Bren is a student of computer science. Bong Bong is finishing up his final testing to become a nurse and is also a rock musician. Butch is an engineering student who is a fourth-dan black belt in the Filipino martial art of Arnis. And Bombi is an electrical engineer and photographer who works in mainland China right now. He's only visiting home during the Chinese New Year since nobody works in China during this time.

All those pieces of paper mounted on the wall behind these four guys are there to show how well this restaurant is supposedly doing.





These are three photos of Bombi that I took during a previous photo shoot. Since two of the three photos came out crooked, I decided to salvage the three by combining them into this composite photo. Cheers to Photoshop! I believe it's more fun trying to do something creative with a bunch of bad candid photos than doing everything right in the first place. I don't think Bombi would agree with me. Anyway, I've decided to mooch off of his photo shoot on this day. He won't see this until he goes to China anyway. In fact, he won't see my blog at all in China since my blog is "banned in China". They won't allow him access to it. Too politically controversial, I suppose.





Here's Sweet posing for Bombi. When I aim my camera at her, she poses for me too. No, her real name is not "Denzil". It's Ava Marryl. Only the boys are named "Denzil". Sweet is a professional nurse getting her master's degree in nursing. She has another nickname of "Ping Ping". Some call her "Ping" for short. Her nickname has a nickname that also has a nickname. Actually Heide pointed out to me that "Ping Ping" is not a nickname, but is an "endearing term". Practically no one is addressed by their real name. You can hear for boys the words "Toto", "Nonoy", "Nono" used. And for girls, "Inday", "Nene" and "Neneng".

No, it's not raining. Girls in the Philippines often use umbrellas on sunny days. Hmmm ... somehow Rap-Rap always manages to get into the picture.





Here's Precious, Smile and Heide all posing for ME (not Bombi). Precious is a junior nursing student, Smile is Sweet's daughter and Heide is Heide. This is an impromptu pose since they were just sitting on the bench together while Bombi shot photos of someone else.






Here's Lovely with her sons Rap-Rap and RJ. Yes, Lovely also is a nurse. In fact, she just passed her final state board examination and is waiting to begin work.






Here's everyone just sitting around while Bombi shoots photos. I like this photo because there is activity and conversations in all different directions. Precious is talking to her boyfriend Alvin. Marilyn is talking to Butch and Bren. And Heide is fixing Mutya's hair. I don't know who the other two people are, but they help the composition, so I thank them. I know, you're wondering if Alvin is also a nurse. Well ... yes, he just passed the state board exam for nurses, but he will be also starting medical school soon. His parents, co-owners of Gerrie's Grill, are both medical doctors.





Heide was sitting on a bench in front of an Ifugao statue I was interested in. The Ifugao are one of the native tribes in Baguio.





Here's Denzil Senior waiting patiently for the photo shoot to finish so we all can go home. With eight children, he waits patiently for a lot of things.

By the way, since I've avoided putting anyone else's photos on this blog but ours, if you're interested in seeing the fine quality photos that Bombi does take, please go to his website http://denz18madj.multiply.com/



Duane and Heide.