Cool Water - Part 3

Success!

It took a while and was way over the intended budget, but we finally have a functioning well and pump in the less well serviced area of the village. The well is some 46 feet (about 25 feet deeper than I was hoping to have to go) but it does deliver good, clean water and it delivers it close to many families. Fortunately, because we are deepening our hand pump well (and will install an electric pump) we had the necessary parts and pipes to go inside the well.

Two days ago, we got to pump water from it for the first time. It's a good and proper pump installation too, 3 strokes of the handle to get clean water flowing. I actually tasted it (and so far, I am still alive!)

Vivian pumps water from the new well

Yesterday we had a report that "lots of people" were bathing and doing laundry in the vicinity of the pump (the effects of Ompong notwithstanding).

Last night, we had a visit from a group of families that will benefit from the well. They came to say thank you and brought some gifts - including coconuts, bananas, veggies, fish, a cooked leg of pork, a jug of vinegar and...

a live chicken! 😃

It was a very nice gesture on their part and I appreciate it deeply.

Habang may tubig, may buhay.
The young girl to my right is holding the chicken

Footnotes

Drilled deep wells and the pump equipment require maintenance - which I why I originally tried for a dug well. This group of families seems to understand that AND has demonstrated the ability to work together. It is very encouraging.

Well work will take a short break while I let the coffers replenish. Then it will be time to start getting the other wells back in service. Meanwhile, the school well still needs work!

If you want to better understand why I do this, take a look at the header picture on the Log. Those three children are carrying water home from the dug well at the back of our place. It is about 300m  from their home. Before the new dug well they had to walk at least 2 km there and back to the old dug well - and water is heavy! Their parents tried for a drilled well at their house a while back but, within their budget, it was dry. Even at double their budget, there would have been no guarantee.

Being handed a live chicken is a bit disconcerting - when the only chickens you have ever handled come in a plastic bag from the supermarket 😂

Have a great week everyone!

Chu Chu

Every time I come to the Philippines I have learned something new in the language. This time around it is "chu chu" (pronounced choo choo). Chu chu means "stuff" as in "this 'n' that". So here's some chu chu from the last week or two.

Back Door Chicken

Because we have been working on a couple of wells (and the next task is to make one of ours deeper) I am used to sacrifical chickens being tied up for a day / few hours in our back yard and then disappearing - all in aid of appeasing the well Gods. However, one morning while I was having breakfast, there was a gentle "aiyo" from the back gate. "Aiyo" means "hello - can I speak to someone please?" and is used from the gate or door without entering further. As you can imagine, if it is some distance from the gate to whoever happens to be at home, there can be multiple gentle "aiyo"'s before anything else happens. Noone ever shouts "aiyo". I have no idea why. Normally, it's best for me not to be the responder to "aiyo" because difficulty with communication (still) is likely to be the result.

Anyway - back to the story. This particular "aiyo" prefaced an offer to buy a chicken, which, for some unknown reason, we did. The chicken was tied to one of the benches in the balai balai with a scruffy red ribbon. Later that day, Vivian could be heard saying "Where's the chicken?". Since both the chicken and ribbon were gone, I had to assume grand theft manok, or that the chicken's real name was Houdini. Later "a" chicken appeared. It sorta looked like the "aiyo" chicken but there was no red ribbon. Since "that" chicken is now also gone I have no idea if it was the original chicken or not. Nor do I know what happened to it - except I'm sure it was a nice supper for someone! It's much more fun in the Philippines!

Back door chicken

 The Ber Months

Those of you familiar in any respect with the Philippines will know that Christmas is not restricted to December - or even the time between Thanksgiving and New Year. Christmas in the Philippines is in the "ber" months - September, October...you get the picture.

Since it is now past September 1, there are Christmas songs on the car radio, Christmas music in the mall and...

we have our first string of lights up (when in Rome, be a Roman Candle!)

The Ber Months are here

What Flakes?!

We were in the supermarket the other day and happened to pass the crackers aisle. I had to take the pic below because I found it difficult to believe the flavours - especially if you happen to know my seafood preference (which is "none"). Oh, I knew there were prawn crackers out there - I had encountered those in Singapore many years ago. But lobster, shrimp and squid flake? Really, who eats, let alone makes, squid flake crackers!

Squid Flake Crackers anyone?

Dual Purpose

It turns out, a fire made of coconut husks can be used to cook corn on the cob AND combat  the mosquitoes. Who knew?

Coconut Husks - more useful than you might think

Typhoon Ompong

Typhoon Ompong (Manghut if you live anywhere else but the Philippines) is upon us. Fortunately, it will be going by some distance to the North of us but we're feeling the effects of it right now (and I am very sympathetic to those in Northern Luzon where it will impact during the next 24 hours. Filipinos, especially those in the provinces, are very sensitive to typhoons since Yolanda a couple of years back, and this one has been headline news for the last few days. I have been impressed with PAGASA, the Philippines Weather Authority, though. They have done a good job at forecasting, predicting and minimizing any unnecessary panic.

Ompong - Not a pretty sight

Have a great week everyone!

Party Time

It came as something of a surprise to me to discover the things that will create an impromptu party in a provincial village in the hills. We have had three "parties" recently. Two concrete parties and a mango harvest party.

Concrete Party #1

The pouring of the suspended floor for the guest kubo created concrete party #1. Some 20 workers spent all day and half the night mixing, pouring and working concrete. There aren't too many other concrete floors like this in the village (if any!) so it was an "event".

Time for a break - it was a very long, and hard day (all the mixing was done by hand)...

...with a good result the next morning

Concrete Party #2

One of the jobs we wanted done was to redo the front yard - which meant ripping up the existing concrete and relaying it (this time taking into account what would happen to runoff etc). I had assumed that we would end up with a large pile of broken concrete bits that we would eventually have to get rid of somewhere. Not a chance!! That pile of broken concrete bits moved itself! Well - actually those neighbours who fancied some concrete and hard core rubble were invited to help themselves. Word got around quick!

Gigi, protected against the morning sun, is happy to get some "free" concrete

and some neighbours down the road, managed an auto-calesa full!

Mango Harvest Party

One afternoon there was a prolonged outburst of merriment at the back. My question about what's going on was answered with "they're harvesting the mangoes". One of our closest neighbours, Ermeng, has several mango trees in his yard (you can see them in the pic below) and he had decided a) the mangos were ripe enough and b) if he didn't harvest them, the kids would be throwing sticks and stones to try to knock them down. So with multiple outbursts of merriment, Emeng, family and friends harvested the mangos. I heard someone say the count was 600 - and we got a large eco shopping bag full of them. The sad fact about this happy event is that mangos are not a favoured fruit of mine 😞

The mango trees before the harvest

Party on folks! It looks like any reason is reason enough! 😁

Cool Water - Part 2

Habang may gulay, may buhay

Roughly translated that means "Where there are veggies, there's life". There's an organic farming push on by the Department of National Resources (DNR) at the moment, aided and abetted by the Department of Education (DepEd). One of the local grade schools, the Umabay Exterior Central School, has jumped into this and created a Vegetable Classroom. They won the District Competition and are trying for Regionals. They approached me because they have a couple of problems - acidic soil and not enough water. I gave the school a donation for a drilled well (which has now been done and produces good water). The school still has to figure out how to get the water from the well up hill about 75 yards to the Vegetable Classroom - but so far, so good.

I was asked to give a few words to add to their video submission for the Regional Competition so I spent about an hour at the school doing that and taking a look around.

Gulayan sa Paaralan - Vegetables in the School

Really, the school has done an amazing job on, presumably, what was some spare land at the back of the school. They are growing all sorts of veggies and even have a rice padi and a Museum containing endangered species. The veggies grown are used in a feeding program for the Grade 1 and 2 children. Given the economic state of the area, this can only be a good thing.

The Gulayan sa Paaralan entrance

It's an impressive vegetable classroom!

The Museum

While I was there, the Grade 5 class was working with the veggies (all the classes do as far as I can gather) but there was a sudden, tropical downpour. We all took shelter in a little classroom on the side of the area and chatted while the rain came through the classroom (horizontally :) ). The video soundbite was done in the little classroom also.

After the rain, we went out to one of the plots and I was given a memento of the occasion - several "fresh from the ground" pechay (distantly related to cabbage I think!).

The Grade 5 class at the Pechay plot. The little classroom is top right.

If you would like to help...

My soundbite basically said "water is essential for the well being of a community, education is essential for the future of a community. I am happy to help the school bring these two things together in the Gulayan sa Paaralan" (and yes, I did say that! Try it for yourself 😀)

The school needs about another $1000 for a submersible pump, hose etc. If anyone would like to help, I will be happy to coordinate.

Cool Water - Part 1

All day I faced
the barren waste
without the taste
of water...
cool water...

I forget who sang that song many years ago (Marty Robbins?) but the more I am here in Umabay, the more I am reminded of it. Water is very important here and not easy to get if you don't have money. There is no municipal system in the village (and unlikely to be one any time soon). There is a "sort-of" commercial system but it's very similar to the one that was in place years ago when we first built the house. When I walked through the village this morning, there was the line of water cans at one of the stand pipes waiting to be filled one drip at a time...

There actually was more than a drip at a time yesterday...

One of my objectives, as a resident in the community, is to try to make water more accessible to more people. We started a second open well recently in an underserved part of the village in a promising location. After two failed, dug wells we've bitten the bullet and will attempt a drilled well. We still expect to hit water, but it looks like it's deeper than we can dig without shoring up the sides of the dug wells. Shoring the walls as you go is every bit as expensive as drilling. Oh well...it's never boring here :)

Day 1 of drilling - 15 feet and water

There's plenty of maintenance to do on the various hand pumps around the village too.

Road Trip

As you will know from the last log, there are a number of irons in the fire with action/results expected over the next weeks and months. A couple of the "weeks" items have already happened or are about to...

The new car

The car has arrived. A midnight burgundy Honda Civic - which everyone thinks is black. It's definitely an upgrade from the Celerio (and it seems to get rather more deference on the road!)

Midnight burgundy is NOT black! (but you have to get the light just so...)

There's really only one dealership in Masbate City and that, it would appear, is a far flung outpost of a dealership in Naga (halfway up Luzon on the way to Manila). Buying a car is an interesting experience but suffice it to say, the Civic arrived in Masbate with 9km on the clock👍

So, since we now have the car, some road trips were in order...

Dacu

Dacu is a small fishing village within about 10 minutes of "the Bukid" (Umabay Interior). There is a small but cute resort/hotel there called Lucky Beach Resort. It could be yours for P4.5million!

Dacu fishing boats

The beach in front of Lucky Resort

Dimasalang

About 45 minutes south of the Bukid is the town of Dimasalang. It is an interesting drive on the Nautical Highway with fantastic sea, palm tree and agricultural views.

Rice Seedlings

On the road to Dimasalang

Our target in Dimasalang was a resort called Patio Milagros (which confused the heck out of me because Milagros is a town in the other direction!). Daughter #5 immediately decided she wants her 17th birthday party here...

Patio Milagros - birthday party location - perhaps!

Patio Milagros

Next

We're off to Manila at the end of this week to pick up my Passport and Retirement Visa (and probably a few other things that are not so easy to find here at the end of the global logistic chain!).

Lots more to come on construction and wells and stuff - oh my!

Have a great day!

Retiring to a tropical island...

...is all I imagined it to be

It has been a little over a month since I retired and just about one month since I have been here in the Philippines. I think I have found a good way to continue the Capn's Log so, here is the next installment.

It's been quiet...

...so far.  I have applied for a retirement visa (and hope to get it within the next week or three), ordered a car (and hope to get in within the next week or three!), started construction on the Guest Kubo (complete in the next month or three 😀 ), started the next village well project (next day or three) and I'm in the process of developing lesson plans for a Conversational French course I have been asked to teach at Liceo. Oh and I have been taking it easy too! Mind you, Vivian says she is already tired of ordering steel bar, cement, sand, gravel, coco lumber and plywood!

...but...

The Guest Kubo...

...in Banana Grove is under way - although we've had to remove some of the bananas to make some space. I'm really looking forward to the result of this.

Foundation Work

There's a fair amount of materials on the site - but it didn't get there on wheels. It was either hand carried or carabao "dragged"

Home Depot Delivery - Umabay Style

Actually, there is no Home Depot here. That lumber came from "somewhere up in the hills" and was hand sawn by a guy with a chain saw. He has an amazingly steady hand and a sharp eye.

The Man with the Chain Saw

The next village well...

...will be another open well. While there is less chance of good potable water from an open well, the well is cheaper to construct and requires almost zero maintenance. Even if the water is only good for bathing and laundry, it will still help. 

Keng Keng's father starts the next well

Out of all the hand pump wells, only our own is still functioning properly, so there's some maintenance to be done on the other wells around the village (and some research to do on how to make these pumps more durable). However, all of the other open wells are in good shape and providing water on a daily basis.

There's a lot going on but not a great deal to see at the moment. I'll update all the various projects as we go.

Have a great day!