MY HOUSE AND TOWN ON THE ISLAND OF NEGROS

I have now been living in the Philippines since June 30, but except for a few pictures on Facebook, I have never talked about my residence. 

Google says that in the year 2000, 88,000 people lived in Himamaylan City, but one has to take into consideration that Himamaylan covers a large area (think of it like a county with the city as its county seat).  Several Barangays (Barrios) are scattered throughout this geographical area with a few the size of large towns.  Although there are a lot of Mango (tree) groves, rice fields, and large tracts of sugar cane, there are still a lot of Barangays. In Aguisan, where I go to watch the most magnificent sunsets, you would travel about a mile past houses and businesses, along with the local market before arriving at the pier.  The street is always congested with trikes, trucks, and cars as they SLOWLY wend their way down the narrow lane. Many of the outlying towns (Barangays) are only accessible by dirt & stone roads and the basic construction of the town’s structures illustrate the condition of the rest of those remote villages.  Peppered about the countryside there will be packs of bamboo houses hidden within the surrounding fields of sugar cane. The number of simple structures may consist of four or five or even up to ten or twelve individual units.  Most sit above the ground, supported by bamboo stilts, but there are still dwellings constructed upon the earthen floor.  Some have a make shift addition for the kitchen, but many have their cooking apart from the one or two room structure.

As for Himamaylan, I would guestimate the real population of the city itself to be somewhere around 20,000+.  The town is long (about 3 miles from north to south), but narrow (maybe ½ to ¾ mile) at its widest point.  Like most towns in this part of the

One side of the town's Plaza

country, there is just the main street (main highway) through the community. However, my tiny city has a side street, which parallels the highway for 1.2 miles and another for a few short blocks.  Toward the town center, most of the houses are constructed of block, but as you move out into the residential areas, bamboo construction begins to intermingle and finally dominate the domiciles. All of the houses constructed of block have concrete and tiled floors, but quite a few of the bamboo quarters in the outlying areas of town do not.  It exemplifies the fact that poverty exists within as well as without the city.  Still, I see a community content within its simplicity.  I don’t see protests, arguments, or even fights upon the streets or avenues.  In Cebu, I saw a lot of public drunkenness.  However, in Negros, it doesn’t

Barangay One Christmas Display

exhibit that unsightly ugliness.  The streets are kept clean and litter is, for the most part, unseen. One day, I was purchasing medication at one of the local pharmacies after the motorbike accident (there are no indoor pharmacies, but all can only be accessed at the sidewalk through a security window).  A bald man (from the mountains) was smoking and threw his cigarette butt in the road gutter.  A trike driver immediately told him to pick it up and throw it in the trashcan sitting upon the sidewalk or he “could be cleaning gutters” as a penalty for his actions”.  Three other supportive drivers looked on as the man picked it back up and tossed it in the can.  I was impressed with their open concern with the cleanliness of the city. No, the city is not litter free, but in comparison to other communities, Himamaylan looks pretty nice.

Barangay Two Christmas Decoration

Right now the town plaza is filled with colorful Christmas lights hanging from the trees as festive Christmas displays light up each Barangay.  The Barangay I live in has a nativity display and NO ONE is going to file a law suit to have it removed! Now there may not be any snow here, but it doesn’t seem to dampen the Christmas Spirit. Let’s face facts; there was no snow when Jesus was born either, so this is ALMOST what it was like in Bethlehem, but in more of a tropical way.

OK!!!  I live three or so blocks from the National Highway. My house in a compound with big green gates (that are never closed)

The gate and MY  HOUSE

along with twenty some other block homes. My rented castle is constructed of block with a metal roof. Just like all the other homes, there is a bamboo fence surrounding my abode. The interior has two bedrooms (one is a storeroom), a living room, kitchen/dining area, and bathroom.  There is a concrete

The only street in the compound, the rest are paths

pad out back for doing laundry (but I use it mostly for parking my motorbike).  Since my arrival, I have acquired a refrigerator, two burner countertop stove, rice cooker (no more crispy (burned)
rice for me), microwave (seems to be more of a decoration than an appliance), water dispenser, queen size bed (I like to stretch out), and one

Living Room with TV

plastic table with three plastic chairs (one is used as a foot rest and the third is for company which never seems to visit).  Just before Christmas I
purchased a television to watch my pirated DVD movies upon. 

Kitchen

Other side of the Living Room

In a way, I live the lifestyle of a recluse. The cleaning lady visits three times a week to do laundry, clean and cook me the occasional Filipino dish, but that is about all. I will pass out tootsie rolls to the kids in the compound and of course Gwen (my four year old neighbor), but mostly it is a solitary life. No matter what a few may think, I don’t have any ravishing Filipinas knocking down my front door (even the carolers don’t come inside the fence) nor are there any grabbing me by the arm at the mall in Bacolod. When sitting upon the bench facing the highway at the plaza (I can sit there for hours on a good day), I will

The Master & only bedroom

get a lot of stares and on the rare occasion I’ll hear a few giggles, but that is the extent of it. Sometimes I wonder if the Filipinos think I might be gay, but I don’t know the language well enough to tell.  At least I haven’t been confronted by any…..yet.