ROOSTERS, CONCRETE, SHAMPOO, & SUNSHINE

 

I was always raised with the idea that Roosters only crowed just before dawn.  Well in the Philippines, another old wives tale has been put to rest.  Since this country excels at cock fighting, there is an overabundance of Roosters, and thus for twenty-five hours each

Rooster farm

day, there is always a Rooster somewhere crowing its head off.  OK, let me add a little more to this.  Sometimes, and I mean on a very rare occasion, it will actually be quiet here.  Then one Rooster will get it in his head that it’s time to start the daily routine (at 1:00 a.m.) and a cock-a-doodle do is the result, which will be followed by a crescendo of other small minded  Roosters following in chorus.  Which leads me to the question: if Roosters “Crow”, then why do Crows “Caw”.   And to sate ones curiosity, there are Crows in the Philippines.

When they built the first few houses within this compound, they would hand mix the cement just inside the entryway.  Of course, over time, as each day ended, a small layer of cement would dry

Remains of the concrete slab

atop the dried concrete of days and weeks past.  In the modern World, you would use a mixer or even a box to combine the cement, sand, and water, but in the Philippines, you just mixed it with a shovel upon the ground.  In the end, a large slab of dried concrete was left about half the width of the drive with a long hollow depression in the middle.  For years everyone in the compound complained about the impediment, but no one would take the initiative to remove it.  Even I tolerated this lump of manmade rock until this week. With sledgehammer, pickax, and shovel in hand, I resolved to remove the manmade hump.  Many of the neighbors watched as the heavily laden foreigner slammed the sledge into the seemingly unyielding slab.  However, it wasn’t long before the obstruction began to break down, unlike an onion, a thin layer at a time.  Since I walked in the mornings and the intolerable heat and humidity ruled the rest of the day, I had less than an hour before sunset to dispose of this encumbrance.  The amazing thing is that my entire Philippine family followed me and took turns with the sledgehammer and shoveling (even fifteen year old Clarisse demanded her fair share of the sledgehammering).   I did not ask for their assistance, but they were by my side to clear away the debris as each layer crumbled under the repeated pummeling.  In less than two hours (about one hour each night), the slab had been reduced to a pile of rubble and only hard earth remained beneath.  In the end, I realized it wasn’t the breaking down and removal of the concrete that impressed me as much as it was my family coming together to help in its demise.  Oh yes, and we did celebrate with Pepsi those evenings.

I receive something called Balikbayan Boxes from the states of which Donarae fills with used clothing, non-perishable food, toothpaste, sweets, soap and shampoo, along with assorted stuffed animals….among other things.  I am so thankful for her kindness and generosity in sending those boxes here.  Some of the food items we receive, Filipinos have never seen or imagined they existed.

Their first taste of canned frosting - Feb. 2015

Donarae, in all of her goodness, will send treats unknown here and the kids are instantly hooked on them.  One item of note is canned frosting.  It is amazing how quickly a container of cake frosting can be emptied by just using fingers and yet, the smiles, laughter, along with fighting for finger position, or should I say possession make it all worthwhile.  However, I digress from the focus of this topic.  I put a container of Dial body wash in the shower last evening before the kids took their bathes.  It seems that eight year old Charissa Mae thought it was shampoo and immediately slathered her hair in the blue gel.  Dial body wash does not wash off easily, especially on a hairy surface and since Mae Mae has long hair and little patience, she came out of the bathroom with sticky as well as soapy hair.  Of course she was unceremoniously returned to the shower and thus a lesson was learned from that experience….I hope.

 A final tidbit of information to fill your day.   The hours of sunshine in this part of the World is pretty consistent.  Whereas the daylight hours may be very long in the summer as well as very short in the winter the further north you live, they do not vary much here.  In June, the hours of daylight total about thirteen hours while the length of sunshine in December drops to a mere eleven hours.  Yet, the heat and humidity stay the same year around.  

 

Toy, Charissa Mae, Clarisse, & Santiago at the beach

Bounder

 

November 21, 2015

 

MY DAILY ROUTINE, SANTIAGO’S FUN RUN, AND UN WORLD TOILET DAY

To be able to write this blog requires that my day begin at 4:00 a.m.  Some mornings it is challenging crawling out of bed, but then again, it is nice to be able to sit in the darkness of the living room with only the laptop’s screen illuminating the space around me, producing a white sterile light which faintly reflects off the white walls.  Every now and then I can hear the resettling of one of the children as he or she tries to find a more comfortable position to nestle into.  When the kids first moved over here to live, they were restless and, in the case of Clarisse, she would grind her teeth incessantly while asleep.  It was a terrible sound and when hearing it, I swore her teeth were going to crack and crumble under the pressure.  I want to stress that I had noticed Clarisse doing this when I visited the island of Cebu, but even more so there.  Now, as I sit within this darkened room, I no longer hear that gnashing of teeth and I feel comfort from that.  It just makes me wonder what kind of dreams could cause such actions.

I am sure that some of you have wondered what my daily routine is like here in the Philippines.  Well, prior to my current writings,  I would awaken at around 5:00 a.m. and take a four kilometer walk to the new market and back with Toy.  Then, after our return, it would entail breakfast with the four kids.  When they departed for school, I would play Frisbee for thirty minutes at the basketball court in the town’s plaza.  There are no grassy areas here in Himamaylan City large enough to toss the disk around.  Afterwards I would sit in the waiting shade (a small rectangular area with concrete benches and roof overhead where people would wait to ride trikes or buses) for another thirty minutes and watch the traffic/pedestrians pass by.  Walking back home, I would cool off before the pedestal fan and read from my Kindle or write emails.  Consider the days when we would have actually written correspondence vs. typing on a keyboard, or actually receive letters in the mail. The only mail I ever receive here is a letter once each year from the Social Security Administration asking me to fill out and return a form to show that I am still alive.  The kids would return home for lunch and many times would bring along classmates for the noon meal.    Consequently, it would not be unusual to have eight or ten people dining instead of only six.  In the afternoon, I would settle down like many Filipinos to take a siesta in an effort to stave off the overwhelming heat and humidity.  After the four children returned home, it would be some family time together, then supper, and if I was lucky, a return walk to the plaza to sit in the waiting shade once again and watch Himamaylan City roll up its “sidewalks”.   The first time I heard that phrase being used was in a small Iowa town.  I was told they would roll the streets up at 9 p.m., but never realized it was just a pretense at that time.  We were so innocent and believing when we were small; sometimes it was hard having to grow up and face the reality of life along with all the cruelties associated with it.   I far preferred the innocent and believing World I inhabited so many decades ago.

Students on Fun Run

Himamaylan City Central School

Santiago went on a fun run yesterday from the Western Visaya State University Campus to his elementary school in Himamaylan.  The distance was a little under three kilometers (about 2 miles) and most of the school (of over 2,000 pupils) participated.   I sat along the highway and watched the throng of tiny bodies wend their way alongside the national highway while traffic officials monitored the students as well as the passing cars, trucks, motorbike, buses, and trikes to ensure they kept a safe distance from the migrating pupils.  Santiago stood out in the group as he was the only one wearing a ball cap.  Maybe he wasn’t at the head of the pack, but he was toward the front of the mass and I was just proud to see him jogging with his classmates.  

Yesterday was World Toilet Day.  It is a program promoted by the United Nations to promote safe sanitation for everyone in this World.  The UN states there are 2.4 billion people in this World without proper sanitation.  Clarisse needed a slogan for class and came up with:  Proper Sanitation Saves Lives.  I thought it appropriate for the occasion. The router for the website is below.

http://www.un.org/en/events/toiletday/

Trail leading north past my house

Road Leading to Yonder Street

My residence is against the back wall of a compound with around thirty other homes.  It is about 300 feet from the street access with only a trail passing my house on its way to three houses to the north of mine.  However, there is always motorbike, tricycle, or foot traffic passing by.  Either it is vendors selling their wares or the families who reside within those homes beyond, passing back and forth.  So, even though I am not in the mainstream of society, it is never really quiet here either….which is not always bad.

Daryl A. Cleveland

November 20, 2015

Five Years of Living in the Philippines

It was five years ago today that I landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines thus beginning an adventure which continues to evolve with each new day.  

What I recall of that extremely hot and humid evening was I had returned to explore once more this tropical paradise; perhaps to find solace in its culture and inhabitants.  In reality, I guess I was trying to escape a World which (for me) was turning cold and mundane.  I had traveled the length and breadth of the United States several times during my first six decades on this earthly plane.  During those many years and miles, I tried to satisfy a nagging need I could neither describe, much less understand.  As an adult, I would travel thousands of miles at a time on the motorcycle, always returning home sun blistered and exhausted, but with every sojourn, there remained this enigmatic urge deep within my psyche.  Some have written they traveled in search of life’s answers or perhaps that unknown someone to give substance and meaning to their existence; or simply to fill that fathomless void which existed within their soul.  

On that flight to Manila,  I recall meeting a couple of Americans who were on their way to the Philippines to either roam around or to meet a girlfriend…..and I remember them trying to persuade me to “enjoy” all that the Philippines had to offer.  However, I had not “returned” to the Philippines in search of companionship or even find that proverbial, Meaning of Life.  

Personally, there were no answers to be found or hidden wisdom to be discovered within this tropical archipelago.  It was not the reason I had traveled here.   Still, I somehow felt like the Monarch Butterfly who for whatever reason, had that insatiable need to migrate to that hidden valley in Mexico.   I had spent almost three years here in the 1970’s while serving with the US Navy, and the country (at that time) had such an impact on me that it had instilled the desire to return someday.   To find my own hidden valley deep within the lush jungles or fog enshrouded mountain peaks.   Perhaps one of the reasons for my return five years ago…..and continues even today, was the simplistic or basic lifestyle of the people.  Another was I wanted to really explore those many islands.  I had never really had the money to explore back in the seventies….and even in 2010, my funds were limited, but there was enough money to meander my winter months away in pursuit of that perfect location.  

Santiago, Toy, Charissa Mae, and Clarisse w/Jesse the Dog

However for me, the most important discovery since my arrival here in the Philippines, was settling upon the Island of Negros and the finding of four children in desperate need of a papa.  Since that time, I have expended my energies on raising the four best kids in the entire World.  I am awed at times when I think that the first time I met them, their ages ranged from three and one-half, to almost seven, to nine and finally ten and one-half years.  They were either in grade school or preschool when I happened upon them, however, now they are in ninth, seventh, fifth, and third grades……Children grow faster than you realize…especially as you mature.  

 One comment I would like to add is that this family always has discussions at the dinner table (in English) on a wide variety of topics.  One day we were talking about education and I asked fourteen year old Toy where he would be in school had I not come into his life.  You see, before I had arrived in the Philippines, Toy was always skipping school.  Even if his mother walked him to the classroom, as soon as she departed, he was out the door.   So, he sat quietly for a few moments considering the question asked and then softly replied that he would have never made it to sixth grade.  None of those children had aspirations of careers when growing up….but now they actually have dreams of a better education which will lead to a better life for them along with their future families. Toy has been the one child who has been by my side since we became a family.  Whatever I do or wherever I go, you can bet he will be right beside me.  Since I have resumed daily walks two months ago, he has been walking with me almost every morning.  I may watch over the family, but I will tell you now that Toy watches over me.

Which brings me to another topic.  My knees.  In certain regards, my knees are better now than when I arrived here five years ago, but they have also deteriorated significantly since then.  I now exercise them and bend the legs regularly which helps with flexibility.  However the other side of the coin is the cartilage (which cushions the knee joints) is just about gone.  I can still walk with some discomfort and can even make a three mile an hour pace (if pressed into it), but as for running, jogging, or performing Zumba, it is not an option any longer.  I can make short sprints after an errant Frisbee, but the impact of bone upon bone creates a painful reminder that I am no longer twenty years old.   Still, I continue to walk between four and eight kilometers almost every day.  

With all of the global events/tragedies occurring right now, what I have noticed more than anything else is that the active World continues to pass me by.  I reside within a quaint paradise of friendly people who are oblivious to the rest of the World’s problems and also enjoy an unencumbered lifestyle.  I have four wonderful children who I have come to call my own, a basic house which (for the most part) keeps the rain out, food in the pantry and freezer full of ice cubes to chill my glass liter bottles of Pepsi (40¢ per bottle).   I can only hope and pray that the next five years will be as enjoyable and rewarding as the past five…..and with God’s blessing, I am sure they will be. 

Daryl A. Cleveland

November 19, 2015