August 31, 2008
Saturday morning (not too early), my roommate Dominic and I left the apartment in Tuding to get a jeepney ride into downtown Baguio City. We left the jeepney on General Luna road, passed through Shoppers’ Lane (shortcut), and further walked through throngs of people buying and selling chickens, eggs, butchered pigs, vegetables and more on our way to a bus depot bordering Center Mall. more →
August 30, 2008
Today Dominic and I rode a bus six hours from Baguio City to Sagada to see the sights here. We arrived at 4:30, found a hotel, ate dinner then moseyed down the main boulevard of this hamlet of 15,000 Igorots and Kankanaeys. I took pictures of kids playing on the street and the verge, and we inquired about where to go tomorrow for typical tourist activities. Current time is 7:55, and this internet cafe is about to close. In the off-season, restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and convenience stores close between 7 and 9 p.m. The enforced curfew is 9 p.m.
August 28, 2008
Sunday I walked down to Baguio Gold to deliver groceries that I’d bought and refrigerated dishes left-over from Saturday night’s big meal in Leah and Mike’s home. I found that the A/V/A family had already eaten lunch, but the folks were grateful for what I’d brought. I heard that 17-year old Patrick, who’s been working in a mine in Rino Hill in Baguio Gold had brought 500 pesos of his wages to his grandmother, so the family had dined on fish and rice. more →
August 27, 2008
Like other storms, Tropical Depression Fourteen has been spinning past the north east coast of Luzon toward China and dousing us with rain all the way down here in west central Luzon. We’ve had plenty of rain in the monsoon season. more →
August 27, 2008
You may have read of this one:
At a Copenhagen airline ticket counter:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.
August 26, 2008
These are collected transcripts of humorous notices seen around the globe by English-reading tourists and business travelers:
Read in a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
August 20, 2008
Typhoon Nuri has been blowing rain in Benguet for days. Continuous rain. We lost electricity for hours. A tree may have fallen upon an electricity-carrying overhead line nearby, or a cement pole holding up lines may have toppled on oversaturated soil. We’ve just regained our electricity, so I’m on the internet now.
August 12, 2008
Thomas Edwin Paine was born today to Chris and Leslie Paine. I guess that he was a pain from the start. Glad to see another Paine, though! Leslie is doing well. Thanks be to God!
August 11, 2008
Today is Charisse’s eighth birthday, and her family is too poor to do anything to celebrate. I doubt that they’ve ever celebrated birthdays ‘American-style.’ I walked down to Baguio Gold and went in their shack to blow up balloons while the kids were in school. I carried a bag of inexpensive gifts that I’d bought when I shopped for Nikko’s and Toni Rose’s birthdays.
August 10, 2008
Nikko and his younger sisters came uphill from their humble home in Baguio Gold neighborhood hours ahead of the 4:30 Mass time at Turning Point/Fatima Hill. I think that they wanted the opportunity to watch cartoons on TV or DVD for a while before we departed for Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church.
August 9, 2008
Nikko came up from Baguio Gold after his chores so that we could go together to Baguio City and register him for Taekwondo training in UFC Fitness Center. Upon arrival downtown, we checked my mailbox for his birth certificate again (not there, alas). Then we crossed Father Carlu Street, walked toward the cathedral and descended into the Porta Vaga Building that the diocese owns to go into UFC’s martial arts school. more →
Brian writes of
misadventures in
the Philippines
