[smartads] This is going to probably be the shortest post I have ever done. I may start babbling and make it longer, but it’s going to take a lot of babbling. It’s only 9:00pm, so maybe something will happen in the next couple of hours. Most likely not, but you just never know.
Lets start at the beginning of the day. I got to be daylight and I got up. I started writing in the notebook about 0910 and I had been up long enough to make and eat 3 cucumber and tomato sandwiches, make a cup of coffee and take care of the first “S”.
I ate those sandwiches while in LolyKat, which is where I am right now.
Already this morning Precious has seen another “John” checking into the Ciriaco. She still calls all white males “John”. She called him, but he didn’t answer. Maybe his name is “Joe”.
Rain Days = 6 in a row.
Lita showed up back out here about 1105. By 1130 I was laying down to take a nap. I really should have stayed in bed I guess. I’ve been yawning all morning. I did go back to sleep and stayed sleeping for almost 2 hours. It was 1:26pm when I opened my eyes, but I didn’t decided to get out of bed until 1:49pm.
It’s obviously my turn in LolyKat, but I wanted to eat first. I heated up the leftover stew from yesterday, which turned out to be only 3/4 of a bowl. While I was eating, in LolyKat, Lita went to lay down. She is only watching TV though. In the meantime I had to get some peanut butter sandwiches because that soup just wasn’t enough to satisfy me. After the sandwiches and a 1/2 liter of bottled water, I was full.
There is now no sign of the rain from earlier except for a few small puddles. The sky is nice and clear at the moment and it’s warm out here.
Children are strange. These 2 little girls were walking on the other side of the road, in front of the Ciriaco. One of the girls threw up. They both stopped to look at it and laugh. They walked a few more steps and did the same thing. A total of 3 times they did this. About 1 minute later they were both on my side of the road, at the store window, asking for change for a P20 note to play the computer next door. Both of them still smiling.
That’s all I put in my notes.
Lita asked me to close the store about 6:15pm because no one was showing up and we had a couple of trucks blocking the front of the store anyway. I didn’t even turn the computer on today until a little past 8:00pm. That’s the latest I have ever gone and actually did turn the computer on. There have been a few days, when we had electricity, that I did not turn the computer on at all. That was before I started this blog and a couple of days when I was sick or incapacitated (gout).
I did write down a few things to use in case the post is a little short and today qualifies for short. I’ve only got 3 things written down so I’m only going to use one of them because I may need the other 2 pretty soon.
Sometimes when we are downtown and the children as asking for money (which doesn’t happen very much anymore), but I’ll give them a peso or two. Sometimes the kids complain, but I don’t really know about it until later, because they complain in Tagalog. Because I usually wear shirts with no sleeves, Lita said she just tells them that I don’t have much money, I can’t even afford to have sleeves on my shirt. I was wondering why sometimes they would look at me funny before they left. Recently when I’ve been downtown by myself doing things, I do not get anyone asking for money. I did get one old man ask me, but I give money to the old people that ask and that doesn’t bother me. Sometimes the kids ask my name. I rarely answer because I don’t think young children should be outright asking me a question like that, but when I do answer, I tell them “Uncle John”.
This post is so short I’m not even going to waste a city on it. I’ll just put in some of the very old pictures I found on a CD. Most of them are pictures of this place before our house was built. I think I did that once before, so I’ll try to to repeat the same pictures. Don’t forget to click on the pictures to find out a little more information about the picture. All these pictures were taken by someone else, not me. They sent the film to me and I put it on a CD. The pictures were taken in December 2007.
Salamat, Paalam
Useless Knowledge: Hindus have a monkey for one of their gods. His name is Hanuman, and he is known for his mischievous sense of humor.
Hi John,
Well I’m back in the USA. I was hoping to catch up with you but as things transpired we ended up spending lots of time chasing around for things. We had a great two weeks but I can hardly wait for the day it becomes months and not weeks. We don’t generally have too many kids hit us up for pesos in Calbayog (unless they are relatives, lol) but when we go to Manila we run into a lot of panhandlers. The wife usually decides who is worthy and who isn’t and I follow her lead. I haven’t got a clue how she makes her decision though. Sorry we never got out your way. I would have loved to check out the Ciriaco and say ‘Howdy’ to you as well. I’m catching up on your blog as I didn’t have adequate web access from Santo Nino to see what was going on in the world.
Mark G.
Well Mark I guess next time, but it’s your turn to buy the drinks now. I was going to buy this time. I hate to turn down a kid that really needs the money, but the problem is they go tell their friends and the next thing you know, you’re surrounded. I don’t get up to Manila much, by choice.
I hope my recent entries don’t bore you, or anyone else. They have not been too exciting and a lot of goo-bally gosh.
wow, i love reading your post..kakaaliw..are you from samar? just asking..
I live in Samar, but, as the name on the blog indicates, I am from Texas.
I hope that you continue reading all the posts and you love them all.
Good Morning John,
Yesterday I spent the day running around with the driver of my truck looking for parts. Amazingly we managed to find everything needed but it took some persistance and thinking on both our parts. The driver was surprised that I asked for and recieved a six hundred peso discount on the parts that I bought. During the course of the day we went to many parts stores. One place we went was a street lined with surplus parts because I wanted to find an original spring shackle for the military truck instead of an aftermarket one. After much searching they produced a rusted piece of crap. I asked the price and it was much higher than a new one. They were dying laughing when I told them to close your eyes and pretend that you don’t see any white devils around and then give me a price. They reduced the price but it was still a piece of junk so I bought the new one. In fact the discount that I recieved almost paid for that part. The last two places that we went I was tailed by the most persistant broom selling street girl that I had ever seen. It almost got to the point where I was getting annoyed because she would not back off. The clerk was laughing when I told her that unless you have blue eyes and call me daddy i am not giving you any money. She kept fabricating stories about different family members being hospitalized. She will be quite a scammer someday! I never give money to these children but sometimes I buy food for them. If I gave money to them I would be swarmed. Sometimes dealing with persistant street vendors puts me in a foul mood. I guess it is a small price to pay for living in a nice place.
Sometimes it pays to be persistent, but I’m not much of a discounter. If I don’t like the price, I just say, “No thanks” or “Forget it”. If they offer less, then maybe. When I’m with Lita, I let her do the bargaining.
I never came across anyone that persistent, but I am a little annoyed that these children are brought up thinking that “ALL” foreigners are rich. We had a black couple here about a week ago and he was telling Lita that the kids thought he was rich because he was black.
That story about family members in the hospital has worked on many foreigners over the Internet, so maybe she has been coached.
Maybe I’ll start offering to buy them food instead of giving them money. If they are there to help their families buy food, then that just kind of cuts to the chase. They can just bring the food home instead of having to worry about buying something later.
I was standing by the park across from Jolly Bee with brother in-law smoking and kids would come up to me and ask for pesos. I do not carry pesos because the wife pays for every thing. So I would offer to give them 2 dollars in change and they would look at it and shake their head no and say pesos. My bother in-law would just laugh at them.
I can kind of understand why this didn’t want the American change. I’ve got about $15 in change and no one here will take it, not even the bank. If it’s bills they will though. I try not to carry change either, but it’s unavoidable when I’m downtown paying bills. Like I said though, I don’t get many kids asking anymore. Maybe I’ve just been lucky lately. I’m only downtown 2 or 3 times a month anyway. I should go more, maybe 4 or 5 times per month at least.