The night of July 13, we had a very powerful storm. No lightning, but lots of rain and very strong winds. It sounded like an angry giant was pounding on my bedroom windows. The rain seemed to be coming from many directions at the same time. I didn't get one window completely locked, and so I got stinging drops on my face from time to time in the night, and had a puddle on the floor in the morning. Of course the power went out. We did not have lights or fans until about 9PM on the 14th.
Here is a news article about the typhoon:
MANILA (AFP) – The death toll from a typhoon that hit the Philippines rose sharply to 53 Saturday, officials said, warning the number of dead could go up further with dozens of others missing days after the disaster.
In some rare good news, three fishermen were plucked by passing colleagues from waters off the Bicol region, after Typhoon Conson destroyed their boat on Tuesday, an army statement quoted survivor Victor Bordeos as saying.
"Our boat capsized and (was) torn in half during the height of the storm," Bordeos said.
Eight other members of the crew are among 43 people still missing in the typhoon-prone waters southeast of Manila, regional army spokesman Major Harold Cabunoc said.
Air force helicopters and navy aircraft are combing the calming seas to find the missing, he added.
Conson struck the main island of Luzon including the capital Manila with surprising ferocity overnight Tuesday after state weather forecasters incorrectly predicted that the typhoon would hit further north.
The first typhoon to batter the country this year destroyed thousands of homes, sank or damaged 62 boats, uprooted trees that crushed people to death, snapped power lines and disrupted aviation.
It took utility firms more than two days to restore electricity to a near-paralysed capital.
The government's National Disaster Coordinating Council on Saturday raised the death toll to 53 from 39 as the coast guard and other rescuers found more bodies at sea at the mouth of Manila Bay and off Bicol.
It put the number of overall missing at 85.
By Saturday morning the coast guard said it was still struggling to contain two oil spills caused by the wrecked watercraft, one of which severed an underwater oil pipe of a local refiner at the mouth of Manila Bay.
The Philippines is in the so-called typhoon belt of the Pacific. Up to 20 typhoons sweep through the country each year, killing hundreds of people.
I finally got brave enough to go out by myself! I got up bright and early the morning after the storm. took a REALLY cold shower, and took a tricycle to the Pateros Jollibee. Jollibee is the biggest fast food chain in the Philippines. They have burgers, hot dogs, fries, spaghetti, fried and BBQ chicken, and all the rice dishes and soups you would not expect in a fast food place. Their power was on, they had good coffee, and I had sausage and scrambled egg on a yeast roll, called a Pandesal.
I sat around for an hour and a half enjoying their airconditioning. The armored car came to pick up their deposit, and believe me, they are SERIOUS about security here. The truck looks like something from a sci-fi movie battle scene. Both guards were wearing body armor, and one had a brain bucket on. He had an automatic 12 gauge shotgun, and the other guard had an AR-15 style automatic rifle. I'm not a gun guy, so I don't know exactly what it was, but it wasn't a Kalashnikov. These two do not carry the bag so they have their hands on their weapons, and have them at the ready all the time. The third guard does the carrying. I walked home, and thought of stopping at the market to say good morning to Mr. Belza, but Jackie said he would have yelled at her for letting me go out by myself, so I'm glad I didn't. It's about a mile home, so I had a good walk. Here, pedestrians are walking at their peril, and must jump out of the way because the jeeps and tricycles won't stop. Also, a near miss is a matter of millimeters here, not the few feet we think of as a close call in the US.
Hate to wait? Don't come to the Philippines. Lines are a fact of life. Average wait time at the bank's ATM is 15 minutes. There were 29 people ahead of me at the phone company, and I waited from 3:00pm until my number was called just before 5:00pm. Almost everyplace that is doing any kind of customer service requires you to take a number. Then they call the numbers over a PA system and tell you which window to go to. There is often a big screen TV with the information too. People here have adapted, and sit or stand patiently waiting for their turn. Driving is a different story. Some drivers try for symphonic virtuosity with their vehicle horn, even when it is obvious the drivers ahead of them would move IF they could.
Here's something totally strange.....I was COLD last night! I can't explain it because I still felt damp and sticky, but I was COLD, and turned off my fan, grabbed my bath towel, and used it for a blanket.
Douglas Adams gives good advice. You should always know where your towel is, whether hitchhiking the galaxy or living in Manila. Most men carry something between a wash cloth size and a hand towel size all the time. I have found that you feel cooler if your skin is barely damp with sweat than if the sweat is dripping in huge, clothes soaking droplets. The towel helps keep the skin at the optimal level for evaporative cooling. Vendors are everywhere, happy to sell you all varieties of perspiration control devices. A popular variety seems to have many layers of a cotton material sewed together. These are about the size of a pot holder, and come in many colors, but white seems to be the most common. When I went to the Immigration Bureau office, a very aggressive vendor was trying to get me to buy a large hand towel size. The taxi driver was irritated with him for his persistance, and locked all the doors. They looked like nice towels, and the price was good, but I had a nice big, red bandana doing the job nicely that day.
A problem for Americans is the 46p to $1 exchange rate. You have a lot of bills in your wallet, and so it feels like you have a lot of money. Street vendor items seem very reasonably priced, but it all adds up, and more quickly than you think, so it is important to control impulse buying. I do not give money to people begging. This is strictly a practical matter. If I give to one, 20 suddenly appear. Jackie does give homeless kids a peso coin now and then, but not every time we go out, and I think they are kids she recognizes who live in the area of our apartment, and it is always when the kid is by himself.
Jackie and Joan went wild cleaning yesterday. No electricity is involved in their cleaning, and there was no internet to distract. The living room is rearranged, every item in the kitchen was taken of the shelf or out of the cupboard, the shelf cleaned, and then things put back in precise rows. All the floors were scrubbed. Joan can pick up the scrub rag with her foot and dip it in the wash water, then lift it up to ring out with her hands before she drops it on the floor and scrubs using her foot. Our tile is so shiny, the reflection is dazzling. Watching her work is like watching a dancer.
We had McDonald's fried chicken last night and Jackie cooked rice on the gas burner. Liberty and Lannie were visiting, so she had to make two batches. The electric rice cooker does a better job, but it was still good rice. McDonald's is as stingy with the gravy as KFC, so there is not enough to really moisten all the rice. I have to keep reminding myself to drink smaller amounts and more often so the rice doesn't stick going down. We had dinner by candle light. Liberty pulled rank on Lannie and made her do the dishes. It was interesting to watch her, because almost everything she did was identical to how Joan and Jackie do it. Also, I was surprised that 14 year old Lannie was just as thorough as Jackie, Joan or Liberty are. Jackie says their mom taught them well, and would never allow anyone to get away with sloppy work or shirking. In the Belza house, sharing chores does work because everyone does their share. Jackie says that she was never as nice to her other sibs as to Joan, and if they didn't do their share, she made sure they did. She implied that she used intimidation and coercion to get results.
Right now, they are cleaning my room, and have put the metal bed on end so they can clean under it. I always try to keep my stuff picked up so we don't run into room mate irritation issues. We wear indoor slippers and change into outdoor shoes or sandals at the door. I wear my brown pinto slippers without complaint. At one time, I tried to do the same thing at my house in the US and asked the kids to take off outdoor shoes at the door. It wasn't a success. I guess I wasn't as intimidating as Jackie. I guess this massive cleaning is a monthly ritual, and would have happened independent of the power failure. About 9PM last night, the power came back on, but the internet was not working until about 11PM.
Late last night I was helping Liberty do research for her brother Jhun's homework. He does computer work, and did not have time to do his own work. Luckily it was a Political Science topic I know about and was able to help. Juhn is 15, and I've talked about him before, just couldn't spell his name correctly until today.
Rooster fighting is legal here. I have not been, and don't ever plan to go. I only mention it because right now there is a very loud crowd somewhere not too far away cheering for their favorites. I haven't figured out what the schedule is. Sometimes the roar of the crowd rises above the normal cacophony, and then I think, "Oh there is a fight going on."
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