Saturday, June 23, 2012

Thor pics and more

So our lizard, Thor, a tree dragon, continues to hang out in his bush in the boys' bedroom.


Here Thor is on Seth's arm.


This is his bush and water bowl.  Note how long long long his tail is!

And this, the tub and hose deal up above, is my washing machine.  Man and I either do laundry here at the side of our house, or up on the roof.  If we do it down here then we hang the clothes on the line, if we wash up on the roof we lay the clothes out on the roof tiles.

We have two romantic frogs who think of our washing machine as 'theirs'.  I call these frogs jackhammer frogs because that is the sound they make.  There is nothing ribbity about these little fat brown frogs.  One night the boys declared that the jackhammers were making babies!


Sure enough.  Hundreds of frog eggs in the washing tub.


We do live in a tropical paradise.



Produce at the market.  Looks like your grocery doesn't it?


Monday, June 18, 2012

the why

These past few days have been tough on me.  I have wondered what the heck we've done!  Did we really sell our home, give our stuff away, leave family and friends to move here?  To live with poverty, sickness, disease, bugs, damp, oppression?  Why the heck did we do that! 

But today was the first day of school.  I have 14 students.  Some of my kids don't seem to have ever been to school; if they have been to school they were just a face, passed along, not connected with. 

And then there is the R family.  We've clicked with this family and I can see God's planning in that.  You need friends when you leave it all and go away, far away.  Today I got my hope back.  Hope that we are here as part of a bigger plan.  We are here to love - simple and tough as that. 

Of course there are lots of things to laugh at.  Like the 'bathrooms' called CRs which stands for comfort room.  That is so hilarious if you ever actually experience a comfort room on Boracay.  I've started rating them.

ooohhh - just had a bat fly through the house!  he went right on out, no worries. 

And boat signs, I've been collecting pics of boat signs just in case we ever get a boat.

My favorite thus far, Cow Grass.  Such a wholesome moniker.  


Man's favorite, needs no explaining.  Pardon the R rating. 


A large load of bamboo on Panay.  Everything is made out of bamboo here: houses, furniture, cars....kidding about the cars. 


Coke is here, but not all here.  It is a produced in the Philippines, only to be sold in the Philippines, poor reproduction of Coke as we know it.  But it's cheap!


So funny!  Masculinity is alive and growing here! 

These little stores are everywhere.  They are called sari sari shops (as in sorry sorry).  They sell everything in single serving size.  Like one serving of pepper.  Or one candy removed from a pack and re-packaged in plastic, no label.  Or one laundry soap serving.  Or one egg.  Folks here don't make much money.  They buy things as they need them, one day at a time.  I shop every day.  I can only buy what I can carry home. 

Teachers make about US $165 per month.  Yes, that is per month.  I don't know how or why they do it.  A teacher's pay may be PP 7000 in a month.  Our rent is PP25,000.  I spend about PP2000 a month on food, not including eating out.  It's a day to day existence.

Another bat flew in, this one headed up the stairs.

Our neighbor's boyfriend gave the boys a Tree Dragon.  It is a lizard that is about 14 inches long, tail included.  We have it in a bush in the boys' bedroom.  It ate a grasshopper this morning.  It was just living in the neighbor's home so we'll see how long he stays put here.  Seth has named him Thor! 

Saturday, June 16, 2012

critters and oddities

You know you're not in the US anymore when seatbelts seem silly, cockroaches are no big deal, you better not drink the tap water, and you are taller than everyone.


Fresh prawns from the market.  I cooked them whole and we sucked the brains out.  Well, 6 of us ate the brains, the one with the biggest shoes did not.  

You can fit 7 comfortably on a trike, 8 if one is behind the motorcycle driver.


Trikes lined up at the jetty port waiting for the boat to bring them passengers.


Hard to believe such a skinny momma could have milk for pups.  


I really hate spiders; hate is not too strong a word for it - trust me.


This little pup is at the Ati village. 


These stairs lead down to my classroom, and the library.


This is my classroom.  My co-teacher is Mr. Christian Vivas.  What's missing?  Man and Mr. R went to Kalibo to (hopefully) buy chairs, and the desks are being finished.  The desks were made with eraserboard tops - paper gets moldy, and we run out.  I think that whoever had the eraserboard idea needs an award.  

 Our library!  Thanks again to many of you who helped furnish this humble space. 



Friday, June 8, 2012

a new home for us

We've been busy this past week - renting a place of our own, finding our way around a new area, settling in.

Neighborhoods are called barangays.  Ours is Bulabog.  So we live on Boracay, in Bulabog, up Papaya path.  The roads here don't actually get you to your house, they get you to your barangay, then you walk.  In our case we walk up a hill paved with concrete.  We are on the east side of Boracay island, and because of the change in seasons (we are now in the wet season) the typhoon winds are out of the west, so we are now on the calm side of the island.  Come November, the dry season, the winds will shift and we'll get them.  Along with the dry season winds will come kiteboard surfers from all around the world.

We've been blessed with a fabulous landlady named Liza.  She lives in the house next to ours.  We live in a fenced, gated compound with just these two houses and her garage turned potting shed.  Liza is a gardener so to our fortune we live in a bit of tropical wonder.   Our home came well stocked with furniture, towels, cooking things, etc.  This is another blessing as it means I don't have to go from sari sari shop and haggle over things like spoons, or rice cookers.  Haggling is a social event here, it bugs Brian, and wastes time (unless you can shift your concept and embrace island time!), I don't mind bartering but it's nice having a house with stuff in it already.


Boats off White Beach after the winds shifted to the West side of the island.


The boys enjoyed playing in the surf.  Before the winds came we were able to snorkel along White Beach which has a live coral reef off shore.  We saw brain coral the size of a dishwasher, water snakes (yes, they are poisonous), lion fish, clown fish, and many other colorful water creatures that we are yet to be able to name.



Toads are plentiful.  With legs like this guy has I am surprised I've not seen frog legs on the menu. 


The view from our bedroom. 


Taking a boat to Panay for a visit to the Ati village.  The boat guys run a plank from the deck to the sand and you walk right on down.


At the Caticlan market getting cocunut ground to a fine pulp, which was later soaked in water and made into coconut milk.   The ladies at the Ati village made a dish with pumpkin, coconut milk, dried fish, mung beans, and rice.  I don't know what it is called.  My smart friend K knows almost everything, like what the stuff is called. 


Two Ati girls.  Not sure why the sad faces, they are usually full of silliness.  


Playing a game.  Note the tiny chick.  


The kids, and I suppose the adults, are covered in sores.  I think it's scabies and really wish I had the medicine from the States that we treated our boys with - it worked in one application.


A wise observer. 


And this, such beauty. 

Our new home has giant land crabs, hermit crabs, toads, and lots of geckos.  We have geckos behind the curtains, under the table, above the clothes...you get the idea.  Most of them are just 4 inches long or so, but there must be a least one BIG lizard in our house.  Each morning I find one 'present' or turd if you will, in the same exact spot on the floor.  Directly above the 'gift' is where our odd ceiling is kind of dropped.  I think that each night as the lizard makes its effort to get back over the edge of the dropped ceiling, it lets loose, well you get the idea. 

Last night we came home late from Bible study, real late, the lizard had already been out.  Bis stepped on the pellet of pooh, and that gave me the chance to examine it a bit (oh joy).  The lizard had obviously eaten a cockroach.  Did I mention we have cockroaches?