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Top 10+ Trivia of 2016

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This blog will be a summary of the things we see and experience every day.

#1 -The Bridge to Nowhere 

This is our favorite story of 2016.  The bridge was built several years ago to replace the crumbling one way bridge over the stream.  Apparently, the highway planners haven’t had time to connect the highway to the bridge.  The old detour bridge is collapsing on one side. A large truck crossed in front of us so we decided it was safe for the corolla.  Down the road was an excavator and dump trucks laying new concrete.  They too must have crossed the old bridge because it’s the only way to travel the road that dead ends about 5 miles further.

#2 - "Not Available"

"Not Available" is the catch all phrase for  out of stock, we don't have that item, machine broken, out of service, being repaired, item has been discontinued, etc.  Here's an example. We went to Pizza Hut and...

 

I'd like the mango salad please.  Sorry Sir, Not Available
How about the Caesar then. Sorry Sir, Not Available.
What salad do you have? Sorry Sir, No Salads Available.
OK, I'd like the fettuccine pasta with...Sorry Sir, Not Available.
You mean there is no pasta either? Yes, Sorry Sir, No Pasta Available.
How about the Fish and Chips? Sorry Sir, Not Available.
The Chicken? Sorry Sir, Not Available.
What is Available?  Let me show you which pizzas are available.
Thanks but we'll come back another time....

So we went back a couple days ago. We tried to order the #2 special for 2 people for 249 pesos ($5.)  It included mushroom soup (Unavailable and can't substitute the french onion),  pasta (unavailable) and you couldn't have the 2 separate personal pizzas as shown in the picture.  You had to have the larger Christmas Special pizza. What, they couldn't divide the dough into 2 pieces?  But they did have the Mango salad this time which was not part of the #2 special.  

Also it's impossible to modify anything on the menu.  Like we've ordered Canton Panacini several times and asked the waiter to hold the meat and make it vegetarian.  Last time we ordered "without meat" they doubled the meat.  Try ordering a Big Mac without lettuce?

#3- Dance Contest

One of the zone activities included several contests.  Elder Dansie won for holding a singing note the longest.  Sister Dansie won for her energetic Dancing. You can view it here.

#4- Tip the Garbage Truck

We are lucky.  Garbage pickup is every other day at our apartment.  Many of the missionaries have no garbage pickup and must bury or burn their garbage.

You hang the wet garbage on a fence, off the ground, so that the cats and dogs won't eat it. The dry stuff can sit on the ground however, some one will come by and tear open your bag and remove the plastic bottles and cardboard. We put our plastic and cardboard outside the bag. But that doesn't stop bag robbers. Some mornings kids as young as 5 or 6 tear open your dry garbage looking for bottle and don't clean up the mess.

Before Christmas they ring your bell or bang or your gate and hand you an envelop asking for a Christmas gift/tip for team in truck #3.  Two days later, they rang the bell again.  I told him I donated last time.  He pointed to the truck #14 with the envelope extended in his other hand.

#5- You Can Stay in Our Guest House

The small shack on the right is plywood and tin roof with dirt floor. A family lives there. They have electricity because (1) there is a wire strung from the house on the left and (2) they play their boom box very loud.  Don't know about the plumbing other than there is a large field behind.

#6- Ice Cream from 7/11

The best ice cream is the Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream cones at some 7/11.  It’s super delicious, 18 pesos ($.36) and melts before you can get out the door.  I say “some” because one day in Clark City, we went to five 7/11 before we found one with an ice cream machine.  Or one night, we were traveling up the highway from the other end of town and stopped at every 7/11. The machines were either broken, out of materials to freeze or cleaned for the night.  Finally about 3 kilometers past our house we found a large gas station with 7/11 who had our cone.  The picture is of Sister Dansie dodging rush hour traffic in Zaragoza with our ice cream cones.  Elder Dansie was double parked in the street with hazard lights on holding up traffic (like every else does!)

#7- Basketball Everywhere

Basketball is the primary sport to the exclusion of almost all other sports. Basketball hoops show up everywhere.  Each neighborhood has a large pavilion with basketball standards at each end.  Every LDS church has 2 basketball standards in the parking lots. So a lot of hoops but few nets.  Elder Dansie was shooting baskets with a boy on the street one morning and the rim was made of rebar but barely the size of the basketball.  The pole was so wobbly that each time you hit the backboard, the pole tilted back and changed the angle of bounce.  Successful baskets were about 1 in 20 shots.

#8- Growing Rice

Once the rice is harvested, the fields are burned or plowed under, rest for a couple weeks, flooded again and the process starts again.  Rice takes 128 days from germination to harvest so most fields only get 2 crops a year.  This shot includes a “calickney” tractor plowing and a Caribou pulling a leveling drag.  The rice field workers, planters and harvesters are among the lowest paid jobs making 150-200 pesos a day. ($3-$4) Fast food and gas station attendants average 300-400 a day. A graphic designer job advertised at 400 pesos a day.

#9- T-Shirts

It’s just about impossible to buy a plain T-shirt in town. I don’t know who comes up with sayings but they run the course.  There are a lot of 2nd hand and liquidation shirts from the USA.  One fellow was wearing a John Stockton / Jazz Jersey.  Sister Dansie tried to talk to him about the Jazz but he didn’t have a clue about Stockton or the Jazz.  Many shirts have American references. One said “support the troops in Desert Storm” with an American flag.

#10- Typical Rush Hour

We were just finding out the rush hour times so that we could avoid the highway, then the holidays hit. All the kids are out of school for 2 weeks so the rush hour is pretty much whenever we get on the highway to drives.

#11- Alleys

If you look at the aerial maps, you’ll see clusters of roofs behind other houses with no apparent streets to get to them.  Actually, there are many alleys that wander back to the structures behind. Families also live together in quasi compounds.  You’ll often find that the alley zig zags back through several houses, all belonging to the same extended family who watch over and care for each other.

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This and That...

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Fireproof Houses?

The typical construction for buildings up to 4 or 5 stories is concrete block walls and cement floors.  So when smoke started coming out of the house next door, it was a neighborhood curiosity.  We've wondered if there are fire trucks around. We found out...  

Turns out that the contents of a back room caught on fire. The people were not home and Elder Dansie could see the flames on the floor and curtains. A neighbor had already called the fire department and two trucks showed up with a partial volunteer crew.  The flames were out quickly.  Biggest problem was that we had wash outside on the cloths line drying and now smelled like smoke.  The neighbor came home, moved their furniture outside to wash off the smoke, aired the house out and everything was back to normal again.

 

Car Show

We were overnighting in Tarlac after a conference and so decided to take a quick run to see Clark City, the WW II air force base.  It's only 40 minutes from Tarlac on the wonderful toll road.

We tried to visit the museum but it was "not available" because of a car show going on in front. Total cars were about 20 but there were some pretty classic cars and impressive Jeepnees.

Open Air Haircut 30 Pesos ($.60)

Art or Necessity?

Not Sure How (If) This Works?

 

Visiting With the Elders in Dingalan

The Ash from Mount Pinatubo Eruption Makes Excellent Lightweight Concrete

Great Pizza in Clark City

Scene from Morning Walk in the Neighborhood

And Finally....

Sister Dansie winning the dance contest at a Zone activity.

Let's Go for a Trike Ride

Elder Dansie took a trike to pickup the Corolla from the dealer after it was serviced.  The driver looked like 12 years old but he got us there safely.  Click this button to see part of the ride.  PS:  Nobody every signals to turn or change lanes. The download may take a minute or so.

 

Appliances You Won't Find in the USA

Here's a game for you.  Guess what each of these appliances does and the price.  The answers are at the end of the game.

 

 

A

 

 

 

 

B

 

 

 

 

C

 

 

 

 

D

 

 

 

 

E

 

 

 

 

F

 

 

 

 

G

 

 

 

ANSWERS

A = Hot Dog grill plain or wrapped in Hot Cake batter $20

B = Skewer Barbeque $20

C = This isn't just a rice cooker, it cooks 62 cups at a time! $80

D = Electric dish dryer and storage cabinet (keeps the flies off) $100

E = Electric Skillet $30

F = Dual Burner Propane Stove $18

G = Manual Washing Machine with side spin dry tub ($80)

A New Experience: Food & Shopping

This is a special edition about food and shopping.

Eating 

Eating is very efficient. You use a spoon in your right hand and a fork in the left above your plate at all times.  The spoon doubles as a knife. There are no knives.  

Many local restaurants keep the silverware in a rack full of very hot water. So when you take your utensils, you are assured of them being clean. 

 

Typical Meal

Typical meal consists of rice (usually covered with crushed garlic), fried pork or chicken and a fried egg with yoke uncooked. For breakfast they often substitute a hot dog in place of the meat. The hot dogs are soaked in red dye so that they are red on the surface and part way in.  

One specialty is a Soapia, which is a soft  spongee rice roll with a sweet pork filling and a sesame sauce packet.  They can sit on your shelf un-refrigeratored for days and very good. 7 Eleven keeps them in a steam cabinet for 40 pecos ($.90) The more you pay, the more filling you get.

Eggs

All eggs are straight from the farm and still have natures coating on them so they don't need to be refrigerated.  You buy then on shelves at the grocery or in the public markets. Yes, they continue to incubate in the heat so we wash ours and put in the refrigerator to stop the growth. You can buy "salted eggs" which are cooked in salted water and dyed red...so ready to eat hard boiled. One of the local delicacies are eggs after the embryo has begun to form into a baby chicken. They boil and enjoy. No, we have not tried nor will we try eating these.

Public Markets

Every town has a public market where all the vendors sell their stuff.  In Cabanatuan there is the main one and a couple of farmer's markets as well. Many people do not have refrigerators so they need to shop the markets every couple days for fresh food.

We strolled a very rural public market in Palayan and was amazed to find that the bakery booth practiced full western sanitation.  The bread was raising in plexiglass enclosures to keep the flies off. They baked it in the booth and moved the finished cookies and breads into plexiglass display counters, again enclosed to keep the bugs out.  We bought some cookies and the clerk used disposable plastic gloves to pick up our cookies and put in a plastic bag. The cookies were very good.

Humidity vs Food vs Conservation

The food industry has adapted to the high humidity and lack of refrigeration. Sauces and food comes in tin foil pouches. (Spaghetti sauce is sweet.) Milk is packed in boxes that don't need refrigeration. Breads and cookies come packaged in small sealed sub packs. Baked goods recipes are modified to last longer in the heat. Baked goods typically are not raised so they don't have the airy texture America loves. Also, items aren't sugar sweet. Sister Dansie is missing the huge cinnamon rolls from the Maverick stores. However, the Coconut Macaroons from Goldilocks bakery are the best in the entire world.

Everyone is conservation conscience. You put all your wet garbage in a plastic bag and hand it on the gate so the cats and dogs don't tear it up. Dry waste goes in plastic bags or many people reuse the large bags rice comes in.  The garbage truck has 2-3 guys inside who are sorting as they go removing plastic bottles, metal, etc.  Napkins are 1/4 size. All paper is super thin, even writing paper in notebooks.  Plastic cups are so thin that you need to double up to be able to pickup the glass. You put usable stuff on the ground by the garbage and someone will pick it up.  We put an old 2 burner cooktop that didn't work at one missionary apartment outside by their gate and a trike pulled up and asked for it within seconds.

Malls

Malls come in all sizes and shapes.  The largest are the SM City Malls built by a Chinese company. These are a mixture of SM grocery store, SM department store, dozens of high end clothing, Ace Hardware and dozens of restaurants. Shakey's pizza, Pancake House, McDonalds, Etc.  One of Sister Dansie's favorites is North West Pacific Mall anchored by Robinsons grocery, Robinsons Department Store and Bodega grocery store at the other end.  In between is an interesting collection of high end shops (guess, etc) and flee market down the middle and tucked into every corner. If we are at the south end of town late afternoon, we'll stop in SM for an early dinner. Our favorite restaurants are  Geary's (local food. We went with the Whittings and total bill for 4 people was $26), Kenny Rodgers, French Bakery and Yellow Cab Pizza (Small pizza is $9 so not a great bargain.)  All of the fast food chains feature deep fried chicken with rice or spaghetti. Burger King does have an authentic Whopper and McDonalds keeps the Big Mac true to form....along with all the chicken, rice and spaghetti.

 

Ice Cream

We have not found any ice cream that compares to Gelato or Tillamonk Mud Slide. McDonald's soft ice cream is a world formula.  All the local brands are lacking cream or even milk so we're not buying much ice cream....except Magnum Bars are imported from someplace good.

Malls Are the Community Center

Every weekend, the malls are full of people coming to AC and hang out. They stage elaborate events every weekend, like school performing groups, dance recitals and a lot of talent contests sponsored by schools.  Last weekend SM City Mall have a combination drink mixing and fruit carvings sponsored by the hospitality/tourism university. Always the music is mega-loud with the bass maxed out.  

Movies

The movie theaters are only in the Malls in the larger cities. No stand alone theaters. They run the sound so loud that Sister Dansie takes ear plugs to the movies. (Senior Missionaries have liberal privileges.) The sound might be 5:1 but video projectors are pretty poor resolution. Since the theaters are 4-6 screens, movies seldom stay beyond 1 week.  We saw "Sully" 2 days before it opened in the US! Popcorn come in plain, garlic, nacho, cheese and quasi carmel.  No buttered!

Electronics

Everyone has a smart phone but always the least expensive and fancy cases. About 2% of the electronic stores sell computers.  Audio gear is minimal and usually elaborate boom boxes or retro looking speakers next to your flat screen TV.  The Mall have dedicated areas for phone stores.  "Cyberzone" in SM city and "Cluster Shops" in Robinsons.  We're not sure how they all stay in business when most sell only phone accessories and "load cards." Iphones and tablets are pretty scarce. Most people buy "load cards" for 50-500 Pecos.  You load the credit in your account and then buy the package you want with your credits.  Most packages are 1-3 days for a weekend of texting and surfing.  Elder Dansie buys 30 days of unlimited texting to all networks and 180 minutes of talk time for 250 pecos ($5.50) and a Surf Max 30 day package of 800 Mb/day for 900 Pecos ($20.)  Everyone communicates by text and many people don't buy any voice time.Just text and social networks (separate from general surfing.)  I've yet to find locals who have or use email. 

You can't get a "postpaid" account unless you have 2 forms of picture ID and prove that you are a resident for at least one year. Then it costs more than the $25 / month load packages. So while food and housing is very affordable, electronics is about the same or more as in the US. An iPhone 6 would cost about $900 USD in the Philippines.

Guards

Every store has a security guard or two or three....even seven eleven.  They open the doors and are also very polite to we senior missionaries.  They all wear the exact same uniform spotlessly clean and pressed. The guards at banks are usually one outside and 2 inside and carry shotguns with no stock. Since this is a cash society, the money trucks look more steel boxes on wheels. Stores have package check and all purses and bags are inspected.  Many mall entrances have a separate male and female line with male and female security who check your bags and you for suicide vests.  The SM malls parking entrances check under your car with mirrors and inside the trunk.  You often pay when you enter to park and have to surrender your ticket when you leave.  Once day we lost the ticket and they didn't know what to do.  We got out and searched the car for 5 minutes, holding up the traffic until they finally gave up and let us out shaking their heads at the Americans.

 

White is the New Look

"White" is the new look in the Philippines. All the spas and salons feature a variety of skin lightening and hair straightening. All the local advertising features very light skinned models.  Even personal care products like soap, shampoo and creams advertising whitening formulas.

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Around in the Philippines

Public transportation is actually very efficient and convenient in the Philippines thanks to the private entrepreneurs that make it work.

Tricycles

Cabanatuan is the trike capital of the world.  Tricycles are usually 100 CC honda motorcycles with a side car bolted on.  Most have little cabs for small people to squeeze in. They carry plenty of rope and tie everything on the back rack and top. When the cab runs out of room, one or two riders sit side saddle on the motorcycle and two can stand on the bumpers in back.  Top speed is about 30 KPH so if you fell off, it's little more than walking speed.  Yes, on rural roads you pass them every chance you get--left or right, whatever works.

Jeepnees

Jeepnees are small buses than run regular routes to suburbs and clearly marked.  You jump on whenever on comes by and get off whenever you want.  Jeepnees travel the main roads about 500 feet apart so your wait is pretty short.  In town, most are privately owned and the owners get very creative with their designs and trim. Jeepnees were invented after WWII built upon the famous WWII jeep chassis. Many of them today look that old too. However, you don't mess with Jeepnees on the road. Jeepnee drivers are not polite :)

Buses

Larger buses make the longer runs to distance cities.  They come in 2 styles. Air Conditioned and non air conditioned.  Non AC costs less.  These buses typically leave from multiple terminals around the city.

Tractors

The rice farmers have a universal tractor that they use for everything. They may be out in the rice paddies plowing the muddy fields. An hour later they are pulling a cart on the highway transporting people and goods at 3 kph.  Licensing doesn't seem to be an issue on rural vehicles.

The Most Polite Drivers Anywhere.

In Cabanatuan there are only 2 intersections with stoplights even though the main road is the trans philippine highway.  1 of the 2 only works at night.  There are no rules, stop signs or lanes.  Everyone just goes. If you need to change lanes, just signal and the vehicle next to you (unless it's a jeepnee) usually holds back making a small opening. If you don't move into it, it will close in 2 seconds.  Same for left turns. Just signal, stop and within 30 seconds you can cut across 2-3 lanes of vehicles.  At first, it was formable driving. But now, it's pretty efficient.

Here's a video highlight of Sister Dansie's excellent driving from Walter Mart shopping center to our house about 3 Salt Lake blocks away.

Road Sizes

Most of the side roads were originally built for walking.  Trikes are OK but cars?  And many are dead end with no way to turn around. We've found more than one dead end already. This road leads to one of the Missionary apartments. They couldn't understand why we parked and walked instead of driving our Corolla to their house.

 

 

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Our First Ride in a Tricycle

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Today we decided to take a ride in a Tricycle.  Only problem is that these tricycles are built for people much smaller than us.  We asked the driver to take us to the SM Megamall which is .5 miles away from our house. 

Sister Dansie jumped in first.  I squashed in 2nd, half hanging out.  It was raining and so the driver had put on the plastic rain cocoon around us. Talk about claustrophobia combined with bent over, squish. The trikes squeeze through the traffic smoothly and so we were there in probably 6 long minutes.

Coming back, I jumped in first and LouAnn sort of sat on my lap. Still raining and wrapped with plastic.  I tried to shoot some video but all you can see is the inside and hearing us both groaning.

We'll try again on a non rainy day and probably take separate rides.  It's 10 PHP (pecos) per person so the cost for 2 rides will be the same....or 21 cents per person in US dollars.

Water, Water Everywhere!

This is rainy season in the Philippines.  Rain is the lifeblood of agriculture and so rain doesn't stop progress, it just slows everything down.  The tricycle drivers whip out plastic covers and the open air trikes become claustrophobic cocoons in seconds. Planters in the rice paddies get cooled down and a shower at the same time.

The storms are typically very heavy.  You can tell how heavy because of the tin roofs with no insulation underneath.  A heavy rain and it's difficult to talk inside.

Houses only have one tap.  Water.  It's not hot and not cold. It's just water. 

SHOWERS

The missionary apartments enjoy the cool water to shower----if they are lucky enough to have a shower head.  Most bathrooms are fully tiled with a shower area and a single tap to fill your bucket.  Those are called a "bucket" shower. 

Senior Missionaries have the luxury of a flash water heater on one shower. On a hot day, it's pleasant showering without any heat. 

Our shower has a divider on the floor to separate the shower from the rest of the bathroom.  It also has a pipe running through the divider next to the drain (dah.) So every shower also drains water into the other side.  Sister Dansie  invented a solution to adjust the shower curtain over the opening  and push it into the hole to plug it as you shower.

WATER TO DRINK

The cities do have an official water system. As for the sanitary sewer side of things, we don't want to know.)  The water is from wells and generally clean. But because of the unknowns, every missionary apartment is equipped with a 3 stage water filter. The filters are changed every 3 months even if they are not worn out.  We only drink bottled water or refill our bottles from our filter.  The restaurants in the malls all have water filters on their water. We always ask about filtered water and filtered ice before we drink it.

Sister Dansie's tip of the day:  Fill a water bottle 1/3 full and freeze it. When we head out, fill it the rest of the way and you have cold water for about an hour. We keep 8 bottles in the freezer since on a hot day we drink 4-8 bottles of water.

 

Making a House a Home!

We thought you would enjoy seeing a tour of our new home (middle unit.) But first we thank Elder & Sister Whiting (Office couple), zone leaders, missionaries and unknown helpers who worked to get it setup before we arrived. The logistics of buying appliances and getting internet installed took incredible effort. They spent many hot hours cleaning and preparing.  We now truly appreciate their efforts of making our  home comfortable for  us. 

Living Room: The mission crew brought a couch for the living room out of their storage but it was too big so they suggested that we find something.  It's so hot/humid that we don't plan on spending  much  time in the living room so we are not going beyond a couple of folding chairs.  Now that we are starting apartment inspections, the living room is turning into a store room with spare critical parts...such as a toilet seat, spare fan, etc. 

The Kitchen: Not exactly outfitted for big parties. We do have 6 chairs however so 4 can come for dinner. Elder Dansie purchased a one plate induction cook top to eliminate the heat of the propane stove burning. So between the microwave and the induction, we eat well. (Especially since the Malls have dozens of restaurants)

Laundry:  Behind the kitchen is a laundry and a 2nd bathroom.  The Laundry has high openings (no glass) with bars and mosquito screen.  All missionary apartments must be fully screened. It's not exactly a lanai instead more of a steam bath.  Between the washing machine and clothes drying on the clothes line, the humidity is intense.  Check out the story of our first day with the washer in another article.

The ceilings on the main floor are 10 feet so it's quit a climb upstairs but good exercise.

 

 

 

 

 

The Bedroom is air conditioned and comfy.

We turned the other room on the top floor into our office and installed another air conditioner and a reading chair. The chair is a folding chaise lounge because (1) had to fit in our Corolla and (2) had to carry up the narrow stairs:)

The most  tedious thing about living here is that you have to keep everything locked all the time. So every time we leave we have to unlock two padlocks, open both gates, back the car out then close and re-lock the gates.

We decided to put up more clothes line outside. Good idea huh? This is rainy season.  We hung some towels, left and they got a second rinse.  They were almost dry and it rained again and blew 2 on the  ground. 4 folding chairs make a great tent to dry sheets. So today we bought a small folding drying  rack for the laundry room to increase capacity  until rainy season is over.

Water: Houses only have one water tap. The  temperature is moderate. We heat water on our fast induction plate to rinse dishes. Senior Missionaries also get a flash hot water unit on their shower. Although with the temperature being so warm, a cool shower is delightful.