Philippines – Page 8 – Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Adjusting to Limited Internet Access

May 18, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

One of the things I knew I’d be dealing with after moving to the Philippines was limited internet access. In the US and in Singapore I’d come to think of the Internet as a utility, just like water. It’s just always there as long as you pay the bill, and it’s usually cheap. That’s not the case here in the Philippines. At least not for me right now.

You see, while there is DSL and I think cable Internet available in the Metro Manila area, I’m currently residing in a rural area outside of Antipolo, in Rizal Province, which is in turn north of Metro Manila by about 45 minutes. It’s in the mountains and in the US this is what you would refer to as “the boonies”. It’s out there. It’s so out there that running water is also in short supply at the moment. I think I mentioned that before, but the water only runs for about two hours in the morning so we collect water to be used throughout the day. I’d expected things to be a little difficult, but the last time I was here the water was still running. All of the inconveniences start to pile up to the point that I’m already looking forward to finding an apartment in Manila, sooner than originally planned.

Something that surprises my wife regularly is how I’m able to take this all in stride. She had the impression that I would balk at the idea of living in a place that has no air conditioning, no running water, and limited Internet access. I suppose the reason these things don’t bother me as much as they might the next person is that I spent a lot of time in the military, where doing without these things was a common occurrence while on training exercises or during deployments.

Anyhow, the main point here is that I’m having to find new ways to occupy my time. The Internet access I’m using now is a prepaid USB stick through Globe. The price isn’t too bad. It’s 5 PHP per 15 minutes with discounted options for a whole day or for a 5 day chunk of unlimited access. Still, that adds up. I was doing the math and if both of us were to keep re-applying for the 5 day unlimited access we’d wind up paying about double per month what we do for cable Internet in Singapore. That’s rough, especially considering that the quality is a fraction of what we became accustomed to.

So, I’m relearning the joy of reading. I picked up a book on Filipino history that I’m digging through. I think that’ll help me to understand the people here and help me relate, especially when I start working and/or going to school later this year. I’m also finding ways to optimize my Internet experience. One way for me to do that is to type up my blog posts in Windows Live Writer prior to connecting and then to simply publish them. Then I can use my time to surf the net, rather than sit in a browser window typing, unnecessarily burning up my prepaid time.

Of course, I don’t have a lot of free time right now. We did just get some painting materials yesterday. I want to get started on that sometime soon. I’m not sure when. We’re starting to burn out and we need some relaxation time. It’s amazing how even when we say we’re not going to do anything for a day, just picking up around the house to get ready to relax winds up taking the whole day. By the time we sit down to just surf the net or watch a movie, it’s after 10 PM.

We have another day of doing nothing planned for tomorrow. I’m hoping it’ll be successful.

Public Toilets in Malls in the Philippines

May 16, 2010 Bradley Farless2 Comments

Today while at Megamall in Manila, I had reason to visit one of the public toilets. It took me a while, because the restroom was crowded, but I finally managed to secure a stall. When I walked in, there was piss all over the floor, no toilet seat, and no toilet paper. I wasn’t expecting that, but when I saw it I remembered that it’s always that way. I first visited Manila in 2008 and noted that the public toilets never seem to have paper or even toilet seats available.

It seems like such a basic commodity to have in public restrooms that I always take for granted that some will be available. Back in 2008, I asked my wife why there aren’t any toilet seats or paper and she said it’s probably because if it were there, people would steal it. That makes sense and she’s from the Philippines so her guess is better than mine.

So, if you’re going out, even to a seemingly high end shopping center, be sure to bring your own stock of toilet paper. It wouldn’t hurt to bring antibacterial wet hand wipes either. Or, if you’re really in need of comfort, there is one other solution, which, thankfully, fit perfectly into our plans for our evening out.

On the 5th (or 4th?) floor of Megamall there are quite a few massage / pedicure / manicure / etc. type parlors. You can treat yourself, or your spouse, to one of these services and then partake of their pleasant smelling, well appointed restrooms, like the one pictured below. I don’t remember the name of the place but it’s pretty nice and my wife says she got good service there, so we’ll be going back for massages soon. More on that later!

A Night Out In Manila!

May 16, 2010 Bradley Farless3 Comments

So, we’ve been here since the 6th and tonight was the first time we’d left the Antipolo area to go out and have some fun. I guess you have to prioritize. It wouldn’t do to go out and have a good time and then come home to crappy living conditions. Not everything is done, and it probably won’t be for quite a while, but we felt we deserved some time out to relax and we took advantage of it.

So, off to Megamall we went! We met up with my brother-in-law and his wife there and had a late lunch at Sushi-ya. The food there is really good and the prices are reasonable. After that my brother-in-law and I wandered around while our wives got pedicures and then we all met up again to watch Iron Man 2. By the time that was done, it was 9:30 PM and it was time to make the long commute back to Antipolo.

The time seemed to go by so quick! There were so many other places we wanted to see while there. I think we may have to take some more relaxation days and hang out in the city, preferably in a nice air conditioned mall again.

As for the house, things seem to be progressing ok. The door is in the wall now and it’s functional, but the cement still needs to be replaced. The guy is working on the plumbing in the kitchen right now and then he’s going to do the cement all at one time. That’s fine, as long as it gets done sometime in the next few days.

We’re planning on holding off on doing the painting because we want to get the electrical installed properly first early next month. A fresh coat of paint would do wonders for this place but we have plenty of time, so I’m not all that worried about it right now.

I also found out today that not all Filipinos are ruthless criminals. Yesterday I dropped my ring in front of a store in the neighborhood and when I went back to find it, it was gone. I mentioned it to the girl that was working the counter, who lives in the neighborhood as well, and she asked around and actually found my ring. She went to the person’s house to get it back from one of their kids. So, a disaster was narrowly averted through her efforts. It also showed me just how true the ‘everyone knows everyone’ and ‘there are no secrets in a Filipino neighborhood’ sayings are.

We have another long day ahead of us tomorrow, but even though the days are full of work, they’ve also been full of action and activity, which has kept things fresh and exciting.

Unusual Names in the Philippines

May 13, 2010 Bradley Farless2 Comments

Naming conventions differ the world over, but for the most part have remained rather traditional in the US. That’s slowly changing, but for now you’ll still find plenty of people named John, David, Heather, and Lesley.

In the Philippines, names are a lot more creative. I’ve seen a girl named Cherry Pie, another named Happy, and my brother-in-laws and my wife are all named after Catholic saints. Seriously. Most of my brother-in-laws have 3 ‘first’ names. My wife has 2.

At first I was a little turned off by the idea, because I had a rather conservative upbringing and lived in a repressive American subculture called the US Army. Now, though, I think it’s interesting how people here break traditional boundaries and express their creativity through naming.

Here’s one sample I saw at the Jollibee in Antipolo, Rizal Province, inside the Shopwise store.

Finally Making Some Progress Fixing Up My In-Law’s Place

May 13, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

So, in the last post I was talking about finally making some progress and that progress was seeing the first load of refuse being hauled away. Both my mother-in-law and father-in-law have been collecting things, mostly junk for lack of a better word, for quite a few decades. I’m talking rusty, broken knives, bits of wiring, broken figurines, worn out brooms, and other things that no longer work that they didn’t want to get rid of because some day they might figure out a use for it again. The result is that the house was so packed with crap that there wasn’t even enough room to actually live in it.

My wife and I are making our best effort to solve that problem. I wound up getting a lot of exercise, a lot irritated and I also got in a lot of yelling before the garbage went on its merry way.

Thank God.

Anyhow, with that stuff gone I can start putting things that are worth keeping in the attic, or clean them up and leave them on display, rearrange the furniture, get the electrical wiring installed correctly, fix the plumbing and the roof and then do some repainting. The place is in a state of disrepair that’s ridiculous, and I can’t see letting them continue on living this way, even though we’ll only be living here temporarily. In a few months we’ll be moving again to Manila proper for work and school and we’ll be renting an apartment. I want to improve their standard of living before that happens and then maintain it by visiting weekly.

Besides the accumulated junk, the problems I see in this house really blow my mind because they’re things that I took for granted in the US (and to some extent in Singapore) without even realizing it. Among other things, there’s a water shortage. We have to get up at 5 AM to fill drums of water to use throughout the day because by 6 AM the taps run dry. It’s an interesting experience, and I suppose it’s not very depressing for me because it’s just temporary, but I can’t imagine facing the realization that life would be that way every day, forever.

As for our own sleeping arrangements, we walked into a bare bedroom. It didn’t even have a bulb in the light fixture and for the first 7 days we couldn’t find one to fit it. We were using a lamp but our cats knocked it over and broke the bulb so we spent the last few nights with an LED flashlight hanging from the fixture. We finally found a hardware store with the bulb today while shopping for concrete and when we plugged it in, I was excited, because it was like crawling back out of the stone age into modernity again.

We also had to get a dresser for all of our things. We found one we liked and had it delivered. I was afraid of the amount of time I’d have to put into assembling it but the delivery guy set it up himself. He did it in about an hour… without a manual. That’s impressive to me. See the pictures below to get an idea of how many parts the thing has.

The latest thing going on for us is having a real door set up to partition my wife’s bedroom, hallway, and bathroom off from the rest of the house. There are various reasons for this, but mostly it boils down to privacy and security. You can see in the photos of the dresser that we got one with locks on it. The windows also have bars on them. In these small villages crime is rare because everyone knows each other, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and it’s more prevalent if you make your house inviting to potential robbers.

Anyway, the guy is about halfway done with the door installation. He was redoing the concrete around the door frame right before he quit for the night. This should finally get done tomorrow and then we’ll stop renovations until June, when we want to redo the electrical and repaint.

Other than that we’ve been trying to get familiar with the layout of the town again. We’ve been spending time finding cleaning supplies, buying some pots and pans and other necessary items for daily living. We’ve also been meeting up with family and eating out in Antipolo to try to relax a bit. Like enjoying this big halo-halo at Chow King for instance:

I have a feeling that the next few weeks are going to be filled with quite a bit of work, but in the end I’m sure it’ll all be worth it when the house is clean, orderly, and comfortable for living in again.

They say not to drink the water but…

May 13, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

… I must have messed up, because I had some serious problems over the last two days.

We’ve had a lot of work going on around the house, including work we’ve been doing ourselves. I’ve been pretty exhausted and getting sick on top of it really wore me out.

All of these things combined to create a disaster that ruined a bag full of noodles. If you’re eating, you should save this for later.

So, it was early morning and there I was, sitting on the toilet having a problem. After I was done, I had another problem. The pipes are kinda screwy here so the toilet clogged. There’s no running water right now because of a drought so dumping water into the bowl is the only option. I couldn’t get it right so I just left it that way and passed out again. That evening, I was in there trying to wash up and mess with the toilet at the same time when I felt an urge.

A serious urge.

With no toilet available (due to the damn thing still being clogged) I made a mad dash through the house, naked and covered with soap mind you, and grabbed the first plastic shopping bag I saw, which I assumed was hanging on a doorknob for placing garbage in.

I then ran back to the toilet and handled business. It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve done. I’ve utilized empty boxes in the middle of the desert in Iraq before, so why not? Better than the other alternative.

So anyway, the next day my wife came and asked me if I’d seen the noodles she bought at the grocery store. I said I hadn’t so we looked around quite a bit. I’m pretty sure no one stole the noodles, though she does have hungry brothers that roam the house occasionally.

Then it dawned on me.

After I finished laughing like a hyena I felt bad because I had really wanted to try some of those noodles. Not to mention my wife was pissed. But you know… shit happens.

Cleaning, Cleaning, and more Cleaning

May 10, 2010 Bradley Farless10 Comments

After arriving here on Wednesday we’ve spent the last 5 days cleaning for about 5 hours a day and the end is nowhere in sight. I’m something of a clean freak to start with, but just getting things to a level of basic sanitation and orderliness is my current goal.

For the first few months of my stay in the Philippines I’ll be living out of my in-law’s house, which is a bit north of Manila in a surrounding town. The house has been mostly derelict for about six months, with only an occasional visit to make sure it’s still standing. My in-laws were both living out of other houses in other provinces until just recently. So, the place is a disaster area. Besides the accumulation of junk from decades of things being left here as a store-and-forget drop off spot, there’s dust, cobwebs and the buildup of grime to deal with. So, there’s quite a bit of work to be done to get this place into a condition that’s suitable for living in.

I wish I could just throw money at the problem and make it go away, and for some parts I can, but most of it is just going to require hard work. I have to haul stuff out of the house to the curb and do quite a bit of scrubbing, wiping, dusting, and brushing.

I didn’t realize just how much work it would be. We spent 7 hours on just one room today. It was the worst room, though. It had been unoccupied the longest, so it was full of bags of junk, sometimes literally.

I suppose when you have more than one house, you can’t quite keep up with what all you’ve left where, so arranging it, sorting out what needs to be saved and what can go, and then doing basic cleaning can be a long, long process.

The goal that I keep in mind is that once it’s all done, I’ll be able to relax and enjoy life here. Hopefully with another week of work we’ll have everything wrapped up and ready to go.

Voting Day in the Philippines for 2010 Elections

May 10, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Today was voting day for the 2010 elections. We got here just in time to witness the madness. In the US, campaigning can get pretty wild and out of hand, especially when the target audience is a bunch of radicals or ultra-rightwing conservatives, but in the Philippines they step it up a notch.

First off, the campaigning is in-your-face. You really can’t miss the fact that there are elections going on because almost every available inch of wall, post, and overhang is used to display posters of the candidates. Some campaigning parties will even run strings across roadways (as seen in the image above) and have hundreds of the same poster hung up. It gives the whole thing a sort of festive feel. I also saw a lot of private vehicles and transportation vehicles (like taxis and tricycles) covered in campaign posters (pictured below). Every last one has a profile photo of the candidate, presumably at their best.

The other interesting thing about campaigning in the Philippines is that trucks will drive around, or position themselves, with music blaring to draw attention to a particular candidate. They’ll use the music (minus the vocals) of a popular song and overlay it with a slogan or a song about the candidate. For example, we heard one playing the music from Lady GaGa’s Poker Face.

Today was the actual day for voting. We hadn’t intended to leave the house, for safety reasons, but wound up going to a restaurant called Max’s with my father-in-law, brother-in-law and brother-in-law’s wife. It was a delicious meal! The only sign we saw of the voting process was a long line of tricycles and a crowd of people gathered at one point along the road, outside an elementary school where the voting was being done. Other than that it was traffic and business as usual. I suppose the real drama might come when the results are announced, if they haven’t been already.

I believe this year was the first year that the Philippines used an electronic voting system, rather than manually counted ballots. The idea is that it’s supposed to inspire confidence in the citizens and allay fears of corruption and cheating. It may work in some areas. Some parts of the Philippines are so poor that a shiny computer screen is almost like magic, but most educated voters will probably realize that computer results can easily be manipulated, the same way that manual votes can easily be forged or disposed of.

If you’re not familiar with the government in the Philippines, it’s so consumed with corruption that it’s surprising it hasn’t fallen apart yet. The current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is recognized as one of the most corrupt leaders to ever hold office anywhere.

I doubt that the election will be any more fair this year than it’s ever been, but hopefully whoever gains office will be more fair than the outgoing president.

Giant Billboards

May 8, 2010 Bradley Farless1 Comment

One of the first things you’ll notice as you leave NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport), besides the hellish traffic, are the gigantic billboards. Ya, giant really isn’t even enough to describe these things.

Billboards aren’t anything new to me. They’re all over the place in the US, especially along highways, but Manila takes it to a whole new level. These things are about four times the size of the average billboard in the US. They’re so big, in fact, that they pose a safety hazard during bad weather. My wife was telling me that a few years ago there was a hurricane that caused a lot of the billboards to fall over. They fell onto the highways, which had cars on them, and killed a few people.

I think they’re pretty interesting to look at, but only because of how big they are!

PX Goods in the Philippines

May 5, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

My wife and I were having a conversation a few weeks ago that just popped back into my head. She was telling me about how imported goods in the Philippines are sometimes called PX goods, but she doesn’t know why. I could be absolutely wrong, but I have a theory about that!

As you may or may not know I spent 8 years in the Army, and “PX” is an Army term. It’s short for “Post Exchange”. Almost every Army base has a post exchange on it, regardless of where it is in the world, with the exception being some in combat areas or when the post is just too small. Even some of the camps in Kuwait have a PX. The PX is like a big department store. You can buy clothes, kitchen stuff, electronics, DVDs, music, games, and sporting equipment there, among other things. A few even have sections for gardening.

So, how does this tie in with the term being used in the Philippines?

Well, there used to be a strong US military presence in the Philippines around the time of World War II, the Vietnam War, and even during the Cold War. The first place that comes to mind (that’s still standing, albeit no longer under US control) is Clark Air Base in Pampanga. It’s recently been given another name, but most Filipinos still know it by the old, American name. I found the following information on Wikipedia:

Clark Air Base was originally established as Fort Stotsenburg in Sapang Bato, Angeles City in 1903 under control of the U.S. Army.

That article goes on to say that Clark Air Base had a “base exchange”, which is the Air Force term for a post exchange, but I think that initially it had a post exchange, like all Army posts do, and that word stuck in the minds of the local population.

Regardless of where you are in the world, a PX carries the same variety of goods which are mostly things from the US. These goods would eventually make it into the local population by resale from troops trying to turn a buck on people wanting genuine American items. So, in the Philippines, these items would be seen as imported goods.

So, long story short, I think the term “PX goods” is used to describe imported items because PX goods from the US military PXs that used to be in the Philippines were all imported items from the US. Again, this is just a theory and it could be something else entirely, but this just fit so well with what I know!