Skip to main content

Posts

Food Vendors

Living on the beach has its advantages. Besides being able to buy fresh fish, there are food peddlers everywhere. Right now I see and hear the ice cream vendor carrying a big box on his back like a backpack. He rings his bell to announce his presence and on Saturdays or Sundays when locals flock to the beach, business is good. But it should be good everyday because temperatures never seem to go below 85°F. Beads of sweat trickle down my face as I sit at the dining table eating lunch. There are two women I’ve watched walking up and down the beach, covered from head to foot to protect them from the harsh sun. They are selling boiled peanuts in small plastic bags or “ibus” which is sweet rice wrapped in coconut palm leaves. Three “ibus” cost P10. One day my relatives bought two bags of coconut candy for P5 each. I am astounded at how “cheap” these goodies are. I know how far they have to walk to make a sale, I can’t imagine there is any profit in their work. There’s also a guy who

Fresh Catch

Everyday after lunch, I sit on a plastic stool in the back balcony overlooking the beach. I love looking at the sea, scanning the horizon for ships and wondering where they’re headed. The water is of the greenish brown hue closer to shore and teal blue beyond. It is not the color of the California coastal waters nor of the Mediterranean but the color of the tropics. The sand is brown and shells dot the shore. Some days there are hundreds of beached jellyfish. Fishermen sail out to sea from just below our balcony. Their sails are made of blue plastic material that can be bought by the meter and sometimes used to cover a car or as a makeshift tent. One “banca” has an orange sail. It’s hard to miss it as it bobs in the sea. Four sailboats are jut now approaching the shoreline. They've come back laden with fresh fish which they put into plastic pails and vend right on the beach. One day we bought a bowlful of fish for P100.00. It was a mixed bag of 2 midsize fishes and the re

After the Storm

The sea was far away after the storm. The beach was wiped clean except for the hundreds of thousands of shells littering the sand. There are women and children who pick up these shells and sell them. When these shells are pulverized, they are fed to ducks. This is what makes a delectable duck a l'orange . Further along the beach we saw the full effect of the typhoon that kept us up all night. Flimsy nipa huts lay on the ground with fallen coconut trees. Someone's steel gate was washed to our beachfront from half a mile away. Restaurant owners were busy cleaning up the debris and repairing the damage wrought by the storm. It must have been high tide as well because the waters roared past the breakwaters and into the backyard. The apartment workers were busy cleaning the yard and putting back the stone path leading to the beach. And an antique decorative clay jar was sliced in half and carried away by raging waters. In town all was back to normal. The "cleanest cit

ATM

The first time I used the ATM machine here, I was charged by the local bank $9.98. And all I got was P4000.00 ($80.00) and fast cash of P500.00 ($10.00). I tried a couple of times to get 4000 pesos and the machine blinked each time. I panicked thinking that P8000.00 was taken from my account. This is the equivalent of about $160.00. After a week I learned that I only got what I really wanted to withdraw. That is P4000.00. So much for worrying. So I decided to open an ATM account with a local bank to avoid paying tremendous charges everytime I need money. Well this bank I chose is incredibly busy with people waiting in line for many minutes before getting the chance to withdraw their money. You can't imagine what a punishment this is if you are waiting outside in the sun. And when you gain entry into the small airconditioned room, people behind you want to join you as well. Forget about privacy. The next customer is hanging just behind your shoulders. But think about get

Public transportation

I have no car here in Roxas City, my new (old) home. I have to depend on relatives to take me around the first week I was here. But this gets old so I am learning to take public transportation. There are two choices: a tricycle which is a Nazi type vehicle with motorcycle and side cab and there is the minicab. I am not tall but here in the island, I tower over people's heads. When I get inside the minicab, I must bend very low so I do't hit the roof. This small cab fits about 12 tiny local residents. One day I was pushed all the way inside the cab. I couldn't see my stop because the windows were below my eye level. When I saw the blur of my cousin's blue house next door, I realized I was way past my stop. Imagine getting out of this cab! When I asked the driver to stop, it was all too sudden, the people around me were taken by surprise with the unexpectef stop and my loud voice asking the driver to "Para" (stop). Then as I tried to get out of this cramped, mod

Pioneers in Philippine Art

When I first heard about this exhibition, I was disappointed to learn that the works of Carlos “Botong” Francisco would not be part of the show. That said, the 38 paintings and sketches by Juan Luna, Fernando Amorsolo and Fernando Zobel, now on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, is an impressive collection spanning 100 years of Philippine Art. Each of these three artists studied and honed their craft in Europe or the United States. As such, their works reflect Western art trends of their respective periods. Juan Luna lived both in Madrid and Paris. His Woman with Shawl (1880-1890) and Lady at the Racetrack (1880-1890) show influences of the Impressionist style of painting. Impressionism had burst into the art scene in France in 1884, precisely the time Luna won the First Gold Medal for his painting, Spoliarium, at the Exposicion de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Luna’s later sketches of Ragamuffin and Study for People and Kings show his foray into the social realism genre

Back Where I Started

On my first day in Roxas City, my cousin took me to the appliance center where I bought a bed, an airconditioner, a fridge, a TV set, an electric fan and a stove. I had been traveling for 24 hours and wanted so badly to get some sleep. I asked the store owner to please deliver the bed to my apartment by noon so I could get some sleep. The delivery truck arrived as we had arranged. Rain was pouring heavily as the workers unpacked the crates of new appliances and installed the airconditioning unit and connect the stove to the gas line. By 3:30 p.m. they were done. I took a warm shower using the new pink, plastic pail I had just bought. My "butler" made some hot water and mixed it with the water in the pail. That was my warm shower. Shortly after I fell asleep in my air cooled room and woke up momentarily because my cousin came by to make sure all was well. The sound of the sea roaring as it lashed against the breakwater in the backyard woke me in the early morning hour