Farm People Series 11

After a day's work.. these farmers enjoy a drink of tuba and whatever sumsuman (pulutan) they can find. There's usually singing (fortunately not karaoke), and this blind guy was their guitarist. He had lots of funny Waray songs in his repertoire. Oh.. after a day's work is 1pm.

So, this ends the first part of my Farm People Series, for tomorrow is CDP Theme Day.

Farm People Series 10

I passed by this guy's house and he had all these wood from a felled tree. He was making them into firewood. Lots of firewood. He was whistling a song while he worked.

Farm People Series 9

After drying the palay (rice), they put these in sacks in a bodega for storage, to be milled when it's about to be used (or bought). You know, like grinding coffee beans just before brewing it, it tastes better and fresher that way.

Farm People Series 8

The duck-herder. He's clicking his tongue for the ducks to gather and line up.. but I think they're still having a good time swimming. Or maybe my presence was bothering them.

Farm People Series 7

Before I could figure out how to cross the irrigation (more like a river), another guy passed by.. looking typically Asian. I was having a field day taking photos!

Farm People Series 6

Continuing with my walk through the rice fields.. I caught up with these two boys carrying a heavy pot and pan. But wait, they were walking too fast, and blocking my way was this irrigation. I would have wanted to know where they were off to in a hurry.

Farm People Series 5

When rain catches up with you, and you're in the middle of nowhere.. just find a banana leaf and you get an instant umbrella. (I was worried with my camera getting wet.. but I couldn't pass this up. Haha, no banana leaf for me.)

Farm People Series, 4

These two are not going fishing. The pole that the guy is carrying is used to herd the ducks back to their cages. And yes, they really like walking about barefoot.

Farm People Series, 3

A newer model, the 4-feet, 2 wheel pickup truck. You have to admire their ingenuity and imagination. They didn't stop for me to take their picture (they weren't going that fast), but they smiled for the camera. Nice, quiet couple on their way home.

Farm People Series, 2

A 4-feet drive pick-up truck. Seriously, this is a typical mode of transportation in the farm. Carabaos are not called beasts of burden for nothing. Not only do they do the plowing, but they also drag heavy things behind. Those are harvested coconuts being delivered to town. I was lucky to have met this farmer on the rough road. Can you believe, he actually stopped the carabao to let me take this photo? Nice huh.

(Layra, do you notice the sundang strapped to his waist? There's your request!)

Leyte Landing Revisited

Today is the anniversary of D-Day which we call here, the Leyte Landing. That's the day Gen. McArthur and his troops attacked the Japanese occupied Philippines in 1944. His first landing/attack was here in Leyte (although when you travel around the country, you will realize that many provinces make that claim). My mother tells stories of that attack. She said when they looked up at the sky, it was filled with planes flying and bombs falling and that the sounds of the explosions and gunfire were terrifying. They had fled to the mountains and were hiding in dugouts by then, having been warned by the guerillas and US spies about the attack. Celebration is called Leyte Landing Anniversary at the McArthur Park, Palo.

Photo above with the kids is one of my personal favorites. I always wonder, what could these kids be thinking and discussing and hoping and dreaming?



Night of the anniversary.

Chicharon vendor

A chicaron vendor resting at the McArthur Park.


(For the unintiated, chicharon is deep fried pork fat. And speaking of McArthur, tomorrow is the Leyte Landing Anniversary, the time Gen. McArthur and his troops attacked the Japanese occupied Philippines. He's supposed to have landed here first, then set up the first commonwealth government in Tacloban.)

UP Botanical Garden

Children playing at the UP Tacloban Botanical Garden.

The university's botanical garden is right across the AS Building. It's not very well maintained, although attempts have been made in the past. Old gnarled trees can be found inside, so if you're into that kind of thing, this would be a nice place to find them. Other than the old trees, there's nothing else to earn it the 'botanical garden' name.

Gathering dinner

At a sandbar in the middle of the sea.. I saw these two kids gathering sea urchins and shells and sea cucumbers and snakes for their family dinner. I ate some raw sea urchin too.. it's supposed to be a delicacy. But can't say I liked it... It took too much effort to open and pick at the 'meat' that was too miniscule. Ok, it tasted a bit like sea. And if you're wondering why the sandbar had seaweeds.. that's because the tide was coming back in.

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty is relative

A family of 8 lives here.



To know more about Blog Action Day, click this icon:

Blog Action Day tomorrow!

This is a view from the area of the sea which is still part of the marine and mangrove sanctuary. Going to the pier, you will see these shacks on stilts, which is a squatter problem for the LGU. Hm.. the view is the problem, not the poverty.

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day, topic is Poverty. You can still participate. All you have to do is register at Blog Action Day, and dedicate your blog's post topic tomorrow to Poverty, which is the theme this year.

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Pottery Series 8: End

This ends my pottery series. Above photo: A family of potters posing for the camera.

(The photos from this series come from my friend's (JT) camera, but since I was assigned to take photos from her digital camera which she sometimes borrowed from me, I can't anymore tell who took which photos. That was my disclaimer:)

Pottery Series 7

You're probably tired of looking at pots and clay by now. (Wait till I come up with a longer series!) So, a word of advice to claypot buyers. Ask around where Brgy Canramos (Tanauan) is located. It's just a few blocks from the market. It's where these clay pots are made and where you will see stands like the one in the picture above. You have a variety of pots to choose from, they're cheaper and you can buy wholesale, you can bargain, and the stands are right next to each other lining the street.

Pottery Series 6

Sunday is Tanauan's tabo (market day). That's when the market becomes busy, and when you will see claypots being sold at the market. Oftentimes, you won't see any as they're only sold at the barangay where the pots are made. The man here looks bored. No one is buying because everyone knows where the pots can be bought at a cheaper price.

Pottery Series 5

After molding and shaping and baking the pots in an underground pit, they are reheated in a fire to cook them just right or to 'season' them (I don't really know the exact English word for it).

Pottery Series 4

(Photo by JT)

This woman is smoothing the banga (jar) with a wet cloth. This jar will be dried, then baked.



Here are the finished ones being dried outside.

Ps. while there, they weren't baking anything in the oven, so I have no photos of those. The oven is a simple hole in the ground (like the ones we have in our backyards for composting). I will have to go there another day to take photos. The sculpting.. hm, no photos either. If you're curious about the cord like design, you just roll a long clay then kind of tie it like a rope-design. Then use use a stick to make the lines. Same thing with the grapes. Like we do with play-doh.. Except here, it's always 'polished' with a wet cloth afterwards to smoothen the clay.

Pottery Series 3

The men are softening the clay before molding them into pots. They laugh and talk while working, sometimes pausing to make jokes. The kids are left alone to play with the clay. This is a Sunday, so the kids have no school. It looks like the whole barangay is there watching the others work, watching us take photos and helping explain to us the mechanics of pottery.



The clay, by the way, is taken (bought) from the mountains at the back of the municipality, but after generations of doing that, the mountains are slowly dwindling so the source of the clay is getting farther and farther away.

Pottery Series 2: Kids learning early

Although kids learn the texture of the clay early on.. I think this is just an excuse to play with mud. Imagine having to work and play at the same time! With mud!

Pottery Series

Starting today, I will be posting more photos of Waray people and their everyday life, and less focus on buildings and landscapes and food. I tend to forget that what defines us is our way of life and our attitude towards our environment and not what we have (or don't have). This week I will be posting a series of photos of pottery-making. It's a major livelihood in Tanauan, about 16 km away from Tacloban. So major, that even kids learn how to make clay pots early in life. In this photo, the kids are in the process of softening the clay.

At the beach

Every Sunday, it's a ritual for families to go to the beach to relax. Since Tacloban has over 10 resorts in the city alone, and more in the nearby towns.. it's no wonder that picnics at the beach are a common practice. Not malls/malling since we don't have any. But this is a funny picture of the kids, even for me. (That's the Pacific Ocean in the background btw. I've proof that the earth is round.)

Basey Church

This is the bell tower of the Basey Church, built in 1795(?). The church stands on top of a hill and was destroyed by a typhoon in 1880 and was restored again. This and the convent beside it were used as a hospital for US Marines during the Balangiga Massacre in 1901. It also served as a refuge for Filipinos during the Japanese occupation. What's interesting about this church is that egg yolks were used to build its foundation. Or was that egg whites? For more information, you can visit Samar's website and Heritage Conservation Society's blog.

Rock salt

Rock salt here is sold by kilos at the market. Sometimes, they're sold by volume. The containers in the picture is how the salt is measured. The bigger the container, the more expensive the salt. Except they're cheap really. The green one (about 1 1/2 cups) is P5 ($0.1).

Port area

The busy port area of Tacloban. :-) (If you find it too tranquil, then the photo deceives.) The bay leads to the San Juanico Strait where the San Juanico Bridge is, and that mountain in the background is Mt. Danglay which I'll post here someday.

Theme Day: Line

This month's theme is lines. Hm.. couldn't think of lines except this bamboo walk built over the top of the mangroves (like walking on top of and among trees). This is a mangrove and marine sanctuary in Palompon (1 1/2 hr from Tacloban), and because you cannot walk on land because there is none (it's just mangrove and the sea below), they built this bamboo bridge for the tourists to walk on. And where does this bridge lead?



Nowhere really. It just goes around the whole 10 hectare mangrove sanctuary. Here's a view from the lighthouse.

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