Alangalang Market Day

     Tuesday is one of the market days of Alangalang town, the other day is Friday.  Sometimes I go to this market to buy fresh vegetables and the likes, it's definitely cheaper and fresh. Yesterday, I went to buy some vegetables.

This is the makeshift market while construction of the town's market is being finished

The Sad Tale of Ayuda

     Before the campaign period, DSWD and Tingog were using government resources in the guide of ayuda. The Romualdezes and Imee used DSWD programs to fool the poor masses in the countryside.

     In my poor village, for the last two years, there has been a lot of cash payout, 3k often, 5k in last week's payout for teachers (only in District 1 as its Congressman is Martin Romualdez). My brother, who is a teacher in District 2, didn't get any. Before last week's payout for teachers, it was all for the common tao.

     My village is led by-not-so corrupt Brgy. Captain(my niece) I would say. So what the Brgy. Captain did is to assign different people every payout so everybody in the village gets to share, so everybody is happy. Her scheme is to include beneficiaries from different house-hold every payout.

     One time last year I guess, our Brgy Captain told me she'll include me to be a beneficiary of AICS( I think it was this as there are so many payout acronyms). Then I searched what it is all about, I found out it is an existing program of DSWD especially for ex-OFW who have economic woes. So I did not object to what the Brgy. Captain offered. When I got included, almost all others in the village had theirs in past payments. 

     I went to get my benefit, thinking it was for ex-OFW, only to find out that they weren't ex-OFWs. They were common people who probably are close to their Brgy. Captains.

     Before the payout, an opening remark was given by Tingog which got me wondering. And the opening remark said that Tingog is giving them cash aid, who do the same, and the poor people applauded. I was dumbfounded, I didn't know this was a political payout. Luckily, I am a PWD with ID, I can jump the queue and get my share ahead of everyone else. I left as soon as I got my cash and bag of rice, helpless and all. To top it all, Tingog was the one talking and organizing the crowd, but when receiving the payout, it was DSWD staff who was responsible, a classic example of what are we in power for. It's so sad to know how they manipulate government resources to preserve their control over the poor masses.

Summer Is Coming

     Summer is coming as many have been wishing since a week before Christmas of last year as it has been raining since then. The sun is out and hopefully this is the onset of dry days to come.

Lovely day!

     With summer, it's the school break and village fiestas are happening in the month of May. I am not kidding if I say you need not cook, and watch out for the fiesta of the villages nearby to get free food. There are some in April and June, but mostly the whole month of May is fiesta laden.

     Hopefully this is the beginning of no more rain as it has been wet and the paths are muddy, and pools of water are everywhere. 

The Weather Is Fine Now

     The weather hopefully has turned to the dry hot albeit humid from the wet rainy since days before Christmas of last year. The beautiful morning skyline augurs of the nice day, second day in a row of without the rain. I saw the parched pathways as I did my early morning walk today

What a lovely day!

     It's going to be hot but it's better than the wet days we've had for over a month. It's sunny but the breeze is cold. It only gets worse around noon when the sun's heat is extreme. Hopefully, this is the beginning of our summer days.

Ulan-ulan Falls, Biliran

     Last weekend, my friends invited me to join them for a weekend get-away to Biliran upon the invitation of our friend based in Biliran. It was a memorable trip for me. Due to limited time, we managed to visit a waterfalls I didn't know existed, Ulan-ulan Waterfalls as we arrived late on Saturday evening, although those who went earlier than us were able to visit two other falls before we arrived.

The Ulan-ulan Falls

     The falls we visited is fantastic, it is so natural and the water is sparkling clear. I miss my old life, when I was still working. I love adventure trips in Malaysia. Trekking, climbing mountains and waterfalls hunting were some of the things I did during weekends. It was a great break from the hectic pace of work.

My friends

The Unpredictable Weather

     About a week ago, I was elated when there was sunshine thinking it's the beginning of sunny days to come. Unfortunately, that was it! After that it has been intermittently drizzling and raining rendering us a weather so unpredictable.

Cloudy skies hover us 

    We are unable to dry our laundry, the path leading to our farm cottage is muddy and puddles of water are everywhere. It's a gloomy sight. I'm not sure when will the sunlight for good will come. It's a great weather to stay in bed and sleep. The breeze coming through the windows and door is cold. Technically it's not that low in reading but it penetrates through your bones. I think the high humidity makes the breeze damn freezing.

It's cold breeze again

    We love this kind of weather but not everyday. We also need the sunlight to come out to remove the gloom in the air.

Weather Challenges

     I often and people around me complain about the hot sunny weather in tropical Leyte, Philippines, coupled with high humidity, except for the last two weeks where it has been relatively cold and damp due to the intermittent rain. I know that foreigners from countries with winter long for and love this kind of weather. When I was still working with a Norwegian paint company, I found out most of them have no air-conditioning in their houses, and they avoid car air-conditioning, instead they have heaters in their cars. It was a culture shock for me to be heaty inside the car, uncomfortable for me but the Norwegians relish it as an escape from the extreme coldness outside.

     A friend of mine in the US sent me an overnight snowing of his car in St. Louis, Missouri. It was shocking to see the thick snow deposit on his car roof. It simply shows the hard work he needs to do upon waking up to clear the snow debris and be able to use the car. This confirms there is no good thing in everything extreme wherever part of the earth you are.

Snow covered car