I was woken up by Ludy, the househelp at 8:30 am. She was asking if I was ready for breakfast. I wasn't quite ready to get up yet, but since I was already up, why not?
As usual, she brought in a large tray of wonderful food. I had hot tea, bottled water, and a can of mango juice. With the rice, there was tocino (sweetened pork), pork chops, and salted preserved egg with tomato slices. I am getting spoiled and I'm not likely going to lose weight this way.
After breakfast, I checked my laundry, which I did late yesterday. They were still wet. Then I went out the back to play in the water. It was high tide, so the waves came up to the fence. While I took pictures around the back "patio," another vendor came up to me. He was selling similar jewelry as the ones I bought the other day. I told him that I already bought some from another vendor and he could come back on August 7 before I leave. I told him I had to make sure I had enough money to pay for my room first. He said his name is Toy; the vendor I bought from was named Benhar. I learned that there are two gangs who sold the jewelry down the beach and they divided up the territory. Toy is the president of the southern territory.
After Toy left, I decided to take a picture of a canoe sitting in the next door lot. But since I was already there, I figured I'd take a picture of another canoe a few yards further. Well, curiosity got the best of me, so I kept walking. I wanted to see what was beyond the piece of land that was sticking out further north. It was probably a mile or two away. So I went walking.
One of the canoes. more pics
The people are friendly after you talk with them a little. There was another jewelry vendor and I said I already bought some the other day. I asked one young man about the six-floor building which looked like a hotel. It was named "Dolores del Mar." He said it's a private property, not a resort, and the owner lives in the US. Further down, I saw some fishermen mending their nets and I took a picture after asking for permission. Nearby, kids were playing with the waves and giggling with sheer mirth.
When I got to the tower, I asked an older man what it was for. He said it's a broadcasting tower for Radio Veritas. He asked where I was headed. I said, "Magpapasyal-pasyal lang po diyan." (Just roaming over there.)
After the tower, there was one more private lot, a small rocky road, a row of very large cement blocks, and a long piece of lot that was fenced in with barbed wire. I was recording the waves crashing against a row of very large cement blocks when a young man walked by. I waved. He smiled.
The long piece of fenced property only had vegetation and nothing else so I don't know what it was, but it was a very big lot. This part of the beach was the cleanest and had the most coral on the beach. In fact, there was a three- or four-inch layer of coral buried under an inch of sand. The layer was only revealed by the waves that eroded the sand away.
After I went around the land outcrop, there was another land outcrop, so I decided to go around it as well. It was probably a quarter of a mile away. Of course, I was a bit nervous because the waves came up close to the vegetation and I got pulled in by the undertow, nobody would hear me because nobody lived nearby. But when I got around the second land outcrop, the barbed wire fence ended and there were houses again. From there, the beach curved in and back out to another land outcrop that was probably another mile or so. So, I turned around.
It didn't take me as long to go back, probably because I wasn't taking any more pictures. Besides, it was already almost 11 am, the sun was already high up, and I was getting thirsty. I found Ludy raking the seaweeds brought in by the high tide. She raked them towards the water for the waves to take back out to sea.
Coconut trees along the beach. more pics
Lunch is another feast -- fried fish, banana shoots and sayote leaves in bagoong (a brown salty sauce made from preserved small fish), rice, and bananas in syrup.
After lunch, I sat out at the back patio again to watch and listen to the waves, and to feel the breeze on my face. (Yes, it's becoming my favorite pasttime.) Then two jewelry vendors came by. I told them that I already talked to Toy and that they should come back all together on August 7 after lunch. I also told them I already bought from Benhar. It turned out that Benhar told them that I bought from him. Well, they hung around and showed me their wares anyway, asking if that was what Benhar sold me. So, I looked to see what else I could buy. The younger man had other colors of the coral necklace-and-bracelet sets. The older man had pink pearls. I'm thinking I could sell these on eBay and maybe recoup my airfare.
The older man showed me his ID. If I remember correctly, his name is Malali Takaki. It was an unusual name. Apparently, all the jewelry vendors around the beach are from Zamboanga, which is in Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines. As are most people in Mindanao, they're Muslim. (Filipinos are more than 90% Roman Catholic.) Because of the Abu Sayyaf troubles down there, there are fewer tourists, so they come up north to make money. But they get their jewelry from a vendor who gets the wares from Zamboanga. Of course, their source is smuggling the jewelry up here as well. In the summer, when there are a lot of tourists, there's more than a hundred of them selling jewelry along the beach. Now, there are only about 16; the rest have gone back to Zamboanga to be with their families. They'll come back in the winter around Christmastime, when it's peak season again.
Later, we were joined by the older man's son and his son-in-law and we stayed around chatting. They talked about life in the Philippines and how hard it is to find a job, even though they have bachelor's degrees. I talked about life in the US as well. They were surprised to hear that I drove three or four days across the US alone. I explained that my car is easy to drive. I described automatic transmission and cruise control, which they haven't heard of before. They supposed that I have a nice car. I said it's already five years old but I take good care of it.
They asked if I was married, if I have children. When they found out I'm divorced, they said that I could still get married. I said it's too much work to be married if you're a woman. The woman cleans the house, cooks the food, does the laundry, and takes care of the kids, even after she comes home from work. I asked them what their wives were doing while they were out there chatting with me. They smiled; they understood. They agreed that it's easy to get married, but it's difficult to be married.
Once in a while, they speak among themselves in a dialect I don't understand. (There are more than 1700 dialects in the Philippines.) They said it's the Muslim dialect in Zamboanga. The other dialect is Chabacano which is Spanish-based. They smiled when I asked them to translate a few phrases for me.
Before they left, they thanked me. I asked what for? I didn't buy anything. They said they were grateful that I chatted with them; they learned a little bit about life in other countries. Well, I learned a little bit about their life.
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