Just a typical day in the Philippines

My morning in LaCarlota City, Philippines started out like most, waking up with the sun already heating up the day. While the wife went outside to start whatever she could find for breakfast, I got up and made the bed for her. She is near her ninth month of pregnancy and getting across the bed to put the fitted sheets back onto the corners was harder for her than it was me, so I tried to make sure it was done before I left the room in the mornings. I went out back to find her at the small two burner gas stove making pancakes and hot dogs. A couple of eggs sat sunny side up waiting for the rest of the food to finish up, so we could sit together for breakfast as I had since my arrival over a week ago. Instant coffee in the pouch pre-mixed with cream and sugar was my drink of choice with breakfast here in the Philippines. Brewed coffee was not something most households in the Providences have.

My wife served us breakfast and we sat and ate outside under the shelter of the covered porch. This porch also served as a sleeping area for several of the family as well as the place where cooking and washing was done. The heat of the day was already in the upper 80’s and the small breeze that came through was welcome as we ate.

After breakfast, I spent a little while watching basketball with my nephew and waiting for the caffeine from my coffee to kick in. I had become restless and wandered into the bedroom where my wife was folding clothes and told her I needed a project. She reminded me that I had yet to take out the air conditioner and clean it. This was in hopes it would put out some cold air when it was needed. Up until now it seemed to only want to start producing a chill in the middle of the night when the air was at its coolest outside. I went around the back of the house to take a look at what it was going to take to remove the unit and my wife handed me a screwdriver informing me that the drain would have to come off, so it could be taken out from the inside. Removal from the outside was impossible since there was a permanent iron guard cemented into the wall to keep someone from coming by and absconding with the unit when no one was looking.

Once the unit was out and, on the table, out back, I took it apart with the help of my nephew and his friend and we began scrubbing and cleaning. The unit did need a good wash down and we had removed a lot of surface mold and dirt inside the unit, but I wasn’t happy that we could not get to the back-chiller unit. I could tell from looking through the fan, this was where a huge chunk of the problem lay. Consulting with my wife we decided to go deeper and took a few more screws out, allowing us to lift the fan shroud. Now we could clean the part that really needed it. All of this had prompted my sister in law to take out her unit as well, so between the five of us, we spent the next hour and a half scrubbing wiping and washing out the two machines. We sat them in the sun to dry and had our lunch, which my nephew had cooked for us, as we had finished up the last touches on the two units.

Lunch consisted of small fish and pork Adobo with rice. It was filling and tasty, and everyone was in a good mood even in the rising afternoon heat. With lunch over we went back to the AC units and reassembled them. We put them back into the openings made for them and fired them up for a test. Pleasantly surprised they put out cool air even though it was already nearing the hot part of the day. Having accomplished something for the day I was feeling good and smiled when my wife came in and told me that we would go to the pool now for a swim in some cool water.

I am now going to take a minute aside from telling you about my day to mention how we get around here when I am in the Philippines. I do so because it is important to the story later on to understand what exactly I am talking about when I speak of riding in the tricycle to go somewhere. It’s not what the typical American thinks of when you say tricycle and it is not like the three wheeled motorcycles back home or even like a motorcycle with a sidecar attached. If you have never been to the Philippines or don’t know much about them, then it is hard for you to imagine, but I will try to describe the Philippine tricycle as best I can. They are built to attach to motorcycles to maximize the number of people you can carry. The front is made to resemble a small car hood and fenders. Behind that is a covered area with a bench type seat that can fit a couple of people. With my wife almost due and me a larger American we barely fit into that area. The motorcycle itself can hold several people on the seat especially if a couple of them are small children. Behind the seat of the sidecar is an area similar to a small truck bed with bench like seats on both sides for another four or so people to sit on.

Last year my wife and I had purchased a new Kawasaki Barako II, 175cc, motorcycle to be able to get from place to place without having to pay someone else to take us. When she became pregnant, we knew something would have to be done so she could get around, since riding a motorcycle at 8 months pregnant was not something that is advised even in the Philippines. We had owned a tricycle before the motorcycle, but it was nearly worn out when we had purchased it. We had ran it for about 2 years and it was starting to cost more to fix it than was it's ultimately worth. The goal was to put a sidecar on the new motorcycle and make a tricycle out of it. With the upcoming expenses for the birth of our son, though we just did not have enough at the current time. Fortunate for us my brother in law and his wife decided to go ahead and pay for the sidecar to be built and put on so by my arrival this time we had a working tricycle again.

Now I will get back to the story of our day. We all piled into the tricycle, ten of us total, and headed out for the day at the pool. On the way we would stop off and pick up some snacks and drinks for later and off we went. As we rode along I noticed the volcano that was typical in the distance from my sister in law’s house was very near and looked incredibly beautiful with the clouds wreathing the top. After a nice ride of around 20 minutes we arrived at the area where the pool was and pulled through the gate.

The guard stopped us and informed us that there was no water for the pool today. There was no complaining or whining, it was just a matter of fact and we turned around for the ride back home. We had gone around 5 kilometers when we heard a loud pop and knew right away we had blown the tube in the rear tire. About 50 meters in the distance was a covered area used for locals to wait on a tricycle to town, so we pushed the bike up to it. It was blind luck that a gentleman waiting for his ride there had a bag of tools with him he was taking on his job. He loaned us a few and between my nephew and his friend they had the back tire off in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, everyone else piled out into the covered shelter and had an impromptu picnic. My Nephew’s friend, who seems to know everyone in 100 kilometers took the tire and stood at the front of the tricycle. Within a minute a passing motorcycle stopped, and he hopped on the back with the blown tire at his side. After another five minutes or so he came rolling back on a scooter from, I don’t know where, and picked up my nephew to take off again. While all of this is going on, the kids and the rest of the family sat in the shade of the shelter and joked as cola was shared and bags of snacks that were meant for the poolside. Even though the wait was probably at least an hour everyone was smiling and cheerful. After getting the tube patched my nephew and his friend came riding back on yet another motorcycle. Again, I have no idea where they had gotten it. I was just glad they had so many friends. They made short work of putting the back tire back on and then they took the tricycle and motorcycle back up the road to return the motorcycle to its gracious owner. After a short wait, they came rolling back up in the tricycle and everyone piled aboard again laughing and joking. We were not far from being back home now and even though we had not gotten to play in the pool it had been an adventure. As the last leg of the ride home was in sight, the road that turned down into the Purok, we heard the tale-tale hiss of the tube and the bike went wobbly again. We pulled over and the girls and the kids got out of the tricycle and walked on home. They didn't mind since it was not a very long distance to cover back to the house.

As luck would have it, we had broken down this time right beside a vulcanizing shop. Using the bike to power itself, we half pushed, half waked along with it to the shop and backed it in. It had been years since I had seen anyone vulcanize a patch onto a tire. In the US we usually just use cold patching or replace a tube, that is if the tire even has a tube in it. Almost everything in the US is now tubeless so the days of hot patching a tube has been long since forgotten. The man at the shop had the tube out in a matter of minutes and found the leak. This time vulcanizing the tube, the repair would be a bit longer lasting. He also found the thin spot in the tire that had likely caused the puncture to begin with and put a cut piece out of an old inner tube in to prevent it from happening again so soon. We paid the man 40 php which is less than the US equivalent of $1 and headed on home. Arriving back my nephew told me he was tired. I joked with him as we walked in that he was only tired from all the swimming. Everyone laughed, and I counted it up as just another typical day here in the Philippines.