Sunny Days

February 22, 2012.

The sun came out again and the rainy days have ended. Now it is warming up! We spend our days coming and going in the area but always glad to be back, sitting on the terrace under the wind flowers enjoying the breeze from the river.

We went into Bacolod for lunch at a new Pizza restaurant. The family behind Greeno'z have divided forces and the sister has opened a new pizza restaurant and Bed and Breakfast around the corner from her brother’s original pizza restaurant. Must be a story there! Riza and Leroy have been to the original restaurant and want to try out this new one. It is very nice – everything new and shiny. There is a big glass window to the kitchen so you can watch the cook making the pizza. They were still painting the kitchen around him. The food was well prepared and served but the flavour is somewhat different than the same order would be at home. Still, it was a nice change!

As we finished, we saw a junk man at the restaurant across the street tying pails and buckets to his bicycle. The pails were 5 gallon metal food grade containers. I pointed them out to Leroy and we made a quick turn to see if we could negotiate a deal. Riza bargained with the pedlar and we took four of his buckets with us. They will be useful on the property for all kinds of things.

We were off to buy plants so we headed out of Bacolod on the road south toward Bago. We noted a number of nurseries in the area when we returned from Kabankalan. Riza has shopped there before. The first nursery we came to had lined the road with bougainvillea of all colours. We looked them over but decided to go a little further to see what other choices we had. We found the place where she had shopped before and stopped to do some serious looking. There was so much to see, so many to choose from and so little room in the car. Good thing we had four big buckets!

Each nursery is designed as the front garden of a very nice house. Apparently all of the nursery families are related. There had been a death in the family and as we wandered, a hearse pulled out of the property across the street and the mourners filed out of the driveway walking behind it. Then trucks with the truck bed loaded with people, followed by jitneys and tricycles all moving slowly toward the cemetery.

We wandered about the front gardens. There are many plants we would have liked to get – some wonderful bonzai trees, a large bougainvillea with a variegated leaf or some palms Leroy does not yet have. We settled for 4 regularly sized bougainvillea and then we found a beautiful bright pink and green “Lobster Claw” heliconia. That, we had to fit in the vehicle somewhere! Riza made a good deal and they dug up a full stalk with a healthy shoot attached. One or the other, if not both, should survive the transplanting.

The days go by. There are errands to run – to the bank for some money, to the market for fresh fruit or the grocery store to stock up on the usual food items. We like the SM Mall grocery store the best but for mall shopping Robinson’s Place Mall is preferable. There are some beautiful locally made things in the “Best of Negros” store and in the main “Negros Showroom” on 9th and Lacson Street. I bought two beautifully made cotton dresses for my granddaughter. I bought two because they are so inexpensive compared to home. The staff here were talking about what a lucky girl that must be to own two dresses. How differently we look at things.

We went for a walk one afternoon. I wanted to get some pictures of the road on foot, rather than from the car. The municipal grader has been down it and leveled out some of the worst gullies. It is almost level now but the rains have made it very muddy. It is hard to say if the improvement will survive. Leroy wants to see where Alex is building his new house.

It was a very pleasant walk past sugar cane fields and rice terraces. Mt.Kanlaon rises above the area. The volcano was still shrouded with cloud. We stopped by the old church and talked to the lady living on the property. She and her husband own these cane fields. She speaks very good English and appeared happy to have visitors to speak with. Another neighbour is the Lampria family. They have a huge vegetable garden and they frequently come to the gate with vegetables for Riza to buy.

From there it is downhill¸ past a pig sty to the “Ladies Bath”. We could hear the pigs and smell the pigs but we did not see the pigs. We have missed that experience from the car! We nicknamed the deep pool in the creek “Ladies Bath” because there are often water buffalo or "carabao" relaxing in the quiet water. No one was there this trip – they must have all been at work in the fields. We passed one farmer weeding the furrows between the tall cane with his animal and a plow. The carabao was loudly and stubbornly resisting the farmer’s direction to turn and head back into the dense and prickly row. The farmer persevered and the weeding continued.

The road was still muddy and wet but appeared to be passable.

Once we got to the top of the hill we could see Alex new house across the rice fields. Leroy asked a field hand how best to reach it. He stopped work to guide us. I managed to make my way along the narrow top of the dykes. I did not want to slip and break through someone’s dyke or harm their crops! Before we got to the house, we had to cross a creek. There did not seem to be any easy way to do it so we turned back. We found out later, Alex wife had watched our progress and was coming down to show us the way when we turned back. We will visit another day – after Alex finishes the bridge!

Walking home we were walking among the children returning from school. They were walking, talking and playing like children everywhere. I particularly enjoyed watching two young girls, “best friends” who could easily have come straight out of Anne of Green Gables!

Early Sunday all the crew were at work. No lingering over breakfast coffee this day. The sunny weather made it a good time to mend the roof on the gazebo. It is a well made nipa roof but it had a few noticeable holes. They may be from sun, wind and weather – or they may be from tukos creating a village high up in the building. Dreigo has the expertise with nipa and apparently no fear of heights. He rigged up a platform and ladder to reach the center of the roof under his sister, Anna’s, watchful eye. Alex is the biggest and strongest. He held the ladder - from the bottom. Like me, he would not be keen on climbing it. It took about four hours to finish the patching. It took Anna, with Lucy’s help, the afternoon to clean up the mess and get it back to normal. The rest of us tried to stay out of the way!

We have been watching trucks go by with building supplies. We have heard rumours of a rock crusher enterprise being built on the river. Leroy and Riza are understandably interested in any industry moving in next door. We got ready early one morning and headed out for a walk along the river.

There is something going on. Temporary tarp buildings are in place next door. An office, storeroom and bunkhouse are under construction. Goats are still tethered in the empty field.

The west side of village is strung out along the road. The thatched houses are farther apart along the river with nicer yards than the east side of Calibago where they all seem jammed together. We pass Lucy’s house as we go, waving to her daughter and her mother.

Where the road curves to the river there is a new sand separator installed. Not far beyond it is the well in the river where the locals get their water. Two springs enter the river at that place.

A ford crosses the river where the road leads to the “Englishman’s” property. He and his wife have created a beautiful estate among cane and rice fields. They provide jobs for the people in the area. Their new house has just been completed and another family member is building there now. They have a tilapia pond in their creek close by this river path.

We passed fish traps being stored in a tree until next they were needed.

This is also where the Bago River and the Caliban River meet. People come here to fish for themselves and for their livelihood. We watched a young man swim his fishing pole across the river and set up on our side.

How will a rock crusher affect this area? Will it bring needed jobs to the people? Will it be viable? Will it pollute the river? It will not add to the tranquility of Calibago, the Englishman’s or the people of the village.