Back from RP,
the drip timer worked all the 6 weeks!
My Home Page has crashed - just 1 of the bad things that happens when you loose a credit card
So most of the images here dont link.
I will fix this soon I hope.

RP is FULL of people.
this morning 4am I woke up, for a couple of seconds I tried to recall who was in the house.
It took several seconds to realise there was only me. The shock of solitude.
Never happens up there.
Warning: April is election month in RP, predictions are that the mediaStar candidate will win, to be immediately
ousted in a kudeta.
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Bagong Silang (NewTown) Scooter down steep alleys to my new house, no roof yet,
The dog is chained nearby to (unsuccessfully) prevent theft of building materials.
The house up&down should be about $5K
On the Township edge, view of banana plantation, beyond here are fields.
Access through a narrow muddy alley.
Down the hill a cockpit, fights on Sunday & Friday?
More thefts this time, all my alkaline batteries went fast.
Great eating. Tilapia still flapping on the barrow down the street.
Rum for a dollar a bottle.
Japanese Military sword to protect us from kidnappers,
who will surely be police, or agents...

The banqa drops into the wave trough on the crossing to the Island.
love enters the room, with carefully measured glances,
The sun sets with a click
New babies reproach his wife, each bleed a failure.
The necessary fear to breed not in the women yet.

Night, 2Jan2004, I am on the floor,bottle feeding Yoshi,
his mother, Rizza, has run away for a few hours
- fighting with her asawa, my hipag sister.
Anne is on the bed with her first born at 11am this day
, her Mother a few other children., complete the room.
The midwife says no epidural, only local.
Ann recovers in quick time.

At the Cemetery the crypts are stacked 8 high, no room,
a scary climb up to light 3 candles for Alberto

Bootleg movies every morning, last Samurai, lotr3
manga at night
memories of magic landscapes in enzed
A yellow flag is out in his mind
one thought not to overtake another.

Cell phone counts US deaths in Iraq.
The country fails, learned helplessness of
the feudal poor.
Western helplessness is a fraction broader
there they expect a house and a car,
but no change.
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I wanted to instal a composting toilet for the new house
but very little info in the RP
One source said it needs enthusiasm
- most say it needs an extractor fan, which needs periodic replacement.
So far I dont even have guttering for a rainwater collection system.
We are going along with the trend...
the very poor have chickens and a few plants...
the merely poor ape the middle class, no plants, no chickens, no water collection..
Urban Permaculture has not extended beyond Havana so far...

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Christmas eve, William (called Calbo)
got gut stabbed in Telepapa (dont ask why the market is called that)
Next day he was up and walking (blades are mostly short)
Now, to my shame, I have him hauling cement bags up a ladder in my house.
He lives in the former family house, with his startlingly beautiful wife
who amuses herself by flashing a dark nipple as she feeds her newest child.

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Butanding (Whale Shark) had not arrived in Sorsogon
They usually are there by mid February
sometimes 20 in a day
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