Not much news from Cagayan Brian. I did hear they evacuated 2 baranguays Carmen and one other Much damage again.1/5th of banana plants destroyed on Mindanao The rebel army even felt compelled to declare a ceasefire. My blog will follow later.

It has been a while since my last blog and much has happened not only at the personal level but on a national level also.
First then let me explain that we have moved home from the compound where we had settled nearly three years ago into a house in Sibulan, or rather closer to Sibulan than to Dumaguete. However, although they are distinct townships I still see places like Sibulan and Valencia as suburbs of Dumaguete in that if I need to buy anything for the house, visit a hospital or find an ATM I have to go into Dumaguete.
Our move occurred because Sione’s brother. Jito, he of the appetite for dog and charred squid, had a property in Sibulan from his days at the Police College, which is just over the paddy fields from here. He had rented it to someone who had now vacated the property and he offered it to us rent free if we would look after the property and pay the electric and water bills.
The house had been left in a poor condition but a little work and all was righted and tidied. We needed to make the place secure in the first place because as Jito took us to see the house for the first time he discovered he had left the keys somewhere else but he went round the back and climbed into the house to open the doors. Security became priority number one!
It was around this time that I woke in the early hours shivering and trembling as I was invaded by some illness that laid me on my mattress for 8 days and robbed me of strength, appetite and interest. I cannot be sure what it was that made me so ill but it was not the dreaded dengue and, to be sure, it felt more like a very bad cold or a weaker form of flu. It was not malaria. Whatever, I was unable to be involved in any of the activities normally associated with house moving and the burden fell upon Sione entirely. To her lasting credit she never wavered but did it all, decorating, collecting and ordering then moving bits and pieces, supervising security measures at our new home as a fence was built, walls raised by a couple of hollow blocks higher, sealing gaps in the house walls and any niche which she thought might allow invasion and all the time nursing me. She is a titan. On the due date she bundled me into the car along with the dogs that seemed aware that something different was afoot and did not struggle overmuch. Indeed Bobby was happy to watch the passing scene through the side window.
As a matter of interest Bobby was ill, off-colour really, no appetite, for about two weeks back in October but then recovered to appear as leaner more muscular dog now taller than Snowie and before we raised the walls at the new house capable of clearing them in a bound.
When we arrived at our new home and all ties with our other home had been severed and nothing left behind, Sione dumped me onto my new bed and left me to recover.
I did so, but as I say I was greatly weakened and I had lost some weight. I did some research and found my new weight and BMI were now ideal for my height. At the time I write now I am well recovered and fit and well. We are nearer the sea now and Sione insisted on taking me there every day because bathing there would give me strength. I did not refuse. The sea was warm and laved me gently but I doubt its strength-giving properties.
Christmas begins early here and we have regular visits by kids singing “We wish you a merry Xmas” and “Jingle bells”. The shops are teeming and brightly lit with plastic Christmas Trees glistening with plastic snow and decorations and strings of lights decking and festooning everything. This is a deeply religious country as I have observed before from thanking God for the relief of a fart to regular, every 30 minutes, fervent pleas being made, by radio, to God, Master and Creator of the Universe, that Typhoon Pablo takes as little life as possible. More of Pablo later.
What I find incongruous is how this devout, intense religiosity has allowed the West to define their Christmas from the singing of Jingle Bells when not one child could describe a ‘one horse sleigh’ or even explain snow, that they allow fir trees to stand in their homes when the first real fir is a thousand miles north of them, that the decorating even of trees is of pagan origin coming from the tree worshippers of ancient Germanic races.
At the very end of November we began to receive warnings of a tropical storm developing to the south of the Philippines. The authorities had learned much from the chaotic response to Sindong last December and identified ‘unpreparedness’ as being a major factor in the number of deaths. Evacuation of threatened areas began and here in Dumaguete over the few days available before typhoon Pablo arrived, there was a problem of where to house evacuees since there were ten thousand athletes in the city from all over the Negros so all the schools were filled with the athletes. Baranguay halls churches and Universities were called into help. The mayor authorized the purchase of rain wear, radios, tools, emergency lighting and all the paraphernalia one would expect. Government officers were instructed to deposit their spouses and children in safe places and report for duty. There was a continuous stream of exhortations, information and advice both of the progress of the typhoon and the level of preparations and readiness for its arrival.
The tracking and timing of Pablo was impressive and when we were told that the typhoon would hit Dumaguete at 4pm, Tuesday, 4th December we were already well prepared having battened down everything that we felt might be moved.
Sindong, last December, caused most damage by torrential rainfall and flash flooding but Pablo was more wind than rain. Rain there was but not of the measure of Sindong.
As we paid one last visit to town to corner some candles and tins of food, although we already had plenty, a few drops of fine rain spotted the windscreen of our car and that is how typhoons signal their arrival with tiny messengers and then breezes pick up speed and there are buffeting gusts and trees sway and shake. Loose metal sheets clatter and tug to be free. One piece tore itself loose and flew through the air to decapitate a man struggling home in Siquiore.
Then the lights went out.
I am not sure but I do think that the off switch was thrown before any landlines were down as a safety measure and to avoid storm damage using the power to start fires.
Incidentally as I watched repairs of the downed power lines in the days after Pablo parted with Dumaguete I realized that the slender power lines were not to blame for being downed it was the swags of thick cable that carry broadband and telephones from the various providers that decked the cable routes and swung thickly tangled and the gusts would use these thicker cables to rip down the posts carrying the power.
At one point Sione began to fear for the house as the full might of Pablo hit us and she got into the car and drove into the dark. We got about 200 metres from the house when she spotted downed cables and posts blocking our normal way. A motor bike came out of the dark and she enquired which way she could go. The rider said there were trees down all over the area and no way out that he knew. We turned back home as Sione decided it was safer to be in the house than out there with the world being torn apart.
As we returned I noticed many men out under awnings seemingly watching the storm which for a moment seemed a bit silly. Then we watched as the house next to ours shook as Pablo huffed and puffed. The house acquired a slight tilt from the upright. Pablo huffed and puffed with gusto and the house leaned at an angle. Pablo huffed fiercely and puffed mightily and blew the house down. It was literally a heap of tangled leaf, wood and plastic sheet. In no way did it resemble a blown down house. Then I realized the watching men were outside because they feared the typhoon might blow their house down. It was significant that there was no one in the destroyed house since the occupants had been evacuated to the safety of the baranguay hall.
Our house has a leaf roof and this is put together by tying dried leaf to a bamboo strip and this strip is then tied in place to stronger timber slats and hinged there and overlapped as we overlap out tiles and slates. When the wind blows directly at such roofing the individual pieces fly up on the hinge and the weather comes in. As Pablo got rougher and rougher with us these hinged pieces would rear up with a clatter and as the gust weakened slam back with a wet slap. It was quite frightening and although all our possessions were under plastic sheeting we got some of the rain that did fall and we had momentary glimpses of the noisy turbulent dark. We did not lose our roof although we had some slight damage that was easily mended. I think the roofing is designed in the way it is to let the wind through in this way much as the coconut palms survive typhoons by having the slatted leaves that close and swing down-wind with strong fibrous trunks that allow sway and avoid breakage. Sometimes the heavy rains soften the ground around the palm and the wind can uproot and blow them over, rarely do they break.
Sione was worried for the canopy that covered the car and was paddling round the yard adding wire and tightening rope. She wore a hooded rain-jacket and the hood was tied so tightly around her face that it was pinched together. She worked furiously in the dark with a small torch and then called me out as she prepared to move the car into a better and, to her safer, place. I think she wanted to believe she was doing something to mitigate the effects of Pablo but I could see no advantage in moving. A typhoon in full throat is no place for a debate so I went to help just then there was the crack of breaking wood and the crackling hiss of tearing sheet as Pablo took the canopy and draped it over our fence. I moved the broken pole to a safe place and Sione gave Pablo best and left the sheet hanging over the fence.
We went to bed and I slept fitfully as steadily the winds, the howling the clattering of the roof declined and then I noticed that the opposite slope of our roof was now responding to the gusts in the manner I described earlier which meant that the wind had shifted and that Pablo was moving off elsewhere.
What I report now is the absolute truth and the coincidence I see purely as that - a coincidence.
Pablo was indeed moving away but still gusted peevishly. I slept and was startled awake by a gust that clattered our hinged leafage. In the pale light of a guttering candle I spoke into the gloom, “For f---‘s sake, pack it in now.”
And that was the last we heard of Pablo.
It was 1 am on Wednesday, 5th December. Pablo had been with us for 9 hours.
During the waiting for the arrival of Pablo we were told via the radio that Dumaguete had been given a storm warning 3.
IMPACT OF THE WINDS:
• Many coconut trees may be broken or destroyed.
• Almost all banana plants may be downed and a large number of trees may be uprooted.
• Rice and corn crops may suffer heavy losses.
• Majority of all nipa and cogon houses may be unroofed or destroyed and there may be considerable damage to structures of light to medium construction.
• There may be widespread disruption of electrical power and communication services.
• In general, moderate to heavy damage may be experienced, particularly in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

All of these happened although the buko palm in our yard remained intact
We spent the next morning tidying the house and yard. Since we came to San Miguel we have found a handy man that can climb buko palms, scramble on roofs, heighten walls, build fences etc.
His name is Bobby. Sometimes my beautiful dog Bobby comes into the house or barks at passing strangers. I will shout “Bobby, get out.” or “Behave yourself, Bobby. “ in a harsh commanding voice. This startles the man Bobby who once stood up to go and I had to tell him I meant the dog.
We ventured out on the Friday and found the road by the airport which had a magnificent avenue of mighty boled and stalwart, thickly sinewed branched giants. I had opined that these trees were very old and watched with interest as people would come and remove the layers of thin dry bark; I reckon they used it as kindling.
Five of these giants had been felled. So sad. In the two days since the typhoon the trunks had been sawed through and dragged to one side to allow traffic to pass through. Already the inevitable scavengers were hacking at branches and carting it off for use or sale, who knows. The thick trunks remained though -too heavy to move. What interested me was they all had a blood red circular core and this was surrounded by a snow white outer part of the trunk.. I am not sure but I think a tree increases itself from the centre pushing out with each year’s new growth so the blood red core would be new growth or rather, more recent growth.
As we have passed them each day since these huge Yule logs are slowly being removed and those that remain have been skinned of their bark and their smooth white insides are revealed.
We followed the national highway into the city and noted Cang’s new store which days before celebrated its first anniversary had had its entrance canopy bent and the spark of electro cutters were removing it where a scaffold protected those that entered the store.
It was the same all the way into town. Long ways free of damage then a fallen tree wedged against a wall or being chopped into kindling be flashing machetes, a fence toppled a house toppled. Pablo left his mark everywhere.
I have mentioned the avenue of trees by the airport and there is a similar avenue along the front of the Boulevard.
Seven of these great shady giants had been toppled and were being sawn up even as we were passing displaying their ruddy cores. I have reported elsewhere the terminal building purported to have been blown there from Sicquior. Urban Myth! A lie, for which I apologise. It was blown across about 100 metres of water from the wharf at Dumaguete harbor. Still a considerable piece of damage but I had found it hard to believe it being deposited so appropriately, as it had been after a long sea voyage.
We were 8 days without power during which time the city ran out of candles and we learned from Bobby how to make a lamp using a container, oil, salt and twisted cotton wool as a wick. They said the salt was to prevent the oil catching alight in the container and restricting the flame to the wick. I a not sure if that is so but I did find the salt thickened the oil and allowed the wick to stand up and not fall sideways. They worked splendidly and Sione made eight of them so we even had light in the toilet or what they politely call the Comfort Room or CR.
So no light, no TV, no broadband, no computer, no fans, no fridge, no ice.
We made occasional trips out to find Ice to keep the freezer cold and protect the contents. There was little available but we always managed to find some.
During the day if we had not been into town I would lay on my bed sweating and staring at the wall. I would walk out now and again with the dogs to note any progress in restoring power and first the road blocking posts were sawn and removed then slowly new posts were fit and on one return journey as dusk descended on the 8th day we noticed a man working on a terminal box and conjected that power would soon return to our darkling plain. We were right. We rode into a village aglow with the restored light and the return of the carol singers.

Just a rider to the main blog I have posted.
I have over the few years I have been posting here referred to earthquakes, floods, high winds, gales and typhoons and to hazardous journeys over difficult roads. The Philippines are in a hazardous part of our earth. Part of the ring of fire and in the natural path of typhoons so these things are par for the country, remarkable only when they do not occur.
I am not heroic. There are times when I have been really frightened of the possibilities in a set of circumstances. I am grateful for having had the companionship of a resourceful, intelligent and brave partner in my adventures. I am also grateful that despite all the hazards I have remained remarkably unharmed.
In truth, despite all, I would not exchange one second of my time here.
Have a good Christmas, everyone and look forward with hope into the New Year, Arthur Seeley

And best Christmas and New Year wishes to you and Sione also Arthur.
As you know I have visited the Philippines many times on business,alas now at an end. I greatly miss the friendly spirit of the Philippine people. Their resolve in difficult times is tremendous.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Happy 80th Birthday, Arthur!! Lang may yer lung reek!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

Hi Arthur, I am advised that the quotation should read " Lang may yer lum reek". I wrote it down as I heard(misheard)it. One never stops learning, does one? Thanks Terry; and Arthur, 'look after that reeking lum'. David

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

Happy birthday from me too, as a Philippinophile ( I wish I could have done one more trip) and one who always enjoys your 'postcards'

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

thank you everyone for your kind wishes on my birthday. Life continues and I keep fit and well and can still out walk younger Filipinos. I am at the moment collecting my blogs, editing and tidying and moving in illustrations to make it a readable whole without losing the informality of the of the blog form. Then also collecting my poetry and looking to Kindle to publish the same. I will blog later but all rather mundane just now, no storms, no flash floods, no typhoons, no earthquakes, in fact, nothing to laugh at all.

In which case Arthur, you might as well visit the zoo

We havent heard from you for a while Arthur ! I enjoy your postcards (partly because I have visited the Philippines several times). Hope you are OK and can drop us line soon !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Thank you Brian. I am well and will post a blog quite soon now. Thaks for your concern and interest.

I have not written for some time but I am fit and well and content with my lot.
So summer is ending here and the elections are over, the posters are all taken down and the children are returning to school.
During the election the fence by the airfield was festooned with a billowing, fluttering pageant of posters all asking for your vote. Processions of vehicles supporting different candidates jammed the flow of traffic while t-shirts, balloons, combs and other gifts were showered upon the crowds. Sione’s parents had their bus fare from Canlaon paid by one candidate. They have no difficulties with buying votes here.
Summer here has meant a seemingly endless sucession of clear blue skies where the sun climbs to its zenith and people have no shadows. Cars cast only rectangular shadows under their frames.
It has been searingly hot and folk look always for such shade as can be found beneath trees or duck into air-conditioned stores.
It is too hot to go swimming except at about half past five as the sun dips down towards the high volcanic ridge.
We found a good place to swim or lay in the shallow warm waters. The sea is a mill pond and along the long stretch of beach there are a few working the waters for shell fish, some gathering sea-grass for salads, some, like us, bathing lazily, some just messing about in boats.
The smoke of evening fires rises lazily in blue-grey columns until, clearing the trees, a gentle movement of air, not quite a breeze, drifts it slowly, threading it through the buko palms and dispersing inland to add to the faint blue haze.
In front of us the island of Siquior looms like a great blue-backed whale, and , where the beach turns out of sight, a glimpse of Apo.
The sea is a glory of dazzling, dancing light and the blue sky slowly dims as the night approaches and a moon, a shaving away from being full , sails slowly up the sky, chasing the sun away.
We return to the car and as we drive back to our home we look away from the sea up into the Cuernos de Negros mountain ridge behind which the sun sets. The view of the Cuernos from our new home is different from my old viewing arbor in the wilderness of the lost garden. We have a wider view and can see way back up the ridge towards Bais City, although many kilometers away. I may have mentioned n earlier blogs that the coast road we follow to Canlaon allows a magnificent view of Kan-laon Volcano as we leave Bais City even though the volcano is still perhaps 100 kilometres away.
The sunsets are beautiful. The gradual fading of the sky through the spectrum is entrancing. I find them so although Sione seems singularly unimpressed. I keep saying ‘Look at that sky’ and she grunts at me.
We always seem to leave at the same time for the short journey home. The sun sets until it is just a brilliant white sliver above the ridge, brilliant white in a burning orange sky which slowly fades into a rich wine red and then fades again into night. Behind the moon sails over the dark blue sky and stars come one by one. Strange night skies here where Orion is upside down and the rest of the stars are strangers to me, brilliant and unpolluted by city lights, but strangers. If there are any old friends up there I cannot recognize them.
So summer is ending, has ended, it is still stiflingly hot but now we have rain, mostly at night or early morning. The rattle on the roof and the cool breeze that shakes the buko palms heralds the arrival. We will have the occasional storm now before the arrival of the typhoon season later in the year.
We have been looking after Sione’s Poppa for a few weeks. He has had a trapped nerve in his hip and been unable to walk properly. There are no decent doctors in Canlaon and Sione insists that the locals only go to the hospital there to die. On our journeys to Canlaon we always pass the Canlaon ambulance dashing to Dumaguete Provicial hospital. We took Poppa to the Provincial Hospital but it was terribly depressing. They are renovating the interior ans there was an appalling mess of rubble around and all the wards were closedand people were lying in the corridors, head to foot. Now it is the cutom in the Philipines for the family to come into the hospital with the patient and stay with them so the place was like a war zone. It was insufferably hot and close and the smell of sweat and stale urine was disgusting.
So we brought him to home after one night when his tests and x-rays were finished. He is quite well now but still a little unsteady even though he is without pain. He weeps occasionally in gratitude because Sione looks after him with loving attention and since he has spent much time laid on his back I told her to beware of bed sores so she massages his back and buttocks with alcohol a few times a day. Lucky sod! He has not been eating in Canlaon just chewing tobacco leaf all day. Now he has no leaf and eats bread in between meals. Bread and bananas. He does not seem to get any fatter but he is certainly happier. He was grumpy and ill tempered before now he smiles and sings and talks to the dogs. We are taking him home to Canlaon this weekend to see his family and friends but Sione will not let him stay there until she is sure he is safe to be left alone. Of course, Momma is there but she will be running the stall.
So basically that is my news for now. Life goes on and I am happy here. If my blogs are sparse and infrequent now it is because I would be repeating myself if kept up the flow.

Thanks for that Arthur, no we don't expect too regular 'postcards' but its good to hear all is well with you.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

I had not intended to blog again so soon but I have a strange tale to share with you.
I explained in my last blog that we were taking Sione’s father back to Canlaon for him to see his family and friends. He also asked if we could stop at a cemetery for him to visit his parent’s grave in his home town which is about 60 kilometres from Canlaon but not out of our way.
We wended our way through some back streets and found the local Necropolis. A long winding stairway led up from where we parked the car. I chose to stay with the car not wishing to intrude nor tackle the stairway.
I had been sat quietly in the car for about 10 minutes when a man and woman came down the steps. The woman had a small bundle of dead weeds and grass in her hand. She hurried down the last few steps and placed the grass against the catafalque immediately in front of the car. He gave her his lighter and she tried, without effect, to light the grass. She left it where she had placed it and they left. I was puzzling about this when two young girls accompanying a lady who walked with a stick very doddering came down a smaller set of steps off to my right. They passed in front of my car and one of the , looking about her, suddenly darted off and grabbed the bundle of grass. She said something to the old lady who shook her head and the girl passed behind the car and placed the bundle against a gate.
I was then left alone with the mystery of the grass when I noticed the crucifix which Sione had hung from her rear view window was spinning and swinging. I was sat quite still, there was no breeze and no outside vibrations except for a young man bouncing a basket ball about 25 metres away. I held my hands up to stop any breeze that might have been there but it still swung and span.
I sat there puzzling over this for about five minutes until Sione and father returned.
I asked Sione to listen to me carefully for I needed to understand things. I told her about the man and woman and the grass and she laughed then the girls and the old lady eventually picking up the grass to show her. She laughed and grabbed it with glee. She took it off to one side gathered a few dead leaves and soon had a small smoky fire going. She wafted the smoke about and returned to the car.
She then explained that if you visited the grave of a dead relative and did not light a small smoky fire the spirits would follow you home.
Ah, I said, that might explain the crucifix. Half joking.
She looked at me with wide eyes.
What about the crucifix?
I told her it had been swinging and spinning until she had lit the fire. She looked at the crucifix now quite still.
She told her father about what I had said. He too had wide eyes.
Now I have told the tale exactly as it happened. I did not think then and do not think now that the crucifix and the grass are in any way connected. Pure coincidence as far as I a concerned but still…

I went to Canlaon this weekend. It was for the most part an uneventful journey but as always there were singular incidents that bear the mention.
Most of my readers will know of the road up the volcano, a long and furiously winding way and even when breasted, the body of the volcano still looms and soars , hiding this time in a veil of grey cloud. In between the massive cone, the highest point in the Central Visayas, there are hundreds of lesser cones which I cannot explain, but they barely seem to be small volcanoes, or the remnants thereof. Nevertheless the road winds and bends and curves its way up to the fertile plateau. Along the edges of the road where the land pushes back at alevel before rising again in steep banks beside the road there is sugar cane growing . One wonders how it is harvested –but it is.
Beside the road this journey there were many lorries. Huge cane carrying monster with some 16 wheels. These are generally stacked very high with the cane in Canlaon before the steep dive down to Vallehermosa where it is processed. They storm down the hill and many times we have passed those that failed to take a corner or were tipped by their over-burdened load.
But back to my tale. On the return journey down the hill we approached a corner where there was a warning traffic triangle in the road.
“ Accident.” Sione breathed quietly.
We rounded the bend and there lurched over on its side leaning against the metal shield that there are at each precipice edge and bend was a huge cane lorry. There was , of course, the normal crowd of children and rubber-neckers , as well as the men moving the toppled cane back to a parked lorry which was collecting the salvaged load.
There is something pathetic, sad and vulnerable about seeing one of these giants thus humbled. Like, I imagine seeing a dead elephant or a beached blue whale. They do drive dangerously and I can imagine that if one has made the journey safely many times one can become blasé and careless.
We passed o our way and I wodered about the driver was he OK?Alive but scred? Or what?
Further on down the road I saw a man dragging a dead dog behind him at the end of a thin rope. I assumed it was dead because it did not repond to the treatment.
“ Another accident? “ I suggested.
“ No he kill it and will eat it.” Sione said.
“ How do you know. Perhaps he take it for a walk and it died and he has not noticed yet.”
My attempts at humour are never understood. Apart from the fact that he was dragging the corpse by its tail.
“ I don’t understand.”
“Never mind. How do you know he killed it?”
“ I see wound in its neck. They lasso dog and then push knife into its neck.”
“ Not nice.”
“ It was nice fat dog. His family will eat well. And his neighbours.”
“Ok, Ok. Concentrate on the road.”
Silence prevailed for a while as we negotiated the bends and rode out into the flat coastal plains.
“ They will eat the skin as well.” She offered.
I did not reply but wound the window down and let the cool sea breeze in.
That was it really except for the other dead dog that no one wanted laid motionless in the road.
“ That is accident.” She ruled.
Oh, and then the hen.
We were entering the home straight when from someone’s yard this
Kama- kazi hen dashed out with a wild fluster of wings and stretching legs under our racing car. It emerged with a vehement torrent of indignant clucks, unscathed, shaken but not stirred.
As a passing note of interest , some of you will know that there is trouble in Mindanao, to the south of us, where some muslim rebels have taken hostages and tried to march to Zamboanga Town Hall and fly their flag of independence. !00 were killed and captured yesterday and the army, navy and police force is there in some numbers.
Jito, Sione’s police sergeant brother, texted Sione that they have intelligence it might spill over into Dumaguete so we must be careful and not go out too much.

As always Arthur I enjoyed your post I continue to take an inteerst in your adoptive country even though I am now retired and unlikely to visit again.
There has always seemed to be some sort of trouble in Mindanao/Zamboanga.
I hope it doesn't spread to Dumaguete, and wish you the best of luck. People like that can be so unpredictable.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Arthur, is there a taboo in the Philippines against the number 3 similar to our superstition about 13? If so do you know why?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 54-59

Current location (optional) Denholme

Gareth , I have asked around and there does not seem to be any taboo on the number three but I will keep my eyes and ears open. You will understand that before modern forms of transport came here the various islands developed separate cultures and languages and customs so there may well be such a taboo elsewhere in the islands but not here in the Visayas

During the super typhoon Pablo, the house next door blew down. I was stood outside watching Sione struggle with a furious tarpaulin that struggled violently to be free of its ropes when in three slow lurches the house crumpled and piled in a disorderly mess of planks and sheets and bits of tin.
The next morning the family who had left to shelter in the baranguay hall returned. The lady launched into a screaming fit not at the crumpled house but someone had stolen her pots and pans.
Over the days I watched as the pile was untangled and bits and bobs were salvaged and slowly a smaller house grew where the old one had been. The man left for Manila, to earn some money. The lady cooked in the open and began a garden, growing vegetables.
Then the lady disappeared. Enquiries revealed she was in hospital with epilepsy.
She returned later but no longer seemed to be cooking but had shouting ‘do’s” with no one. Last week she began throwing stones at our dogs and ranting. Sione took steps to protect the car. Then I saw her attack a man with a stick in her garden. Later as we were going out towards the main road in the car we saw her dressed in what appeared to be her best clothes walking through puddles.
Sione said she thought she had lost her mind.
When we returned there was a crowd near her home.
She was dead.
A short, sad tale.
We had only witnessed snap shots of what must have been a chaotic last journey.
Now as I write if I go to our front door I can see her white coffin, lit by candles and small fairy lights.
For the last three days there has been a continuous vigil , night and day, as people from the village come and sit in her garden, chat or sit quietly. Sione took some coffee and bread around earlier. She came back, “ I did not look at the body. It would scare me and I would dream.”
The vigil will last till Wednesday morning when they will walk the coffin to church and to cemetary.
They have some strange customs here, apart from this marathon ‘wake’. They will not sweep the floor otherwise her spirit will tangle with the broom. When viewing they will take care no tears fall on the coffin as it would disturb her spirit. They put a white curtain with white flowers in the window to indicate they are in mourning. Much like we drew the curtains in our street. The lights and candles remain on during the day. Durnig the night if I ‘surface’ from my slumbers I can hear the continuous hum of conversation.
I will not go to the funeral although Sione says she might.

Lovely, but sad story Arthur.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Arthur. I am sorry to hear a new and rather violent typhoon is reaching Central Philippines. I am sure all of us here hope you , Sione and your friends are able to keep safe, and we wish you the best of luck.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Hi Brian (and any other interested ex-students) Just to let you know that Arthur contacted family and friends on (their) Thursday evening to inform us that he and Sione, had battened down everything worth battening down and moved into a hotel 'for the duration'. Everything of value had been loaded up in the car and off they went. Ample warning of Typhoon 'Yolande' had been given and as Arthur said," you can replace furniture etc., but you cannot replace life" The hotel has Wi-Fi so we expect and hope, to have some positive news over the weekend, when the typhoon is projected to have moved on to Vietnam. David

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

David, thanks for letting us know that. As you are aware I have had a long standing interest in the Philippines having visited many times and done business acting as agent for a chemical company in Mindanao.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Just to let you know that, on checking my Emails this morning(7.30am), Arthur has left a short message, posted 8 hours ago, that they have survived the storm and will send more details later. Should be an interesting blog to look forward to!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

I cannot think that David, who is quite a bright lad, could have missed that, Brian. Good to know that Arthur and Sion are safe, so thanks, David.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

The worst hit town seems to be Tacloban, about 170 miles North east of where Arthur and Sione are. They are estimating in excess of 1000 dead there.
But there is also a lot of flooding on Cebu Island which is nearer to them.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

We had ample warning of the Super typhoon and made plans to survive. This involved gathering furniture into piles and plastic sheeting it against the possibility of a lost roof We put our movable valuables in the car, fed the dogs and found a stocky little hotel. The room had a comfortable bed, air-conditioning, hot shower that worked, television and a view. We sealed off in our cocoon and waited for Friday when Yolanda was due to make landfall on Leyte Sione liked the room so much she wished we could have a super-typhoon every week.
I kept track of Yolanda through my internet and noted it would landfall at Samar or Leyte and then track West-northwest across central Visayas. This track would carry the eye away from us but Yolanda had a 600 mile diameter so we could expect high winds and rain. Yolanda came and went and left us safely intact
Yolanda swirled her petticoats and felled two trees, blew up a transformer but little real damage here. The devastation in her path is coming together now and 10000( ten thousand) are feared dead in Leyte Province alone, Tacloban has been 80% destroyed, bodies in the streets, widespread looting as people scavenge for food, which is understandable, but which escalates into televisions and radios. Complete lack of power, cars piled on top of each other by 10 metre storm surges.
So our little adventure proved a bit of a pussy cat really although the devastation further afield is catastrophic and as yet only vaguely understood.
As it appeared to quieten Friday afternoon Sione went out on the motorbike to check the house, five minutes away. She returned very quickly her journey unfinished. The trees were being bullied by the wind, she was the only one on the road, She was frightened. She went again later and reported that there was no damage to anything in our home so our plan had been happily a success/ Of course not everyone has a Sione to care for them,She did all the hard work preparing and continues to enjoy my admiration and gratitude. I am stranfely proud to have been in the presence of the world's most powerful typhoon ever recorded, albeit peripherally, and survived. More later. Thanks for your concerns.

Thanks Arthur, Pleased that you werent affected too much. I always realised it was going to pass some miles north of you but expected you would get a substantial fall out from it . But I am saddened that so many Filipinos have perished and my thoughts are with their families, and particularly those who are homeless.
A massive clearing job for the Government now.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Thanks for your concerns. The clean up has begun but the logistics are severely clogged by enormous swathes of debris and fallen trees. Dead bodies everywhere in Tacloban but that is a city there are many remote communities which have not yet been heard from. Estancia on Iloilo was 100% destroyed, completly and utterly swept from the earth.There are probably many more like that particularly coastal villages.
Food cannot get through to many places and where it would be local government that responded to this they themselves are hampered by lack of transport and communications. They are a resilient breed the Filipinos and come earthquake and typhoon they will survive.
Yolanda chilled the seas sucking cooler water up from the depths so a Tropical Depression formed off Mindanao is likely to remain such and not develop before making landfall. We will see.

Some images and stories coming out of the storm- wrecked islands

This little boy
a graze under his right eye,
a soiled red t-shirt,
dazed and puzzled beyond reasoning,
eyes glazed with dismay
wanders through his crippled broken world,
looks for his lost parents.

This weeping father carries
with loving gentleness
the body of his small drowned daughter,
his tiny broken doll
the swung arms
he loved, dangle.

This old lady
her mouth and nose hidden
under a scalf
to mask the stench
of the bloated bodies she passes,
looks for water.

A soldier contemplates
the monstrous sculpture
of a bus upon a car
and a ship upon
the bus.
How?
What dreadful power
has placed them so?

A citizen seeks
to understand
how his burgeoning green paradise
Is stripped of every leaf
and become a desert of debris
where buko palms
stand like broken umbrellas.

A food warehouse collapses
eight looters killed-
all for a bowl of rice.

A miracle at the airport.
A young pregnant woman
watches Yolanda wash
her grandmother , mother,
and her children
out to sea
she swims
holds on to a pole for two hours
drags herself ashore
walks several kilometers in bare feet
hitchhikes to the airport
and in a ramshackle make-do clinic
after five hours labour
gives birth to a baby girl, Bea Joy
named after her grandmother Beatrice
lost in the storm.

It is a terrible thing we watch
- the people here are resilient
and indomitable
but they do need help.
With courage and patience and skill
they will begin again
they will rebuild their lives
their homes
their cities and villages
and ravaged municipalities
but they need the wherewithal
for Yolanda left them nothing.

Lovely writing Arthur, even though it paints a harrowing picture, we here cannot really imagine what its like for the Filippino people

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Arthur, you've gone silent on us...

Hope all is well,

Doug

Silent? An unusal state for me. Thanks fpr your concern but truly I am fit and well and content. Sione's father died late last year and so somethings have become becalmed. A Low Pressue Area has been skulkimg off the coast of Leyte giving us unseasonal cold weather and grey skies. It turned into a Tropical depression and we all watched it with some trepidation but it degraded back to LPA and yet lingers in the same place, give or take 50 kilometers. We remain wary with Typhoon Yolanda still clear in our memories as Tacloban seeks to create normality from the wreckage.

Hi Arthur, By the time you read this it will probably be your 81st birthday, in which case 'Many Happy Returns of the Day'. Enjoy! David

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley(Still)

thank you David. In fact it is the 3rd here tomorrow is my birthday but to be honest I have stopped counting. Regards Arthur

So like us you look forward to Christmas except we have to survive something first. The Super Typhoon Hagupit ( What an ugly name) has entered our area of responsibility and become Super Typhoon " Ruby".
She follows pretty much the same track as " Yolanda" that flattened Tacloban last year and caused 3000 deaths.
We will have rain here and some strong winds but it will generally pass north of us. It is expected to make landfall Saturday night/Sunday morning.
Sione has bought batteries. for torch and radio, lighters, water , extra food, topped up with petrol, packed two emergency packs in case we have to move.President Aquino has said in any one is not prepared for Ruby they have only their selves to blame.As a matter of interest stores in Tacloban have closed because they have sold everything.
If you do not hear from me for a few days do not fear the worse. There will be inevitable power losses and broadband down.
See you all later.

Good to hear from you Arthur. Hope all works our well and you and Sione keep safe.
If its not too early , have a Great Christmas and Happy New Year.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Thank you Brian and the same to you. I think we have taken all the sensible precautions available to us.Sione is worried about storm surges but I try to explain the storm is coming from the wrong direction to threaten us with that feature.

I guess the worst has passed now, and the storm weakened. Please do let us know how it was for you

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Well she came and rioted and razed and lashed her way across the Central Visayas before gathering herself to bid farewell to Manila. How do I know? I watched it on television because she never came near us here. Not one drop of rain. Not enough wind to turn a leaf. No brown out. Ruby was a pussy cat. Of course I am not disappointed. Ruby was a right bitch but not here. Only 27 deaths nationwide but that's because one million were evacuated to centers of safety and food and shelter. It took over two days but they emptied Tacloban of families. 11000 families and that's a lot of people. They gave plenty of warning in terms of preparation time. They had rolling stocks of food and material distributed over the track of the typhoon. . They had learned from 'Yolanda " Regular radio reports and television updates.The Philippines could teach the world after her example during this typhoon. As Aquino said , if anyone was unprepared this time they had only themselves to blame.

Thats good news Arthur, thanks for letting us know.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Sad to report that brother Arthur is spending his 82nd birthday in hospital in Dumaguete having been taken ill on January 25th. We are told he has pneumonia and one or two additional health problems which they are dealing with at the moment. I have been in touch by Skype at his bedside, with his partner Sione who tries to answer my questions as well as she can. He is taking medication on a regular basis and at this stage we are not sure just how long he will be there. More news later. In the meantime, Happy Birthday, Arthur! David

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

Dear Arthur

Sorry to hear you are in hospital and not on top form. Here's wishing you a speedy recovery and a resumption of your much-read 'postcards'; and in the meantime, as Happy a Birthday as your present condition and location permit you.

Doug

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Keswick, Cumbria

Just to echo Dougs sentiments. Get well soon, and make the best of your birthday. Asyou know I have happy memories of many visits to the Philippines.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Hi Arth,

Don't know where this news came from - but here's wishing you a Bfd St recovery from all the lads and lasses that knew you back then - and are still awaiting your next posting.
Terry

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Nirvana

Get well soon Arthur. Miss postcards. Gareth

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme

Anyone had any recent news of Arthur ? Many of us here miss his posts.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Better check 'Family Notices' Brian.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959 - 66

Current location (optional) Shoreham by Sea

Ah thanks dave, had missed the post from David.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral