Chapter 10 - A New Beginning

It has been awhile since I wrote, and lots have happened. Far too much to go into right now.

To make a long story short, I decided to change homes. While I was extremely happy in the country, there was still some things missing, and some things present that were not quite right.

So, this past Sunday, after 11 months, I moved.

But first, thank you to all that sent me messages during the recent rash of typhoons. Bohol is a protected island, there are several islands that block the passage from Guam (where most of these storms seem to birth) on the way to Vietnam and points west. The last typhoon to hit Bohol was 26 years ago.

I now reside about 75 minutes south of my first location, and on the coast, a small village called Duero. Duero is pronounced Dew-aero, but one syllable, Dewaero. Say it fast.

Kim Knight, you will be happy hear I am finally in my grass hut.

I live in a native nepa house, nepa being a tough marsh-like grass, sort of like long spears, in English it is called mangrove palm. The house is actually a combination, as only the roof is nepa. Grass roof. Has to be re-roofed about every 3 to 5 years depending on the locale clime, typhoons, rats and lizards.

The walls and floor are bamboo. The walls are made of bamboo leaves, which are woven and tacked up to joists and then wood slats are nailed over the tacked locations. In this case, these wood slats are from the Gmelina tree. Gmelina is a relatively soft tree, not much harder than a pine tree; in English it is called a snapdragon tree. The floor is made of bamboo slats, which are stripped from the round bamboo stalk, then nailed on joists. There are spaces between each bamboo stalk, which make it convenient for sweeping.

The windows and doors are made from Tugas, locally sometimes called the Century Tree, as it is said each tree will last at least 100 years. Another word for Tugas is Molave. At the first home, I purchased a mahogany door, because it is actually against the law to cut Tugas, therefore anything made of Tugas may be subjected to huge fines. As an aside, the mahogany door is a hair over 35 inches wide, 2 inches deep and 7 foot tall. I asked for a normal door, as we needed to rebuild the front of the house. That's what I got. It is a 6-panel door, the panels being hand carved on both sides. The doors here are normally 5 to 5.5 feet, filipinos being rather short; don't know why it was 7 foot, but there you have it. The cost? 8,000 pesos, or, $170.00, and took 3 weeks to build.

So, back to Tugas doors and windows. Amazing, this little house is full of these. 3 doors and 11 windows on the second floor (bedroom and bathroom) and 2 doors and 8 windows on the ground floor. All illegal. And the doors are 7 foot as well! Seems we Americans all look tall to filipinos.

My grass hut is one room (on the second floor), 11 feet by 16 feet, plus a bathroom (CR it is called here, Comfort Room) 5 feet by 8 feet. It is on the second floor. The ground floor is concrete block and masonry, and is only half the size of the second floor. Under the bedroom is the workshop, full of cabinets. Under the CR is the 'laundry room', which in this case means the room with the water pump in it. It is also filled with cabinets. Both of those rooms have sinks in them.

So, I now live in a home of 324 square feet, or, 216 square feet. Depends on how you look at it. I am using the ground floor for storage, which takes up all of 4 square feet.

I reach the second floor by means of a very steep open stairway, and arrive on one end of the building. A long walkway (16 feet) to the front of the building, which then becomes a porch across the front of the house (front being away from the road). The walkway and porch are bamboo slats, and the roof extends over both. This home is actually touching another home, the home closest to the road. An American owns my home, the first home being his in-laws.

Now, for what I call the front of the building, the following picture is looking northeast from the porch, and was taken somewhere after 5am the first morning of my occupancy. Yes, those are my feet on the railing.

Those are clouds, not islands, not mountains, just clouds. There are more islands out there, but you cannot see them unless it is an exceptionally clear day.

Directly under my feet is another nepa roof, which shelters my BBQ, a concrete and ceramic tile structure, the grill approximately 2 feet by 3 feet, and forms one side of the structure. The perpendicular side is about 5 feet long, and the parallel side (facing the ocean) is about 2 by 3 feet and houses a sink. The roof shelters 7 by 7 feet, so, add another 49 square feet on to my living space.

At the end of that roof is a concrete wall, which at that point reaches up about 2 feet from ground level. The first night the spray from the high tides came over the wall onto the BBQ. No kitchen at high tides. Low tides offer about 40 feet of beach. However, there is mostly small stones here, so it is not the perfect beach.

As I am not the perfect swimmer, all things seem to be equal.

It is not unusual for a family of 5, 6 or 7 live in the same amount of space. Filipinos live outside, they spend pre-dawn to post-dusk outside. No need for huge bedrooms, family rooms, dining rooms. Dining happens standing up, watching tv, watching traffic on the road, to mention a few ways it is done.

After all, temperature ranges from 82 to 86 degrees year round. Last night was one of the coolest nights, got down to 74 degrees.

Another long story explained in short order, then I must stop. I had hundreds of pictures of the last 11 months on my computer, and during the last bomb the backup I made failed to copy the photos. That is the short version. On Monday of this week, I took some pictures at dawn, one of which you see. Tonight I uploaded those pictures to my computer (which I have not moved yet, so this is being written in the country, not at the new home). After uploading I noticed a strange web-like structure across the viewing lens. My camera is broken.

So, for the moment, there are no pictures of my new home, except for the one above, and some of the rising sun, which will eventually put on a site should you want to view them.

Oh, and one other thing - as I am a foreigner, everything is priced higher than if I was a native. Even though the owner is American, his wife is filipino, and as the property is in her name (foreigners are not allowed to own land here), she is the true boss.

So, my monthly rental is $100. Utilities appear to be approximately $20. If I eat extremely well, I might spend another $100, which includes a few restaurant meals. Gas for the motorbike is about $4.00 a gallon, but, imagine this: takes about 6 or 7 straight hours to travel around the island, if you wanted to. Probably 8 bucks. How many times you want to do that in a month? No movies, no bowling alleys, nearest mall is closer now though, about 90 minutes. Next nearest mall is about the same amount of time, just a different location and after that the nearest mall is either a boat or a plane trip away.

If I spend anything at all on improvements (which includes varnishing the wood), I am to deduct that amount from the rent. The American owner is presently building a castle on the coast about 2 miles away. Really. On a small basis.

Ok, I am far past my norm, bed at dark o'clock. (And breakfast at light o'clock).

Good night all, hope this finds you well.