Local Parish Church

For the last 3 years (approximately) our local parish church, Lady of Lourdes has been under construction.

It has a ubiquitous blue roof and an open steel span roof, in fact for a minor point in construction it is concrete column and tie beam frame, with blockwork infill and a steel truss roof, cheap and practical for this large building.

The church is being built by donations and every week at the rundown is given on how much has been collected, during the week, how much money has been spent on construction during the week and what is the scheme construction balance.

It always seems to me to be small figures, like 50,000peso collected in the week, 48,000 spent and say 3,000peso balance. By the way 50,000peso is about 600 pounds, so, quite a lot of money but it is a large parish and has a large daily attendance.

The church is showing real signs a progress and i would guess another year and there will only be bits and pieces left outstanding. Annika was christened here, we attend on a Sunday when we get a guilty conscience and that's about it really.

Pictures are self explanatory and the priests house and office shown also at the back of the church.

Gaisano Illustre

There are many many Malls here in Davao and plenty either in construction or planned. The more modern malls are SM and NCCC mall but there are more established malls in the centre of town, like Victoria Plaza and Gaisano Mall and also shown Gaisano Illustre.

I like this shopping centre, outside sure it looks tired and characterless, this is an understatement as its one of the ugliest buildings you can imagine but inside its a friendly place. There are:

Supermarkets and food areas, some restaurants and of course multi choice department stores and some individual shops. There is particularly a good clothes section and also sports goods section and i went there recently to purchase goggles, snorkel and flippers, no problem with the selection there.

Pictures shown are outside from 2 different elevations (not pretty eh) and a couple of internal shots which i agree look like any other shopping centre pretty much anywhere. Anyway, thats it.

Covered court and local election

A common sight here in the Philippines is a basketball court, they are all over the place and established areas of a little bit more affluence have covered courts, like the one shown which is here in central park very close to where we live. If you wonder why covered, well when it rains here all hell can break loose and if there is a function being held, well, self explanatory really, a cover s much better.

As well as games of basketball they can be hired for private parties or used for group meetings, fiestas, child groups, anything at all really and in the case shown for a local election.

The election is for directors of homeowners association who will then form a committee and elect president to deal with local issues such as rubbish collection, security, fiestas, beautification projects and other things as well. I was asked to stand as potential director and it took me 2 seconds to dismiss the idea as there is a lot of side issues and even hostility between rival groups. Do i want to get involved in that rubbish, not likely, for sure NO.

Anyway Ann voted on behalf of our household, we are in Purok 4, which is a local area of just a few streets.

Anyway that's the covered courts and the local election, i will find out later who gets elected and sworn in as president.

Pictures shown are of the court from the inside, one of the voters, our neighbours waiting to vote, the rules and regulations inside the court and of course Annika and Mum going to vote, its a very short distance from our house to the court.

Eden

Fieden a tennis friend has a beautiful 3 hectare property on the slopes of Mount Apo and the general area is known as Eden, i have no idea why BUT...it is paradise, it is unbelievably fertile and under developed and so there i may have answered my own question, its like the garden of Eden.

I have been to the place before and in part the property is used as a conference and training facility for the family pharmaceutical business and the last time we went there a magnificent training facility was being built, pictures shown are from this newly built facility.

There are kitchens and balconys and beneath the main area shown are 4 separate bedroom and bathrooms for guests. There is a fish pond and snooker and table tennis area and Fieden has a plan to build a tennis court. This is great news for me because Fieden is one of my regular tennis partners (or opponenents) and so i am bound to get invitations to use his faciltiy, i do count Fieden as a good friend at this stage.

I stopped off and showed Mum the place when we were visiting Eden nature park and Mum waved a tennis racket in the general direction of Fieden, so she knows it all but will not recognise the internal shots, you can see its big.......

Doggie Dogs

Yep the dogs are growing up fast now, not quite full grown but say 2/3rds or 3/4ths, anyway growing up. We have been to the vets quite a few times for inoculations and anti rabies jabs and the vet gives them a full 100% tick in the health and condition department.

The dogs are dogs and here they are treated like dogs, let me explain. In the UK, a lot of people treat their dogs better than people, here a lot of people treat them harshly, short leads or caged life and suchlike, here at this house we treat them with respect and friendship but they sleep outside, are not allowed in the house and generally get on with their doggie life.

We penned the dogs in to half the garden to keep them out of the kitchen and generally this now works well, they have plenty of room to exercise and "explore" but are not under our feet all the time.

Different people here have dog responsibilities......I am the shit clearing and vet guy. Germain or Joy feed the dogs and Lorenz baths and inspects for tic's etc.

Pictured above are Chai chai (or is it Spike........................... not sure) getting a bath and picture of Chai chai (or is it Spike etc etc) with Anti Tic and Flea powder after his bath.

Nikka

Nikka has been at swim club most of this summer and it culminated last weekend in swimming competition on Saturday and triathalon Sunday. Ann, Annika and I attended the swimming Saturday.

The event was held at Ladislawa subdivision clubhouse, they have good sports facilities there including a 25 metre pool.

The event was well attended and suitably well organised, Nikka was well supported by sister Jaiya, Mum Joy, Karen Arnel, Grandma at times and us at times too, as well as assorted other toddlers and members of her swim group.

Nikka did well, she won the 50metre breastroke easily when we watched and came back with a stack of medals, very pleased with herself as she should be having put in a lot of effort during the summer.

Towns and Cities, not really very pretty

The Philippines is a beautiful country i wrote a blog a few weeks back about natural beauty and its true the natural part is beautiful, very...but.......

Where it isn't pretty is where civilization makes its mark and builds towns, cities and sub-divisions.

Services, mainly electrical distribution cables but also including telephone, satelite and internet cables are "slung" along roads and highways, towns and in fact everywhere. Sure its the practical way to distribute power etc but it isn't pretty, in fact its ugly, practical yes, pretty no.

Secondly and also allied to the above is money, money here tends to be at a premium, Philippines s a poor country and beautification although it does take place, with plantings etc, in general terms the lack of money both in the public and private sector does not allow for too much expenditure on aesthetics.

For example with the "slung" electrical distribution, they could be buried under the roads and pavements but this would be expensive and so, the cheaper more ugly alternative is used.

People don't have the money to "finish off" (paint) buildings, see house example above which has been left with bare cement render finish for years, i guess no money to paint.

Shanty and squatter areas, simply they are not pretty, for obvious reasons, in town they are ugly in country villages they can be clean and structured.

Oh well, the natural beauty more than makes up for it and i quite like the cities, they are grimey and kind of interesting.

Pictures shown are squatter housing Sasa port area, "unpainted house" public building (library or city hall i think) San Pedro and random shots from the highway and in the city.