archive of April, 2008
I walked down to Baguio Gold, expecting to play Sepak Takraw or basketball or walk further downhill to look at and photograph mines and miners. I couldn’t find Andy, Nick, Arnold, Pedring or Marcus. Some days some of the boys find work as helpers hauling aggregate and mixing concrete on construction sites or gathering stones for walls. »→
I walked downhill to Baguio Gold Elementary School to play Sepak Takraw with the kids. I had learned a little of the game from Mack earlier and from the internet. See my primer, listed in “pages” on this site. Most days in April we have rain showers, and some days I haven’t gone down to Baguio Gold. Today I had a good time on the Sepak Takraw court. My team lost one set, then we switched sides of the court and my team won. I didn’t contribute much, though. And I didn’t ‘call’ the ball when I should have. Oh, well; live and learn. We didn’t play the third set of the match, because…
Today I walked down to Baguio Gold borough again, to play Sepak Takraw with the youths, using the new ball and net. Well, I hardly knew the rules, and I certainly didn’t have the skills and ‘the moves,’ such as the bicycle kick. So I thought that I’d photograph the kids playing while I learned the game.
In the first weeks that we were here, rather than carry alot of cash, Dominic and I frequented ATMs, and a couple of times I used Banco de Oro ATMs. One time was in SM City mall downtown. I typed on the ATM keypad a request to withdraw from Wachovia too many pesos -I think 25,000, which is to say $609. Oops. I’m not a human calculator like Dominic. I can mentally convert only small sums from pesos to dollars and multiples of forty, as if 40 pesos are worth a dollar. »→
The boys of Baguio Gold expressed interest in a Sepak Takraw ball and net a week ago. So when Dom and I were in Baguio City, we diverted to Tiong San Harrison Department Store to ride the escalators up to the fifth-floor sporting goods department and see our acquaintance, Jonalee. »→
Today I took my compact umbrella and a camera and headed downhill to Baguio Gold Barangay (neighborhood/borough). Although the sky was clouding and my knees, shins and ankles ached, I thought that I’d get some exercise and see and photograph the mine entrances, refineries, tram lines, rock arch, pool of water, hills swathed in clouds … In previous forays to Baguio Gold I had no camera, or I had my camera phone and made a few lousy pics. »→
