Most Fridays Jerry and I have breakfast in the Lapaz Public Market before I take him to morning class. We have a simple breakfast with native coffee. It's our Friday treat. So one morning a few weeks back -- as…
Category: Culture
our human world.
Dengue
Yesterday afternoon Jerry's classroom was fogged for dengue mosquitos. The entire Province of Iloilo is currently in a dengue emergency which includes both Estancia (where Jerry's family, all our friends and sponsored kids live) plus Iloilo City itself. All hospitals…
Pineapple Vending
vending pineapples with urgency money. exchange. quick. before the street guard surge Walking out of the money exchange kiosk I found my path blocked by a tricycle stretched with pineapples. A young man was urgently slicing his wares into plastic…
Crammed in a Van
Sitting in a taxi not fitted with seatbelts, I spotted this group of young men on their way to work. Their van was crammed so full of catering equipment (chairs, tables, tents, and serving trays) -- the workers who would…
Holy Week Processions
One of the things I love best about the Philippines is their strong cultural observances, customs and traditions. You don't have to be Catholic (or even Filipino) to get swept into a Holy Week procession and become part of a…
Happy New Year Friends
Our new year burst into view through a network of fireworks, unison'ed countdowns, and plastic horn blowers that stretched as far as we could hear and see from our little balcony. And I remembered what it was like to be…
Celebrating Buwan ng Wika 2018
Jerry recently joined the school choir (or known here as Glee Club). It was very serious stuff selecting his audition song, plus enduring the 10 day wait to find out who had been selected to represent his grade. What Jerry…
Christmas is Here
Christmas starts here September and flies right on past December Christmas light shows in January yes! It's absolutely necessary
Texting Cousins
One of the coolest things since meeting Jerry and creating a life together is his enthusiasm for my family. Just recently I got him his own kiddie messaging app and he's been texting my nephew Declan (the son of my…
The Stories We Tell Children
In the corner of our dining area is a door with a broken lock. I've stuck a red plastic bag inside the hole where the lock used to be, and put a couple of plastic stools in front to casually…
Jerry’s Laundry Assignment
Jerry's school assignment this week was a video of himself handwashing the laundry. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the project and maybe this blog will demonstrate why.
On the Street Today
men with an oozing bellies calm fighting roosters water boiled by fire, pours to a plastic bucket duck eggs, grilled corn, peanuts hot, salted by hand flapping tarps and bright umbrellas wet school shoes sirens sounds, and shredded traffic a…
It Always Rains on Saturdays Tita Mel
Taking the Jeep to Jerry's ballet class in Iloilo City, Jerry tells me 'It always rains on Saturdays". After more than a month of flooding rain he's been right. The sun has been out 'some' of this week, so here's…
The Beginners Guide to Riding in Jeepneys
The first time I rode a jeepney in Iloilo City was from a big bus terminal. I climbed in along with 21 other people and sent my fare down to the driver shouting out my destination. "Bayad!" I heard several…
Opportunity
When it's been flooding rain for a month, sometimes it's hard to see the opportunity. But they always exist. If you look in the photo below you'll see a man crouching down in front of a big puddle of water. Do…
Today is Market Day
Tuesday is market day in Estancia. Growers come in from the mountains to trade their vegetables for fish, and anyone who can sell anything joins them by lining their wares along the streets, alcoves and market entrances. A woman and…
Busted Seat
For those of you not conversant with Philippine bus culture, if a seat-back jams on a crowded bus (still at the terminal) the conductor will cooly break off the offending back rest and manoeuvre it into the aisle (random passenger…
Mass Wedding
On Saturday Jerry's brother got married in a mass wedding. All over the Philippines (on St Valentines Day) couples were able to get married for free in a civil ceremony administered by their local governments. So on Saturday Jerry's brother…
Fresh Coconut Juice
Buying a fresh green coconut in the public market is a Philippine delight. I carry my little glass jug with green top through a maze of bamboo stalls and muddy footprints to a pile of coconuts on a rickety table.…
Buko Juice for Sale
Standing on the edge of a busy city street, there is always a candid moment to make you smile. This one was a little coconut contraption stopping for fuel.
We All Have Our Reasons
For Jerry it's something fun to eat (chicken heads on a stick), for me it's more time to write (no need to cook), for the boys waiting it's a meal (something cheap they can afford) and for Em it's a…
To Carve a Story
Nothing looks terribly different (apart from the overcast days and days and days) or maybe it does? The harvested rice and sugar cane fields, stripped and being ploughed by water buffalo and tiny men in shredded clothes?
Scallops
Every school morning begins like this. Me wake up in our one room place, grab my journal and turn on a little rechargable light (just enough illumination) for me to handwrite 3 pages of notes. Anything that comes into my…
Afternoon Talk
We ask permission for photos. The men oblige and smile but seem too afraid to engage in conversation with the odd white woman wandering the highway without an umbrella.
Christmas Reflections
It's raining here in Estancia and my iPhone just started screaming out another emergency weather alert. Apart from minor flooding we don't have too much to worry about here, but my prayers are with the people in Mindanao, Palawan and Leyte who are having a third typhoon (in less than 2 weeks) flood out their homes and crops. Oh life here in the Philippines is hard on the poor.
Urduja Floodwaters
Living in a rural area of the Philippines is not without it's challenges but if you look closely enough there are little pockets of joy even in things like the Urduja floodwaters.
The Sound of Christmas in the Philippines
Christmas in the Philippines is filled with music, religious fiestas and lots of rain. No time for sleeping.
Upcycle Your Christmas
The Christmas decorations in Balasan Plaza weren't purchased in a Super Mall. They were humbly assembled by human hands upcycling plastic forks, little coke and sprite bottles, empty chip packets and bottle tops. © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post:…
Road Widening
These little snaps aren't the best shots in my collection but they do capture the essence of 'road widening' in the Philippines. Since 2014 roads all over the country are being widened 2 metres on either side. And it doesn't…
Waiting
bottle caps black street stones white ball-pen scraped checkerboard © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Black Weekly Photo Challenge: Temporary I'm part of Post A Day 2017 Location: Estancia, Iloilo (Philipppines)
Balut
For the un-initiated, the Philippine delicacy Balut (pronounce it bah-lute) is a boiled duck egg. But the developing embryo of the chick is still inside and it has all this cooked smelly liquid that runs out when you crack it. Ewwww!…
All Saints Day in the Philippines
All Saints Day (November 1st) in the Philippines is a significant event. It's a day to honour the dead, remember friends and family, as well as express gratitude to ancestors and those who made sacrifices for the future of the…
Happy Halloween
Jerry could never look ghoulish, he's just too damned cute. We've had such a wonderful few days in the halloween themed Iloilo City; trick or treating and playing 'Wizards'. Happy Halloween friends. © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Ghoulish…
Slim Dusty Centre
Growing up listening to my father playing Slim Dusty I never fully appreciated his music until later in life. Slim grew up in a little town not half an hour from where I was born, and his childhood upbringing on…
Girls Eat Mangos
Riding home from the market earlier I spotted these two little girls sitting in a busted-up bicycle rickshaw eating mangos. I'm not sure why the little one in front was wearing half a plastic bottle on her head, but I…
Don’t Drink the Pink
In the Philippines don't drink the pink pepsi You might find her a little too spicy ... © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Spicy I'm part of Post A Day 2017
Roadside Fiesta
her sultry shimmer betwitching her passersby late night fiesta © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Shimmer I'm part of Post A Day 2017
No Tears For the Young
we watched him lain final life barely begun just 20 years old his song yet unsung and I wondered where God was to tell what he’d done but the silence it stationed no tears for the young and she called…
The Outdoors Life
Do you have the grit for the outdoors life? A life where you'll sleep not alone (but alone). Where everyone sees, but no one sees you. Where everyone knows you, but nobody knows. © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Grit…
What You Don’t See
Photographing the top of sugar cane you can't see a group of kids following me along the hot road running back to a little bridge when I turn around. You don't see a man under that sun waving in delight…
No Passenger
all the day she waits as afternoons roar with no passenger © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Passenger I'm part of Post A Day 2017
Sea Snake Snack
curious me I kinda wish I'd eaten one mmm kind of © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Snack Weekly Photo Challenge: Transient I'm part of Post A Day 2017
Buying Fish
dodging rain tubs filled with last night my morning begins along mud splatters and shouts of 'Ma'am! "You buy? Ma'am, you buy!" my green rubber thongs step around two tiny girls in freshly checked uniforms and bits of sun shine…
Don’t Take Your Freedoms For Granted
When I first came to the Philippines three years ago I thought it would be a great idea to blog about the issues I was witnessing here. Typhoon Yolanda had just happened and there was a lot of talk about…
Ice-on-a-Rope
There is alway a little bit of comedy to be had in a large block of ice being strapped to a tricycle or rickshaw or tethered by a narrow rope. Particularly when these huge ice blocks aren't hand carved from…
Reusing the Bottle
Sitting in a bamboo stall drinking soft-drink out of a glass bottle by the Philippine roadside is like an adventure. It's oppressively hot and noisy and the overcrowded buses and trucks and tricycles dragging bamboo stems three times their length…
Men in Trucks
Having worked for so many years as a manager in charge of Workplace Safety my heart always goes out to the men, women and sadly children who have no choice but to accept hazardous working conditions. Just look (in the video…
How do I say friend in a single photograph?
Attending mass at the Shrine of Agtalin on the first Saturday of the month is a religious tradition practiced by thousands in the Capiz and Iloilo provinces of the Philippines. The Shrine of Agtalin is located in Pilar, Capiz (Philippines).
Trace
as he writes I ask "Ano ini?" ... Man-og! [snake] © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Trace I'm part of Post A Day 2017
Dogwood Original Photo Challenge (Week 12)
WEEK 12: Artistic (Transportation) Our world is one defined by how we get around. Literal or interpretative, find inspiration in transportation. Wandering around a religious festival here in a rural province of the Philippines, I was surrounded in the simple transportation…
Endearing Moments of Hospitality
One thing I really love about Philippine culture is their commitment to hospitality and helping strangers. Here's a recent example (about 30 minutes ago in fact). Expecting to buy drinking water from my usual small store, I scramble out of…
The Tremble of Drums
dinagyang parade warriors dance for maidens the tremble of drums © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Tremble
Repurposed, Reused, Recycled
One thing that delights me about the Philippines is it's dedication to repurposing, recycling and reusing everything. Filipinos are the most industrious people I have yet met when it comes to knocking something useful together at a pinch and for…
Philippine Public
women's "comfort" room we squat over grilled river (brown boxed "privacy") © 2017 Melinda Irvine Daily Post: Privacy
I Like My Poverty Behind Glass
Waiting for Jerry to finish his play-centre treat I spy the rickshaw drivers through the windows of this massive shopping centre. They work in the monsoonal rain while I drink hot coffee and photograph them. My contribution to the Blogging-U…
Perpetual Tourist
How do you find a sense of belonging when living between two countries? In 2004 I travelled to New Zealand for the first time with my BFF Jac. Both of us keen SCUBA divers, Jac eagerly told me about an…
Ignoring Safety Advice
in the beginning i remember thinking ... i will never ever board one of those dodgy carnival rides circling fiestas their steel support posts levelled out on rocks and pieces of concrete rubble. but yeh, i did. and yeh, i do.…
Street Sound
your little cries loud; so loud you pull my ears too my eyes too, my heart. © 2016 Melinda Irvine
Dinagyang Festival
fiesta maidens; rainforest warriors; and two little princes © 2016 Melinda Irvine
Manila
Traffic. Manila. Traffic. Traffic. Stopping for ... red lights optional. © 2015 Melinda Irvine
Memories of Twitter
Deleting my twitter account was liberating. If you've been reading these blogs you'll know I'm on a mission to delete all versions of my digital self. I was thorough, deleted every tweet, unliked, unfollowed and unretweeted. DELETE. But I really…
Tighten your account security
I've decided to tighten the security of all my online accounts. I started last night (not by clicking the 'enable' button) but by beginning to delete away my life. My digital life that is. I made a huge list yesterday, of more…
Click here to permanently delete your account
Feeling strangely like cyanide The killing of my digital self I am afraid So bold hours ago I made lists So I would do it properly Not miss a thing Kill everything Insecticide myself Yet here I am I am…
going offline
I want to go offline. I want to remove all my blogs, toss away my laptop and shutdown my social media accounts. I want to remove all my email addresses and mobiles and smartphones. I want to go offline. For…
Old Baroque Church
Photo Essay of the Basilica of Saint Martin of Tours, (Taal) Philippines.