Tracking a Typhoon in the Philippines

Nida has already passed over the Northern Cagayan Valley between 3-4PM local time this afternoon. It also has intensified in strength to near Typhoon strength while moving along the shores of Aparri. The massive storm bands will continue to bring heavy to extreme rainfall with moderate to strong winds across most parts of Northern Luzon tonight through Monday morning, 1 August 2016.

www.typhoon2000.ph/ 

So how do you track such a storm to know if it will hit your area or not in the Philippines? I have been using the site www.typhoon2000.ph/ for most of the time I have been tracking storms in the Philippines. This site is very useful as it has many links to get information from.

I like the multi track link on the page to get an idea of several of the leading weather forecaster’s predictions.  Once I click on this tab, I can find information from all the forecast by clicking on their link to go directly to their page.

I usually go to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JWTC) page. This gives several other links on this site that can be useful. It provides the written warnings that have been issued and provides updates throughout the storm.

KIDS SENDING HUGS TO ALL!

It also has a google map overlay that can prove helpful when tracking the storm. You can click on the link and it will take you to google earth. On that page, it will provide you with the track of the storm, the current location of the storm and the predicted path for the storm to take. It has been a pretty accurate way of tracking the storms when needed. I find myself using this method a lot as sometimes I cannot understand the local news forecast besides looking at the pictures they provide on the news. Although I have my wife Maly as a translator, sometimes it is good to have this information to back up or confirm how the translation is received.

We are fine for tonight with just some rain and a little wind. The kids will be off from school tomorrow. They are hunkered down in the house and enjoying the family time together. They enjoyed pulling their mattress into the other room to sleep in a “safe” area for the night. We are praying for all whom are effected with this storm for they safety. May God bless you all and may you all have a good night.

Kindly check out the video of the Typhoon.com website we have posted. Hopefully this will give you some advice for tracking storms in our area and will help you be more prepared. Thank you! 

TRACKING A TYPHOON IN THE PHILIPPINES

Matt and Nizzana Timber Dance Routine

Not long ago we had our Thanksgiving program for the end of the school year, a magnificent performance of song, dance and drama from all the students in front of a hall packed with parents, grandparents, teachers and friends. It was the best way to say thank you for the wonderful kindergarten year and to let everyone know that we were ready for first grade now.

We are lucky to have a group of mothers at the school that enjoy working with the kids and enjoy watching the shows they put on. Malou is just one of these mothers. She has 3 daughters and 2 of them happen to be in the same grades as our two boys. It just so happened that they paired Matt and Nizzana together to perform their rendition of the dance for Timber.

Matt and Nizzana were very cute in their costumes they had on. Although as you can probably imagine with kindergarten students they might of faced a little stage shock. It did not deter them though as they put on their performance.

We hope you will enjoy their dance routine and like the video! 

Matt and Nizzana Dance Routine

Do you like to dance? Well we have three kids that really love to dance and sing as well. They are always excited to see shows on TV that show people dancing and performing. They like to imitate these moves to the best of their abilities.

We had purchased an X-Box 360 with Kinnect for the kids a few years back. This has proven to us to be a good investment. Not only do we get the enjoyment of watching the kids play the games and dance for us, they also get a good work out in and can burn some of the energy they have stored up though out the day. We have enjoyed countless hours of watching the kids in the evening times; provide us shows and entertainment while playing the different games it offers.

After school and before doing their studies, the kids love to do their dance routines. They can even forget about eating if they are dancing. That is how much fun they have doing this. It has become nearly a nightly ritual for them to come home from school and turn on their favorite dance videos. We have purchased the Just Dance programs that have some of the latest videos that are currently being played on the radio.

Come Dance with us

They enjoy bringing their friends over for afternoon play dates. They will sing and dance the afternoon away. Snacks prepared by Mama give them the extra energy to burn off while playing their games. They all seem to have a real good time.

As you might imagine being in the Philippines we can experience days on end with rain. With the X-Box, it does not matter if it is raining outside, they can still get a good bit of exercise from playing the X-Box games. They have dance games, driving games and games they jump and run through. I can tell you from experience, you can really get a good work out from all the games they have. Although the kids could continue, I have found myself having to ask for a break to relax and regain my breath again. Some of the games are in constant motion and you can exert quite a bit of energy performing the entire task they have for you to do.

We do enjoy our time playing together. I hope you will enjoy this video we put together of one of our nights doing the Just Dance videos. It was fun and the kids had a great time. Sorry, but I did not accept the challenge to dance on this particular night!

Dance Fever? We have it!

Going to Palangke!

Maly adding fresh produce to the shelves

Everyday life in the Philippines can be quite exciting! There is always something to do. We will take you on a little part of what we do today as we wake up early and get ready to open Maly’s Country Market!

Time to make the doughnuts! Well not exactly. We usually awake around 5 or so in the morning, but there is no doughnut making going on. We have to get out to the store to start prepping for the day and get our meals ready we will be serving that day. Maly always has some fresh vegetables to chop and prepare the menu she has that she will be selling on that day.

I thought I was being helpful one time and I bought her a brand new food processor. I thought this would ease the chores in the morning of having all these vegetables to cut by hand. As with most times, my good intentions were placed on the shelf and the hand cutting continues to this day. As they say, a hand prepared meal is made with love and it makes it taste better. I do know Maly’s fresh pancit is some of the best I have eaten (I hope I am not too biased here).

Fresh pancit at Maly's Country Market

Once Maly has started the preparations for the morning meals, it is off to the palangke (vendor’s market in town) to restock the items we need in the store. Some mornings here in the valley that can mean for a cool ride to the palangke, at times requiring an extra shirt or jacket to be brought along. Usually these mornings are after a rain or during the morning hours in the cooler months. It is not often, but it does happen here. Our driver, Philip, has the tricycle waiting by the time the food prep is ready and off we go! Depending on the time we actually get to leave in the mornings, sometimes we have a guest that comes to ride along. Megan will often time come along just to be with Mama!

I often think of a song once we get to the palangke that I saw in a YouTube video. Mikey Bustos does parody song videos and one was about going to the palangke that is very catchy. I would not sing it out loud of course in the market, but it often runs through my head as I watch Maly wheel and deal for her needs at the store.

A common sight at a palangke

The palangke is a large area where there are many vendors selling almost anything you could ask for. Maly has a few favorite places to go to in the market. She knows the vendors and they know her as well. Not only will she buy her supplies, but often catch up with whatever “news” there is going on in town. A kilo of cabbage, a kilo of potatoes, half a kilo of beans, oh there are tomatoes how about a kilo of those as well… Before long I can have 10 kilos hanging from each arm! I do not need to visit a gym to stay fit! She is always looking for the best deals so she can bring them back home to our market and have the best for our customers.

We cannot go to the market without a stop by the fish market. Fish is a main staple in the Filipino meals, so we have to keep a good stock on hand. Maly will go by and see what fresh fish are available for the day. Usually she will buy what she needs for the day to take home and cook. Having fresh fish to cook is always better for her. I would like to say I enjoy this part of the trip, but this is not my favorite. If only the smells from the market could be emanated from the pictures or video you might be able understand my displeasure of going to this side of the market.

Maly, Hazel and Philip prepare for the day

Once we are done with all our shopping it is time to go back to Maly’s Country Market and restock for the day. Hazel usually has the food prepared and ready by the time we get back. Phillip and Maly begin to put their supplies up for the customers to buy. It is always an exciting time to see the shelves being stocked full and the fresh fruits and vegetables from the market laid out on the table. At the end of the day, Marisa will have the BBQ going and ready for the evening sales!

We hope you have enjoyed this part of our morning routine. Come check out the video below to witness our adventure into the palangke. We would welcome your likes, shares and comments on our blog and videos!

Going to Palangke   

  

Comparing School Lunch in the Philippines to Lunch in the States

School days for the most part are the same in the Philippines as they are elsewhere in the world. Kids arrive to school and head to their assigned classes as normal. There may be a morning activity they attend prior to their classes, such as a flag raising ceremony, skits performed by different classes or any announcements the principal may want to make.

Michael the school guard monitors kids entering and leaving during breaks.

The differences I have found in the schools between the States and in the Philippines are the breaks they have for snacks and lunch. As a kid growing up, when attending school we did everything together as a class. At break time the bell would ring and we would all go outside to play. If not one of our teachers, there would at least be a teacher on the grounds to monitor the kids playing. After our short break outside, we would then be lined up to go back inside for class.

This also was true for lunch breaks. We all went to the cafeteria as a group. School lunches were provided either by paying for your lunch or subsidized. We would get our trays and milk and sit at a table to eat together. Once we were finished lunch, we were allowed a few minutes play time if I remember correctly before being marched back to the class room. This of course changed over the years as I got older and we had a little more freedom with our lunch breaks.

With that being said, I was quite shocked when placing our kids in school here in the Philippines. At break time, the teachers just release the kids to go out of the room. Some play and some eat snacks. But there is no teacher guidance during this time. The teachers themselves seem to use this time as a break.  It is the same during the lunch break. This is usually a little longer break around at least an hour if not more. The kids come running out the doors and then what?

Busy moms in the waiting area

This is where the parents or guardians (nannies) come into play. At a lot of Filipino schools you will see a gathering of women (and some men) gathered at the front entrances to the schools. Many times there are actual waiting areas for these individuals to spend the hours during class waiting on the children to be released. They are there so that during break times and lunch times they can take care of the children in their care and make sure they eat, play, use the restroom (CR in Philippines) and get cleaned back up before going to their next class. The parents and nannies many times build a bond while waiting on the kids, so I guess this is not that bad an idea. I found this to be an inconvenience, as in the States a parent would not need to spend the day at school in this manner. 

Watching videos during lunch

We do not have time to travel back to our house during these breaks, so we take our kids to a local eatery called Ala Eh’s which is just around the corner from the school most days. It is a nice restaurant that provides the kids with school priced lunches. These are special meals that are cheaper than regular restaurants and usually will cost 25-50 peso per meal depending on what you get. This is a nice place that has covered seating and is also open air. This gives it a cool atmosphere even on a hot summer day! The kids enjoy the food and they like having a large table to place their computer on so they can watch their favorite YouTubers while eating!

After lunch we return them back to the school to clean up before the afternoon classes begin. There they meet up with their friends and plan the rest of their day. Moms and Dads can then relax until the next bell sounds for the afternoon break! It will be a few more years of this until all our children get to an age that they can have a little more freedom during these periods to do more of what they would like to do. Maybe just hanging around the school with their best friends!

Please watch the video below of our experience eating at Ala Eh’s and then getting the kids back to school. 

School Lunch in the Philippines

Steve’s Attempt at Growing and Selling Tomatoes in the Philippines

As a child growing up in rural Alabama, we always had a vegetable garden at our house. How I remember the many hours of pulling weeds and taking water out to the plants. I know at times I would sit there pulling weeds wishing I could be anywhere else but there. But with the hard work, we would also reap the rewards. Our table during the summer months would be filled with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, egg plants, squash, peas and corn during the summer months from the garden. Nothing could beat coming in and sitting down to Mama’s cooking on a hot summer day.

When we moved to the Philippines in 2010, I was excited about having the space to have our own garden. While looking for a place to live, I always wanted to have room. Not only for the kids to play, but maybe for a garden as well. We were lucky to find a lot with 1,500 square meters that would be perfect in my mind for all I thought I would like to do. We were in a small farming community that had good soil for planting. All it needed was some good seeds and a little tender loving care.

I had purchased some seeds for planting off Amazon. Being I was not the farmer my Dad is, I did not pay attention to what kind of seeds I was purchasing, I just wanted some of those big and juicy tomatoes I had grown to love. The kind when you slice it, one slice would cover a piece of bread. You know those big, red, juicy Beefy Boy tomatoes we have in the States! I purchased my hybrid seeds with a big smile on my face just thinking of those “mayo and mater” sandwiches which I could soon be enjoying. 

Friends and family working in the garden. 

How did I forget so easily that WORK was also involved in all this? Was not it just a few years back in my youth that I had sat there complaining of sitting in the corn rows pulling weeds? How could it be so hard? Weeds seem to be able to multiply overnight and take over anything! Pull one and two more grow!

I am thankful for some helpful friends and family that were available to help with the gardening chores. Their eyes also were on my prized “large” tomatoes. I am not sure anyone in the Cagayan Valley of the Philippines had ever seen such large tomatoes in their life time. That is unless they had been an OFW working abroad and got to see one in a supermarket outside the Philippines somewhere.  They just could not be patient long enough though.

I would walk out to check the tomato plants in the evening and see ones on the vine I knew would make my perfect sandwich. Nice, firm and green yet, with maybe a hint of red coming on. I had just a few more days to wait only. Patience is the key. Let it ripen on the vine and then all that juiciness would fill that tomato just fine.

Look Uncle! Fresh green tomatoes!

The next morning, I was shocked to see not only the tomato I was so eagerly waiting on to ripen, but most all the tomatoes that were bigger than a medium sized rock had been removed. There sitting in the bucket were many half red, some still green tomatoes! Did a storm come through and blow them off the vine? What had happened? Why were all these tomatoes taken off the vine so early? It was explained to me that the Filipinos would like to have them this way and not as a red juicy tomato. Oh the horror as I thought of my “mayo and mater” sandwich that I would now not get to enjoy.

I quickly looked through the bucket and found the biggest and reddest tomato I could find. I set it aside to complete the ripening process as best it could. I would have to enjoy the moment even if it were not as big, not as juicy and not as red as I had planned on it being.

Sorting the goods from the garden to be sold!

After pulling my lone tomato from the bucket, the quest was on to find buyers for these stellar green with somewhat reddish tint tomatoes.  We plied the roads and trails of the local Barangay that we live in looking for interested people who were likely to enjoy these tomatoes. We were met with smiles and laughter and of course some buyers for the tomatoes brought to them by the Kano (kind term given to an American in the Philippines)! We were able to sell our tomatoes with ease and our prices could not be beat. Even being nice at times and throwing in an extra smaller tomato to boot!

Here is a word of advice on buying seeds for growing a garden in the Philippines. If you are like me and did not have this knowledge prior, hybrid seeds are good for only one growing period. They are not able to reproduce if you take the seeds out and try to regrow them. It was a lesson we learned the hard way. The next year we toiled the soil, planted the seeds, pulled the weeds and waited. Although the plants did come up, we never did see the fruits of our labor. It was a disappointing year for our garden. Maly was so depressed, she decided flowers and orchids were a better choice of plants. Will I ever get another juicy “mayo and mater” sandwich in the Philippines?

You can check out our tomato selling adventure on YouTube by visiting the link below. If you have not done so already, please subscribe to our channel and come back for more interesting stories from our adventures in the Cagayan Valley and beyond! 

Steve's Adventures Selling Tomatoes

Living in a small farming village in the Cagayan Valley of Northern Luzon, it requires a great deal of ingenuity to get by during the months between harvesting and planting season. The neighborhood guys find many means by which to provide for their families. They raise pigs, chickens, fish or even go bird hunting. Today, I found a few guys going out on such a hunt. They were walking down the road carrying their long poles with nets out to the fields. JR, who is one of our neighbors, was also along. He just happened to be a little behind the rest of the bird hunters. I tried to find out how they use these nets to catch the birds, but JR is a man of few words (usually this is only when I am trying to speak to him). He did return a big smile as he marched on out into the field barefooted to join his friends. I was not prepared to go along this day. I have to be careful getting out in the sun here without having sunblock on. So I tried to video tape some of the adventure from the road. Maybe next time they will let me know before hand and I can be a bird hunter as well!
Be sure to check out the video below and I hope you will also subscribe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sFahmPSnrM

An Intro to Cagayan Valley Isabela and Beyond

My name is Steve and this is a chronicle of my time spent being a contractor working overseas and my time spent at home with family in the Philippines.  We moved to the Cagayan Valley in Isabela on the Northern Luzon Island in mid 2010. We have worked to build a house and a sari-sari store that we call Maly’s Country Market. We will have videos posted on our YouTube channel depicting time spent in the province Philippines as well as when I am away at work. Life is not a bed of rose nor is it a beach where we are located! We have been from Aparri to Davao and have come to love this little farming Barangay we now call home. We have enjoyed our stay in the Philippines and want you to share some of our experiences with us.  Please subscribe to both the blog and the YouTube channel below if you would like to follow along on this journey through life with us!

Follow us on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/c/CagayanValleyIsabelaandBeyond