ESTRELLA, NUEVA ECIJA, THE PHILIPPINES.

Well, its been a while since I last updated my blog. After a 14 hour plane trip I landed in Manila at about 6:50pm, the next day. My cousins picked me up from the airport and we had dinner at a restaurant before another 5 hour drive to my Grandparents (Mums side) place at Estrella, Nueva Ecija.
The first thing you will notice arriving in the Phils at night is that it is very dark. There are not as much street lighting that we are use to back in Australia. Secondly it is a developing country, with alot of subsistance living standards for many of its population. We passed through an area where alot of squatters live (while still in metro Manila) and it makes you realise that the Phillipines is a very poor country. With a massive ballooning foreign debt, entrenched corruption, low foreign investment and endemic tax evasion to name a few causes, the government here does not have the funds to provide for all the very poor. Alot of filipinos works abroad mainly in the construction industry, in shipping, entertainment and as domestic helpers. I read somewhere that there are over a million filipinos working abroad pumping over 7 billion dollars US into the Phillipine Economy of which zero percent is taxed!

As we reached the farming areas we travelled over dark streatches of narrow concrete roads with rice field at each side. We arrived in Estrella close to 2 am where I slept in my Uncles curtain and bedsheets factory which he and my Auntie has just opened. The following morning I awoke to see the bright green leaves of coconut trees and felt the humid warm Phillipine climate...well 11:30am is still moring!

For the over the last two weeks, I lived in Estrella, just relaxing, catching up with my relatives and getting to know them more. My uncles factory contains the very first computerised quilting machine in the Philippines and they employ around 34 workers. It is a massive machine costing well over a hundred thousand dollars. The spanking new factory is a first in the whole region dominated mainly by farming towns. Nearby we are building a new house for my Grandparents and as a place to stay. So its been interesting to see the filipino trades men at work... the filipino way. Where safety in the workplace is off prime importance in Autralia, here it is adhoc. The scafolding is made of wood banged up to be just stable and workers climb to the roof, over 6 meters high with no harnesses. A welder uses a pair of dark sunglasses to protect his eyes and almost everyone wears a pair of sleepers... forget the steel toecapped shoes even for someone demolishing a hole in a conrete wall with a 10 kilo hammer!

The houses here are built to last a thousand years. Reinforced conrete beams and 6 inch thick hallow blocks are used which are then rendered with a nominal one inch coating of cement to a smooth finish. The roofing uses metal trusses assembled on site and even the ceilling is held up by closely spaced L section metal bars. Labor is cheap, around 7 dollars a day for skilled workers and less for labourers, so in building a house your dollars goes a long way over here. Materials are also cheaper with beutiful ceramic tiles going for around 60 cents a piece.
When I get back home hopefully I would have picked up some experienced to finally finnish my parents courtyard in there back yard!

To pass time I have been learning to ride a motorbike, with no helmet, at times over rocky uneven unsealed dirt roads, with stray dogs gnawling at my feet, avoiding, cars, kids, tricylcles, waterbuffalo drawn carrieges, tracktors and everything else in between. Also all with the knowledge that in an accident it would probably take two hours for an ambulance to get me...if I'm lucky! And get this, for my uni buds back home, I bought a text book on Modern Control System and Statics and Dynamics so I can start preparing to go back to work! It cost me 15 dollars over here where it would have cost over 100 dollars back in Australia.

Well it is a long way till January 10, 2006 which is when I go back home to OZ, but I'm sure spending a week in a beach resort over here and another week over there, spending 15 dollars a night for top class accomadation and one dollar beers, I am sure it will come knocking on my door quite soon.


Just to finish off, some interesting quotes I found on travelling:

"When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels."
Dahlberg, Edward1900-1977 American Author Critic

Hahaha...

"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen."
Disraeli, Benjamin1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister

So don't expect me to tell you what that building is or what that statue is for...

"Travel makes a wise man better, and a fool worse"
Fuller, Thomas1608-1661 British Clergyman Author

Which one am I?...you guys decide when I get back!

"A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond."
Goldsmith, Oliver1728-1774 Anglo-Irish Author Poet Playwright

Hmmm...

"Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures."
Sontag, Susan1933 American Essayist

And that is why I take pictures!