EASTER WITHOUT THE EGGS

In the UK Easter is largely a commercialised holiday – famous for over-priced chocolate eggs. So it has been interesting to experience Easter in a country where commercial forces take a back seat, and Easter is primarily a religious Festival rather than a chocolate Fest.
It may be possible to find some Easter eggs in one or two of the big cities such as Manila and Cebu, but in the provinces including Dipolog City, where we are spending Easter, there are no Easter eggs to be seen, and I know of only one place where you can buy an Easter card (and even there, you have to look hard to find one).
In some parts of the Philippines, people flagellate themselves publicly at Easter, and there are some who allow themselves to be crucified – even to the extent of being nailed to the cross. These gruesome practices are apparently condemned by the Church. Thankfully no such rituals appear to be practised in the Dipolog area.
Everyone refers to the week before Easter as Holy Week, but the holiday really starts on Thursday when most shops are either closed or only open for half a day. Then things really get going on Good Friday. By chance we were buying beer and soft drinks at our local sari-sari store when we noticed what appeared to be a funeral procession approaching. It was coming from the local Catholic church in Sicayab, the suburb of Dipolog where we have a house. But this was a funeral with a difference. A funeral for Jesus Christ. An open-topped van carried a glass-covered coffin containing a representation of Christ’s body. The mourners walked solemnly, chanting a prayer, followed by a few cars. Apparently the coffin was being taken to another church.
On Easter Sunday there are many services at every church – about eight or nine at Saint James church in neighbouring Dapitan City, for example. The first service was at 4am, but it was the 4pm service that we attended. The church was perhaps two thirds full – I expect most people attended the morning services. Most of the worshippers were young – quite a few children, many teens and lots of people in their twenties and thirties. Very few middle aged and elderly people. I think this was a reflection of the time of the service, and that most older people would have attended one of the earlier services.
St James church was originally built in 1871, when the Philippines was still a Spanish colony. It has been renovated several times, most recently in 1964. It is a very attractive building on the outside. Inside it has none of the panache of Dumaguete Cathedral which we attended a couple of weeks ago. For a Catholic Church it is very simple. No stained glass windows. The ceiling is predominantly covered by a patchwork of white and faded pink squares – very unattractive, I felt. There are statues of angels in the central aisle, holding modern fluorescent light rings – bizarre. There are the usual statues of Jesus, but the most striking statue is that of a Spanish-looking gentleman on a horse. Above the statue it says “Viva Senor Santiago Viva”. Apparently Senor Santiago was a local hero, and there is an annual fiesta in his honour. He is also celebrated by Filipinos abroad – I came across a reference to a fiesta in Illinois, USA.
The service was conducted almost entirely in Visayan. There were a few English phrases in the sermon which was, as you would expect, about the resurrection. In contrast to the Dumaguete service, this one was much more low-key and pedestrian. At one time I found myself reflecting on the discomfort of the pews – no cushions !
But there were diversions. One was caused by the scores of small birds swooping round the church. Their nests were on ledges near the roof.
Another was caused by a gentleman who wandered in half-way through the service. He had obviously not read the dress code displayed at the entrance of the church: he was stripped to the waist, carrying his T-shirt. He stopped and chatted to a few people. I think he was begging as one or two people pressed something into his hand. After one worshipper whispered in his ear, he put his T-shirt on. Ten minutes later he entered the church again. This time he was smoking a cigarette ! He wandered to the front of the church, and then out again. Another ten minutes or so passed. Then, as worshippers were queuing to receive Holy Communion, he came in again. He was beginning to resemble a running gag in some old time music hall performance. Would he try to receive the Eucharist ? No. He meandered near the front of the church, and then left.
Earlier in the afternoon we had walked along Dapitan beach. It’s a rather nice beach, and was fairly crowded. People were swimming, playing games and eating - there were many beach parties of families and friends tucking into chicken, pork, fish and, of course, rice. And there was also music. For, although Easter is primarily a religious festival in the Philippines, like all these holiday times, it is a time for families and friends to gather and have fun. This is a poor country, which worships God, but knows how to party.

Dumaguete Cathedral

Today Helen and I visited Dumaguete Cathedral.  We arrived just as a service was finishing so we entered the cathedral and sat down.  Well I sat and contemplated; Helen knelt and prayed.  Within twenty minutes or so another service started, and we stayed for the duration of that.

Dumaguete Cathedral is the oldest stone built Catholic church on Negros island.  Originally built by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, it burnt down in the eighteenth , and was then rebuilt in the early twentieth century.  It is dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria.

Near it is the bell tower, built in 1811.  This is a very impressive old building.  It used to serve as a means of warning local people of raids by pirates.

The Cathedral is beautiful outside and in.  The interior is a wonderful mix of the classical and the contemporary with Doric columns  and medieval style stained glass windows co-mingling with a bright interior and modern stained glass.  The service is conducted in English apart from the sermon which is a mix of English and Visayan, the language spoken in the Visayas and northern Mindanao.  This is Helen’s mother tongue.  The priest is youngish, friendly and passionate.

The cathedral is almost full, several hundred people, maybe approaching a thousand.  And this is just one of several church services on this Sunday. It is the first time I have seen a traffic jam outside a church when a service ends. The Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia with more than 70% of the population being Catholic.  This is a devoutly religious country with church attendance being very high.  Catholicism was, of course introduced by the Spanish colonial masters.

The dress of the worshippers is overwhelmingly informal.  Most of the men and the vast majority of younger women are dressed in jeans and T-shirts, polo shirts or blouses.  The older women tend to wear skirts.

The choir is also informally dressed.  They are sitting in the body of the church just below the altar.  There is an organist and three young guitarists.  The singing and playing has a jazzy feel to it.  They all look as if they are thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The priest and his assistants start celebrating the Eucharist.  Helen goes up to partake.  Celebration is what this service has been about.

I haven’t been in a church in years.  The experience is strangely moving. 

 

British Foreign Office’s Idiotic Advice

For the last seven weeks Helen and I have been living in a beautiful part of the Philippines. The people are friendly, the area is lightly policed and I have seen no members of the armed forces except a few school cadets. I feel safe walking around late at night – safer actually than I would in the average British town or city.
Yet the British Foreign Office advises its citizens against all travel to the island of Mindanao which includes Dipolog City where we are. Why on earth would the British Government advise against travel to a safe area ? I have been trying to get an answer to that question since 2007.
The Government’s advice against travel here has potentially serious consequences for us. For example, it invalidates our travel insurance cover as the company would argue that we should not be defying Government advice. This means that should an accident occur to one of us we could face huge bills: on the Foreign Office’s website they mention £12-£16000 for an air ambulance, for example.
Now there is no denying that parts of Mindanao are potentially dangerous. For more than thirty years a Muslim separatist movement has been fighting the Philippines army. Thousands have been killed. Periodically there have been terrorist bombings. But Mindanao is a huge island. The second largest in the Philippines, it extends to 94,596 square kilometres. Most of the violence has been in the south and western parts of the island. In the province of Zamboanga del Norte, of which Dipolog City is the capital, there are very few Muslims , and those that there are seem happily integrated into the community. ( I am told, incidentally, that even in the south and west, where there is a large Muslim population, the vast majority are totally opposed to the violence.) Zamboanga del Norte is a safe area, far from the dangerous parts of the island. And it is, frankly, idiotic for the Foreign Office to put this area into the same category as war zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Until 2007 the Foreign Office’s travel advice reflected the situation here. British citizens were advised not to travel to certain areas of Mindanao, but there was no advice not to travel to Dipolog City and the rest of the province of Zamboanga del Norte. Then in January 2007, following bombings in other parts of Mindanao, I checked the Foreign Office website, and found that the advice had been changed: they were now advising against travel to all of Mindanao and also Cebu. The Asian conference was then taking place in Cebu so I assumed this was a temporary precautionary measure. After the conference ended, Cebu was removed from the list of places not to visit, but they were still advising against travel to the whole of Mindanao. I think quite possibly this was an error, but that even when the mistake was realised some play-it-safe civil servant decided not to revert to the original travel advice.
When I wrote to the Foreign Office in 2007, I received an e-mail reply which did not address the issues I raised, but simply repeated advice from the Foreign Office website. The person who replied stated that she was the desk officer for the Solomon Islands and New Zealand ! I replied asking if a Philippines specialist could address my queries, but heard no more.
I did not pursue the matter again until this January. In my letter I pointed out:
“Dipolog City is safe, and has never, as far as I am aware, suffered from terrorism. It is far safer, for example, than Manila, the victim of several terrorist bombs in recent years. Not only that but as recently as December 2008, 16 people were killed on the streets of Manila in a gun battle between police and an armed gang of robbers. Three passers-by (including a girl aged 7) were amongst those killed. Yet this very serious incident is not even mentioned on your website. And you do not advise against travel to Manila.”
Anyway this time I have received two replies from different people at the Foreign Office. (Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing !) The second one by e-mail comes from the desk officer for the Solomon Islands & New Zealand ! (Different person, same job title as before.) She also claims to be the travel advice co-ordinator for south east Asia ! I’m beginning to see why our intelligence services were so misinformed about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq !
Anyway this civil servant claims to have liaised with colleagues at the British Embassy in Manila and other Philippines “experts” (oh, yes). But all she can do is ignore my points about Manila, and again repeat the point about terrorist incidents elsewhere in Mindanao.
So in my reply I have offered to be the Foreign Office’s “ man on the ground. I will try to speak to anyone you suggest - elected officials, police chiefs etc – and ask them for an up-to-date assessment of the risks of living in Zamboanga del Norte.” I can just see them leaping at my offer ! No ? Maybe not.

Incidentally, everyone I have spoken to – Filipinos and ex-pats alike – is astounded when I tell them that the British Foreign Office claims we are all living in a war zone which is unsafe to visit.

A dog in a cage

We have been plagued with barking dogs since we arrived at our house in Dipolog City nearly six weeks ago.
The dog next door particularly annoyed us. It was usually ok during daylight. But when darkness came at 6pm, it would start barking. This was not just the odd burst but barking that went on and on and on. It would usually cease when the owners returned.
Sometimes the dog would whimper for long periods, too. Then we noticed that it was tied up, and on a very short leash. It was often tied up on the side of the house nearest us. The leash was so short that if the dog lay down, the leash was taut. There was very little room for movement.
Eventually we decided to speak to the tenants. It was our first conversation with them as they had not been here when we were last in Dipolog in 2005. We spoke to the woman, her husband saying nothing, and explained that the incessant barking could be heard even over the sound of music or tv. It was actually giving us a headache. She said she could not control her dog, which made me irritated, and I said it was up to her to do so. I also explained that I felt that the fact the dog was tied up all the time they were away made it unhappy. She said she had to tie it up because otherwise it would chew things in their yard, even clothes. However, she said she would stop tying it up on the side of the house nearest us.
Then the dog across the road from us became a problem. We first became aware of this when the owners started having some building work done. Their builders took over a piece of common land and turned it into a building site which annoyed me. But at the same time the dog was moved from the side of their house to the front.
The dog became even more of a nuisance than the other one, barking throughout the day, often for long periods of time. This is a huge dog with a huge bark. It looks like the hound of the Baskervilles ! And they have it imprisoned in a tiny cage. It is occasionally taken out for walks by the owners’ maids.(Nearly all middle-class Filipinos have live-in maids, usually two, who are paid a small amount of money in addition to having food and accommodation provided.)
Anyway, unlike the other dog, this one barks during daylight hours and is usually quiet after dark। We have remonstrated with the maids on two or three occasions - to no effect. They seem oblivious to its barking, and yesterday while the dog was barking away furiously, one maid was fifty yards up the road talking to someone on her mobile phone. I suggested that if she spoke to the dog, it might calm down a bit. Her English is not great, but Helen reinforced this in Visayan.
Anyway, about half an hour later, Helen told me that the owner had returned, and suggested that we should speak to him. We immediately went over. I explained the situation, and said it seemed that his dog was unhappy, and that his barking was causing us a problem. He looked at me, incredulously. I added that I thought the dog was unhappy because he was in such a small cage, adding that I too would be unhappy if locked up in such a small space. At this point, he said that perhaps I should be locked up in the cage with the dog ! I don’t think he meant it as a serious threat. It was more a case of plain rudeness, his way of telling me to F off .

Until that comment, I had been calm and restrained. But his rudeness provoked me into being more confrontational. I said that I thought he was being cruel to his dog, and that its resultant unhappiness and barking was disturbing all the neighbours. He retorted that I was the only one troubled, the only one who complained. (This is probably true. Filipinos don’t complain.) He went on to say I’d complained about the other dog, too – so he’d obviously been exchanging notes with our next-door neighbour about the ‘complaining foreigner’. And he also said there were other barking dogs. This is also true though I’m not sure whether the fact they haven’t bothered us so much is down to their being further away from us or barking less incessantly.

Anyway, it became clear I was getting nowhere so I walked off before the situation got worse. I was fuming, and went round to the house of Jan and Fatima, who are the people we know best in the sub-division. But they were not there. Then, having chatted to Helen, we decided to go round to the big house built since we were last here. The owners are a pastor and a doctor, and I knew he had been elected President of the homeowners association. Anyway, he wasn’t in, but we had a long chat with his wife which started on the subject of the dogs and then developed into general chat about Dipolog, houses, her job, etc. She ended up by showing us round her house.

As we had approached the house, a dog at a nearby house had started barking ! However, it stopped when it saw that we were being accepted by the houseowner. She commented on this, and made the point that if a dog is barking for prolonged periods, it is clearly unhappy and there is a problem whereas a dog which barks at strangers but then stops when it is clear they are not up to any harm is a useful guard dog. Anyway, she said the couple with the huge dog were friends of hers .(Apparently the wife of the man I had had the confrontation with is also a doctor.) But she said she would discuss it with her husband, and they would see what they could do. It had been a very friendly conversation but whether it will lead to any action remains to be seen.
There is no equivalent of the RSPCA in the Philippines, and there is a different attitude to domestic animals than is found in the west. This is a big cultural difference. It is a rare for dogs to live as part of the family. They are often bought solely as guard dogs, and their owners seem to bestow little or no affection on them. As Helen puts it, they are often treated just like pigs.
Filipinos love children, and if anything over-indulge them. This is the only Christian country in Asia with more than 70% of the population Catholic. Unlike Catholics in the west who during recent decades have largely ignored the Vatican’s opposition to birth control, most Catholics in the Philippines do not practise birth control, and large families are very common. I sense this is changing particularly among richer Filipinos. Anyway, my point is Filipinos love children, but animal welfare seems to be a low priority. To take one example. Cock-fighting (which was banned in England in the 1600s) is a very popular sport in the Philippines and enjoys extensive television coverage.)
I would not describe myself as a great animal lover. I have no domestic pets (apart from our temporary kitten !) and would certainly never have a dog. I regard humans as more important than animals. But I hate cruelty, was a vegetarian for a couple of years (and only gave it up because I missed meat and fish too much !), and am opposed to blood sports.
When people go on the average holiday, they spend a couple of weeks in the country and often find out very little about it. Indeed, all-in holidays mean that some holiday-makers never even leave the hotel. So they usually come away with a good impression of the country based on the hotel, the friendly waiters, the sun, etc, etc. But in most cases they learn very little about the country. You could have a perfectly good holiday in China, for example, without any awareness of the regular abuse of human rights we take for granted.

But living in a country is a different matter. When we bought our Philippines house in 2004, we thought we would be coming here every year. It hasn’t worked out that way, and this is only our second spell living in this house for a prolonged spell. But rubbing along with the neighbours certainly gives you an insight into their way of life. I hope my comments are not seen as indicating disapproval of the Philippines. There is much to admire in this country. Most people are very friendly with a laid-back approach which in many ways is admirable. They are very family-orientated, and there is a complex system of family support which died out in most western countries in the early decades of the twentieth century. Filipinos working abroad are an important part of the domestic economy as they send billions of dollars every year to their families in the Philippines.
I find myself in a difficult situation as I have no wish to be the arrogant foreigner telling Filipinos how to live their lives. I would be interested in hearing any advice you have to offer.

Appalling Driving

Driving in and around Dipolog can be a nerve-wracking business.  To say the standard of driving is appalling would be an understatement.  The saving grace is that most of the traffic consists of motor-cabs (motor-bikes with sidecars).  They serve as taxis and buses for the people of Dipolog.  Motor-cabs go very slowly so generally if you are in a car, you feel relatively safe.  The worry is more that you might injure someone rather than be injured yourself.

Nevertheless it can still be a little like an old-fashioned dodgem ride making the three kilometres ride from our house in Sicayab to the centre of Dipolog.  Motor cab drivers are always on the look out for passengers so will suddenly pull up without signalling.  (No-one signals in Dipolog.)  Or do a U-turn.  Or stop and chat to a friend.  Or emerge from a side lane without bothering to see if anyone is coming along the main road.

There is a pecking order among vehicles in Dipolog.  And believe me, size matters.  The bigger you are, the more attention people pay to you.  So if you are in a car, and you wish to cross a main road from a side street, you just start crossing and the motorcabs will give way.  So will the motor-cycles (referred to as 'motor singles' here).  But the cars and vans won't.  Of course, if you are wimpish or polite and just wait for a gap in the traffic, you could be there all day !  

The most terrifying vehicles are the buses of the Rural Transit company.  They operate between Dipolog and other cities in Mindanao.

Last week, when we were travelling into town, a bus came right up behind us, really close and very threatening.  Then it overtook us and several other vehicles even though there were many vehicles coming the other way.  They were forced off the main road onto the side verge to avoid a head-on collision with this monster of the road. 

But worse was to come a couple of days later when we were returning from Dapitan City to Dipolog.  This is a beautiful mountainous road.  Beautiful but potentially very dangerous. We have travelled it a few times at night which is a fairly hair-raising experience as about 20 per cent of vehicles don't bother with lights !  Anyway, on this occasion, it was the middle of the afternoon. We were  going along a particularly twisty part of the road with double yellow lines meaning that overtaking was not allowed.  Suddenly a rural transit bus appeared on the wrong side of the road, overtaking.  It had zoomed round a blind corner, ignoring the double yellow lines.  We were forced to break suddenly.  Luckily we were going slowly and were a little way from the bend.  Otherwise the bus would have crashed into us.  Irresponsible, dangerous driving.  

That moment was our most frightening so far in the Philippines.  

 

"VISIBILITY IS TOO POOR TO LAND" - Pilot's chilling message

Last Tuesday, our first day in the Philippines, I declared on Facebook: “Tom & Helen are enjoying the sun in Manila”.  Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to tell those of you suffering a cold winter in Britain and America that the weather continues to be wonderful here.  It pains me to admit that  such is not the case.  Since that first day, we have seen precious little of the sun.

Yesterday the weather was the worst so far.  We had a short flight to make from Manila to Dipolog City: 70 minutes for the 440 miles.  We left on time, but shortly into our flight ran into some rather nasty turbulence.  Worse was to come as the captain’s voice came over the tannoy to announce that poor weather in Dipolog meant that we could not begin our descent.  The captain told us the visibility was so bad at the airport that he would have to wait for an improvement in the weather before landing.  Meanwhile we would hover at about 10000 feet.  A few minutes later the plane’s monitors showed our  plane circling.  How long, I thought, would we have go round and round in circles before it would be safe to land ? 

I used to be aerophobic and didn’t fly for 25 years, but I was cured of this inconvenient affliction by a brilliant one-day course at Norwich airport in 1996.  Since then I reckon I have been pretty relaxed about flying, and probably less nervous than the average person.  But yesterday for the second time in a week (the first being our flight from a snow-bound Heathrow) I did feel a tad anxious.  Nothing too traumatising, but definitely apprehensive.  What if the weather didn’t improve ?  How long could we go round in circles before running out of fuel ?  Would we be forced into making a potentially dangerous landing with limited visibility ?  I picked up the safety folder and studied the “brace position”.  

We circled for about 20 minutes or so. Then the captain told us we were about to land.  Dipolog is on the northern coast of Mindanao, a large island in the southern Philippines, so you are flying over the sea until seconds before you land.  I just hoped that if we did go down in the water the pilot was as good as the one who recently landed a plane on the Hudson !  But, after all that excitement, we had a perfectly normal landing.

The rain had stopped when we landed.  But later in the day it got worse and worse and we had several torrential downfalls which lasted for hours.  But the good thing about Philippines weather is that even when it is very wet, it stays pretty warm.  Temperatures have been a very pleasant 27-30 degrees Celsius (80-86 Fahrenheit) since we arrived.  I tend to get chapped hands and lips during a British winter.  That was my physical state when I arrived in Manila.  But within 48 hours or so  these minor, but irritating, ailments had gone.  February is supposed to be the start of the dry season in Dipolog, and there has been no rain today (though little sun) so I am hoping the weather is on the mend.  Even as it’s been, it’s much better than the snow and ice I left in England.

Six days to go !

Next Monday Helen and I fly to the Philippines for our first visit since 2005.  We are both getting very excited at the prospect of leaving cold, wet Britain, and setting foot once again in the friendliest country in the world.

I am new to blogging, but thought it might be fun to keep a record of our trip, which lasts nearly three months until the end of April. 

So stand by for my Philippines blog !  There may be one or two posts here this week but things won't start in earnest until we arrive in the Philippines next week.

Tom