Up North: UPDATE

So very much can and does happen in three months time.  Has it been three months already?  Let’s check the calendar and see.  We arrived home in mid-July and November is replacing October on the calendars.

Yes, I guess we have been here for about three and a half months – time for an update on what could and did happen.   There have been dry, sunny days as well as typhoon-induced windy and rainy days.  There have been good days, great days, and days better left to history alone.  

I’ll highlight the better-known (and reported) incidents.  They are, however, just the tip of this tropical iceberg called Live in the Philippines, Up North.

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HEADLINE:  Katulong – Lost and Found!

As you may know, the katulong who had taken care of our house in our absence, greeted us when we arrived, and helped us unpack is no longer in our employ.  She left us for that “higher calling” of love and marriage, and appears to be getting along well in that endeavor.  After what felt like an eternity of searching, we employed a new, part-time katulong.

An Ilocano proverb fits our situation pretty well:  “Ti napíli makapíli ti kuggangí.”  [He who is choosy often picks the worst.]

So far, so good:  our new katulong is learning the ins and outs of the job and of our expectations.  Sure, as with all new employees, there have been a few hiccups.  We solved those with improved communications, explaining the job’s requirements and limits.  You can’t do well if you don’t know what it is you are to do! 

Progress was positive, then what I believe was the inevitable happened.  You see, our katulong is a fisherman’s wife and has lived in poor fishing sitios and puroks all her life.  Not only was she learning how to keep house for us, she was learning how to keep house, period.  (It’s the often-observed result of a culturally pleasing affirmative answer whenever most pinoys/pinays are asked if they can do something.  “Can you do the work of a katulong?”  “Oh, yes!”)  She now says that we “may not be seeing her for a little while.”  (Translation:  “I give up; I’m quitting!”)

So, it will be back to “search mode” for baket ko (asawa ko) [my wife].  She still has some prospects lined up, and I’m still partial to fried Spam & rice, so things will work out.  (A little cuter this time, honey!)

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HEADLINE:  “The ‘BRO” & Internet Connectivity

Another search, this one a little more adventurous, resulted in putting us “on-line” and connecting us with the world via the Internet.  We sought out, found and obtained “broadband” service through SMART Bro.  Though fate stymied my further search for the “Share It” router and its 2Mbyte service, I remain happy with what service I have.  After all, I have “The ‘BRO’s” word that this higher speed service, which has yet to make its way to the smaller municipalities of outlying provinces, will be available next year.  In addition, I’m sure I could say that my current service is faster than “dial-up” if I had landline telephone service for comparison.

Sure, as with all new systems, there have been a few hiccups.  (I’m getting a sense of déjà vu – seems I’ve seen that somewhere before.)  Ever since the seven-day brown-out that accompanied and followed the show-stopping, three-time appearance of Typhoon Peping in early October, my connectivity has been spotty at best.  (Okay, Paul, enough with all of those hyphenated-words . . . now stop that!)  Service finally came to a halt some nights ago.  A call on the SMART Bro Hot Line resulted in the scheduling of a visit by a crack SMART Bro Tech Team on Saturday, same week.  (The little truck appeared at noon.  Manolito, Mo-Mo and Jackie-Boy had returned and they repaired a bad connection to the feed-cable inside the antenna unit.  THANK YOU, SMART Bro.) Coincidently, the LBC courier showed up the day before the “halt” with the SMART Bro bill that is due in two days’ time.  Do I detect an adventure (”turn over the money and will give you back your service”) story here somewhere?

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HEADLINE:  Rainy Season Nixes Movement

Wet weather continues to keep us close to home though, as reported here, we managed to venture out a couple of times.  This past week has been a little drier than most.  What that really means is that the rains start a little later in the day.  Planning trips or outings that will take longer than half a day is not yet possible, as, by the time you know the weather will hold for the day, there isn’t much time left in the day for the outing.

Sure, as with all . . . (insert your favorite “hiccup” déjà vu line here).  A few outings started out dry but ended up with our damp turn around for home.  There are plenty of dry days ahead of us, so those trips and outings (and their resulting articles and reports) will be on the back burner for the not so dry now.

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HEADLINE:  Wee Hour Wee Visitors

It appears that we had another visit from the “small people,” as our nephew refers to them.  I’ll refrain from saying the name “Aeta,” as I’ve since learned that they don’t really enjoy that label (ditto for “Negritos” or “Pugot”).  For lack of their proper tribal name, then, I’ll borrow on our nephew’s diplomacy and refer to them as “small people,” too.  The chronicler for this visit was our Auntie, the mother of the nephew who related the first visit.  Auntie was more forthcoming and timely in her report.

This episode involved only two small individuals for whom all of the neighborhood dogs barked as before (déjà vu for two?).  One of the two peered in through the gate while the other sat and enjoyed a smoke (Auntie believes it was a hand-rolled cigarette, or something of that nature, as this person’s hands were a bit busy prior to the smoke).  They stayed around for the duration of the latter’s moment of pleasure, only to hasten off again when they detected Auntie watchfully eying them.  She described them as short, stout, very dark almost black, very curly short hair, wearing shirts, shorts and slippers, and being very fleet of foot.  Having a longer look at the “small people” than her son had previously, Auntie was able to provide more detail in her descriptions of everything she witnessed.

Where was your humble columnist during this episode, you ask?  As before, here was a chance for a nocturnal, cultural adventure, AND I SLEPT RIGHT THROUGH IT!  Baket ko (Asawa ko) [My wife] now makes sure that any dog barking at night is answered by my sleepy-eyed gaze and investigation.

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HEADLINE:  Three Strikes & You’re Out!

I guess this is the major story of our first three months.  Typhoon Peping took three good strikes at us, and then was out to sea for good.  It was very similar to my going through the same typhoon three times in five day’s time while stationed in Okinawa during the early seventies.  (What is it with all of this déjà vu stuff, anyway?  Am I repeating unlearnt history?)

My “Fascination with Rice” took a new turn.  The beautiful rice crop that was in the paddies took it kind of tough during those three passes.  Early estimated reports of damage were high, but farmers are replacing those estimates with lower ones.  There were three or four different plantings of the rice crop, with the most damage suffered by the youngest crop (last planted).  Its “flowering” is doubtful and it will most likely end up as just straw.

The first planted crop was close to harvest time, so it suffered “field loss” damage – some of the grains were blown off the plant, leaving others still attached a little weaker and prone to drop off “in the field.”  The result will be fewer grains harvested and marketed.

Damage to crops planted between the first and last is extremely hard to compute.  All crops planted were a hybrid version formulated to withstand excess water and storms.  Though some of these crops were “laid down” by the high winds, signs of resurrection are hopeful.  The worries here are just how long will standing water remain in the fields, will the rice grains fill out properly, will disease or pests infect the crop, etc.

No one will really know the total damage until after the final harvest.  Prices at the market for harvested, un-milled rice may go up a little and help offset the losses a little, but profit may still be a big squeeze for the farmers, not to mention the effects of rice availability, etc.

Personally, my “banana crop” loss is approximately 75%.  I lost one entire fruiting tree and half of the fruit of another.  The remaining fruit on the latter is yet to approach harvest time, so who knows what could happen.  The three typhoon passes also eliminated 100% of the eggplant that was almost ready for harvest.  Three of four malunggay trees snapped in half with most of the remaining leaves being lost to the wind as well (good thing we harvested leaves before the storm).  I still have five calamansi fruits on one bush, and a second bush is trying to recover from storm damage.

(Note:  At the time I am drafting this acticle, Typhoon Lupit [Ramil] is threatening to finish up the damage started by Peping, and throw in some of its own for good measure.  We can only hope it decides to wend its way north an miss The Philippines all together.   We’ll find out later this week just what are Lupit’s (Ramil’s) intentions.  You have to love living here and put up with its storms, or else leave.

Further update:  After snaking around the Philippine Sea for a week, it appears that Lupit had made an abrupt turn to the ENE, lost some of its power – being downgraded to Tropical Storm – and is headed for Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands.  For this storm, waiting seems to be its worst aspect.  While six international weather services have amended their projections for Lupit to coincide with its current movements, they still warn that “the snake” could turn for us again as well as intensify prior to visiting.  That won’t happen as Lupit was last seen skirting up the coast of Japan, having lost a lot of its intensity and dispersing in cooler, northern sea waters as a low pressure area. 

Harvesting rice has become very hard work.  The fields are still flooded from all the rains, the rice plants are all soaked and heavily laden with moisture; and the cutting, carrying, threshing, etc. is more back-breaking than ever.  Reminds me of shovelling “wet” snow is winters past.

Oh yes:  Lupit hasn’t affected the remaining banana crop.  For the “Bananaphiles” out there, eight hands remain, each averaging between 14-16 fingers.)

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That’s the UPDATE from Up North.  All in all, I make a poor farmer and a merely average resident.  I just hope my article writing is a little better.

Fascination with Rice

Surrounded am I!  No matter where I look, there it is – RICE.  Whether glancing at a plate of mouth-watering morsels of the finest local cuisine, or looking out my window to the fields beyond my fence, rice takes a most prominent place.  Even my “Breakfast Joy” from Jollibee presents garlic-fried rice for my pleasure.  To say rice is a staple here in the Philippines is an understatement.  Just about everyone eats it and, if available, eats it in large quantities.

My adventurous nature took a slight twist toward curiosity regarding this grain.  I needed to find out more.  No, I HAD to find out more – feeling my OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) kick in.  Instead of taking my medication today, I think I’ll go on both a virtual and a physical trip to help satisfy this newfound fascination.  There are so many questions to answer.  Where do I begin?

A definition should help start things off.  Rice is a cereal grass.  Most often, rice grows in paddies, or fields, flooded with about 8cm of water.  The white rice we see on the dinner table is the starchy portion of the cereal grass’s seeds.  Hulled and with its “bran” layer and “germ” milled away, it appears polished to a bright white.  Most rice eating populations enjoy white rice, with quality measured in milling and length, and many will refuse any rice other than white.

Health-minded individuals may be thinking of “brown rice” and wondering about its origins.  Well, for the most part, brown rice is the same seed as white, just hulled and cleaned but not milled or partially milled.  The bran layer and the germ remain intact, giving the rice its brown color.  These two also provide additional nutrients, vitamins and dietary minerals to the consumer.

Brown rice is difficult to store, however, as it becomes rancid much quicker that white rice.  It’s also a bit chewier than white.  Still, I must admit it is my choice whenever it’s available.  The nutritional benefits, as well as that of the rice bran oil helping to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, more than outweigh the choice of color argument.

As mentioned before, flooded fields or paddies are where rice is most often grown.  This “wet” method of rice production has been around for centuries.  Not only is it grown on the flat lowlands, rice can be grown on the sides of mountains.  A good example of this is the famous rice terraces of Banuae in Ifugao province.

To the surprise of many, however, rice is NOT an aquatic plant.  The principle reasons for planting rice in water-filled paddies are for weed and pest control.  This method, however, has its drawbacks.  It does not allow the rice plant to reach its full potential of production.

This “wet” method of growing rice starts by thrusting three to five individual seedlings as a group into the flooded, muddy muck very close together.  Such groups are spaced approximately ten centimeters from other groups.  Plants fight each other for sunshine, air and nutrients in the soil.  Fertilizer and insecticide are usually applied a couple of times during the growing season, as well as periodic clearing or cleaning the paddy of any weeds or dead plants.  Resulting yields of rice grown in paddies average around two to five tons per hectare, depending on environmental and physical conditions.

Another method of growing rice – a “dry” method – is starting to be popular around the world.  There is still some hesitant experimentation in the Philippines, but I am sure the results of the experiments will turn a few heads.  Called System of Rice Intensification, or SRI, this method is quite interesting in concept and practice.  Reporting harvest yields double of that obtained via the “wet” method or higher (six to ten tons per hectare), farmers in Asia and Africa employing this method swear by it.

During the second half of the Twentieth Century, a Jesuit priest in Madagascar, Fr. Henri de Laulanié, S.J., developed SRI in an effort to allow the Malagasy farmers he worked with to have happier and more secure lives.  SRI starts with the philosophy that farmers respect and support the rice plants as living creatures that have great potential.  Realization of this potential occurs only when a farmer provides the plant with the best conditions for growth.

Prior to planting, the soil is prepared with compost or other non-chemical enriching agents and, perhaps, used for a season to grow crops such as legumes that put nutrients into the soil.  A farmer plants individual seedlings that are younger than those used in the “wet” method and spreads them out rather than grouping and bunching them, giving the plant more room to grow.  During the growing season, the farmer doesn’t flood the soil but keeps it moist through limited irrigation.  Additionally, weeding between the plants occurs about four to six times during the growing season.

The object of this method is to have each plant develop a larger root system that, in turn, results in a fuller plant above ground – more tillers, more leaves and more seeds.  The net result is a larger harvest from fewer, better-maintained and grown plants.

This “dry” method of growing rice is fascinating and may very well lend itself to this area during the dry season.  I think I’ll do a little more research and present my findings to the local farmers’ co-op.  Who knows?  It could make a difference here as it did in Madagascar.  You can find a neat little handbook from WASSAN (Watershed Support Services and Activities Network) about SRI here.