Well, make that days.

Getting settled into my routines and rituals such as they are. Not all that exciting or blog worthy, but that’s real life for most of us I suppose.

I played in my first dart tournament in awhile and took a first place. Even sweeter was beating my arch rival Greg in the finals.

And I also had a good time, which sadly is not always the case.

I wrapped up my dart league commitment yesterday by participating in the end of season MVP tournament. It didn’t end well, but I didn’t care. Henceforth my Wednesdays and Fridays are open again. I like the freedom to do what I want when I want, rather than having an obligation to not let the team down. The problem with league for me is it starts at 2:00 and by the time it’s over I’m buzzed on beer and so the remainder of the day is pretty much shot. With tourneys I can show up or not depending on what I want to do. My plan is to do some travel (both local and international) and I don’t want to feel tied down by darts. Darts is a pastime, not a vocation for me.

I’m still out there hoofing it every morning. I’ve been exceeding my personal daily goal, so I’m happy about that. Even pushing myself to leave my comfort zone and start exploring some new paths to experience.

Did I mention it’s been hot?

I’m more or less a passive observer of the world here as it passes, but a couple of things recently caught my attention. Not everything is cheaper in the Philippines, but labor definitely is. Unskilled workers are lucky to make the equivalent of five dollars a day. You see the impact of these low wages in many ways (other than the shanty towns). Construction projects are swarming with human bodies doing the work that machines do back home. For example, concrete is mixed by hand and carried up to the pour area by hand in buckets. And then yesterday I saw this:

Painting the lines on the highway by hand with a brush and bucket of paint. Never seen anything like that before. Oh, and as you might have noticed, there apparently is no OSHA equivalent here.

The other thing that really stands out for me is that people here have no cultural aversion to littering. Hell, it goes way beyond littering, it’s trashing the environment. I see kids and grownups routinely throwing crap out of windows and vehicles. But the other morning as I was walking across the Matain river bridge I saw something that left me gobsmacked. There was a guy walking towards me carrying a bucket full of trash. I kept saying to myself “no he isn’t, no he isn’t.” But he did. Got to the middle of the bridge and poured the contents right into the river. Which runs into Subic Bay in less than a mile. I’ll be seeing that trash again soon as I walk along the beach no doubt.

The dirty banks of the Matain river awaiting the next heavy rain to carry the garbage out into the bay and beaches.

Anyway, I don’t like to be critical of my adopted home, but cultural sensitivity only goes so far. It’s a beautiful country. I just wish the natives appreciated that as much as I do.

Oh well.

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she’s been crying
She’s got blisters on the soles of her feet
She can’t walk but she’s trying

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can say