September 2007 Archives

November 18, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

Dad came home from the Hospital day before yesterday - 10lbs lighter (not good) & deconditioned more so then 24 Aug. when he was first released after open heart surgery...so he's had a major setback...I've been at odds with his cardiologist who saw him on 9/10 with the symptoms he had when I took him & admitted him on 9/14; that indifference from his own cardiologist & the resulting 'deconditioning' setback coming out of the hospital has probably cost him a month's recovery time, not to mention wasting both Dad's time and mine.

Nov.18, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

...for the meal later that evening, prepared by Mama Eve.
...with 4 kids, her husband & myself eating, I bought enough for the rest of the month, especially the rice which is their staple.

The colors of the market are beautiful, as is the Family.

Thanks for reading about Mama Eve & JoJo's Family I try to take care of....read down, there are more images in the posts below.
PJAMES

Nov.18, 2006: Pampanga Philippines 3:07pm

I love the black & white image of Janet just before she winked at me - signaling she liked the rice from the bin she was standing in front of.

She didn't choose the most expensive, nor the cheapest (it wasn't in very good condition); she just chose the good grade/mid grade rice, and I had enough donated funds to get them 220lbs of rice plus meat, fish, veggies & fruits from this local market this day, so it was a good shopping trip, and everyone had a terrific meal that evening with things they couldn't typically eat every day, and enough leftovers and plenty of rice for the rest of the month.

Thanks for reading today,
PJAMES

...still posting from the Hospital looking after Dad.

November 18, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

...first day in Pampanga - the first issue is always getting food for my special friends in-need.

Janet & her Mama arrive at the rice market; I promised little Janet she could be the one to choose the rice, but she passed the bins slowly and just gave me a quick wink.

I love the way the market looks in the late afternoon light; some colors are saturated & some subdued.
...Janet's Mama asked me if I would like fresh Calamansi juice (lemonade) and of course I said yes, so we made our way through the market getting some essentials for the evening's dinner (BBQ chicken & pork, calamansi juice, tomatoes & veggies, etc)

Thanks for reading today,
PJAMES

ps: this post, and all of September, August & July's postings were mysteriously missing the past few days ( a hosting issue), so I've re-posted & re-built the missing entries.

Thank you Steven for the tech support, and I apologize to those who were looking for the missing posts in the past few days; I'm sorry for any confusion.

I was running to get image editing done in the mornings this past week, then running back to the hospital to be with Dad 12noon - 8pm, then running back home to work online 90 minutes before going to sleep, so I was happy with the new content & images that are now back online; I've been working really hard on them in the midst of everything else going on here.
PJ

Dad's been back in the Hospital since Friday afternoon; this time it could be either pneumonia or congestive heart failure (depending on which doctor I talk to) so my days & nights are spent here again, and although he's very weak his spirits are good, and I'm especially thankful for all the attention & care from his nursing staff, most of whom are Filipino.

Nov.20, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

I really like this image - little Marvin, who's a playmate of the kids photographed below (DinDin & Janet), and who's Father is friend & neighbor to Din & Janet's Father JoJo.

Marvin's Father is also a local tricycle driver like JoJo, and it's very hard work trying to make ends meet, as 12hr days driving are the norm for JoJo - and since his entire Family always welcomes me into their home when I see them, I make sure I never show up empty handed; I know food is at a premium with 4 children in the house.

I always smile when ever their Mother fusses over me at mealtime, after we return with 110lbs to 220lbs of good grade rice (they're mostly able to buy about 5 to 7lbs at any one time when I'm not there) - she knows I do like scrambled eggs or an omelet (she makes a great tomato/onion omelet) and will sit with me to watch me eat it, as no one else in their household eats eggs...I always got a kick out of that, and the way she asks me "...are you ok" "...is everything ok...?"

Thanks for reading today,
PJAMES

November 20, 2006: Pampanga Philippines - Janet photographed at 1:18pm

...continued below, with more about the Family.
PJAMES

Nov.20, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

A portrait of DinDin, Janet's older sister, taken at home while sitting at a small table, in front of an open door...I was informally sitting there reviewing some images on the camera when Din came by, sat down and asked to see what I was doing.
(100 percent natural available lighting; no reflectors etc. - this is essentially an out-of-camera shot)

I help support the Family with food; there's more on the sisters and their Family below; Din & her older sister Vange are very good about helping to care for their 2 younger siblings featured below.

Thanks for reading today,
PJAMES

November 20, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

At the dinner table, and in the after dinner grabshot Janet looks like a Super Model giving the photographer some 'attitude'!

I never come to the house empty handed; the first thing we all do when I arrive in Pampanga is for JoJo & his wife to ride with me into town to the local rice vendor, and I get their food first, then at least 100kg's of rice for the month, depending on how much I can spend on them.

Matter of fact, in the first image of Janet eating (and shes eating so quickly she's just a blur!) you can see what a 50KG sack of rice looks like, in the background to the right, there's a yellow sack next to the refrigerator - and that rice sack is literally half as tall as the fridge....JoJo gets those sacks onto his tricycle and we all take a Jeepney ride back to the house to enjoy some local BBQ pork, a dish they rarely get to enjoy as they mostly can afford some fish with rice and little else, but they make due.

That 50KG will last them 3 weeks, and when JoJo's business is very slow, I've seen it last just 2 weeks.

The Family always fusses over me at mealtime, and I'm not used to that (I'm usually the one to fuss over people) as they make my meal first and I'm served first at the the only small table available, while the kids & parents eat where they usually do, on the floor.

I know they're being kind to me out of respect, but I'm always uncomfortable with that arrangement, and I either invite (politely insist) that either the kids or the parents please join me at the table (it can't accommodate them all), or I just bring my plate down to the floor and join them...and they just smile and ask me "...are you ok Paul James...?"

I'm always OK there:)
PJAMES

November 20, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/400s f/4 at 14.0mm iso100

I've known Janet's Family for the past few years, and although they're not homeless, they're not too far from it - their one room 15'x15' concrete small house (which sits next to a few very nice houses in their neighborhood) does have electricity, simple home made furniture & plastic chairs, but has no running water...and they make the best of it everday, always thinking positive and taking good care of each other.

A working poor Family, Papa JoJo drives a tricycle for work, while Janet's Mama makes Sampaquita (the local flowers that sell in the streets) and cares for her 4 children - on good days JoJo would earn maybe $3 or $4, but I've seen days where he's been out driving 15 hours to make $2 (I stay with the Family when I'm there, sleeping on the floor at night as the rest of the Family does)

I've seen JoJo up and out of the house at 4am and returning at midnight after driving all day - he always picks me up at the bus stop on the highway and brings me to his place, and never wants to take the P30 fare money from me, although I politely insist (if he won't take it I just give it to his wife and say to use it for the kids, etc)

I do as the Family does when I'm there, taking bird-baths in the CR/bathroom as there's no shower, and even sleeping on the concrete floor won't kill you; it'll only kill your back (a little)..I make light of it while I'm there with the kids, as they all have this energetic sense of humor where we all love to laugh, and I'm always humbled and constantly learning from being around them.

This week it's images from Pampanga with the Family...more later.

Thanks for reading today,
PJAMES

Dad's scar, on the day his staples were to be removed.

His issues now aren't at all related to the physical surgery; that's healing fine - he's extremely fatigued & his doctors are waiting for addt'l blood test results, sonograms, EKG's & chest x-rays done yesterday, before prescribing a new medicine regiment sometime early next week, as his BP's been quite low.
...an Ear/Nose/Throat MD is dealing with his sudden hearing loss on Monday.

Thanks for reading today - I'm going to try to get back to some editing maybe later this evening if we don't have to go back to the hospital today.
PJAMES

Bantayan Island, Cebu Philippines: March 12, 2007

Olympus E-1, Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Digital: 1/640s f/4.5 at 54.0mm iso200

I really liked this image of Jen & her son, but its actually not the exposure mess I thought it might be when I metered it in-cam with multi point metering - on a dark foreground and blown highlights in the background, it only took a levels tweak in PhotoShop to bring them back to a workable image (b&w conversion, then Neat Image noise reduction applied; that was it)

Jen is a devoted single Mother, and she just texted me last week saying she wanted to enroll in the community college's computer education course, and that her Family was going to find a way to pay the small tuition fee of $30 or so, etc.

I told her that I was very proud of her wanting to better herself, and that I would try to help her all I could when I got back there in November, after helping with the Families food first, of course.

Thanks for reading today,
PJAMES