Kalinga - Part V - Children

This is Part V of my Kalinga series. The posts have been consecutive, so it's easy for you to find Parts I to IV, which contain more information about the province - its landscape, its people, and its history.

In this post I will simply share some of the adorable children I saw in the poor mountain village of Buscalan.

Our group came with presents for the children, useful things like toothbrushes and multivitamins, as well as some candies, a rare treat. These were handed out in small bags, one-by-one, so the children were asked to line up in neat lines.

Minutes later, it started to rain, so all the kids ran for cover and the lines were no more.

Buscalan, Kalinga, 2012

 Wonder where we were? Here's the map.

Today I link with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday.

There will be a Part VI soon.

The Blues

Cebu, 2011

This boy looked rather blue to me, sitting here in his blue shirt and shorts on shiny blue tiles with blue water bottles.

Linking with reflection seekers at Weekend Reflections.

HaPpY hApPy NeW yEaR!!

F is for Fishing

Boys fishing together. Friendship. What could be more fun than that?

Ilocos Norte, 2010

With the letter F at Alphabe-Thursday, I'm offering this fun series of friends fishing in Blue Lagoon in northern Philippines.

Solid Playmates

 You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Genevan philosopher, 1712-1778

 We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve years telling them to sit down and shut up.

~ Phyllis Diller, American comedian, 1917-

Kaiping, 2011

Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play. 

~ Michel de Montaigne, French writer, 1533-1592

I captured these children at play in a park in Kaiping a few weeks ago. Linking with Our World Tuesday.

X is for Xtreme Sport

"Look ma, no hands!" 

Also known as a parent's nightmare.

Xtreme sports.

In Skatepark Herăstrău, girls and boys of all ages xhibit their daring and skills on bikes, rollerblades and skateboards.

Bucharest, 2011

I appreciate their spunk and daredevilry. I was like this as a kid, too, in my own way. (You're not surprised, are you?) I believe this youthful fearlessness helps to develop balance and independence. But I must admit I was happy I didn't witness anyone bleed.

If you are curious to see the kids in action, I found this 3:40 minute video on YouTube. It also shows you where on our globe the park is located.

Now for a seriously jaw-dropping piece of inspiration, go see this video of Danny MacAskill performing his amazing street riding. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's had over 26 million views, so you can be sure it'll be worth your while.

What have you done to push your envelope of daring and creativity?

This joins the community at ABC Wednesday where the letter of the week is the difficult X.

Waiting for the Water

Sibiu in Transylvania, 280 km / 170 mi north of Bucharest, has a picturesque town square in its old center. In the middle of the large open space is a fountain that spouts intermittently. Children and pigeons hang around patiently waiting for the water.

 Sibiu, Romania, 2011

This image joins Weekend Reflections and Weekend in Black & White.
[It is more interesting enlarged.]

The fountain brings joy to the kids...

... and to the pigeons who use it to bathe.

This is a longer view of this charming square and fountain.

[MyWorld] Instant Pose

I was paying them no mind, keeping my lens focused on the pretty scenery for which we had paused our road trip, but I sensed them hovering around me, curious what I was doing. When I was finished, I turned around and really saw the village kids for the first time. In the moments it took me to raise my camera, turn it in their direction and click, they had grouped themselves into this amazing pose. It all took mere seconds. Then I smiled at them and returned to our car to continue down the road. 

When I downloaded my new photos into my PC today, I was so delighted with what I got. What a group of sweeties!

Quezon, 2010

My world really was full of smiles this week, so I link with My World Tuesday and Sweet Shot Tuesday.

Wild Winds. Broken Branches.

When I was driving on the highway into Makati yesterday evening and saw gigantic tarpaulin billboards being brought down I knew we were in for a stormy night. At least a few times a year, Manila is in the direct path of a typhoon and close to midnight last night it was Basyang (internationally named Coson) that brought havoc to trees and darkness to the city.

We've experienced much worse typhoons, but it never fails to break my heart to see the damage to plants and trees. These first two photos show the street I live on at 7 am:

Metro Manila, July 14, 2010

I came back out on the street at noon and was amazed by how much had already been cleaned up just by the residents - or rather by their house-help. You can see even the kids chip in:

So I took my camera and went for a walk down the street. This is what I saw when I turned left at the next street:

These boys were pulling at a tree limb that was being hacked by a machete:

We had had no power since shortly after midnight, so at this point I thought perhaps one of the lines in our village (subdivision) was down:

Later I learned the entire city and even a large part of the Luzon province was powerless.

To break the monotony of being in a still home, not being able to work or play, we went to the nearby commercial area to have some lunch. Many more branches had been broken and even some trees had been uprooted entirely:

We did not venture far, but I would guess all over the city there were crews hard at work clearing the streets to make them drivable again. This crew was happy to take a small break to give me their brilliant smiles to let me know that life goes on:

And you know, it does. At 9 pm we got our power back. And for me it meant getting back to work.

Click on this link for more links to OUTDOOR adventures.