Last weekend Carina told me she loaned the father of our maid money about three months ago to help him bring in his crop of rice. Actually the amount was very small but the lack of it could have caused him to lose his crop. We loaned him about $18. In exchange he will give us two sacks of milled rice. (We have to pay an extra $1.80 to have it milled.) That amounts to 220 lbs of rice. On the market if we were to purchase that amount of rice it would cost us around $36 to $40 so we made quite a profit. I suggested we just take a sack and a half but Carina said if we did that everyone from the area would be pestering us for loans since we would be loaning below the going rate. This amount of rice will last us around six months. Our maid and nanny are from Calabanga where Carina and her family used to live. It is a small town about 25 miles from us and is on the coast of a large bay like area on the Pacific side of the island. Today we went to collect our rice. The two major industries there are rice farming and fishing so we decided to also be there when the boats came in to buy some shrimp since it is cheaper there than in Naga.
Once we arrived at the outskirts of town we turned off on a small concrete road that led to the maid's family house. Almost the entire road was covered with rice, still in the hull, drying in the sun. We had to drive over the rice for about four miles before we got to her house. Since every square meter of land is utilized, here, in many cases, there is no place to dry rice except in or along the side the road. I've seen it drying along the side of the road before but not in the road. We were told just to drive over it and not to worry. When we arrived I was left in the car while everyone else went to find her father and collect the rice. While I was waiting a group of around 15 kids surrounded the car. They were fascinated by the car and with me. They wanted to touch the car and me. If I smiled at one of them they would all laugh. What appeared to be one of the older kids, a girl about 8, asked me "What is your name?" I told her and she relayed it to everyone and again everyone laughed. When we left a short time later they all yelled "Good-bye Jim" and laughed again. During this time some of the mothers were standing in the background watching. I�m sure none of these kids and maybe some of the mothers had never seen an American before so all were curious. In Naga proper there is somewhere around 20 Americans at any time so most people don't stop to look, however when you get out into the country it is a different story. Even in town many young kids want to touch me because they have never seen anyone with hair on their arms or chest. Even hair on legs is not very common. So all the kids want to touch my arms and the littler ones touch my legs. I don't mind and usually smile at them and they all smile back or laugh and may run away. As a side note the house where the maid's family lives is made of wood with single plywood outer walls and is about 300 SF in size. There are five in the family living there. They do most of their cooking outside and there is no indoor plumbing. All washing, including personal bathing, is done at the water pump in the front yard. The lot is about 400 SF. This was typical for most of the people living in this area.
Next we went to the docks where the fishing boats come in. They are two groups of fisherman, one fishing at night and returning at dawn and another that leaves just before dawn and returns around noon. We arrived just before noon. In order to get a decent price I had to stay in the car about a block away from the docks. Therefore Carina had to explain how they system works to me. Basically each boat offers its catch to whoever wants it, some buy small amounts for themselves while others buy larger amounts to sell in Naga and other towns close by. People walk around looking at the catch from each boat and if they want to buy they will come up to the boat owner and whisper a price into his ear. If he agrees they get the amount they specified. If not they have to offer a higher price. I'm told this is so nobody knows what the minimum selling price is however the maid, who of course lives there, told Carina what she should offer. When all was said and done we had ten pounds of median size shrimp and three pounds of crabs for a total cost of $5.75. That's less than half of what we would pay in the local market. If we were going just for the seafood we would need to consider the cost of gas or about another $2.00 so to make it worth while we would have to also buy fish and in larger quantities and freeze it. Since there are four adults living here including the maid and nanny we go through about 25 lbs of rice a month, 20 lbs of shrimp, 30 lbs of fish, 25 lbs of chicken and 10 lbs of pork as well as two dozen eggs a week and three or four loafs of bread and all kinds of fruit and vegetables. Our maid and nanny eat what we eat or they can cook something else for themselves if they want. In many houses the maid is given only a minimum of food, mostly rice and a little dried fish with no vegetables or fruit to help keep down the cost. Our current maid said she left her former employer because she was starving to death. She said she had to climb the fence and sneak out; they locked her in, while they were gone to get away. She was skinny when she came to work for us but has gained some weight since. The Indians lock their teenage maid inside when they leave to collect their interest but as soon as they drive around the corner she climbs the fence and is out playing with the kids in the neighborhood. We all laugh every time they leave.