pagsi's boys at home

with a glimpse of the controversial hanging crib on upper left 

"finally, i get enough space," my eldest son breathed out as he passed by, making sure the mother and i heard.
his batchmates from dulaang sibol spent last night at our place for the first time. dan had been wanting to have this get-together but he said we did not have enough space. and that was one of the main reasons for the renovation.
they were a relatively subdued bunch of kids but i woke up once in a while to the burst of laughter and occasional jeering. earlier, joy reminded dan to keep everything down past midnight. "nakakahiya sa neighbors". they were up until around 4 AM. i finally woke up this morning to take some photos of how they used up the space we had provided for them.

we did not really add space. cliff, our architect, just tore some walls down.

a website for rangefinderfilipinas

http://rangefinderfilipinas.com

it is our new website. topics regarding rangefinder cameras and film photography will be covered in this forum. membership is free and the people who started this are just great.

peasant leaders

"araw ng magsasaka" is still in october but i recently unearthed some black and white photos i took years ago. the one above was taken sometime in the 70s and the one below was in the 80s.
kuya oca (adult male) was the first peasant leader i ever met. i and some other upscans spent two weeks in the barrio where he resided. actually, he mistook us for members of some political organization when we arrived at his home. "hindi pa handa ang mga lider ko," he said. it took him a few seconds to realize that we were just a bunch of students for summer "immersion".
back then i saw how able a leader he was. he made it to UP kuya oca had to drop out on his second year because his parents could not afford the upkeep. his father had better use for his extra pair of hands as a sacada. during cory's ascent to power, he became a towering figure in the left-of-center movement of southern tagalog peasants. to him i owe the early beginnings of my social consciousness.



right after passing the medical boards, i opted to work for the farmers. this was 1985 and i worked with a team of organizers in the foothill communities of mt. banahaw, quezon. we aimed to form a federation of coconut farmers. i was the only doctor. and i handled the health program for the different communities. the military called us communists. and the NPA labelled us as CIA spies. but in truth, we were part of the Center for Community Services of Ateneo de Manila. and to those in the know, that should explain the dilemma on labels.
one of the community health workers i trained in the mid 80s, cita (the woman with stethoscope) is now a peasant leader of a national organization of coconut farmers. back then she was a mother with three lovely kids. she wanted to learn so much about how to care for her family and her neighbors. she was a natural leader as people approached her for advice that are not just medical in nature. now she struggles with national concerns.

show and tell time at the clinic

it takes an hour to treat an rff member. 20 mins for the acupuncture treatment and 40 mins to discuss rangefinder camera. uro's visit did not need too much discussion. i hastily took out my camera and started shooting.

he came over with a camera hot on the egroup discussion.

he recalls that he reluctantly settled for some lf cameras for a nikon slr which he wasn't pleased with. there was no money-back policy with the legendary strong camera shop. instead the shopkeeper shoved him three bulky cameras for the slr he was returning.
mr. strong assured him, "just keep it. just keep it."

usb turntable on audition

romy, a patient and fellow vinyl lover, announced that his balikbayan box of analogue goodies has arrived. and in it are two brand new usb turntables.

but he will be too busy for the whole month and asked if i was interested in trying one out. he needn't ask, actually. i had to warn him that he was lending at his own risk because i might have a tough time returning. well, that afternoon i got the box still sealed and smelling new.

and as soon my last patient walked out the door, i started installing. it was up and running in just a few minutes. and, a whole album of benny goodman was converted to mp3 in less than an hour. it takes me twice the time and three stages to do that with the set-up that i have.
and the music sounded great on my ipod. and romy is not selling. but i can have it for a month, he texted.