The Purfect Visitor

We have a visitor who is so cute and charming. Saw him one day when I got home from work and he was so comfortable in our place and has won everybody’s heart… well not everybody’s heart actually but at least my heart and the kids’. Never felt really crazy towards someone I don’t know too well to let in my room but just couldn’t resist taking him to my room the next day since he was soooo sweet! And know what? He acted as if he owned my room the moment he got there. Not only was he content sitting on my chair… he even jumped to my bed and lied there… so content and all curled up. Geez I was surprised to see him jumped to my bed and acted as if he owned it but I couldn’t help smiling at him ‘coz he really is so cute!

My mom thought he was cute too and sweet until he poohed on the floor at the back of our component. Ewww, even our help was not happy. But he was so cute and sweet that I was willing to clean his mess and feed him. I felt so relaxed when he comes to me and snuggle and curl each time I stroke him. I would call for him when I come home and he’d come and follow.

But then I started itching and my rhinitis has acted up again. In fact it was so bad this morning that I had difficulty in breathing. My nose has been fine for quite a long time but it felt bad again and my eyes were puffy too the past days… Ahh this is bad.

Mama already told my brother to bring him someplace far away from us where he’ll be safe but lost and he reminded him again this morning before I left home. Geez, I have been thinking about it the whole time I was away from home today. I knew it will be hard for him to stay at home where there are so many people with allergies but the thought of just letting him go was a bit painful… Arghhh!

But when I got home tonight my brother told me that my sister and family came and HE also showed the same sweetness to my sister and my niece and they couldn’t resist him too! My sister, she is so fond of animals and she couldn’t resist this charming CAT.

So they’ll pass by our house tomorrow after their trip to the province and get him. Now I feel happy! I would still be able to see “our visitor” from time to time and hold him plus I know that he’ll really be taken cared of since my sister is really great with pets! They’ll be PURRfect together!

Manila water

It was 1996 I think, my parents just came back for good from the Middle East. We have been experiencing lack of water for quite some time already but that time it was really bad, we did not have water and we had to get a water pump so we could have some water and it could only be done in the ungodly hours. My parents would wake up so they could get water, sometimes the 3 of us are there near our gate where the faucet is at the lowest just so we could slowly draw water for our containers.

Then one time while on my way to the office, I got to talk with a lady from an area nearby where there were several informal dwellers and we talked about water and she told me that she could see some areas where water was just freely flowing from their faucets, some even on the streets and that area is on a higher ground compared to us. I felt anger seeping through my body! There we were paying and not getting water while others who were wasting water were not paying for it! So unfair!!!

Then one day, they found out why our community did not have water. Someone put something, a stone I think but I’m not really sure, in one of the valves so that water was diverted to their direction not ours. They sure know how to locate those valves! So MWSS finally fixed it and we had water at last and theirs were cut. Our Barangay did not bother to look at our problem before but when the people from the higher grounds complained they acted on it immediately. Begged the homeowners to allow adjustment so that area get water too (even if they don't pay for it)Unfair, right???

But that experience really made me realize the value of water. and our water problems made me displeased with the MWSS… not just the lack of water but getting murky water and the exposed water pipes that you see on the open drainage with some parts submerged in dirty canal water…. Ewww! Of course that was not entirely the fault of MWSS but the illegal connectors!

Then MWSS turned over the management and distribution of water in our area to Manila Waters. And that is one of the best things that happened to our community. The concessionaire slowly fixed the pipes and the water meters, water started to get clear again and it has become available 24 hours a day. It really felt good and I really appreciate the company!

Tap tap tap water

In the 1980s when I first travelled abroad, I was surprised to learn that we could not drink the water from our hotel’s faucet. I’ve always assumed that all tap water can be drank and when I read their notice and realized that it wasn’t so I felt lucky.

There were some local companies that started selling bottled water and I thought it was foolish and that they’ll lose money but in time more companies joined in plus purified water stations started mushrooming.

I never imagined it before but we eventually started boiling our water… then switching to buying our own purifier and even buying bottled water because murky water was flowing from our faucet and there were times when the filter we placed in our faucet would turn black… the color of the dirty canal with sediments. Yuck! We also had to put filter in all faucets because who’d want to take a bath in icky water!

The water condition was growing worse especially since the steel pipes were rusty and there were lots of pipes submerged in the dirty drainage water especially so when the PVC pipes started to be used and the proliferation of illegal connections expose the water to the dirty elements. Ewwww!

I get frustrated everytime I see the exposed pipes in the dirty open drainage which was common in our area.

When Manila Waters took over the concessionaire in our area, they started to change the pipes. They removed the old pipes from the drainage and put in bigger pipes buried deeper then grouped together smaller pipes that goes to the household. We started to have cleaner water… Oh it took some time but you notice the difference. The water supply in our area is very good! We have water 24 hours a day and the water in our faucet is clean… oh there are days that the filter would turn brown too, but we never get sand and black particles anymore and I don’t see pipes submerged in the drainage. However, the fear of safe water has somehow crept to my system. We still have our purifier at home and we don’t drink water from the tap at home anymore. The same actually goes when I am in the office and everywhere else, it has to be purified water! But you know what? There are times I would visit women in our community and have fellowship in their home and they would offer water taken directly from tap or juice prepared from water from tap and I could not refuse them. I’d take the drink they offer but there is always a prayer that goes with it “Lord don’t let my stomach get sick from this water.” And so far the water is okay and I’m okay! (“,)

Blog Action Day 2010

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day once again and this year's theme is Water. I have not been doing posts lately but I am joining and will make a post tomorrow (",)

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

It will be great if many people join!

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