When you are a webworker, the internet connection is crucial, so when Globe in our area went down without prior notice, my kids and I went on a huff to look for a place with very good wifi connection.  Since our favorite place to hang Apple Tree Resort and Hotel also has Globe, we had to find an alternative.

My requirements for a good place to hang are:

1.  Has internet connection (wifi or cable)

2. Has a Swimming Pool

3. Good and affordable food

We found them all at Cha-Li Beach Resort.

The last time I was at Cha-Li was almost 20 years ago.  Then, it was just a small place with thatch huts for day time swimmers.  They did not have a pool yet.  Once I have checked the amenities of Cha-Li using my mobile connected through GPRS, I called them to ask about the internet connection and their rates.

Ivy, the amiable receptionist confirmed that their internet is up and running at that their service provider is PLDT, I booked and we packed and left for the city.  When I got to the resort, Ivy took me around while we find the cabana with the strongest wifi connection.

We settled in at Cabana Naranja.  The cabin has 2 queen sized bed, full tub and bath, plush pillows, aircondition, cable television, and yes, my very important wifi connection at the veranda.

The children loved Cha-Li.  It has a good pool, although I would have preferred a kiddie pool, but since they only have one adult pool, the kids have to make do and wade on the shallow end.  While they are in the pool, I am at their restaurant which is close to the pool and has yes, my wifi connection!

Although I had to shell out almost $150 for the weekend, it was no biggie since I managed to stay in contact with my work and my kids had a break from the usual house related activities and they all spent their time on the pool and the beach!  A win-win situation!

To book and for more info:

Cha-Li Beach Resort and Conference Center
Zone 3, Cugman, Cagayan de Oro City
Philippines, 9000
Phones: (+63) 88-855-5941
info@chalibeach.com

I panicked the other day when I woke up to rush to my Macbook to work and discovered it failed to charge overnight.  I was surprised to see the battery life at 22%.  I tried wiggling the adapter and noticed that the green indicator was off.  I went to Mac website to search “battery” at support and went nowhere.  To make it worse, one of my clients went online and asked me to help with the research for an article he was doing an I almost died…

This was perhaps the worst day of my life as a webworker.  I panicked and turn off the dying Macbook and rushed to my daughter’s PC and when I go there, I realized that all my important data were in the Macbook…  In short, I did my work in the PC and proceeded with the search for answer.  I dreaded that something worse must have happened to my Macbook.  Dang, how much would a new battery cost?  A quick check at the Philippines Apple Store gave me the figure of P6,990 for the battery…

What???  I almost cried…

I checked philmug.ph for help and I got immediate response and the advise that I got was that the problem was probably the adapter or the battery.  Since my children and I were scheduled to head for town the next day, I used their PC for my webwork and I was simply lost.  The bookmarks in the other PC was not updated, not to mention that my passwords were all in my Macbook.

I was lost… and to make it worse, my children kept hounding me if I was done with work because my daughters wanted to use the computer and play online games at y8.com.  Ayay!!!  My head started to beat and I felt like dying, so I decided to…

It was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I woke up with a wet floor. I went to the kitchen and found my floor was flooded with 2 inch water. I was shocked to discover that the flood water has gone inside the third room of the house. I quickly ran outside to check and found that the rain that started at dawn has not stopped. Since the kitchen was wet, I quickly boiled some eggs for the children since I did not want them to go outside of the room because the kitchen and dining area was wet with rain water. That was at 6am.

Thirty minutes after, I walked out of the house and went three houses down and bought some canned goods from my friend’s sari-sari store. I found the husband of my neighbor cleaning out the canal outside of our houses. He asked me if water has gone inside my house, and I said yes. He told me his wife is coming over to help me. An hour after, Mylene, my neighbor’s wife came in and told me she’s going to help me. Apparently, it has been 4 years since the last flash flood in the area. This small information dismayed me since the likelihood of recurrence is definitely higher. Mylene and her daughter lifted my double bed and elevated it on the single wooden bed in my second room as they fear my bed will get soaked in the flood water. Since my second room has 2 single wooden beds, my console table from Mandaue Foam was raised on top of the bed and important books were moved on top of it.

At 8am, the water has reached my ankles and I called my sister in law in the city to arrange a vehicle for us. She quickly responded that the rains in Cagayan de Oro was also very strong. I called my aunt who lives a few meters away from us and she said the water is building up in her place and she said she is busy clearing up their things from the 1st floor and Basement to bring on the 2nd floor. She asked me if my things were raised already and I said yes. She told me to stand by and wait for the weather to improve.

At 10, the water has climbed to my calf. I started to worry so I texted my husband and told him we were in a flash flood and we are going to move to higher grounds. I did not get any response from him.

At 10:30am, my neighbor Emma and her husband came and told me to move to their house– they have a second floor. I told her to take the my older children first and I want to wait in the house and see what happens. At this point the water inside my house has reached my knees. I quickly packed clothes for myself and the children and took my important documents like passbooks, passports with me. Some of my important documents were bagged up and we lifted them and putted them on the highest part of our heaviest cabinet in the room.

11am. I sighed and decided to leave my house for higher grounds. My PC, printers and other important items in the house were all moved on top of the dining table. My sofa was also raised. This was also the time when my fridge fell and floated on the flood water… Emma, grabbed my Whirlpool fridge and with sheer power, she lifted and dragged it to the corner of the dining area and used my dining table to pin the fridge on the corner.

The sight outside was unbearable. The water has almost reached my waist. I walked through the muddy flood water with Ia on my hip. I couldn’t find my slipper inside my already flooded house and decided to walk through the water barefooted. The men in my street were busy carrying their belongings to higher ground. TVs, washing machines and the like. Some were carrying their children and some were busy taking their cows from the field to safety. I walked to Emma’s house which was only three houses away from mine and I saw their vehicle in flood water.

My children and some of the neighbors children were inside Emma’s house. As children, they did not understand the seriousness of the situation and they were playing around the flood water. I told my children to get off the water and I cringed and almost cried just thinking about the bacteria, and other nasty stuff in the water.

At 2pm, Emma and her husband decided to return to my house for my PC and printer. At this point the water inside my house has almost reached the dining table. The rain has not stopped at this point and I told them not to worry about the other things anymore. The important thing is the fact that the children and I are safe.

My son Ty turned 3 today. Not only that, today marked the 1st year death anniversary of my mother. And hey, today also marked the 1st year since we came home to the Philippines to start life anew.

Today, a day so important to me and my children.

I had the opportunity to watch a friend operate her rice business. She owns  hectares of land grown with rice and she co-owns a couple of hectares with other farmers as well. I watched her bargain with a farmer about buying their unmilled rice and drying and milling the rice herself and selling it through her thriving store here in rural Misamis Oriental.

It is really amazing watching her actively bargaining the purchase from P11/kg to P10/kgs of unmilled rice. According to her, one sack of unmilled rice would net her 10-15 kgs of rice which is currently still sold at a thundering P35/kg here. The price of rice has gone down a bit from P46/kg. From where am at, I guessed that she must be profiting P20-25 per kilo of rice. Not bad!!!

I asked her how she manages her farms and she said as usual the key is finding a reliable and trust worthy farmer-overseer. Having worked with a huge production farm in Negros years ago, I had more or less some understanding on land preparation needed for rice production. What I lack right now is land. My friend actually asked me if I am interested in financing some farmers in our area, since most farmers here have problem with money to start seeding, planting to fertilization of their rice. Not mention, harvesting, drying and threshing of rice during harvest season… I asked her how much it would cost to do so. She quickly whipped her calculator out and said more or less P2,000 for 2 square paddies and that usually yields to 30 sacks of unmilled rice, which would in turn yield 12-15 sacks of 50kgs of rice. At the current price of P35 let’s say, gets P1750/sack. In total she’d get P26,250 total for 15 sacks of rice.

I am interested in co-sharing or financing rice production with some of the growers here. I do have P5,000-10,000 to pay around with and with P2,000 or more for a couple of paddies which would yield P20,000 or more… that is actually NOT so bad at all. The thing with rice production is it is labor intensive. Like for example, land preparation and planting would take a couple of days and a couple of people. Not to mention the one week of drying period before the rice is milled.

I asked my friend how she pays her farmers and she said she pays them with rice also. Sharing usually goes 60-20-20. 60 for the financier, and 20 to the farmer and another 20 for the rest who helped with the planting and fertilization. But mostly, these other farmers needed more cash and they end up selling their share to her also.

Not bad at all… Now if only I could find a farmer who needed a financier soon…

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