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| Come see the new Batanes! |
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| Our Batanes today! Mike Griffin |
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| ITBUD BAY |
| Southwesterly view at Imnajbu Point (Alapad) near Payapay Commons! |
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| NEWS |
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| ARCHIVES |
| ITBUD, Batanes - Hello and good day to you all! As I sit writing this article, I have to first thank all of you that have stopped by and visited my wife since we have returned from the States. She is steadily making improvements. For those of you that don't know the story, the day before we were to return to Batanes from spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with our children in Texas, Margie had a massive stroke and was paralysed all down her left side with severe speech impediment. The doctor is in! At this point, I wish to tell every one of you to go see a doctor, have your blood pressure checked and have them check your cholesterol also, and when you buy medicine over the counter, read the labels and warnings - before you take it - not after. We have always known that Margie had high blood pressure, but Margie like many of you, thought: well, I feel ok so why bother! In her case she had gone to Wal-Mart and bought a box of Theraflu. In the early AM of January 5th she took a dose without reading the warning label on the box. Then around 10:00AM she couldn't stand up. Before that, there were other warning signs: she argued over small points and things that were of no importance. We took her to the Army Hospital on Fort Hood and they quickly transferred her to Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas where we spent just over a month. We returned to the Philippines February 7th and back to the island February 16th. So we have been well taken cared of by the health system in both the States and here. _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ One of the by products of the stroke is we found out the Margie is a type II (Insulin dependent) diabetic, so I have learned to give shots, do blood tests, and teach others how to do them too. As to Margie's condition today, she is up walking around the second floor of our house with the aid of a quad walker cane, that's a cane that has four feet. We also have a wheelchair for her to get around in. She can go up and down the stairs without assistance now, and her speech is much clearer now. She still has no movement in the left arm and hand, and limited use of the left leg. Old folks need a third leg (walking stick) I was walking along the rocky beach here in Itbud where the rocks are very big and slick and with great ease I took a tumble into some of the big ones. For a couple of weeks it looked like I had been in the fight of my life with Manny (The Pacman). Busted lip, two black eyes, a broken nose, a mild concussion, and chipped cheek bone, and the next day we found out that I had scratched on the right eye. Morale of that story is old folks need a third leg (walking stick). It was one of just a few days that I left mine in the house and within an hour I wished I had it with me. A new airline flying to the island Seair (South East Asian Airlines) is now flying to the island, a thirty passenger turboprop. Cost of a plane ticket has gone up, and no surprise here; it's the fuel cost driving them up. I'm surprised that the jeepney drivers haven't raised there rates, the contract cars have; diesel and gas are out of sight and still going up. My gas cylinder for cooking has gone up too. Come see the new Batanes! We have had a very busy tourist session this year. With that statement, I can now tell you that several of the hotel owners are expanding some of the old ones or building newer hotels. Come see the new Batanes! But, a word of caution here; the roads are in worse shape. Electricity is an on again, off again affair. If you can imagine this, I have found out the electric company doesn't even understand the basic concept of supply and demand. (Boy do I owe BATANELCO a BIG apology, they don't make electricity here; they buy it from NAPOCOR and distribute it.) But, NAPOCOR (National Power Corporation) doesn't even know how two count the number of houses and businesses on the island, and compute the load; and projection of future needs is a foreign concept to management, so there maybe new hotels and rooms, but no light! The power generation If I had run my engineering supply system on my ship like they run the power here, I would have been court marshalled and thrown into prison. They have four or more generators with four different engines, and four switching boards. This requires eleven different supply systems. Not economic in my book. One of the "small" generators ate itself and burned up. So they sent someone to Manila to buy a new one. Ok, that's a sound idea, and he comes back with it on the plane! Bad idea; any generator that you put on a plane that can land here is probably not the right size to power the grid in the power house. Guess what! It was not compatible with the system they have. They made it work somehow, and burned up another generator. As of today June 26, 2008 we have had electricity on for 36 hours in Itbud. I don't know how, and I don't want to know because I just get so frustrated with the management. I say thank you and pay my bill every month. The old LORSTA Just a note here, the power plant at the old LORSTA was a 15Kw set-up. There were four generator sets; two were in operation at all times. One powered the signal building and its equipment. The other powered the station and all of the equipment on the station. Of the two stand-by generator sets, one was in emergency stand-by (it could be started and placed on line in thirty seconds) and the other was being fixed or repaired, or some sort of preventive maintenance preformed. What does 15Kw mean to you - in today's home, you use 25 to 35Kws of electricity, and that depends on your square footage. Obviously if you have a large home you need more power. So you can see that the old station's power wasn't up to today's standards. On the bright side, today's 35Kw generator set is half the size or smaller than the old 15Kw sets. Just in case some of you are skeptics out there and want to know, "Did you ever lose all four generator sets at one time?" The answer is yes, we did. In April of 1969 all four generators stopped working at the same time; the subsequent investigation found that safety and preventive measures were not taken at the industrial shop at Sand Island, Hawaii, and all four engines were shipped full of black bead sand from the sand blasting operations at the buoy depot next to the engine rebuild facility for the Western Pacific Coast Guard units at that time. The 15Kw gen. set is so small and light weight they flew four new ones from Hawaii to Batanes on a C-130. The station was without power for less than 72 hours. And this proves my point. At that time the Coast Guard had about 25 LORAN "A" stations in operation in the Pacific and they were identical as to generation equipment; much cheaper than a whole bunch of different types and makes of generators. Come back home for a visit Well guys, pack your bags and come back home for a visit. We have Seair (South East Asian Airlines), and Asian Spirit flying here all week. Asian Spirit flies on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; Seair flies on Tuesday and Thursday. Both have a 10 kilo weight limit on baggage, and anything over the limit is charged an extra amount. I see people coming here with bags that are almost too heavy to move all the time. What the airlines will do is ask you if they can put them on a latter flight. And you need to understand that they are being nice and asking you, but let's say you tell them that you need the contents upon arrival and they must put it on. Sorry folks if you have a too heavy a bag, it's coming as cargo, not baggage. The flight here leaves Manila between 6 and 7AM which means you need to be at the airport between 3 and 4AM for check in, and most times it's easy to see who are the tourists and who's from the island: The grumpy ones with the over weight bags are the tourists and out of towners, and the bright-eyed with small bags are locals. Yes, I still get asked if I have reservations on the island, or some, where to stay upon arrival. I now carry a picture of the house on my cell phone and show it and say, "Yes, my house in Itbud!" Then I get, "Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Griffin, I forgot you live on the island!" They know me, but it's about six months between trips so there's time to forget. There are lots of things to do and see now, so come on down and see the old homesteads and visit old friends. I'm not sure, but I think the governor's office has released a tourist guide of the events of this next year and on. Check some of the other web sites if you don't see what you need here. Just a note here, I'm just finished writing this report and it's July, 9th. There is no known date when I get to put this in the web page because two more generators have burned up at the power building and all of the computer stores are closed because of no power. That's right folks - no power in Basco! Of course, there is no power anywhere on the island now. - July 2008 ______________________________________________________ Mike Griffin, an American Ivatan, lives in Itbud (Uyugan), Batanes, Philippines |
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