Friday, January 31, 2014

Allen and Fely are renting a nice place close to her mother's while work is being done on their new home which is more on the outskirts of town.

Well, these Britton boys.  Allen has baby chicks and adult hens and 2 dogs and a turtle; and undoubtedly a rooster, too.

The dialect north of Bagio and here in Bangued is Ilocano.    I assume they learn  Tagalog and English in school.

After a wee sleep in and light breakfast of fruit--yum!  we took off in tricycles to see the new construction.
I don't know if it will be the largest home in Bangued, because I sure didn't see all of  Bangued, but it is a large home.  Allen says it is about 3400 square feet with a 700 square foot deck.   It is on a half acre lot, with several established fruit trees.

The lay out is nice with a large library/guest bedroom on the main floor;  living/dining/kitchen and a bumped out curved nook area like his brother Darrell's.     There is a bathroom and large pantry near the kitchen.  The master bedroom with walk in closet and full-sized 'American" bathroom is very large master bedroom.

 

The stairs curve up to the 2nd floor which will have a family room area, deck and dancing area, kareoke room, 2 bedrooms with a shared bathroom, and a small maid's quarters or storage area.    The upstairs floor and walls have yet to be finished off and a roof needs to go on!     He mentioned a garage for a motorcycle???   or is a stall for a horse??  Humm....we shall see.      Allen says he may put fish in this square container I am standing by.       The driveway up to the property is fairly steep and rocky/muddy/dusty depending upon whether it is rainy or not.  I am sure it will be improved.

We went up to Victoria Park where there was a statue of Jose Rizal.   I should read up more about him.  He  was quite a man.   There was a troop of Boy Scouts and of   Girl Scouts having a day's outing--so pictures were duly taken with them!            We swung by the Bangued market and I met two of Fely's sisters who have stores in the market.          We stopped at a store of Prospera, a friend of Fely's.  What a gracious woman--she gave me an Abra mug of the tunnel, a scarf, a carving, and a hat!! At another stop I liked the door with a dragon carved on it and the set of mahogany furniture.    All too large to bring back in my suitcase!!

   We went out to the bridge over the Abra River--apparently it had flooded some years ago and water was up to the bottom of the bridge--high indeed!

We ate a late lunch/early supper out.

  I think we were all ready to crash--needing to rest up from the all night van rides--Allen and Fely had done two nights in a row to my one night!

Allen noted that the Jolli Bee uniforms were different at a place we had stopped in the night compared to in Bangued.   It seems Filippinos like uniforms.  I recalled that clerks in mall stores had uniforms.  All fast food and slow food restaurant workers also had uniforms.   Fely noted that BIR gives them money every 2 years for 4 new uniforms>

 More on Bangued:  

a view from the park of Banued

another view of the city

 From Wikipedia:
   
Bangued is a first class municipality in and capitol of the province of Abra in the Cordillera Administrative Region of the Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 43,936 people.
        
 
The name of Bangued means "roadblock". It was established as a regular town in 1598 and was made the seat of the provincial government of Abra on July 25, 1861. The inauguration coincided with the feast day of Saint James the Great.

The early settlers were the Tingguians belonging to the Bago, Itneg, Masadiit, lbanao, and Indayas tribes, who latter intermarried with the immigrants from Ilocos Sur. The Tingguians opposed the Christianization introduced by the Spanish friars who penetrated the eastern settlements. The Tingguian residents prevented the Spaniards from penetrating their area of which they placed roadblocks on all roads leading to the place. They also cut large logs and threw them to the Abra River to prevent the incoming colonizers from entering the area with the use of their boats and bamboo rafts. These logs were made as obstacles and big rocks were placed along the roads which the natives called "bangen", meaning obstacles.

When the conquistadores, led by Juan de Salcedo, decided to penetrate the area, they proceeded eastward and saw for themselves the big logs along the Abra River and the big stones which were placed there to block all roads leading to the community. Salcedo's subaltern happened to meet one of the natives and asked what was the name of the place, and thinking that they were inquiring about the big stones that were placed on the roads, he answered "bangen" and the subaltern jotted down on his notebook about the word.
The Spaniards were successful in their attempt to penetrate the inner communities in the east by removing the obstacles, saying in Spanish "Abra ese obstucus" and it was in that happening when they developed the area and established the towns and barangays. The place where they found many obstacles, they named it "Bangen" and the province they called it "Abra".

When the Americans colonized the country and established the civil government, the town's name was modified to "Bangued".

 Bangued is a landlocked municipality. It is elongated in shape towards the north and south, and bisected through the center by the large Abra River.

 The climate falls under the first type of tropical climate, which is characterized by two pronounced seasons, dry from November to April and wet during the remaining months of the year. Prevailing wind blowing in the area is mostly in the direction from northwest to southeast.