THE MIST AND THE ORDEAL PART 2

For the next couple of days, the mist continued to hang low and heavy. The ordeal was far from over. Food was running low and tensions were running high. This is not to say, though, that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. People in the Philippines deal with hard times on a regular basis, and never let it get them down. I contacted the buyer who put the dispute on my Paypal account, making it over $1000 in the red, and asked him what was up. He claimed that it was a mere software problem with his company's patment system and that they are working with Paypal to fix it. He said the fix may take up to 48 hours. I have no way to confirm whether or not this is true, but I there's little I can do besides wait. But that little, I am doing.

I put the items I sell on my main website at 50% on September 7th. Sales started to come in, but of course into my negative account. At least that got it down to -$925 or so. If the fix that the original buyer speaks of be true, then I will be back in business. Not to leave it at that, though, I already started setting up other means to make money. With other accounts I began prowling the freelance job sites and picked up two very good potential gigs. Both will pay more than enough to survive the storm until my other internet efforts kick in. It will still take a few days for everything to fall into place, but the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to look brighter.



None of this, though, helped with the immediate needs for food and water. To that end, I did some checking online to see the value of the Sony PSP here. I brought mine with me, primarily thinking I would use it on the 15 hour flight over, but I haven't touched it, not on the plane or since landing. It sat collecting dust for months even before that. I thought it might be time to let it go.

Alona and her friend Miriam, whom she lists as Shumai in her phone, due to the fact that they always eat Shumai (those little Japanese dumplings) together, knew of a place where I could pawn the PSP for quick cash, but also potentially get it back with very low interest. Before the journey out to that place, though, it was time for a swim. This place has a pool, a gym and a nice outdoor lounge area on the 4th floor. We saw all this when Angelo was showing us around, but had yet to make use of it. I still have yet to use of it, having no trunks to swim in, but that is all about to change. For yesterday, though, I was content to simply relax and take pictures of these two beauties as they swam. Since it wasn't the sunniest of days, the water was very cold. I could clearly see Miriam shivering at times, though Alona took to the water very quickly.

After the swim, the girls decided to do a little cooking. Alona prepared some kind of corned beef mix while Miriam handled the rice and dishes. We all sat down to a nice meal before their trek across town. Once they were out the door, I had only to wait. Now one might imagine they could take the PSP and run, but it's not like it's really worth that much. Besides, who'd give up that awesome pool?! Conveniently, the pawn shop was in the same general area as the girl's favorite Shumai joint, so after they got the money from the shop, about 3500 peso, they went and got some Shumai, but that wasn't the only surprise. When they got back, Alona surprised me with a nice new pair of swimming trunks! Only 30 peso at that. I haven't used them yet, but today might just be the day. Yesterday still had things that needed doing though.

After enjoying some very spicy Shumai, we had to return to Metro Ayala to stock up on groceries to weather this ordeal. I was out of smokes for two days. Now any sane man would just quit at that time, but the first thing I did upon entering Ayala was buy a carton of smokes. Yes a carton, and that's about $7 compared to what you might pay for it in the U.S. (especially California where one pack is nearly $5) In the grocery store we got another large bag of rice, plenty of nice canned foods and more bananas, grapes and oranges. I also got a larger bottle of cooking oil as Alona seems to use a lot in her cooking.

On the way out, we stopped in Junrex, the cell phone shop I wrote of before, and I got a 300 peso load card for my phone. I didn't have enough to also get internet load for my Smart Bro wireless modem, but another ray of light shone through the mist to help with that. I was surprised to find numerous wireless signals in this building, and some probably from nearby buildings. Some expect you to pay to use them, but I have found at least one that is free. I haven't tried checking on my laptop, but if I stand by the window with my iPhone, I can check mail, browse the web and do any other net things I like to do on a fast wireless connection from I don't know where. This is good as my internet load is running low and it's something of a waste to use it just to keep checking if this Paypal issue is resolved.

So today, the sun shines a bit brighter. I am currently working on one of those potentially great gigs I wrote of earlier and have been emailing, back and forth, the other potential client to find out if we can come to a nice agreement. I believe this ordeal is almost over and I will be back in the swing of things. Of course I am not forgetting my ultimate goal to be like Mars Ravelo, the comic artist I wrote about in July. I still have to get some good products done and out for sale in Japan this month for my long term plans to take effect. I am already halfway done with one and have good ideas for the next two. If all three get done and up on the Japanese sites this month, I should see a nice chunk of change in November, when my next rent is due!