Fiesta time

our city's patron saint is Mama Mary, under the name Divina Pastora (holy Shepherdess). The church held her procession a few days ago to celebrate that the local church is now a minor basilica, ...LINK

but today we are having the city fiesta parade

Lots of people return to the city for the fiesta: Lolo did it every year. And he would have his friends over to drink beer and play cards. They have a big parade in the afternoon, and Lolo and other WWII veterans would march at the front of the parade. And then they would ride in cars. And finally no one was left. Sigh.

right now, we are in the midst of a heat wave. It is the end of TagInit, and it is always very hot, so not global warming, but of course they hint it might be that.

That is one reason I never attended the parade.

Lots of folks parked their tricycles on the street near us: some of the men stayed with the tricycles so they wouldn't be stolen, so our cook asked permission to give them ice water and I said okay. (her husband and sons are tricycle drivers, so she knows a lot of them).

we live in town, not in a gated community, and so some folk come here for help with paying for medicine. With the heat, some with heart problems needed to go to the ER or get help paying for the BP medicine. And right now, at planting time, it is the time of hunger: Farmers sell the rice and use the money for expenses, but now need money to plant and are short of money. So it's the time of hunger from now until the rice is ready to harvest in three to four months.

Also a lot of pneumonia in kids recently. I wonder if some of the cases are whooping cough, which is blamed on the low rate of immunization. Another problem caused by covid where people stopped getting routine care, not to mention the anti vax stuff on social media.

sigh.

And quite a few dogbites too. No, I don't feel angry about that Yankee politician who killed her wild two year old dog (not a puppy) for attacking chiekens and biting her. I suspect they had problems with the dog before that incident, and in rural areas, uncontrolled dogs kill stock. This article from 2022 discusses the problem. and this article notes it is legal.

Bad behavior is the major cause of dogs euthanized by the Humane society in the USA.

Sigh.

Here, it is feral dogs, often who are thrown out of the house when people can't feed them. This was especially bad after covid hit and a lot of people lost their jobs or funding from their OFW relatives.

But you know, when there are hungry kids around, and when poor kids get bitten by street dogs and need treatment for rabies (which kills folk here), I don't get too upset at killing a dangerous dog.

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update: The maid just told me that a  local 13 year old girl died of rabies after being bitten by a street puppy. The puppy died a few days later, but the girl didn't tell her mom that the wound on her leg was from the puppy, so she didn't get her rabies prevention shots and died two months after being bitten.

Sigh. The city will give you a free rabies shot if you are poor, but often the clinic runs out of money, so about once a week I get asked for a donation. The prevention shots were 350 pesos each and you need 3 shots. The minimum wage is 350 pesos a day, about 7 dollars. 

I don't know what is the answer: Too many don't get their dogs vaccinated, and dogs kept inside the house (on a leash or in a dog house) often are let lose at night to run around for protection and they often escape into the street, especially if a local lady dog is in heat.

Usually dogs owned have collars, so maybe placing a medal to prove they have had the shot might work in the cities, but what about those in the farm area?

In Africa, the government sent in teams to vaccinate all the dogs in rural areas and painted their backs, and then two weeks later sent in sharp shooters to shoot every dog that lacked the paint.