Sometimes I really like getting stuck in traffic. Especially early evening. Waiting for the cars to inch forward, I spy.
Sitting there in the back seat of my air conditioned, tinted windowed, chauffeur driven car, I peer into the lit-up sari sari stores and watch the people on the streets. I try to look down the alleyways of the barrios to catch a glimpse of a life that is very far from the one I live. I’m curious.
Last weekend I had occasion to see inside, up close. My camera is currently on loan, gallivanting through Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam. Even so, I don't think I would have taken pictures.
I had bought a bunch of orchid plants from the garden center. Eight large blooming mature dendrobiums (1200 pesos - $30). At that rate I can probably treat them as cut flowers and not bother the tedious wait for re-blooming. I once grew orchids but gave it up after many years. Too slow. No time to waste – now I'm more into instant gratification.
Anyway, my friend and I decided to look for some large brilliantly colored, glazed ceramic pots, to put them, and other plants, in. My friend had directions to a place in Makati, which turned out to be nothing more than a rumor. At least, we couldn’t find it. Her driver had a suggestion, so off we went.
Our destination was a shop on a busy thoroughfare in Manila. Lots of traffic, horrible air. The shop was in a row of businesses, and was about 20 feet wide, directly on the sidewalk behind a metal fence and gate. Inside, in a courtyard about 10 feet deep were stacks and stacks of pots – beautiful blues and teals in all different sizes and shapes. Once in the courtyard you could see inside the building through glass doors and it was obviously a home. In the 10'x10' room, I could see about 5 or 6 people and several children.
It took me awhile to realize what I was looking at. Out in the courtyard, the stacked up pots were black with a thick, thick layer of grime. Everything was completely filthy and as I was picking up one pot after another to look at it, my hands were soon covered in black soot. The floor, the merchandise, the small tables here and there were all covered with what was probably years of car exhaust and grime. However, this was not just the pot warehouse – this room was also part of the family’s dwelling place. Against a wall was the water supply – a tap dripping into a plastic bucket. Laundry was hanging from wires up by the ceiling. There were plates of what looked like fish covered in a heavy layer of salt – flies were buzzing around them.
A woman and a younger man were serving us – helping us move pots and answering price questions. A little toddler came out to join us. He was running around in bare feet on that filthy floor and his face was covered in sores. He started babbling and pointing at the floor and got quite animated as he started to chase a 3 inch long cockroach.
Meanwhile the roar of traffic outside continued unrelenting outside the open grate and the air was very hard to breath. Eventually we chose our purchases. The woman saw how dirty my hands were and brought over a small plastic dish with water from the tap, as well as a small package of laundry soap from which I helped myself to a tiny amount. Neither my friend nor I were the slightest bit inclined to bargain over price, other than a lukewarm “What’s the best price?”
Once home, with both the pots and I both hosed down, the orchids look great and I count my blessings.
Kiong Hi Huat Tsai– Happy New Year
Earlier in the month I went on a tour organized by the Museum Volunteers of the Philippines through Chinatown and led by a Filipina-Chinese woman, who gave us a great running description of what we were seeing. This was really the first time I had walked through a downtown neighborhood and what a trip it was. Crowded, noisy, chaotic and endlessly fascinating. Watching the street life was amazing. The traffic on these small streets is a sight to see - patience is definitely required for those trying to navigate. Cars, trikes (these are bicycles with side cars), horse and buggies, product trucks, push carts – you name it, it was all part of the gridlock.
It was just a few days before Chinese New Year – a big event here as there is a large Chinese population. The color red was everywhere, as it is a good luck color. Shops were selling a variety of sweets, all colorfully packaged in red and gold. Even the produce on the market stalls were festooned with little red ribbons. Groups of young people were moving down the streets, beating drums and dancing under colorful dragon costumes of enormous heads and long fabric bodies.We walked through crowded alleyways, where I saw street food stalls and butcher shops. No, we didn't eat there! But in the Chinese restaurant we stopped at for lunch, I tasted (just a taste) a number of strange (for me) foods, including jelly fish. (Don't worry, Anthony Bourdain, your job is safe).
At one point I walked past one of the trikes with at least 5 guys on it (it’s quite something how many people can actually crowd onto any method of transportation). I stopped and did a double take as I saw that they were holding a large, squirming snake about – at least – six feet long. It seemed to have tape on its mouth. They were laughing and fooling around and were delighted to have their picture taken. Call the SPCA!
It was a great day – so much to see. By the end of it I was ---filthy. It was fun and exciting and dirty for sure. Hair, clothes, skin, LUNGS, felt yucky (technical term). When I got back to my home in the sky, I stripped off and had the longest shower I’d every had. Lucky to have that option!
Mrs. Murphy
We have five bathrooms in our apartment. One attached to each bedroom (3). One powder room. One maid’s bathroom.
A common disease is still killing thousands of Filipinos every year. Diarrhea has been the leading killer of children in the Philippines for the past 20 years, and all because of poor sanitation and lack of access to potable water. Treatment of this condition is not as easy as it may seem when millions of Filipinos cannot afford medicine for ordinary illnesses.
A World Bank/United States Agency for International Development study reported that EVERY DAY, an average of 31 Filipinos die of diarrhea resulting from poor sanitation. Nearly 27.5 million Filipinos – nearly a third of the entire population – do not have sanitary toilets. Only 3.3% of urban households are connected to sewers that lead to treatment facilities.
This extraordinary statue was unveiled in 2000, after the city of Marikina (not far from here) achieved its goal of promoting health and sanitation through the realization of a one-toilet-per-household program. It stands 16 feet high, near city hall and the man cleaning the boy’s bum over the toilet bowl is the likeness of Dr. Isaac Eustaquio, the first Filipino to earn a Public Health degree from Harvard.
