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Published: September 22nd 2008
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The Philippine Jeepney
They come a whole assortment of colours. Cebu City: August 23rd - September 7th 2008
Street Life..... There is just something so comforting and homely about watching the world go by in Cebu. It always brings it back to me how much I miss this place when I see the daily life unfolding around me. In saying that - there are some sights that I had never seen before. Sights that are just so typical of a third world country. Sights that you shouldn’t have to see but are part of reality in the part of the world.
Life in Cebu seems so busy. Even at 10pm at night, the streets are filled with people - The department stores are still open and lit up. The streets are filled with small ’tindahans’ (small side shops), some supported by a mix of cardboard, corrugated iron and nipa palm roofs and others looking like very small houses, with proper glass windows, concrete and tiled roofs. They stand side by side along the road and are filled with people eating, sleeping on tables & chairs or children playing. There is usually a ‘Tita’s eatery’ or a ‘Lola’s sari-sari store’ - where you can usually find small packets of just
The art of constructing a building
Building construction Asian style. There is nothing like being careful.... about everything - shampoo, conditioner, halls mints & cigarettes by the stick.
There are long tables with plastic table cloths and for 50 pesos, people can get something to eat from a selection of food kept in large cooking pots on a table. Outside - there may be a small bbq stove with sticks of pork or chicken bbq, being cooked over coals while someone stands to watch, fanning the flame with a paipai (or staw fan) to make it nice, crispy on the outside and dripping with fat juices. (And possibly a nice tasty bacteria to give it that extra zing).
One day, as we were leaving the SM department, we got caught in traffic in front of a disused lot. The concrete had cracked in various places and grass was sprouting through the cracks. In the middle of the lot were two boys that seemed to be sitting in front of an open drain. One little boy was holding the lid of the drain upright, while the other boy squatted over the drain to use it as a toilet. They were laughing with each other, like it was nothing out of the ordinary - and when
he had finished, the little boy stood up, wiped his behind with a sheet of dirty newspaper and tossed it down the drain. As I sat in my air-conditioned car, without a care in the world, I was shocked that no-one seemed to notice what I just did. That it was an everyday experience - This contrast right in front a department store that housed expensive shops and all the comforts of modern day life for many Filipinos. These two boys merely finishing their business and then continuing with their playing in a disused lot, beside some goats by the car park of a major department store.
Street sounds..... In city with a population of over 2 million people, with just as many cars, carts, motorbikes & jeepneys. It is no wonder that sometimes the noise can be deafening. Jeepneys blare out their music as they drive past with drivers constantly honking their horns as they manoeuvre their way through the streets. Incidentally the following have no place on the streets - Pedestrians (and subsequently pedestrian crossings), lane dividers (Why have only two lanes? Why not make it four instead?) and my personal favourite, traffic lights - but to
Church of Santo Nino
A view of the courtyard in front of the Church of Santo Nino be honest (most) people now do understand that red does mean stop. It is just a question of where.
The spiritual side of life….. I was once told that the Philippines is the most catholic country outside of Rome. Everywhere you go you can see symbols of the catholic faith and the Santo Nino, Cebu’s patron saint. The Catholic Faith forms part of everyday life here and you will always see churches full of people attending mass on Saturday and/or Sunday.
On my first day in Cebu, after going home to visit the family & relax - We went to Sunday evening mass. It’s very hard to describe what this is like - especially as I rarely attend mass back in Australia. We attended the 6pm mass. This is the most popular time slot (out of a selection of 9am, 11am, 3pm, and 6pm) as it is the only time that the turn on the air-conditioning. This in itself is amazing, given that this church holds hundreds of people and can get very hot and sticky without it.
We were late - and by that time it was practically standing room only. The church was packed for
the hour long service. An indication of attendance is the fact that by that time most people are forced to use the additional plastic chairs, usually placed up & down the isles to accommodate as many people as possible. As I sat there - listening to the mass and looking around me I saw families with children dressed up in their best outfits; Poor people, freshly showered, with their frayed clothing and slippers on their feet; old women with what looked like handkerchiefs on their head and even young couples out together for the evening before going out for dinner with friends.
Watching all of this gave me a sense of peace, a sense of harmony & of being part of something. How many young couples in Australia would go out together on Sunday night to go and hear mass? Instead they would be out at the pub, in a restaurant or something similar - talking about something inconsequential. It makes you appreciate that perhaps there is more to life than just getting up and going to work or going to the shops to spend money, constantly hopping on and off that treadmill in an attempt to do it
all over again the next day.
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