ten ₱esos

I thank you for visiting online. I decided to write though I don’t have anything important to say. One day I will be serving the poor, and I will tell you about it. Until then, some of you are tuning in, so I shall write whatever comes to mind, even observations of rather insignificant things. I may give you a better picture of life here in Tuding and neighboring Baguio City. I know that some of you would like to come and visit and serve the poor some day. So you may like to read of climate, weather, insects, pollution, noise, crime, prices of foods and fuels, local dishes and delicacies, languages, customs and traditions…

What are you doing on Earth Day? I watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth again. If you want to escape the heat of Manila or Florida, come to cool Baguio. I am in Tuding, in Itogon, bordering Baguio City.

snails like the cool, damp weather

I hear the kids two floor up pounding their floor for more than an hour. They sound like they’re doing martial arts. I hear footstrikes back-and-forth and slams and booms. Day after day I hear these thumps, bangs, and booms while the parents are away and even when the parents are home. I already had a headache…

Today we’ve had light rain showers under thundering clouds. Very close lightning strikes moved me to unplug my computer hours ago. I have surge protectors, but how much can I trust them? I would trust the $80 UPS/surge protector that I have given to my brother. But when lightning seems to be striking in Monterrazas Village, why trust this $15 surge protector? Better safe than sorry, so I just unplug, as I did in Bay County.

The nice thing is that we’ve had light rain, not heavy downpours. We can walk in the rain with and without umbrellas. If I emerge from a jeepney without an umbrella, that’s okay. I don’t become soaked.

This evening I have a sickening headache, and I feel drowsy. My knees hurt, but my heels and left ankle hurt more. This stormy weather is really slaying me. I ache all over, but what’s most notable are my painful heels and knees! Ugh. I feel as if I’ve climbed a mountain. I empathize with and pray for JoAnn and Liz who have been recovering from surgeries.

I suspect that my back aches from my posture on one of these twin, uncomfortable couches. I laid on a couch this morning from midnight to 2 a.m. to watch the Champ Car Grand Prix of Long Beach ( a runaway win by Will Power after Justin Wilson’s engine conked-out).

In recent forays into Baguio City I’ve walked to Bayanihan Park, adjacent to Burnham Park to watch the chess players. I don’t know the game, so I look at people — their faces, their hairstyles, their clothes … And I look at custom-painted jeepneys and old cars.

Dominic noted today that we don’t see ‘public displays of affection.’ I realized that that’s true. We don’t see lovers smooching in the parks or anywhere in the City or on jeepneys or out in the countryside.

I noticed days ago that the parking lot between Bayanihan Park and Burnham Park has no cars. I wondered why. Today I looked toward the entrance and exit and saw that they’re blocked by jersey barriers. I don’t know why the City is inhospitable to motorists from Manila and elsewhere -even Baguio- who’d drive to the Park. Strange.

Another curiosity that we noticed much earlier is the lack of parking meters. Unlike Tampa, Seoul City, Houston or Atlanta, Baguio City doesn’t have curbside parking meters or meter maids. Freedom!

Here is a distinct paucity of traffic control. We don’t usually see traffic patrolmen riding motorcycles or cars. Once in a while, such as a Wednesday, when the police patrolmen get their weekly 50 liter fuel ration, we see motorcycle patrolmen.

But usually ‘anything goes.’ I see no evidence of traffic laws in drivers’ behavior. Idon’t see speed limit signs, stop signs, yield signs or merge signs. I don’t usually see safe driving, defensive driving, courteous driving or sane driving. As I wrote, ‘anything goes,’ apparently. Limited traffic control and traffic patrol were seen near The Mansion when President Arroyo was in the city for Holy Week.

We just had another blackout in Monterrazas Village. This one lasted only half a minute. I had to reboot my computer. Tomorrow I may buy a UPS in Ace Hardware or one of three computer stores in the mall.

I wanted to tell another observation: I see no pigeons in Baguio City. And the city doesn’t have all the pigeon poop and feathers of other cities. I see and smell garbage, spit splashes, feces, urine and vomitus on sidewalks and streets in Baguio City and Tuding, because people are uninhibited and uncivilized and don’t mind desecrating their city. †