Impressions and Sensations
June 10th 2009
Okay, so I'm about three or for days behind ( I had to ask someone to even know what day it was) and so this shall be an entry more of impressions and lessons. Current impression Serene just coined after my response to her asking how I was as us and our backpacking bags, and purses are both stuffed into a spot for two rather slim people - squished. Yep - looking like a pretzel and very squished. There is much of this sensation in the Philippines. Hunger is another one. I think a lot of the portion sizes back home are atrociously big - well here they are almost equally atrociously small - resulting in hunger.
Another impression/sensation - heat. Cebu, unlike Manila is dry and hot. The kind of heat that stifles - and in the words of Reen - sucks the water right out of you. Massive amounts of water are necessary for existence. I haven't been drinking massive amounts, thus, I wonder if I still exist.
Poverty - I see it at home but here it tears me apart and makes me feel guilty for all I have and the face that I'm even taking a trip like this when so many have so little. We were in downtown Cebu having some fruit and a bunch of children swarmed us. I only had one apple and there was a little boy who really wanted it while Serene had a bag of Mangoes and all the girls were after her. I gave him the apple and she emptied her bag and still two little girls followed her for the one she was almost half way finished. Offering to trade for a bottle of water. When Reen realized they wanted the one that had been in her mouth she of course gave it.
Another impression is the garbage. There's garbage everywhere - some of the rivers in the city are so covered you see just as much garbage on the surface as water, and the water is nasty green. This is also mixed with the urine of men relieving where they please and letting it flow down the nasty, urine infected gutter water.
Friendliness. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful and full of smiles. Even while trying to scam they are often extremely friendly about it. Hahah, even if the scam doesn't follow through! The deals that can be made of of scammers . . . great. Though I'm sure there's often a bit of a scame there too. one man - after asking around and findind other prices - we got to go down from 500P to 150P for a taxi ride. Though he waited so long for us to try to buy plane tickets in the end I think we got the deal - especially since when the guy we were travelling with joked about not giving him any extra for the wait he refused to take us any further, dropped us off on the street, hailed another cab, said 'God Bless' and drove away.
Okay, so I'm about three or for days behind ( I had to ask someone to even know what day it was) and so this shall be an entry more of impressions and lessons. Current impression Serene just coined after my response to her asking how I was as us and our backpacking bags, and purses are both stuffed into a spot for two rather slim people - squished. Yep - looking like a pretzel and very squished. There is much of this sensation in the Philippines. Hunger is another one. I think a lot of the portion sizes back home are atrociously big - well here they are almost equally atrociously small - resulting in hunger.
Another impression/sensation - heat. Cebu, unlike Manila is dry and hot. The kind of heat that stifles - and in the words of Reen - sucks the water right out of you. Massive amounts of water are necessary for existence. I haven't been drinking massive amounts, thus, I wonder if I still exist.
Poverty - I see it at home but here it tears me apart and makes me feel guilty for all I have and the face that I'm even taking a trip like this when so many have so little. We were in downtown Cebu having some fruit and a bunch of children swarmed us. I only had one apple and there was a little boy who really wanted it while Serene had a bag of Mangoes and all the girls were after her. I gave him the apple and she emptied her bag and still two little girls followed her for the one she was almost half way finished. Offering to trade for a bottle of water. When Reen realized they wanted the one that had been in her mouth she of course gave it.
Another impression is the garbage. There's garbage everywhere - some of the rivers in the city are so covered you see just as much garbage on the surface as water, and the water is nasty green. This is also mixed with the urine of men relieving where they please and letting it flow down the nasty, urine infected gutter water.
Friendliness. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful and full of smiles. Even while trying to scam they are often extremely friendly about it. Hahah, even if the scam doesn't follow through! The deals that can be made of of scammers . . . great. Though I'm sure there's often a bit of a scame there too. one man - after asking around and findind other prices - we got to go down from 500P to 150P for a taxi ride. Though he waited so long for us to try to buy plane tickets in the end I think we got the deal - especially since when the guy we were travelling with joked about not giving him any extra for the wait he refused to take us any further, dropped us off on the street, hailed another cab, said 'God Bless' and drove away.
posted by Charles at 5:35 AM
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