The night before I headed back to Manila, I spoke to my parents who had caught a snippet on the news about a stampede at an event in Metro Manila that resulted in a number of deaths and injuries. Shortly after my arrival, I learned of what is being termed the “Ultra stampede”. Apparently, a local game show – Wowowee – was holding an anniversary event in the city. More people arrived to attend than were expected and a number of fake tickets were sold and at some point pushing and shoving degraded into a human stampede. Within hours of the tragedy, an investigation had begun into how it could have occurred. By Tuesday, preliminary inquries were being closed. While the production company (TV station?) has accepted some responsibility for the tragedy, the TV reps have also stated that both the city government and local police should shoulder some of the blame as the station had applied for a permit, filed emergency plans for possible overcrowding, had arranged for private security and invited local police officers to help with crowd control. Witness reports have been made public stating that when the stampede begain, local police sat back and did not attempt to control the crowd or assist those caught up in the stampede. There is so much passing of blame on the local news – some going as far as placing blame and complete responsibility on those who attended the event and eventually became the victims of the stampede. News programs have featured guests who have suggested that the denegration of common courtesy within the past 10 years had contributed to the tragedy. People are less concerned with others and are more interested in instant gratification and personal gain rather than assisting others. Sounds strangely familar..

So, what have I been doing with that other 2% of my time? With the help of my co-conspirator George, I managed to take my first Jeepney ride. George is one of the employees I’ve been working with since I arrived in Manila. He had been encouraging both Paul and I to take a quick Jeepney ride – just so we could say we’d had the experience. His wife, Tin, wasn’t as thrilled with his suggestion as we were. Paul left before he was able to take his first ride, so George and I struck a deal. If he’d accompany me on the ride, I was game to go. Everyone who knows me knows I have a horrible sense of direction. Without a guide, I’d likely end up in Cebu (ok, maybe not that far away. I know now that Jeepney’s travel in 7km circuits and eventually will end up back where you got on.)

Jeepney’s run pretty much on the honour system. You crawl into the front of back of the vehicle and pass forward your 7 peso’s and 50 centavos (approx. 15 cents CDN) to the driver. If you’re sitting in the back, you pass your money forward through the chain of other riders. Change is passed back in the same manner. There are no conductors or anyone checking to see if you’ve paid. No tickets are passed out. The driver just patiently waits for the money to be handed over – while driving of course.

We learned from one of our taxi drivers that Jeepneys cost approximately 360,000 pesos (8000$ CAD, $6923 USD) to purchase. Most of the Jeepneys are privately owned and run as taxis, although a few run the streets as private vehicles (those often say “private vehicle, not for hire” on the sides or back door of the vehicles) as we’ve seen some used as transport vehicles for loads of coconuts!

George took pics of the two of us on the Jeepney with his cell phone, but I haven’t received them in email yet. Until then, you’ll have to content yourselves with this picture of a Jeepney taken by Paul.

I know Canada is a huge sparsely populated country with lots of open space. As such, I suspect we create zones wherein others don’t intrude when we’re out in public. People give each other some breathing room when passing them or walking in front or behind them. In Manila, where space is at a premium, everyone bumps and bangs into each other. Pushing and shoving to get where you want to go is the norm, and people bump into each other so often that no one even acknowledges it – they just continue on their merry little way. I didn’t realize how much I valued my personal space until I went shopping in Green Hills on Christmas Eve.

One of the strangest things I’ve had to get used to is the lack of knives in restaurants. Aside from the hotel, I’ve not seen a single knife in any eating establishment. Instead, everyone eats with forks and spoons. While I fumble about and make a mess trying to cut food with a spoon, the locals slice through beef with their spoons as if they’re the sharpest knives in the drawer. If it weren’t for their adept use of spoons in all eating situations, I’d think this was an elaborate joke they play on foreigners. After all, the giggles we hear when we attempt to cut something and it goes scooting across the plate and across the table or onto the floor do sound mighty suspicious.

This week was mostly uneventful. I spent 98% of my time working on sleeping. Since I do have a policy of not discussing work in my journal, this directly translates to having no news to pass on to anyone else. Obviously someone is reading this, since the number of emails I’ve received in the past week asking when I’m going to update the journal has passed the double digits. I wasn’t aware that that many people were reading this!