Tale of Two Cities

What a contrast between Hong Kong and Manila. Hong Kong has about 7 million residents and is amazingly clean for such a large city. It is also very modern and prosperous. Manila seems to be in almost shocking contrast. It has almost 11 million residents, but unlike Hong Kong, most of its residents seem to live in horrible poverty. I think the conditions that we were exposed to today struck all of us.

In a small way, I was reminded of the barrios in San Antonio. Pat, remember those shacks that used to be by VIA? Take those and multiply by 100K for effect. Places that are not houses at all, but simply 4 walls topped by corrugated metal...dirt floors, exposed to the elements.

Today Jay and Charm, our guides from ISACC, took us on a walking tour of Manila. And did we walk...for hours and I'm not exaggerating! First we started by walking through a shopping area....Charm is the person on the right...

We were also taken to see a Catholic church in the market area. Jay had pointed out the contrast between the church and the vendors immediately outside...fortune tellers and sellers of various potions. There are even people who will pray for you...for a fee, of course. Below is a picture that was taken after we'd left the church. And yes, that's me ignoring that young boy who was trying to sell me something. Heartbreaking, the young kids peddling and essentially begging. Marilou is showing us all a flower decoration that she had just purchased.

We also had an education about the history of Manila and walked around the old walled city. Here's the group posing with a guard that we came across (I assume in costume...first row, 2nd from the right).

We'd covered almost all this area on foot, so from the walled city we took a jeepney to our final part of the tour, which included seeing the sun set on Manila Bay. Those are young kids playing in that water...but the water was disgusting, it was filthy...trash all along the shoreline. I don't see how they could play in that water and not get sick. Anyway, you can't see it, but the US Embassy is just to the right in this photo. And the sunset was gorgeous.

Wish I had a picture to post of the jeepneys...maybe we can get one later to post, but that was a very cool experience.

Oh, Bob and Alice, you'll have to have Kim and Scott tell you all about our little adventure at the US Embassy...turns out you are prohibited from taking photos of US establishments! And by the time we figured that out, the guards had forced Kim to delete her photo...I'd have loved to have gotten a photo of that whole exchange with the guards, but well, we'd already pressed our luck!

We ended our long day with dinner at a very nice Filipino restaurant on Manila Bay. Hey, that's the name of the restaurant in Philly where we ate last fall...how cool is that!

At this moment, everyone except for me is in bed. But I know they all want you to know that you are missed and that they send their love to all of you. And I send love to all my friends and family...you are missed.

One final note...IT IS HOT!!!!!!!!!! I mean HOT!!!!!!!!!!! But that's the last time I'm going to whine about it.

Tomorrow is a training day at ISACC. The day will start early so I'll sign off for now. More later...