Despite all of its flaws, Manila’s evening skyline, just
like any metropolitan city, glistens with excitement and beauty when the moon
rises and darkness falls. I stood on top
of the thirty plus floor by the pool, watching the cars clogging the Manila
streets with bright headlights and brake lights. How I appreciate arriving home early and
having had a chance to dip in the pool.
It has been my 11th month living in Manila and avoiding
traffic has been the determinant of all of my schedules. For example, there will be no social events for
me on Saturday afternoons or evenings while the Filipino socialites roam the
city hotspots to see and be seen. The
best day of the week to zoom and buzz around town for heathens like me is Sundays
while the Filipinos spend their time with families or repent at churches. The point is, abiding by the navigation
schedule makes Manila an extremely exciting and attractive city, especially
from the pool-side on the thirty plus floor on a weekday traffic jammed evening.
Just as the navigation schedules, my lifestyle is adjusted
to suit Manila but it does not evolve around my agenda or means. This reality may be difficult for someone to
adjust to coming from the States, after all, AT&T and Sprint are the only oligopolists
that dare to challenge the patience of their customers. Living in Manila, patience and gratitude are
the virtues that I had amassed. These
days, with great indebtedness, I thank the cable guy, the security guard, my
helper, my driver, building maintenance engineer, internet representative, bank
receptionist, and grocery store cashier, from the bottom of my heart, for doing
their jobs with some sort of competency.
“Mam, for a while” translates into your next few hours will be spent
here dealing with this issue. “Mam, you
cannot avail…” means no matter how much money you have or how much time you
care to spend on this issue, the rule book says DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU even
though it defies your Western logic.
Manila rules my life, I concede.
The peculiarities of being presided over by Manila and its
culture make living in this city a wild, cultivating, and novel experience for
a foreigner like me.