So...hopefully, dear readers, you're well enough versed with how life happens here in Manila. There's an old adage that people have said before that's, "Hurry up and wait". Well we've had some 'hurry up and wait' here, and other times where it's just 'Slow down and wait'. That's where we are right now, waiting for the next semester to start. We've managed to keep ourselves busy, though...so don't worry! (I only said that so the BVC doesn't stop our stipends). Enough digressing, here's the story.
So after having a fun packed Friday, complete with pizza and a movie, Saturday was again a low key day (remember, all things in moderation, including fun and work). We literally did almost nothing on Saturday. Well, rest easy, dear readers, because Sunday was a 16-hour action packed day. We left at 9:30am for the University of St. Thomas, yes, believe it or not UST is here too. And if that's not bad enough, they're one of the best Universities in the nation, and they have 40,000 students, and are building their own town inside of the walls. They're becoming self-sufficient! Margh! It's just the worst. We stopped in to see the architecture and the church, both great. Wait, let me say this before I get too far. I'm not really all that excited about churches. They're not really a huge thing to me. I mean I love going and worshiping and all, but structures don't usually get my stovetops cooking...or...something like that. I love traveling. I'm just going to move on.
After St. Thomas (booo) we went to the Church of Santo Domingo, the largest church in the country (supposedly). Well, walking into the church there was probably 1,500 people there, IN the sanctuary, with probably another...2,3, 400 people walking around everything else. They were all getting ready for a GIANT procession for the celebration of Our Lady of the Rosary, which is the image that Santo Domingo has in their church. So...long story short...it's a BIG DEAL. We didn't see the parade, but we will, at some point, hopefully be in one.
Well after that we went to a yakiniku restaurant, which was one of my FAVORITE places to eat in Japan. Yakiniku literally means grilled meat in Japanese. Naturally Americans love it. Well after that we drove about 2 hours to Taytay/Rizal, one of the provinces near Manila (that's right, we got out of Manila and into the boonies!) to see the San Beda Rizal campus. It's where one of the Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and High Schools of San Beda is. So...I think there's about 4,000 kiddos in the school. WOWZA. Pretty neat place, and since it's in the boonies it's surrounded by nature. And THAT is why it was so fantastic to get out there- just so we could get out of the metropolis and see some greenery. Well, naturally, we didn't spend too much time there, because after seeing the school we got back in the car and drove another half hour to Antipolo to see..yup..another church. This time we went to see the image of Our Lady of Safe Voyages, which, I mean, was great. We're on a great voyage here, so any help we can get is gladly welcomed. After seeing the image we piled back in the cars again and drove the 2 hours back to the Abbey to catch evening prayer. Then, as soon as evening prayer ended we got back into one of the cars and drove into the heart of the city to...yup...go to a pro basketball game. At this point Matt and I were just pooped and overwhelmed. We had already had a packed day of traveling. But, the Father we were with was SO excited to keep taking us places, and we couldn't disappoint him...so...a basketball game it was. The only other thing I'll say about the game is that yes, professional and collegiate athletes in the Philippines are just like the ones in the U.S. The College players have SO much more heart and passion.
Well after the game he took us to a Starbucks to get something to drink, then we went to the airport to wait for a monk from St. John's, Father Roman Paur, to arrive. He's currently the Prior for the monastery in Fujimi, Japan (which St. John's founded), and he's visiting Manila for the next month. And so, once he made it through security and all, we picked him up at the airport, then took him to dinner to one of the most Filipino restaurants around, TGI Friday's.
But, all jokes aside, there was a lot of enlightenment and education about the day. Most of the churches (spare St. Thomas) have been rebuilt in the last 70 years. Why in the last 70 years, you ask? Because the U.S. destroyed most of the churches during WWII. Yes, we were allied with the Philippines during the war, but when the Japanese invaded, they used a lot of the churches as barracks/strongholds, because they were the oldest and wealthiest facilities in the country, so they were generally the strongest facilities. So, when the U.S. was coming through, any domed building was a general target...so...go...U.S. And since we've learned this, we've been able to put a lot of things together.
For example, I keep talking about the poverty in the country (and I PROMISE, I'll have pictures soon), but for a while it's been really perplexing as to why poverty is so rampant. I mean, there is A LOT of corruption in the country, and the country has been plagued with corruption since...who knows. But they have a SUBSTANTIAL agriculture industry, so they have a strong export economy in that sense. How could so many people be so poor? How could the infrastructure be crumbling and falling apart? Answer: A history of poor luck and bad leaders.
So, here's what I've dug up on all of this. Pre-WWII the Philippines was still a Lesser Developed Country. It had just escaped the period of colonialism (with the U.S., by the way, being the final colonists) and was a burgeoning country. Well, then WWII happened and they were forced to rebuild and recover. Well, in 1965 Ferdinand Marcos was elected...and then stayed President for the next 21 years. Even though he oversaw the Philippines' movement toward industrialization and modernization, he also walked away with somewhere between $5 and $10...BILLION...DOLLARS. Schya. RIDICULOUS. His era also saw a period of martial law imposed on its citizens, substantial crackdown on the media and political opposition, and just general tyranny settling over the country. What's still perplexing to me is that the citizens were so...easily...accepting..?...of it. It wasn't until the last years of his Presidency that he started getting substantial backlash from the nation. One of the sources we've read about called the Philippines of the Marcos era "A nation of 40 million cowards and 1 sonofabitch". Well, during the Marcos era the area of 'old' Manila was built up. One of the phrases we've heard a lot since being here is, "If there's any space or spare room in Manila, we'll find something to build there. Regardless of the size." So, the result of that is that there is really no space anywhere anymore, but since there has been rampant corruption, stagnation, and just flat out poverty, most of the buildings that have been built since WWII have either been torn down, destroyed by urban violence (or terrorism), or are just simply falling apart in decripity.
After Marcos was ousted, there was about 15 years of trying to rebuild and restore what was a broken nation. Well, then Joseph Estrada was elected in 1998, and by the time HE was impeached in 2001, he had laundered about $80...MILLION..DOLLARS from the nation. They seriously cannot catch a break here. Well, finally, in the last 10 years they've begun to right the ship. They're cracking down on corruption. They're building and remodeling. But, the fact of the matter is that Manila is falling apart, except the buildings built in the last 10 years or churches. The good news is that, since Manila has really run out of room, there is a LOT of construction going on in the suburbs and provinces near Manila. So, the result of that is that the 'boonies'...aka the provinces..have some GORGEOUS buildings with A LOT of nature still around it. Just generally appealing places to live. People are still in poverty all around them, but the fact of the matter is that the nation has started to modernize outside of Manila, where there's less rubble and more space. Still, it's mind boggling HOW MUCH MONEY has been lost due to crappy, corrupt rulers. It's difficult to wrap my head around the extreme poverty that exists here, especially with malls LITERALLY EVERYWHERE and commercialism running RAMPANT. But, somehow an existence has been carved out of some dire and unfavorable situations, and the result is a hopeful nation full of joyful, hopeful, optimistic people.
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