Community Integration

I’m glad that I went to Bangkok and Jakarta this past winter – they gave me a sense of what to expect of a large Asian city. There’s sprawl, with clusters of skyscrapers and then lots of low rise and then some really poor parts. Manila was all but destroyed in WWII, so there’s not much of the old city left to see (but what there is, I plan to see). There’s traffic and pollution. There are malls and there’s advertising – in English, often for products from America – everywhere.

When I’ve been on the jeepney, bus or train (today, my first – I always prefer trains; there’s one line that goes north-south – not everywhere I want to go, but at least sometimes it’s an option) it’s only after I look around that I realize that I am the only non-Asian there. I think that because they wear the same clothes I do – or maybe because I was just here – I don’t feel I stick out. However, when I went to the supermarket this afternoon and took the jeepney by myself for the first time, the jeepney wranglers (okay, that’s not what they’re called, but until I know the name, I like this one) knew my stop without me telling them and told me which one to board – this is after being there with other people just twice.

I thought I might see the classy part of town today, and/or the American Cemetery (they are near each other); Hanna said that Sir Tony told her to go with me wherever I go (I wonder for how long?). We walked to the train to head there when she mentioned that the Corazon Aquino viewing was today. I asked her if she wanted to go and she did – and I am always happy to participate in a historic moment. The line was long, quiet and respectful, with lots of people wearing yellow, her color. I had Lonely Planet with me and also used the occasion to learn some Tagalog (malamig tubig – cold water – my first useful phrase!). I was also a curiosity; as in Morocco, they ask direct personal questions (as for how old I was, my new answer is old enough to remember when Corazon Aquino became president!). I prepared an answer for people who asked what I was doing there – that I am a fan of democracy and I think she was a great woman and I am paying my respects. And as I thought about that, I did feel humbled in the presence of greatness. What the Filipinos did – the first bloodless coup – was pretty amazing, and they are proud that she was their first woman president. When will the U.S. get a woman president? Being on that viewing line gave me time to ponder that.

It was only the second time I have seen an open coffin, and both times have left me at a loss for words. She looked beautiful, in a beaded yellow dress, resting in peace.