Reality Check

I’m still writing up this past weekend, but I may not finish before the electricity goes out, so I thought I’d write about that instead. Perhaps a transformer blew in Rizal province, or there was trouble bringing Cainta back up (I can’t complain; I think they haven’t had electricity since the flood), but the power in Pasig went out at 9:00 last night. Our building has a generator, so we were up and running within half an hour, but the power has been out all day here (this is the first week where I haven’t been on a field trip or worked from home at least one day – I guess today wasn’t the day anyway!) and the generator has been running all day so that the businesses in the building can run – but the generator is being turned off at 7:00 tonight since it’s only Hanna, Julie and me. I usually go out for a walk soon after I get home, but I’m saving my mall trip for 7:00. Ironically, tonight’s errand is to get a new battery for my computer, which is no longer holding a charge. If it were, I could keep using it without electricity! Luckily, when we were told to stock up on food last weekend because it looked as though Pepeng would hit here, I also checked my flashlight batteries; sure enough, they needed to be replaced. I had read that brownouts were frequent in the Philippines and thought I might be spared since I’m in Metro Manila – but perhaps it was only a matter of time. I may post this week’s pictures first and then the narrative later.

As if that weren’t enough, I got followed this morning. As I was standing on the corner waiting to cross the street, a woman spied me and started staring at me. I told her to go away and she remained uncomfortably close. She followed me across the street, even as I weaved in and out and back and forth. I thought I shook her off but she was right with me, as close as you can get without touching. She followed me onto the bus; I had thought I would lose her there. I told the conductor she was following me – I’m glad he understood English; not all of them do. Another man on the bus told me to sit down and physically prevented her from following me to my seat, and the conductor managed to kick her off. I didn’t feel threatened, but I felt (and continue to feel) really disturbed. The day had gotten off to a bad start as it was with ants in my room; I usually have a killing spree every day when I get home (one to three small bugs meet their maker) but not in the morning. Maybe it’s just as well if there isn’t electricity – when I get back from the mall I can go to sleep and start over tomorrow (there’s an 8:00 am Disaster Response meeting anyway – that’s early for me, and it’s the second one this week – so again, just as well!).

P.S. (Friday morning my time) - more reality - the president of Habitat for Humanity Philippines passed away yesterday. He had a heart attack the Monday after Ondoy and things spiraled downward from there. He was quite a leader. Things have been running while he was in the hospital, but now we'll see what happens....