At least it was just drizzling while I was waiting for a jeepney. When I was able to get on one and got out along Pasong Tamo to wait for a second jeepney towards home, there was a shallow flood that soaked my leather shoes. I hate being wet when I’m not supposed to be wet. What made it worse was that seemingly all jeepneys to home were full. So I had to walk home in my squeaking shoes while the drizzle turned into rain again.
I still haven’t learned. Heavy rains and the consequent floods are to be always anticipated during this season in Manila. I now live on concrete grounds, probably below sea level, polluted with undisciplined people’s litter clogging the city’s already poor drainage “system”. When I tell others where I live when they ask, they reply, “Pasong Tamo??!! Diba nagbabaha doon?” I don’t anymore keep count of the people who gave this reaction. “Hindi ka ba lilipat?”, they ask. No, because that is already the seventh place where I moved to. Let me list the places where I’ve lived and why I left:
The first was in that crappy, infested apartment house when I just moved here. I mentioned this in my previous post.
The second was in a new apartment building in Guadalupe suggested by Citi after they found out how terrifying the first one was. However, during the first few weeks, there was a little conflict among some roommates. So when some of my schoolmates who also worked in Citi decided to move out of that apartment, I joined them. I did not take sides (I even tried to be a peacemaker) though I was an unfortunate witness; but I assure that after we lived separately, all of that was over and we became each other’s family here in this harsh city.
The third one was in a more homelike apartment unit in San Antonio Village, still in Makati. It was managed by a Filipino woman with her German husband. Both are retired… and racist against Jews. The woman was a chatterbox. Every time I had to see her to hand the rent payment over, she’d always talk about her life with her husband in Germany. She mentioned that although she was against the Holocaust, she agrees that the Jews are not to be trusted – that they are uncivilized thieves. Such a stupid Nazi bitch. We stayed there just for three months. We moved out primarily because the Makati floods are worst in that area. But an additional reason (just for me) is because of her narrow-minded remarks during our conversations. I and my then roommates parted ways – one moved to Quezon City to live with her family; one moved back to the same Guadalupe apartment; one lived with another work colleague in an all-girls dormitory; and I moved again for the fourth time in a place with my other schoolmates.
The fourth one specifically was in an apartment building along Vito Cruz Ave., in the City of Manila. My two schoolmates already lived there for a longer time, but they wanted to leave after a week (before the next rent would be due) because the landlady pissed them off (same case with my previous residence).
And surprise! I again moved, for the fifth time, also back to the same Guadalupe apartment (but in a different unit), which I suggested and they chose. Another schoolmate joined the three of us there. But after four months, two left their jobs (in separate times) and returned to Zamboanga City. Since the two of us remaining couldn’t afford to pay the unit rent by ourselves and since we couldn’t find somebody we know and trust as our new roommates, we parted ways.
I moved, for the sixth time, to far-flung Las Pinas City (but still part of Metro Manila) to live temporarily with my Aunt and her kids. It took me over four months to endure the long and expensive travel to and from work and to finally find a suitable place in Makati where I don’t have to find roommates and where I can have privacy.
And that’s how fate brought me to the seventh place where I now reside, in a condo unit, where strangers share it, but have their own rooms. The condo building stands near Pasong Tamo. Only very shallow, tolerable flood (barely a flood) occurs in that area and happens only during heavy rains. There’s ankle-deep flood only along the way to the condo. But I don’t mind it. It will take more than that to force me to move again. I’ve sworn to myself that I’ll move only to a reasonably better place or to somewhere permanent. Furthermore, the longer I live here, the more household possessions I obtain, which will make it harder to leave or bring stuff when moving.
I did recently notice some road reworks being done along Pasong Tamo. Hopefully they were fixing the sewers and will be finished before the next rainy season, when Heaven again will send storms, attempting to cleanse this country of dirt.
