Iron Maiden – The Evil Than Men Do

My father had to attend a funeral ceremony for some person I do not know. All I know is that the person died young. The priest, aside from insinuating political stands in his sermon, was OK, much better than some other priest who advertised a special holy water from some special place (Manaoag (?) I think) which, he claims, actually sped up the process of a person getting into heaven.

The “OK” priest said something very beautiful. God takes people, er, old, because they have already done what they should have done. God takes people young para hindi na makita ng bata ang kasamaan sa mundo. I'm not sure about the first part but the second I'm sure. And if memory doesn't fail me I believe this was taken from the book of Proverbs. Amazing.

I see a sickly child coughing. Her mother is playing with him while waiting for her hamburgers to cook in a local hamburger stand. The place smells diesel from the tricycles running amok just outside. I pay 26 pesos for two hamburgers drenched in cooking oil recycled many times.

I met a boy who offered me his turon. I said I'm not in the mood for one, so he asked me to treat him one instead. He claimed he hasn't eaten lunch yet. I asked how much they were. Ten pesos. I reached my pocket for ten pesos. He sort of wanted to ask me to give him twenty pesos at least, but I already handed him the money. I walked away. I didn't cared to check if he's actually going to eat a turon. He probably used the ten pesos to buy solvent. I supported child labor. I went inside my car, burnt gasoline at the rate of 1.8 liters. No one else was with me.

Just last night, www.jabberwacky.com asked me “is the earth mostly vicious?”

I pay 45 pesos on a bus ride from Ayala to San Pedro. I reached the street market in San Pedro. I alight. I headed for the tricycle stand. I asked how much a special ride is. Bente-kwatro. I boarded. We were off. Thinking about how tricycles should be discouraged in San Pedro because of their sheer number, and to practice asserting myself, I tried to haggle the fare. Bente nalang ho. Without a word he made a U-turn and headed back to the pila ng tricycle. Then he muttered. Sana sumabit ka nalang. Ang tagal-tagal ng pila. Ang mahal ng gasolina. Ganyan talaga eh. I pleaded sige ho ibalik nyo na ho. 24 na ang bayad ko senyo.

I heard someone scream taho. I stopped my who-knows-how-much-bike with its hydraulic disc brakes. Headed for the vendor. I asked magkano po. May sampu, may lima. Yung lima lang po. He scooped concoctions on a small plastic cup. I inspected the surroundings. Human refuse littered the place. A lady slipped on a gutter. She was wearing slippery sandals, add to that the fact that the gutter has accumulated lumot which made the gutter even slippier. She wounded her hands. I had cotton, betadine and agua on my backpack but I didn't care to offer. I didn't know what happened to her next. The taho vendor handed me my cup. I scrounged my bag for a five-peso coin but a five-hundred bill is getting in the way. I found a twenty-peso bill and gave it. He gave back fifteen pesos. Children were playing about the littered road. A really young kid was playing around naked. Her mother is just at the side, seeing the whole ordeal.

Repulsed by the sight, I pushed my bike further out, with handlebars and a cup of taho on my right hand. I pushed my bike up a gutter. Taho spilled all over my gloves and bike. I used the cotton in my backpack to clean the mess.

I hope I'm immature. Because if I'm not then wala talaga akong kwentang tao.

And many other personal things.

Lord please kill me now.