Today was another fun filled day. It started a little later, which was nice because I got to sleep in. Last night ran a little late due to a dance party for Rotarian President Ace. The dance party can be explained another time but for now let’s just say I danced the night away.
We met at another Starbucks and off we went. Not sure where we were going, I hopped into the van and hoped for the best. Through some shantytowns, past Manila Bay, then through some more shantytowns, finally arriving at a Catholic Church. The church was home to the only bamboo organ in the world. It was very impressive to see. While we were touring the church, we were accompanied by voices of angels. Pleasant and haunting at the same time, it was a blessing to hear in comparison to what was outside the church.
We did not spend much time in the church before we were off to our next destination. It is amazing to experience the drastic difference of classes in this country. I never felt as privileged as I did today. I shouldn’t admit this but from what I saw today, I should never complain about being “poor”. On several occasions we came across young children, no older than five coming up to us begging for money. The amount of pain that these children portray is indescribable. My world has been changed forever.
Moving on, we drove through a couple more shantytowns and arrived in Chinatown for lunch. The restaurant was nothing special on the outside, a nice establishment in the middle of what is described as a middle class town, middle class being loosely justified. Our hosts ordered vegetable soup, spring rolls, fried rice and white rice, fried chicken and boiled chicken, and pork (the pork still had the vertebrae attached to it), beef and veggies. This would be the first time I had authentic Chinese food in Asia and it was delicious.
After lunch we headed off to the Navy base. Our hosts were off in their own conversation and drove through the checkpoint right past the armed guards. Probably not the best idea—but they were nice enough about it. They stopped us about 75 meters past the checkpoint and made us turn around. Apparently the Filipino Navy did not want American visitors on their base.
Without an argument, for good reason, we turned around and headed to our next location. Through a couple more Shantytowns and an open market or two, we arrived at the Emilio Aguinaldo Shrine. He was, if I’m not mistaken, the general in control of the Revolutionary Army that fought the Spanish, and became the first president of the Philippines. We stayed for a nice tour of his house where we saw a lot of secret doors and hiding places for outlawed items of the times, such as the Filipino flag. Emilio, a freemason, had his own two-lane bowling alley, and had many mango trees throughout the property. The tour was amazing.
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