Manila (all the other titles I could come up with involved some awful cliché so…)

We landed into Manila Tuesday morning.  It was 40 degrees when we left South Korea so landing into a 90 degree tropical environment was sweet.  I commented to the event director that I feel at home in tropical 3^rd world countries.  He thought I was joking.  

On the bus ride to the hotel we passed a fire so large that we could feel the heat on the bus as we drove by.  It turns out that a squatters apartment caught fire putting 2700 families  into the street. Manila is  a big, crowded,  dirty,  traffic filled, extremely poor city.  BUT.  It’s lively and the people are very kind.  Trav and I debated whether, if forced to live in either Seoul or Manila,  which we would chose.   Seoul was clean and safe but sort of soul-less (pun not intended).   Manila is full of life and close to the ocean…seediness aside.. I would chose there.

Day 1  of scavenges in Manila  seemed straight out of a Maxim issue.   First on our agenda was to find a gun range and shoot M-16s.  Probably smartly enough they wouldn’t let US shoot assault rifles so we shot some sort of little gun.  Trav’s a shockingly good gun shooter considering he doesn’t do it so much --- the reward of 20 + years of video game playing I suppose.

Scavenge 2—cock fighting.  Obviously we would never go to such an event as that would upset daughters/nieces and other animal loving friends (wink wink) but had we… this is what we would have seen:   The cock fighting arena in Manila was one of the nicest buildings in the city (I expected a small outside cage thing in a back street).  Extremely organized- armed security, bleachers- concession stands. The place was packed out with 1000 or so men--- one woman.     The actual fighting is held in a WWF size ring--- Two men stand in the middle with huge roosters while two other guys bring out little chickens and hold them  while sort of poking at the roosters that are going to fight to get them riled up (a cock tease in its most literal sense).  The birds that are actually going to fight each have a  2-3 inch blade taped onto their foot.   3 minutes on the clock and the arena goes crazy--  reminiscent of the ny stock exchange--- men signaling and screaming bets at each other—arms in air- money crumpled up and being tossed overhead.  At the end of 3 minutes they let the cocks go—the actual fight takes less than a minute and the winner is decided by which of the two is still alive.

Scavenge 3- “Foxy Boxing” (did I mention that we had a testosterone filled first day in manila?).  Foxy boxing = tiny top heavy Filipino women in bikinis.  The undercard fights?  Midgets. I’m serious.  The actual fights didn’t start til 10pm so we didn’t stick around..   Natasha and David, one of the other teams, did however and I’m told that the midgets gave shoulder massages to the patrons when they weren’t boxing. Ha.  (I feel bad even typing the word midget but that’s what the sign said so…)

I knew going in that Manila was a big sex trafficking place.   Of all the American men I saw there it appears that only Travis and Rainey had American girlfriends.  What I did not know is that it had such a problem with child sex trafficking.  We sat at a café having some coffee and people watching--- dozens of teenage Filipino girls with old white men walking by---  after being unable to explain away or accept  the 11 year old sitting at the table next to us with a 60 year old man and a cocktail  We abandoned our peoplewatching for the hotel.

That was two days ago and I can’t get the scene out of my head.  I hear debates about the legalization of prostitution  all the time. Until now I’ve always seen both sides of it.  This was horrific  -- and the American government should do more to punish people that go on vacation to have sex with children.  Manila is proof that it happens more than I ever imagined.

We decided to get out of the city for day 2  for a  “bonus scavenge” that took us to the river Apocalypse  Now was filmed on. Up the rapids in a canoe = impressive boatman skills.  It was incredible and my favorite thing yet.  We swam behind a waterfall, watched the locals spearfish.  We saw Rainey and Zoe and Rainey’s two daughters, who are two of the other teams on this event there.  Rainey’s daughters are 25 and 20—when I started working for Rainey they were 11 and 6.    It’s weird that they are no longer kids and more my peers.  I can’t decide if it makes me feel old or young.  It’s awesome that they are on this though as they are super cool and haven’t seen the world as much as a lot of the other teams---  It’s interesting to see things a bit from their eyes too.

We are now on a plane to Indonesia.  I’m stoked. Trav will be once we get off the plane (read: bad seat).

I miss Lyric.  It’s funny how being away for even just a little time gives you a new perspective on things.  When I put her down for bedtime at night and kiss her good night she likes to demand I come back and lay down with her “Mommy bed. Mommy bed” and if I don’t she will get of the bed and follow me “Mommy bed! Mommy bed”.  It usually frustrates me but sitting her now I can’t think of any reason why it ever would and why I don’t just lay down with her until she falls asleep.  Excuse my introspective rambling… it’s some sort of hormonal miss my baby thing I suppose (feel free to leave comments on how she’s perfectly happy and entertained spending the week at my parents and how she’s probably 100% safer there then she would be with me right now).