Friday, March 28, 2008

Third Post

Uniforms

They abound here. Food servers and chain store employees, as well as students wear them. Department stores hire only the comeliest young women who are fitted with very flattering matching tailored slacks or skirts – short skirts, I might add. While school girls wear more modest skirt lengths, there is never a doubt a of the femininity of the wearer or the designer’s intent.

I was coming back from breakfast early one morning when I saw a slender young woman walking ahead of me. She was wearing a pink top and a gray A line skirt of midi length which swung to and fro as walked along. She turned down a side street. When I got to the side street, I looked down it to see her and a dozen more young women in pink and gray swinging their hips as they walked toward their college. Whoever designed that uniform managed to hit a balance that was at once able to meet any standard of modesty in the Christian world, while at the same time emphasizing the fact a comely female was wearing it. Neat trick, that.

There are other uniforms that are not quite as becoming. There’s a guard in almost every door way of the newer businesses. Some are armed with S&W Model 10 .38 Specials, but some bank guards have 12 gauge Mossbergs with pistol grip in lieu of a butt stock suspended from a shoulder strap at near-tactical present. Other bank guards tote double slung M-16s.

Sports

These folks are rabid sports fans. I’ve not seen so much interest in inter-mural basketball since I landed in Indiana back 1960. The NBA has a following here as well. Boxing is big and Pinoys are justly proud of the fighters who have done well in Vegas. They all ask me if I lived close enough to Sin City to see the fights.

Another thing that is big here is cock fighting. I think anyone with a patch of land where a chicken can thrive is raising them. They start greeting the new day about 3:00 AM. Not a bad way to wake up, but their sense of timing sucks.

The subject of cock fighting came up in conversation the other day, and I stated that it is now outlawed in all 50 states. A genteel woman looked at me incredulously and asked, “They don’t like chicken fights?” I’m not sure she would have understood the SPCA. I just shrugged in response.

Structures

Buildings range from squatters’ shacks to millionaires’ mansions. Permanent structures tend to be made of poured concrete or cinder block in the case of single story dwellings. Corrugated galvanized steel roofs are predominant. During a hard rain, you can’t hear yourself think. There was a hard rain and I thought it would be nice to accompany it by playing Buddy Guy’s "It Feels Like Rain." Couldn’t hear it, even with my ear next to the speaker.

The major government buildings date back to the 1930s when the country was upgraded from colony to Commonwealth. They are magnificent structures built during FDR’s NRA. I can see the upper story of the Capitol of the province of Negros Occidental from my kitchen window. This is a satellite view of it
here using Google map. Notice the large park and lagoon in front of the building. I walk there in cool evenings. Speaking of which, it’s time to do.

More later.

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