These Places: 09/2011

9/18/11

This is Manila

I used to walk these streets almost every week before. It was, for me, a very therapeutic experience to be lost in Manila. To be in a place where everything is unfamiliar to me and moments where all I have is myself and my camera. The camera being an extension of my vision and there is nothing more to worry about.

The streets are bipolar. Some of them are bursting with life while others are empty with nothing but the short glimpses of light passing through the spaces between roofs of buildings. Some still have that historic atmosphere to them while others appear to me as dark and apocalyptic. Some parts are perfectly safe while others have that element of danger I always hear of in the evening news. Nevertheless, It doesn't matter much to me because the unpredictability of it all is what urges me to keep on going back. It offers me a brief escape from the dull routines of daily life.

I've been busy with work lately and I haven't had much time to go visit Manila. Technically my work is located in Manila but it is isolated and very far from where I usually go. Also working from 9 to 5 has that draining effect on me. I wish I could take pictures after work but it's either I'm too tired or I have to hurry and catch the train going home. And this has been part of the reason why I've been caught thinking too much and too deep recently. I desperately need an adventure.

P.S. I regularly contribute to this photo-blog about Manila: http://thisismanila.tumblr.com
please check it out.

9/11/11

Hammer and Paete

We visited Paete, Laguna last month to buy some religious wooden sculptures for the new chapel in our province. The weather was uncooperative that day, it would rain then the sun would shine again after 10 minutes or so. But I was still able to roam around the streets. The town has this quaint atmosphere to it. The streets are very narrow and there are very few cars except for outsiders who come for the wooden sculptures. People usually ride tricycles or bikes to go around but most really just walk.

The wooden sculptures are displayed along the road like mannequins. Most of the sculptures are depictions of religious events and characters. There are Jesus Christs, Marys, and saints in all shapes, sizes, positions and facial expressions.

The sculptors are in their respective workshops with their hammer and paete working the whole day. I was able to go inside their workshops and see them work. There is really a great amount of skill and passion put into every wooden sculpture they make. It was very interesting to see them create magnificent sculptures out of blocks of wood.

I would love to go visit this place again. It's really heaven for someone who dignifies human labor.

9/3/11

SM City Cauayan

The property where the campus of Isabela Colleges lies has been bought this year by SM. The first SM mall in Isabela will be in our town but at the cost of removing a school. Demolition of the campus buildings has already started last August.

Both the elementary and the college building will have to be demolished in order to make way for the construction of the mall. First to go is the college building. No one would be able to recognize that this was a former school building if not for the remnants of bulletin boards on hallways and blackboards in every empty classroom. The high school students occasionally roam around the building walking over the rubble and going through the empty halls of the building where their fathers or mothers studied back in the day.

View of the empty lot just behind the college building where the SM mall will be built. The mall will extend beyond the grounds of the campus to the huge empty lot behind it. The lot, which includes the campus grounds, is owned by a certain family here in our town and they sold the land to SM. This will be the first SM in the province and is supposedly a move to supplement the city's progress and development. Economically, the construction of this mall will create employment opportunities for the workers here in our province.

Idle workers, who have been hired to demolish the campus buildings, wait for their food to be cooked. They work quickly in order to finish by mid-September when the actual construction of the mall will commence. These workers are staying on 3rd floor and they have made it their temporary residence while the demolition is ongoing. Interestingly, these workers have been saying that during the night they hear eerie noises which they claim to be ghosts. They reported that since the first day of demolition the weird noises have been increasing more and more from footsteps to scratching on the walls.

School documents are scattered over the floors of the building together with scrap wood and rubble. When the workers are bored, they would from time to time pick up random papers and read them for leisure. They would then use these papers to start fires for their cooking or to warm them if ever it gets cold in the night.

Some classes are still being held for the currently enrolled students of Isabela Colleges. The elementary wing has not been demolished yet so classes are still ongoing for now. These kids will be displaced soon and will have to look for other schools. For now the deserted college building serves as their playground

An elementary teacher reminisces about the many years she spent teaching at this school. She laments the demolition of the school for the construction of the SM mall. She maintains that as long as the buildings of the elementary wing are still there she would continue to teach the young students.