Manila, Ghost Town

Shelly was working from home today, so I took the car to pay Mister Tanaka a mid-morning visit. In order to give her some time with me out of the house, I thought that after visiting the cat, I'd wander over to Makati, hit the malls and see a movie.

It would have been a great plan, except for one thing: Makati, and apparently all of Manila, was deserted. It was a complete ghost town. No traffic, no pedestrians, no cops, nothing. Maundy Thursday carries more significance in the Philippines than it does at home.

Today and tomorrow, Good Friday, are pretty much commerce-free days in the Philippines. A few stores were open today, but there won't be much at all open tomorrow. The whole week is called Holy Week in the Philippines -- and after driving around today, it's no surprise that the Philippines has the first, and largest, entry on Wikipedia's Holy Week page.

The Philippines is the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia, and there's no question that much of the country is very serious about Easter. While I grew up "celebrating" Good Friday with my 4-H club's annual bake sale, the day Jesus died is taken much more seriously here. Without giving too much away, Shelly and I do have interesting Good Friday plans. If all goes well -- in other words, if we can follow some mostly non-existent directions to a place where we might be able to find what we're looking for -- I should have some interesting photos, or at least a good story, to post when we get home.

And the name of that 4-H club? Shelly nearly fell over laughing when I told her that we were the Nevada Nice Guys.

***

We're in the middle of summer here, though it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as some fellow expats have made it out to be. Maybe it's been a cool summer, or maybe I've just lived in the right places to prepare me for Summer in the Philippines.

Everywhere I've lived, people have told me that "summer is really, really hot here." I'm sure it's true, at least from a local's perspective, but I've found that few places have actually measured up to a hot, humid August in Iowa.

That's not to say that North Carolina, or Maryland, or DC, or Guam aren't hot places in the summertime -- they all are. The only place I've lived that comes close to an Iowa August is Yamanashi which is, appropriately, Iowa's sister state in Japan. Nestled in the mountains west of Tokyo, the Kofu Basin regularly hits 40 degrees Celsius -- that's a toasty 104 degrees Fahrenheit in Iowa. I walked the aisles of the supermarket during the summer just to stay cool.

Manila, by comparison, has been hot, but not unbearable. Admittedly, my daily air conditioned trips to Makati to visit Mister Tanaka may have made it seem more comfortable than it actually is.

***

Mister Tanaka has overstayed his welcome at the vet. He's feeling much better, and should be coming home soon. In the meantime, he has started expressing his annoyance at being poked and prodded by biting and hissing.

What he doesn't yet know is that even after he returns home, he'll be making regular trips back to the vet so they can follow his progress.