Heating up in the city

I snapped this photo from my apartment the other day. There are a lot of fires in downtown Manila, and during the 8 months I've lived here I've seen three large ones from my apartment building.

On weekday mornings around 5:15 am I look out the window before doing yoga and see the line of Filippinos across the street waiting to get inside the US Embassy. And how long is the current wait for a US visa? According to washingtonpost.com, "For those applying for work visas because of their "extraordinary ability," including high-ranking professors and international business executives, there is virtually no wait time. By contrast, a brother or sister of a U.S. citizen from the Philippines applying for a family-sponsored visa may have been waiting 24 years, as those visas have been oversubscribed..."

The other evening while taking a sunset stroll on Manila's Baywalk I spotted this glue sniffer. I've been seeing more of them lately because they've been doing it right out in public. The following evening I saw a couple of small boys, maybe 8 years old or so, sniffing glue. When I asked them why they like it, one of them smiled at me, showed me his muscles (i.e., his skinny little arms), and said it makes him strong.

Since one of the things I do here in Manila is regularly clean the apartment, I've been a little obsessive about buying these brooms. Not only are they great for sweeping hard to reach places like under the fridge or behind cabinets, they're a work of art as well -- and all for only about $4 apiece.

This past weekend I spent quite a lot of time walking around the neighborhood. I've found that my two favorite places are the Baywalk and Mabini Street, both only a few minutes' walk from where I live.