Manila Driving (Missionary Rant)
Just another day on Ortigas Avenue in Pasig City
Some people seem to think it's a "patience-builder." Others feel like it's "death by stress." Unfortunately, my experience over the last year has me siding with the latter. Take a look at this picture, friends. You can barely see the solid white line in the middle of the shot. Everything to the left side is supposed to be oncoming traffic. Notice how vehicles have formed their own lane in opposing traffic? That's TOTALLY normal here. No one bats an eye.
The vehicles to the right (with their brake lights on) are stopped because those in the make-shift lane are forcefully merging in. Why? They've finally run into opposing traffice and have to merge. I MISS THE USA! Oh, the open roads of California. Driving down the 5 from Fresno at 75mph...Oh the simple pleasure of driving..
This city is so congested, it's crazy---especially out where we live. It can take me between 30 minutes to an hour to drive 3 miles down the street to Messiah College. At night, it's even worse.
Forgive the rant, but it just took some stress off of my chest to share that with you, our blog-reading buddies! :-)
posted by mikeldelrosario @ 12:52 AM
8 Comments:
I hear you, brother! I hate traffic, but I experience nothing comparable to that photo! You have my sympathies, and my prayers!
Thanks, man. At least I know someone feels my pain! It's truly hard to describe how little inconveniences color the whole experience. I've heard other missionaries trying to figure out how to convey to supporters the reasons they seem to be tierd all the time. Well, this is one of them. Just living here is a challenge. But we press on and try to do some good things to advance God's kingdom with our lives.
Psycho drivers.
Amen!
When you come back to visit, I should probably be careful around your driving though, huh, since you are used to craziness, and there is a possibility that you have been influenced maybe...
Hopefully not. Sometimes I try to think like an American again and say, "OK. Stop at the stop line. Look. Wait for a break in traffic..." It helps me remember what I should do when I'm not driving in anarchy. Then, I snap out of it and go, "OK, that's it. I'm cutting this sucker off!" So yeah, I have been influenced...but I'd like to think I can stil ldrive like an Amercian in the US and like a Filipino in the Philippines. When in Rome...
On a different level, maybe the way they drive is a bit closer to the way life is, to draw an analogy from this. We like to think that everything is black and white and straight and narrow, and that we can all be well-behaved and civil, but it life just doesn't go that way, not in real life anyway, especially when things get difficult.
I am more comfortable though with our way of driving though, even if theirs just might reflect a little more of the true chaos in life. :)
Do you consider yourself to be more defensive or offensive now in your driving? I imagine that you have to watch out for everyone and therefore be defensive, but at the same time, if you are a cissy on the road, than you probably wouldn't get anywhere, huh? Looking forward to hearing your response.
Talk soon...
Yeah, sissies would be eaten alive here. Just yesterday I got pulled over by two cops in one day for nothing. Seems like if you are new to the area, you will get in trouble because of stuff you can't help. I'm defensive in the sense that i stay in my lane and use my horn a lot to alert those about to cut me off that they better back off (except taxis and busses driven by race-car drivers. They will not stop!). I'm agressive in that I will often "hold the line" so that NO ONE can infringe on our lane (some like to drive half in one lane, half in the other, or force you into a wall). What ticks me off is how they endanger my family on the road and do stupid stuff like drive backwards, stop and block traffic, etc...
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