So I tried Searching for Mercy and Compassion

On January 15, 2015, Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio also known as Pope Francis made a Papal Visit in Philippines. It was a very big event and is without doubt a historic event which will be remembered by Filipinos. 

Afternoon on the same day, I was just about to board a bus bound to Manila. A lot of people were also bound to Manila.  Empty seats could be seen usually around the second week of January; however, some bus franchise are fully booked at that day. I was seated on the middle area of the bus and beside me was a young lady. We chatted for a while and got acquainted. She asked me if I was going to the events of the papal visit. I said no. But during the evening, I asked my cousins who were visiting Manila for the papal visit if I could join them to the mass on Sunday, got nothing to do on the holidays.

January 18, 2015. It seems like it's going to rain. The sky was dark and it feels cold. We woke up at 3 am and prepared our breakfast and packed lunch. We left at 5 am, rode the jeepney and walked toward Rizal Park. 

I was excited. It was the first time I joined a big religious event like this. Millions of people would be gathered. I had expectations. 

This was supposed to be what would happen when we arrive(In my mind):

 6:00 am - The entrances would open. 

 6:15 am - We would pass through the metal detectors.

 7:30 am - Arrive at one of the quadrants where we would wait.

 7:30-3:00 - Wait peacefully.

 3:00 - Holy Mass

When we arrived in Kalaw Ave. at 5:45 am, I saw a lot of people still sleeping on the roads, camping. Some people were taking advantage of the event and were selling goods such as t-shirt and other souvenir items like key chains. Then came 6:00 am.

It was messy. 

One of the gate was pushed open. On the small opening, people were flocking and entering. Everybody was headed towards the metal detectors. It was like a funnel. Crowds were entering the metal detectors one by one. People were pushing and pushing so that they could also enter. A police officer in charge of the area was shouting repeatedly "wag magtulakan" or don't push. The people were deaf to those words. They persisted. I searched for the so called "Mercy and Compassion". I saw a few. The police officer let the women and children go in first. I was relieved. That was the whole theme of the event, Mercy and Compassion.

We passed through the metal detectors. I was scared that a stampede might occur. There was none. Thank Goodness. We walked towards the front area. A lot of people were thinking the same. It was getting crowded. Halfway towards our destination, the flow seems to stop, can't pass through. Then some people decided to climb the fence. We tried it as well. The plants in our feet were trampled. I felt guilty about it. We saw a lot of people already seated on the grassy area near us. Some were sleeping again. Then we proceeded forward. Another stop came again. Then another people decided to open one of the barricade. We followed suit. We saw an area with trees and a few people. We decided to go there. 

After finding a place to rest and wait, we placed one of the raincoat on the ground and sat on it. A kind old lady allowed us to borrow a plastic sheet so that we would have more space. Great. Now all we need to do is wait peacefully until 3 in the afternoon. Then it rained. It was a drizzle. It got stronger after a while. We decided to walk around since the ground was getting wet. 

We waited until 3 pm. The rain was getting stronger. A live coverage of the event in UST was being showed in the wide screen. Pope Francis was talking. We couldn't see it clearly so we listened carefully.

2:45 am. We went closer to the road where Pope Francis might pass through. People around us were steadily increasing. We waited patiently.

Then we heard people screaming far away. Some of the people around us were curious and started to push. Elbows were striking me. Ouch. It was a false alarm. It occurred again 3 times.

We then heard the sirens. Everybody was excited. Very excited. A person was even trying to hold my shoulders and pushing himself up. I protested a bit. He did not hear me or probably just ignored me. Then I stood on my tiptoes. I saw the figure of the Pope. I felt happy. Ahh. I forgot about feeling cold and pained for a moment. The mass started after a while.  

 What actually occured during the day:

5:00 - Walking towards Rizal Park

5:30 - Searched for an entrance.

6:00 - We went inside a gate near the lapu-lapu shrine

6:30 - We passed through the metal detectors

6:48 - We got as far as the rizal monument

7:09 - We went inside an area with trees at the left side of rizal monument

7:24 - Found a place to sit

10:00 - It rained

10:50 - The rain got stronger

2:45 - Went closer to the road near the Grand stadium

So I tried Driving

In the late days of November 2014 I still had no work(2 months of unemployment). Not that I want it to be that way but because I was asked by my relatives to stay by my father's side for a while after my mother's funeral. 

At that time I was feeling conscious of the fact that I still was having no job experience or any skill improvements and will be still for the next couple of weeks. While my friends are working and gaining salary(so envious), I was at home trying to learn a program by reading a "how to" articles about it. I know that it sounds weird but the laptop I was using at that time was not capable of running the said program. I was busy visualizing the user interface of the program when my dad suddenly knocked on the door and told me, "You look like you have nothing to do right now and I just contacted your Uncle Nestor to teach you how to drive a car next Monday.". I immediately answered, "Great, always wanted to try driving a car but not your car.". My father takes care of his car that whenever there is a small scratch on it, he will always ask if it was us who did it and would be in in a very bad mood. 

So we headed at the Land Transportation Office(LTO) at that very same day and brought a photocopy of my NSO birth certificate. The first thing that I saw at the entrance was a fixer. Here in the Philippines, "fixers" serves as middle man between the person trying to get government services and the government employee. In simple terms, they were bad people trying to get money out from you.   

LTO in Legazpi City, Albay

The fixer was pestering me and kept on asking if I was renewing my driver's license or getting a medical permit. I ignored him for the fact that I did not even have a license and that student permits need not a medical permit. After entering I asked a man inside for an application form and accurately accomplished the application form. I submitted the duly accomplished papers and  my birth certificate. Fifteen minutes later my name was called and paid 318 pesos. Then my picture was taken and had to wait again for another ten minutes. Viola! My student driver's permit was printed. The picture was very blurred though.

LTO Student Permit

I was so excited. My uncle arrived at around 10 am. He was driving an "owner type" car powered by a gasoline Toyota engine. It was a manual transmission car which was the best to learn when starting. My uncle will always tell me that if I learn how to drive a manual transmission car, driving an automatic transmission car will be very easy. The car had two brake pedal. One for me and one for the instructor. Quite convinient I might say so myself after almost taking a dive in a gutter.

Owner Type Car

 

My uncle first briefed me on the overview of driving. It was plain and simple. If there is an obstacle, avoid it. If the obstacle is hard to avoid, use the brakes. After the short lecture I entered the driver seat and throttled the engine. The roaring of the engine as the fuel and air was burned made me feel ecstatic. We first tried circling around our neighborhood since there were only few cars around. Then suddenly my uncle suggested, "Let's go to Bacacay.". At this point of time, I was still frightened of driving on the main road filled with big trucks and fast cars, however my uncle told me that the only way to really learn how to drive was to try driving in the main roads. And so I tried driving, slowly but surely.

Learning about levers and pedals is easy

 Different thoughts of accidents kept me from speeding up. I was about 20~30 km/hour and a lot of cars were passing by me. A few times that the car engine stopped at an intersection, some drivers would shout at me saying "Hala! Hala!" which was meant to jeer at me since they probably know that I'm a beginner. I was driving for about an hour when we finally arrived to our destination then we returned back home. My body was so tired that I slept after laying down on my bed. 

On my second day of learning how to drive, my uncle suggested that I should try driving in the city where there are traffic jams. Here I truly learned when to shift to a higher gear, when to stop, how to enter a crossing and many more. Now I understand why my relatives were telling me that courage was all that is necessary to drive. 

After seven of more days, I finally grasped how to drive. Hurrah! We continued our driving sessions for a couple of days to gain experience. Now I can tell others who want to drive that all that you need is courage, or in my uncle's bicol word "kusog ki boot".

  

So I tried making a "blog"

Whenever I do something that takes time and effort, it just pops into my head that I should try posting this on a blog or something. However I never had the time and inspiration to create one. Heck, I do not even know what I should be writing about. In the first place I not really good at communicating with people.

Usually I watch series of shows or read books(English or Google translated) just because I got nothing to do. One day a cousin of mine told me that I should stop wasting my time and act more adult. Those words kept echoing in my mind for the next few weeks. So I tried making a blog.

You might think that right now I must be ranting about random stuff. well, I probably am for a moment. Anyway, this is just like an introduction of what I'm trying.

So let me get to my point. I tried blogging.

For starters, I googled the word "Blogging". I read something about it being a form of journal available in the web. And someone who makes a blog is a blogger. Yey! I'm probably a blogger right now.

Then I saw some jargons like widgets, sidebar and others. I was shocked. A bit.

Then an idea came to me, why not I try making this blog while I am learning how to make a blog. Well for today I will start this blog by saying "Hi, I'm new" and "Thank you" if ever you read this.