Manila

July 26th.

I woke up at 4 a.m. to make it to the airport in Seoul for a 9 a.m. departure. I really liked the visit to Seoul. The city is beautful and clean. Everyone seems very serious here, but when we have talked with people they are friendly, and they really like hearing about how Elliot and Asa are doing. The flight to Manila is about four hours and since the plane is keeping at about 550 miles an hour, it must be close to 2200 miles. That is about as far apart as Chicago and Los Angeles, but the difference between Seoul and Manila is incredible. Both cities may be the same approximate size at 12 million people, but there the similarity ends. Manila may be big and at times dirty, but I love it and its incredible life. The twenty or so miles from the airport to the place I am staying in Quezon City includes a terrible trafffic jam and with lunch it ends up taking as much time as the plane ride itself. When we entered the restaurant, I was immediately met with a "Welcome Sir" from one of the waiters and two minutes later another member of the staff exlaims, "How are you, sir?" Flor Encomio and the driver who I only know as Santos have come to give me a ride, and they are really fun to be around. Flor is organizing my teaching activities here, and she admits that she forgot all the math that she ever took after arithmetic, but I am not fooled. I know that she can speak in eight different languages, and when I ask her how much English the students know, I am a little alarmed to hear her say, "Walang." That means NONE. So she insists that we speak nothing but Visayan and Tagalog the rest of the way. Ha ha. LONG SILENCE. We finally revert to Taglish.

The place where I am staying, SEND, has raised its rates. With internet service it is now $13 a night. I don't know whether I can manage these kind of expenses, and when I have dinner, a huge plate of pancit and the most wonderful mango juice I have had since last August I am distressed to realize I have spent $2 for supper. Gone are the days when living in Manila was cheap. ha ha

At SEND we are met by Sterling Calope. She is a graduate student in math education, and she is starting her thesis writing. I go over her proposal which she is to give to a committee tomorrow. I suggested that she contact Dr. Penelope Flores, and Penelope has convinced her to do her research on ethnomathematics. I used to teach right next to Penelope, and she went on to work on the UCSMP math project at the University of Chicago and is now a professor at San Francisco State. The approach that Sterling is going to take is one I am going to practice on with the students I see tomorrow in Payatas. I look forward to meeting them. Hopefully they will learn as much English as I do Tagalog.

Before I go running we all go over to the squatter's section where Mary Joyce Palana lives. The Palanas have become great friends. Mary Joyce has epilepsy and her right hand is paralyzed, but since I gave money for medicine for her she is able to go back to school. Her older sister Kaye is Elliot and Asa's age, and we are going to take her to the Manila Hotel to see Diane Sison sing next Wednesday. We decide to buy her a new dress so she will be ready for the occasion. The six members of the Palanas household, their father, their mother Eva, the two girls, Kaye and Mary Joyce, and the two boys Moy Moy and De Dong live in a room that is about ten feet by four feet with a roof that is five feet tall. Mary Joyce has drawn a picture of me and Moy Moy has written a very nice letter to me, Uncle Zeus. Tomorrow we will take them all out to dinner and buy them books. I give them a big box of chocolates after saying the Tagalog phrase, "Pasulobong ko." which I hope means My present. For everyone here I have given a box of chocolates except for Sterling who got eight math books.
The streets here are so alive with people. Kids ask me where I am from and another voice yells out, "Amerikano." Crossing the busy road near SEND is like playing the game Chicken that teenagers used to do in the 1950's. It is a negotiation with cars to see who will give in first. ha ha. I love it. I will have to see whether I love it after tomorrow's two classes. Elliot and Asa have followed me on a later flight with James. I can't wait to see what Asa thinks of Manila. Yesterday he said he thought Seoul was a lot like New York.

-Zeus