NO water. No lights. Coming soon, flooding, not just any wishy-washy precipitation but “Ondoy-type”!
The cheek of MWSS telling us to conserve when water arrives in weepy trickles twice a day. Then they tell you to save rainwater, knowing there has been no rain strong enough to justify even a guiltless shower. Look at Angat dam, the level keeps going down. . .
Why have the bishops been playing high and dry, forgetting to call on the people to pray for rain, the kind that God will pour straight into Angat, Ipo, La Mesa, our fields and farms, lakes and rivers, on our rooftops and the roofs of our cars to give them a free wash (don’t give your car a shower when you yourself don’t deserve one). Only God can make a tree; only God can create rain, in amounts and durations that will end the drought and bring Angat up to speed. (Can you hear God reminding you, “When you take care of nature, nature takes care of you”?)
When I told my friend I was going to Macau for the weekend, she protested, “What are you going to do there? You’re too ‘kuripot’ to gamble, you’re not even a fan of Portuguese food.”
My answer shut her up, fast: “I’m going there to escape the state of waterlessness in our neighborhood.”
She knew I was being facetious, somewhat, but she also empathized with me, so that was that.
Whether or not Macau is having the time of its life with tourists shying away from neighboring Hong Kong, the fact is that those million-strong demos in HK are just a bonus as far as Macau’s tourism program is concerned. Its resident population of less than 500,000 are more than hospitable to the one million visitors dropping in each day from China, thanks to whom the natives are paid an annual stipend of several thousand MOP. Like many of their friends who visit our cities and islands, the mainlanders can be loud, rude, lacking in manners and consideration for others.
With colonies of them swarming the hotel, it was a pleasure to flee and return to Manila. Only when the drive from the airport to home sweet home took up the usual 110 minutes did our spirits dampen. That, and the news that there had been and would be no drought-ending rain for months to come.