Day 2: Quiapo, Intramuros, and starting to "see"

Hello lovely readers! It has been decided that my blog will be representative of our entire group, so expect to see the opinions and experiences of all of us represented here! I hope I am able to convey not just my experience but the experiences of each individual and the group as well. Enjoy photos & thoughts from our second day in Manila! 

Green mango on the street. 

We took the MRT to Quiapo (downtown) from where we are staying in Malate. 

View from the MRT over the market at Quiapo. Busy busy!

These candles are very important in the Filipino culture. They used to just have red, black, and white, each meaning something different, and now the colors have grown. In preparation for the Black Nazarene, people are preparing for the procession. They prepare themselves by lighting these candles and touching the statue. It's about cleansing the spirit, and gaining the power to live the life of your dreams. 

Sampaguita- national flower of the Philippines. Very yummy jasmine-esque smell. 

A beautiful fish mandala! I almost wouldn't want to buy one because they are so perfectly arranged! 

Cause who doesn't want fish on a stick?

We had a really wonderful afternoon at the market! Asefa is from Ethiopia and says, "I see similarity between the market in Addis Ababa [capital of Ethiopia] and this one. The way people communicate and get their livelihood. Even the shanties look familiar. It feels familiar to Ethiopia." Rachel noticed how each marketplace had several purposes- they were underneath homes that in the US would be deemed uninhabitable but are lived in by many many people. 

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The museum at Intramuros. Love this group shot! L to R, Rachel & Theo, our professor Katherine (Kerry) Poethig, Dean McDonald, Asefa, Sebastian, and yours truly. 

Beautiful fountain at Fort Santiago. 

The second half of our afternoon was a little less light. We visited Intramuros and Fort Santiago, both remnants of Spanish colonization and WWII. Sebastian (who arrived this morning- yay!) commented that the cruelty of the Japanese during WWII was limitless. We walked past caverns where prisoners were held and tortured...specifically made so that it echoed & other prisoners could hear their pain. The extent to which they would go to gain power, knowledge, or simply just to torture others was heartbreaking. Theo mentioned how the psychology behind the torture (purposely making their pain echo) was just plain crappy. It was tough to see. Asefa, ever the poignant thinker, said, "wherever I go I, see a scar of colonization. Still I doubt it that colonization has really gone away from the world- especially seeing it work in the form of globalization. Today if you sit down for a diplomatic meeting between developed country and a developing country, the developing nation is almost always the loser of the deal, at the expense of "support" from the more powerful. So I don't know if we're really free from colonization." Dean McDonald, adjunct of SFTS and wife of the president of SFTS, has also joined us and added on to Asefa's thoughts that "the powerful do what they want and those without power do what they can."

Really really thought provoking stuff. Our short course here is on the ethics of globalization, and we see globalization at every turn. Our hotel is just a block from a HUGE mall full of places like Starbucks, H&M, McDonalds, Forever 21, KFC (yes, really) and so so many more American places. We are starting to wonder if we as Americans are perhaps implicit in keeping the Philippines in poverty. I think soon we will "see..." 

Until next time.