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The jeepney experience
Taking the jeepney is an enjoyable experience. Minus the obnoxious drivers and passengers who spit (yuck!) while the vehicle is running and when the time when it's filled to the max.
Here, you get to observe a lot of people for a longer period of time (just don't make it obvious, it's unnerving) and hear them tell some parts of their lives. And when you see and hear things, your idle mind gets busy.
One time, an old lady boarded the jeep. There was space for her, but she had to sit on the edge of the seat as there was little space left. Seeing this, she asked the young mother beside her to let her daughter (around six years old) sit on her lap instead so there would be a bigger space for her. The mother said, "I paid for her, so she has to sit." The old lady couldn't do anything but sit on what little space there is, with a frown.
That scene jolted me from the view of other vehicles' exhaust pipes, and my mind became a venue for debate. "The mom has a point. That child has a right to have her own seat just like anybody else. You can't expect people to forget that just because you're still a kid, right?" Then, another inner voice said, "But then again, it should have been a good opportunity for the mother to teach her child the value of respect for elders." Rights of the child? Respect for elders? Which should come first? Somehow both are important, but I never had the chance to make a decision because the loud voice of a "balikbayan" butted in.
Someone called her and the person on the other line obviously had a problem. The "balikbayan" on the jeep screamed, "Whaaat? They spent all the money that you sent by gambling? Don't they know how hard you toiled in Taiwan just to make their life better?" Silence. She was listening to the other line. Then, "And now that they don't have any money left, they will borrow around just to have that grand fiesta to show off?" At first, I was pissed off at the woman for being so loud, then, she was mad as hell herself and for good reason.
Here's another conversation that tops it all. A lady in her 50s was talking to another woman, probably around her age. "People have their own lives to live. Let them be. Gossiping about them is not good and it's such a waste of time." The other woman nodded in agreement. Silence. Then, the other continued, "Hey, whatever happened to Delia? I heard her children left her after she gave away her millions. I heard her husband left her too. Ay hala, basi karma? Blah .. blah blah ..."
I just smiled.
Got a jeepney experience to tell? E-mail to lifestyle@thenewstoday.info