Tourist Attraction

We have a visitor from HQ with us this week and as part of his Philippines experience he came with us on our usual Saturday trip into Tacloban.

It takes about an hour to drive to the city: 30 minutes to get to the outskirts and then another 30 minutes battling the traffic to get into the city centre. The congestion is not as bad as in some of the other places I have lived (such as Kampala or Nairobi) but the combination of pedestrians, pedicabs, motor tricycles, jeepneys (the local buses) and cars make for slow progress through the narrow streets.

Despite the tedious journey it's good to have a change of scenery after a week spent living and working in the same street. We usually go to a cafe and enjoy good coffee, tasty food and free wi-fi before heading to the supermarket to do the weekly food shopping.

In an effort to show our visitor something of the area we also stopped at what would seem to be one of the few tourist attractions in the area. The MacArthur Landing Site is the place where US troops, led by General MacArthur, landed in October 1944 to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese occupation. It would seem to be a popular place to visit. There were lots of people enjoying the park that has been created there: flying kites, walking along the seafront, eating ice cream, reading the plaques that describe the historic events, admiring the monument.

I imagine this park, which is so close to the sea, was badly damaged during Typhoon Yolanda and the subsequent storm surge that devastated so much of this area. So it is interesting to see that it has already been restored and reopened - a good reminder of the importance of leisure activities in people's recovery from devastating events.

The area is also known as MacArthur Park, so yes, I've had that song going around in my head ever since...

To catch a rat

I’m on a crusade. I have a mission. This is war.

I have become determined to rid our team house of the rats living in the ceiling. In many ways we live quite harmoniously together. They are not particularly visible house guests. Heidi frequently complains that she is kept awake by their scurrying around above her bedroom at night. Sometimes one of us will spot a flash of movement and see a long tail disappearing through a gap in the woodwork between wall and ceiling. Occasionally we will find a food package has been nibbled. But just knowing they are there is enough for me to want to be rid of them.

We already had a rat trap as this is not the first time that rodents have been an issue either in the house or at the office. However, rat traps in the Philippines seem to be of the humane variety so what we have is more akin to a cage with a narrow entry, and a one way platform that drops when pressure is applied to it and acts as an entrance to the section from which there is no return. Personally I would prefer a trap that immediately kills its victim as somehow I prefer the idea of dealing with a dead rat rather than a live one.

It's a rat trap...

I first set the trap with cheese but after several days the only interest was from the ants. One of the team suggested maybe a stronger cheese was required and offered her garlic and onion cream cheese. Worth a try, I thought, but still there was no sign of the rat. The third attempt was with peanut butter mixed with dried dog food (how we come to have dried dog food is another story but we know the rats like it because there is evidence of them nibbling at the bag it is kept in at the office).

Three times I put down the bait and three times it disappeared. Clearly the rat was now interested but, despite the fact I kept putting the bait in a slightly different place in the trap, it was also way too smart to get caught. At this point I decided that all I was succeeding in doing was fattening up the rat and so I stopped baiting the trap while I planned my next strategy. And then, last Sunday afternoon, with no bait in sight, rat number 1 was caught. I like to think I had trained him to expect there to be food in the trap and then curiosity and temptation got the better of him and he finally allowed himself to fall into the trap.

... and you've been caught!

So now the dilemma of what to do with it. I’d been told that previously caught rats had been given to the guards to dispose of so I carried the cage outside. The guard on duty that day was clearly unsure what he should do as I presented him with the rat in the trap. After a few moments hesitation he said ‘Ma’am I will take it’. Did he mean he wanted it as a pet (I have to admit this one did have quite a cute face)? Was he perhaps going to eat it (I know that’s what some people do in Chad when they catch a rat)? Then he said ‘You wait’ and got on his bicycle and cycled off down the street holding the handlebars with one hand and the rat trap with the other. He returned after about 10 minutes with the now empty rat trap and informed me he had left the rat at the church. I felt a momentary sense of guilt about giving our rat to the Roman Catholics but more than anything I felt relieved that there was one less rat in our house.

Round two of the battle began on Friday evening. Part of me was hoping that there had only ever been one rat but I know that is unlikely and so I was not surprised on Saturday morning to see that the bait had disappeared. Undeterred I baited the trap again and within a few hours I was rewarded with another catch. As I carried the cage outside I was met by the three workmen who were taking a break from their work repairing the roof. They were immediately fascinated by the rat in the trap and although they speak limited English they did manage three words: ‘mouse’ (no, it’s a rat), ‘video’ (really? You want to film it on your phone?) and ‘dead’ (phew, they are going to kill it).

They then proceeded to fetch a bucket and were obviously going to fill it with water so I deduced that this was going to be death by drowning for the rat. However, they then realised that the bucket might not be big enough for the cage. As they attempted to see if it would fit somehow the platform that was keeping the rat trapped got knocked and, seizing his opportunity and almost faster than the eye could see, the rat was out of the cage and gone. It ran into the room where the workmen are staying and despite giving chase they were unable to catch it again. I feel even worse about giving a rat to these men than I did about giving one to the church but they didn’t seem to mind. I’m also thinking it hasn’t gone very far from where it has been living and will maybe find its way home…

The one that got away

As I write the trap is baited for round three. It feels like I have won two small battles this week – I’m just not sure I’m winning the war.

Earthquake

Last Sunday evening, at around 11.00 p.m. there was an earthquake. I was in bed, in that halfway state between wakefulness and sleeping, when I felt the house (and my bed) shake. It only lasted a second or two and was accompanied by a rumbling sound, like distant thunder. I've had similar experiences in other countries and although, at the time, it was a strange sensation it was over very quickly and it wasn't long before I was asleep.

In the morning as I walked to the office I met our cleaner with her young son, aged about 4 or 5. She told me that her son was late for school because the whole family had been awake for several hours in the night, following the earthquake, as they waited anxiously to the radio listening for a tsunami warning. As I talked to other colleagues as they arrived for work it became clear that quite a number of them had also been similarly unnerved by the earthquake.

We are by the coast and there are signs up in every neighbourhood giving information about where people should go in the event of a tsunami warning and how far it is to what is deemed to be a safe place. However, I certainly hadn't thought that Sunday evening's small tremor would cause a tsunami.

Which made me wonder:

• am I the uninformed and naive foreigner who doesn't understand the potential level of danger, or
• have the local population been so traumatised by recent acts of nature that anything that has the potential to cause more death and destruction is terrifying to them?

Both questions probably contain some level of truth.