If only you knew how the flood easily rises
every time it rains in Sta. Mesa, Manila.
I study at Polytechnic University of the
Philippines. Since Freshmen Days, I’m already aware that Sta. Mesa is a catch
basin. This made me decide to find a dormitory so that I have a place to stay
in every time the rain is about to pour real hard. Having a place near my school is very helpful
especially because I don’t want to commute every day.
I hate my Monday schedule. Would you ever
consider a 6:00-9:00 pm class every Monday? Maybe. But in my case, it was 6:00
pm last night and it was raining very hard. I’m afraid that classes might get
suspended and I’ll regret that I ever went to school on a Monday. Good thing my
professor came. She is witty, yes. But then as she keeps on blabbering, the
rain pours harder and harder. I can see people waiting for a suspension or
maybe an early dismissal. Until my friend received a text message, “Suspended
na daw.” I don’t know if I will tell my professor that she have to stop talking
or we’ll all end up stranded because of the great flood that awaits us.
I decided not to tell her because I want to
make my first class a worthy story
to tell when someone asks me about it. Well, my classmates didn’t tell her
anything either, so I don’t blame myself for that. I’m with my two friends the
moment we came out of the school building-Alexis and Jhean.
As we were about to reach the gate, Jhean suddenly
suggested that we should eat some “porridge” (lugaw) since it’s pretty cold and
she already missed it. Alexis liked the idea but I was thinking twice because I
know that we will end up wet since we need to go through the flood.
They can’t be tamed. So we all decided to
walk towards the Lugawan.
We were walking when I came to realize that
my friends are wearing their most loved shoes. Jhean is with her DIY shoes
while Alexis is wearing her Red Pony Sneakers. I am quite thankful because I’m
wearing my slipper sandals. J All of a sudden, we were shouting on the streets because we don’t
want our feet to get wet. Though I know that’s quite impossible to happen. We
went through it until I saw this frog hopping in front of me. Since I’m not a
fan of reptiles or amphibians, I’m too hesitant to walk ahead. But then I can’t stay there forever, so I
chose to walk through the other side.
First
challenge. Cross the street with a flood that’s
about an above-ankle height. They don’t want to risk their shoes getting wet so
we were standing there for like minutes until a pedicab came. They asked the
pedicab driver if he can cross us through the street. I’m glad he was kind
enough to let us be on his cab. We were thanking him after we got to the other
side of the road. (Look how dedicated we were in eating porridge.)
We were already walking on the street of my dormitory at that time
hoping that the store is open. Yes, we were uncertain about the availability of
the Lugawan. Until we saw another
flood in front of us, another challenge came to our senses.
Second Challenge. Cross the flood by stepping on a rock placed by a concerned man who
saw us deliberating on how can we get to the concrete road. Jhean was the first
one to leap through the rock. She lost her balance upon stepping on it which
made her shoe wet. Alexis came next. The man placed another rock because of
what happened to Jhean. In short, Jhean was the guinea pig. (kidding!) Then, my
turn came, it was a success!
Then, we were walking through the concrete road. Finally, we saw the
Lugawan. It’s open!! But, the problem
is, it’s on the other side of the road. Again, we have to go through that flood
so that we can finally feed our hungry tummy. It’s funny how we were shouting to
the vendor because we badly want to eat. He said that we have to cross so that
we can eat. Ugh!
FINAL Challenge. Cross that street so that we can finally eat!!
There was a
tricycle heading towards us. Another savior! The driver was also kind to help
us with our dilemma. The three of us were in the backseat plus the driver.
Imagine how imbalanced that tricycle was. The sidewalk is not flat, instead it
was slope. Until the tricycle was about to lose its balance, the driver
shouted, “Bumaba na kayo!” I don’t know if he was mad or not, but he made me
immediately went off to his tricycle. I hate to say this but as I stepped down,
there’s still the flood down there. My feet is really soaking wet by then.
Jhean and Alexis saved their shoes. And finally, we get to eat porridge. J
We were all savouring the moment by then. We were so happy chatting
while eating our food. We can’t believe that we had to do everything for a
porridge.
Or is it just that they serve really
delicious porridge that’s why we took such risk. J
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