You might think I'm joking, or exaggerating, like when people in DC say, "Oh my gosh. 395 heading south last night was a total parking lot!" Except I'm not. The main road I take to work turned into a parking lot today. Literally. Buses and jeepneys parked at least three across, on both sides of the road - so I guess that would make them sextuple parked? See photo courtesy of my neighbor:
And, no, those buses and jeepneys aren't moving. They are 100% stopped. Parked. Not going anywhere.
A large local Christian denomination, Iglesia in Christo, held a huge rally today, at Rizal Park just a few blocks up from the embassy. Initial estimates projected about 10,000 people attending, but it definitely topped that - could even be closer to 1,000,000 in the general area (up and down Roxas, including at the park). I'm looking forward to the newspaper reports tomorrow.
Think about it like a consulting case study. Say each bus holds about 70 people. And buses are six across, making 300-400 people per bus length (less than 420, because jeepneys can't cram as many in). And the buses are parked for at least two miles, with bus + parking estimated about 50 feet. So that would be 105 bus lengths per mile = about 70,000 people on the buses I saw parked. And then all the other people streaming in constantly throughout the day. And all the buses diverted to elsewhere.
My excitement of the day came when it was time to go home. Though the embassy had liberal leave in effect from 2PM (meaning, you could take leave without supervisor's approval), I had a meeting scheduled with some local government contacts at 4PM, so no liberal leave for me. The meeting (a 10 min walk from the embassy) finished at 5PM. By then, I had heard that most people who attempted to drive home ended up abandoning their cars at the embassy. And since the alternate route to work was "traffic" with all the diversion, no way was Joel going to make it anywhere near me to pick me up.
So, walk home I did. I saw exactly two other non-Filipinos during the hour long walk home (it took extra time, because I was in work shoes and because the crowds were difficult to navigate). One was with the volunteer police force. And the other was Greg who came to meet me since it was starting to get dark - after having already walked home once himself, bearing the crowds. What a nice guy.
Thankfully we live at Seafront and had the option to walk. A couple we know who lives in the Fort caught an embassy shuttle to Seafront, which took 1.5 hours (usual commute time: 10 minutes), because their car couldn't make it out of the embassy lot. With no idea how to continue on home, we just lent them our car and driver for the night. They'll keep our car and then pick us up tomorrow morning.
A large local Christian denomination, Iglesia in Christo, held a huge rally today, at Rizal Park just a few blocks up from the embassy. Initial estimates projected about 10,000 people attending, but it definitely topped that - could even be closer to 1,000,000 in the general area (up and down Roxas, including at the park). I'm looking forward to the newspaper reports tomorrow.
Think about it like a consulting case study. Say each bus holds about 70 people. And buses are six across, making 300-400 people per bus length (less than 420, because jeepneys can't cram as many in). And the buses are parked for at least two miles, with bus + parking estimated about 50 feet. So that would be 105 bus lengths per mile = about 70,000 people on the buses I saw parked. And then all the other people streaming in constantly throughout the day. And all the buses diverted to elsewhere.
My excitement of the day came when it was time to go home. Though the embassy had liberal leave in effect from 2PM (meaning, you could take leave without supervisor's approval), I had a meeting scheduled with some local government contacts at 4PM, so no liberal leave for me. The meeting (a 10 min walk from the embassy) finished at 5PM. By then, I had heard that most people who attempted to drive home ended up abandoning their cars at the embassy. And since the alternate route to work was "traffic" with all the diversion, no way was Joel going to make it anywhere near me to pick me up.
So, walk home I did. I saw exactly two other non-Filipinos during the hour long walk home (it took extra time, because I was in work shoes and because the crowds were difficult to navigate). One was with the volunteer police force. And the other was Greg who came to meet me since it was starting to get dark - after having already walked home once himself, bearing the crowds. What a nice guy.
Thankfully we live at Seafront and had the option to walk. A couple we know who lives in the Fort caught an embassy shuttle to Seafront, which took 1.5 hours (usual commute time: 10 minutes), because their car couldn't make it out of the embassy lot. With no idea how to continue on home, we just lent them our car and driver for the night. They'll keep our car and then pick us up tomorrow morning.
1 comment:
Great story. I'd love to see Dustin's comments too. I'm sure he won't calculate the number of people per bus per mile :) and that gerG, what a nice fellow.
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