Narrative by Sophia Pelago
Translation from Tagalog: Denice Salvacion
Editing: Philippe Rekacewicz
Study time
I was born in 1997 in Litex, Payatas (Quezon City). The first thing that comes up (for me?) when this place is mentioned are garbage and landfills. I lived there until 2002 and then we moved to Novaliches in the northern part of Quezon City, where I still live in. This is my current home and I like the community there.
Our place is cozy and pleasant. It is relatively quiet with not too many people around. It’s green with lots of trees. There is a park with picnic tables and benches, a playground, exercise machines, as well as a recreational hall, a basketball court, and a chapel, which are walking distance away from our community.
It is also pretty close, about a kilometer away to a highway and the terminal which means that if there are no available tricycles to bring you there, it is reachable by foot within 15 minutes. There is also a shopping mall (SM Fairview) and a hospital near by.
My first school (2002-2014) was the Diliman Preparatory School on Commonwealth Avenue. It was not so big, as far as I remember, and I keep very good memories from those happy times. I remember that within walking distance, there were places where we would hang out after class, such as the mall, or eating at the local fast food or looking for books or school supplies.
Between 2014 and 2018, I went to college at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. This period I was very happy because being at UP was my dream. On top of this, the campus was beautiful, there’s a lot of trees, you really feel like you are in nature. The environment there is relaxing and pleasant.
There’s so much you can do on the campus. If you feel stressed with your academic duties, you can always unwind at the Sunken Garden or walk and exercise at the Oval or at the Science Complex. There’s also a multitude of small restaurants and shops for students nearby.
Working time
At the end of my studies, I worked for a government institution, the Human Rights Violations Victims Memorial Commission. Our office was along Aurora Boulevard, close to Katipunan train station. I worked there from 2019 until 2020. I didn’t like the place so much. There were not a lot of convenience stores and choices to eat. Mostly, there are karinderias (small food shops serving homemade dishes, often “hole-in-the-wall” or in small tents). It was also difficult to reach; the buses that go there were completely packed and the ride was really unpleasant. I also had to cross the highway to get there, which was kind of scary.
In 2020, we experienced an earthquake. That was absolutely scary as my office was at the 12th floor. Since then, the whole institution relocated to Kalayaan Avenue, still in Quezon City. In the new location, commuting and eating out was much easier since the sidewalks were safe and there were a lot of small restaurants on Matalino, Maginhawa and Malingap streets, and this made me very happy.
I left this work in 2021 and started working at National Commission for Culture and the Arts, located in Intramuros, Manila. This new environment was exciting for me. The place is a touristic spot, very pleasant and pretty crowded.
During the pandemic, I worked from home, required to report to the office about twice a month. Somehow, I learned how to live and work in a very reduced space, yet I remember how relieved I was when working from home measures ended. Fortunately, we’re are currently back to normal.
My urban footprints
There are many blue symbols on my map. They represent all the places that I either pass by during the week or that I like very much: the grocery shops at the mall (SM Fairview), the doctor or the dentist I visit on a regular basis, the chapel (orange symbol) where I attend mass every Sunday. When I need to go out to relax, I often choose to go to UP Diliman campus because it is a very nice and peaceful place. There, I tend to reminisce about college, good old times, and all the associated memories. Not too far from the campus, there are also places where I can hang-out with friends from my previous work and go together to various eating places along Maginhawa, Malingap and Matalino streets.
I also wander along the Timog area, where all streets are named after the scouts that lost their lives in a plane crash on their way to Greece in 1963. I also love to go to Rizal and Antipolo, what I consider as my “second home”, since my best friend lives there. I particularly like the Upper Antipolo areas as there is a lot of “aesthetic restaurants”, and you can see the city lights from above! Generally speaking, it’s also colder and rather refreshing.
In the city: feeling good and feeling bad
When I take the bus, I have to pass by the Barangay market. I really don’t like the place and the smell there. It is packed with people, and I feel really uncomfortable and unsafe. It is also dirty, muddy and the smell is disgusting. When you see that everything around you is dirty and full of dust and garbage, you really wonder about the quality of the food they are selling. When I have no other choice but to pass through it, I take a huge gulp of air and stop breathing just long enough to cross it (red symbol).
When I commute between my home and my office, the intensity of the traffic and the crowds on the streets puts me in a huge discomfort. I have the same feeling while crossing the port area. There are also specific places where I never go, like Muntinlupa (red circle). Even if I have a good friend who lives there, it is just so far away.
Feeling good is when the place is ventilated, clean, quiet or peaceful, with lots of trees. I like a place when it is sunny - not to the point that it’s blistering hot, but when you can say: “wow, the nature!”. It can even be noisy, but it should be a nice noise, and it doesn’t “disrupt” you…Just moderately noise, places with moderate traffic for example. Feeling good is also when I slept well and feel well-rested, allowing me to be more efficient and productive at work.
There is a range of activities that I consider being healthy and ‘green’. Of course, walking. Who could survive without walking? I also consider my house as a healthy place because we take good care of it and there are parks nearby where we can breathe fresh air, have a nice picnic with friends in a nice environment and with good company. I also like to be at the Science Complex at UP, in my office, which is modern and well-ventilated, and in my friend’s houses where I feel welcome and safe.
Feeling badis when places are very cluttered, noisy, and smokey; when there’s a lot of traffic, and very little trees. I find it particularly distasteful when there’s a lot of pests like flies and mice; when it is muddy, and when you have the smell of frying street food mixing in the air.
Along certain highways, the traffic is so intense and the smell of exhaust is so strong that I can hardly breathe. In these places, I feel trapped. I also consider the office in my previous job as an unhealthy place because the working environment was degraded.
One of the biggest nuisances, and a potential health hazard in general, is road traffic and its associated effects. Of course, when I travel from work to home or vice versa during rush hour, the traffic is really intense and becomes a source of stress. I use either jeeps or tricycles, and these are exhaust-belching vehicles so smoke often permeate the interior of the cabin. That is scary; I am afraid I might inhale some toxic particles. Exhausts fumes, noise, and danger makes me feel very uncomfortable.
During the pandemic, travel with public transportation became very unsafe: the offer became limited, there were less buses and jeeps, the trips were more expensive, and the safety protocols (social distancing, masks wearing) where not respected at all. I was scared during that time. Even if I was careful, I could have gotten the virus anytime.
The southern part of the metropolitan area of Manila is a place I rarely go. I don’t really have friends there. When I was in college, of course, the people I was studying with were coming from diverse part of the agglomeration (Rizal or Bulacan, or Cavite, for example), but I didn’t really kept in contact with them, so there’s no real reason for me to travel there. My closest friends from high school are mostly from Quezon City where I spend most of my time.
One way to avoid pollution, toxicity and an unhealthy environment is by wearing a mask, not only to prevent catching Covid, but also to protect yourself from the heavy pollution due to the concentration of exhaust fumes. Before masks, I always had a handkerchief with me to cover my nose when it was smokey, either because of high level of smoke from cars and trucks, or when lots of people were smoking in places that were badly ventilated. The other problem is the water quality: in our household, it is unsafe to drink tap water, so we have to filter it. Therefore, we have to buy mineral water, distilled, o alkaline water, which comes at a high cost for the family.
