Daily Report:Not All Small Affairs Are Created Equal

I readjusted my understanding of the sense of community in The Philippines that I've been commenting on here lately. I think that a Filipino's desire to be "out and about" — mingling, chatting, participating, enjoying — is much more a self-centered operation than it is a desire to be a positive factor in the village. They ask not what they can do for their community.

Queenie was 9 years old when she died from leukemia yesterday. Her coffin was sitting in her parents' living room in a neighborhood of densely packed little houses on the outskirts of Jasaan. She had a simple bier surrounded by some relatives, photos, a paschal candle, and a few stuffed animals. Twenty people came to her funeral service.

It clears things up a bit, doesn't it? Five hundred people will show up for some nearly-pointless childrens' event, but only twenty will show up for a child's funeral. I suppose that these people have enough problems and enough grief in their own lives already. Filipinos probably learned early on that going over to their neighbor's to share in the grief doesn't accomplish much except to add to their own misery, and spread it like an infection. Happiness is what these people ask of their community; succor and solace are commodities this place seems to have in terribly small quantities.