Para Po

I like taking jeepney rides. Not only they are cheaper and breezier but also because I get to observe typical Pinoy commuter's behavior and especially humor. For the past 12 years of commuting in Manila, I only got one major bad encounter (my bag with nothing in it got snatched in Cubao and I wasn’t also cautious that time). I consider that a pretty good statistic of commuting in Metro Manila.

Last Saturday, I was on my way to the land of mangoes (Manggahan) for a night of poker with Noe and Jerry. I took my favorite bus to Ortigas then I got off at Robinson’s Galleria. Near EDSA shrine (a place where I should’ve been that morning), I took a jeepney to IPI. From IPI, I needed to cross to take another jeepney to Libis.

Anyway, after getting off at IPI, a young man with a big red bag approached me. My initial reaction in situations like these would be to move away from any suspicious looking stranger but the “lost look” on his face did it for me. He asked where he can get a ride to Libis. Since I was on my way to Libis, I told him to go with me. Just when we are about to cross the street, a girl with a piece of paper approached me and asked how to get to Greenmeadows (the address on her piece of paper). I don’t know how to get there myself so I told her to ask the jeepney driver. At this point I was thinking, this could be a modus operandi, but both of them don’t look like scheming persons. So I took my chances and since I felt really crappy the night before. I thought nothing can make me feel worse, not even innocent-looking muggers. Seriously, they really look lost and they didn’t appear to be conniving kids prying on hapless moi.

So three of us, like classmates on our way to school, crossed the busy and dark stretch of Ortigas Extension. When we got to the other side, I asked the girl to ask the driver how to get to Greenmeadows. It turned out the jeep would pass by the verdant meadows of Greenmeadows. So we all “boarded” the jeepney, this motley crew of "lost individuals". The first to get off was the girl going to Greenmeadows and she thanked me profusely before getting off. After a few meters, I had to get off but the other lost kid, who still looked lost, glanced at me with questioning eyes. So I told him to get off near the very big billboard of noodles and he said “Salamat po”.

I felt the quizzical stares of other people in the jeepney after I said “Para po”.