Life in Zambo

Paydays usually fall on the 15th and the 30th. When I still worked at my first call center, and if the 15th fell on a Saturday, we'd get our pay on the 14th. The funny thing was, it's still the 13th and people are already itching to withdraw from ATMs. We'd call the last few days towards the payday " tingbits ". That's short for tingbitay, an expression Cebuanos use that means "running low on cash". My salary used to be between P10,000 - P15,000 at the time. Since I was a fresh graduate, the frugal living that I led and taught my younger siblings were carried over by habit and I managed to live somehow without asking for allowance from my parents. Then I met Lifestyle. I met Starbucks, Bo's Coffee, met with McDonald's and Jollibee as much as I can, and even forgot that I used to see Carinderia to shell out just P20 during midday. Regretfully, whenever it was payday, I always found a way to spend it and just lived from paycheck to pay...

Yesterday, I went on a run to the Red Zone. I brought along my ID, because just by flashing it, it gets me to places where not a lot can go to. Anyway, there were some documents that I needed at the office, and while it seemed quiet, I just got on the motorcycle and went. Every now and then, I'd still hear gunfire and explosions, but what's scary is that I've gotten so used to it that I don't even feel scared anymore. Everything looked perfectly normal on the way to the City Hall. There were people around, traffic was even bustling. Everything looked normal except when I got to the boundaries set by the military. When I got to the entry point, I showed the soldier on duty my ID, he asked how long I'll be staying at the office, and I tell him that I won't be long. As soon as I got through the road block, it was a whole different world. The usual noisy, busy streets of the pueblo was so quiet, I swear I could even hear the wind. About fifty meters away from the ...