AUTOTOMY

Hawkers ply the main streets where you’ll find tourists, especially the Fuente Circle area in Cebu, which is the heart of the city. They sell everything from shoes to puppies to watches and drugs for erectile dysfunction.

A guy once followed me half way up the Juana Osmena Street holding a Cialis box and a fake Rolex watch in front of my face. With each step he lowered the price and I walked faster to try to outpace him, and finally he ran out of breath and couldn’t keep up with me, though I could hear him still quoting lower and lower prices to me. But I’ve learned that they’re just fixtures on the street to be seen and ignored, like a newspaper hanging in a stall. You might glance aside to read the headline, but you’re not going to buy the paper.

It’s a noisy country. There are trikes, jeepneys and motorcycles making an incessant loud level of noise. Motorcycles drive by around the clock. There’s always construction work going on, some guy sawing or hammering. The children living next door scream and cry and stir up whirlwinds of laughter as they play. But not only that, there are dogs, roosters, big stereo speakers, videoke and video games. Even when I was staying at a hotel, I couldn’t escape the sounds of amateurs butchering pop songs at the outdoor videoke stall across the street. The volume is always turned up to about 115 on a system that goes only to 10. All that sound gets in my head and it’s difficult to keep it out, even with earplugs. I stare at the computer screen and focus on the writing at hand, and then the noise grates and I find my eyes full of static.

Living in an emerging economy, or what used to be called the “third world” I’ve had to get used to some aspects of daily living that could be more easily avoided or dealt with in the West. This will be an ongoing installation.

Lets start with cold showers.

I take a cold shower every day. Some days I can take it, some days I can’t. Even though it’s a hot country, water running through the pipes can be cold in the mornings and at night. When I put my head into that water and let it hit my shoulders, I always think we should install a heater. But what I have gotten used to is the routine of bracing for the cold.