folklore.

Painting of one of the evil spirits of Filipino folklore: it takes the form of half a human and flies around at the night looking for pregnant women whose unborn babies it can feast upon. 

belief and disbelief.

Our night out on the town began with a tour of the landmarks down Divisoria with a friend of Carmela (the girl who has taken me under her wing since my arrival).  At one statue the tour guide proclaimed, 'under the mayorship of [this guy], only one crime was committed in ten years.'

I tried to let it go.  But then I didn't. 'Really?'

'Really.'

'....Really?'  Images from The Wire and everything I learned from my Criminology classes were singing and dancing through my head.  That, and we were walking down a street where the police station was five metres away from a stall hawking pirated DVDs to all and sundry.

'Really really.'

It was one of those moments where half of me was like, "LIZ, stop being a dick" and the other half was like, "YOU MUST STOP THEM FROM TELLING SUCH OUTRAGEOUS LIES."

there's got to be a better way to say that.

Spotted this in their city's museum when I visited the other day.  Apparently it's the flag Mindanaoans used as part of their rebellion against the Spanish and fight for independence.  

Took more than one Google search to find that last link.