Thriller in Manila The pizza tasted great. The steak and shrimp dinner was a delight, and like the pizza, tasted wonderfully “normal.” However, while my taste buds were ready for re-entry, my stomach was not. My wife was able to get me to the Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu where I spent my first night back in the US in the ER next to a drunken woman, handcuffed to her bed, hurling expletive laden insults at the arresting officer. A few hours later, sitting in a wheelchair just outside The Queen’s Hospital, I promptly passed out. Not two minutes after I had been discharged, I had to be readmitted and given a second IV. Thus ended my first night back in the United States after two months of weekly disasters in Manila. Insult added to injury.
ARRIVAL My wife and I were members of a touring 50’s rock band. We had been invited to Manila for two months of concer ts sponsored by local Christian ministries. After 36 hours of travel we landed in Manila and were promptly assaulted by heat and humidity that felt like a wool sweater in summer. Even at 2 AM, the roads are crowded, and traffic laws are merely traffic suggestions. Exhausted and disoriented we arrived at our hotel room and promptly needed to change rooms. Welcome to Manila. We met as a band with our local advance rep and had our first meeting at the S’barro Pizza in a local mall, which would become our sanctuary. 9