while signing up for this blog, i was actually thinking if i have things to write about. I was not really a writer not even a writing major but i love to share stories. But after last night, it was clear to me why I created this blog.

Maan and I went home before 7pm. Unforunately, her car had it's usual sickness of getting an overheat. Luckily we were home when it happened. We opened the hood and put pails of water to the reserve plastic tank. Smoke was everywhere. After a few minutes of cooling down, we went up to eat dinner.

I was not really feeling well that time and decided not to eat. But when I saw the Doritos, hmmmm...it was a different story. Hehehe. So we both sat down and started devouring the chips. Our small dining area is just across our veranda, which is always open so we could get enough dose of fresh air. While we were chatting, we heard someone shouting " CHAIO! CHAIO!" Not really sure of the spelling of the word but that's how he we heard it. We got up and went out in our veranda to see what was happening. From there we saw the man shouting and running. A few people we're also running behind him. From the look of it, someone was chasing a robber.

Across our apartment was a house who has a bigger veranda than ours. At the time of the incident, a man in his 40s went out in his veranda holding something on his hand. I can also hear a woman's voice talking to the man. Since I can't understand what was really happening, I just observed. I was looking at the man and then I saw it--he was holding a gun and suddenly he released a warning shot in the air. Maan and I hurriedly closed the veranda door and ran to her room but since we felt that it's still not safe (imagining that a bullet can still pass through the windows), we hid in her bathroom. She was shaking and I was shocked. "First time ko makakita ng ganun. Normally sa news ko lang nakikita. San ka pa, dito pa sa Cambo ko naranasan ito. Afraid!!"We stayed in the bathroom for 10 minutes until we realized that it was quiet again. We bravely opened our door, checked the veranda and we saw kids on the street again. Now I know it's okay.

After the incident, we learned that our neighbor is a policeman. But the thing is, I don't know If I would be grateful for that. Having a policeman as a neighbor can be scary sometimes. Maybe because after what I saw. It was like anytime he can just shot anyone, anywhere, anytime.

They say these things are actually normal here. It can literally happen anywhere and anytime. Since we are foreigners of this country, we are defenseless. There's nothing we can do but to try to move away from incidents like this, back out on a fight, be silent and maybe the worst of all, give in.