CRIS EVERT LATO-
RUFFOLO
My patience for drivers blatantly ignoring pedestrian lanes reached its limit last Thursday. I was crossing an area within a mall property in Mandaue when a gray car honked at us — myself and three other ladies — uttered expletives and angrily waved his hand telling us that we were slowing him down.
I stopped and told him that we are crossing the street on a pedestrian lane and that we are not taking our time like models strutting our stuff in the runway. The three other ladies were just as furious and the four of us circled the car like we were gangsters ready to hurl him out of his vehicle.
He calmed down just when the security guard approached us and reminded him to follow the rules. He apologized and said it will not happen again.
You should have seen the change in his facial expression when all four of us, women, who never knew each other before that very moment, decided to confront him and slapped him with the truth. He was able to leave, physically unscathed but not without an earful from the three ladies while I took pictures of his car and license plate.
His tribe seemed to have increased these days. Those who block pedestrian lanes or are just plain insensitive to the danger they pose on us — the walking, breathing, alive individuals — when they obstruct pedestrian lanes or ignore slowing down before reaching a designated crossing.
Report these people when you encounter them on the road.
Meanwhile, August descended in our home with joy and showered us with cakes, flowers and dinners with almost every family member celebrating their natal days on this month.
This month, the Basadours, the non-government organization composed of volunteer storytellers, led the reading center makeover of Barangay Hipodromo in partnership with Zonta Club of Cebu I and Cebu Librarians Association Inc. (CLAI).
We gathered at the barangay hall on August 19, a Sunday, and learned from CLAI members how to sort and organize books. Zonta 1, with donations from Miss Marem Flores and family, gave books and bookshelf which added more “life” to the reading center located on the third floor of the barangay hall.
On August 21, we held a storytelling festival in the barangay gym with 140 children attending, with the timely support of Jollibee. It was noisy and humid but it was fun and inspiring. The Basadours storytellers, who were there that day, are my unsung heroes for spending their holiday with the children and making sure that they all had fun. I see many of these servant leaders in this group; volunteering and serving with love and no vested interests other than being able to enjoy a burger with fellow storytellers at the end of the session.
These people are the real heroes — not the ones like Imee Marcos — who went on a school tour around Cebu on the week that Mandaue celebrated its Charter Day.
At one school visit, she “discussed” federalism and urged the students to deliver hugot lines. The public “thinking ones” would know that this is the “re-packaging” of herself as a worthy senator for 2019. When one student in the crowd asked her about what she thinks of the Marcos regime, she was quoted saying, “Mag-focus muna kayo sa pag-aaral.”
I cannot help but think, “If the same young person asked the same question during the time when the Marcoses ruled this country, he or she would have disappeared and God knows what would have happened.”
Cebuanos, watch out. There will be more visits like this as we move forward to 2019. Let us be discerning enough to realize that there is evil lurking in the guise of synthetic bracelets and junk food. Just like the ones distributed this week in a private university here in our city.