The Rainforest Experience

Last Saturday I stumbled upon something I should have discovered years ago.  A friend invited me for a game of tennis at Pasig.  We were supposed to play at Villamor Air Base but the friend insisted that we try playing at Pasig instead since it’s closer to where we both live.  He said we were going to play at a park near his condo called Rainforest Park, and even added that it’s really nice.  I was skeptical as always since Pinoys have a flair for outrageously naming people and places without consideration for the namee’s actual state of affair.  Where else can you find a granny called Lola Baby?

I figured that since Rainforest Park is a public park, it would have tennis courts similar to that of CCP—open and unkempt.  Nevertheless, I was still raring to play because the holiday rains when I was in the province didn’t exactly cooperate with my afternoon tennis plans, not to mention the pro-bono engagement I found myself in, which occupied most of my vacation time.

After 30 minutes of bleary-eyed driving, I was surprised to find the park gated and unbelievably huge.  Going inside, I noted that there were lots of sports facilities.  I must have counted at least two basketball courts and a volleyball court.  There were even picnic spots.  There were also lots of people jogging and doing exercises.  Our main target, the tennis courts, were fenced in and well maintained which is surprising as it is a public park and most certainly doesn’t have a lot of local government funding.  I learned that there’s also a mini-zoo and even a public swimming pool within the park.  

It is refreshing that amidst all the commercialization & greed that proliferate in this vast metropolis, a place like the Rainforest Park still exists.  Take a bow Mayor Eusebio.

Admittedly, although I have been a Metro Manila resident for so many years now, my heart still beats to a distant drum.  I never really considered this place as my home.  There’s just too much of it to process.  I couldn’t see beyond the grime, the glue sniffing street children, and the insane traffic of this giant city, to really consider it as a place where I could perhaps raise a family someday.  But spots like the Rainforest Park somehow give me a glimmer of hope that perhaps, just perhaps, something like that may be possible.  It makes me want to believe that maybe, living in Metro Manila ain’t so bad after all.