I shot these photos and videos from the back seat of our taxi along the route from the Imperial Palace back to the Radisson Blu. As you can see, the majority of the people here in the city live in poverty and sub-standard conditions by Western standards.
The air quality in the city varies from day to day. Some days it is clear and quite clean. Other days there is a thick haze that hangs over everything. Today is one of those days. From our 20th floor vantage point we can see the grey smog hanging over the city like a thick blanket.
One of the problems here is that many of the locals burn their garbage, which produces a noxious smoke that gets into your lungs and causes respiratory problems. Christine suffers from a persistent cough every time we’re outside for an extended period of time. Many of the locals move around with a facecloth covering their nose and mouth. Our three year-old grandaughter suffers from asthema, which I believe is aggravated by the poor air quality. She has to use a nebulizer to control the symptoms.
Photos
A few more shots from our taxi on Dec. 16th on our way to the Cebu Coleseum for the healing Mass with the Archbishop.
Video