Evelyn.

My name is Evelyn. I come from Leyte. The people are very poor there. I have no education. We eat fish and coconuts. You like coconuts? My parents also were very poor and there was not enough food for us all so I came to Manila. I was 15 then. I met some other girls. One of them had a room and we all slept there, maybe 10 of us. But I never sniff glue. We stay around Ermita joking with the men who wanted to touch us. One of the girls asked me if I want to make 500 pesos. Easy she said you go with man. We can live a week on 500 pesos. I said OK. The man was very bad. He made me take my clothes off and he did things with my body. He hurt me and then he laughed ‘Ha Evelyn, now you are not virgin anymore’. Ermita was a very lively place then. Many foreigners and many girls. One night I was in an open bar on Del Pilar and I saw a man watching me. I went to stand by him and he gave me a flower, the one they call Dama de Noche. He put it in my hair. His name was Philip. He took me to his hotel room. We watched ‘Eat Bulaga’ on TV. It is a very funny show. Philip asked me to sleep with him. I said ‘baha la ka’, up to you. He wanted to look at my body but he didn’t want to make love. He just wanted to hold me in his arms he said. I stayed with him for one week and he said he must go back to his country. Our last night together I wanted to make him happy. I took him in my hand but soon he was inside me. We did it but he was sad after. He was crying. Next morning we went to the airport in a taxi and had coffee waiting for his plane. He gave me 10,000 pesos. 10,000! ‘Don’t tell the other girls’ he said. We had a party with cake. It was fun but the police came. They kept us in the police station for 2 nights and someone stole my money. When Mayor Lim closed all the bars in Ermita. Even Rols. So we moved to Angeles City for dancing. I met many foreigners there. Some good some bad. Peter from Switzerland was a kind man and he helped me. He took me to Boracay. It was wonderful. He wanted to take me to his country but he already had a Filipina wife. She would cut his throat for sure he said. So that is my life. I stay in Angeles and work in bars sometimes. Peter still sends me money. My cousin Raymond is part owner of a Jeepney. So things are not so bad. I never saw Philip again but sometimes I think about him. What is he doing? Does he have a loving wife somewhere? I watch my son grow. One day he will ask about his father and I will say he was a good man.