Tourism and Western Puppies
I was waiting in line to see and pray to the image of the Sto, Niño. The line was quite long, but it wasn’t that bad.
A group of young French and *insert European country here* kids lined up behind me. I guess they were in their twenties.
They were talking to each other quite loudly. I was right in front of them, so it was hard not to listen.
I found out that they fell in line just because there was a line. They were curious because they had “nothing to do but lie by the pool”. One of them went ahead to see what people are lining up for.
“It’s a chapel,” the guy said as he came back.
They started talking about the church. “I’ve seen better”, “Rome has the best churches.”
They started talking about the weather. “If I lived here, I would take the cab like, everywhere.”
And finally, as we neared the chapel, “It should be spectacular. We’ve been in line for a long time.”
I was quite irritated at this point, and the other people in line started looking at them. They were speaking in English and made no effort to tone down their voices.
I wasn’t sure what these kids were expecting. Probably a grand chapel with marble floors and a 20-foot high ceiling.
But as much as I wanted to give them a setdown, it would have been in bad form to do so. It was after all, a place of worship, and they were Western Puppies. They probably Googled “the places you can visit in Cebu” and saw the Minor Basilica at the top of the list.
They were probably baffled to see people fall in line just to stand in front of kid Jesus, place a hand on the glass encasing Him, pray silently, and walk away.
I guess this is what the people of Thailand and India must feel when tourists flock their temples. It’s nice that foreigners visit because they are interested, but it becomes a nuisance when your place of worship becomes a tourist spot. Suddenly, strangers start coming to see a spectacle, when all you want to do is pray.
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