I'd Like to Thank The Muslim Extremists For My Piano

Purchasing a piano was not as simple as I had hoped it would be.  My thought process was that in a city so huge and so populated there would be quite a few music stores and lots of choices. 

BLAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHA-HAHAHA.HA.HA!

No.  We found two music stores in Metro Manila.  Selection was poor and prices were steep.  There's "Sulit" here which is basically Craig's list, but communication is tough because phone calls are expensive and everyone just texts.  Buying a piano via text is tricky business indeed.  Bruce finally tracked down a place that had several digital pianos for a reasonable price (the fact that we live in an apartment made a digital piano a foregone conclusion), and we arranged for our driver to take us out there on Saturday.

It's rainy season here, and by Saturday the roads were flooded.  There is little here by way of infrastructure and therefore, no drainage.  Even the main roads had water up to bumper level.  It only added to the general chaos that exists at all times here.  It took us 2 hours to travel about 15 miles or less through deplorable conditions.  Our driver kept telling us we were safe and then also kept telling the girls, "Don't roll down your windows!"  (We're fully tinted including the windshield.)  When we finally reached our destination we had to back down this narrow alley, and between the conditions, the travel, the chaos, and the narrow, closed in alley, I was nearing a full blown panic attack.  I found an acceptable piano, and we loaded up that sucker as fast as we could and got the heck out of there, but not before Bruce heard enough anti-Christian sentiment from the sellers of the piano to feel pretty confident that they were Muslims of the angry variety.  There was a parade as we were leaving ("parade" in this context means "mannequin with brown wig on a cross in the back of a pick-up with some fireworks.") because it was some Catholic holiday and the Muslims loudly called the parade-goers "pagans."  ("How can they be pagans?" I asked.  "Jesus was there.")

But all of that doesn't matter now.  Because I have my piano safe at home, and when I played it I was so happy I almost cried.