Show Us Your Cock
It is early Saturday morning in Metro Manila. Sampoloc district to be exact. The sun is shining brightly and the street kids have long been up playing basketball since the very crack of dawn. Josh and I, led by our Filipino host JJ make way through a rather roughshod neighborhood to a rickety food stand and take a morning meal of rice and goat meat. Actually, quite tasty. But the owner of this ramshackle establishment knows the real reason we've purveyed his food twice this week and it isn't his fantastic cooking. We've come to fight and this guy knows the chicks that are willing to do it. After our meal, we settle up and he leads us down a back alley to a vacant lot covered in blue tarpaulin and bustling with commotion. He taps the grizzled gentleman at the gate on the shoulder and we each pay our 10 Peso to get in. We are now at our first cock fight!
Never before on this trip has such a grand entrance been made. As soon as we cross the threshold all eyes are on us. When I say "all eyes" we're talking like 40 pair for starters and then the other 100 or so turning in succession as we are promptly ushered around the pit to half court by our fantastic host. All thinking, "what are those white guys doing here?" I gotta say that I asked myself that same question. The man who brought us here is a promoter and champion breeder himself, he quickly uses that status to brush a few people aside and plant me in the front row. Josh stands just one row behind me. What a crazy spectacle. The next fight is just about to begin and EVERYONE starts shouting in Filipino across the ring at each other, waving money and placing bets. Just like a prizefighter, each bird is being "warmed up" with "training birds" pecking at their backs and getting the main contestants all riled up. Each fighter is equipped with a 6cm razor blade where his left-back talon should be. After a kiss of the gloves (beaks), each is taken to his corner and comes out fighting. What an aerial display some of these birds put on. They would jump and swing, block and jab. Each fighting with unshakeable courage.
The energy at a cock fight in unbelievable and overwhelming at times. But what I thought was going to be an inhumane exhibition actually wasn't that terrible and at times quite entertaining. These Filipinos really do love their birds. They breed them on every street corner and wear T-shirts proclaiming their love of the sport. None of the birds died to my knowledge. The organizers took the time to sterilize each blade with alcohol just before the roosters were dropped. We even saw surgery being performed after a few of the more spectacular battles. So while this is certainly not an evening at the theatre, I recommend a cockfight as something worth seeing.
My record? I bet on 5 matches. Won 4, Lost 1. Took home 450 Peso's for my guesswork. Good or bad, the experience will live with me forever.
Never before on this trip has such a grand entrance been made. As soon as we cross the threshold all eyes are on us. When I say "all eyes" we're talking like 40 pair for starters and then the other 100 or so turning in succession as we are promptly ushered around the pit to half court by our fantastic host. All thinking, "what are those white guys doing here?" I gotta say that I asked myself that same question. The man who brought us here is a promoter and champion breeder himself, he quickly uses that status to brush a few people aside and plant me in the front row. Josh stands just one row behind me. What a crazy spectacle. The next fight is just about to begin and EVERYONE starts shouting in Filipino across the ring at each other, waving money and placing bets. Just like a prizefighter, each bird is being "warmed up" with "training birds" pecking at their backs and getting the main contestants all riled up. Each fighter is equipped with a 6cm razor blade where his left-back talon should be. After a kiss of the gloves (beaks), each is taken to his corner and comes out fighting. What an aerial display some of these birds put on. They would jump and swing, block and jab. Each fighting with unshakeable courage.
The energy at a cock fight in unbelievable and overwhelming at times. But what I thought was going to be an inhumane exhibition actually wasn't that terrible and at times quite entertaining. These Filipinos really do love their birds. They breed them on every street corner and wear T-shirts proclaiming their love of the sport. None of the birds died to my knowledge. The organizers took the time to sterilize each blade with alcohol just before the roosters were dropped. We even saw surgery being performed after a few of the more spectacular battles. So while this is certainly not an evening at the theatre, I recommend a cockfight as something worth seeing.
My record? I bet on 5 matches. Won 4, Lost 1. Took home 450 Peso's for my guesswork. Good or bad, the experience will live with me forever.
posted by bdvankeuren @ 6:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home