ランチタイムの、セブ島英会話学校カフェテリア。
大学生か社会人か、いつも４～５人で群れている若い日本人男子がいる。
夜な夜な、マッチングアプリで現地の女性と遊んでいる。その様子を、卑猥な言葉で自慢し合う。
この人たち、何しにここに来たんだろうね。
一方で誰ともつるまず、ひとり黙々と食べるカッコいい日本女性がいる。
あかりさんと、ももかさんだ。
２人とは、入学オリエンテーションで知り合った。休日に、一緒に遊んでもらった。
ふんわりしたファッションと明るいブラウンヘアのあかりさんは、東京の大学生。見かけ都会のお嬢様だが、ラオスのビエンチャンからバンビエンを経てルアンパバーンまで陸路で旅するなど、なかなかの大物だ。
市内見物に行った時は、誰よりも電波を拾うスマホで配車アプリを使いこなし、カルボン市場やサントニーニョ教会、あちこち連れて行ってくれた。
でも Google
Map を見ていながら、なぜか反対方向に歩き出す。サンペドロ要塞にたどり着けたのは、この私のおかげです。
留学生活も２週間を過ぎた頃、「そろそろ飽きてきた」と、ひと言。
こっちは毎日、レッスンに食らいついていくだけで必死なのに…
やっぱり、あかりさんは大物だ。
ももかさんは、泣く子も黙るERの看護師。ふとした眼差しに、スペシャリストのプライドが滲む。この学校には医療英語のコースがあるので、さらなる高みを目指す医療従事者が集まるのだ。
郊外をバスで走っていた時。窓からぼんやり熱帯雨林を眺めていたももかさんが、救急車とすれ違ったとたん、活気づいた。
「フィリピンの救急車ってどんなかなぁ。車内を見学したいな！」
血が騒ぐらしい。
交通法規などあって無きに等しい、混沌としたセブ市内。彼女と歩いていると、得も言われぬ安心感がある。いまクルマに轢かれても、ナースももかさんが救命してくれる！
彼女の趣味は、絵画鑑賞だ。モネの「睡蓮」が大好きで、作品が日本に来た時は必ず足を運ぶという。
去年、パリのオランジュリー美術館で私も「睡蓮」に向き合った。心が邪念だらけなせいか、いまいち、その世界に入り込めなかった。
救急救命センターで急患対応に明け暮れていると、魂のレベルで「睡蓮」の静謐さを欲するのかも知れない。
週末ランチに、セブ島名物レチョン（子豚の丸焼き）を食べた。２人とも、見ていて気持ちがいい食べっぷり。きれいに平らげて、まだ足りなそうだった。
ER nurse and Waterlilies
Lunch time, English School cafeteria in Cebu.
There are always four or five young Japanese guys, probably university students or working adults, huddled together.
They are playing with local women on a matching app at night. They brag to each other in an obscene manner about their activities.
What these people are doing here...
On the other hand, there are cool Japanese women who don't hang out with anyone and eat quietly by themselves.
Akari and Momoka.
I met them at the orientation. They hung out with me on their days off.
Akari, with her fluffy fashion and light brown hair, is a university student in Tokyo. She may look like a city girl, but she is quite a big shot, traveling overland from Vientiane, Laos to Luang Prabang via Vang Vieng.
When we went to see the city, she used a car-dispatch app on her smartphone that picked up more signals than anyone else and took us to the Carbon market, Santo Niño Church, and many other places.
But while looking at Google Maps, she sometimes started walking in the opposite direction. I made it to the San Pedro Fortress.
After two weeks of studying abroad, she said one word to me, “I'm getting tired of it.
I'm just trying to keep up with the lessons every day...
Akari is a big shot after all.
Momoka is an ER nurse who silence the crying child. The pride of a specialist is evident in her eyes. The school offers a medical English course, which attracts medical professionals who aspire to higher levels like her.
Once we were driven a bus in the suburbs. As soon as she passed an ambulance, she became animated.
"I wonder what an ambulance is like in the Philippines. I want to see the inside of one!"
Her blood was boiling.
Cebu city is a chaotic place, where traffic laws are as rare as they are nonexistent. Walking with her, I felt an indescribable sense of security. Even if I were hit by a car, Nurse Momoka would save my life!
Her hobby is to appreciate paintings. She loves Monet's “Waterlilies” and always goes to see them when they come to Japan.
Last year, I also had the chance to see “Waterlilies” at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris. Perhaps it was because my mind was full of evil thoughts, but I could not enter into the world of the work.
Perhaps it is because she spend most of her time at the emergency room dealing with urgent patients that she crave the serenity of “Water Lilies” at the level of her soul.
We had the Cebu specialty, lechon (whole roasted suckling pig), for lunch on the weekend, and both of them were very pleasant to watch as they ate their fill, and it looked as if they still had more to eat.
