Poorer families make do with a straw mat laid on the flat cement of raised graves. Food is available at little shops wedged into the empty spaces of larger tombs. Snacks are also on sale from pushcarts strategically placed along the paved lanes used by funeral processions. The pushcarts also offer flowers, candles and small Catholic icons which visitors purchase to adorn the burial sites of loved ones. Despite the deathly ambiance, residents try to get on with life.
Kids sit next to graves and poke at bleeping, hand-held computer games.
Other urchins munch on papayas and popsicles. In a macabre dance of life, a group of children twist and shout on a pair of glistening black-marble tombs. A few adult residents whiz by on small motorcycles. Others stroll along the tree-lined lanes through the cemetery as if walking through a typical lively village anywhere in the Philippines. Popular music pulsates from an occasional tape recorder or radio plugged into electricity sockets which are near most graves.