31THE EATERY AT the Sunken Garden was far from the main road, but it was not secluded from the cacophony of noise that the buses and jeeps, and their drivers produced. Alma was still adjusting to these dissonant sounds she had not grown up with in their small house by the rice field. The small restaurant was on a huge, grassy land just outside the Intramuros; its walls served as backdrop for the several food kiosks and make-shift restaurants that dotted the open lot across the city government building. The narrow street where Alma’s older sister had found a place to rent was also a haven of noise. People expressed themselves by shouting and children couldn’t play without throwing invectives at each other, as if their games wouldn’t be as much fun without those curse words. The rundown shan
