St. John's Cathedral is nested near the Bukit Nenas forest reserve in Kuala Lumpur City. The road leading to the church is a narrow street with a sharp 90 degree turn into the church parking area. Within the church, the large number of cars clog up the access into the church. Before the mass service (church session (9:30 am) has not yet ended, many of the Filipinos have began to leave the church grounds to gather outside the area. Some have left the St. John's cathedral area to other parts of town. Filipino traders who have brought food and other goods to the area begins to set up their stalls in the immediate area outside of the church grounds. One stall was located within the church grounds and was quickly asked to relocate outside the grounds. As more and more Filipinos gather around various food stalls and clothing traders, the church gate appears to be barricaded by patrons of the various Filipino food stalls, making it difficult for vehicles that are trying to leave church grounds. As the crowd grew and vehicles became clogged up, slight conflicts begin to arise in this intersection or transition space where church goers in automobiles begin honking to clear up the congregating Filipino crowds around the entrance area.
Around the small area, approximated 2000 square feet of space. I observed the unfolding of various programs. The area consist of 5 - 7 feet sidewalks and a dead end, sheltered space (which is an locked entrance to another building). Stalls were set up by Filipinos on the sidewalks itself. Since domestic workers do not own personal vehicles, they transport most of their goods to the area via taxi. Besides the actual ready made food, they also brough along tables to display the food and chairs for themselves and fellow Fillipinos. The food traders trade both breakfast food (which range from snacks such as chicken spring roll and rice cakes) to full fledge lunch food with rice, fish and etc. It is difficult to consume these dishes standing up but there is not sitting area or facility nearby. Therefore, I observed that most patrons to these food stalls would either sit near the edge (around 4 inches in width ) of the fence surrounding the church grounds, on the ground of the sidewalk or nearby steps. Some food operators brought along stools and chairs for the convenience of fellow Filipinos. The crowd clusters in groups of four to five depending on location, usually sheltered to facilitate conversation. As time passed by, more and more vendors appear in the area, some selling bargain clothes, toys (probably for them to send back to the Phillipines), drinks and even VCDs of movies and CDs of Music from the Phillipines. Besides Filipino vendors, there were small local vendors (Malays, Chinese and Indians) who saw the gathering of Filipinos as a business opportunity to sell phone cards ( on a motorcycle), toys and others. Big corporation such as telecommunication companies (Maxis and Digi) appear in their promotion vehicles to provide mobile phone services to the Filipinos who makes large number of international calls to the Phillipines. 
Nearby, large number of male (probably Filipinos) gather around two phone booths to make phone calls. They are dressed similarly in white shirts, a tie and a black slacks indicating that they might be working as a part of the church or a uniformed organization and that they don't own personal mobile phones unlike other Filipino domestic workers. Besides eating, the Filipino domestic workers would chit-chat with their friends around the area, catching up with fellow countrymates. Some even helped each other in a makeshift changing room to try on the clothing on sale. Some Filipinos are dressing up or putting on make up to get ready for their day off. While traders come and go, the crowd shrinks as Filipinos move on to other parts of town. However, as the time to the second mass nears, many locals begin to arrive for the second mass. They would pass the rows of Filipino vendors as they approach the gate but do not participate or purchase from the vendors. Most locals avoid the sight of the gathering Filipinos. It is interesting to observe the momentary confontation of "the other" as the two groups overlap in space. As the crowd from the First mass dispersed and the place emptied out, I surveyed the area and found food trash littered around the church grounds. Church goers and administrators expressed frustration over the condition of the littered church grounds. When the crowd has dispersed, I went to inspect the toilet facilities and found that the chruch has recently renovated the facility to accommodate higher usage. The facility has mirrors, wash basins and toilets but Filipinos were using the facility as a powder room. In other words, the facility needs a separate powder or mirror area to not inconvenient other church users.
During my visit, I interviewed H*. H*is a domestic worker in a nearby suburban area, Ampang, approximately 15 minutes from the church. She was selling some Filipino snacks in baskets at the gate entrance to the church. In addition to instant food, she was also selling some cakes, well packed so that fellow Filipinos can bring it home. While interviewing her, she told me that she would come to the church via taxi with all her goods and go into church for mass with her goods and start her sales after. I asked her about the space where they are gathering and she talked about how they merely find any space available to set up camp. According to H*, they used to be allowed to set up their food stalls within the church grounds but they have been banned from doing so recently to support a local food vendor within the church. Sitting on the curbside, I asked H* if she thinks that Filipinos need a proper space to gather and share food, and why they do not picnic by bringing their own food. H* explained that the public transportation in Kuala Lumpur is inconvenient and Filipinos have to travel from far away from their employer's house to St. John's and later to other areas and therefore, it is difficult to bring their own food from home. She also said that government officials often come to the area to take away the goods traded since none of the Filipino domestic workers have a trading license and it is in fact illegal for them to conduct businesses while being employed. However, Filipinos long to taste some Filipino food on their day off and since they cannot bring their own and there isn't a space for them to picnic, they created a demand for the smell and taste of Phillipines. That is why these Filipino food are priced significantly higher than normal Malaysian vendor food (it cost me RM 1 for a spring roll, where I can get 3 from a normal Malaysian roadside trader). Since the area is located on top of a slight hill, the vendors can see the approaching government officials where they would quickly gather their goods and return into the church grounds. Government officials cannot prosecute them if they are within private grounds. I did not observe this happening on my visit but H* notes that they come to the area on every other Sunday at around 10 am, which is the time the area is most crowded with Filipinos.
At 11:00 am, the area becomes quiet with certain traders leaving and others coming in their place to catch the crowd from the second mass. (11:30) The crowd from the second mass church goers consist of fewer Filipinos and therefore the atmosphere is not as rowdy as 10:00 am. As the crowd thins out, some stall keepers load up the vans in which they came with to leave, leaving some trash on the side of the curbs and around the monsoon drains. There was one worker from the local government cleaning agency (Alam Flora) that came to tidy up the area with one broom and a dust pan. As the place emptied out (12:30 pm) the church officials locked up the gate and the remaining Filipinos were packing up to go. Trash were gathered and left within close proximity to the gathering space and crows and other scavengers appeared to gather and attack the remaining food waste. I left at approximately 1:00 pm, feeling a little drained from the hot sun. The gathering space did not have those cooling bayan trees that would have made sitting around the area much more pleasant. Some Filipino vendors were familiar with the climate of the spot and have brought alot a shady umbrella, fans and fly swats to make their camp more pleasant.
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