NOTES ON THE PHILIPPINES
Notes on the Philippines
by Bob May
I was fortunate to be able to spend most of 1999 in the Philippines as a United Methodist Volunteer in Missions. I recorded my thoughts, prayers, poems, sketches and daily incidents in a little journal. This journal became a “monthly observation” email to my friends back home. I compiled some of my entries into this little book.
Bob
October 1999
Thank you!
I just wanted to say thanks for all that you have done and continue to do for me -- your words of encouragement, your financial contributions, and most importantly, your prayers. Every word I receive from you makes my time in missions work even more enjoyable, and your generous contributions make the entire effort possible.
I also want to give a special thanks to the kind folks of the Philippines. You welcomed me into your country and gave me an unforgettable and wonderful experience.
Thanks,
Bob
Please contact me:
Email:
Home:
19878 Bergton Road, Bergton, VA 22811
These are just general observations I have made about the people and the culture of the Philippines…
March ’99
The people are wonderful. They are all very friendly and good-natured. The country is beautiful.
The fruit is fresh and fantastic -- excellent mangoes, star apples, coconuts, pineapples, and all types of native fruit whose names are unknown to me.
The Banana Salesman
It's a myth that English is commonly spoken here. I never hear it between two Filipinos. It is scattered throughout Tagalog conversations, but not more than a word or two at a time.
Lord, thank you for revealing things and opening my eyes. It’s all a gift from you. It’s all from you.
In my experience, phones in general are scarce. There is often a waiting line to use the public phones. There aren't a lot of public phones. And there aren't many places to make international calls. The PLDT Phone Company is the only place I know of, besides private lines.
Lots of roosters crowing every morning. It starts about 5:30 and goes until 6:30.
Often the largest sizes (especially shoes) are too small for me, and at 6'1" and 175 lbs. with size 10.5 feet, I'm not that big. I had a group of about a dozen people watching me try on shoes. It was embarrassing.
The people are generally smaller and thinner than Americans. I'm told the average height for a man is 5'6" and for a woman 5'3" (I would have guessed shorter.) I tower above crowds. I cannot judge a young person's age. A 20-year old looks about 12 to me. The young women are particularly small.
No one walks, sits, or lies in the sun here. A lighter complexion is desired to the point where it is common to see men and women using a book or paper to shield themselves from the sun's rays, even when they're just crossing the street. Sunscreens with skin lightening ingredients are very popular.
Service workers have incredibly good manners when they wait on people. It's always "Yes, Sir" and "No, Sir".
Books cost about the same as in the U.S. -- making them almost impossible for students to afford here.
Little lizards are everywhere -- crawling on my room walls, hiding behind curtains, and scurrying above doors.
Not many people wear shorts. Well, I should say that shorts are not worn as often as they are in the U.S. We wear shorts all the time, but Filipinos might wear them one or two days a week. I think it must be considered too informal. Even in the sweltering heat, most wear long pants. Almost all the Americans I run into are wearing shorts.
It is rare to see an American except in the local McDonalds, where I have seen at least one other American or European on almost every visit there. They usually don't talk to me, and I don't talk to them. I think they're just passing through, since Cabanatuan City is on the way to the internationally acclaimed rice terraces of Banaue.
It's not uncommon to see water buffalo pulling carts through the streets in the country. It's also not uncommon to see luxury autos either.
The Caribal / Water Buffalo
Drivers use their horns here as a regular part of their driving process. A horn is used here more in five minutes than I have used mine in my lifetime. Light-flashing is used to indicate something, but I'm not sure what. You flip your lights when you are about to meet in a head-on collision. I'm not sure if it means "we're both about to die if you don't leave my lane" or "I acknowledge you, and I'm going to slow down a bit and make sure you can pass safely".
Lord, let me see the world through your eyes and not mine. Let me see You in everyone. Don’t allow my own prejudices to affect Your work. Let me see when I’m imposing my own set of standards on someone else.
Knives aren't used. The spoon is the utensil of choice. Spoons and forks only, with all of the eating done with the spoon.
Power outages are common. At least weekly, maybe a couple times a week. They tend to last for several hours, but our longest so far has been eight hours. This has happened several times. Occasionally there will be a power outage scheduled for Luzon -- the entire region (1/3 of the country). I use my computer when I can, because I'm never sure I'll be able to use it later.
Some people ride outside jeepneys on their roofs. It's common to see workers riding on the roof or hood of their truck, or maybe in the scoop of their loader.
The Jeepney
A certain bug here predicts the rain. One evening there were about a billion of these things flying around in clouds. Before that day I had noticed none. After that day I noticed none. I was told that those bugs only come out before a big rain. The day after the bugs were out, we had our first big storm. They catch these bugs by attaching a plastic bag to the light. The bug is attracted to the light and flies into the bag. I have seen bags holding what appear to be a couple pounds of bugs.
It's difficult to adjust to these cold showers. Some places have some sort of electrical device that heats the water immediately before it leaves the shower, but I don't have one in my dorm.
I see a lot of abandoned but nice buildings. I'm not sure why there are so many of them. They look like decent places, but they are vacant. Also, a lot of sites have beautiful entrance gates but no community behind them -- just gates proclaiming the great community. Evidently funding for a lot of projects gets cut before the project is over -- or even started.
There is a problem with quality control. I've seen it in things from construction, to home products, to personal articles.
This seems to me to be much more a Spanish culture than an Asian one -- Spanish words, Spanish architecture. Spain ruled until almost 1900.
I love it when the tricycle driver tries to rip me off now. The rate is four pesos, but he demands ten. I laugh and hand him four. He drives off and never complains.
Tricycles
The power in the computer lab went out, so I stepped outside and sketched the schoolyard. Children came by to see what I was doing. They liked to watch me draw. I had the ones that could write sign their names on my paper.
Schoolyard at Wesleyan
Thank you for power outages. Thank you for time I can spend away from my computer and with the little children. Lord, thank you for letting me experience Your beauty in many ways. Thank you for bamboo trees, children laughing, warm sunshine, birds chirping, little voices struggling to say “what are you doing, Joe?”, old bicycles, battered guitars, leaves, and climbing on a gym set.
Beauty Contests are very popular here. All ages. Many occasions.
Beauty Contestants
The driving here really irritates me. It's a total free-for-all. Everyone does what he can get away with. I'm amazed that there isn't some road rage. I believe I'm the only one feeling it.
I hear words like "Joe, American, USA, and Michael Jordan" whenever I walk through the neighborhood.
Kids are curious and shy.
Most of the food is fried.
The smell of things burning is constantly in the air. People burn their trash with small fires.
Rice is left to dry in parking lots and even on the highway. Just drive right over it. Sometimes one of two lanes is blocked off just to allow rice to dry. It might be blocked off for 100 yards or so. This makes for more interesting traffic patterns.
Old tires are cut up and used for speed bumps across narrow streets.
Pirating is everywhere. It is easy to find illegally copied CDs, movies, books, software. I'm sure that a lot of people couldn't afford this stuff if it wasn't. In fact, I don't think I've seen a legitimate video since I've been here. Every store is full of copied tapes and homemade boxes.
Some people will sometimes repeat what you say to them. If I say, "I went over to the MegaCenter", they will reply "went over to the MegaCenter", and "I bought a Coke" becomes, "bought a Coke".
People will touch you when they talk. Resting a hand anywhere or just continually poking you while they speak.
Hissing is a way to get someone's attention, but it's somewhat impolite.
Thank you Lord for having a plan for my life. A plan for my welfare and not for harm. A plan for a future with hope. (From Jeremiah 29:11)
For my birthday we had sweet potato ice cream flavored with cheese. It was excellent.
Well, my birthday (3/21) was a good one. The folks in my dorm Bible study gave me a nice pre-birthday lunch of mango, pancit (sort of like a tasty lo mein) for long life, and some rice-birthday-cake. Pretty darn good. They sang happy birthday and waited patiently for me to leave. Then my roommate Noli, his girlfriend Flor (short for Florida), and six of his Computer Technology students took me to a great volcanic "resort" for the weekend.
Computer Lab & Students
It was a nice place with a pool. The two rooms were each about $30 a night, and we shared the cost. It was about 50 miles south of Manila, but it took a long time to get there. Probably at least seven hours from Cabanatuan City, which is about 70 miles north of Manila. One of the guys had a van so we all piled in for a long road trip. Although it's only 70 miles to Manila, the drive takes three hours because the road is packed with slow moving vehicles -- water buffalo, these rice-field tractors, trucks, jeepneys
Jeepney
and those tricycle (motorcycles with sidecars) irritations. I ride them every day, but they are a real nuisance to cars. There are thousands of them on the road at all times. And they don't give an inch. It doesn't matter if you blow your horn all day -- like everyone does -- those things will not move out of the way. And as soon as you work your way around one, another one is in the way. Until you get near Manila the road only has one lane in each direction, but both lanes are freely used by all traffic. I seriously fear for my life every time I'm on that road. I'm totally on edge. I cannot relax a bit the entire three hours. It seems like every pass is a near miss, and it goes on for hours. It doesn't matter if the line is ten miles long, bumper to bumper -- everyone pulls out into the lane of oncoming traffic to pass. Even with absolutely no spot to pull into. It's nerve-wracking. Oncoming traffic knows what to expect though, and they're on their brakes hard all the time. And they're/we're in the shoulder a lot of the time. This weekend we were at an impasse on a bridge. Four cars were on the bridge. Two cars facing each way (head-on collision position in each lane). We just sat that way blowing our horns at each other for a couple of minutes. No one gets angry. They just blow their horns and flash their lights and keep smiling. They have a heck of a lot more patience than I do. The biggest truck won out -- although he was in the wrong lane. It doesn't help my nervousness that a former student at my school here -- Wesleyan University -- was killed on that road last week. We passed the accident scene an hour or so after the accident. It was horrible. I've read about four other people killed in the tricycles since I've been here too. I'm surprised more people aren't killed. They're dangerous. Everything is really a near miss. Bare inches to spare. Half the time they don't have any taillights, and in the middle of the night they're out on the freeway with the rest of the traffic. (I would say something like that was incredibly stupid, but I’m not allowed to impose my value system on anyone else.) Once you get to Manila the traffic doesn't get any better. It just gets so heavy that no one can pass, and at least I'm not so nervous then when traffic in all directions is at a standstill. I have a chance to catch my breath. It takes several hours to get through Manila. And they have restrictions about who can drive when. Even numbered license plates on some days, odd numbered plates on other days. I'd hate to see what the traffic looked like if they didn't have that policy. Anyway, despite the roads, I was able to relax and go for a late night swim at the resort. Late night swimming is popular here because it is so darn hot during the day. It's been 90+ with almost 100% humidity every day since I arrived, and this is just the spring. I'm told this is nothing, it gets hot in the summer. OK, so we were at the resort, and I slept well Saturday night. (Maybe because we had a bathroom that worked! Excellent!) We got up Sunday morning and saw a beautiful huge lake and crater. We ate some fish and rice and rented a boat to take us across the lake to hike up the mountain. The outrigger boat can be described as sort of a narrow wooden canoe with a motor. It was actually sort of like a Hobie-Cat with these wooden slats across it. It got us across the lake in about twenty minutes. Once we arrived we were greeted by a bunch of folks with horses. They wanted us to rent their horses, but I didn't figure that out until later. I thought it was another group going up the mountain. They followed us. Our group hiked up the first part of the trail, and it was pretty darn steep. I was the last one in our group, and the horses behind me kept nudging me in the rear. I guess I was going too slowly. We made it through the first section, and one in our group decided that was enough and rented a horse. A seven-month pregnant lady would then lead this horse the rest of the way up and down the crater. She didn’t seem to have trouble navigating the terrain. I think the horse was around $2 -- which is enough for a pretty darn good meal here. The rest of the riders turned around and went home. The entire hike lasted about an hour, but it was well worth it. The view into the crater was incredible. Smoke was coming out of the side, and you could see the water bubbling/boiling around the edges of the Lake inside the crater. We were at the top sitting on a rickety-framed hut overlooking a several-hundred foot drop into the mouth of the volcano. Pretty cool. There were several craters and volcanoes there. Really incredible. We stayed at the top for a couple of hours. Met a couple of arrogant Americans from New England. They were bragging about how they really screwed some Chinese silk makers out of a lot of cash. I was really embarrassed to be talking to them then, and I hoped my Filipino friends weren’t understanding all of the conversation. A nice European couple showed up too. They had volunteered at an orphanage for three weeks and they were going home soon. He was from Italy. She was from Holland. The guys in my group loved her. She was tall, blonde and wearing shorts and a sleeveless top – very daring for this culture. They didn’t say a thing, but they quietly listened to every word she said. In the privacy of their group later, they said a lot about her. I understood a few words of it – “the closest thing to heaven” was how one guy described her. A lady was selling coconuts at the top of the crater. Noli bought me one. The lady opened the top, and I drank the milk. Then she fashioned a spoon out of the shell with her machete and opened it. I scooped out the meat and it tasted great! Darn good coconut. (I’ve never been there, but I suppose this must be like Hawaii.) The boys made an offering to the gods and tried tossing the shell into the crater. Mother Nature got mad and blew more smoke out of her earth. When I got back I picked up my Lonely Planet guide to read about what I had just seen. "The town offers visitors superb views of the volcanic island with its crater lake, but only if the weather is clear. The volcano is one of the smallest AND MOST DANGEROUS IN THE WORLD. Any (fool) who wants to climb it can arrange to be taken over to the volcanic island from Talisay, 17 km east of Tagaytay." Maybe I should have read that before I made the climb. Oh well. After rolling down the hill and taking a good swim in the pool, we drove another seven hours back and finally and semi-safely (not really) made it home. A good birthday to remember. Thanks guys....