On the Road in the Philippines

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I have spent a long time in the road in the Philippines. 3 hours a day, back and forth to the office. I have read so many Filipino billboards and signs that I am starting to learn Tagalog words and am even starting to get jokes that make reference to local advertising campaigns. There are only a few highways here, and the rest of the time you are driving through little villages, and farmland, and would-be suburbia. So, it can be slow.going, and yet it is pretty entertaining. The first 45 minute is highway driving out of Manila, and then it's small towns in Cavite, always crossing bridges across huge gaps with tiny rivers at the bottom. There is a constant scene going on outside. Little kids playing hide and go seek, girls walking home from school, shirtless guys walking to work, people hanging out at outdoor restaurants. I just peer down their little lanes, and onto their front porches, protected by the blackened windows of my rented car, and it entertains me even though I feel like a voyeur.

On the day we tried to avoid traffic, we ended up on some dirt country roads. Bumpy & stuff. The driver apologized - I said "Actually, some people pay a lot to go off-roading. The way I see it, you're giving me an adventure tour!"

I have noticed one big trend here is building big, American McMansions in the countryside around all the offices/plants that have grown up in Cavite. However, people here live with their families - extended families - so maybe the mcmansions aren't so big after all. The gated communities all have names like "Tuscan Dream", "Carmel", stuff like that. I'm just making those up but it's like that. Most of them are still under construction. There are so many, I don't know who all will live in them! Everyone else in this countryside seems to live in little concrete houses on the roadside. We took a country road to avoid traffic, and it started reminding me of Egypt - the west bank of Luxor. Same banana trees, same canals with small bridges leading across them. Here, the canals are choked with vegetation, and occasionally garbage, but mostly some kind of vine/plant. It's dry season here so maybe the canals are different in the rainy season, necessary even. I don't know if it's drainage canals or if they are needed for irrigation. There are also many beautiful farm animals here, the most beautiful chickens with big plumage - these chickens would be doing a drag show if they weren't busy laying eggs. Chickens seem to live in these wooden lean-tos. They are most definitely free-range! I have also seen many cute goats (I love goats) and beautiful oxen with curvy horns and big floppy ears. I have not however seen any pigs despite the fact that pigs are supposed to be a valued foodstuff here. Maybe the pigs are kept in another part of the farm, not allowed to range around the fields like the other animals.

I even saw a huge field of garbage, with a few shacks built alongside/on top of it. not sure if this was their personal garbagepit or whether it's a town dump and they are the trash pickers. Anyway, that is the worst sign of poverty I have seen. I have not seen very bad poverty here (though some of my colleagues in America disagree - they haven't seen India .. or Cambodia). Mostly, it seems like a country on the rise, industrializing, suburbanizing, middle-class-building. The biggest reminder of world poverty for me here has been the press. Every day there is a story on the rice shortage, the general food shortage in the world. We don't see those news stories in the US. Obviously the people I am working with are doing well, are educated, are successful. But this is like any trip I take to a foreign country. As a tourist, you only encounter people in the tourism industry. As a business person, you get a comparative view to your own life, because you're meeting your peers - people who do similar jobs to you.

The most remarkable feature is the malls, the endless malls. More malls than America ever had. Malls for miles. I am surrounded here by Glorietta 1, 2, 3, 4 and Greenbelt 1-5. Last night, I went to Greenbelt with my co-worker. Gorgeous designer clothes in greenbelt 5, and the malls are all connected by beautiful fountain-filled plazas. We ate at an outdoor Italian-style cafe called Damaso.

But back to the economy. A few people here have told me it is not the greatest place to live, but I cannot absorb their attitude about it because as a visitor, I don't want to have any judgements - only optimism. Too many people just come to a different country and judge it for being different from where they are from. I don't live here and I can't judge it.

But it is remarkably American. The Filipinos all have American accents, or rather, they have their own version of English but it's very American-sounding, with its own special quirks that I've gotten used to. And their other language, Tagalog, has so much English and Spanish in it that I can vaguely understand what's going on most of the time. I just pick up the few English words and guess at what they are saying. They switch back and forth so easily - they can speak English so amazing well, better than any other country I've been in. Better than India, which was a British colony and has its own dialect of English. I haven't met a single person here who doesn't speak English. They also dress like us - jeans, t-shirts. But the funny thing about the language - you get so used to the English that when they do switch back, you get kinda lost - like "whoa, wait I didn't understand that. Oh, I wasn't supposed to understand that." I'm training people, so I really want to make sure people can understand me. Well, they seem to get my jokes. There was one thing I couldn't resist making a joke about and I kept hoping that it wouldn't translate. But it SURE did. It had to do with these prizes I was handing out. Actually all the prizes have had funny names. First was chocolate bars - ChocoMucho. Which I resisted saying like it was a mexican wrestler. Then there was "Yamama", which I kept thinking - if you said this the wrong way, it could be an insult. But I resisted joking. Finally, there was "Chocolate Balls." I had to say it - I had to say "Your prize choice will today will be Chocolate Balls. Because they are small, the winner will get TWO chocolate balls." Hey, it could have been totally innocent but clearly these people have a dirty mind just like me! It seems certain things are funny in every culture and language.

Cultural differences include - being so nice that I don't even know how to respond to it. I am overwhelmed by the graciousness and niceness of people here. If I think about it too much, it is enough to bring tears to my eyes - it's so sweet. I just don't even know what I could do to return the favor and show my appreciation. The Irish were very welcoming, but the Filipinos go to a whole new level. The big cultural difference I read about in advance - which was the whole conflict-avoidant thing - well, I am like that myself so it hasn't really bothered me. I don't think there have been any conflicts where it might have been an issue. Mostly I am astonished by everyone's niceness and I feel a little guilty and not sure of what to do - I don't want to put anyone out and I want to make sure that I do all the right things to deserve this kind of good treatment. I am not only talking about the hotel, where the price for the rooms might justify it. I'm talking about the people I work with.

Oh, and my hotel is the best hotel I have ever been in. I almost feel strange accepting the level of service. It is far more than I would ever expect. When I come back from work, they offer to carry my laptop bag. I can't even open a door or push an elevator button for myself. In the lounge, there is free food and champagne - and while it's open for buffet, if I sit long enough, someone will ask me if I want anything more. Everything I want I can have. It is a very strange feeling. I cannot get used to this or I won't want to go home. I just have never been this privileged. Sometimes I don't want to leave (at night). I just go to the lounge (where I am now) with its wireless internet and free champagne and relax.

So, have yourself a clear black valentines! ha ha :-) I have no idea what that means but I keep hearing it on the radio. It sounds so funny to my ears - I wanted to say it but people here would probably think it was a strange thing to say (because surely this phrase means something to them.) I thought at first it was some kind of holiday, a different version of Valentine's Day. But then i saw a billboard with this phrase and it seems to have something to do with dandruff. Which just shows that just because the language is English, it doesn't mean that you'll understand it.

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Comments

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wow
thank you so much. this blog is more than a booster to us. wait til you see the beaches :)